Category Archives: Reviews

Review: The Purge – not the throwing up kind

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The Purge… what a interesting movie.  It’s about an annual Purge that happens in the near future of these United States of America.   There’s a twelve hour period once a year where citizens and can vent out their negative feelings, in which there are no emergency services available, and because all crime is legal… including murder.  Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey try to survive another purge night with their family, whacky-ness then ensues.

The good; very interesting premise, although it does borrow from a Star Trek episode entitled The Return of the Archons.  Regardless, the premise is intriguing enough for me to purchase a ticket.  Not much else here, I just enjoyed the world that they built in this near future.

The bad; the execution (pun intended) of the premise.  Why is everything shot in close ups?  The family lives in this big house, I want to see the house, I wanna see the neighborhood, why won’t  you let me see those things?  The only thing we’re exposed to are close ups of the actors’ faces.  It’s just strange that everything was done this way.  It does create a sense of uncomfortable intimacy, but it’s too much, we need room to breathe.

Overall, great premise, needs work on the execution.

Review: This Is The End – let’s hope not…

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I saw This is the End, if you haven’t seen the trailers, it’s about comedic actors in LA, they’re at a house party when the beginning of the apocalypse happens.  In the vein of Neil Patrick Harris in Harold and Kumar all the actors in the movie play themselves, and whacky-ness ensues.
The good; the actors work well together, you can tell that everyone was in the spirit of this comedy, there was too much service paid to one person more than the other.  Everyone executes their jokes beautifully among this who’s who of comedy actors.

The gags are wild and outrageous but not drawn out.  The timing really works well in this almost parody of the end of the world movies.

The bad; things go a little too crazy in the third act.  I mean there’s some stuff that happens that you see coming and the set up is part of the joke.  But some of it could’ve been “hidden/disguised” better.

Overall – I can’t complain to much, I went in knowing what this movie would be about and it delivered.  Much like Hot Tub Time Machine, I just had fun going along for the ride.

Review: Monsters University – Graduates with Honors

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I saw Monsters University this weekend, and apparently so did everyone else.  It’s a prequel to Monster Inc., letting us know the back story of how Mike and Sully became such good friends.  And from the title, you guessed it, it’s when they’re in college.

The good; the animation is top notch, as always.  There’s moments where the film goes in to the human world, and it looks amazing.  The lighting is superb.

What really shines out in this movie, as opposed to other prequels, are the characters.  Mike and Sully are really really well thought out.  Not only are the leads solid, fleshed out, characters, but so is the supporting cast.  This is where the movie really shines.

The bad; other than it being a prequel, I can’t think of anything.  This film is thoroughly enjoyable.
The complaint I do have is that it IS a kids’ movie, and therefore… kids are in the theatre.  They really can’t enjoy this movie, and what makes their parents think that they can???

Overall, do yourself a favor and see this in the theatre, try not to see it with kids that are too young though.  The feature is also preceded by the short film The Blue Umbrella.  Another great coupling of films.

Review: Man of Steel – in which Superman Returns… to the silver screen

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Just saw Man of Steel, it’s Warner Brothers/DC Comics trying to revive the Superman film franchise again.  This time we have Zack Snyder directing with Christopher Nolan at the helm/producer, Henry Cavill as the titular character, Amy Adams as Lois Lane and so on.  It’s a Superman movie, Superman does super things against evil and injustice, this case, the already alien looking Michael Shannon as General Zod.

The good; unlike comic book movies, a lot of the movie the hero is spent in civilian clothing as his alter ego/normal self.  Henry Cavill spends a good ninety percent of the movie in the Superman uniform.  That’s what we’ve been missing in these latest superhero movies, not enough of the hero in costume (Iron Man 3, The Dark Knight Rises…).

After Superman Returns, we finally get Superman returning to the big screen.  Superman punches, flies and punches while flying, action and explosions galore, why did it take so long to get here?!

Henry Cavill as Superman – this guy gets it.

Hans Zimmer’s scores are great.

The story, without spoilers, is great, it matches to visuals and it just as strong, they compliment each other beautifully.

