S I went to the movies the last two weekends which is a lot for me. We saw Pacific Rim opening weekend and as stated, short on plot but fun, fun, fun. IMAX 3D was definitely the way to go. Then went to see Man of Steel this past weekend. At first, I wasn't sure I liked the way the story was being told, weaving past and present, but it ended up working. A bit long-- they could have edited down some of the fight scenes, but enjoyable overall.
The Croods. Cute, straightforward animated feature. The Girlfriend and I really liked it. It was strikingly beautiful, it reminded me of Avatar. Worth the time if you can't agree on anything else.
This. One of the best horror flicks I've seen recently. The sense of dread and tension was cranked to a 10, and it takes a lot for me to feel uneasy by a horror movie but James Wan knows how to capture those moments. I think this is his best movie so far.
Dracula Although I thought this was going to hopefully be a comeback film for my favourite horror director, this version possibly his clumsiest-- and worst-- film. Dario Argento just plain shit the bed here. It has cheap-ass Stereoscopic 3D effects, a blonde Dracula who dresses like Neo (and annoyingly hisses constanly, which I have always fucking hated), and because it's an Italian film many of the actors (aside from Rutger Hauer who phones it in as Van Helsing) are dubbed. Now, for those of you who like to bitch about subtitles, dubbing is ten times worse. Instead of any emotion, actors mouth something and hollow words speaking laughable lost-in-translation dialogue that don't match up with the lip movements happen. It's ridiculous. And I know how liberated Italians are, and I LOVE Asia Argento, but there is something off about how she jumps all over doing full-frontal nudity in movies directed by her father. A mess, even for aficionados of Stoker's book. 2/10
Elysium I thought the premise for this movie was great, but it didn't quite deliver. The drama, the action, the characters arcs - everything about it was generic, and it didn't have the action to make up for it. The constant camera shaking and switching to slow motion takes you out of the scenes. They didn't provide much background for the politics that got us to the story other than that Earth is now a shit hole and the rich have vacated to a paradise hovering in outer space. My issue here was that the movie tries to address class struggles, and health care as being exclusive for the rich, but takes no interest in laying the framework. Instead, the movie just tells you that rich people are evil cunts and we're supposed to except as a prevalent fact to explain everything behind their motivations. Also, while I enjoy seeing science fiction take some liberties with futuristic technology it makes me roll my eyes when technology is so far fetched it practically becomes magic. Spoiler The med-machines can apparently not only instantly cure every disease known to mankind, they can rebuild an entire human body in mere seconds. How does this even approach possible? The movie's main antagonist gets half his head blown off by a grenade (apparently his brain isn't damaged?) and has it regrown almost instantly. The "I know why the hippo did it" line at the end was so cheesy I almost threw up. That being said, I didn't actually get bored while watching the movie. It really was a cool premise, the direction was just sloppy. 5/10
I enjoyed Elysium well enough, but for me it wasn't the tech that was a major detractor. It was Jodie Foster. She is just godawfully bad in this movie, the worst I have ever seen her. Horrible. Luckily she's not in a lot of scenes overall.
V/H/S/2 When I recommended the first film to people I got a largely positive feedback. This sudden sequel breaks to norms of horror movies and is even better than the first, with much of the perverse voyeuristic tone removed. It's shorter, meaner, with lots of jump-out-of-the-dark heart attack scares and is sickly gruesome. The best of the five is called Safe Haven where a film crew visit an Indonesian cult where during the visit they bring out hell on earth. This segment is one ghastly set piece after another that gets sicker as it rolls along. I remember the concluding scene of this segment is the first time in my adult life I ever stood up and shouted at the TV screen. Any of the five "tapes"--once they get going-- put the pedal to the metal until the final frame. If you actually get scared by movies, this is as good as it gets. Far removed from the Paranormal Activity-style teases where you get two mintues of payoff after ninety minutes of staring at an empty room, this film never lets up. My vote for the best horror movie of the last ten years. 9/10
elysium Meh. Yeah, Foster was disappointing. She just seemed to dial it in. And there was certainly no subtlety with the immigration and universal healthcare metaphors. A Netflix or cable watch.
Fruitvale Station Story of Oscar Grant a young African-American from Oakland who was killed by police officers in an altercation on a BART station I believe new years 2011? (forgot the date) - The movie starts off with footage from the actual shooting and is set the few days leading up to that evening. The lead actor who plays Grant is originally from the wire and absolutely nails the lingo and mannerisms of guys who are from that area, the story is tragic the acting very good and not overtly moralistic or dramatic but still helps you relate to Oscar and his family the movie was also I think only about 85-90 minutes, which is a nice change. I highly recommend checking it out Blue Jasmine Woody Allen flick starring Cate Blanchett and co-starring way too many other name actors to mention (including the always great Alec Baldwin) Movie sways back and forth from New York ( in flashbacks) and San Francisco in the present. I am not sure if Blanchett has ever had a drinking problem in the past but she is fantastic in this movie playing someone with depression, anxiety and alcoholism but the performance is excellent and makes you wonder if its almost something real, the other supporting actors like Louis C.K and the guy who played Aramis son in Three muskateers (forgot his name) are great as well and was fortunate to see both these flicks recently
AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS Hey, do you like Mumford and Sons? Well then here's a movie for you! I don't know. Just overall boring. There was no real escalation. The stakes were the same throughout the entire movie. Good performances, but not worth watching in my opinion. 4/10
The Worlds End Same guys that did Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz did this one as well. It starts out with a guy who never grew up after high school getting all his old buddies together to go back to their hometown to complete an epic bar crawl. Shit spirals out of control and it turns into a sci-fi / action comedy very quickly. I really liked this movie. It was really, really funny and well written. The ending was a little strange, but it was clearly done on purpose. Not quite as good as Shaun of the Dead, but it's still worth checking out. 8.5 / 10
Rush As a Formula one fan and as someone old enough to have remembered the 1976 season, I enjoyed this movie very much. Both of the main characters were portrayed honestly warts and all. My son who was not alive in 1976 and had a minimal knowledge of the film going in also enjoyed it. If you are a auto racing fan, this is a must see. I cannot say for others as I am a fan.
