Watch Online Self/less (2015) - MovieTimeUs

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Synopsis:

A dying New York real-estate tycoon undergoes a top-secret procedure to transfer his consciousness into the body of a healthy young man, but he discovers that his new life isn't what he expected after learning about the mysterious origins of his new body and an organization that is prepared to kill for its cause. Ryan Reynolds toplines this sci-fi thriller directed by Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall, and penned by screenwriting duo David and Alex Pastor (Carriers).

Review:

They say that money can't buy happiness in life, but for one New York City tycoon, it might be able to buy life itself. That's the premise of director Tarsem Singh's new film Self/less, a muddled mashup of genres that makes the disastrous assumption that the audience will be too brain/less to notice its many preposterous plot points.

(Sir) Ben Kingsley plays Damian Hale, an impossibly wealthy NYC businessman who has devoted his life to making bank instead of raising his daughter Claire (Michelle Dockery), now estranged from him and the director of a nonprofit. Damian is dying from a quickly spreading cancer, the end rapidly closing in with every blood-spattering cough. When someone slips him a mysterious business card claiming to offer a solution to his terminal dilemma, he takes the bait and is soon touring a secret lab in New Orleans with a crazy-smart (emphasis on crazy) scientist named Albright (Matthew Goode). Albright explains that he has developed a way to implant a person's consciousness into a "host" body, thus allowing the dying person a chance to live on with a new identity and face. But this procedure is not for everyone; only the world's brightest minds, he says, are worthy of the process called "shedding." When Damian asks how the host bodies are created, Albright states that they are genetically grown in a lab, not unlike some plants. One can't help but picture a Frankenstein-like Chia Pet that, in addition to a full head of hair, also grows a perfectly functioning brain, complete skeletal system, and all of the muscles and organs necessary to be considered human. Okie dokie.

Despite possessing one of those aforementioned "brightest minds in the world," Hale agrees to the procedure with nary a speck of incredulity regarding the outlandish method of producing a host body. His cancer soon becomes more aggressive, and when the final credits of his life story are about to start rolling, the shedding commences. All it takes is about 15 seconds or so in an MRI-like machine, and Damian is now comfortably ensconced in his cool but rather unsteady new vessel (enter Ryan Reynolds as the host body). As Albright gives him the stats on his new life, one can't help but wonder why the guy would pay all that money just to look like a 35-year-old about to enter middle age instead of someone much younger. And that's just one of the many frustrating questions that the film never sufficiently answers.

While enjoying his new existence as a wealthy New Orleans retiree who plays basketball all day and trolls for chicks at the clubs every night, Damian is also plagued by strange hallucinations (seemingly of another person's life), which can only be controlled by taking a daily pill. His discovery of the real cause of these hallucinations regrettably transforms this film from a potentially intriguing sci-fi thriller into a rock-'em-sock-'em action flick, complete with car chases, shoot-outs, and more than one death by blowtorch.

The overriding problem with Self/less is the lazy storytelling by Singh and screenwriting brothers Alex and David Pastor, who forgo character development and narrative credibility in the arrogant assumption that multiple fistfights and insane car crashes will be enough to satiate the audience. We never really find out why Damian is so jazzed about continuing life on earth, considering that he made a miserable and lonely mess of his first one despite oodles of cash to comfort him. Kingsley's screen time is so woefully brief (he's basically making a cameo appearance) that he isn't given the chance to flesh out Damian beyond giving him a thick New York accent and inserting barely noticeable pauses into his speech. Not that it even matters, since Reynolds doesn't bother to adopt Kingsley's mannerisms or in any way attempt to remind viewers that, underneath those ripped muscles, full head of hair, and Canadian-tinged intonation, there lies a brilliant, cynical seventysomething New Yawker.

While the action scenes are fun to watch, one can't help but feel that Self/less is like sitting through two completely different movies at the same time -- and the better of the two abruptly ends with the shot of Kingsley's body being covered by a sheet following the shedding. Unfortunately, the only thing left for viewers after that is, well ... less.

