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This was not quite the film I was expecting, and that makes me realize I have a trend in writing these reviews.  I tend to say that in reviews at a rate higher than in films I watch but don’t review.  The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is supposedly a re-make of a film starring Danny Kaye based on a short story by James Thurber.  I say “supposedly” because, though I have not seen either of these works, the driving force and the MacGuffin of this film did not exist when they were produced.  This film should really be viewed for its own merits and not for appreciation of some prior effort.

The story is about a man (Ben Stiller) working on the last issue of Life Magazine.  His responsibility is to manage the negatives of all the photographs for the magazine.  Walter is a lonely man who reaches out to e-harmony to try to talk to a woman (Kristen Wiig) in his office.  Walter daydreams openly in public, zoning out to the point where a new manager taps him on the forehead to see how long before Walter comes back to his body.  The emptiness of his real life is reflected in the “Been There Done That” section of his e-harmony profile, which Patton Oswalt’s disembodied voice tries to encourage Walter to fill out.

Walter is thrust to importance when the final issue is announced, and he must print the photograph that will be the final cover.  The only problem is the selected negative is missing.  Here Walter transitions from daydreaming about being an arctic explorer to impress the girl to actually leaping from a helicopter into the North Atlantic to find the photographer, but finding his own bold adventurous spirit in the process.

In his career, Ben Stiller is hit or miss for some people.  I, personally, like his work very much, stemming back to the short-lived “The Ben Stiller Show” in the early ‘90s.  Directing and starring in this piece, I felt he brought some of his comedic talent to the production if not the character.  The film is not a comedy per se, but there are some very funny moments arising from the nature of life—actually being in Greenland but daydreaming about Kristen Wiig performing a karaoke version of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” which motivates Walter to get on that helicopter, for example.

I felt moved by the film, not to climb mountains in northern Afghanistan or such foolhardy endeavors, but by the heart of the character, delivering for what he believes is important, and his own hero’s journey.

This isn’t going to be some nitpicking review of all the science they got wrong in Jurassic World. Say it with me: “Deinonychus,” not velocity wrap tore – Dino Nick Us. Tearing apart the science (or the running through mud in spike heels) would be too easy and wouldn’t do justice to an otherwise fun film.

It is too bad this film didn’t come out 22 years earlier. The grandiose reveal of the animals would have been more entertaining if they were new. Instead, we have a meta-joke. The plot centers on a park struggling to show attendees something new. Which is, somewhat precisely, what the film struggles to do. For the story, they have “Indominus Rex,” the first genetically engineered dinosaur—more on that in a moment. For the movie, we have “raptor” training.

I’ve done a little animal training, so I found myself very interested in how they would portray it with dinosaurs. Like most of the technical pieces of the film, I was disappointed. The training didn’t really show us anything. Sure, they stopped and looked at the trainer while he overused a clicker and blabbered away at them, but if we were to believe he had some sort of relationship with the animals or dominance over them, they should have shown us some actions on command. In a flurry of side stories, some quasi-government types want to weaponize the order-taking dinosaurs. Observing the demonstration, I would have concluded that the animals were not trainable in their current form. They were definitely not ready to be seized, packed up, and shipped off to Mosul to hunt insurgents. There has been some controversy about the whole concept of training Deinonychus (more on this in a moment), so it would be easy to think I’m commenting on the science. I’m not. The film failed to demonstrate training sufficient for the story.

This raises the biggest story point. The Indominus Rex is not the “first” genetic hybrid/splice/designed dinosaur in Jurassic Park. ALL of the animals are. Fragments of DNA were spliced, traits were removed (lysine contingency from the first film), engineered 100% female—everything about these animals is designed. Why wouldn’t they be smart as dogs? They could be engineered that way. They are not dinosaurs; they are engineered animals. This did get brought up in the film, eventually, but it bears noting because it is easy to confuse the Jurassic Park films with paleo-science. The story of Jurassic Park is not a presentation of current thinking in paleontology. It is a cautionary tale: “make something with science and you might be killed by it.”

For that, we look to the largely forgettable stereotypes: divorcing parents, resourceful children, self-important corporate types, incompetent gung-ho military guys, and the guy who lives in a shack on the beach. The humans’ only purpose is to be chased and eaten by dinosaurs, and this makes this movie fun. The inattentive get eaten first, bad guys die horribly, and Starlord lives to sign on for a sequel.

