American Sniper Review

    American Sniper is nothing less than a masterpiece, possibly Clint Eastwood's best movie since The Outlaw Jose Wales. I say that knowing just how many truly great movies Eastwood has made over the years. As is any review, mine represents my subjective judgment...but American Sniper is simply that good.

    For those who don't already know, American Sniper tells the story of Chris Kyle, the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history. We see brief glimpses of Kyle's Texas childhood, the product of a loving family and a strongly opinionated father. Wayne Kyle raised his sons to be the kind of men who would never be sheep, not the wolves who preyed on them, but rather sheep-dogs who would protect the weak from the wolves. Kyle grows up to be a real cowboy, winning buckles as a bull rider. Then, when terrorists bombed the United States embassies in the African cities of Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, killing hundreds, Kyle joined the US Navy.

   At this point I feel like I must clarify what Kyle's sniper duties include. When the average person thinks of snipers they erroneously think of a lone gunman with a powerful rifle hiding out to assassinate some political figure, and then disappear back into the shadows. During the Iraq war, American soldiers were subject to constant attacks from non-uniformed fighters. Kyle's job was to take a hidden position above the urban battlefield watching over the Marines as they went door to door looking for insurgents, and watching for threats. With his superior training and high vantage point, Kyle was able to spot terrorists that were all but invisible to the Marines. For example the Marines might not see a terrorist in civilian grab with an RPG or an old Peugeot loaded down with explosives. But as a Sniper Kyle was able to spot them and stop them before they killed Marines. So at any moment the lives of his fellow servicemen rested in Kyle's hands.



    Through the course of the film we see Chris Kyle deploy to Iraq four times, and return home each time. With each deployment the strain of his missions and the pressure to keep the Marines he watches over safe weighs more heavily on him than the last deployment. With each return to home Kyle finds himself more distant from the woman he loves and unable to relate to others. And with every return home there's the guilt that American soldiers are dying while he's not there to watch over them. At one point, Kyle is approached in a tire store by a young Marine with a prosthetic leg. The man thanks Kyle for saving his life back in Iraq, but Kyle seems at a loss on how to respond to the gratitude. As The strain of his missions takes their toll on his psyche and on his marriage to Taya, Kyle must also contend with a price on his head and Syrian Olympic marksman targeting his comrades. The thing about American Sniper is that this movie is one of those rare movies that combines action and human drama effectively. There are scenes that will have you on the edge of your seat and others that will bring you close to tears.

    One last word about the acting...to simply say the acting is top notch is an understatement. Bradley Cooper didn't just portray Chris Kyle, he transformed himself into Chris Kyle. The man on screen in American Sniper didn't bear the slightest physical resemblance to the lanky, smirking guy you remember from Hangover. I've read that Cooper spent a lot of time with Kyle's family...it certainly shows in his performance.

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22 Jump Street Review

    There's a running gag throughout Phil Lord and Chris Miller's hilarious 22 Jump Street that it's basically your typical sequel, ripping off the same old jokes and situations while just making things bigger. The more Meta the film gets the funnier it is, and the truth is that they aren't really lying. Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill are back as best buds and keystone coppers Jenko and Schmidt; they're busting up another student-run drug ring; and the same polarizing forces that broke the duo up the last time are again in effect. But you know what? You'll be laughing too damn hard to care that sometimes 22 Jump Street feels a little familiar, especially since that is kind of the point.

    What Lord and Miller have done is up the ante on a follow-up nobody thought would ever happen. The "inside joke" of 21 Jump Street was that it was always sort of destined to fail being a remake of a silly TV show few actually watched. So 22 Jump Street cuts loose and indulges in the bombastic and formulaic nature of movie sequels, dutifully ripped through the welcome return of Nick Offerman's deadpan police sergeant. He tasks Jenko and Schmidt to basically do the exact same thing as before, shipping them off across the street to 22 Jump Street where the unit has taken up shop at the bigger, gaudier Vietnam Church appropriately described as something Iron Man would love.

    When the perpetually angry and arguably even angrier Capt. Dickson (Ice Cube) ships them off to college to find the supplier of a new designer drug, Jenko and Schmidt are thrust into a campus life they are ill-equipped to handle. Not only aren't they fooling anybody because of their obvious advanced age, but they begin to feel the pull of the social pecking order. Jenko joins the football team and becomes friends with Zook (Wyatt Russell, a dead ringer for his father Kurt), the squad's QB and potential suspect in the case. Meanwhile, Schmidt is feeling left out until he hooks up...in more ways than one...with brainy art student Maya (Amber Stevens) who brings him more trouble than expected.

