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Showing posts with label written-reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label written-reviews. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
"Peter, these are the years when a man changes into the man he's gonna become the rest of his life. Just be careful who you change into." The Spider-Man film franchise began in 2002 and has hit the age of identity crisis. It's gone in three separate directions this year, with Avengers: Infinity War, Venom, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but that's how this empire should run. It's leagues better than when one Spider-Man movie tries to do it all, like when Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2, each attempted that.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is directed by Bob Persichetti, Rise of the Guardian's Peter Ramsey (he's finally back), and Rodney Rothman, and written by Rotham and Phil Lord, and they set out to tell the tale "one last time," seven more times...sorta. When The Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) opens a wormhole that teleports other Spideys into Mile Morales' (Shameik Moore) dimension, he has to use his new powers to help send them home before the wormhole becomes unstable.

Telling Miles' story could backfire simply for being yet another Spider-Man origin onscreen, for being another superhero origin, so the filmmakers are smart to speed through the familiar cliff notes of getting his powers and giving him some villains to fight within the first ten minutes. A lasting moment from this intro is Miles exchanging "good mornings" and secret handshakes with a crowd of old classmates, on his way to a new prep school. Rotham and Lord knock Miles down a peg with the new school (and the inescapable woes of adolescence), but he's built up well as the more outgoing and adventurous Anti-Puny-Parker.

This is his story through and through, and the other Spider-People partnering up with Miles luckily reinforces that, mostly to the film's benefit. Into the Spider-Verse features a classic, but worn down, schlubbier, and (at last) adult version of Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), Gwen Stacy, the Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider Noir (Nicolas Cage), from the pulpy 1930s, Peni Parker and her spider-co-piloted robot (Kimiko Glenn), and, finally, Spider-Ham/Peter Porker (John Mulaney), who remarkably doesn't just predate The Simpsons Movie, but the show too. Except for Spider-Woman and Jake Johnson's version of Peter, most of visiting Spiders aren't explored too deeply. They're given more than one-liners, but it's really just a promise of what'll come in the sequels. The one-liners are fantastic though. Cage especially steals his scenes with a put-on New York accent, reference to egg-creams, and a passing mention of the "moral ambiguity of your violent actions." Billy Wilder would be proud.

Finally, the animation in Into the Spider-Verse is a long time in coming for the studio, for the genre, for film. There hasn't been a literal, visual adaptation of a comic in a while (except for Captain Underpants), but now the bar's been raised for other movies that want to try it. While it's not relying on a heavy outline style, probably because that would fill the screen too much, the modern visual storytelling in comics is on full display. 2D animation is utilized throughout the movie, and ranges from re-creating comic panels, to Peni's anime style, to the ludicrous antics of Spider-Ham. Text boxes, onomatopoeias, and speech bubbles also highlight how upside-down Miles's world is about to become, but he'll get used to being upside when getting the drop on villains, so it's all good.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a return to where the franchise began writing-wise, with the (typically forgotten) heart of the second generation of Spidey films. As (pile of garbage) Nostalgia Critic, Doug Walker, has mentioned, the Raimi Trilogy featured the same plot structure used in Into the Spider-Verse. The movie doesn't spread itself too thin with unnecessary characters, plot points, or an inflated runtime and budget. But that just means the movie is functional. They also salvaged the message of the Webb films and made it more important than ever. "Anyone can wear the mask. You can wear the mask." Try it on.

4/5

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Sunday, September 23, 2018

Sorry to Bother You (2018)

Tessa Thompson as Detroit
When does "It's all bullshit" turn into complacency and complicity? Boots Riley's debut doesn't offer an easy answer, but through the absurd, he reminds people what normal is and that what people do in their lives matters.

Cassius "Cash" Green (Lakeith Stanfield) finds the only job he can get, telemarketing for RegalView, but, naturally he starts with getting hung up on. That is until this black man develops his "white voice" (dubbed by David Cross), starts hitting that quota hard, and the ball starts rolling.

Riley starts off with a fast script that pushes Cash from the cubicle to the private office quickly, but it's a fun ride as calls literally drop Cash and his desk into the homes, and dinner times, of his customers. Riley makes the smart choice of keeping the two parties on the line disconnected. They're not looking at each other, but at their phones, and in Cash's case his call script, just trying to get what they need from each other. A little commerce never hurt anybody.

Except that it could. As Cash moves up and starts getting supervised by a Mr. [Bleep] (Omari Hardwick and white voice dubbed by Patton Oswalt), the means of production are peeled back and reality sets in. It puts Cash and the audience in an understandable position. How long and how hard are people willing to work in an exploitive industry, in an exploitive, unjust world?

Sorry to Bother You will age gracefully, if it ages at all, but it is very much a Post-Trump film that examines what's been accepted over the last two years. For all the fighting on the front-lines people are doing, others are crossing picket lines because being poor is worse than being harassed by rioters. Cash is able to maintain his connection with the audience because of Stanfield's performance and those around him, especially his girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson). She's a fully fleshed out character, with lines she will cross and lines she won't, and she knows what it takes to stand up for something. She lights up the screen with a great look that reflects needed rebellion in times of modern, compromised-based, millennial hardship.

