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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| Everybody Wants Some!! - Boys will be boys just isn't enough. |
Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)
Buy Everybody Wants Some!!
Written by: Richard Linklater
Directed by: Richard Linklater
Starring: Blake Jenner, Tyler Hoechlin, Ryan Guzman
Rated: R
Plot:
College baseball players enjoy the freedoms of college before the season and school year begins.
Verdict:
This a typical Linklater movie. It's a free form day in the life of Jake. There is no goal or obstacle, it just happens. The direct comparison is Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993), and that does the style better. It captures the coming of age moments better, and with better characters. I like Everybody Wants Some!! (2016), but it's missing the insight I expect from Linklater.
Watch it.
Review:
This is set in the '80s and has the cars and the music to match. Jake (Blake Jenner) is a college freshman baseball star. Baseball players are at the top of the college athlete hierarchy on campus and they all live together. The rules of the house are no alcohol and no girls, but of course both of those rules are broken within minutes.
It falls into the typical college party trope. These guys are chasing girls, drinking, or a bit of both. They don't play much baseball. There is only one baseball scene, the first practice of the season that occurs in the last half of the movie.
It's trying to capture the newfound freedom Jake has. He's linked to a bunch of overly macho guys with something to prove. Each one of them was a high school super star and now they are struggling to make the team. This never quote accomplishes what Dazed and Confused did, lacking the depth. The pieces are there, but it doesn't manifest. It doesn't capture enough of the special moments and all too often succumbs to the mantra of boys will be boys. The characters feel underdeveloped. We don't get a Wooderson, and Jake is no Mitch.
Linklater's previous film, Boyhood (2014), was a collection of scenes but the scope and progression formed a story. Everybody Wants Some!! only covers one weekend, compacting the typical college hi jinks fantasies into a few days. I couldn't help but wish the characters had something to do or even a goal. It has it's moments, and it's enjoyable on the whole but the characters fall into the typical tropes and are difficult to even distinguish during the first half. It's a good movie that's overshadowed by Linklater's previous output.
The final scene is Jake on his first day of class, having stayed up almost all night. He sits next to his teammate, the cliche dumb catcher. The professor writes a quote onto the board and you think Jake is inspired. He then puts his head on his desk and closes his eyes, a smile crossing his face. It's a great ending. Unfortunately this doesn't capture the first weekend of college in the same way Dazed captured the glory days of high school. Be sure to stick around through the credits for a cast rap.
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| Black Mass - Eerie makeup, forgettable movie. |
Buy Black Mass
Written by: Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth (screenplay), Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill (based on the book by)
Directed by: Scott Cooper
Starring: Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Edgerton, Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Jesse Plemons, Adam Scott
Rated: R
Plot:
Based on the true story of Whitey Bulger, brother of a state senator and one of the most violent criminals in Boston who became a kingpin once he turned FBI informant.
Verdict:
This wants to be a classic gangster film, but has nothing to say once you strip away the violence. Depp provides a good performance, though he often looks like a wax statue with facial prosthetics.
It depends.
Review:
Johnny Depp is in a mobster movie again as Whitey Bulger, but Donnie Brasco (1997) this isn't. Bulger became a crime kingpin when he collaborated with the FBI, getting them to take down his adversaries. It's a conflict that Bulger dismisses. He calls the arrangement business, but kills his own men that snitch.
Bulger doesn't give up much information if any, with Agent Connelly (Joel Edgerton) falsifying reports. Connelly tries to make himself look good and Bulger benign, but that catches up to him. Connelly sold his childhood connection to Bulger as a way to get information, but Connelly is the one that ends up getting burned.
Benedict Cumberbatch is Bulger's senator brother, but that relationship isn't explored and Cumberbatch is underused.
The movie lacks style and tension. It establishes and reiterates that Bulger is ruthless. It throws his son in the mix to try and show his fierce love, but it's only a half-hearted attempt. This could be a really good film, but it lacks focus. Depp does a good job, but his piercing blue eyes and extensive makeup cause him to look more like a zombie.
