Hoppers: Absolutely fabulous

Hoppers (2026) • View trailer

Five stars (out of five); rated PG, for dramatic intensity

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 3.8.26

I didn’t think Pixar ever would top 2015’s marvelous Inside Out, with its clever blend of humor, pathos and gentle social commentary, wrapped into a wildly imaginative premise.

 

Having unknowingly violated the all-encompassing "pond rules" that govern this diverse
collection of animals, Mabel — her mind currently occupying the body of the cute
robotic beaver about to become a bear's lunch — is brought before the community's king.

But director Daniel Chong and co-writer Jesse Andrews have done the seemingly impossible: Pixar’s newest entry is even better. Proof positive, once again, that some of today’s best original scripts are attached to animated films.

You’ll laugh, cry, nod and marvel at this film’s similarly ingenious story, which also contains a slyly subversive message.

 

A brief prologue introduces animal-loving Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda) as an adolescent, during a failed attempt to free her school’s numerous classroom pets from their dismal lives of relentless poking and prodding. Banished for the rest of the day, then dumped into the sympathetic embrace of her beloved Grandma Tanaka (Karen Huie), the angry, humiliated little girl can’t understand why people don’t realize she was doing a good thing.

 

 Grandma Tanaka walks her to a large rock in a tranquil glade, which overlooks a pond.

 

“Be still,” her grandmother instructs. “Listen ... and watch.”

 

The silence soon is broken by bird songs and the hum of insects. The foliage rustles, as deer walk past; beavers happily work on the large dam that has created this pond.

 

The moment is magical, transformational. Many more such visits follow.

 

The story then flashes forward. Mabel, now 19, is an equally impassioned college student who constantly locks horns with Beaverton’s grandstanding, development-obsessed “Mayor Jerry” (Jon Hamm). He’s promoting his re-election bid with the promise of a new stretch of overhead highway that’ll improve commute time “by minutes.”

 

The final portion also will destroy Mabel’s beloved glade, along with its many wonderful memories. Mayor Jerry can get away with this, because the pond, dam and its wildlife — particularly the beavers — are long gone.

 

Mayor Jerry taunts Mabel, giving her 48 hours to somehow lure the beavers back, knowing full well that’s impossible.

 

Savvy viewers will wonder why all the animals left.

Day Shift: Well-done stake

Day Shift (2022) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Rated R, for strong violence, gore and profanity

Available via: Netflix

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 8.19.22

This is the sort of film that would have scandalized your parents, had they caught you watching it as a kid.

 

Actually, more than a few adults likely would be similarly horrified, were they to dial it up by mistake.

 

When the vampire-hunting Bud (Jamie Foxx, right) is saddled with Seth (Dave Franco),
a nerdish, pencil-pushing babysitter, the latter is warned to stay the heck out of the way.
What could possibly go wrong?

The rest of us will have a grand time.

Director J.J. Perry’s kick-ass horror comedy won’t be more than a gory footnote in cinema history, but it boasts momentum, a sassy script by Tyler Tice and Shay Hatten, and a richly entertaining performance by star Jamie Foxx. It’s fun to see him return to his comedy roots, although this isn’t actually a comedic performance; the humor derives from the way Foxx plays this material straight, with deadpan sincerity, even as everything around him slides into cheerfully gruesome lunacy.

 

Matters begin innocuously, as San Fernando Valley pool cleaner Bud Jablonski (Foxx) arrives at the home of his latest client. Ah, but Bud isn’t your average pool cleaner. Trays of chemicals are a cover for somewhat more lethal tools, as he quietly slides inside this homeowner’s residence.

 

And the apparently terrified little old lady within isn’t nearly as helpless or frail as she seems.

 

Let us pause, for a moment, to acknowledge that this isn’t an old-school vampire movie, wherein the fanged nasties can be dispatched with a simple wooden stake through the heart. No, Tice and Hatten have gone old-school, where legend dictated that decapitation was the only way to truly kill a vampire.

 

Needless to say, make-up designer Christopher Nelson and his massive team are kept quite busy, with what soon follows.

 

Bud’s unusual profession notwithstanding, he’s an ordinary blue-collar guy struggling to make ends meet. The financial situation suddenly grows dire when his estranged wife, Jocelyn (Meagan Good), threatens to move their daughter Paige (Zion Broadnax) to Florida. This isn’t a fit of pique; Bud and Jocelyn’s relationship is prickly but still mutually devoted. She simply can’t get by on what Bud has been providing.

 

Things have indeed been tight, since the headstrong Bud was thrown out of the more lucrative international union of vampire hunters, following numerous code violations. It has been difficult to make ends meet, when his only income has derived from selling fangs to seedy black-market dealers such as Troy (Peter Stormare).

 

Bud begs for just a few more days; he then swallows his pride, enlists the support of his legendary vampire-hunting pal, Big John Elliott (Snoop Dogg), and begs to be reinstated by hard-ass union boss Seeger (Eric Lange).

 

Seeger derives considerable joy from agreeing, with a no-argument stipulation: Bud must be babysat by nerdy union rep Seth (Dave Franco), a desk-bound pencil-pusher who’s finicky enough to note even the slightest transgression.

