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dOctober18: Restoring Tomorrow

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Directed by Aaron Wolf, Restoring Tomorrowtells a universal story of hope as a beloved local temple in decay is revitalized through a community’s commitment to recover their history. Wolf follows the journey of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, a Los Angeles treasure built by the original Hollywood moguls, that needs to raise millions in order to restore its beauty. However, Wolf also recognizes that, in doing so, the renewed temple on Wilshire could also restore the future of the Jewish community, and the greater Los Angeles community itself.

Despite the film’s central structure around the rebuilding of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Restoring Tomorrow, Wolf has much larger questions in mind. Instead, he begins to ask why so many young people have walked away from faith systems in droves over the last decade, including himself. Is it simply that we have lost the value of our histories and traditions? Are the beliefs associated with the synagogue irrelevant in today’s culture? What does it mean to have inter-faith dialogue and how might it be expressed in the meaningful context of community? In Wolf’s mind, all of these issues have contributed to the slow decay of the church at large by revealing the disconnect that has developed between culture and faith.

Make no mistake, however, Wolf also makes it clear that this issue is not only restricted to Wilshire by showing multiple places of faith around the world that need restoration as well. Although much of the value of faith has been lost within our Western culture of achievement and… well… building structures, Tomorrow asks the viewer to slow down and experience the spiritual heart behind rituals and community. Time and again, the film records people who recognize that they are a part of something ‘greater than themselves’ simply by sitting within the synagogue itself.

In many ways, Tomorrow’s greatest asset is its personal nature. Choosing to tell his own story as a young man who had lost touch with his own faith and traditions, Wolf moves the film from merely objective to somewhat intimate. By showing clips of himself interviewing his guests (as opposed to the usual ‘talking heads’ seen in documentaries), Wolf reveals that the questions he’s asking aren’t merely for general information. They are for his own interest as well. As such,Tomorrow becomes much more than a report about the restoration of a building. It’s about reclaiming one’s own spiritual history. Through Wolf’s journey, we recognize the value in opening up ourselves to see meaning in what once was meaningful.

In essence, although Restoring Tomorrow may begin with the restoration of a synagogue, Wolf allows himself to ask questions that are far greater than he have originally anticipated. In doing so, the film offers a poignant and personal look at the damage we’ve cause by our loss of traditions and the value that stems from their reclamation.

For audio of our interview with director Aaron Wolf, click here.

Restoring Tomorrow opens in Toronto, NY and LA on Friday, October 12th, 2018 and expands throughout November.

Creating a Rampage: 1on1 with Jaron Presant (cinematographer, RAMPAGE)

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In Rampage, primatologist Davis Okoye (global action icon, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson) shares an unshakable bond with George, an extraordinarily intelligent silverback gorilla who has been in his care since his youth. However, when a genetic experiment goes wrong and George is one of several animals transformed into raging giant beasts, Okoye must race against the clock to find an antidote to save his friend before the monsters destroy everything in their path.

With a wild premise filled with enormous action set pieces, Rampage delivers an action thrill ride with incredible visuals. As such, cinematographer Jaron Presant felt an enormous responsibility to see director Brad Peyton’s vision come to life. A veteran of over twenty years behind the camera, Presant believes that good cinematography is essential in creating the proper environment for storytelling.

“To me, cinematography is figuring out a way to set up the viewer to best receive the story that you’re trying to tell,” he reflects. “So, you’re trying to look for visual ways to tell the emotion of the scene, like to tell where the characters are or what the feeling is that you’re trying to convey in a scene or movie. On another level, it’s very technical and you have to actually implement a lot of technique to achieve that emotional, visual storytelling. To me, it’s about this balancing act between art and technique, which is why I find it so fascinating and especially today when we’re on the throws of so much technological change.”

Having worked with on a number of high profile projects, ranging from Star Wars: The Last Jedi to San Andreas, Presant has also worked a wide range of directors as well. As a result, he maintains that each situation requires him to understand their expectations of him.

“Every situation is different and, especially with each director. Each director has a different kind of workflow that they subscribe to and so you, as a cinematographer, you’re adjusting your own approach to the director. Rian [Johnson, director of Star Wars: The Last Jedi] has every shot already in his head and what I do with him is elaborate on those shots that he’s already got. So, when we get to the scene, I’m suggesting that we can also do this kind of shot or change it like this but Rian has a real sense of what he’s going for visually.”

