Category Archives: Reviews

Review: Muppets Most Wanted – Wocka Wocka

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Muppets Most Wanted is the sequel to 2011 The Muppets. It’s about… you guessed it, the Muppets. This time they go on a world tour, but little do they know that there’s more to it than that. Friends become enemies, enemies become friends, friends become lovers, all that and a lot more songs with a lot more guest appearances, and you get Muppets Most Wanted.

The good; the film takes place immediately where the last film left off, amazing! And right away there’s a musical number about how this movie is a sequel, love it. The music in this film is just great, Bret McKenzie‘s back and boy does he deliver with the music. McKenzie’s lyrical sensibility gels well with the Muppets, it’s uncanny how this union never took place earlier. Along with McKenzie, we have Christophe Beck back again, who comes hot off the tails of Frozen. Music and Muppets just belong together.

We get a lot of guest stars in this movie, one in particular is the build up to the man in the box.

The story is typical of a Muppet movie, we have to travel and sing our way through things, but in this film we get a little more with how this group is a family. There’s more separation in this one, but it allows us to explore the relationships among these characters. One moment I found particularly wonderful was when Fozzy, Animal and Walter come to aide Kermit in the gulag. It felt right that Fozzy would come to his best friend’s aid, that might just be me being sentimental, but it’s hard not to be that way about characters I grew up with.

The bad; it seems like everyone is doing an accent in this movie, but I guess that goes with the international feel of the film.

This goes more with the movie going experience… but kids in a theatre are very distracting, especially when they’re pointing out everything that’s going on in the movie. Parents, I implore you to not rely on tv or the movies as your babysitter, please teach them common courtesy.

Overall this sequel was very entertaining. I love that they amped up the number of songs. We even get to see Robin, remember Robin? If you grew up with the Muppets, you’ll love this sequel.

Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel – What a Nice Surprise, Bring Your Alibis

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The Grand Budapest Hotel is Wes Anderson‘s latest cinematic endeavor. You guessed it, it’s about a hotel, a hotel in a fictional European mountainous area and the people that inhabit the hotel and it’s surrounding areas. The story takes place in the present, the sixties, and the war ravaged thirties… throw in wonderful music, awkward moments, intense short amounts of violence and colorful sets and that’s it.

The good; it’s a Wes Anderson movie, you either know what you’re going to get or you don’t. But here’s something new, in a similar fashion to good Tarantino movies, we’re taken through this story in “parts” and different time periods, what works here is that Anderson’s able to make it fresh. How does he do this? He uses different aspect ratios to represent the different time periods. It’s subtle.

This movie is a love letter to old style architecture and more importantly, grand lavish hotels. Much like The Darjeeling Limited was his love letter to India, we get The Grand Budapest Hotel. It makes me want to visit old hotels, and how things used to be, everything that the sixties rejected and covered up.

There’s a chase scene in the snow… it’s ultra staged (fake), yet I found it increasingly enjoyable as the thrill of the pursuit continued. I don’t know why I liked this sequence so much.

Tony Revolori, as young Zero, does a great job. Bravo in finding this young talent. And there’s a lot of familiar actors in this film, simply stunning.

The bad; if I have to put anything here… I’d put there’s more swearing in this film than in previous Anderson films.
There’s also a lack of marketing, might be because this movie is in limited release at the moment.

Overall I had a lot of fun. It was a ride for sure, and through all the emotions I was invested from start to finish. The symmetry wasn’t as overt as Moonrise Kingdom, yet it was still a feast for the visual arts in a different way. The Grand Budapest Hotel is neck and neck with Moonrise Kingdom for my favorite of Anderson’s body of work.

Review: Non-Stop – all the way to thrills

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Non-Stop is a French-American thriller, it’s about Air Marshall Liam Neeson who gets threatening texts from someone inside the house, hummmph, I mean plane.
This is the first film by Silver Pictures to be distributed by Universal.