The bad; I have to put something here… let’s see… let’s see.  Superman’s costume is too dark, I really do miss the red trunks, Lois isn’t dark haired…

But in all seriousness the action scenes are rather lack luster, it’s nothing new, which is maybe what they’re going for?  But I wanted better coverage and choreography in the fight scenes.  Too many close ups and shakey cam, it’s something modern cinema suffers too much from.

Hans Zimmer’s scores, I know I put this above, but I’m of the school that superheroes should have a catchy theme.  We all can hum the John Williams Superman theme, and the Danny Elfman Batman theme, and let’s not forget the Spider-Man cartoon theme or the nana-nana-nana- Batmannnnn theme.  So what’s Christian Bale’s Batman theme?  “wrrrrrrrooooooooooooommm.”  Listen to the themes of today, can you hum them?

Overall – go see this movie in the theatre, I really really enjoyed this, and this is coming from me, a die hard Superman fan.  When I saw the first trailer I was doubtful, but then that third trailer came out, and I was sold.  From the get-go I wanted to be wrong, and I’m glad that I was… Man of Steel delivers in every way possible.

Review: Star Trek Into Darkness – In which dumbed down story and mindless action prevails

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I saw Star Trek Into Darkness, it’s the direct sequel to the rebooted Star Trek universe. The short of it is the crew on board the Enterprise goes on spacey missions and does spacey stuff, we all know what Star Trek is.

The good; everyone’s back, I liked what the young cast brought to the table and I’m glad they’re all back.

The uniforms, it’s taking a more Starship Troopers approach, lots of greys.

The first half of the movie.

Peter Weller in Star Trek again.

Benedict Cumberbatch carried the most presence with what he had to work with.

The shirts, the shirts are just well pressed!

The bad; how can I put all that feel here? I won’t try, but I’ll hit on some important things.

This movie is not Star Trek, I blame the “writers” Orci, Kurtzman, and that ever wonderful Lindelof. Collectively this team butchered Transformers, Cowboys and Aliens, the Alien franchise, and now Star Trek…
The first half of the film was great, it was attempting to correct the things that were sorely wrong with the first movie. Scotty is telling Kirk that they’re explorers and not a military vessel, so he resigns… thinking back on this, that was all Simon Pegg, cause he knows, where those other guys clearly don’t know Trek.

*SPOILERS* Star Trek is about hope and bettering humanity, I get it, 9/11 happened, but does Star Trek need to remind us of that? Also, if you’re going to create a new world for Star Trek, and close the old one off, why are we rehashing the “old world’s” stories? They tried it within world with Nemesis, and that ended all the Next Generation films, “hello McFly” are we not learning from history?

Why Khan? I get it, that’s the best movie from the franchise, and you’re a fan, that doesn’t mean you should make Wrath of Khan over again now does it?

Why is Carol Marcus in this film? Just cause she was in Wrath of Khan? Then we reverse the whole Spock death by putting Kirk in radiation? There were more than a few scoffs in our audience when that scene came up. This new Trek hasn’t earned that moment.

And at one point Spock goes and talks to Spock Prime… that’s lazy story telling, cause Spock can just ask Spock how it all happened in the “old” universe, really?

Overall I fail to see how a Star Trek fan can like this movie, it’s all flash and no substance, literally, flashes of lens flare galore. The future in Star Trek is bright, but not literally bright. Into Darkness lost me as soon as Khan’s name was revealed, from that moment on I was beamed away. See what I did there?

Save your time and watch some real Star Trek. *END SPOILERS*

 

Review: Iron Man 3 – In which the trilogy ends

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Finally got to see Iron Man 3, it’s the third installment in to the Iron Man franchise, this film being directed and written by Shane Black. I’m a Shane Black fan, he’s done; the Lethal Weapon movies, Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, The Last Boyscout…
In short, the third movie is about Tony Stark battling a new villain as well as personal demons.

The good; Robert Downey Jr, he carries this movie completely and thoroughly. His comedy timing and delivery is great, there’s some scenes in particular with a kid, but I won’t get in to it.

The scene where Iron Man has to rescue passengers suddenly ejected from a plane is great. There’s a real sense of geography and urgency amidst this chaotic situation and it’s pulled off very well.