“Then, there are other directors who don’t, like Tobe Hooper (director of Mortuary). [May he] rest in peace. I mean, Tobe was just fantastic to work with, but Tobe had a totally different approach. When he showed up, he didn’t have any sense of what he wanted visually and he would turn to me and say, how do you want to cover it? What do you want to do? We would start discussing it. I would have an idea of what would work well for the scene and then we would work off of that and bounce ideas back and forth. With Brad [Peyton, director of Rampage], he’s sort of in the middle and I loved working with him. He has an approach which is both very well-conceived and very open. Generally speaking, from the standpoint of each shot, you’re trying to find something that is the style you’ve decided on for the show but that also works the best for the emotion of that moment in the movie.”

After conversations regarding tone and style between director and cinematographer have taken place, Presant feels that that is when the film begins to take shape visually.

“Now that the visual style of the thing is set up, you go over it, prep it and come up with an approach that informs every single shot,” he states. “Once you create the approach, then it’s applying that idea to each scene and within each scene to each shot. You’re trying to like carry the viewer along on a journey for the character’s arc and the story arcs, so you want the visuals to mirror those arcs.”

As his projects have become more high profile, one thing that has increased is the budgets on movies on which he’s had the privilege to work. Though every film is different, Presant feels that, ultimately, the process remains the same.

“Yeah, it is very much the same process in that you’re still designing a single frame in which you have to tell a story,” he explains. “The difference when you get into scale is how much you can prep things and how much things can go awry on the day. The reason that you need more prep is because there’s a higher level of complexity to what you’re trying to achieve and there is less of a margin of error for things not going right on the day. So if you’ve got Dwayne [Johnson], he is on set shooting and you need to shoot something that is going to be great that’s going to be in the film.”

“You can’t afford to have some piece of equipment not work. That’s not to say that you can’t have flexibility, but you need to know that if you’re planning a really complicated shot that has to work, you need to make sure it will work and that’s what drives up the cost. If you have a bigger budget movie, you need to be able to know that things will execute on the day smoothly because the time on set is so expensive at that scale…But beyond that, the actual crux of what you’re doing is exactly the same. You’re trying to tell the story, trying to figure out visually what will represent the emotion of the scene best and how to convey that story visually with camera and lighting.

Over the course of his career, Presant has had the privilege to work with directors like Rian Johnson or Brad Peyton on multiple occasions. During that time, he has also built up solid working relationships with them, a process that allows him more freedom creatively in the long run.

“I think that the industry and the process that we go through lends itself to [working with the same team],” Presant claims. “When you find people that you like to work with creatively, you’re going to gravitate towards working with them more. If you can do better work together than you could do a part, you’re going to gravitate back to those people because you do better work, right? You elevate each other’s work to a better place. So that’s, I think that’s, to me that’s actually the end goal of all of the networking is that you’re trying to find the people that you do the best to work with even because if the process is the best it can be, you’re going to yield the best work that you can.”

Of course, one of the great challenges of cinematography in big budget films is maximizing on the use of computer-generated images to achieve the best possible impact. With this in mind, Presant thinks that one of the most complicated elements to CGI work is the fact that you are forced to account for images that aren’t directly in front of you during filming.

“I actually think that when you’re getting into CG work, you need to be more creative on some level than you do when everything is practical because you have to conceive of things that don’t exist,” he responds. “It’s simplistic to say there’ll be a big gorilla and a big building there. But then, you need to start thinking, ‘wait, there’s going to be a building there so that’s actually going to create a bunch of negative fill.’ Now, all of a sudden there can’t be light coming from that direction and if the gorilla is moving–and how big is the gorilla–and what kind of shadow is that starting to place on it. Where do we want the light to come in?” 

“Granted you’re just entirely on the stage at this point so which way is the sun going to come within the context of this scene relative to these buildings and animals that don’t exist?,” he continues. “It starts getting to a place where you actually have to conceive of a lot of things that don’t exist and try to build them in because that integration of a light more than anything is a huge element selling the CG. It’s an integration of a bunch of different departments to make sure how we’re going to play the sun coming out and when it’s going to happen, how’s it going to happen, etc. [before] we’re shooting practically with Dwayne. Though, [much of the work is] going to happen three months from now [it is pre-conceived]. and it’s getting everybody on the same page that they know that’s going to happen.”

