I watch movies every week and then write down my thoughts. Read my previous reviews!
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it.
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| Southpaw - Filling the boxing movie void between Rocky and The Great White Hype. |
Watch Southpaw
Written by: Kurt Sutter
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams, Forest Whitaker, Oona Laurence
Rated: R
Plot:
The unexpected death of a boxer's wife upends his life as he loses everything he has, including his daughter. He struggles to rebuild his life from nothing to get back his daughter.
Review:
The directing and visuals in this film are really good. Director Antoine Fuqua is best know for Training Day with Denzel Washington, and from the very start I liked the raw mood he conveys. The movie is dark and bleak, and this movie earns the R rating within seconds.
The writing is the weak point for this film. The script is from Kurt Sutter, creator of the television series Sons of Anarchy and writer for The Shield.
While Gyllenhaal does a good job bringing Billy Hope to life, the shortcomings are beyond his control. Gyllenhaal packs a lot of nuance into his performance, from how Hope speaks to interacting with others, but that falls short because there isn't enough foundation for this character. An actor, even Gyllenhaal, can't fix that. Billy Hope's struggle, like the climax of this movie feels shallow. We know how the movie will end, and while it didn't check off every trope from a final fight in a boxing movie, it did hit the most glaring trope. At least he didn't pick himself up off the ropes with a surge of energy like some kind of automated boxing machine.
The timeline in this movie felt off. Hope's downward spiral would have been more convincing if he slowly lost his life pieces at a time. I'm left wondering how he loses everything in what could be a few weeks. The movie tries to explain it through a lawyer, but it feels tacked on and unconvincing. I never felt like Hope reached bottom, despite the movie telling me otherwise. The he's a janitor, this is the bottom plot point felt awkward. This could have been done better. Make me feel it, don't tell me I should feel it.
The timing plays into his triumph having less impact. We see him break down in really overt ways, and I wish the movie had explored him breaking down with more subtlety. Everything happens quickly, making it seem like he wasn't down and out very long.
In the Rocky series, Stallone had a reason to win each fight, in this movie the stakes aren't that high. Hope needs money, and he'll get that just for fighting, so what's the point of him winning?
There are a few other logic hurdles like the incident involving his wife that is the jump point for this movie, and his buddy who wears a watch more expensive than his car (and probably house).
I also didn't appreciate the emotionally manipulative moments involving the daughter. A touching moment shouldn't feel manufacture red with this kind of story.
Verdict:
It's not a bad movie. It has great performances, direction, and it looks good, but it falls closer to The Great White Hype than Rocky. While Gyllenhal's performance is just as good as anything in The Fighter, we need more story and that's something neither an actor nor director can fix.
It depends.
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| Poltergeist - An unnecessary remake. |
Watch Poltergeist
Written by: David Lindsay-Abaire (screenplay), based on the 1982 motion picture Poltergeist screenplay by Steven Speilberg & Michael Grais & Mark Victor, based on the 1982 motion picture Poltergeist story by Steven Speilberg
Directed by: Gil Kenan
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Rosemarie Dewitt
Rated: PG-13
Plot:
A classic movie of the same name remade. A family buys a house, but they don't realize it's built on top of a cemetery until the walls are shaking, the earth is quaking, and their minds are aching. They (and the house) shook all night long.
Review:
Let's get this out of the way up front, there is no good reason to see this movie. The reason I watched it is because of Sam Rockwell. I'm a big fan, but
Great moments of tension were crafted that resulted in good jumps, but early on the sound design really bugged me. Things didn't sound right or there was too much noise for an action. I usually don't even notice sound, but this was obnoxious. Because of that I paid more attention to sound for the rest of the movie. Based on how loud the floor creaks, the house could implode at any moment. Walking across a room generates as much sounds as a construction crew.
There was a lot of setup while the movie got started and a lot of that was poor decisions. When you have to rely on dumb decisions from characters, the writing is troubled. If I woke up in the middle of the night to my kid hearing voices from the static of the television and electronics going haywire, I'd do more than go back to sleep. The family doesn't seem upset enough, or the father is in denial. Their kid gets sucked into a television and Sam Rockwell's character is nonplussed.
A paranormal investigator is shoehorned into the plot, and it might as well have been a priest from The Exorcist. That would have felt more grounded. A feeble explanation is attempted, but it doesn't land.
I don't get why the movie relies on dumb decisions, when smart decisions that made sense could have been utilized. A guy's drill gets sucked into the wall at alarming speed. He reaches into the wall for it for no explicable reason whatsoever (other than to annoy the audiences I assume). He then screams at the top of his lungs, but no one hears him. Once he's released, and I don't know why, he rejoins the group and acts as if nothing has happened? Why?
The parents belittle their son for being scared, but he had a rabid squirrel loose in his room, crazy clown dolls appeared in his room, the parents decorated his room with these crazy clowns, and he's a middle child which is probably why his parents neglect him.
I wondered if the movie was going to imply it was all in his mind, which would be a stretch since the movie established this isn't imagination, but it didn't imply that. It just left that loose thread dangling.
The ending was unsatisfying. As the family is about to leave the house, I'm thinking how the poltergeist is still there and they are just going to leave it. Which is interesting, but no, they just forgot about it momentarily. Them leaving the poltergeist in the rear view would have been a better ending.
Verdict:
When characters make dumb decisions just for the sake of the plot, that's a clue the writing is bad. I liked the Van Helsing character despite how campy that felt, but the actor didn't have the gravitas necessary for the role. This could have been a good movie, which makes it all the more disappointing.
Skip it.
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