The bad; it wasn’t the movie I had hoped for, not typical of Shane Black’s previous work. The twists and turns aren’t hard to spot, and much like The Dark Knight Rises, there isn’t much of Iron Man in this film. It seemed that there was too much to service in the story, you have the Extremis stuff as well as the Mandarin.

Overall, enjoyed it better than the second movie, but the first movie is still the best one out of the trilogy.
Again… wait till the end of the credits (as you should) for a tag at the end.

Review: Oblivion – obliterates the competition

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I went to see Oblivion last night.  Didn’t get to see it over the weekend, apparently everyone else did…
It’s about Tom Cruise as the last man on earth, sort of, the planet is ravaged and he his mission is to repair the drones that repel the alien presence.

The good; I love the premise, it reminds me of all those post-apocalyptic movies before the eighties, the ones that immediately come to mind are; Planet of the Apes, Omega Man, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Silent Running and Damnation Alley.  Then more recently Moon.

The production design in creating the world is great.  Everything is a variation of white, the equipment, living quarters, clothing… all white.  But Tom Cruise plays tech Jack Harper who goes out in to the wasteland so his white uniform is grayish from all the dirt and grime.

Oblivion is directed by Joseph Kosinski, who previously did Tron: Legacy. It’s nice that he got a second chance to direct a movie with a stronger story.  This film really feels like a lover-letter to all those previously mentioned movie in the seventies.

The bad; the film does drag in spots, but there’s something about Cruise, he can carry a movie, much like Mc Queen in Bullitt.  So I was able to forgive the pacing in areas.

The story is nothing new, there’s a lot of aspects of other movies and stories that we’ve seen here.  I know I mentioned this above as something I liked, but it felt more like here’s this movie and then now here’s that movie, the melding needed work.

*SEMI-SPOILER* There’s a twist/reveal at the end.  Basically if you’re an uninformed movie goer (a Michael Bay fan *ahem) then you’d be gasping when this plot point reveals itself.  I could see this twist coming a mile away, and again, it’s nothing new that we haven’t seen, so I guess I was just predisposed to expect it.
When the revelation hits Harper I find that he buys in to it way too easily.  Some might say that was already fighting mentally with what he was doing, so when the truth hit him, it was always something he knew but could never see or hear.
At this point in the movie taking more time to explain the “truth” of what’s going on wouldn’t have been so bad, cause they did take their sweet time getting there.  Just felt weird, why take your leisure and then when something important like this comes up we speed right through it?  It’s basically told in exposition, which felt very lazy.
*END SEMI-SPOILER*

Overall I enjoyed this movie more than I thought it would be.  The visuals are great and Tom Cruise, luv him or hate him, he can certainly carry a movie.  Viewing this movie made me want to watch all the other movies that I thought of, so I know that the filmmakers’ hearts are in the right place, cause they like some of the same movies I like.

Review: G.I. Joe: Retaliation – A Real American Hero (at the box office)

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I saw G.I. Joe: Retaliation this weekend.  G.I. Joe: Retaliation is a direct sequel to Rise of Cobra, it’s the on-going mission of the Joes in the fight against a ruthless organization called Cobra.  This time we get a completely new cast with the Joes; Flint, Lady Jaye, Roadblock, and Jinx, among others.

The good; Flint’s in this movie, he’s my personal favorite G.I. Joe character from the Real American Hero incarnation of Gijoe.  So it’s nice to see him in live action finally along with Lady Jaye, played by Adrianne Palicki .  Dwayne Johnson as Roadblock is a great choice as well, I’m ok with this ethnicity change in a character, unlike Ripcord… who’s character was completely changed.

On the Cobra side we get Lee Byung-hun back as Stormshadow, a new Cobra Commander, Firefly and Zartan.  Firefly is the only new Cobra character we get, and Ray Stevenson does a good job interrupting this saboteur character from the Real American Hero cannon.

Other than the characters we get new vehicles/armor, and they look like a HISS tank and a FANG.  It’s great to see these things in a non-animated form.

The action between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow is great as usual.