With this in mind, he has seen tremendous developments in terms of technology over the years. With all the improvements to areas such as CG and color matching, he believes that this is an exciting time for the film industry on a creative level.

“Color meters to me are really funny because I have had them around for years but they have never been super accurate,” he explains. “When you add quarter green like it suggests, It doesn’t really look like right. This is really due to metamerism coupled with the lack of accuracy of the meter, but we now have a system that’s so precise—using spectrometers and lighting with x,y chromaticity coordinates. There’s this one plane sequence on Rampagewhere we took x,y readings off actual flames and fed that into an array of sky panels for an explosion. The explosion doesn’t exist obviously. It’s a CG explosion on a CGI plane but the light that we’re getting off that explosion is absolutely precise. It all pulls together in terms of color so seamlessly.”

When all of these elements come together, Presant says that, as a cinematographer, there is a moment when you simply know that you’ve achieved the perfect shot.

“I think that are some shots where you do it and things just feel like they’ve clicked. Just like the flow in pro sports, you get into this place where everything is just in perfect sync and, when that happens, you know you’ve got something that’s right. On some level, I feel like that happens on every shot. There’s this really funny thing that happens where you set up a shot with the stand-ins and it looks good… and then Dwayne or whoever the actor walks on and it just comes alive somehow. It always blows my mind. It’s like it’s everything just brought together in that one moment and it’s a powerful moment on set for me. I think that’s actually one of the things I enjoy most about cinematography is that you’re their first. It’s a really amazing moment.”

Rampage is in theaters now.

For full audio of our interview with Jaron, click here.

 

Directing the Eye of the Storm: 1on1 with Rob Cohen (THE HURRICANE HEIST)

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Having directed such films as The Fast and the Furious and XXX, Rob Cohen certainly knows how to build intensity within an action movie. With his latest film, The Hurricane Heist, Cohen continues to push his ability to create elaborate set pieces in an effort to take his audience on a wild thrill ride. When asked how he became associated with the film, Cohen explains that, initially, his journey began with an entirely different type of project.

“I had been working on a project about Joe Louis with a husband and wife producing team. I just finally said that I shouldn’t direct this,” he recalls. “We’re in the here and now and there are many, many talented black men and women directors. Even with my background of Motown, winning the NAACP image award and all the other stuff I’ve done, it’s a different time now. So, [I said they should go get] Ryan Coogler or somebody who might be more emotionally connected to the material than I am by birth. They said they were sad, still wanted to do something with me and said [that] they had this script… that was kind of like a bank robbery that was set to go down during a hurricane.”

“I [thought] that was a very interesting concept because plain old disaster movies aren’t going to work and heist movies can work but they have to be really, really good to stand on their own. They have to be Ocean’s Eleven. Short of that, they become subplots in the Fast and the Furious sequels. So, I read the script and it was not good. It was very old-fashioned. The minute the meteorologist got involved he became Bruce Willis or Rambo, you know… It was ludicrous. I liked the idea but it needed a total redo.”

With a title like The Hurricane Heist, one immediately expects that the film will feature incredible special effects and intense action sequences. However, rather than rely entirely on CGI for the film’s action scenes, Cohen demanded a more grounded approach that features practical effects and even asking the actors to participate as much as possible.

“I wanted the actors to do all their own stunts,” he explains. “We [had to] rig them up and design them so that [the stunts] are safe, believable, possible and real. So, we developed and imported from various places these 100 mile/hour fans and we dumped millions of gallons of water over the course of the shoot. As Toby Kebbell said to me, ‘You’re the greatest director because, when an actor comes on your set, we don’t need to act. We just have to survive.’ Every stunt is the actor and you can tell because we don’t cut away. When Ryan Kwanten jumps from a tow truck to an 18-wheeler at 50 miles/hour and almost misses it, trust me. He almost missed it… Toby did all the stuff where they’re running on top of the 18-wheelers as they’re barreling down the freeway at 60 miles/hour. That’s them. You can’t fake it.”

Given the difficulty of these conditions, Cohen believes that it takes a certain type of actor to take the lead in an action film. Having worked with actors ranging from Brendan Fraser (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) to Jamie Foxx (Stealth) to Jennifer Lopez (The Boy Next Door), Cohen says that a lead actor needs to have the courage and commitment to throw themselves into their role.

