Showing posts with label Gil Kenan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gil Kenan. Show all posts

Movie Review Ghostbusters Frozen Empire

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) 

Directed by Gil Kenan 

Written by Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan

Starring McKenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Dan Akroyd, Ernie Hudson, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Bill Murray

Release Date March 22nd, 2024 

Published March 22nd, 2024 

Recently, I worked out my concerns over the trailer for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire in an article that worried that there were too many stories, too many characters, and a generally overstuffed quality to the movie. My concerns were not entirely unfounded. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is stuffed to the gills with plot and characters. But, to the credit of director Gil Kenan and co-screenwriter Jason Reitman, do bring all of these characters together well enough. It's not a great movie, but Frozen Empire is better than my worst fears for it. Good enough that I can recommend it, with some minor reservations. 

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire picks up the story of the Spengler Family, Egon's daughter, Callie (Carrie Coon) and her two kids, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), the oldest, and Phoebe (McKenna Grace), the genius, as they take on ghosts in New York City. Oh, and Gary (Paul Rudd), is also there. They are the Ghostbusters and we join them as they are chasing what looks like a flying electric eel. Property damage and other such mayhem ensues and it leads to Phoebe getting kicked off the team, at least until she's 18.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 



Movie Review Saturday Night

Saturday Night 

Directed by Jason Reitman

Written by Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman

Starring Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, and Lamorne Morris

Release Date October 11th, 1980

Published October 11th, 2024

Do not approach Jason Reitman’s new movie Saturday Night as if it is a documentary style recreation of the actual events in the final 90 minutes before the first episode of Saturday Night Live, then known as NBC’s Saturday Night, went on the air. The film likely will not withstand the scrutiny of historians or those who demand complete verisimilitude. Rather, the correct approach to Saturday Night is as a collective pop culture memory of what that night was like at 30 Rockefeller Center. 

Saturday Night Live, especially the first through fifth season, have been rhapsodized and mythologized for 5 decades and those myths have coalesced into that classic movie born aphorism from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, “When the Legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Indeed, the first night of Saturday Night Live is legendary and the memories of that night have become myths that have been filtered through hazy memories into what is now Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, a flawed but completely fun and watchable take on how we like to think that first episode came to be.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 



Movie Review: City of Ember

City of Ember (2008) 

Directed by Gil Kenan 

Written by Caroline Thompson 

Starring Saorise Ronan, Harry Treadaway, Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Martin Landau, Toby Jones 

Release Date October 10th, 2008 

Published October 9th, 2008

With humanity forced underground, two teens try to figure out why and how they can escape. She is Lina Mayfleet (Saorise Ronan). He is Doone Harrow (Harry Treadaway). Though they weren't aware of it, Lina and Doone's parents were close friends. In fact, they were part of a secret society that were the first to try to escape from Ember. Lina and Doone have the advantage of a map handed down by the builders, the scientists who created the underground city as their own society was crushed by some unseen force, either environmental or nuclear. 

The buliders created the map and instructions for leaving Ember and locked them in a time sealed box incapable of being opened for 200 years. The box was supposed to be passed from one mayor of Ember to the next but at some point it was lost along with the instructions for reclaiming the earth's surface. Lina finds the box in a closet in her grandmothers home. She takes it to her pal Doone and together they follow the instructions leading to an extraordinary adventure.

City of Ember was produced by the folks at Walden Media whose abundance of religious metaphors can be a little ham fisted. Here the Builders stand in for a belief in a higher power. They are even thought by the truly faithful to be returning someday. The metaphor is obvious and overblown but the director, Gil Kenan, is smart not to get bogged down in the overt demonstration. Using his exceptional cast, especially Bill Murray as the town's bumbling, inept mayor, Kenan never lets things get bogged down by metaphor. He also makes great use of action, especially near the end where a boat trip mimics Indiana Jones Temple of Doom coal chute chase.

Saorise Ronan is a lovely young actress whose big eyes never portray anything but earnest commitment to purpose. Her Lina wasn't looking to leave Ember, she in fact had just received the job of her dreams as red cape wearing messenger, a job that allows her to indulge her quick feet. However, with the town experiencing growing blackouts and food shortages, it becomes her mission to not merely save herself but the community of Ember that is her surrogate family. Doone's interest wasn't leaving either, he was compelled by something to believe he could fix the generator.

When he is assigned to work as pipefitter he hopes to use it's proximity to the great generator to get in there and solve the problem. Doone's arc goes from fearful and frantic to realistic and hopeful. When confronted with evidence of a world outside of Ember Doone abandons his grandiose plans for a more arduous journey with what he hopes greater results. Doone and Lina spark well together and their entirely chaste romance, expressed only in brief hand holding, is charming in an old school, kids movie kind of way. I like movies that manage to entertain while acting their age and that is what City of Ember does.

Gil Kenan knows he is making this movie for young children and avoids any humor or violence that might overwhelm the target audience. It sounds as if he is censoring himself but the film remains entertaining which demonstrates Kenan's talent, he doesn't need to be simpleminded or vulgar to achieve the film he wants to make.

City of Ember has it's flaws but in the end what mattered was my smile. I started smiling the moment Saorise Ronan came onscreen, arriving late at school with an important assembly already underway and she needing to be on stage, till the end. Kids movies that don't condescend or speak down to kids are in too short supply. City of Ember deserves your movie dollar for simply being that kind of thoughtful kids flick. Saorise Ronan is a young star in the making and I can't wait to see what she does next. Here's hoping it's as smart and fun as City of Ember.

Movie Review Get Away if You Can

Get Away if You Can  Directed by Dominique Braun, Terrence Martin Written by Dominique Braun, Terrence Martin Starring Ed Harris, Dominique ...