Magic in the Moonlight

Magic in the Moonlight is a 2014 American comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The film stars Emma Stone, Colin Firth, Hamish Linklater, Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver, Erica Leerhsen, Eileen Atkins, and Simon McBurney. Set in the 1920s on the French Riviera, the film was released on July 25, 2014 by Sony Pictures Classics. Magic in the Moonlight received a generally mixed reception. Critics were complimentary of Colin Firth's acting, but also felt the script was too rushed.

In 1928, an illusionist, Wei Ling Soo, performs in front of a crowd in Berlin. His pièce de résistance is making an elephant disappear. As he walks off stage we see that he is actually a British man, Stanley (Colin Firth). He berates his employees and is generally curmudgeonly towards his well-wishers. In his dressing room, he is greeted by an old friend and fellow illusionist, Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney). Howard enlists Stanley to go with him to the Côte d'Azur (French Riviera) where a rich American family, the Catledges, has been taken by a clairvoyant and mystic, Sophie (Emma Stone). In fact, the son of the family, Brice (Hamish Linklater), is smitten with Sophie, and his sister Caroline (Erica Leerhsen) and brother-in-law George (Jeremy Shamos) are concerned Brice is considering proposing marriage. Howard says that he has been unable to uncover the secrets behind her tricks and he admits that the more he watched her the more he believed she really has supernatural powers. So he would like Stanley, who has debunked charlatan mystics in the past, to help him prove she is a fraud.

Greetings again from the darkness. One of the most prolific writer/directors since the end of the studio era, Woody Allen cranks a new script and film out every year. A few are great, while the others fall somewhere between highly entertaining and watchable. None would be considered a true dud. His latest is a bit fluffy and falls comfortably into the watchable category ... with nary a glint of anything more ambitious.

The line of actors maneuvering for a role in Mr. Allen's films stretches around the proverbial casting couch. The lineup here is again quite impressive: Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver, Eileen Atkins, Simon McBurney, Catherine McCormack and Hamish Linklater. They each perform admirably, but aren't enough to elevate the somewhat lackluster script. Ms. Stone and Ms. Atkins are especially enjoyable here.

Woody mixes his love of magic with his cynical religious views, and blends those with his too frequent older man/younger woman sub-plot. The scenes with Firth and Stone are fine, but their on screen banter would have been better served as Uncle and Niece than awkward rom-com aspirants. Despite this flaw, there remain some excellent lines and moments, plus a hand full of staggering shots from the south of France locale. The wardrobe and cars are stunning ... the film is set in 1928.

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I Origins

I Origins is a 2014 American science fiction film written, directed, and produced by Mike Cahill. The independent production premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014. It is distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, and opened in limited release on July 18, 2014.

A graduate student, Ian Gray (Michael Pitt), meets an interesting woman, Sofi (Astrid Berges-Frisbey), at a Halloween party, and he photographs her eyes. They start to have sex in a washroom, but she abruptly leaves without providing her contact information.

Gray is researching the evolution of human eyes with Karen (Brit Marling) and Kenny (Steven Yeun). Gray's goal is to prove that eyes have evolved in order to discredit creationists.

One day, Gray sees a number of elevens all at one time. He gets on bus number 11, but gets off when a seeing-eye dog starts barking at him. He sees a billboard a cosmetics ad featuring Sofi's unmistakable eyes, and uses it to track her down. Despite their different belief systems, Gray and Sofi's relationship develops and they eventually plan to marry. On their would-be wedding day, however, Karen calls Gray, informing him of a species of worm that is blind, but had the DNA required to develop an eye. This is the breakthrough they have been searching for.

Sofi is upset, and suggests that humans are like the blind worm. Just because they cannot see light, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Just because humans can't see God doesn't mean that God doesn't exist. Gray argues with her and grows impatient with her views, telling her that she is a "child." Later that day, though a freak accident in an elevator, Sofi dies in his arms. Gray is distraught, and Karen takes over much of his research. One evening, she brings him a meal at his home. He breaks down, and she comforts him - leading to a more intimate situation.

The biggest flaw in I Origins is its predictability. Perhaps this is due to the trailer leaving very little of the plot development to the imagination. Yet, having said that, I still found myself moved even to tears by several scenes in this emotional roller-coaster of a film. I'm admittedly a junkie for supernatural themed films (Ghost is a favorite of mine) and this film's attack on a sort of mentality that holds that science must equal atheism in its strictest form won me over after some hesitation. I think the numerous bad reviews of this film by mainstream critics come from those who hold some version of this aforementioned mentality, and took offense at the premise of this film, but for anyone either truly open minded, or else already convinced that there is more to life than meets the eye (pun intended), this film is a true joy, albeit a joy born of great suffering.

A scientist who spends his life trying to disprove God and intelligent design (I'm all for science and learning, and am NOT religious at all, but what satisfaction anyone could achieve by trying to deny the existence of omnipresent Love and Knowledge is beyond me - but I digress) meets a woman who seems to exist within a deeper realm of direct being - i.e. she seems to live with a connection to Love and Knowledge that the scientist only strives for. They fall in love. Things happen and their relationship is no more. Life goes on and strange things happen. Many people took great umbrage with the remaining development of the film, considering the concept too wild or far fetched, when in actuality it is a natural concept that (at least in a symbolic sense) would be more surprising if it were not true than if it was. For feel good entertainment value I give this film ten stars. Is it actually a perfect film? No. No film is perfect. But those who will not love this film would not love it under any revisions because it is not a film for such people. If you love the idea of life eternal and ideas about the real, tangible existence of a soul, this is a film you should not miss.

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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 2014

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a 2014 American science fiction film directed by Matt Reeves and written by Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. It stars Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Toby Kebbell, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. It is the sequel to the 2011 film Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which began 20th Century Fox's reboot of the original Planet of the Apes series.

It is the eighth theatrical film in the franchise. The film was released in the United States on July 11, 2014, and was met with critical acclaim, with critics praising its visual effects, story, direction, acting, and emotional depth.

As seen in a prologue, the ALZ-113 virus causes the collapse of human civilization following martial law, civil unrest and the economic collapse of every country in the world. Ten years later, Caesar leads and governs a new generation of apes in a community located in the Muir Woods. While walking through the forest, Caesar's son Blue Eyes and Rocket's son Ash encounter a human. The human, Carver, panics and shoots Ash, wounding him. Carver calls for the rest of his small party of armed survivors, led by a man named Malcolm, while Blue Eyes calls for the other apes. Caesar orders the humans to leave. The remaining humans in San Francisco, genetically immune to the virus, are living in a guarded tower within the ruined city. Prompted by Koba, a scarred bonobo who holds a grudge against humans for his mistreatment, Caesar brings a large group of the apes to the city where he conveys the message that while the apes do not want war, they will fight to defend their home. He then demands that the humans stay in their territory and states the apes will stay in theirs, too.

Humans generally have a superiority complex that makes them often consider all other forms of life as inadequate. Civilization has exemplified the mass exploitation and selfishness humans are capable of in the past, and present, on numerous occasions. The Planet of the Apes series delves on this complex. It displays the vulnerabilities of the human race and how nothing is to be underestimated.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will surely entertain. As the sequel to the last instalment, we follow Caesar in his new habitat following the human pandemic instigated by the Simian influenza. In a world where the human population is depleted and infrastructure collapsed, society is broken apart and in a fragile state. With stubborn and selfish humans, the fate of humanity does not rest in good hands.

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