“I look for a brave actor,” he begins. “Brendan [Fraser] went home on the Mummy black and blue many nights. I would put Jamie [Foxx] in a gimble jet cockpit that would pull 3 ½ G’s and spin him and, once he got out of the cockpit, he’d go to the corner of the stage and throw up. But, when you look at their faces, you know they’re getting G-forces put on them and you feel you’re in this kind of supersonic jet. It’s all about designing it so that you can make it so real and so immediate for the audience… I always have this conversation with [my actors] when they say yes, they want to do it where I say ‘Not so fast. First you gotta understand what’s going to happen.’ Like most actors, they [say] ‘sure, I can handle anything.’ The first time, Toby felt the 100 mile/hour wind in his face and rain that stung like needles, he was going ‘You were not joking!’… These things take a great deal of courage and you need an actor with that level of courage or you can’t make the optimal action film.”

While taxing on the actors and crew, Cohen also contests that the sacrifice is worth the effort in the end. While the action genre often does not receive the same critical praise as other Oscar film bait, Cohen also thinks that, with its penchant for visuals over dialogue, these movies remain the most authentic form of filmmaking.

“It’s a very tiring but exhausting process to make a complicated action sequence,” he says. “That is why I always say to people that The King’s Speech is not the highest form of filmmaking. It’s basically a filmed play… in a room, [where] some very talented actors speak lines and make you fascinated by the people. But, when you really step back, is it a film? Well, yeah, it’s a film… but you could’ve put the play on in 1910 and it would’ve not been that different. Whereas, as a form, only cinema and nothing else can give it to you in that kinetic way and an action film director has to know a whole lot more than Noah Baumbach and those type of films. So, it’s fine for critics to put down action films but they’re actually the most pure cinema we have. They’re full of action, not talking. But that’s my personal theory.”

In light of this, Cohen has no regrets about his passion for telling action-oriented stories. While there may be those who criticize his work for lacking depth, he argues that his primary interest lies in entertaining the audience, as opposed to more introspective material.

Says Cohen, “I came into this business to entertain. I didn’t come in to study my navel and show everybody how depressing the universe is. I came here to give everyone an antidote to that and I’m unapologetic about it, which is why a lot of critics don’t like me. I’m not interested in two lesbians trying to have a baby or I’m not interested in the angst of some teenage girl in Sacramento. I’m interested in an audience coming in, grabbing them by the hand from Frame One and taking them through a rip-roaring thrill ride that never gets boring and never even lets you go to the bathroom. That’s what I [want to] accomplish… “

“I just love the idea that you go in for those hours… and you are taken to another world, into a story, into characters, and you’re seeing things [with] your eyes, and hearing things with your ears that are really transporting you to another plain of existence. The fact that your boss is an [idiot]. The fact that we have this moron president. All the things that make you depressed. All these things are gone for a little respite where you can have fun and, when you leave, you feel like ‘Well, okay. I’ve got my adrenaline. I’m ready to face life again. I’m a fighter and I’m excited.’ That’s the type of action I try to engender. That form, blockbuster or action film (however you describe it), that form is what I love creating and I love when audiences respond to it.”

With decades of experience directing action films, Cohen has also noticed a distinct change in the genre. However, rather than emphasizing technological shifts, he feels that the primary shift in action films is that they have moved their storytelling from being more grounded in reality to fantasy worlds.

“The action film blockbuster used to be somewhat based in reality in the past whether it was The Great Escape or The Magnificent Seven… or any of the big action adventures and today, so many of the blockbusters like Marvel… [are] in an unreal world,” he reflects. “Kevin Feige has been just ingenious about creating a movement which is the most successful of any that’s been seen. It’s all in a fantasy world. We owe that to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Even a film like Indiana Jones, you’re talking about spirits and the Ark of the Covenant and giant booby-trapped caves. Things that were not like the old days. [Steven] started to transform [action films] from here on earth to flying saucers and extra-terrestrials. It transitioned to where we are in the Joss Wheden/Kevin Feige world where it’s wide open. It’s not based on gravity or reality in any way. It’s based on the essence and metaphors of superheroes and the amazing visual effects that can be built around people with special powers. That’s very, very different than where the blockbuster started.”

Of course, perhaps Cohen’s greatest legacy lies in his role in creating the Fast and the Furious series. After 19 years and 8 films, what began as a little ‘street-racing movie’ has blown up into a multi-billion dollar franchise. When asked if he had any idea that the franchise would become what it is today, Cohen does not mince words.