*SEMI-SPOILERS* There’s some nice easter eggs/nods to the Real American Hero series.
-They explain Cobra Commander’s face mask.
-Zartan’s connection to Storm Shadow from the comics is integrated.
-The Cobra private military soldiers have helmets that look like a pre-Viper, it’s the helmet portion without the face mask.
*END SEMI-SPOILERS*

The bad; the movie’s pace is rather speedy.  Things move quickly from scene to scene, it’s an action scene cut next to a scene explaining how they get to the next action scene.  That’s not a bad thing, but here it feels like they could’ve worked more on the transitions between scenes.

The action scenes are covered in the typical modern day transition… why is everything shakey cam?  And why all the close ups?  There are scenes where you can tell it’s Byung-hun going against Ray Park (even though he’s masked through-out the movie), I know these guys are capable, so let’s put their skill on display.  There’s a lot of action with the other cast members too, but the geography of the scenes is muddled and messy at times.

There’s also a lot of death in the movie, I know they’re making it modern day GiJoe, where there are no lasers or parachutes deploying last minute… but we’re killing off main characters here, I was surprised that they would do that to non-red shirts.

Overall, 5 year old me enjoys this movie, but older me also sees this movie objectively.  Retaliation is movie in the spirit of what A Real American Hero was all about.  I liked that it acknowledge the mistakes of Rise of Cobra and then it moved forward.  Check your brain at the door, go back to the eighties and imagine what a 5 year old boy wanted to see in a theatre. 

Oh… and Duke stays dead, and knowing (that) is half the battle.

Review: Olympus Has Fallen… to second place at the box office

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I saw Olympus Has Fallen this weekend.  The audience was so strange, a mixture of families, old people, teens, and more old people.
The short of it is, Gerard Butler plays a secret serviceman who’s been sorta drummed out, but when foreign terrorists attack the White House, he’s the only guy that can save the day.

The good; I really enjoyed this premise.  I enjoy the actors in the cast.  The lighting.  The trailers, I loved the trailers, they succeeded in getting my butt in the theatre.

The bad; the movie is almost like a B-Movie, in that there isn’t much to it.  The film is rated R, boy do they let you know that this is an R Movie, f-bombs everywhere.  Not sure that was really necessary.

The action scenes are covered in the typical way, close ups with hand held camera work… why?  I wanna see things, again, it feels like they’re compensating for the lack of skill.  I wouldn’t mind a stunt double, even like that horrible one in Robot Jox.

Overall, worth a rental, if only to escape the movie going audience these days.  I don’t want to sound too mean, but elderly people at an 8pm showtime for this movie just don’t go together, I could make the obvious joke about how they should already have been asleep for 3 hours, and that they’re way past their bed time, but I won’t.  Lately they have just been noise generators that detract from the movie viewing experience.

Review: Oz the Great and Powerful – great and powerful at the box office

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I saw Oz The Great and Powerful this weekend.  In the vein of the musical Wicked, this film is a prequel to the adventures we have with Dorothy.  It’s how Oz became the wizard of Oz.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should.

The good; I love the opening sequence, it’s in 4×3 black and white.  We’re treated to this retro/turn of the century… well, slide show thing.  It’s this old timey puppet show music box thing, just a delight to see.  Then the black and white continues with the live action, not until we “leave Kansas” do we get the full widescreen as well as color.  I really enjoyed that bit.

Like with any prequel, we come in to the story knowing a little about the characters.  So it’s nice to see nods to what we know appear.  A couple of them (which aren’t spoilers) are Oscar Diggs (Franco) going by Oz and being a magician.  He also meets a former flame, who’s visiting to let him know that she’s marrying a John Gale, it’s Dorothy’s family.  I love stuff like that.

Once we get in to the land of Oz the film takes a different look, granted we have color and are utilizing the whole screen now, but it feels more like Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.  Lots of visual effects to take in.

And then we have Rachel Weisz, she looked great.