If this movie was framed around Connelly, it would be much more interesting. Connelly is completely dirty. We don't know if he intended to be or if Bulger pulled a fast one and turned him. When it's discovered Connelly's reports are fraudulent and he tries to stammer his way out, you don't feel bad for him. I was eagerly anticipating his moment of reckoning. Connelly, shocked at what happened tells Bulger, "You used me." How can he be surprised when he faked informant reports for Bulger? He knew Bulger wasn't giving up information. For all the crimes we saw Bulger commit, he goes on the run. It's true to the story, but underwhelming for the movie.
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| Fastball - For fans of the game. |
Buy Fastball
Watch Fastball on Netflix
Directed by: Jonathan Hock
Starring: Kevin Costner, Derek Jeter, Nolan Ryan
Rated: --/PG
Plot:
A look at baseball's most ferocious pitch, the fastball, with players, archival footage, and even scientists.
Verdict:
This will mean more to a fan of baseball, though surprisingly it has a fair amount of pseudo-science. This isn't an ESPN 30 for 30 that tells a compelling story. This is about one single pitch. The main question is who threw or throws the fastest and how do you approximate for the the pre-radar gun days. It comes to a conclusion with plenty of footage and interviews along the way.
It depends.
Review:
This is a fun romp through history. Hitting the fastball is difficult, and there's nothing like clocking triple digits in speed.
There have been many attempts to clock the fastest guys. Bob Feller threw a ball against a speeding motorcycle. Walter Johnson went to a military base and Bob Feller had a military contraption set up on the field. Aroldis Chapman clocked 105 on a modern radar gun.
There is a round table discussion at the Hall of Fame that includes George Brett and Tony Gwynn. Unfortunately, Gwynn doesn't say much and the segments are always short. It could have been a great segment, but it doesn't do much.
Fastball explores the myth of the rising fastball and the fastest that never was, Steve Dalkowski. Nolan Ryan is one of the last segments. This guy threw 150-170 pitches on average, many times 300 innings a year for 27 years. It's astounding when compared to today's limited pitch counts and concern for injury.
The movie concludes trying to definitively rank the fastest pitchers ever. It's an approximation for sure, you'll have to check it out to see who threw the hottest heater.
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| 1408 - A great premise yet squandered potential. |
Buy 1408
Written by: Matt Greenberg and Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski (screenplay), Stephen King (short story)
Directed by: Mikael Håfström
Starring: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack
Rated: PG-13
Plot:
A paranormal skeptic stays in a haunted hotel room.
Verdict:
This creates a great mood with plenty of unsettling scenes, but the character and his background is cliche. This feels like a budget homage to The Shining (1980), and that's not a compliment. Instead of a haunted house, this is a haunted room. The great premise comes up short with an unsatisfying conclusion.
Skip it.
Review:
Mike Enslin (John Cusack) doesn't believe in haunted houses, but visits them anyway to generate stories for his haunted places book.
A mysterious post card leads him the Dolphin Hotel and room 1408. The hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson) tries to talk him out of staying, even bribing him, but Mike is intent despite the fifty-six deaths that have occurred in the room. Jackson plays the character well, but it doesn't feel like a real person would act that way. He keeps a dossier of all the deaths in the room?
1408 does a great job of making the mood creepy. Strange things occur, but Mike tries to explain it away. His explanations quickly fall short. It starts small and slowly builds with a few jump scares, but the best moments are the small moments. You don't know the extent of the room. Mike has a single window to the outside world, but even when he throws a lamp out the window it disappears in mid air. There is a great moment where Mike sees a person through a window in the building across the street. The person's face is obscured and Mike slowly realizes he's looking into a mirror. The other person, mimicking his movements.
A great ending could really make this movie, instead it goes in a few different directions and all of them are ineffective. We get the it was all just a dream trope before things start repeating and it turns into a dream within a dream. Mike never left room 1408.
The Netflix ending is the first alternate ending. That is what's on the DVD release. It's not the ending shown in theaters. In the theater ending, Mike is rescued by firefighters and reconciles with his ex-wife. He regards the experience as a bad dream until he finds his tape recorder which proves the experience was real.
This ending sounds better than the Netflix conclusion, a muddled mess with no impact and a cheap jump scare. Paring down the scope to a single room is a good move, but the writing betrays this.
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