The Finest Hours

New England has given us two things to cheer for in the last few weeks; Tom Brady being sacked a record number of times in their AFC Championship loss, and this recent historical biopic about a foursome of US Coast Guardsmen tasked with an impossible rescue during a 1951 Nor’easter off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts.

The first thing you need to know about this film is that it is in the vein of inspirational Disney sports stories more than a true action or drama. Think “Invincible”, “Miracle”, “Hoosiers”, “Rudy”, or “The Rookie”. It’s just on a boat in the coastal Atlantic instead of on a field, court or rink. The second thing you need to know about this film is that I’m a sucker for inspirational sports movies.

The characters are laid on pretty thick from the start, complete with sprinkling snowfall and old-time radio background. Chris Pine is Bernie Webber, a shy, salt-of-the-earth Coast Guardsman who follows the rules a bit too rigidly and grew up locally, so he has the accent down pretty good. He meets a girl, and their love blossoms within the first ten minutes on screen. The music, setting, and characters paint a wholesome and Disney picture, which isn’t exactly what I was expecting, but was charmingly refreshing.

A series of catastrophic events create a parallel storyline some 30 miles off the coast, where a crew of oil riggers are fighting for their lives on a sinking freighter, and it’s a race against time in the frigid conditions. Casey Affleck leads them as the engineer who isn’t exactly appreciated by the men, but is looked to as the authority of the group. Affleck plays the role slow and methodically, never really tipping his hand as to what he is really thinking about. It strengthens his character, but also diminishes the humanity behind his eyes. He is a bit too stoic and quiet, and I would have liked to have seen a bit more non-verbal emotion from his character.

Director Craig Gillespie (“The Million Dollar Arm”, “Lars and the Real Girl”) does a fine job capturing the setting, and the chaos on the ocean. The spirit he’s trying to capture is decidedly Post-WWII PG rating. The language is soft and the characters are all tuned down to tolerable levels, even the antagonists, who tend to bark louder than they bite in these types of films anyway.
Disney enlists the screenwriting team behind 2010’s Oscar winning “The Fighter” and it works pretty well. The story is straight forward enough that they just needed to fill dialogue and continuity once establishing the characters, and that is done effectively, if not a bit rushed at the beginning and at the end.

The downside of the film starts with its misguided attempt at a compelling romance/love story. Holliday Grainger (“Cinderella”, “The Borgias”) plays Miriam, a girl who isn’t from the area. I feel like they could have made her a bit more likeable, as she is a little aggressive and abrasive. Her curtness is a great complement to Bernie’s shy, reserved nature, but I was less interested in the love story in the first place anyway.

The supporting roles of Eric Bana and Ben Foster are a bit wasted on their talents if we’re being honest. I am losing faith in Eric Bana after a spiraling decline of role choices, but Ben Foster has a breakout 2016 in store with his portrayal of Lance Armstrong in the upcoming “The Program”. The remaining cast play the part of early 1950’s small fishing-town charmers reasonably well, particularly salty sea dog Graham McTavish as Frank, one of the doomed crewmen.

The ocean is the real antagonist of the film. Reminiscent of “A Perfect Storm”, the lighting on a dark and stormy ocean tends to be the real difficult obstacle to overcome in a film like this, but Gillespie manages to find a way through angles and effects. The bitter cold could have been exploited as an obstacle a bit more adeptly. These men are drenched in icy water for hours and they don’t show a single reaction to the effect. I shudder if I wash my hands and the water’s too cold. Imagine being soaked in it. Anyway, I enjoyed the film for what it was, although it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. If you like Disney feel-good stories, this is right up your alley and will have the perfect amount of suspense. If you’re looking for something heavier, you will likely be disappointed. 6/10.

Dirty Grandpa

I’ve got one for you; a young man about to be married is tricked by his recently bereaved grandpa to take him to Daytona Beach in search of debauchery. That’s it, there’s really nothing more to the story. Despite the predictable flaws in this endeavor, the mile-a-minute barbs and seeing Robert De Niro in a raunchy comedy element keeps this film afloat just enough to be slightly, if not embarrassingly enjoyable.

Frequent Sacha Baron Cohen collaborator, director Dan Mazer (“Borat”, “Bruno”, “Da Ali G Show”) is no stranger to pushing the envelope of acceptable cinematic comedy, and he doesn’t hold much back here with some of the dirtiest potty humor I’ve seen recently. It seems that everything out of everyone’s mouth contains at least one F-bomb, but after the shock and numbness wears off, and behind the gratuitous references to body fluids, sexual acts, and obvious sight gags (Mazer loves full-frontal male nudity), watching De Niro spout endless streams of insults becomes somewhat endearing.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing about this film that I would recommend for a night of family-friendly entertainment, but there are some redeeming qualities that are appreciable. Comedic delivery is strong considering the content. For instance, Aubrey Plaza’s character, Lenore has extremely unlikely chemistry with De Niro’s Dick Kelly. It works like magic as they share enough raunchy flirtation throughout the film that it would make Santa Claus blush (because his cheeks are already red, get it?).