The good; I went in to this film with nothing, I only knew of the trailer, but when the production logos appear at the head of the film I was pleasantly surprised to see the Silver Pictures logo, wooohooo! The stage had been set. If you don’t know what I’m referring too, then you didn’t grow up in the 80s

So Liam Neeson is playing Air Marshall Bill Marks, he’s got a checkered past, but he’s still in the air to protect and to serve – classic. Neeson is what really carries this movie. You watch him throughout, while you let logic fall by the wayside.

The bad; this doesn’t feel right being released today, it’s almost like it was ten years too late. But I’m still glad it’s here.
People probably won’t see this in the theatres, let’s hope it gets a good life on the DVD home market.

The bad guy’s motivation wasn’t very clear, why were they doing what they were doing? I was left wanting more in this portion of the film.

It feels like an 80s movie, it smells like an 80s movie, it even tastes like an 80s movie… but what makes it not an 80s movie? The airplane is CG… not that it’s bad CG, but I wonder what it would’ve been like if it was a practical airplane model doing the moves that they were doing?

Overall not a bad time, it’s a great throwback to what films used to be, and a lot of the ones I grew up loving were produced by Joel Silver. So pop that popcorn, bring your tray tables to the full and upright position, and enjoy the ride that is Non-Stop.

 

Review: 300: Rise of an Empire – aka Three Hundred and One

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A little late on this one, a week to be exact. 300: Rise of an Empire is the sequel to 300. This time we follow the blue capes of Themistocles, played by Sullivan Stapleton, of Strike Back fame. This is quite the sequel, as it takes place before the aforementioned 300, during and after. Same gory violence, same stylized action, same bat chann… you get the idea.

The good; this sequel fits right in to the original two thousand seven movie. I was impressed, Noam Murro does a good job putting this film in to the slow mo action sequences, six pack abs, color de-saturation and hyper historical reality that we got to know in the first movie. I think what I’m more impressed by is the story… to have this sequel (to a movie I didn’t feel needed one) not only before the events of the first movie, but during and after was very nice.

Usually when films in a franchise have a different director(s) we get a different tone and take on the story that’s being told, but here we have a team that’s flowing well in this very specific world.

Eva Green‘s in this film, haha

I have to mention the action sequences, they’re greeeeeatttt! I know most of it was shot on green screen but they were very well done. The hand held quality didn’t go overboard, and there were wide shots… glorious wide shots. I could tell what was going on and where it was going on. This is how action scenes should be shot, and this is how green screened scenes should be done.

The bad; at the beginning of the third act we could’ve ended, but we have whole other action sequence to be had. And in that we have to set it up, and, build it up. This break in the non-stop action felt odd in its placement.

The action scenes, I know I put this above, but there are a lot of action scenes. Early on we get too many that end in victory, a little struggle to win might’ve been better.

Then there’s the historical accuracy, cause we all come to see this film for it’s historical accuracy. But some of the liberties taken with this film were very… well, liberal. At least it wasn’t as bad as Troy, sheesh. I kind of wish that they explained why Themistocles looked like a Spartan, when he was actually from Athens, usually the Athenians wear robes, just a little thing that could’ve been explained with a line or two, whatever.

Overall I was impressed with where this film fits in with this new franchise. And now knowing and seeing that… we’re going to get a third film. You have to go in to this movie knowing what it is – entertainment. And it delivers, check your brain and history knowledge at the door and eat that popcorn. Oh and the action scenes, did I mention the action scenes?? I feel like I didn’t mention the action scenes (stop saying ‘action scenes’).

Review: The Monuments Men

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The Monuments Men

The Monuments is an ensemble movie that details the journey of a commissioned group of unexpected heroes within World War II. While most people know the Nazis for their horrific crimes against countless lives, you might be surprised to learn of their ruthless transgressions towards art of areas within Europe they occupied.

The good; the movie features some of Hollywood’s biggest names. The movie emotes a great range of feelings for viewers. At times it is comical, giving viewers clips that could stand alone if reworked for Saturday Night Live. Other times, we encounter truths about World War II that remind us how ugly  man can get when led by the worst men. Through the thick and thin, we see the importance of camaraderie during war.

