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    Sequels, Reboots, Blues and Trains at the Movies

    Sequels and reboots giving you the blues? Well, you have something in common with this weekend’s releases – sequels (to Trainspotting), reboots (Power Rangers and CHiPs) and the blues (2 Trains Runnin’). Plus, trains. There are also some intriguing horror flicks screening at Gateway, and another doc on Scientology that proves the religion is just endlessly fascinating.

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    T2 Trainspotting

    Choose life. Choose a movie. Choose a sequel, a prequel, a reboot, a franchise. Choose a revival. Choose familiarity. Choose nostalgia.

    T2 takes place 20 years after Mark Renton steals £16,000 of communal drug sale profits from his friends and splits. He experiences a minor coronary episode which serves as the catalyst for a midlife crisis. And, because the plot demands it, he’s drawn back home to Edinburgh-to a bunch of people who feel that, to some degree or another, he ruined their lives.

    In the original movie, Simon “Sickboy” Williamson states his theory of life, “Well, at one point you’ve got it. Then you lose it.” T2 isn’t bad. But it’s not great either. It’s lost some of the magic that the first movie had. But then it’s probably supposed to have.

    It’s a movie about middle age. About looking back at who you were in your twenties and assessing what you’ve done or haven’t. Set against the backdrop of a gentrifying Edinburgh, we are presented with a familiar plot. Scenes from the first movie are rehashed. Renton delivers a new “Choose Life” monologue to a bored 20-year-old, which largely pans internet culture, shrilly condemning the choices of a stereotypical member of the younger generation in the same way he condemned the spirit-crushing lifestyle of clichéd older folks 20 years before.

    Sure, it’s delightful to see all the cast members together again (Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Ewen Bremner and Johnny Lee Miller) under the helm of original Trainspotting director Danny. But the enjoyment is not unlike seeing a fading star in concert, or asking for a tour of your childhood home, or meeting your up with an old flame for a drink.

    It’s nice for a bit, but maybe not quite as good as in the old days.

    Grade: C-

    2 Trains Runnin’

    Screening this weekend only at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Filmmaker Samuel D. Pollard will be in attendance on Saturday, March 25.

    Why would two different sets of white college boys head into the deep South in the summer of 1964 and go searching for long lost bluesmen?

    “We were either brave, stupid, or uninformed.”

    Two Trains Runnin’, director Samuel D. Pollard’s engrossing documentary on the convergence of separate journeys, shows them to be all three.

    In June of ’64, the boys were privileged enough to be unaware of the Mississippi Summer Project, which aimed to bring voter registration to as many African-American Mississippians as possible. Like historical embodiments of Steve Buscemi’s music nerd in Ghost World, they were all obsessed with Delta blues, and most specifically, with two legends of the genre who had all but disappeared.

    The boys were drawn to these performers through powerful expressions of both the “source and cure” of a torment light years away from their postwar suburbia. Outside the comforts of home, they found the raging racial torment of beatings, bombings, and murder, with a view that they themselves were just more outsiders coming to “give the vote to the blacks.” It is on this point that Pollard makes his subtle pivot, and the film strengthens the current of shared humanity running through it.

    Featuring graceful narration from Common and contemporary Delta blues performances by Valerie June, Gary Clark, Jr., Lucinda Williams and others, Pollard has crafted a rousing bookend to Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman’s 2009 documentary Soundtrack for a Revolution. The music is the message and the message is the music, and Two Trains Runnin’ becomes both a sober reminder that the fight continues, and an uplifting ode to fight on.

    Grade: A-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvjHLxliFAg

    The Devil’s Candy

    Hard rock music makes for both an evocative soundtrack and theme for horror. Writer/director Sean Byrne recognizes this ripe musical landscape. He returns to the genre after too long an absence (after 2009’s wildly brilliant The Loved Ones – see it!) with his own head banging horror show – The Devil’s Candy.

    While Candy can’t match the unhinged lunacy of Byrne’s previous classic, his skill with a story, a camera and a cast are still evident.

