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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| Spectre -Another uninspired Bond film. |
Watch Spectre
Written by: John Logan and Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Jez Butterworth (screenplay) John Logan and Neal Purvis & Robert Wade (story), Ian Fleming (characters)
Directed by: Sam Mendes
Starring: Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux
Rated: PG-13
Plot:
James Bond is back in the twenty-fourth installment of the franchise, this time battling the sinister organization Spectre, a group with plans to implement global surveillance.
Verdict:
Spectre is ultimately an empty shell of a movie. It's less a spy movie and more some kind of super hero movie. That or spy fantasy wish fulfillment. This checks the boxes of what should be in a modern James Bond movie. We've got the action packed introduction, animated credits to open the film, cars, women, a torture scene, gadgets, and lots of action, but it was never as clever or as engaging as it should have been. I want James Bond to be clever and witty, relying on intellect and his team of associates. That never happens. As with most big budget movies, this is just a collection of large set pieces and explosions.
Skip it.
Review:
This is the most expensive James Bond movie ever produced. All of this money was thrown at the movie for big sets, big action, big stars... and that's the problem. This movie is a collection of disjointed pieces that never come together to form a fully coherent movie. Sure it looks nice, but a lower budget Bond film would have to rely on clever solutions to make it work instead of resorting to the checkbook. A low budget movie would have to push strong dialog and character development instead of one big explosion after another.
All movies want to make money and turn a profit, but many of them are made because there is a story to be told. Bond films are now cranked out regularly, not because we need another one, not because there is more to Bond's story, but just to make money. The movie checks a bunch of boxes on the James Bond list, signs a big check and this is the result. It's not engaging and it's disappointing.
The introduction is great, with a near seamless tracking shot of Bond in costume at the Day of the Dead festival transitioning to Bond in a suit on a mission after bad guys.
We soon get our first big explosion and a lot of CGI that looked like CGI. Bond fights in a helicopter, and during the fight the helicopter begins flying inverted. I questioned the realism, but apparently some helicopters can fly inverted, but only for a brief moment.
The animated opening credits are underwhelming. I'm still a fan of the Casino Royale (2006) credits. The story is painfully by the numbers. Agent 007 is going rogue to save the world. We get to see Bond's home which is rather barren and unkempt.
Bond seduces the widow of the man he killed in the helicopter fight on the day of his funeral. By seduce I mean he looks at her and she melts in his arms. Unrealistic is an understatement. Bond is never realistic, but this strains even those boundaries, and it's not even entertaining. I can forgive Bond for a tenuous grasp on realism as long as it's entertaining.
Spectre is the big shadow organization villain, and it's used to tie the previous villains in the last few movies together in one organization. Bond almost shoots a mouse inside a hotel, though I couldn't begin to say why. The mouse leads him to the next plot point of the movie.
The movie contains a scene with Bond in a tuxedo with an arguably hot girl half his age on a train. I don't know who's fantasy this scene fulfills, but I'm sure someone is thankful for it.
Bond fights Dave Bautista's character in a rather bland fight that concludes with a poor attempt at an emotionally manipulative scene that was just set up in the previous scene.
The b-side plot is a young executive in charge of a surveillance program wants to shut down the double zero program, claiming hand to hand and assassins are old school and outdated. It feels like unnecessary drama when the movie should just focus on Bond's mission. It's pure fluff. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015) did the same thing with IMF on the verge of being disbanded and it didn't work there either. This b-plot does tie into Bond's mission eventually as part of a grand conspiracy, but it's clumsy.
The big conspiracy is that Spectre funded and created the need for surveillance program. It's one of their men that wants to shut down the double zero program.
Bond is given the choice to save the girl or save himself. As it always happens in almost every movie with this choice, Bond decides to save both himself AND the girl and succeeds. Big surprise there.
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| The Watchmen - The best graphic novel inspired movie. |
Watch The Watchmen
Read The Watchmen (graphic novel)
Written by: David Hayter and Alex Tse (screenplay), Dave Gibbons (graphic novel illustrator), Alan Moore (graphic novel, uncredited)
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Rated: R
Plot:
Inspired by the graphic novel of the same name and set in an alternate timeline 1985, super heroes are outlawed. Vigilante Rorschach begins investigating the murder of a former super hero, in a case that has global implications.
Verdict:
The story and the ultimate questions are incredible. At what cost should we seek world peace? This story is set in a fully realized world where Nixon is on his third term and the tension with Russia could lead to a nuclear war. This movie looks great, some scenes an exact recreation from the comic.
Watch it.
Review:
I've seen this movie before, and I really like it. It took over a decade to finally make this movie with potential director Terry Giliam calling it unfilmable. The movie had a number of directors attached before Zach Snyder got the job after 300 (2007).
