Laggies (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Slacker Megan (Keira Knightley) works part-time for her doting dad as a human billboard despite being a university graduate. She has been living with high school sweetheart Anthony (Mark Webber) but like her life, her relationship with him isn't going anywhere.

One day, Anthony proposes to her. Thrown for a loop by this unexpected development (as well as seeing her dad make out with another woman), she ends up hiding from Anthony and her friends. She crashes with Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz) - a teenage girl that she had just met - to get away from her regular life and get her head together.

Annika's single dad Craig (Sam Rockwell) is exasperated by his uninvited guest but soon grows to enjoy the company of the free-spirited Megan. A week passes and Megan has to return to Anthony and her regular life.

***

Laggies is Reality Bites meets Lost in Translation, a movie for today's directionless millenials who are drifting in their career and personal life. Despite its roster of mainstream stars, Laggies is an indie film from indie director Lynn Shelton (it premiered at Sundance 2014) and freshman writer Andrea Seigel.

The movie's trailer highlights the comedic bits, and emphasizes Keira Knightley's scenes with Chloe Grace Moretz and Sam Rockwell. But this is more a light drama with Keira Knightley front and center - Moretz, like Sam Rockwell, plays a supporting character.

And it works, though in an art-film kind of way. We enjoy the journey as we watch Megan bumble through her life and has minor misadventures. But this is the extreme show-don't-tell storytelling technique of Lost in Translation - effective if you're a movie buff, but which will cause the general public to complain, But nothing happens!

An interesting pattern is beginning to emerge from Keira Knigtley's movie choices. Laggies has the same feel (though very different plot) from Begin Again and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. It's a combination of light romance, light drama and light comedy. All done in a simple, intimate, upper middle-class setting.

Laggies seems to the kind of movie that Keira Knightley makes for fun, in between paycheck blockbusters such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. I'm still not big fan of hers, but considering her track record in choosing scripts, I'll be looking out for her movies.

John Wick (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Retired hit-man John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is grieving the loss of his wife when he meets Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen - Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones) at a gas station.

Iosef is the spoiled good-for-nothing son of Russian mobster Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist). He wants to buy Wick's Mustang sports car but Wick turns him down. Iosef and his men break into Wick's house, beat him up, kill his dog (a present from his wife), and steal the car.

Iosef doesn't know who Wick is, but his father Viggo does. Wick used to work for Viggo and was his deadliest killer. Viggo knows a shit storm is going to descend on him and his son when Wick comes looking for vengeance. He puts out an open contract on Wick and personally invites Marcus (Willem Dafoe), one of Wicks' friends, to join in the hunt.

***

If Luc Besson, Joss Whedon and Quentin Tarantino made a movie together, what would it look like? It would look like John Wick. This is the movie that Luc Besson tried, and failed, to make with Colombiana.

John Wick is a fantastic, violent, revenge movie that combines the convincing world-building of Luc Besson, the quirky characters (who behave in unexpected but believable ways, especially the bad guys) of Joss Whedon, and the ultra-violence of Tarantino (body-count is 50 to 100):

• There's a posh hotel that caters to criminals. Where no killing is allowed - a demilitarized zone for killers, enforced by the hotel's own assassins.
• Viggo Tarasov telephones a car chop-shop owner and asks him why he hit his son. Because he stole John Wick's car and killed his dog, is the reply. Viggo says Oh, and puts down the phone. This is the kind of creative writing and bad-guy character development that Joss Whedon would be proud of.
• There's an extended series of individual fight in a nightclub/hotel where John Wick single-handedly takes out tens of bad guys. It's like the monster fight scene in Kill Bill Part 1.

John Wick gets a stupendous 9.1/10 viewer rating on IMDB and a 92% critics average on Rotten Tomatoes.

It's written by Derek Kolstad. Derek who? Derek who has written two previous movies: The Package (a Steve Austin and Dolph Lundgren B movie), and One in the Chamber (another Dolph Lundgren B movie with can-you-believe-an-oscar-winner-could-sink-so-low Cuba Gooding Jr.). You know what? I'm feeling like watching B movies right now.

