I'm not much of a reviewer, but I saw Hidden Figures this weekend and it's terrific. Clearly there are social messages in the film, but it wasn't preachy. I thought the filmmakers did an excellent job of simply using facts to convey points without big aggrandizing soliloquies or attempts to have the audience peer into characters reflections. For the most part, it was well-acted all around. It seemed like Jim Parsons wasn't finding the comfort zone for his character. I thought Taraji Henson, Octavia Spencer and Kevin Costner absolutely nailed it. I can't always decide who to give credit to when I feel like the tone of the film is just right, because I know the editor and the actors' performance contribute to the Director's vision. But, since Melfi is also listed as a co-writer, I think all credit should go to him. Excellent. Go see it.
I saw Get Out tonight. I only see maybe 3 scary movies a year and I can't remember the last time I saw one in the theaters, but I was curious about it after a lot of rave reviews and a bunch of friends decided to go and I wanted to give Jordan Peele some of my money. It was so. Fucking. Good. It was extremely scary - like I was on the verge of tears at one point and people were screaming - but also really funny, and just very well written and clever. It was a perfect balance of jump scares, intense psychological scares, and suspense. You see a couple twists or plot points coming, but for the most part even what you can guess goes so much deeper or in an off kilter direction than what you originally thought. Even the race commentary aspect to it, I went into it assuming it was going to be dealt with one way and it went a totally different way. The acting was great, and the cinematography was much better than it needed to be. Pretty much every single note it was going for it hit perfectly. It's just one of those movies you see and immediately want to talk to a bunch of people about it. I'm still a little tense from it all and there are a couple of images/scenes I'm genuinely worried are going to give me nightmares tonight. But it was a really, really fun movie-going experience. Try and see it in a packed theater if you can.
Logan. Just go see it. Haven't been riveted by a "superhero" movie for a long time. I hope this shows that these type of movies can be far more than CGI fests following worn out paths. The little girl is wonderful and I just can't imagine anyone else playing Wolverine than Hugh Jackman if they ever reboot the character. I haven't enjoyed a movie like I did this one for quite some time. Didn't want it to end.
Get Out This may have mild spoilers, so I will spoilerize it just to be on the safe side. Spoiler Maybe my expectations were too high because I had heard so much hype about it, but I did not particularly care for this film. It was a valiant effort, but I thought that it fell flat in trying to be both a comedy and a psychological thriller (I wouldn't classify this as a horror movie at all). The biggest problem to me was that the first 2/3 to 3/4 of the movie was incredibly slow paced. The majority of that first hour was spent watching Chris trying to mingle with Rose's family and their friends and wondering why they all seemed so off. There were a couple of funny lines during that time, but no scenes that kept me at the edge of my seat. I also would have liked to have seen some backstory about the Armitage family. How the hell did they get to be the way that they were? Maybe that was meant to be a prequel. Another problem was that I was just not invested in Chris's character. It's not that I disliked him, either, and I understand that this is not the type of movie that has to have any completely three dimensional characters, but it is worth pointing out that the shortcomings of the first hour of the film would have been lessened if Chris's character was funnier or more interesting. Once it got to the point where Chris and Rose decided to try to escape the house the movie did get better, and that point forward was where most of the suspenseful and funny scenes were. Yes, I did say funny, because by far the best character in the movie was Chris's friend who worked for the TSA, Rod, and his character has more screen time at the end when he goes looking for Chris. But the ending did feel as rushed as the beginning portions were overlong. As far as the satire on race relations in America goes, I get it, but the movie within which it was contained just wasn't entertaining enough to make me care. On the whole I found it to be a disappointment, but I will be willing to see the sequel as long as Lil Rey Howery reprises his role as Rod Williams. 5/10
Just watched Logan for a second time (this time with my boys). If you haven't seen it yet, and you're a fan of the Marvel Universe, go now. I grew up reading X-Men in all their iterations, and we had all of the Wolverine comics from the first issue until sometime in 98. That little berserker fur ball runt was my favorite character of all, except Phoenix. Finally, on screen, we have the character the comic deserves. There are no dead spots in the film, and the pace is such you don't notice the length. Hands down, my favorite film in the Marvel Universe.
I was catching up on movies that got released in the year I was traveling. Holy shit, were Fantastic Four, Suicide Squad and Star Trek: Beyond bad movies. I figured at worst they'd be good for some entertainment, but Fantastic Four and Suicide Squad were boring as shit. And Star Trek? Really? Part of the charm of Star Trek has always been some essential plausibility of the technology or events. As stupid or incredible as anything was, at least it was often had some cheeky explanation that made it reasonable. Fuck. Blasting the Beastie Boys causes waves of starships to literally spontaneously explode? Who thought that shit up?