This movie is a reflection of just how great Alan Moore is. After seeing this movie the first time, I watched it again a few days later and then bought the graphic novel.
All of the characters are flawed, some are completely unlikable, but you can understand, or begin to understand, their convictions. It's a deconstruction of super heroes, a glimpse into how many ways you could split it. Vigilantes can be sociopaths, justice warriors, attention seekers, or completely alien. This movie examines the possibilities and the kinds of people that resort to vigilante justice.
Rorschach is uncompromising, valuing justice, but now the law, above all else. He doesn't even like people. Someone has to make criminals pay, and he's decided he is the one. He investigates a former super heroes death, The Comedian. The Comedian was a sociopath, a Vietnam veteran who revels in death and destruction and kills at will.
Rorschach's former partner is Nite Owl. An insecure man, the opposite of Bruce Wayne, but very similar to Batman with high tech gadgets.
Ozymandias wants to lead The Watchmen and save the world. After super heroes are banned, he reveals his identity and turns it into a wealthy business.
The world building is excellent, providing layers of nuance. This world doesn't stop at the edges of the screen, it continues indefinitely. It explores the political and socioeconomic settings, providing a living world as a backdrop
The introduction is one of the best for any movie. It's a slow motion montage of super heroes and politicians against Bob Dylan's The Times Are A Changin' .That montage tells us how history diverged from what we know, how vigilante super heroes came to prominence, saved America, and how Nixon later outlawed them. It covers a lot of information in just a few minutes.
The Watchmen is visually striking, taking ample inspiration from the comic, at times the scenes lifted directly from the panel.
One of the first questions the movie asks is, "Who watches the Watchmen?" The Watchmen were an uneasy alliance of heroes formed before vigilantism was outlawed. In graphic novels, the super hero reigns supreme, unchecked except by a villain.
It's a super hero that's the villain in this film. That's one of the last questions in the movie. Is it acceptable to lie and kill if the result is world peace? Or does a super hero have an obligation to always tell the truth, a truth that would send the world into chaos or worse yet, nuclear winter.
It's that question that left me pondering long after the movie ended.
The protagonist of the movie isn't always a hero. If you kill a thousand people to save the lives of a million, does that make you good or bad?
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| The Perfect Storm - Everything goes wrong. |
Watch The Perfect Storm
Written by: Sebastian Junger (book), William D. Wittliff (screenplay)
Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen
Starring: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane, John C. Reilly, William Fichtner, John Hawkes, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Rated: PG-13
Plot:
In this disaster fishing movie everything goes wrong for the crew of the Andrea Gale. A man overboard, a shark, broken radios, and yes, even a perfect storm. Everything that can go wrong does. Even catching a great haul of fish turns out to be their detriment.
Verdict:
I wanted just a little bit more from this. It's not without faults, but it is entertaining. Everything goes wrong, almost comically so. It's technically impressive, mimicking a stormy ocean very well. What it lacks in emotion it makes up for in scale and scope.
Watch it.
Review:
I saw this before, not long after it released. A group of hard luck fisherman just can't catch a break.
The fishing town and bar is highly stylized. Despite just returning to port, I don't think there would be an overabundance of exuberance, especially when the fishing has been so poor. It doesn't matter how long they've been out to sea.
They need fish and the Captain (George Clooney) wants to go out one more time, immediately, and further than they've gone before because they need the money. It's setting it up for the obvious disaster and conclusion, a big storm! The title of the movie is pretty clear about what happens.
Either the meteorologist the movie frequently shows is a savant, Clooney just doesn't follow the weather, or the movie is just manipulative so they end up in a storm. It seems like this could have been avoided altogether if Clooney had turned on The Weather Channel.
Fishing is pretty slow until, SHARK ATTACK! The men are getting restless but Clooney is a fish finder and no one is to second guess him.
The movie is incredibly overwrought. We know what's going to happen, and this movie is a long tease with the finesse of a sledgehammer. Everything goes wrong and the crew makes poor decisions for the promise of a big haul and lots of money. It's money over sense every time, and they decide to drive through the storm instead of playing it safe. What's the worst that could happen, right?
There are a lot of side stories. There's an arrogant sailboat captain, frequent shots of shipping boats tossing in the waves, a weatherman that underscores that this is the storm of the century, the Coastguard, the family of the ship's crew back at the bar, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as a ship's captain. Juggling all these stories, lessens the tension of what's happening on Clooney's boat. I never felt the hopelessness that I did in All is Lost (2013), despite the dire situation.
The Coastguard helicopter rescues three people, lands on an aircraft carrier, but decides to refuel in midair on it's way to save Clooney during a hurricane. That doesn't work out. Who would have guessed?