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#Self/less (2015)
#Free Online Streaming Self/less (2015)
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#Free Streaming Self/less (2015)

Watch Online The Martian (2015) - MovieTimeUs

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Led by Commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain), the Ares 3 space mission has been tasked with collecting soil samples and data on Mars. An unexpected dust storm launches debris at the crew, impaling botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) with a rogue satellite and cutting their mission short. Lewis and her crew (Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, and Aksel Hennie) have no choice but to leave the presumed-dead Watney behind and escape the planet before the storm irreparably damages their spacecraft. Watney awakens the next day, injured but still alive, and treks back to the crew's home base. All contact to NASA has been lost in the storm, and Watney soon realizes that not only is he stuck on the Red Planet with limited supplies and infrastructure, but that it could be years before the next manned mission will arrive to save him.

Watney immediately begins work on developing sustainable sources of water and food, using his remarkable set of scientific and botanical skills to create a functioning greenhouse. He also determines that, in order to be spotted by NASA, he must fix the Rover left behind so that it can travel to the area of the planet that will host the next mission. Meanwhile, on Earth, NASA scientists notice the movement of the Ares vehicles and pods left on the planet, and determine that Watney survived the storm and is modifying the base to provide extended shelter. They make contact with him using a buried signal transponder, and shift the attention of the entire agency toward mounting a rescue mission.

The brain trust at NASA weigh their options for saving Watney, all while considering the potential PR disaster that could come with any decision they make. NASA head Teddy Sanders (a measured Jeff Daniels) clashes with Mission Chief Vincent Kapoor (the always wonderful Chiwetel Ejiofor) over possible strategies, as well as whether to inform the remaining Ares 3 crew that Watney is indeed still alive. Kapoor works closely with developers to quickly build a spacecraft filled with life-sustaining supplies, which will keep Watney alive until the Ares 4 mission reaches him in four years' time. Foregoing safety precautions due to time constraints, this unmanned mission to deliver provisions is a disaster, which forces NASA to reach out to the Chinese government for technological help. Eccentric astrophysicist Rich Purnell (Donald Glover) eventually devises a last-ditch plan for the Ares 3 crew to save Watney by using an orbital slingshot as they approach Earth -- a risk that Sanders is unwilling to take. When secretly informed of the idea via an encrypted e-mail, Lewis and her crew immediately change course to follow Purnell's plan, forcing NASA's hand in aiding this improbable rescue mission.

Staying true to Andy Weir's 2011 novel, director Ridley Scott's surprisingly light flick is a science-heavy study of one man's determination to return home. Watney is far more focused on technical wizardry and cracking wise about his predicament than the existential crisis of being stranded alone on Mars. Even during his video-diary entries, which he knows will likely never be viewed by another human being, he relies on his sense of humor as a defense mechanism to deal with the crushing odds stacked against him. It's a clever way to sidestep the usual characterization you'd expect from a character in this situation, allowing The Martian to opt out of the emotional turbulence of a movie like Cast Away, or even the desperation of Damon's turn in Interstellar.

However, while it might be true to the source material, it also leaves the main character feeling half-realized. Watney has a brief breakdown after a disaster involving his crops and his Rover, but his unflappability and devotion to methodical problem solving keep any negative thoughts safely out of view. Screenwriter Drew Goddard gives the ancillary characters in this story the same treatment; their dogged determination to figure out a plan to save Watney outweighs any individual motives, emotions, or even viewpoints. The Martian isn't particularly concerned with the psychological toll of isolation or guilt, but instead focuses on the triumph of human ingenuity under duress. A balanced account of both the emotional and logistical aspects of the rescue mission would have made this feel like a more complete picture.

