Category Archives: Reviews

Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron – The Summer Has Assembled!

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Avengers: Age of Ultron is about our favorite superhero team venturing out on another mission to save the world, in this case, it’s a mechanized creation that that’s highly intelligent, highly resourceful, and highly charismatic. The film is written and directed by the great Joss Wheadon, and stars an all-star cast; Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Cobie Smulders, Anthony Mackie, Hayley Atwell, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård, James Spader, and Samuel L. Jackson. It opened at $187.7 million this weekend.

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Review: Ex Machina – What the Deus!?

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Ex Machina is about a guy who’s working on creating the most advance artificial intelligence out there. He brings in an outsider to “test” his newest creation. The film is written and directed by Alex Garland, you may know him from 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Never Let Me Go.

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Review: Chappie – Johnny 5 for a new generation

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Finally got around to seeing Chappie. After the critics panned it, and those great trailers, and the poor opening weekend, I waited and I waited, and waited…
Chappie is about a robotic police force in South Africa, but one of these robots gains sentience. Throw in a pair of rap/pop artists who play gangsters and Wolverine as the antagonist and that’s what you get.

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Review: Daredevil – no Affleck here…

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Daredevil premiered on Netflix last week. Took me a while to get more than one episode in, but I’m liking it. For those who don’t know, Daredevil is about a blind lawyer named Matt Murdock (played by Charlie Cox) who lives in Hell’s Kitchen in New York. When he’s not practicing law he’s keeping the city safe by beating up bad guys.

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Review: McFarland, USA – Coming in for the win

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McFarland, USA is a sports drama that based on the true story of the McFarland high school cross country team. The team is made up of Mexican-Americans and they’re the underdogs in a more privileged sporting event. The film is directed by Niki Caro and stars Kevin Costner as Jim White, the white coach that brings this Mexican-American team together.

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Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service – tailored suits tailored to good action

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Kingsman: The Secret Service is about a super secret spy group comprised of gentleman whose codenames are that of the Knights of the Roundtable. They’re on a mission to stop Samuel L. Jackson as he lisps his way to mass genocide, throw in slick action sequences and over the top violence with an underdog recruit, and that’s what we have here.

The good; the movie is just fun, it knows what it is and goes with it, meaning, it self references itself and almost winks at the audience. From the opening credits, you know what you’re getting.
The movie is rated R and it really earned a hard R rating. But back to being fun, it’s everything we’ve grown to know about Mark Millar (who wrote the graphic novel the film is based on), he takes a teenage boys’ angst and cathartically channels it through media. Gary “Eggsy” Unwin is recruited by agent Harry Hart to be a Kingsman, Eggsy is the typical teenage male with a chip on his shoulder, but through this training he learns to shot guns and kill the bad guys, what boy doesn’t want that??

Eggsy is played by Taron Egerton, and he does a great job carrying this movie. I’ve never seen Egerton in anything else, to me he’s an unknown, Matthew Vaughn took a gamble casting him in the lead role for this movie, and it paid off.

Harry Hart is played by Colin Firth, a job well done playing the gentleman spy/agent/killer. Mark Strong as a mentor is a nice change of pace, really compliments the who group.

The bad; other than Mark Millar’s creative works being made by the devil spawn that is 20th century fox international distribution management…
There were some bad effects shots. They probably had to trim the budget in certain areas, but it was the small stuff that stuck out. Put aside the over the top violence, I’m talking stuff that you don’t normally take a second glance at, but when done hap-hazardly sticks out. The example that comes to mind is the brick wall in the elevator in to the secret chamber, obvious green screen. And some of the shots when the private plane lands in the mountain headquarters… just odd.

*SPOILERS* Oh and there’s a thing that happens with President Obama in this movie that felt… wrong. I get it that all the world leaders are in on the devious plot, but we should’ve seen some of the others suffering from the same fate. It just didn’t sit with me very well, hahaha, I guess I am patriotic. *END SPOILERS*

I haven’t read the source material, but I was hoping that the movie would be about a group of gentleman secret agents fighting the bad guys in tailored suits, oh well.