    And it's to Lord and Miller's credit, along with the trio of screenwriters, that for all the intentional riffs on what came before, there is still plenty left to be discovered. So yes, we get the token "bad drug trip" scene, which is still pretty funny when those are usually phoned in, and the plenty of Michael Bay-inspired action sequences. But we also get a lot more of Ice Cube as Dickson is woven into the plot in a way that powers the humor for the entire second half. There are so many jokes that a second or third viewing will be necessary to catch them all and even then it may not be enough.

 
    Say what you want about Channing Tatum but he'll do literally anything he's asked to do comedically. While he still has great chemistry with Hill, who continue to seem like the best buds ever, Tatum shoulders much of the physical and emotional burden here. We've seen this same "falling for a girl out of his league" storyline for Schmidt before, but Jenko is finally in a place where he is truly comfortable and not a fish out of water. It causes some interesting friction between the two partners that is played up nicely for a while, but then becomes just an endless stream of tiresome homoerotic jokes. With all of the trouble Hill has had with the LGBT community lately the frequent use of gay humor seems misplaced, and certainly isn't edgy. More than just Hill, Tatum, and Cube get in on the fun. The supporting cast never lets us down, and we may be looking at a Rebel Wilson-style breakout from Workaholics star Jillian Bell as Maya's grumpy roommate.

    You'll want to stick around throughout the awesome credits teasing an increasingly ridiculous string of sequels (2121 Jump Street? It's a thing.) that you'll really want to see happen. Whether Jenko and Schmidt eventually head to 23 Jump Street we'll find out soon enough, but for now 22 Jump Street is a sequel that lives up to an incredibly high standard.

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21 Jump Street Review

    "21 Jump Street" is only loosely based on the original television show that starred mega star Johnny Depp. The only real reason for comparison is the premise of police officers given orders to return to high school and pose as teenagers. They are instructed to infiltrate and bring down a synthetic drug manufacturing and distribution ring. Jonah Hill (Moneyball) plays Schmidt, a former high school nerd and current police officer newbie with skills of the brain, but no physical skills. Channing Tatum (The Vow) plays Jenko, who is just the opposite. Together, they are a perfect fit and a disaster waiting to happen. In high school, Morton is an nerd doing his best Eminem impression, while Greg is the prototypical popular jock stud.

    Fast forward a few years and both are enrolling in the police training program, and both are terrible for reasons the other can compensate for. Greg becomes the brawn, and Morton the brains. After proving they don't have what it takes to handle the rough 'n tumble beat as bike cops, they are unceremoniously dumped into a rehashed program to use young looking cops as undercover agents in high schools. Wearing a sense of self awareness on its sleeve, the film takes a few jabs at itself for being a warmed over rehash as well, up to and including the use of Ice Cube as the token angry, African-American police captain. Cube, who has become an expert at playing off his old N.W.A. persona, is in rare form here, snarling and sneering at every opportunity. If there's a scene stealer, it's him.

  
    When it comes to comedy, it's the little details that matter the most are often the funniest. Greg is hyped for an opportunity to go back to high school and be the popular guy again, while Morton is justifiably terrified of reliving those traumatic years. What they discover upon arrival is that the entire culture is different. Greg's bullying antics make him a loner, while Morton's brains and gentle nature earn him cred with the cool kids, which he uses to try and infiltrate their drug ring. In a lot of ways, 21 Jump Street has smarter insights into the ways teens think than some documentaries dedicated to the subject. You know from the start that Greg is going to get drunk off his new found popularity, and while it plays out like something out of Can't Buy Me Love, it works.

    Insightful thought it may be, there's plenty of room for gross out gags, penis jokes, and toilet humor. Hill is old hat at this type of thing by now, although it's unfair to say he's playing the same role here. His character is a little less self confident than usual, and not at all the miscreant he played in Superbad. Tatum, a better actor than many want to give him credit for, shows an affinity for physical comedy we haven't seen from him before. It's hilarious to watch his blank, clearly confused face as the world he thought he knew is flipped upside down. Even more so, he's a ball to watch leaping over cars and beating up rowdy teenagers. The jokes at his expense, since he clearly has the body of a thirty year old man and towers over everybody, are some the film's best. Tatum seems more than willing to roll with the punches and cut loose. For the most part, the supporting cast shines as well. Bridesmaids co-star Ellie Kemper is equal parts sweet and filthy as a teacher with a Mary Kay Leternou style obsession with Tatum. Dave Franco doesn't have much to do, but Brie Larson gives a winning performance as Molly, the girl who falls for Hill's charms.

     With so much attention focused on Hill, Tatum, and Bacall, it's easy to forget that the glue holding this madcap adventure together are directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Their only gig up to this point was the animated Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and you can see they brought some of the comic madness of that film into 21 Jump Street. The action sequences, of which there are plenty, are fast paced and splashed with a little bit of Looney Tunes wackiness.Even the closing credits rock.

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