Bello. Bulaka? Ka paslay da scripto ba notpac idsa-a een Minionese, pelo pak, muka, foub ko a mupa gib tut. Dul e hana Minoni, Kevin, Stuart, Bob wak awak Orlando! Villain-Con, aya Scarlet is da bomba. Kevin ditit Boss! Stiel La Cucaracha crown, KING BOB! Uh-Oh, Scarlet. et buh-dees sab a’day!

Kumbaya!

If you’re still reading you may have gleaned two things about Minions. First, I like minions, and generally enjoyed the film. Second, Minionese gets irritating when it comprises the majority of the dialog. If you love the minions enough to watch all of their short films back to back for ninety minutes, you will enjoy this film and should probably see it in theatres. If you think they are cute and add extra flavor to a movie powered by characters with more depth, you will probably not enjoy this film as much.

Minions actually starts out kind of slow but funny with the prehistoric origin of the gibbering yellow pill-bodies. Then it grinds almost to a halt as the tribe of irrepressible assistants hides in an ice cave. It is like that first clanking chain, which lifts the rider’s car to the top of the first hill of a rollercoaster. We’re carried by the expectant glee of what we know comes next. Then we crest that hill, with the heroic trio of minions arriving in New York, and the movie doesn’t stop or even slow down for eighty five minutes.

The frantic pace of the film and nonsensical speaking doesn’t just glue the target audience to their seats, it laminates them, takes the air out of the room and dips them in epoxy. I have never seen children be so still en masse.

For a more sophisticated pallet, however, the lack of an English-speaking lead makes the film a bit too frantic. The minions make for great supporting characters and comedy filler. As lead roles, it is more like making a meal of cotton candy. Sure you enjoy it while you are eating it, but you didn’t really fill up, and if you continue your indulgence for too long you start to feel that this wasn’t as good an idea as it seemed.

There are a lot of great little gags.  Like Home earlier this year, there is one joke where I was the loudest laugh in the room. The story is coherent, told through the silly actions and aided by some convenient humans like Queen Elizabeth II, Herb and Scarlet Overkill, and a narrator. Set, principally, in the 1960’s the soundtrack includes the requisite period pieces performed by The Beatles, KC and the Sunshine Band, The Who, and The Doors (yes, a children’s movie has Jim Morrison’s voice in it).

For a children’s film, there is a significant amount of death—not the minions.  They are basically revealed as immortal. The same cannot be said for the bosses they serve.

It is okay, though, everyone comes out for the curtain call after the closing credits.

I occasionally watch a movie I would never have seen if not for stumbling on it in the middle. The Good Lie is one of those. It is probably the most amusing film about a tragic disgrace to humanity I’ve ever seen, and I highly recommend it on every scale.

The film is a fictional account of three Lost Boys of the Sudan (the name given to the thousands of refugees from the Second Sudanese Civil War). It covers their escape from their home village, the trek east (toward Ethiopia) then south (to Kenya), a snapshot of life in a refugee camp, and ultimately their relocation to the United States.

The first act of the film is soul crushing. As children, they endure the abject inhumanity of war, but they do it with a complete understanding of death. They survive in a wilderness that would challenge extreme sport adventurer types, and they lose members of their group all along the way. They demonstrate resolve, stealing kills from a lion, hiding from soldiers, and (at an especially low point) drinking their own urine with the mantra, “I don’t want to die. I want to live.”

The refugees spent thirteen years in a camp. The film moves through this quickly as a sort of intra-act, advancing the characters to their adult selves. The movie takes a turn for the humorous when the main three boys and their sister find their names on the list to be relocated.

It becomes a fish out of water story as the African survivors are thrust into the wasteful abundance of the United States. Written and performed to American audiences, the film makes some good points of demonstrating ignorance without stupidity on the part of the boys. Here there are some genuinely humorous and touching moments. Such as the declaration, “Since we don’t know your birthday, you will be assigned January first.” To which the refugee asks, “Why this date?”

“There will always be a party.”

There is plenty of stupidity on the part of “the system.” The characters and precise details are fictional, but the story and situations are all too true. It is also conveyed with an intellectual honesty. There is no particular villain. There are a few helpful people, but none of them is especially heroic. We learn in the closing titles that two of the actors playing the main trio are actually relocated Sudanese refugees and former child soldiers. (The film does not cover the atrocity that is child soldiers.)

The title is derived from the final moments of the main story and a reference to Huckleberry Finn. A main character lies to protect someone worthy of his risk. It is not an unexpected turn, but it is meaningful all the same.

If you are not familiar with the Lost Boys of Sudan, I recommend this film with the knowledge that the story is inspired by actual events. In fact, I generally recommend this film whatever your background.