Regardless, the movie is a great example of crowd-pleasing cinema. Scott is undeniably a master of spectacle, and as a result, The Martian contains plenty of great popcorn-flick moments. With the help of cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, Scott even utilizes subtle 3D imagery in order to deepen his already breathtaking environments. At the same time, so much of the film is firmly trained on Damon, and the veteran actor injects his magnetic charm and braininess into the everyman protagonist. Despite a lack of psychological depth, The Martian succeeds as a tribute to humanity's collective resolve, as well as the problem-solving skills of one hell of a botanist. 

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Tags:
Heroic Mission | Race Against Time | Space Travel | Stranded

Watch Online Tomorrowland (2015) - MovieTimeUs

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Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) loves science and the promise of the future. She loves them so much that she's willing to sneak onto NASA property at night in order to sabotage the cranes dismantling a shuttle-launch platform. This endeavor eventually lands her in the slammer, and after being released on bail, she finds among her returned possessions a small enamel "T" pin that she swears isn't hers. It doesn't take long before she discovers that touching the pin immerses her in a vision of an ideal future, full of amber waves of grain and a metropolis that's like the Emerald City with monorails. The fervor of this hallucination leads her to the doorstep of Frank Walker (George Clooney), an embittered inventor who nevertheless believes what she saw. Why? Because when he was young, he saw it too -- and he knew what it was trying to tell him.

Since the theme-park-ride-turned-movie-franchise concept worked so lucratively for Pirates of the Caribbean, it's not surprising that Disney is now mining the rest of its amusement parks for inspiration. And considering the recent successes of space-themed properties like Guardians of the Galaxy (created by Marvel, now owned by Disney), Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear (Pixar, now Disney), and Star Wars (Lucasfilm, now Disney), Tomorrowland certainly makes more sense to green-light than, say, It's A Small World After All. Also in the film's favor: Director and co-writer Brad Bird (famous for The Iron Giant and The Incredibles) is a contrarian who prefers space-age optimism to our current love affair with dystopias. Bird excels at moments filled with awe and magical possibility, and the early scenes of a young Frank (Thomas Robinson) testing out his homemade jetpack will trigger the same kind of tingling glee people feel when they're flying in their dreams.

Unfortunately, Tomorrowland is also full of the unvarnished elitism critics found in The Incredibles: Its utopic vision is one populated exclusively by "exceptional people," who can devote all of their time to prototyping the world's problems away without having to bother with the petty and annoying rabble. This Übermensch philosophy, melded with Disney's blue-sky, pixie-dust cheerfulness, leads to the explicit message that simply dreaming of better things is enough of a start in the right direction -- a theory quickly disproven by the endless credits, which are filled with the names of hundreds of special-effects technicians who certainly did more than dream while hunched over their workstations. (And cynics will have a field day spotting all of the product placements, right down to a glucose-starved Casey guzzling down a recommended Coca-Cola -- the primary vendor of soda at Disney's theme parks -- as a cure for teleportation sickness.)

Tomorrowland does have one standout element, and that's the performance of young British actress Raffey Cassidy as Athena, a preternaturally poised 12-year-old first seen in a flashback at the 1964 World's Fair. Possessing steely-grey eyes, an enchanting spray of freckles, and the same precocious child-woman bearing as prodigies like Jodie Foster and Saoirse Ronan, she is the most fascinating part of a movie packed with explosions and martial-arts mayhem. Scenes between her and any of her co-stars -- including Clooney -- aren't even a fair fight, as her acute, austere grace quietly steals every scene she's in. Tomorrowland tries to fill our heads with theme-park visions of the future, but the only prognostication worth hoping for is a long and fruitful career for Cassidy. 