Most revenge movies are just about the action. John Wick manages to create a believable underworld subculture and interesting characters, with short, deft scenes that don't slow down the pacing. And it still manages to out-action most other revenge movies.You want an example of a bad revenge movie? Try The Punisher.

Aside from that, you want a real bad-ass hero. A Rambo that makes you go, Holy cow, who is this guy? John Wick manages to do this by showing Keanu Reeves comprehensively kicking ass.

First-time directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski are experienced stuntmen, with over 70 movie credits each on IMDB. This explains the exceptional fight choreography (IMDB doesn't list a fight choreographer, so the directors must have done it).

John Wick kills 50 to 100 bad guys in the course of the movie and each kill is unique, with some interesting stylistic twist. Unlike Hong Kong movies, the fights don't seem too long because they are beautifully thought out and don't become repetitive.

The Thais (e.g. Ong Bak), Indonesians (e.g. The Raid: Redemption), Koreans (Old Dog? Overrated) and Chinese (including John Woo) do not have this level of moviemaking skill.

With all this, you don't need Keanu Reeves. But guess what? You do have him. And what a Keanu Reeves he is. This is a grittier Constantine, even angrier and more humorless. I'm a huge Keanu Reeves fan and this is one of his best performances. (I do not know why people like to criticize his acting.)

You want more reasons to watch?

• Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria is one of the producers.
• Mila Kunis lookalike Adrianne Palicki has a small role, as a feisty assassin that Joss Whedon would have been proud to have created.
• Keanu Reeves shoots a really bad-ass Kel-Tec KSG 12-gauge shotgun.
• Cinematography by Jonathan Sela (Max Payne, A Good Day to Die Hard). Lighting is good but not exceptional, but that's only because today's standards are so high. 
• Theon Greyjoy gets slapped around and killed. 

Black and White: The Dawn of Justice (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Hotshot police detective Wu Ying-Hsiung (Mark Chao) is on the trail of a mysterious group of terrorists who are blowing up bridges and trains in Harbour City. He "meets cute" with Chen Zhen (Lin Gengxin), a suave detective from another police precinct. Despite their constant bickering, the two are thrown together by circumstances and race to prevent further bombings.

The terrorists turn out to be a doomsday cult. They plan to isolate Harbour City by bombing its transportation links to the rest of the country, then zap it back to the stone age with stolen EMP (electro magnetic pulse) missiles, and a virus bio-weapon. The plan is to start a renaissance from the ashes of the ruined city.

***

This is a sequel to 2012's Black and White Episode 1: The Dawn of Assault, as well as a prequel to the 2009 TV series Black and White. I haven't watched the earlier movie or the TV series, so I won't be making any comparisons with them.

Dawn of Justice starts of quite well. It's slam-bang action from the start, with a humorous "meet cute" between the two male leads, worthy of 48 Hours or Lethal Weapon. Yes, this is a buddy-buddy cop movie, or at least it tries to be.

Unfortunately the humor and fast pacing doesn't last long and we are soon left with a rather generic terrorist plot, generic bad guys, generic cops and melodramatic hostage situations. I watched the movie a week ago and I seriously cannot remember much about the plot.

There is a lot of fighting - with guns, fists and feet. But it's the standard Hong Kong overkill and you start feeling numb to all the action after a while. The wall-to-wall fighting is especially thick towards the end.

It's nowhere close to the quality of something like Heat, Collateral or Miami Vice. Look at the gunfights in those three Michael Mann movies. There's a sense of drama and realism. Even if you don't know exactly what is going on, you get the feeling that at least one side knows what they are doing and are shooting purposefully.

Say what you will about Hollywood. At least there are many Hollywood movies that try for a new angle on the cops/terrorist genre. They don't always work out, but some do.

In contrast, the Chinese writers and directors are too often going through the motions. Thinking that they can get away with weak plots and unimaginative fights. That audiences will be dazzled and entertained by shallow flash and action.

Chinese moviemakers are simply not trying hard enough. I'm not a John Woo fan, I think he's overrated. But at least he cared about what he was doing.

So yeah, I have lots of gripes. But this one stands out: GPS doesn't work in tunnels. Okay one more - the bomb vest that blew up the police station is too small to have caused that much damage. That's car bomb territory - thousands of pounds of high explosives. And don't get me started on the EMP.

