Focus

Will Smith is Nicky, an uber-accomplished thief and con man who runs a crime ring that targets major sporting events. Margot Robbie is Jess, a small-time criminal who tries to rob Nicky but ends up joining his team instead. What follows is 2 hours of pickpocketing (the scene of them in New Orleans ripping people off will probably terrify every tourist - the little bit with them stealing a camera lens is dead-on), capers, and double crosses. It's a fun time but...never quite gets there. This is a movie that's supposed to be style over substance, to be super-slick and super-cool and just isn't quite slick or cool enough. There's a couple things that strain believability (like the setup for one crime that simply would never happen) as well. And the pacing is a little off, with some scenes that simply move too slow or are too long. They probably could have chopped about 15 minutes off and improved the movie. The cast is great and it's certainly nice to stare at Margot Robbie in super-sexy outfits for 2 hours but it ends up being not quite enough. 6/10.

Wikileaks: War, Lies & Videotape

Documentary on Wikileaks, the web site that publishes classified documents in the interest of openness and (maybe) justice. Wikileaks is a controversial group with a lot of heat both in favor and against them. Unfortunately, this documentary simply isn't up to the task of digging into Wikileaks. We Steal Secrets is far better. Watch that one instead. 5/10.

The King of Kong

Take what sounds like a terrible premise - ONE MAN'S QUEST TO BREAK THE DONKEY KONG WORLD RECORD HIGH SCORE!!!! - and mix in some highly-compelling and interesting characters and what do you have? A truly remarkable documentary! King of Kong follows the efforts of Steve Wiebe, an unemployed family man with a passion for Donkey Kong. Wiebe purchases his own machine, sets up shop in his garage and sets to work. Along the way, we're introduced a host of remarkable personalities - Walter Day, the founder of Twin Galaxies, the arcade that maintains the list of "official" high scores. Billy Mitchell, the first man to ever achieve a perfect game on Pac-Man and the current record holder for Donkey Kong. And lots of others as well. There's intrigue - with Mitchell & Day possibly conspiring to sabotage Wiebe's efforts. There's drama. There's poignancy. There have been some questions raised on the accuracy of the editing and timelines in the movie but ignore that chatter. This is a GREAT movie. It can be enjoyed by anyone but will ring especially true for anybody who practically grew up in an arcade, like myself. This is the standard by which all "video game documentaries" will be judged. 10/10.

* - if you happen to get the DVD version of this, watch it twice - once as released, and once with the director's commentary. The commentary is awesome.

Man on Wire

This is a highly-praised documentary concerning the efforts of Philippe Petit and his high-wire crossing between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Lots of interviews, remembrances and so on but it all just adds up to an exercise in boredom. Painfully dull and ultimately uninteresting. A big letdown considering how many good things I'd heard about it prior to watching. 3/10.

Perfect Sisters

This movie is based on the true story of "The Bathtub Girls", a pair of Canadian sisters who murdered their alcoholic mother by drowning her in the bathtub. And got away with it. Until they, being teenage morons, bragged about the murder. This movie is basically a Lifetime movie but with profanity. Very low budget, very "small" in feel. The director makes some interesting choices that simply don't work - lots of imaginary stuff, dream sequences and the like. What we end up with is a very shallow retelling of the story and a movie that's pretty darn empty. Some fine performances from the cast, but this one simply isn't very good. 3/10.

The Wolf of Wall Street

Lots of people have sung the praises of this movie, assigning to it great depth and meaning as a cautionary tale. It isn't. No, this movie is an excuse to show 2-1/2 hours of debauchery. Seriously. There's no cautionary tale here. Leonardo Di Caprio is Jordan Belfort, a gifted and highly driven stockbroker who, after being laid off, forms his own company and immediately begins cutting corners and committing fraud to be successful. And it works. Big time. What follows are years of drugs, prostitutes, binges of all types, massive profits, and wild living. And it's pretty much all true (except the part about people calling Belfort "wolf" or "wolfie" as a nickname - didn't happen). Di Caprio is magnificent in this, commanding every scene with incredible charisma. But that deeper meaning and cautionary tale stuff? Nah. What's the cautionary tale? That you get massively rich and marry a scorching hot woman, while ripping off people? Sure, Belfort gets his comeuppance - sort of. He loses his wife, serves a couple years in a country club prison, wrote a really successful book, and is now a successful motivational speaker. Hell, the real Belfort is even in this movie. It's not like he's broke and he's not paying back the $110m fine he owes. So, no, this ain't a cautionary tale. It's 2-1/2 hours of constant profanity and mayhem. And it's really entertaining. But let's not assign some deep meaning to it that ain't there to try and make ourselves feel better for enjoying watching a movie about a guy who destroyed a whole lot of lives. 7/10.