The bad; I straddled with how this movie was pieced together. There are a handful scenes, while entertaining, that seem of very little value. There are so many faces on the poster for this movie. They are all wonderful talents on their own and maybe that’s a double edge sword. We never really get to know each character as much as we hoped. This movie could have been an AMAZING mini-series.

Overall – Like most movies based on non-fiction, this may not be an ideal source to learn about the Monuments but it is entertaining. If you’re a fan of any of the actors, you should definitely check this out. For some, it may even be worth checking out just to see Cate Blanchett with a French accent.

Review: Robocop (2014) – dead or alive, he’s made it to the big screen

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Just saw the new Robocop film. After much hesitation I decided to check it out, it’s about a cop in Detroit who’s injured beyond saving, so they have to make him in to a cyborg to save his life, at the same time he’s still on the force, part man, part machine… all cop. It’s a remake of one of my favorite movies from the eighties.

The good; it’s a new take and not a simple remake. The action sequences and the sound design are amazing. I can hear the foot steps of Robocop and his gun shots. Joel Kinnaman does a pretty good job as Murphy, both in and out of the Robocop suit. The first version of this Robocop is a great nod to the original design before they move on to the all black suit.

I like the update to today, where Omnicorp is actually utilizing their products on foreign soil, that part was only hinted at in the Media Break sequences of the original film. So seeing the corporation’s international reach was a nice touch, even Robocop himself was “built” overseas.

There’s a scene where they show you what’s left of Murphy’s body, pretty shocking stuff. They really amped up the action in this one, feels like this movie would’ve done better with a summer release. And we get to hear the original theme by Basil Poledouris in this movie, bravo for using it.

Gary Oldman does a great job as Dr. Dennett Norton, it’s just funny to see Michael Keaton and Gary Oldman in the same scene, it’s Batman and Commissioner Gordon from two different Batman worlds. Gary Oldman just embodied this scientist role whole-heartedly.

The bad; the original Robocop (1987) movie is one of my favorites, so I’m a little biased. But here we go…

Get a tripod Jose Padilha (director) not every scene in this movie needs to be hand held, we were on the border of being a Michael Bay Transformers movie, and we don’t need a fourth one… oh wait. There’s some great special effects in this movie but with all the shakey-cam stuff we miss seeing the wonderful renderings that people slaved over.

I’m not sure what was gained by having the Lewis and Reed characters having their genders reversed.

The Robocop suit looked too much like an Iron Man suit, even when it breaks apart, was that really needed?  It’s also never explained why they decided to keep his right hand human.

Detroit as a character is absent, it’s just another Canadian city masking as America, it’s not the blue collar motor city, they could’ve set this movie in any other city, nothing said Detroit to me.

Gary Oldman, I know I put him above as one of the things I liked, but to me he’s the real main character of this new film. His character has the biggest arc, and his moral struggle is fair more relate-able, I mean Robocop/Murphy does have an arc, but it’s not really one of character, I’ll give too much away if I say any more.

Gone is the political and social satire.

Overall, I’ll gladly take the original any day, but this is one of the better remakes out there, despite my gripes. I was against the motorcycle, but they made it work.

Let me leave you with a quote from Dick Jones, he’s number two guy at OCP, “I had a guaranteed military sale with ED209! Renovation program! Spare parts for 25 years! Who cares if it worked or not!”

Review: Her – or how i learned to stop worrying and love my phone

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Got to see Her tonight, it’s about a man who develops a relationship with the operating system on his smart phone that has a female voice.  This film is brought to you by Spike Jonze, who previously gave us Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Where The Wild Things Are, but you may know him better from the music videos he’s directed.  This time Jonze ventures out on his solo screenwriting debut.

The good; the performances are great.  Joaquin Phoenix really delivers, for most of the film he’s by himself, talking on the phone… yet he manages to make us feel; isolated, excited, happy, sad.
Amy Adams is normal looking in this movie, she’s not super glamorous, works for me.

The world that Jonze has built is stunning, it’s a natural progression (or regression) of what Los Angeles will become.  The social commentary of a man developing a relationship with his phone is very well done.

