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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| The Hateful Eight -Absolutely incredible, though a bit long. |
Watch The Hateful Eight
Written by: Quentin Tarantino
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen
Rated: R
Plot:
Trapped in a cabin during a blizzard, bounty hunters, a bounty, a sheriff, a hangman, a rancher, and more must survive each other.
Verdict:
This movie is incredible. The script is amazing and the acting is sublime. It's such an incredibly well made movie where everything comes together so well. I regret I didn't see it in the theater. I want to rewatch immediately but at nearly three hours, that's not so easy. The last hour wasn't quite as good as the first, with a few decisions I found odd. It lost the momentum and tension the movie had been building.
Watch it.
Review:
Showing off the 70mm film in the first few shots, the movie has a distinct and dated look. Even the credits and music mimic a spaghetti western. The music is very good.
The acting and dialog is phenomenal. How can you not like a Kurt Russell in a western? Just twenty minutes in, I felt like I was watching a masterpiece.
A movie set for the most part in one room needs the dialog to carry, and this dialog, with the actors does. This is a one upmanship of which actor can outshine the others. Goggins always nails it and is impressive here. Nearly every actor in this could have been nominated for an acting award. This may be Tarantino's seminal work.
Kurt Russell and Samuel L. Jackson play bounty hunters headed to Red Rock. Russell has a bounty in tow, played by Jennifer Leigh cook. Goggins is proclaiming to be the new sheriff of Red Rock, though Russell claims he's a liar. The hang man of Red Rock is also in the cabin, with the stagecoach driver, the cabin's caretaker, an elderly Confederate general, and rancher.
The movie isn't without levity, with Confederate general played by Bruce Dern communicating to Jackson through Goggins, playing a game will you inform him, and will you tell him this, when the two men are standing right next to each other.
The question of the proprietor Minnie's location propels suspicion.
I regret I didn't see this in theaters, even if I wouldn't have been able to see the 70mm road show version. The film's distributors spent a million dollars to retrofit theaters and train projectionists to show the movie in the native 70mm format. Vintage cameras had to be sourced, as this format hasn't been used in decades.
The looming blizzards intensifies the level of danger and the feeling that anything could happen. The camera work is notable.
The last quarter begins with a narration from Tarantino. I didn't understand why. Is it so he could continue his cameo in every film he makes? The narration as intrusive and added nothing. It's easy to tell what's happening by watching the screen. The narration does point out a plot element that may have been missed, but it still felt like the wrong way to provide that information.
The movie becomes more mystery than thriller as we try to determine who betrayed the group.
It's difficult to keep such an intense pace for three hours after an intense shootout the movie delves into a bit of backstory that I found unnecessary. It's not bad, but it really slows down the relentless pace of the movie. It never regained the intense focus from the first two hours.
The ending is bleak, and not without surprises.
This is the same film that when an actor leaked the script a few years ago, Tarantino said he wouldn't make it. I'm glad he relented.
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| Carol - Love, life, and loss. |
Watch Carol
Written by: Phyllis Nagy (screenplay), Patricia Highsmith (novel)
Directed by: Todd Haynes
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Kyle Chandler
Rated: R
Plot:
Therese falls for an older woman Carol.
Verdict:
Carol is a love story, and it never focuses on the fact that it's a love story between two females. Mara and Blanchett do a fantastic job and the script is well written. While it feels very real, that also makes the movie a slow burn.
It depends.
Review:
This is in the same vein as Todd Haynes previous film Far From Heaven (2002), both films are set in the '50s and depict a socially forbidden relationship.
Therese is enamored with Carol upon first sight. They meet, and despite the awkwardness of their visits, Therese keeps seeing Carol. Therese is young and just following Carol's lead. Carol has a daughter and a strenuous relationship with her daughter's husband. She finds somebody she likes, and somebody that likes her back in Therese.
As Carol and Therese pull together, it pulls them away from their other relationships. Therese has no one she can talk to about it. Carol is isolating her, and in turn is becoming the person Therese talks to.
While it feels accurate, the pace is slow. Therese and Carol drift apart, and meet once again in the movie's climax. It's very well done.
I've seen all of best picture Oscar nominees save for Bridge of Spies, and this has been the most underwhelming. If you like the romance genre and love stories, I'm sure you'll enjoy this more than I did.
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| Man Up - More like movie down. |
Watch Man Up
Written by: Tess Morris
Directed by: Ben Palmer
Starring: Lake Bell, Simon Pegg, Ophelia Lovibond
Rated: R
Plot:
Jack mistakes Nancy for his blind date. It's the wrong date, but it may be the right match.
Verdict:
This movie combines and recycles the common rom-com tropes producing nothing original or interesting. There was a brief moment where it broke from reality, and not in the sense that dialog and characters aren't realistic but something actually that might make for a solid ending, but the break was only temporary. If you're expecting funny Simon Pegg, this is not the movie.
Skip it.
Review:
The first scene is Lake Bell talking into a mirror. It's not original or funny, it's just depressing how bad this movie is in just a couple of minutes. This movie could have been framed so much better. Why would I want to see a movie with weepy Simon Pegg? I want comedy. Towards the end, he's making a frantic dash to find this girl. He's dropped off at the wrong location by Sean, who had a childhood crush on Nancy, but finds someone at a teenage party for whom Nancy babysitted. It's senseless but it leads to everyone at this teenage party running down the street, following him on this quest. It's ridiculous but at least it was entertaining. It only lasted a few minutes before coming back to the mind numbing drivel that is this movie. The whole movie should have been Pegg trying to find the girl and encountering various situations and characters. That would have been utilized his talents.
Nancy's sister calls her after she has just met Jack. Jack assumes it's a rescue call, answers and tells Nancy's sister everything is okay, and he's not a psycho. How does Nancy's sister write that off?
It took so long for Simon Pegg to appear in the movie, I wondered if he was just a supporting character. I hoped he could this movie bearable. He doesn't.
Every situation is recycled from other movies in the genre. The blind date mix up may be the only unique idea in this, and that's probably from an obscure rom-com I just haven't seen.
The dialog is bad. It tries to bring a couple of things full circle in an attempt to be clever that fail. It's not particularly funny despite my expectations with a Simon Pegg movie.
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