Overall, very fun, there hasn’t been a fun secret agent movie in a while. Kingsman does a great job in being meta and calling out that “this isn’t that type of movie,” where villains spout off their entire plan while they have the hero captured. The casting is brilliant. The action is sublime. The suits are tailored.
Oh and there’s a scene at a Kentucky church where things go extremely wrong and agent Hart is in the middle of it, he does something very irredeemable and pays the price. It’s shocking but yet justified, bravo for that.

Kingsman: The Secret Service is a cover to a song we all know, but it’s a great cover.

Review: American Sniper – Legend, the most lethal sniper in U.S. Military history

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American Sniper is a biographical/action film directed by Clint Eastwood and written by Jason Dean Hall. It’s about Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL sniper and his tour in Iraq. The film is based off of the book of the same name.

The good; the movie does a good job of not focusing too much on war, we get enough flashbacks and time away from the middle east to balance out the intensity of fighting a war.

Bradley Cooper does a superb job as Chris Kyle. There’s a scene right at the beginning of the movie where he has to make a decision on who to shoot, Cooper does well in giving us the struggle that goes on inside of him. Then when he’s back home stateside we get the sense of him not belonging in civilian life, how difficult it is for him to adjust.
I believed that Cooper was Kyle throughout the film.

The action sequences are great. They aren’t overly bloody and gratuitous, but they’re appropriate for the horrors that go on in war.

Clint Eastwood knows how to direct conflicted characters, which makes his movies all the more compelling. Our main characters are developed and three dimensional, not these cardboard cut outs that pass for leading roles these days.

The audience at this screening was very well behaved, it was like a Christmas present to myself, everyone was attentive from the moment go until the end (oh the end credits, what a great tribute to Kyle’s life). This is how movies should be viewed in the theatres.

The bad; I’d have to place Sienna Miller here, it was unbelievable that she was pregnant. I found myself not connecting with the scenes she was in when Kyle was back home… maybe that’s the way it was supposed to be though?

Overall, I would go see American Sniper in the theatres. It’s only in limited release at the moment, but once it goes wide in January, go check it out. When they say all war movies are anti-war movies, this is the prime example. What’s more is that when you watch this film you’ll learn about an American Hero and the toll that took on his life.
Excellent film, I enjoyed every moment of it, bravo to Bradley Cooper, I might go as far to say I smell an Oscar nom.

 

Review: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – back again?

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The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is the last installment in The Hobbit trilogy. It starts off where the last “film” left off, Bilbo witnesses Smaug incinerating Laketown while Thorin and his band of dwarves watch from the Lonely Mountain. Stuff happens and armies are amassed to take the treasures from Erebor. Friendships are tested, strengths are tested, skills are tested, computer capacity to render is tested and my interested is tested.

The good; the actors do a great job, Martin Freeman as Bilbo is wonderful, he brings a great humanity to the role. Ian McKellen as Gandalf is perfect, I can’t imagine anyone else for this role.

This film actually has stakes, Thorin’s obsession for the Arkenstone is both believe-able and tragically relate-able. The threat of life ending situations is actually realized in this final film, that’s what was missing from the previous installments.

The bad; the movie is basically battle porn. It’s scene upon scene of armies battling. It’s like a Michael Bay film (not a good thing) set in a fantasy realm. In the first five minutes of the film we get a climactic scene worthy of the third act… where do we go from here? Well, if it was like The Empire Strikes Back we’d focus on the inner character struggles and build up to a third act climax that deals with an emotional show down. Sadly in The Battle of the Five Armies the character stuff gets pushed aside with all the battle scenes upon battle scenes.

No more songs in this movie?? Ahem, lost opportunity.

Overall, catch it on tv or rent it to close the trilogy out.