Nerve: Taut, timely little thriller

Nerve (2016) • View trailer 
3.5 stars. Rated PG-13, for dangerous and risky behavior, sexual candor, violence, profanity, drug content and fleeting nudity, all involving teens
By Derrick Bang

Numerous psychological studies — most famously Stanley Milgram’s electro-shock obedience experiments, and Jane Elliott’s “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” exercise — have demonstrated the malleability of human judgment, particularly when peer pressure is involved.

Having heard once too often that she's timid and unwilling to do anything wild and
impetuous, Vee (Emma Roberts) impulsively signs up for an Internet social media game:
as a "player" who, during the course of a single evening, will be challenged by a series
of increasingly dangerous "dares."

Or, to put it more bluntly, Common sense ... isn’t.

Novelist Jeanne Ryan tapped into that vibe, and quite shrewdly, with her 2012 young adult novel Nerve. Co-directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman have turned the book into a thoughtful, absorbing and quite suspenseful little thriller. Jessica Sharzer’s script is spot-on, and the young stars are well cast. The result is one of the summer’s delightful surprises: a modest suspenser that also functions as a troubling cautionary tale.

Because, quite frankly, the premise feels all too probable. As Ryan notes, on her web site, “I write young adult stories that could take place next week — but let’s hope they don’t.”

Joost and Schulman mount their film cleverly, utilizing cutting-edge personal tech and on-screen graphics in a way that supports the narrative without calling too much attention to itself. Unlike so many of today’s “found footage” efforts, where the story runs a poor second to the technique, the various gimmicks here — CGI overlays, instant message “balloons,” visualized smart phone apps and more — feel necessary.

Best of all, the co-directors understand pacing. With a skilled assist from editors Madeleine Gavin and Jeff McEvoy, they briskly set up the premise, kick it into gear, ratchet up the suspense, and build to a stylish finale, all in an economical 96 minutes. It’s refreshing to see filmmakers who know when to get off the stage.

Shy, straight-arrow Staten Island high school senior Vee Delmonico (Emma Roberts) forever stands in the shadow of her outgoing, aggressively slutty best friend Sydney (Emily Meade). The latter is a school legend, always accompanied by an entourage led by Liv (Kimiko Glenn), who functions as Sydney’s de facto press agent.

Every waking moment of these teens’ lives is monitored and motivated by an imprudent desire to enhance the 15 minutes of faux fame seemingly promised by Facebook, Tinder, Instagram and their ilk. It’s a drug that requires ever-greater fixes: an addiction that Vee has managed to resist, thanks to the support of longtime best friend Tommy (Miles Heizer), who seems to understand the dangerous side effects of public recklessness.

But that’s of little consolation to Vee, who also chafes under the suffocating embrace of her mother, Nancy (Juliette Lewis). Mom has cause: Just a few years earlier, Vee’s older brother was killed tragically. As a result, Nancy expects her sole remaining child to continuing living at home while attending a local college, whereas Vee — of course — has her heart set on a distant arts school, where she could nurture her talents as a photographer.

(Sharzer’s script is good, but not perfect. Details regarding Vee’s brother’s death remain undisclosed, as does any information about her absent father. These lapses aren’t crippling, but they are noticeable.)

Now You See Me 2: No rabbit in this hat

Now You See Me 2 (2016) • View trailer 
2.5 stars. Rated PG-13, for profanity and brief violence
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 6.10.16

A good magician knows when to get off the stage, and how to leave an audience wanting more.

This film fails on both counts.

After being transported halfway around the world in a manner they can't comprehend, the
Four Horsemen — from left, Jack (Dave Franco), Lula (Lizzy Caplan), Atlas (Jesse
Eisenberg) and Merritt (Woody Harrelson) — are about to confront their captor.

That said, director Jon M. Chu is quite accomplished at another technique favored by magicians: repeatedly distracting us with inconsequential glitz, noise and plenty of flash, as a means of concealing the true ruse ... the fact that Ed Solomon’s confused, cluttered and ultimately contradictory screenplay doesn’t make a lick of sense.

Like so many other overblown, empty-calorie sequels, this one’s all sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing. When we finally see what’s behind the curtain — and a bewildering, exposition-heavy epilog provides just such a scene — the letdown is palpable.

Sure, it’s fun to watch — sort of — but the joy is fleeting (although, at 129 minutes, not fleeting enough). But goodness; must frothy popcorn entertainment be so brain-dead?

Character development wasn’t a strong (card) suit in 2013’s Now You See Me, but at least some effort was made. Solomon wrote the script for that one as well, but he worked from a story by Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt. This time, Solomon also co-wrote the story, with Pete Chiarelli; both apparently decided that granting their stars anything approaching actual human behavior would have been superfluous.

Thus, the personalities of this sequel’s so-called “Four Horsemen” can be boiled down to single words: J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) is arrogant; Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) is smug; Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) is bashful; and Lula (Lizzy Caplan) is reckless.

Attentive viewers may realize that Lula is a newcomer, replacing the first film’s Henley Reeves, played by Isla Fisher. No doubt the latter took one look at this new script, said words to the effect of “Are you kidding?” and bolted. More power to her.