    Ethan Embry plays Jesse Hellman, struggling metalhead painter who, with his wife and pre-teen daughter, just bought a bargain of a house out in the Texas sticks. Why so cheap? Amityville shit.

    Too many movies follow a young family into the damned home of their dreams, generating tension with either the fear that one family member will turn on another, or that the parents cannot keep their child safe. Or both.

    Byrne almost makes up for that flaw with well-crafted characters, excellent on-screen chemistry among his performers, and a genuine love of metal.

    He’s also blessed with a lead in Embry whose caring and vulnerability shine through his tough looking exterior. Pruitt Taylor Vince is another reliable (if typecast) actor, easily generating sympathy and terror in equal measure.

    Grade: B-

    The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

    Let us put an end to our petty squabbling and share a delicious warm donut, for Power Rangers is here to confirm what we long imagined: the key to saving the world lies in defending your local Krispy Kreme.

    It’s true, and as long as this reboot taps into that Saturday morning vibe and Elizabeth Banks yells gems like “”Push them into the pit!” there’s some over the top fun to be had. Getting there, though, is damn near insufferable.

    For an origin story, we get stitched-together remnants of better movies (Breakfast Club, Spiderman, 127 Hours, Breakfast Club again) and warmed over teen angst. The five young heroes are diverse in personality, ethnicity and lifestyle, and John Gatins’s script wields these cliches like a pandering Hulk smash.

    It’s just a shame our new Rangers can’t morph until they “really get to know each other.”

    What to do?

    What if…we cue the strings and take turns telling each how nobody “gets me” and how awful it is to be a great looking teenager! Then we can be mighty! Yep, mighty lame.

    Just when you’re wondering why Bill Hader’s voice and Bryan Cranston’s face are in this farce, here comes Banks as Rita Repulsa (nice!), a gold-eating, scenery-chewing villain from space! Once Rita starts destroying the Earth, Banks starts saving the film, and director Dean Israelite (Project Almanac) finds the throwback groove we’ve been waiting on for over an hour.

    Grade: C-

    My Scientology Movie

    There is just something about this cross-breed of spirituality, celebrity, science and greed that makes Scientology immediately intriguing.

    Documentarian Louis Theroux has a 20-year career with BBC defined by enmeshing himself with fringe populations from neo-Nazis to the Westboro Baptist Church and others. It is his uncanny charm and low-key curiosity that help him endear himself to his subjects and his audience.

    The obstacle to any documentary on Scientology is access. You can’t get in. And there is a limit to the number of speculative outsider-looking-in docs that can be considered worthwhile.

    What makes Theroux’s avenue into the story interesting is that he uses his lack of access to gain access, because one of Scientology’s curious customs is to combat any perceived threat of investigation. Paranoia is baked into their business model.

    They send people out to follow, film and generally harass folks like Louis.

    A good portion of Theroux and director Rob Alter’s doc captures the sound stage recreation of incidents – primarily those alleged abuses that have dogged Scientology leader David Miscavige. Theroux also interviews former church members, including one-time high-ranker Marty Rathburn.

    So far, so ordinary.

    But Theroux’s aim is to flush out the active Scientologists and document their behavior.

    A lot can be gleaned from that behavior, and from Theroux’s more balanced investigation into the former church members who participate in his documentary.

    Grade: B-

    Also opening in Columbus:

    • Bluebeard (NR)
    • CHiPs (R)
    • Life (R)
    • The Last Word (R)
    • Vince Giordano: There’s A Future I the Past (NR)
    • Wilson (R)
    • Wolves (R)

    Reviews with help from George Wolf and Christie Robb.

    Read more from Hope at MADDWOLF and listen to her bi-weekly horror movie podcast, FRIGHT CLUB.

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    Hope Madden
    Hope Maddenhttps://columbusunderground.com
    Hope Madden is a freelance contributor on Columbus Underground who covers the independent film scene, writes film reviews and previews film events.
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