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Tags:
future, mission [quest], project [plan], quest, time-travel

Watch Online Star Wars (1977) - MovieTimeUs

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Bursting with excitement, and throwing in one wild chase, life-threatening dilemma, and dazzling effect after another, George Lucas' Star Wars packs a remarkable amount of story into 121 minutes; if the characters and dialogue sometimes lack depth, they have plenty of flash and boundless energy, and the film keeps just enough of its tongue in cheek to acknowledge an undercurrent of sly, low-key wit without snickering at either the characters or the audience. In a decade in which cynicism was the order of the day in the film industry (and American culture), Star Wars dared to be hokey. With its wise old men, dashing young pilots, spunky but virtuous princesses, and bad guys who were either deliciously evil or downright slimy, the movie had the courage to take a truckload of Hollywood archetypes, present them with smarts, humor, and no apologies, and make them work for a new generation of filmgoers. The movie in this way forged a totally original amalgam of myth, marketing, and movie serials to become one of the biggest cultural phenomena in movie history. Commercially, Star Wars opened new vistas in merchandizing toys and other movie tie-ins, as it helped transform science fiction from a fringe market into one of Hollywood's dominant genres. 

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Tags:
battle [war], good-vs-evil, empire, oppression, farmboy, mentor, mercenary, princess, rebel, resistance, spacecraft, android, duel, rescue, robot, stormtroopers, alien [not human], American [nationality], coming-of-age, against-all-odds

Watch Online The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015) - MovieTimeUs

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Young Adult dystopian films are apparently here to stay. Divergent, the first book in author Veronica Roth's best-selling YA trilogy, was adapted for the big screen in 2014, and the series is back almost exactly a year later with the sequel. The Divergent Series: Insurgent picks up immediately after the events of the previous movie, as the series' teen heroes Tris (Shailene Woodley) and Four (Theo James) flee a walled-in and bombed-out future Chicago.

Insurgent jumps straight into the action, and assumes the viewer has seen the first film -- very little ancillary exposition is provided. While Divergent seemed bogged down by the need to explain every detail of its far-fetched world, Insurgent bypasses that for a more driven story. Tris, Four, and the other Divergents are fugitives from the oppressive faction system, which segregates society according to individual character traits. The society's leader, Jeanine Matthews (Kate Winslet), is hunting down Divergents with a vengeance, believing that one of them possesses the ability to open a mysterious box that has been passed down by the founders of the faction system. Teaming up with other societal outcasts, the Divergents fight back against the oppressive regime.

There's a considerable amount of depth to Woodley's performance as Tris this time around -- much more so than the rather one-dimensional character she inhabited in the prior installment. Tris is haunted by the decisions she made at the end of Divergent, including playing a large role in the deaths of numerous people close to her. A reoccurring image throughout Insurgent is the simulation-induced appearance of her mother (Ashley Judd), who was killed in the first film. Tris is burdened with guilt, but still has the ability to express love, empathy, and honesty -- which is fitting, given her class-system-defying status of being Divergent.

A notable trend in these YA film adaptations is the presence of accomplished older actors playing authority figures (think Donald Sutherland in The Hunger Games or Patricia Clarkson in The Maze Runner). Insurgent is no different, and benefits greatly from performances by Kate Winslet and Naomi Watts. Winslet is a holdover from the first movie, and her role as the relentless despot Jeanine Matthews remains an important cog in the overarching story. Watts appears as Four's assumed dead, but actually alive mother, who turns out to be the leader of the underground "faction-less" clan.

Despite the ensemble cast and some inspiring performances,Insurgent treads water for the majority of its 119 minutes. The action scenes are well-crafted and frequent, but the near-ridiculous concept of the story tends to invalidate the best aspects of the film. The majority of Tris' hand-to-hand combat scenes take place inside simulations, with the character unconscious from a serum. The bulk of the movie is an awkward dance between reality and replication, but surprisingly, it pulls itself together for an effective (albeit convoluted) ending. Teens will love the defiant lead characters and the shoot-'em-up action, but critics should pay special attention to Woodley. She's a tremendous young talent, and while she's tied to the Divergent series for another two films, she seems ready to explode into superstardom soon. 