The visuals are stunning, every shot is filled, or not filled with color.  The city-scapes are amazing, and it’s really the small touches that I appreciated.  Like downtown LA’s library building has additions to it, and there’s a very present layer of smog every time we’re outside during the day.  Oh and the fashion, love the prediction of how fashion will be in the near future, bravo.

The bad; the film meanders a bit.  This could be because we’re peering in to the life of one man, but it could’ve used some tightening.  The end felt a bit dragged out, the formula for American cinema is very well established, so by the third act we’re just waiting for the inevitable to happen.  Here we get a slow drawn out third act that could’ve been more effective if it were a bit shorter.

Overall, good job Mr. Jonze, your solo screenwriting debut is something you should be proud of.  In the world we live in today Her is an omen of things to come and a projection of how things can be as we evolve and change along with the exponential growth of technology.
This film definitely has a chord to strike with its audience, not everyone will get this movie, in this case it really is a generational thing.

Review: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues – to deliver the absurd

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I finally got to see Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.  If you’ve seen the first movie, you’ve basically seen this movie, Ron Burgundy and his news team deliver the news and get in to hijinks, it’s Will Ferrell doing what Will Ferrell does.

The good; they’re back!  They’re all here.  We get the news team re-assembled, it feels like no time has past.  The music is great, really takes me back.

The jokes and humor are there, and we actually get a bit of social commentary this time, say whaaaat?  Yeah that’s right.

Not to spoil it, but we do actually top something from the first movie.

The bad; there’s something missing, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but all the ingredients are there… it’s something I should love through and through.  Yet at the end I felt unsatisfied.  It could be that it was too much like the first film that I’m left with wanting more.

It’s always difficult when your starting point involves a protagonist (who’s basically mentally challenged) with similar friends who do and say anything they want, this includes time and space.  They ended the first movie on top, it was very difficult to build from that.

Overall, it’s worth a rental.  If you like Will Ferrell, then by all means see it.  But there’s something missing from the recipe that left me wanting a mid-night snack.  Don’t get me wrong, the bits are funny, I was laughing throughout the movie, I guess I just wanted more.

Review: 47 Ronin – matrix style

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I saw 47 Ronin, it’s an adaptation of a Japanese tale where 47 samurai avenge their master’s death.  It’s about honor, loyalty, and duty.  Throw in an American sensibility with slick computer graphics, and you get this latest film adaptation.

The good; the action is nice, it sucks that these days, those of us who are old enough, Keanu Reaves always gets compared to The Matrix.  But the action is well done, we get medium and wide shots, not all of it is shakey-cam close ups.  I really appreciate that.

Hiroyuki Sanada usually plays a tough as nails jerk, but here he’s actually a good guy.  He plays Oishi, the default leader of the forty seven ronin.  His stoic devotion is very well delivered.
Continuing on with the acting, we also get treated to Kō Shibasaki as the love interest.  Good to see her in stuff, you may remember her from Battle Royale.

Considering this film is for the average American going audience, the film does a good job with letting us inside eighteenth century Japanese culture.  The cultural rules are set up, the reason for the disgrace, and the reason for loyalty is all done fairly well.  At no point did I feel that there was a large leap in logic taken.

The bad; the character that Keanu Reaves plays is made up, there was no half-breed amongst the forty seven ronin.  I understand why they created this character, but like The Last Samurai, where Tom Cruise is the titular Last Samurai, why are these historical inaccuracies allowed?  It feels somewhat disrespectful to the source material.

This story has endured throughout Japanese culture for a reason, it’s compelling and awesome, why can’t the filmmakers rely on those aspects to sell the story?  Why must they insert something fictional for us to relate to?  I didn’t mind the magical/fantasy aspect, but comeon.

Overall, not as bad as I thought it would be, and I did enjoy the action sequences as well as the fantasy bits that were thrown in.  If you know nothing about the original story, you should be fine viewing this movie, but sometimes one can be too smart for ones’ own good.  Luckily I was able to still enjoy the bulk of the movie.

On another note, there were a lot of people in the theatre for this film… and the audience was very varied, mostly stupid though.  Hearing their comments was like listening to first graders who aren’t able to connect the story threads of See Spot Run.  It’s really hard to enjoy a movie in a theatre these days… shame.