Also, no talking during the movie.

 

 

 

Review: Interstellar – to infinity and beyond!

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Interstellar is Christopher Nolan’s latest film. It’s a science fiction adventure about a team of NASA astronauts who travel through a wormhole in search of an inhabitable planet, because Earth is dying.
Directed by Nolan, written by Nolan and Jonathan Nolan.

The good; I love the robots. As I’ve mentioned, it’s robot season. In the film there are two main robots, TARS and CASE, they’re reminiscent of the monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but they’re move-able with separating joints to make limbs and other shapes, it’s like a big shapes puzzle. The AI that makes these robots have a personality also reminds me of B.O.B. and V.I.N.C.E.N.T. from The Black Hole. I just love that the designs are practical versus form and elegance.

The portrayal of the worm hole was stunning. The visuals in this movie are amazing, you have to go see it on the big screen.

For an adventure movie there sure are a lot of emotional moments. The actors do a great job with these scenes.

The bad; the sound design was a little much in some areas, meaning that the score and the sound effects over powered the dialog. It was hard to hear at times.

For a science based movie, they used “love” as a factor. When the scientists have to make a choice of where to go next, one of them uses love to convince the others… that only hurt her argument. It felt out of place, perhaps a little more set up could’ve made that flow better?

There’s a “plot twist” in the second act, don’t want to say too much, but it felt a bit forced.

People are just dumb, it’s getting increasingly harder to watch a movie in a theatre and enjoy it. Here’s a line from one such “patron”… “I didn’t pay $15 to have a squeaky chair.” To which my reply was, “I didn’t pay $15 to have you fidgeting in your chair the whole movie.”

Overall, I had a good time, I don’t want to say too much about the plot for fear of spoiling it. After seeing the film it elicits conversations, and that’s good here.
The premise reminds me of The Black Hole, the robots remind me of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the music reminds me of Philip Glass, space travel and the video messaging is very much like Alien and Aliens, the special effects remind me of Tree of Life, the second act reminds me of Sunshine, the third act’s reveal reminds me of Gundam … and so on… If you were to do a double feature, I would pair Interstellar with Big Hero 6, strictly for the visuals.

 

 

Review: Big Hero 6 – equals big box office

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Big Hero 6 is the fifty fourth film in the Disney Animated Classics series. It’s inspired by the Marvel Comic of the same name, the film tells the story of a robotics prodigy name Hiro Hamada, who then in turn forms a superhero team to combat a masked villain, who’s responsible for Hiro’s older brother’s death. Simple enough right?

The good; the film is just fun. Disney keeps bringing the quality with the 3D computer animated realm.
Our protagonist Hiro (as voiced by Ryan Potter) has a great, yet familiar, arc as a character. He starts off reckless, then he finds purpose, then loses sight of that purpose, to then only sacrifice of himself in order to save someone else. It’s a very familiar character arc, but it works, and in this case, it works well.

The world building is something that has to be pointed out. The film takes place in the future city of San Fransokyo, the golden gate bridge has Asian inspired arcs, the signage on buildings has Asian writing (like Bladerunner), and there are these blimp like wind generators (I assume they’re wind generators) that are painted like Chinese dragons. There’s no time spent explaining where we are and how this place came to be, we’re just there, and I love it. It made me want to know how this city came about.

T.J. Miller as Fred, the comic relief, is amazing. His timing is wonderful, without being too much, especially his line about his underwear. And wait for the end of the credits for another great scene.

The story here is paramount, Hiro is relate-able and his journey in a sense is our journey. Then you have a great moment in the third act where he has to choose, it’s reminiscent of The Iron Giant and Wreck-It Ralph.

The bad; I honestly can’t put anything here. It more has to do with the film going audience… leave your crying kids at home next time please.

