Wednesday, October 22, 2014 THE KERSHAW NEWS-ERA Page 7

By Joseph Garris JrEntertainment Editor

Chloe Grace Moretz does anadmirable job with her performancein If I Stay, but the film is a col-lection of sappy romance clichesand isn’t bold enough to stray awayfrom the same old teenage romanceroutine.

Moretz improves every time wesee her on the big screen. She’scharming and hits the emotionalmoments with the precision of aseasoned pro. It really helps over-look what is otherwise a fairly ordi-nary movie. The casting of JamieBlakeley turns out to be a goodone, since an authentic chemistryis built right from the start.Unfortunately, it isn’t enough tomake the film worth viewing ifyou aren’t already a huge sucker formelodramatic teenage love.

Moretz stars as Mia, an aspiringcellist that spends much of themovie’s runtime confined to a hos-pital bed and in a coma. Along withher parents Denny and Kat (JoshuaLeonard and Mireille Enos) and lit-tle brother Teddy (Jacob Davies),Mia is seriously injured in a caraccident on a wintry night.

Through an out of body experi-ence, Mia spends her time trying todecide whether she wants to keepfighting or slip away. She has a bigopportunity to attend Julliard,assuming she is accepted after agood audition. Then there’s her yearand a half relationship with Adam(Blackley) who has a successful

thing going as the lead singer of arock band.

Mia isn’t sure if Adam trulyloves her and fears that attendingJulliard could cause a wider rift intheir sometimes long-distance rela-tionship. She battles thosethoughts with concerns about whather life will be like now that theaccident has lead to the death ofsome of those closest to her.

Director R.J. Cutler takes aninteresting approach with the film.If I Stay shifts back and forthbetween present day and flashbacks,attempting to build depth within

Mia’s relationships with everyonein her life. Although it isn’t diffi-cult to follow, it does disrupt theflow of the movie.

Like every other teen love story,the movie is targeted for thoseyoung girls that are thirsting for afirst love and first loss romance. Asexpected, every genre cliche and for-mulaic narrative are featured, oneafter another. Viewers won’t find asingle surprise along the way.

The good news for anyone thatcringes at the genre, the typicallybad and painful dialogue (Anti-Twilight folks will understand)isn’t nearly as distracting with thisone. The reason is that the charac-ters are mostly good and their inter-actions seem legitimate.

If I Stay doesn’t hit the emotion-al marks that it sets out to. Few ofthe moments intended to tug at theheartstrings work effectivelyenough. Most likely, it’s the fre-quent flashbacks that damage thataspect of the movie.

The relationship between Miaand Adam doesn’t get serious untilnearly an hour into the movie.That’s fine if the build-up is a nat-ural one but it isn’t with this one.Once the relationship gets deep, thestory doesn’t delve into the longdistance struggle very much, whichwas a mistake.

Moretz really sells the moviewith her inspired performance. Thefilm is exactly what you mightexpect it to be, but the truth is thatyou could probably do a lot worsefor a night out at the cinema.

If I Stay is exactly what you would expect

If I Stay

DIRECTOR:R.J. Cutler

CAST: Chloe Grace Moretz,Jamie Blakeley, JoshuaLeonard, Mireille Enos

RUNNING TIME:1 hr, 46 mins

RATING: PG-13 for thematicelements and some sexual

material.

GRADE: C+

Answers: 1.A, 2.B, 3.D 4.C

WHATTA YAKNOW? MMMOOO VVV IIIEEE TTRIVIARIVIA

1. The tough taxi driver and former special forcesmajor Korben Dallas protects red-headed Leelooagainst Zorg and the Mangalores in order to ensurethe safety of planet Earth.A. The Fifth ElementB. Five Easy PiecesC. Babylon 5: In the BeginningD. 5 Fingers

2. Here Cole Sear is a small boy who can see dead peo-ple. Luckily, psychiatrist Dr. Malcolm Crowe is thereto help Cole overcome his fears.A. Six Days Seven NightsB. The Sixth SenseC. The 6th Day

D. Six Degrees of Separation3. This movie is about a young rapper called Jimmy'B-Rabbit' Smith who tries - against all odds - tobecome a successful performer in the rap music genre.A. 8 SecondsB. Eight Men OutC. Eight Crazy NightsD. 8 Mile

4. This movie brings us Moses who comes down fromMount Sinai, bearing two tablets of stone.A. How to Lose a Guy in 10 DaysB. The Whole Ten YardsC. The Ten CommandmentsD. 10 Things I Hate About You

Name the Movie

Dolphin Tale 2Thursday - 7:00Friday - 7:00, 9:00

The GiverThursday - 7:00

When The Game Stands TallWednesday, Thursday - 7:00

Let’s Be CopsWednesday, Thursday - 7:10

As Above, So Below 2:30, 5:05, 7:40, 10:05

Dolphin Tale 21:20, 4:10, 7:00, 9:40

Guardians of the Galaxy1:25, 4:15, 7:05, 9:55

If I Stay2:20, 5:00, 7:35, 10:15

No Good Deed1:30, 4:20, 7:20, 10:20

By Joseph Garris Jr.Entertainment Editor

While certainly a likable movie, TheBoxtrolls doesn’t do much to earn itself addi-tional viewings. It’s not very memorable,and the moments that are intended to gener-ate a laugh or two fall completely flat.