From Bedrooms to Billions

This is a kickstarter-funded documentary covering the rise of British computer & video game development companies in the 1980s. Because of the diversity of the UK computing scene (lots of different computer formats) and the relatively low bar of entry (systems were usually cheap) to get in, there was a ton of creativity in the game community back then. And a lot of companies that rose from...bedrooms...to form part of the industry that is now worth billions. I was recently able to finally watch this and...

Is it possible to think something is well done and yet still be disappointed? If so, that's where I am. In terms of production, the movie is well done, with better production values than I've seen in similar documentaries. As for the rest...

I am a US gamer. 99% of my familiarity with the history of British gaming comes from reading Retro Gamer. I'm familiar with all the big players but am hardly an expert. Still, there wasn't a TON of new information in the movie for me. Not that there necessarily SHOULD be but when you're pitching a product to a niche market, and that market is already going to be very familiar with what you're pitching, it seems like you dig harder for "new" info. Additionally, for a movie whose title is "...to BILLIONS", I expected a little more on the numbers and figures - there were a few mentions but nothing as specific as I would have liked. I did like the flow of the movie as it seemed to do a nice job of moving from one era to another with lots of accompanying game footage to show the improvement in graphics, etc. And the last bit about the increased size in dev teams and the disappearance of so many UK devs was also really good.

In the end, though, this felt "solid" or "good" rather than great. Perhaps it's just too large a subject for 2-1/2 hours to give me the depth and detail I want? I dunno. Not having the Stamper brothers in the film hurt it as well though that's obviously not necessarily the fault of the filmmakers.

Side note: wish they'd done overlays on top of the gameplay footage stating the game and platform.

Bottom line: 7/10, maybe 7.5/10.

Southland

Lemme get it out of the way immediately: Best cop show of all-time. There, I said it. Yeah, better than Hill Street Blues. This is the show The Shield wishes it had been. Gritty, realistic, flawed people. The story focuses on a core group of patrol officers and detectives with Regina King (as Lydia Adams) being the star detective and the always-awesome Michael Cudlitz (as John Cooper) the veteran training officer and Ben Mackenzie (as Ben Sherman) his hotshot protege. We see the growth in Sherman from a rookie going through a ridiculously difficult early career to a comfortable (but not perfect) veteran spreading his wings and challenging his superiors. We see Cooper as he struggles with pain and addiction. And all of it comes off as realistic. There's nothing cartoonish or exaggerated here. If there's a flaw, it's that there's a bit too much gunplay and death. What's here is realistic, it's just a bit too frequent.

Unfortunately, Southland struggled to find an audience during its original run. NBC moved it around, stuck it in terrible timeslots and generally tried to bury it during its 7-episode first season. They ordered a second season, then canceled the show after 6 episodes had been filmed. TNT picked it up, aired the second season, then ordered three more seasons of 10 episodes each before canceling the show after season 5. THAT cancellation resulted in one of the all-time most frustrating cliffhangers ever. The net result of the cancellations and bouncing around in the early seasons is that there's one or two storylines that get dropped without explanation. That's unfortunate.

Bottom line: This is a really, really great show that deserves a much-larger audience than it ever got. 10/10.

McFarland, USA

Kevin Costner is Jim White, the cross country coach at McFarland High School, an almost entirely Latino high school in a very poor agricultural area of California. White takes his rag tag band of kids, who work in the fields before school and after practice, and transforms them into a real team. This movie is based on a true story* and is made by Disney, so you can probably guess how most of the movie will play out. Still, it has some nice moments, the cast is good, and the movie is entertaining. Costner is Costner. Personally, I love the guy and enjoy his work in pretty much everything. He's a great "everyman" and fits that role here very well. Bottom line: liked this a lot. 8/10.