Screened Out: Excess of Evil

THE MONSTERS AND ROBOTS ARE ginormous; the goal here is also big entertainment. Pacific Rim combines Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em robots with monumental sea monsters in a multi-million-dollar special effects prizefight. If you want to engage your inner 12-year-old, look no further.
A portal has opened deep in the Pacific Ocean, letting out Godzilla-like aliens. The creatures target coastal cities, and traditional weapons take too long to kill them. Hunnam (Nicholas Nickelby) is a futuristic soldier, strapped into a giant robot to do epic battle. He cannot go it alone. The machine requires two mind-melded operators, which is how he meets orphan Kikuchi (Babel). Together they and a few other brave soldiers put forth a plan to close the portal forever.

Director Guillermo del Toro has done better work than this-Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone. He’s also done worse-Blade II. In Pacific Rim del Toro channels fanboy fun and humor. He seems to know this is essentially a very expensive B movie, cheesy lines and all. He still shows us some cool, unexpected stuff, and the fights are not merely an all-out assault on our senses.

Sure, one could get persnickety, saying the mind-sharing aspect is given short shrift. Also, the leads are a bit simple, like old comic book heroes.

But really, we’re paying to watch cities got destroyed, monsters get pummeled, and robots get dismembered. It’s a gargantuan blast-a big-budget update to the apocalyptic creature feature.

THE CONJURING WAS ORIGINALLY SLATED FOR THE DEAD-ZONE-a January release date. However, it supposedly scared test audiences so well that the studios gave it a summer release. This Hollywood fable is a little unbelievable, because The Conjuring is simply a by-the-numbers fright fest.

In the early 1970s, Farmiga and Wilson were a real-live Catholic couple who went around fighting demonic possession. In The Conjuring, Taylor, Livingston and their five daughters have moved into a surprisingly cheap house with a hidden basement, odd toys, scary furniture, terrible smells, and things that go bump, thump and crash in the night. As their lives grow progressively worse, Taylor seeks out the supernatural duo to help her with an apparent demon infestation.

The story builds in regulation pace until the faithful come face to face with the boogeyman. Music spells out the scares. Everything is gritty and grim.

These garden-variety exorcism flicks are always more thrilling in the build-up than in the climax. With such a predictable script, director James Wan (Saw, Insidious) cannot find a consistency between interesting shots and dull ones. This makes his hand a little too obvious-computer-darkened corners and swinging cameras.

The actors are at least watchable-especially Farmiga and Taylor. The scares are timed with shifting shadows and dramatic music that’s sounds like an orchestra tuning up in hyper-speed. By the end, it’s a commercial for Catholicism.

I THINK EVERYONE NEEDS MINIONS, JUST LIKE WE ALL NEED OTHER PEOPLE TO LOVE. Sometimes, though, life can get so damn busy that we can lose sight of love’s possibility. That’s what Despicable Me 2 is about. It’s also colorful and fun-airy and light-hearted in the right place. Kids will love it, and adults will find enough to keep their interests.

In the first film, evil genius Gru gave up trying to steal the moon so he could adopt and take care of three orphan girls. Now, even with a house full of lovable yellow minions, Gru needs help. His jelly and jam business isn’t doing so hot. So, when the Anti Villain League (with sexy-klutzy agent Wiig) asks for help, Gru jumps at the chance. Perhaps he’s too busy to notice his little, yellow, pill-shaped pals are disappearing. Perhaps, Gru also doesn’t know love is right there, in his beaky face.

For a long time, Universal Pictures was way behind Pixar in animation. The studio still keeps things more broad and geometric-simpler-but they’re definitely catching up. They also know they have some magic in the minions, because so much of the entertainment focuses on them.

Perhaps this isn’t the deepest story, and there are a lot of comical tangents. The good news is that Despicable Me 2 is always fun and surprising. The jokes land, and the action zips along with a zany sense of the absurd.