The story is a bit darker than you mightexpect for a kids’ flick. There are a fewmoments that might be a scary for theyoungest audience members but nothing tooextreme. As a stop motion animationmovie, the film really does well with thevisual aspects. A pretty strange world is cre-ated in this film from Laika studios, thecompany notable for movies like Coralineand Paranorman.

It’s a movie that, despite frequent mis-steps, deserves appreciation for the crafts-manship that flawlessly blends computer-aided animation and traditional stop motion.There’s plenty of detail to enjoy, whichmight be the only aspect that adult viewerswill find interesting.

The film takes place in an English vil-lage where townspeople live their lives infear of creatures living underneath the citystreets known as boxtrolls. They have beenled to believe that these creatures steal babiesand serve as a menace to their society.

In actuality, the boxtrolls are completelyharmless, living inside of boxes and namedby whatever the box they wear once held.They adopt an orphaned boy, Eggs (voicedbyIsaacHempsteadWright) and raise him in

their colony. Eggs grows up to believe he isactually a boxtroll until he meets Winnie(voiced by Elle Fanning) who explains tohim otherwise.

Above ground, exterminator ArchibaldSnatcher (voiced by Ben Kingsley) has anevil plan to force his way into the village’swhite hat society by convincing Winnie’sfather, Lord Portley-Rind (voiced by JaredHarris) that he can rid the town of boxtrolls.Eggs learns of the plan and tries to rally hiscomrades to flee the area.

With Winnie’s help, Eggs tries to thwartSnatcher’s plan and expose him to the vil-

lage for his evil plot. The Boxtrolls feels like a vision of Tim

Burton. The outlandish story and wild char-acters are given plenty of meticulous detail.The movie puts great focus on developingthese characters and from that standpoint, itreally thrives.

Unfortunately, not nearly enough atten-tion is given to creating memorable humor.There are some elements that will generate alaugh from young viewers, but adults willhave a hard time finding anything trulyfunny.

While a great deal of effort was spent cre-ating and developing these characters, it’ssur-prising that none of them earned an emotion-al attachment.

The idea is to make the charactersadorable in the same way the minions werein both Despicable Me films. Sure, they’relikablebut there’s nothing especially lovableabout them and thus, they’re easily forgot-ten.

The film is chocked full of interestingthemes, many of which are designed for theadult viewer. The socioeconomic portionsare an attempt to give parents something toenjoy,and many will probably appreciate thelevel of depth in the narrative. It’s a stretch tobelieve, though, that adults wouldn’t haverather had something to laugh at instead.

The Boxtrolls is unique, and Laikadeserves credit for going out and producingmaterial that no other studio has had the gutsto do. The film simply isn’tgood enough toappeal to a wide enough audience.

The BoxtrollsDirector:

Anthony Stacchi, GrahamAnnable

Cast: Ben Kingsley, ElleFanning, Isaac Hempstead

Wright

Runtime:1 hr, 40 mins

Rating: PG for action, someperil and mild rude humor

Grade: C

The GiverThursday - 7:00

The Boxtrolls Thursday - 7:00

The BoxtrollsWednesday, Thursday - 7:10

Gone GirlNightly - 7:00

Addicted1:50, 4:40, 7:40, 10:10

Alexander and the Terrible,Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:45, 9:50

Annabelle1:25, 5:20, 7:55, 10:25

Fury1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 10:30

Gone Girl1:00, 3:50, 7:10, 10:20

The Best of Me1:20, 2:00, 4:15, 5:00, 7:20, 7:50, 10:05, 10:35

Unique Boxtrolls is missing the big laughs

With last weeks’ DC Comics news, fans ofDC all responded in unison, “it’s about dawg gon’time.”

Following an investors’ meeting with WarnerBros., it was reported that ten, yes ten, DC Comics’movies will be released beginning in 2016 and carry-ing on until 2020. This is music to the ears of DCfans, which have long lamented over DC being han-dled at the box office by much more successful Marvelfilms.

Early indications are that at least two DC

adaptations will be released each year until 2020, withthe first being the much-anticipated Batman vs.Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016. Also expected forthat year is a super villain movie titled Suicide Squad.

Beyond that, other popular DC figures head-ing to the big screen are Wonder Woman, The Flash,Aquaman, Cyborg, and an improved reboot for GreenLatern. Thrown into the mix during the four year spanwill be two Justice League films.

The news is sure to get DC fans hyped forsome big budget films coming up soon.

WO R D O N T H E ST R E E T. . .