Review: Saving Mr. Banks – winds in the east, misty eyes comin’ in

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Finally got to see Saving Mr. Banks.  I feel like all the people that I would’ve seen this with have already seen it.  The short of it is, Walt Disney tries to acquire the rights to adapt Mary Poppins into a film.  He has to woo its author, the reluctant, P.L. Travers.  Everything’s set in the nineteen sixties.  Now the stage is set… GO!

The good; I love it when movies are about true events, and we know the ending already, yet… while we’re engrossed in the film we care.  We all know that the movie Mary Poppins gets made, who among us hasn’t seen it? Yet while I’m watching this movie, I feel the struggles and the hurdles and then the triumph of actually getting the movie made.

The music is great, it’s got hints of the Mary Poppins movie woven in, not just as the Sherman Brothers are creating the songs, but it’s also used in the score, I couldn’t have imagined it any other way.

Everyone in the cast deliveries brilliant performances.  We’re allowed the “happy ending” because we’ve gone through the emotional roller coaster.  The film manages to hit all the right beats on a subject that is all to familiar, yet clouded and shielded from us.  Saving Mr. Banks lifts the veil behind the magic and allows us to journey to the past.

The bad; the marketing may be off on this one.  This film goes through a range of emotions, it’s not all happy and magical.  Be prepared to cry, or tear up.

Overall, I highly recommend this film.  The target audience for this movie are the kids that grew up with Mary Poppins, both live action and in print.  Here we’re allowed to take a peek at what occurred behind the scenes and how hard people worked at creating something magical that has endured all these years.  I see some Oscar noms in the future.

Wardrobe from the movie

Walt’s office

 

Review: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – my interest goes up in flames

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The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is the continuing story of the first movie in this trilogy.  Whence we last left our friends, they were on their way back to the Lonely Mountain to bring the Dwarves back to their home.  It’s the Lord of the Rings world, if you don’t know what that is, well, you probably shouldn’t be jumping in to the second movie of a trilogy, let alone a movie in the middle of a franchise.

The good; Smaug looks amazing, we finally get to see the dragon that’s made his home in the Dwarven kingdom.  The CG on Smaug is just so life like, if dragons do exist of course.

The bad; I was bored.  Much like Peter Jackson’s King Kong, Hobbit 2 is way too long.  This movie didn’t really do anything for me.  Every fight/battle scene was the end all be all, so you go from climactic scene to climactic scene… you’ve got no where to go from then on.  So everything fell flat and mundane.  Which is a shame.

Overall you can skip this one.  A trilogy that didn’t need to be, and whatever story they’re trying to tell, they could’ve done it in one movie.

Review: Frozen – so delightful

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I’m not sure if my watching habits have changed or I’m subconsciously avoiding spoilers for certain movies, but Frozen was a pleasant holiday season surprise.

Walt Disney Animation Studio’s latest effort proves to be a wonderful addition to their catalog, featuring fun musical tunes that will surely be sang along by younger and even older generations.

Frozen tells the tale of Arendelle, a Scandinavian kingdom on the the brink of destruction from a force that seemingly cannot be controlled.

The good; the musical aspect of Frozen was done well. It feels classic and natural watching characters seamlessly transition from monologues to singing.

Olaf does a superb job of bringing laughs. While there are moments of chuckling before his entrance, Olaf does comedy best. This is no small feat for Josh Gad who voiced Olaf, especially considering the character’s physical constraints as a blocky snowman with rigid twig limbs. But this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s heard him on the musical “Book of Mormon”.

The bad; the short film preceding the movie, Get a Horse!, dragged a bit. Call me crazy, but seeing a 3D Mickey Mouse in color always seems unsettling. It lacked the magic that causes viewers to discuss feelings about found in the other great Disney short films.

While the climax in Frozen felt refreshing, the closing scene left something to be desired.

Overall this is a fine flick to catch and sing along to once you know the words. You might not recognize a lot of the voices, but that’s definitely not holding this movie back from being an easy recommendation for all ages.