The Belko Experiment If you're like me and you go for purely entertaining over thought provoking then I don't think that you will be disappointed. There is nothing groundbreaking here, just 90 minutes of edge of your seat suspense. I also really liked John Gallagher, Jr. in the lead role, as well as most of the other actors. 8/10
Ghost in the Shell I liked the anime, and this wasn't a bad tribute to the original. ScarJo did a good job as Major, the background cast was surprisingly good and for 90% of the movie being in CGI, most of it was gorgeous. Also, the bad guy looked disturbingly like Paul Ryan. The good: music was good, cerebral without being over the top. ScarJo was fun to watch, the scenery was fantastic and the liberties they took in veering away from the original were understandable. The old Japanese guy is gangster as fuck. The bad: Spoiler: SPOILER There is a Goddamned lesbian scene with ScarJo and a hooker, and they pick a hooker that looks like Morgan Freeman cosplaying as Scary Spice and she erotically touches her....EYEBALL? WHAT THE FUCK? I get watering down the sexuality to get PG-13, but...fuck, something. Also, the allegory for the original was marriage and kids: the two cyborgs destroy each other fighting and merge into a kid. The cyber-terrorist (the Puppet Master in the original) is a lot more violent and thus his death is justified. In the original, he's only guilty of hacking and breaking a few arbitrary rules, so "marrying" or merging himself with the Major isn't that big of a deal. The action scenes were just not good. Too much CGI, too fast and too blurry. It just felt off. They left it sequel-friendly and as asexual as it could be, given the source material. If you liked the anime, it's worth it. If not, pass.
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 Laugh-a-minute sequel is devoured by the characters of Drax (Dave Batista) and Yondu (Michael Rooker) who alone make this film worth watching. Plenty of comic book Easter eggs (especially the endless outtakes during the credits) but film gets bogged down by a non-stop CGI-vomiting climax and a conclusion that stretched out almost as long as "Return of the King". Still great fun all the way (like the first, it's better than any Avengers movie except Ant-Man) with too much Cash and not enough Tango. 8/10
What is the plan with Howard the Duck? Are they just going to keep teasing us with him, or will we get to see a little more of our little obnoxious friend?
They are giving him his own movie, but they keep delaying it. It was signed on right after the first GOTG movie came out. The best Marvel teaser was the ultimate Infinity Gauntlet teaser at the end of GOTG Vol. 2: Spoiler Adam Warlock. Arch enemy of Thanos and Magus who were the villains who both controlled the gauntlet.
Alien:Covenant It was an alright movie. I enjoyed it a little more than Prometheus. Over all just too uneven to be a great film. Poor character development, which kind of bounces around main protagonists as people die off, and only David (Micheal Fassbender) is left with anything great. Some alright action but nothing that compares to the first two movies as far as quality. There is sort of a twist ending you see coming the moment it is set up near the middle of the third act. Sort of sad seing standard quality fare from a director that has brought so much briliance to film making. Nothing that would make it a perfect drunk Amazon purchase like I did the blu ray of the Alien Anthology set last week. 6/10
Baywatch. 5/10 I went knowing it wasn't going to be very good, but I like stupid funny. From the trailers I thought it might be stupid funny. It's not, it's just bad. All the actually funny parts were used in the trailers. The movie just seemed to flounder along through some kind of identity crisis. There was 100% more corpse penis than I needed to see, and 100% less Alexandra D'Addario naked titties than I needed to see.
Wonder Woman was fantastic. Good music, decently funny (these are comic book characters after all), Gal Gadot does a phenomenal job, and the whole movie wasn't ruined by the trailer. Keep in mind it's a comic book movie, and you'll have a good time. Also, the pre-showing ads are WAY more annoying for a movie that doesn't neatly fit one target audience or another.
I really liked it too. It was a great change of pace to have a female hero and not Brooding Dude #10000. Her acting is a little stiff, but whatever. I enjoyed it.
I loved Wonder Woman. I didn't love all the slomo crotch shots, but whatever. It was a cohesive story and moved well.
Baby Driver Do yourself a favor and go see this. Fantastic. The trailer hooked me, but there are parts I didn't expect. Action is the perfect pace and mix of tension-release. Kevin Spacey was the weakest part of the film, so that's saying something. Soundtrack is also dead on.
Spider-Man: Homecoming Excellent movie, and definitely in the Top 3 of all MCU films. The portrayal of Spider-Man was much better than the last two. It was nice seeing a hero actually enjoy being what he is instead stewing over some greater moral purpose. He's Spider-Man and he wants to be an Avenger, that's all it is and it works. The kid that played him was really good and Michael Keaton as Vulture is the best MCU villain since Loki. No grand scheme to take over the world and his motivations felt palapable. The twist in the third act came out of nowhere. It was funny and a pretty good story overall. 10/10