Gravity Sandra Bullock and George Clooney get stranded in space after the shuttle is destroyed by space debris. I don't want to give anything away but the plot is completely engaging (it's not "Open Water" in space, don't worry) and the visuals are gorgeous. Bullock will probably get an Academy Award nomination/win for her role. It's a two-hour running time, but it flies by. I didn't check my watch once. A solid 9/10.
RUSH Richie Cunningham does it again. Gets my vote for the film of the year. You don't have to be into Formula 1 racing to enjoy this film. It is simply a damn good story well made with some great effects that add rather than detract/distract. I might even go and see it again. Niki Lauda must have a gigantic set of balls on him. (see the film and you will understand).
Over the last month I spent some 40+ hours on intercontinental flights so had the opportunity to catch some of the Hollywood schlock I would normally avoid, so here are a few quick reviews: After Earth: Get fucked, just get fucked. I think Will Smith missed a couple of classes on evolution. Also if the kid had a shotgun rather than the stupid fucking sword thing things might have gone a lot more easily for him. World War Z: Pointless, stupid, didn’t bother to pause while ordering more free miniature bottles of wine and snackies. Iron Man 3: Wasn’t totally shit, at least the bits I saw before I fell asleep. New Superman: Boom, crash, wooden performance, ok. Pacific Rim: Fun. In the same kind of way that playing catch with a Down’s Syndrome 10 yearold is fun, if you dislike retards, and catch. (So the fucking giant bots have, guns, swords, plasma weapons etc that can kill the beasts but they only bring them out at the end after they have suffered a tidy ass kicking, fucks sake) Lone Ranger: Lasted 5 minutes, decided to try Die Hard. Die Hard #Who Cares: I dunno, lost interest after 10 minutes and decided to abuse scotch and read a book. This is as far as I got with movies before giving up, they were all just so fucking bad. And not just bad but stupid.
Gravity Astonishing, especially when seen in a theatre with the new Dolby Atmos sound. The only thing that would have made this movie better would have been Sandra Bullock wearing a thong instead. But seriously, very gripping and extremely well done.
Escape Sly and The Governor team up for another throwback 80's action film and it kind of....works? I was actually suprised, has all the requisite bad puns and one liners, worth the 5 dollar ticket to kill some time this afternoon. Just don't try and make the plot work and you should enjoy it if you're into these kinds of flicks. 65/100
The Counselor I am a huge McCarthy fan so I was quite excited to see a new screen play of his being put onto the big screen. Well, this one wasn't quite a disappointment, but it comes no where near the brilliance of No Country For Old Men. Most of the speeches and dialogue in the movie were original and interesting, much more so than what is normally put into theaters. The Counselor has the same themes as NCFOM, but a very different feel to it. For one, the movie actually had a touch of humor to it. People often call McCarthy a genius, but what they forget to mention is that he's also kind of weird, and it definitely shows up in the odd humor in this movie (specifically Cameron Diaz's character). For a McCarthy story this one was actually quite low in violence. There's a few moments, but not as much as you might expect. The opening and closing scenes both felt really awkward, but other than that I don't have too many complaints. All of the actors were great in their roles, and I didn't get bored throughout. I think part of the reason this wasn't quite as good as some of McCarthy's other work is that there are 2 prominent female roles and McCarthy really struggles to write women, and there's a few aspects of Diaz's character that will remind the audience of this. So in summation this wasn't a great or brilliant movie, but I still think it was better than 95% of the crap that gets put on the big screen. All the negative reviews have me wondering if people really do prefer watching the same rehashed shit over and over. I have no idea how steaming piles of shit get rave reviews, and the critics seem to have hated this movie. 8/10. I really hope Blood Meridian eventually finds its way out of developmental hell and gets adapted. It would be an extremely difficult film to make, but if done right it would be amazing.
The Wolverine Total shit - 2/10 The Worlds End Not as good as Shawn of The Dead but still pretty damn funny - 8/10 2 Guns Watch Marky Mark and Denzel take the paycheck and laugh all the way to the bank, 3 funny scenes followed by standard action dreck. - 4/10
This is the End Considering the talent involved, I was pleasantly surprised to see this film had a modest thirty mill budget. It's also tons of fun, with character actor Craig Robinson stealing every scene from his a-list stars with epic-one liners and perfect comic timing. The masturbation debate between McBride and Franco is one of the funniest scenes in movie history. Not much for story, but why carp? Wonderous cameo in cannibal convoy to boot. 8/10