“No, and anyone connected to the franchise (and anyone connected to the franchise when it was pure) who says they thought that would happen is a revisionist historian,” he states emphatically. “I thought there would be two movies. I left the first one very indeterminate… and I left it there because I fully expected to pick up the story where the next one would have been if it was one 3 ½ hour movie. Then, of course, life intervenes and it didn’t go that way. I made a stand and I didn’t win. They went off with the producer and made what they’ve made. It’s beautiful that it has this long life. What I love most is that, in online polls, etc, people feel that the first one is the best. So, I’m glad for my children’s college educations that it’s still running and I’m proud that I created something that the audience felt so attached to that they wanted more of it for two decades”

 

To hear more from Rob regarding Hurricane Heist, including how he sets up an action scene and which actors he would like to work with in the future, stream our interview with him below.

 

The Hurricane Heist blows into theatres on March 9th, 2018.

Three Reasons Style Matters, According to Baby Driver

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you know what matters?

style.

whyzzat?

well, i could tell you
why i think so,
but instead
let me give you
three reasons style matters,
according to the
sleekly-stylish-
yet-(ironically)-
ever-so-serviceable
Baby Driver

ONE – style’s stylish

check out this story:
a bunch of robbers
rob some stuff
and almost get away with it,
but they end up
turning on each other –
as robbers do –
and then one of them
makes it out in the end (kinda)

sounds good, right?

now picture all that again, but
hear:
supercool throwback soundtrack,
see:
sexies like Jon Hamm,
wear:
shades, always shades

(i could go on)

get the point?

same story,
but do it with style –
that elusive,
hard-to-define-
but-you-know-it-
when-you-see-it
*it,*
which Baby Driver
simply ooooozes with –
and everything is
just so much more
. . . stylish . . .
so much more . . .
. . . better

TWO – everything is style

go back to the story above

it’s pretty basic, right?

looking back at some other
Edgar Wright movies,
they’re all kinda that way, right?
Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz,
The World’s End,
all awesome, imo,
(in a lot of people’s o, tbh),
but all generally
formulaic,
got plots you’d see coming,
“work out in the end,” etc. –
all basically basic, yeah?

but this isn’t a negative,
no, this is the point:
at the bottom,
everything is this way –
especially stories –
and there is something
essential and ancient and
meaningful and
not-to-be-missed
about that fact
(i.e. we need to ask
why is it this way?)

well then, what makes
different stories different?
(cuz they do be different)

style.

style:
the different clothes
you put on the
different iterations of the
same body

all these Edgar Wright films
are very different, sure,
but it’s their styles, really,
that make them so –
a zombie flick,
a buddy cop flick,
an apocalypse flick,
a heist flick,
etc. –
while the basicality
of the stories themselves,
of story itself,
remains basically constant

so: everything is the same,
yet,
everything is different,
cuz style;
therefore,
everything is style
(and style is everything)

whoa.

THREE – (good) style wins

so, for the scorekeepers,
so far we’ve meant
“style” as in
that indefinable cool,
and “style” as in
type or kind,
but for this third thing,
we mean “style” as in
the way a person is –
his/her character
or even lifestyle  –
as in “that’s my style”
or “that’s not my style”

in Baby Driver,
it’s not Baby’s style
to kill people;
it’s really not even Baby’s style
to rob people –
he does that cuz
he’s gotta

in other words,
in Baby Driver,
Baby is a good person,
a moral person,
a just person who
tries doing what’s right,
even tho
he sometimes don’t

and this fact allows
Wright to say:
(good) style wins

bad guys get theirs and
good guys get theirs
(though they may need some
lesson learning along the way –
though they might could use some
r   e   d   e   m   p   t   i   o   n
(might couldn’t we all))

(good) style wins

one reaps what
one sows,
(ultimately, eventually)
justice prevails,
yada yada

(good) style wins

cuz good > evil

you know,
(good) style wins – 
that same basic story,
again
(surprise)
(but, again, why?)

so, to sum and say goodbye,
you should do a few things:

  1. check out “Cruising with BABY DRIVER” 
    for even more analytic goodness
  2. stream that supersweet
    Baby Driver soundtrack
  3. see the movie, obv,
    which is excellent,
    so’s you can
    see all these style insights
    in person, yourself, and
    ask those couple “why?” questions
    from above,
    plus other interrelated ones
    that might come
    (like “am i stylish?”
    “what style of the story
    do i be in?”
    “what’s my style
    and do it win?”
    and so on
    and on

3.25 Coming Home to SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING

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This week, Steve teams up with Peter Percival (YouTube’s Bearded Movie Guy) and Jeff Baker (Geek Orthodox podcast) to talk about SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING!  Peter Parker has swung back into theatres (and the Marvel Cinematic Universe) with his 6th film in the last 15 years.  Have his web-fluid gotten stale?  Or should our spider-sense be tingling to get to the theatre?  In a fun conversation, the guys get to talk about coming-of-age, the importance of the ‘small’ and their favourite ‘Spider-Moments’.