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Tags :
Chosen One | Future Dystopias | Heroic Mission | Lovers on the Lam | Misfits and Outsiders | Out For Revenge | Post-Apocalypse | Virtual Reality

Watch Online Terminator Genisys (2015) - MovieTimeUs

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The Terminator franchise found a winning structure and framework throughout its first two movies thanks to director/co-writer James Cameron, and the filmmakers behind Terminator Genisys do their very best to stick to that formula in the fifth installment. For viewers looking for unique cinema fare, however, that doesn't necessarily mean that the characters' surroundings have remained the same. After a familiar opening that sees John Connor's trusted lieutenant Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) travel back to 1984, this incarnation takes a sledgehammer to the timeline that fans are familiar with. The beginning of Genisysshows the decisive battle between the humans and cyborgs that forces the latter to attempt to kill John's mother, Sarah (previously played by Linda Hamilton), before she can give birth to her son. Reese volunteers to leap back in time to stop the cyborg due to his love for Sarah (his destiny is to meet her and become John's father), but as he is leaving, he sees John (Jason Clarke) attacked from behind by a robot who infiltrated the human army.

After this happens, Reese goes back to a past in which Sarah (portrayed this time around by Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke) has been protected since childhood by her guardian T-1000, played by the iconic Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first appearance in the franchise since 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. With the timeline altered, Reese convinces Sarah that rather than go to 1997 to stop Judgment Day, they instead need to go to 2017, which is when Skynet, the artificial-intelligence system that will give rise to the deadly cyborgs, will upload itself onto the new Genisys phone application (spearheaded by both Connor and Danny Dyson, the son of original Skynet creator Miles Dyson). But when John Connor shows up in the present, Reese, Sarah, and the T-1000 realize that he has been corrupted by the robots and is now their enemy, further complicating their attempts to blow up the prototype time machine and stop Genisys from launching in order to save humanity.

The film sticks to the same type of action scenes that made the franchise's most impressive effort, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, an enduring thriller hailed as not only a great popcorn flick, but one of the classics of its era. Genisys sneaks in several neat homages to the earlier movies, such as a scene in which Reese hides out in a 1984 department store that's a shot-for-shot reenactment of a similar moment from the originalTerminator. Present-day Arnold fights a CGI version of himself from the 1984 film, and viewers can count on Ahnold uttering his T-1000's catchphrase at least once.

The plot heats up after Reese departs for 1984, as it become clear that Sarah is already the tough, jaded warrior she was eventually destined to become. In addition to fighting a T-3000 on their way to preventing billions of human lives from perishing in an electronic Judgment Day, Sarah must wrestle with her belief that Kyle is destined to die fighting the robots as the T-1000 ponders his own mortality and aging. Unfortunately, it's all too easy to see where the remainder of the story will go after Connor shows up in 2017 and Sarah spots Reese as a kid (both Kyles have the same fingerprints). The dialogue sounds like fan fiction written by a sci-fi enthusiast; there is a ton of action involving the principal characters, but apparently nobody was worried about the quality of the dialogue or fostering believable character development. Besides that, the film also could have used more of J.K. Simmonsas O'Brien, the friendly cop considered crazy by his more pragmatic partners for believing in time travel. Even more frustratingly, the story line involving Danny Dyson (Dayo Okeniyi) is dropped after one scene of exposition between him and the T-3000. For a character who has essentially grown up with the audience, it would have been a nice touch to see him enjoy his own subplot (as he did in the short-lived TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles).

Emilia Clarke does the best she can with a character who vacillates wildly between an assured fighter and a wounded human still suffering from a traumatic childhood. Courtney's acting as Reese is fairly wooden and uninspiring, butSchwarzenegger steals the entire movie by imbuing the T-1000 with more humanity and believable emotion than any actual human character. As the T-1000 has become more acquainted with people throughout the series, Arnold has been able to provide a seemingly one-note character with as much humor and pathos possible for a cyborg whose voice doesn't change in tone. Formerly the biggest movie star on Earth, Schwarzenegger is clearly hoping that a return to his most iconic role will prove the key to his comeback.