During the climactic storm, you wonder if Clooney's crew will make it, but the answer quickly becomes apparent. The movie throws in the trope that the Captain must stay with the ship. Why? They could have had him try to save the trapped crew. I suppose the crew are all resigned to their fate, but they seemed rather calm despite the situation.
The boats in the oceans and the storms look great. It really looks like a hurricane. I wonder how they made this. I'm sure it's a blend of practical and CGI, but it's held up really well.
I really like the score, but the feature piece is used too often. Not every conversation needs over dramatic music.
Read my Confirmation review
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| Lilo & Stitch -Touching and sweet. |
Watch Lilo & Stitch
Written by: Chris Sanders (idea), Chris Sanders &Dean DeBlois (written by)
Directed by: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders
Starring: Daveigh Chase, Chris Sanders, Tia Carrere
Rated: PG
Plot:
A little girl adopts a dog that happens to be an alien, hunted by his creators.
Verdict:
It tackles a mature story, a little girl on the brink of being taken by social services. It delivers laughs and touching moments alike when the little girl adopts a really ugly dog that is actually an alien hunted by its people.
Watch it.
Review:
It's hard to blend serious themes, comedy, and drama, but Lilo & Stitch does it effortlessly.
It's self referential and dark for a children's movie. Lilo is a rambunctious child from a broken family and doesn't fit in . Stitch is an alien bred for war, an experiment gone wrong. Aliens are battling to reclaim the escaped Stitch, while keeping their existence a secret from humans.
The advanced aliens must keep Earth intact as they use it for a wild life preserve for mosquitoes. It's comical, but that joke comes back at the end and is even better.
Lilo's sister is trying her best to make ends meet and provide an appropriate home life for Lilo, but a social worker is threatening to take Lilo away, and with good cause. The sister is trying to make it work and find a job, while trying to tame Lilo. It's not the typical animated prince and princesses story.
The social worker is atypical, and you wonder throughout the movie if there is more to him than we're told.
The jump from the humans seeing and then trusting that aliens exist was odd, but it works for a cartoon where humans believe an alien dressed as a woman passes for human without question.
The recurring theme of never leaving family behind leads to the climactic fight to save Lilo.
The ending is really well done, bringing the themes and even jokes from the very beginning back and making them even better. The movie's theme is that people or kids that are different aren't bad. The movie even references The Ugly Duckling. Sometimes fitting in is just about finding the right people.
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| Buffalo '66 - It's... different. |
Watch Buffalo '66
Written by: Vincent Gallo (story), Vincent Gallo & Alison Bagnall (screenplay)Directed by: Vincent Gallo
Starring: Vincent Gallo, Christina Ricci, Ben Gazzara, Mickey Rourke, Anjelica Huston
Rated: R
Plot:
Billy gets out of prison, kidnaps a girl, visits his parents while forcing said girl to pose as his wife, and then plans to kill a strip club owner.
Verdict:
This is definitely an indie movie, in both style and content. Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) is insecure and pathetic. For most of the movie you actively root against him. You never know what's going to happen. While the ending is traditional, it's wholly unexpected. It's a good character you love to hate in a strange film.
It depends.
Review:
The opening is unique. A convict fresh out of jail is just trying to find a place to use the bathroom. This escalates to Billy kidnapping a girl to further the lie he told his family, that he's in the CIA. For whatever reason, the girl (Christina Ricci) goes along with it.
He forces her into her own car, but he can't drive a standard car, despite the fact that he engaged the clutch to start the car. I couldn't figure out if there was something wrong with Ricci's character or if she was just scared. She agrees to pose as his wife and never attempts to escape.
Billy's parents aren't interested in him. It's more than disappointment, they don't seem to realize he's even there. They don't remember him growing up and were cruel during his childhood. Are they repressing the memories, not remembering, or do they just not care? I almost wonder if it's just Billy's perception, but that doesn't quite fit.
Billy's father claims to be a great singer and just lip syncs a song, it's an absurd moment. This movie is part dark comedy.
Billy told his kidnap victim to make him look good, and while she does her best it ends up with the parents liking her and still ignoring Billy. Billy is mad at her even though it isn't her fault. Billy's a jerk, blaming everyone else for his problems. He's insecure. We later realize the fake name he gave the girl is the name of a high school crush. He's tried to fabricate a life that doesn't exist. When this fake life crumbles, he lashes out.
It was a nice touch with his family watching a rerun of a football game that flashed backward in time. It's the same game Billy made a big bet on, a bet he couldn't pay when he lost. He admitted to a crime he didn't commit since he couldn't pay the bookie which is how he ended up in jail.
The climax was well done with a good use of freeze frame, pulling back to reveal what really happened. It's a unique story, with a few editing techniques I had never seen.
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