The bad; I wasn’t too thrilled with some of the make-up *SPOILER* Mila Kunis turns in to the “traditional evil Witch” that we know as the villain from the Oz story.  I just felt she wasn’t up to pare for that role. *END SPOILER*

Overall I enjoyed the movie, I’m not the biggest fan of James Franco, but he managed to do all right, it didn’t help that Kunis wasn’t working for me.  The 3D was a blend of the “viewing in” aspect of Avatar, but also had enough “gimicky” qualities of traditonal 3D where things flew out at you.  Definitely kept me invested, and it made $80 million this weekend, so I wasn’t the only one.

 

Review: Life Of Pi – ala mode makes Pie disappear faster

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Just saw Life of Pi.  It’s about Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, a teenage Indian boy who’s family is moving to Canada, and along with them the animals in their zoo, they’re going to sell the animals to someone in the Americas.  While on the transport ship they run in to a storm and the ship sinks.  Pi manages to get on a life boat and so he must survive.  Sounds simple enough.

The good; the movie looks amazing.  The images are stunning.  Did they use a real tiger at all?  I can’t tell.  The journey of Pi in the middle of endless ocean is remarkably covered.  Much like Castaway we manage to be enthralled by a single focus point, and the emotional beats are certainly there.
Did I mention that the movie looks great?  Ang Lee paints wonderful images.

The bad; it’s Castaway with a Indian boy and a Tiger, or Open Water, or Frozen … see where I’m going?  The journey of the film is nothing new.  Ang Lee manages to stretch out a smaller amount of story in to a feature length film.  I don’t plan on seeing this film again, it doesn’t have replay value to me.  But I am glad having seen it.
The film brings up the question of God and his role in our lives, but then quickly drops it, much like the lack-luster Prometheus.  I would’ve liked some more dwelling on this inner struggle, there’s a lot of time spent on the ocean isolated, this eternal question should’ve had more time devoted to it.

Overall, I enjoyed watching Life of Pi, don’t need to see it again, but I was left wanting some more.  Something new that I hadn’t seen in the other similar movies mentioned above.
*SPOILER* The ending sort of bugged me, where Pi is being interviewed as to what happened with the ship wreck, the survival story of the Tiger and other animals… compared to humans on the ship?  The Tiger is Pi, the Zebra is the kind Japanese Sailor, the Jackal is the French Cook… I’m not sure what the point of that was?  Is it supposed to be like Fight ?  I just didn’t see why the metaphor with the animals had to be there, but that could be because of the book. *END SPOILER*

Review: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in to a little song and dance

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I saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey this weekend.  Is it me?  Or is the Sherman Oaks Arclight degrading?  The audience there as of late has become that of a dollar theatre.
Back to the movie, it’s the first in a prequel trilogy to that of Lord of the Rings.  We follow a young Bilbo Baggins as he embarks on a journey through Middle-Earth.  A Dwarf King is seeking to reclaim his rightful mountain kingdom from a dragon that’s occupying it now, he needs help, and that’s where Bilbo joins their merry gang.  We also get to see some familiar faces along the way.

The good;  the score, I love Howard Shore’s music.  Its swelling grandeur really compliments those wide shots.  This is the exception where a prequel actually worked for me.  We’re again brought in to the world of Middle-Earth, a time and place where not much changes in terms of technology.  So I’m ok with this, it’s not like a sci-fi prequel, where the technology of the world is far better in the past than it is in the future.
Speaking of music, there’s singing in this movie!  I actually wanted more songs.

Martin Freeman is great as the young Bilbo.

The bad; there are certain scenes where there’s too much going on, the frames are just too busy, one example that comes to mind is the mining caves.
I realize that the work of literature, The Hobbit, story, where it is one.  It felt more epic, when it wasn’t, it’s a very straight forward story without any twists or turns.

Overall, I enjoyed An Unexpected Journey,  it was delightful seeing the shire again, as well as some familiar faces of Middle-Earth.  I’m now curious to see it in forty eight frames 3D.  The scene with Gollum is amazing, the emotions that they get out of his computer generated face was frighteningly real and… well emotive.  It was a treat seeing that scene filmed live action, we all know the scene from the Bass/Rankin The Hobbit.
Still uncertain why this is a trilogy, but my butt will be in the theatres.