The supporting cast is great. Jason Mantzoukas (“The League”) plays the Floridian drug dealing crazy tag-along who seems to show up everywhere. It’s ridiculous, but despite his typical flamboyant spouting, it adds a little more spice to an already nearly intolerable dish. One of my current favorite up-and-coming comedians, Adam Palley (“The Mindy Project”) is the lewd cousin Nick, played with great timing and delivery. Dermot Mulroney rounds out the notable supporting characters as the bridge between grandpa and grandson with one scene-stealing moment with some great makeup work on his face.

Zach Efron is the central character of the film, Jason. He is living an uptight life that seems scripted and boring as a corporate lawyer. He is betrothed to Meredith (Julianne Hough), a demanding woman channeling what has been dubbed the “frigid fiancée” in recent films. She is controlling, demanding, and high maintenance, and there is only a week until the wedding! You can see where this goes. Efron is a good actor with a very bright future. His selection of film is sometimes questionable, but he has the classic good looks, comic chops, and body (shown off shirtless often, pantsless sometimes) that will keep him in the business for a long time. His next two films will display his physique as well as he reprises his frat boy in “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” and the big screen adaptation of “Baywatch”. I know what you’re thinking, perhaps a waste of talent. I agree, but he’s got a great body and he’s showing it off. Hollywood has had a gender bias for long enough in its treatment of young women. Zach in many ways is supporting feminism through his role selection, but I will say this; he will take on some serious roles as he breaches his 30’s, and he will gain critical acclaim on top of his financial gains before his career is over. The kid can act, and he’s having fun right now.

Robert De Niro steals the show in a role that nobody else could have pulled off with the same combination of shock and awe. He’s relaxed in his old age, and after coasting through this year’s “The Intern”, he seems to be having fun, and may have opened up a new niche for himself.

“Dirty Grandpa” is not a good film. It has a lame plot, shallow characters, and is offensive. That said, I l ashamedly laughed out loud a few times and have to respect some of the lowbrow humor. There is some entertainment to be found, but don’t see this with your grandfather. 5/10.

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

It has become customary, almost patriotic, for a biopic chronicling the brave exploits of American soldiers to come out in January. 2013’s “Zero Dark Thirty”, 2014’s “Lone Survivor”, and 2015’s “American Sniper” pave the way for “13 Hours” this year. The interesting thing about the aforementioned is that they all drew critical acclaim, were released in limited availability in December, and even ultimately received Oscar nominations for their excellence. All of the aforementioned except “13 Hours”. Unfortunately, Michael Bay has created something of a reputation in his filmmaking, and it’s no knock on him, but he’s perhaps better suited for high-octane, machismo fiction. Camera flares, epic pyrotechnics, and absurdly staged slow-motion dramatic shots of actors’ faces. Bless their hearts, they are trying so hard, but Michael Bay makes it difficult to take a film seriously, no matter how admirable the material or how heroic the characters. His inability to believably capture the human emotion is only amplified by his desire to prove naysayers wrong.

Based on the Benghazi, Libya attack on the US Consulate on September 11, 2012, the film follows six men; CIA ex-special forces contract security operators, as they respond to the incident that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Make sure you wear your reading glasses, because the introduction gives what amounts to more background information than you would need if the script were written more effectively. Chuck Hogan (“The Town”, “The Strain”) adapted the screenplay from the Mitchell Zuckoff novel of the same name. It faithfully follows the story with little deviation, but the problem isn’t so much the adaptation as the lack of real action scenes.

It’s a poor man’s “Black Hawk Down” from the get-go, with more than a few parallels throughout. A futile situation caused by a series of unfortunate events, leading to a firefight in a foreign land with no help to be found. At a lengthy two and a half hours, the biggest problem I had was that the action seemed strained. The story is compelling and heroic when the fighting starts, but it’s really limited by the events, and the focus is on these characters, who engage in meaningless banter without giving us much of an opportunity to get to know them properly. The portrayal of characters isn’t the problem, the payoff just wasn’t there.

The action sequences are blistered with Michael Bay’s trademark style. Basically everything explodes and the camera narrowly misses catching what you really want to see on the screen in lieu of cleverly manipulated lighting and dramatic panning across the landscape.

The Libyan insurgents are portrayed in typical jingoistic fashion; faceless, brainless foot soldiers who are incompetent in spite of their overwhelming numbers and firepower. It’s reminiscent of a Schwarzenegger or Stallone film at its core. It debases the value of the story, but you can’t really expect this type of film to be unbiased. It adds drama and allegiance, although in this case, the insurgents are unprovoked in their assault.

Jack (John Krasinski) and Tyrone (James Badge Dale) lead the cast of testosterone-fueled gladiators, but it’s really such an ensemble that there isn’t really a lead actor. The whole group does a nice job playing the part, particularly Pablo Schreiber (“Orange is the New Black”) as the operator providing the comic relief, Kris “Tanto” Paronto.

It may sound as if this was a terrible film, which it wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination. For those interested in the genre, you will be thoroughly entertained, but likely not impressed. It’s not the fault of anyone in particular as much as a lack of compelling substance. This is not to downplay the heroism or importance of human life, but perhaps this film would have been better as an action film inspired by the events instead of based on them. 7/10.