The Judge (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Hotshot defense lawyer Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) returns to his small hometown for his mother's funeral.

He hasn't been home for years because he can't get along with his father Joseph (Robert Duvall) who is a judge there. Hank had crashed a car when he was in school, injuring older brother Glen's (Vincent D'Onofrio, strangely looking like Brian Dennehy) pitching arm and destroying what might have been a promising baseball career. Joseph has never forgiven Hank for his recklessness.

During his few days home, Hank continues to argue with Joseph, but manages to rekindle his friendship with old school sweetheart Samantha Powell (Vera Farmiga).

After the funeral, Joseph is arrested for the hit-and-run murder of a man who had just been released from prison. A man that Joseph had previously sentenced too leniently and had gone on to kill the man's girlfriend.

Hank extends his stay and insists on defending Joseph but Joseph chooses an inexperienced local lawyer instead, thinking that Hank's big-city tactics are dishonest. The local lawyer is no match for prosecutor Dwight Dickham (Billy Bob Thornton) and Joseph is forced to let Hank defend him.

***

The Judge is On Golden Pond meets courtroom drama. It's an engrossing mix that works, with maybe two-thirds family drama and one-third courtroom drama.

The first 30 minutes or so of the movie are all about Hank and his family. It is only after this extended introduction that the courtroom drama kicks in. And even after that, Joseph's legal problems never overshadow Hank's attempts to reconnect with his family and hometown.

There is some detailed and believable legal sparring between Hank and Dwight Dickham, but this serves more to shore up Hank's credentials as a skilled, ruthless lawyer than to serve as the main course.

This means that The Judge is more family drama than courtroom thriller, in spite of what the publicity material might imply.

The script - from Bill Dubuque, writer/director David Dobkin (Jack the Giant Slayer) and Nick Schenk (Gran Torino) - is solid. Despite a 141 minute run time, the movie never feels slow.

The movie has a modern sensibility and avoids cliches. There are few simple resolutions. Father and son do manage to reconcile somewhat, but not fully. Joseph's and Samantha's renewal of their relationship is not fairytale-perfect. It all feels very real.

But the main reason to watch The Judge would be the cast. Robert Downey Jr. is enough for me to want to watch. Robert "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" Duvall too? That moves the needle up to Must Watch. Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton and Vincent D'Onofrio? Icing on the cake.

Not to be forgotten is cinematographer Janusz Kaminski - Spielberg's go-to guy. Today's standards are so high that you don't need a big name like Kaminski to get great lighting. The reason cinematographer stars like him are significant (at least to me) is that they have the clout to choose their projects, ensuring a certain level of quality in the scripts that they do choose.

Allow me to pat myself on the back for noticing something special about the lighting. I didn't know who the cinematographer was until I saw the end credits, but I did notice that the lighting was good. Soft, directional light, raking the actors' face almost parallel to the planes of their face. This gives a 3D modeling effect. It's a subtle effect. Most people won't notice it.

When I saw that it was Kaminski, I went "woo hoo!" because I was right - someone exceptional had lit the movie. You get beautiful lighting that looks natural. Except maybe for the courtroom. It's too dark. Looks good, but a real courtroom would be nice and bright - flat, ugly lighting.

For another recent example of a star cinematographer at work, look at Dwayne Johnson's Hercules. That's Dante Spinotti's work. He has lit five Michael Mann movies. I also noticed something special about the lighting in Hercules before knowing who the cinematographer was - subtle fill light in the shadows, revealing details of the actors' body and clothes.

The Judge is a good movie, getting a 7.8/10 on IMDB. The strange thing is that it only gets a 45% critics' average on Rotten Tomatoes.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Kenshin ("sword heart") Himura (Takeru Satô) is washed up on shore after his failed attempt to save his girlfriend Kaoru Kamiya (Emi Takei). His old swordfighting sensei Seijuro Hiko finds him on the beach and carries him home.

After waking up, Kenshin convinces his old master to teach him the ultimate fighting technique of their style of swordsmanship, in order to defeat evil bad guy Shishio (Tatsuya Fujiwara).