Want to continue to conversation at home?  Click the link below to download ‘Fishing for More’ — some small group questions for you to bring to those in your area.

3.25 Spiderman Homecoming

A special thanks to Peter and Jeff for coming on the show!

 

Spider-Man theme song composed by winner Paul Francis Webster and Robert “Bob” Harris.  Copyright 1967

1on1 w/Allan Loeb (screenwriter, COLLATERAL BEAUTY)

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collateral

One last present under the Christmas tree! This week, Steve has the privilege to speak with screenwriter Allan Loeb (21, WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS) about his latest film, COLLATERAL BEAUTY, which stars Will Smith and Helen Mirren. They chat about love, death and the nature of fables.

A special thanks to Allan for joining us on the show!

15021626_83452_still_2_s-high

3.3 Who is THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN?

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girl-on-the-train-movie-hero

This week, the Norton boys (Jason and Steve) punch their ticket with THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN. How do we define who we are? Does the ‘perfect relationship’ really exist? Can Steve tell the difference between methods of transportation? All this and more, only on ScreenFish.

Want to continue to conversation at home?  Click the link below to download ‘Fishing for More’ — some small group questions for you to bring to those in your area.

3-3-girl-on-a-train

A special thanks to our Screamfish writer, Jason Norton for joining us!

9ccca989-4375-4f2c-af6b-736f9309dd20

Podcast: Touring SING STREET

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340

This week on the show, Steve welcomes author and speaker Jeffrey Overstreet to sing the praises of John Carney’s SING STREET!  Plus, the guys give their recommendations to beat the box office blahs!

Want to continue to conversation at home?  Click the link below to download ‘Fishing for More’ — some small group questions for you to bring to those in your area.

2.24 Sing Street

Podcast: Ordering the [MIDNIGHT] SPECIAL

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Midnight-Special-Movie

This week on the show, Steve Norton welcomes Seeing and Believing co-host Wade Bearden as they discuss Jeff Nichols’ MIDNIGHT SPECIAL. Plus, the guys offer up their Top 3 Sci-Fi films of the 21st Century!

Want to continue to conversation at home?  Click the link below to download ‘Fishing for More’ — some small group questions for you to bring to those in your area.

2.13 Midnight Special

Point Break (2015): Like, Whoa!

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POINT BREAK

I’m not a huge fan of remakes. I know I was in the minority, but we didn’t need a secondary version of True Grit, and quite frankly, I never needed Andrew Garfield to reprise the role of Peter Parker. But I literally laughed out loud when I saw the news that Point Break (1991) was being remade. “Seriously?!” I asked. “How are they going to top Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze?”

pb2The truth is that they never could top them. While they did make more ($131 million) than their budget ($105 million), the film wasn’t well received by fans of the original or critics. Unfortunately, writer Kurt Wimmer (remember the Colin Farrell remake of Total Recall) turned in a plot that ultimately hopes to dazzle us with director Ericson Core’s focus on amazing stunts and scenic views. Sure, Ray Winstone gets to play a Feebie, and Teresa Palmer shows up in the role Lori Petty nailed. But c’mon, are we blown away?

POINT BREAK

Not exactly. There’s some eco-warrior mumbo jumbo about revering nature and doing good to liberate people from their financial constraints and material cravings. It’s a loose plot point that allows the stunts – and visuals – to shine, but we’re never quite pulled in to the bromance between Bodhi (Edgar Ramirez) and FBI agent Johnny Utah (Luke Bracey). So, yes, it looks good, but no, it’s not the mind-blowing entertainment that the producers certainly hoped it would be. Still… there are four behind-the-scenes stunt shows. It took snowboarders, surfers, wing suit flyers, and more to capture everything on camera. It’s just too bad that the stunts might be the best part of the film, so you’ll have to decide if that’s the way you’re willing to roll.