Overall, I had a blast. $56.2 million opening weekend? Looks like everyone else had a blast too. It truly is robot season in the cinemas right now. I challenge you not to love Baymax.
We also get an Asian character for the boy audience to connect with, gotta love it for that too.
The film has a screenplay by Robert L. Baird, Dan Gerson, Jordan Robert, and is directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams, they previously did The Emperor’s New Groove, Mulan, Meet The Robinsons and Bolt (collectively), can’t wait to see more like Big Hero 6.

Review: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – fun for the whole family

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Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is about Alexander and his family. They all seem like they have it all together and pay no mind to the woes of Alexander, but soon they’ll get a taste of things not going their way. This family comedy stars Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Ed Exenbould (Alexander), Dylan Minnette, Kerris Dorsey, Bella Thorne, Megan Mullally, Donald Glover, and Dick Van Dyke.

The good; Ed Exenbould is pretty good for a kid actor. It helped that the movie had an ensemble cast, but he did an excellent job. This film is just family fun and you got that feeling from everyone on screen. Steve Carell was able to do his yelling that we all love, but it wasn’t too much and it didn’t call out to itself, then you have Jennifer Garner who could’ve taken center stage, but she didn’t. The story lines of each family member kept me interested by contributing the right amount of time and then moving on to the next one.

At the core of this movie, it’s about family and that’s what really drove the motivations of the characters. The wackyness of a terrible day where nothing can go right was amusing and didn’t cross over in to the realm of unbelievable.

The bad; no one’s going to see this film, when they should. In a time of darkness and broody-ness Alexander comes as a nice breath of the flip side of a coin (I know I’m mixing metaphors). People’s closemindedness, that’s what causes people to miss good movies sometimes.

Overall, I had a great time. Alexander comes as a pleasant surprise in a world where so much is going wrong. The take away is that family is paramount and that’s what really kept me invested. So do yourself a favor and go see this film, and remember what it was like to be a kid wanting to be heard.

 

 

 

 

Review: Guardians of the Galaxy – the end of the summer closes on a high note

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Guardians of the Galaxy is the latest Marvel film, this time we’re propelled way in to cosmos instead of New York. It’s about some shady characters that are unwillingly brought together due to a highly coveted orb and certain galactic destruction. They’re then forced into an alliance and have to work together.
Guardians of the Galaxy is directed by James Gunn, he also co-wrote the script with Nicole Perlman, it stars; Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace,  Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close and Benicio del Toro.

The good; this film is truly inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark. Not in story and plot, but in feeling and tone. It was great to have someone who loves Raiders so much that they wanted to make a film that channeled the spirit of what they felt when they watched that movie. James Gunn does a great job in doing so, the makers of Star Trek: Into Darkness need to take a page from Guardians, we know you like Wraith of Khan, but don’t do your version.

Then the choice of re-recorded music, I love this film’s soundtrack! I actually have most of the songs already, but the use of these “oldies” actually fits in to the movie. From the moment go on that first trailer where Hooked on a Feeling was used, I knew I was going to enjoy this movie, just for the soundtrack alone. Then I learn that the song used in the trailer is actually going to be in the film itself??? That’s unheard of these days, what with marketing lying to us at every corner. The use of the songs in Guardians is evocative of Tarantino’s films (Reservoir Dogs) and Wes Anderson’s films.

I have to mention the camera work and use of CG with practical sets. This film puts anything Michael Bay can throw at us, more specifically our eye balls, to shame! I was so thankful that the action was in focus and there was a sense of geography with what was going on. It’s something that when done right goes unnoticed. But I appreciate the way they covered the action and made it coherent.

The bad;  it ended. I didn’t want it to end.

They didn’t use Spirit in the Sky 😉

Overall, such a fun movie, perfect way to end the summer movies of 2014. This is the way to build a world and introduce us to a variety of characters.
They made use of a mix-tape, which speaks to me, a product of days gone by that’s part of the character and plot, but it’s not hokey. I highly recommend seeing this movie in the theatres, especially if you can get it with Dolby Atmos.