Meanwhile, Shishio has been terrorizing villages along the coast, bombarding them with the cannon on his steel warship. Lacking such modern technology of their own, the government is unable to stop him. Shishio knows that he has the upper hand and pressures the government to arrest and execute Kenshin for his past crimes.

Along the way back to Tokyo, Kenshin has to fight off Aoshi Shinomori (Yûsuke Iseya). In Tokyo Kenshin is quickly arrested by government soldiers. The government pretends to execute Kenshin, but instead uses the fake execution as cover to attack Shishio and his warship. The stage is set for an epic confrontation between Kenshin and his sidekicks, and Shishio and his band of killers. 


***

The Legend Ends is part two of this Rurouni Kenshin sequel. (Part one of the sequel is Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno. The first movie, Rurouni Kenshin, was released in 2012.)

It's a rather disappointing part two. Part one was almost too busy, introducing new characters left and right. But at least it was interesting. Part two is rather staid in comparison, with too much of the run time being taken up by the extended confrontation on Shishio's warship.

The many new and old characters from part one are sidelined and don't get much screen time - the exception being Aoshi and Kenshin's sensei.

The first part of the movie, with Kenshin and his sensei, isn't too bad. There is the usual mumbo jumbo about the spiritual side of fighting (for the real stuff, read Miyamoto Musashi's A Book of Five Rings), but that's not too annoying. We also get to see Kenshin as a child, how he ended up learning swordfighting from Seijuro Hiko, but that's relatively brief.

However, whatever plot there is, isn't convincing. Kenshin's fake execution doesn't seem necessary. It's the kind of gimmick that you would expect to see in a kiddie cartoon. Actually, the government doesn't need Kenshin at all. In the end, their shore-based cannon manage to sink Shishio's warship, making Kenshin's attack on the warship a wasted effort. (You could argue that the government wasn't sure that their cannon would sink the warship, but then why would they act as if Kenshin was their only hope?)

It is doubly a wasted effort because Shishio was going to die from his burn wounds anyway. Which doesn't make sense. The justification is that Shishio can't sweat because of his burns, causing him to overheat. Ummm, he can't spray water on himself? And Shishio's doctor can predict the time of his death, accurate to the minute? And Shishio jumping around and fighting doesn't dramatically shorten his life?

The whole warship scenario also isn't convincing. How did Shishio manage to get his hands on such rare and expensive technology? Where did he get trained sailors from? How about resupplies - fuel and ammunition?

The moviemakers even manage to get the warship details wrong. The cannon barrel walls are too thin, and the shells are loaded in without any propellant (the powder charge in naval guns is a separate package from the explosive shell). Ooh, you think that's too geeky? Wait till you hear that the warship has the all-big-gun design of a post-dreadnought battleship, decades before HMS Dreadnought.

The warship is like a Bond villain's ridiculous lair - magically existing in the middle of nowhere, without drawing attention to itself despite years of construction, tons of raw materials, and thousands of workers.

It's okay if you want to establish some kind of steam punk alternate history - Wild Wild West and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen succeeded in that. But you need to establish it. The Legend Ends simply plonks down a warship and expects us to believe that the bad guy - with no obvious sources of wealth or naval piracy capability - owns it, while the government doesn't have their own.

This isn't nit-picking. Taking too many liberties with common sense, throws the audience out of the story. Like Fox Mulder, we want to believe, but we don't want moviemakers to treat us like fools. 

But more damning is the emphasis on fights over characters. Where is the backstory for the creepily-polite Sojiro? Part one was worth the price of the ticket. Part two is not.

Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Government killer Makoto Shishio (Tatsuya Fujiwara) is betrayed by the government and left to burn to death. He miraculously survives with hideous burns. He swears revenge and starts killing policemen in Kyoto.

A desperate government reaches out to legendary retired swordsman Kenshin Himura in Tokyo. Kenshin at first refuses but Shishio sends his men to Tokyo to kill too. Sickened by this, Kenshin reluctantly goes to Kyoto to find Shishio. He goes alone but his lovable sidekick Sagara Sanosuke (Munetaka Aoki, playing a violent version of Seinfeld's Kramer) and pretty girlfriend Kaoru Kamiya (Emi Takei) follow not far behind.