Jason Clarke, a veteran actor whose credits include Zero Dark Thirty and the TV series Brotherhood, does high-quality work as a character whose role switches from hero to villain in the span of a single scene. This movie is no classic: Even when it tries to make a statement (humans are so infatuated with interactive technology that we are losing our ability to truly communicate), it doesn't do so with any serious conviction or new perspective. However, it is sure to please any fan of the previous Terminator flicks. Genisys provides a legitimate shot in the cybernetic arm of the franchise, without completely alienating any young viewers watching Arnold and company for the first time. Here's hoping the inevitable sequel can keep the torch aflame for Cameron's return.

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Tags:
artificial-intelligence, cyborg, destiny, forces [military], robot, science-runs-amok, timeline, time-machine

Watch Online Jurassic World (2015) - MovieTimeUs

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Brothers Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins) are too young to remember the opening of the first, doomed Jurassic Park. Maybe that's why they're not terribly concerned when, one winter vacation, their parents shuttle them off to a visit with their Aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard). She's the operations manager at Jurassic World, the Costa Rican island resort financed by New Agey CEO Masrani (Irfan Khan), whose philosophy of "embrace uncertainty" is a lot more unnerving when he's piloting the helicopter you're riding in. His vision for the revamped and rebooted Jurassic World includes an on-site gene-splicing laboratory headed by Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong, reprising his cameo role from the original movie), as well as a behavioral-science facility where raptor whisperer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) is examining the intelligence of animals previously thought to be untamable.

But despite the scientific high-mindedness and the triceratops-calf rides in the petting zoo, Jurassic World is primarily a theme park whose theme is carnivorousness, where the big-ticket attractions involve copiously toothy behemoths chomping down on tethered goats and gutted sharks (the latter bait possibly a dig at Jaws, executive producer Steven Spielberg's other vacation munch-fest) And just as your average theme park needs to upgrade its premium roller coaster from season to season, Jurassic World has decided that its next big draw is Indominus rex, a mammoth new species engineered from genetic this 'n' that. (Their specimen is female, a choice that might have less to do with gender politics in Hollywood and more with the difficulty of animating a Full Montysaurus while keeping a PG-13 rating.) They've built her a fortified pen she can't escape, which makes one afternoon's discovery of claw marks all the way up and over the concrete barrier somewhat alarming.

After a series of increasingly anemic sequels, the Jurassic Park franchise has roared back to life, even though nothing in director Colin Trevorrow's prior work indicated a knack for big blockbuster fare (his only notable credit, aside from some web shorts and a documentary that's been pulled from distribution, is helming 2012's oddball indie comedy Safety Not Guaranteed). But his vision forJurassic World is enchanting, gratifying, and sure-handed in a way that's uncannily like Spielberg's early period, back when Spielberg was the '80s king of the gee-whiz blockbuster and movies likeRaiders of the Lost Ark (1981) were massive, four-quadrant hits. His Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom inspired the creation of the PG-13 rating, an attempt to create a classification for films that were neither for all ages nor adults only; ironically, Jurassic World finds the perfect balance within that rating between excitement and terror (with the exception of the unjustifiably prolonged -- and arguably misogynistic - death of one female character toward the end), creating an experience that's appropriate for all but the youngest viewers.

Why haven't there been more blockbusters as good as Raiders? Well, Spielberg had Harrison Ford in his prime at his disposal, which is a hard act to top. But Trevorrow has Chris Pratt, and that's almost as good. With The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Jurassic World already under his belt,Pratt has won the Triple Crown of Summer Flick Leading Men: He's the dude you want as your boyfriend or your dad or you just want to be, a Navy scientist who rides motorcycles, devastates the ladies with his lopsided grin, and charms velociraptors with nothing more than a dog trainer's clicker and a measured stare. After one close scrape, a panting kid turns to Pratt and asks, "Can we just come with you from now on?" You said it, kid.

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Tags:
dinosaurs, scientist