Along the way, he picks up strays in the form of girl thief Misao Makimachi (Tao Tsuchiya) and a recently-orphaned boy. He also fights with, and loses to, Shishio's boyish and creepily polite henchman Seta Sojiro (Ryunosuke Kamiki), who manages to break Kenshin's sword.

Kenshin must now get a replacement sword from the master swordmaker who made his original sword. He has to fight another one of Shishio's men - Cho (Ryosuke Miura) a punk with bleached blond hair - before heading to Kyoto to foil Shishio's plan to burn Kyoto to the ground.

***

Sequel Kyoto Inferno is superior to 2012's Rurouni Kenshin. Keishi Ohtomo directed both movies, but Kyoto Inferno has a stronger storyline, and probably a bigger budget too. The first movie grossed $100 million worldwide, so Warner Bros. likely budgeted more money for the sequel - $30 million (I can't find numbers for the first movie's budget). It certainly shows. The fight choreography, sets and lighting look better, more cinematic. The first movie looked like a TV production.

The first movie had a haphazard plot, trying to establish Kenshin Himura's origin story and showing how he settled down in Kaoru Kamiya's kendo dojo. Kyoto Inferno has a tighter focus on bad guy Makoto Shishio, fewer subplots that go nowhere.

Kenshin's diversions along the way to Kyoto are interesting and don't feel like filler. The supporting characters - both the strays he picks up, and the bad guys he fights - are nicely and quickly fleshed out and feel like real people.

Takeru Satô's portrayal of the pacifist Kenshin has improved. His aw-shucks goofy demeanor in the first movie did not fit Kenshin's retired killer character. He looks more serious in Kyoto Inferno, more believable.

Some gripes: the opening scene where the Kyoto policemen try to hunt Shishio is a bit ridiculous. They handle their bolt-action rifles like they were submachine guns. Director Keishi Ohtomo was probably influenced by seeing today's special forces storm buildings with their MP-5s. A bolt-action rifle is big, heavy and clumsy. You're not going to run around with one held up to your cheek in firing position, peering down the iron sights. Especially at night.

Okay, that's a military nut's nit-pick. More seriously, Shishio calmly walks away from a fight between his henchman and Kenshin. Okay, he's confident that Kenshin will lose. But isn't he at least a bit interested in watching Kenshin fight? This artificial nonchalance is obviously a dramatic device. Making the audience aware of this, throws them out of the story.

But overall this is an entertaining movie. It's difficult to find something new to say in a samurai movie - they have been done to death. Working within these limitations, Kyoto Inferno doesn't break any new ground, but doesn't drown in cliches either.

Warning: this sequel is a two-parter and ends with a cliffhanger. Part two is The Legend Ends.

Dracula Untold (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Transylvanian prince Vlad (Luke Evans - Fast and Furious 6, Immortals) is bullied by Turkish prince Mehmed (Dominic Cooper - Dino Bambino in Need for Speed) into paying an annual tribute of silver.

Mehmed now ups the tribute to include one thousand and one young boys, including Vlad's own son, to be brought up to become Turkish Janissaries - slave soldiers.

Unable to accept such a demand, Vlad offers himself to the Master Vampire (Charles Dance - Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones) in exchange for a vampire's superhuman power to kill.

Vlad becomes a deadly monster and successfully fights the Turkish army. But he has to resist drinking human blood for three days, or he will be doomed to become a vampire forever. His family is not yet safe - from the Turkish army, and from himself.

***

Dracula Untold puts a superhero spin on the familiar Dracula story. Unfortunately, that's not sufficient to make the story interesting enough to distinguish it from the many Dracula movies that have preceded it. We've already seen too many anti-heroes try to resist the lure of blood - from Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire to Joss Whedon's Angel - for it alone to be enough to hold our interest.

Dracula Untold is a one-trick pony. All it has is Dracula as superhero. Unfortunately the movie doesn't do much with this idea. Just a simple, linear extrapolation. You can guess the ending, and most of the events leading up to it, early on in the movie. 

This is Irish director Gary Shore's first feature. Following the footsteps of the Scott brothers, he started out in TV commercials. This explains why the visuals are good.

However the script and acting (possibly a director's main responsibility) are lacking. The melodramatic script by rookie writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (this is also their first feature) is as subtle as a sledgehammer, all tell and no show.

The script has rough edges. The movie starts off with narration by Vlad's son, but isn't bookended by another narration by him at the end. The epilogue is actually a cliched scene set in today's world, a clumsy attempt to set the stage for a sequel.

Another gripe - Vlad deputizes/creates about 20 vampires from humans, to help him fight the Turks. After killing thousands of soldiers, and presumably drinking their fill of blood, these vampires are still thirsty for Vlad's son's blood?

From a business viewpoint, the movie is an odd duck. It's from industry stalwarts Universal Pictures and Legendary Pictures, and also Michael De Luca Productions (Captain Phillips, Moneyball, The Social Network, Ghost Rider). IMDB estimates the budget as $100 million. So this is a moderately expensive Hollywood movie - not surprising as it is heavily effects-laden.

Yet there are no big stars heading the cast list. While it's easy to scoff at the large salaries drawn by A-list stars, movies like Dracula Untold show how the big stars earn their keep.

Luke Evans doesn't impress as Vlad (even Kit Harrington would have been better), Dominic Cooper is only slightly more interesting as Mehmed, his Turkish opponent. The elegant Sarah Gadon is more watchable, but not by much. The most fun to watch is Charles Dance as the Master Vampire but he doesn't get much screen time.

Casting a major star like Tom Cruise or Keanu Reeves would not have improved the weak script, but their on-screen charisma would have made the movie more palatable. Luke Evans is painfully bland.

On the plus side, there is no noticeable political correctness in the movie. No mention is made of religion, but the Turks are evil, through and through. For an example of political correctness gone wild, watch Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven.

Beauty and the Beast / La belle et la bête (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Failed businessman Le marchand (André Dussollier) is lost in a snowstorm and stumbles into a large ruined castle. Food, drink and jewels mysteriously appear before him. He eats his fill, loads up his horse with the gifts, and prepares to leave. 

On his way out he plucks a rose for his favorite daughter Belle (Léa Seydoux - Midnight in Paris, Blue is the Warmest Color, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol). This enrages his hidden benefactor, the hideous Beast (Vincent Cassel - Brotherhood of the Wolf, Black Swan) because while all the other items were gifts to Le marchand, the rose was not.

To pay for his crime of stealing the rose, the Beast forces Le marchand to be a captive in the castle. Loyal Belle takes his place instead. At first, Belle fears the monstrous-looking beast, but begins to get used to life in the ruined castle. She also has dreams of the castle's past, showing how the Beast - originally a prince - came to be cursed to become a monster.

Belle's debt-ridden brother Maxime (Nicolas Gob) notices the large jewel Belle brought with her on her one visit home. He leads his thuggish creditors to the castle, to loot the place.

***

Beauty and the Beast follows the standard fairytale too closely. In addition, there are cute dogs and two giant stone robots/monsters, but that's not enough to make the story interesting.

French director Christophe Gans has directed only 4 feature films over the past 20 years. But 3 of them - Crying Freeman, Brotherhood of the Wolf, and Silent Hill - have been above-average movies with engaging storylines and gorgeous visuals.

Beauty and the Beast does have beautiful visuals - the enormous ruined castle, the menacing forest. Even Belle's crude backyard garden looks picture-perfect. But the lack of a strong story (from Gans and co-writer Sandra Vo-Anh) is fatal.

Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood was only loosely based on the old fairytale. She built an entirely different story on top of it. Gans should have done the same.

Gans doesn't even bother to explore the ramifications of his unambitious story. The Beast seems to have been made immortal by the spell. Does breaking the spell make him mortal again? Wouldn't that suck? Does the magical healing pool still work? Why not open it up to the public? Imagine the impact.

Lea Seydoux doesn't save the movie. She wears beautiful gowns, but actually looks more attractive in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, and more charming in Midnight in Paris. (Despite having small parts in both movies.) Her character is one-dimensional and her love for the Beast is not developed enough to be believable. Vincent Cassel can't do much either with a weak script and from behind a wall of special effects.

Gans's other, better, movies were violent action/adventure adult entertainment. He should stay away from PG-13 Disney material. Or get Luc Besson to help him with scripts. Maybe both.