Tessa Thompson as Detroit
From the tv spots made after the movie initially came out. | Copyright 2018 Annapurna and Disney/Fox

The costumes in Sorry to Bother You are very distinct, with standout suits, performance art pieces worn by Detroit, an eyepatch, the works. With cinematographer Doug Emmett, Riley speaks volumes through what's just in-frame. He's shouting, but not screaming, the audience picks up what they're comfortable with. For instance, some will notice that sets may have a Get Out vibe. Hallways often feel claustrophobic and there's rarely room for characters to breathe in these places. And when there is room, it's because Cash is in the center of that room, with all eyes gazing, curious about his next move. Others will have something else in mind. Sit back, enjoy it, but please come away with something.

On Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, after the 2016 election, Oliver said "Keep reminding yourself this is not normal," knowing that not everyone would be directly affected by the coming policy changes. Riley is saying the same thing, but bringing it to the neighborhoods because it was only a matter of time until everyone was affected. After the madness passes, will things become and stay normal or will the cycle just restart?

For people feeling frustrated with the world around them, watch Sorry to Bother You. If it stirs up anything more than the laughs it promises, run with that. At least talk about it with someone


4.5/5

This is a near masterpiece.

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Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Peyton Reed, Paul Rudd, and Evangeline Lily Note: This review was a special request by Marianne Brody. 

Peyton Reed's Ant-Man and the Wasp is the continuation of both Ant-Man and Captain America: Civil War. With a lot of catching up to do, and very little that could just be swept under the rug, Ant-Man and the Wasp writes itself into corners. As quickly as the title characters grow and shrink, the movie impressively writes itself out of those corners, and apart from the original.

Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has been under house arrest since helping Captain America and Falcon in Germany, and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lily) have cut ties with Scott and have been laying low because the FBI sees them and their tech as national security threats. All three have to come out in the open when they discover a way into the Quantum Realm to save the original Wasp, Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer). Once they're exposed, everyone comes after them. FBI agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), Ava Starr/ Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and Hank's old partner Bill Foster/Ghost (Laurence Fishburne), and a black market tech dealer named Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins), form a busy, but dynamic, rogues gallery.

Peyton Reed, Paul Rudd, and Evangeline Lily
Behind the Scenes: Peyton Reed, Paul Rudd, and Evangeline Lily | Copyright 2019 Marvel/Disney

Ant-Man and The Wasp acknowledges what's come before in the MCU, giving the universe real weight and consequences. However, it also starts the movie out on the wrong foot. There's a mean-spiritedness to the trio's early scenes together, and it's made worse when considering that Scott at least was fighting against Tony and Sokovia Accords, something they'd support on principle. Hank and Hope take every possible jab they can at Scott, joking about his (lack of a) relationship with "Cap," his lack of knowledge about the Quantum Realm, even a bit about his house arrest, until they can't anymore When it starts feeling old, the original Ant-Man humor and chemistry opens back up like a window. 

There's one joke in Cassie's, Scott's daughter, (Abby Ryder Fortson) school to bring the band back together. It's because of something that could've happened to any of them (even Hank who gets his hands dirty this time), is temporary, and just works as a great gag in general. The movie really gets moving after this, and is even able to pull it off one more time during one of the last action scenes. 

This is not an action-heavy movie, but the fights are pretty fun and, once five noticeable seconds of car manufacturer product placement is out of the way, the chases are even better. A lot of time is spent with the heroes instead. Yellowjacket, from last time, may have been the bald boardroom member to break the camel's back for corporate MCU villains, even though he may have been one of the underrated ones. This time, every bad guy except Sonny Burch is empathetic and just trying to do their best with given circumstances. Goggins' character actually feels pretty unnecessary compared to the others, but he gives a good performance.

Both movies have had a greedy jerk escape and/or survive at the end. If the MCU wants to take a stab at the Sinister Six, just with Ant-Man and his rogues, they're setting it up well. Here and now though, there's no disgustingly evil villain, there's (mostly) just people trying to get by or, in Ava's case, survive. It's reflected in the trio as well, and in Scott's other cronies, who have now gone legit. Yes, Michael Peña is back as Luis, cranked up to eleven, and he's cranking everyone else up with him. 

The best parts of the fights are when characters are caught off guard. The best and the worst parts of Ant-Man and the Wasp are when the audience is caught off guard. Hang in there for those best parts. 

3.5/5


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Saturday, June 30, 2018

Marvel's Runaways: "Reunion" (Pilot)

Marvel's Runaways
Does Marvel's Cinematic Universe really need another show that will the expand the world, but actually only mention the Avengers in passing, if at all? Probably not, but after binging the Netflix shows, the variety from this one on Hulu is incredibly refreshing. Mix the MCU, The Breakfast Club, and some identity politics (because that sounds better than saying "woke"), and what pops out is surprisingly a well-crafted episode of what's most likely a well-crafted show.

Runaways is about "six diverse teenagers who can barely stand each other, but who must unite against a common foe - their parents." That summary is a little misleading, these are former friends who drifted apart for years after the death of one of their other friends, and this is their last chance to stay in each others' lives before college and the real drifting starts. It's not typically how these stories go, timeline wise, and it's the first part of Runaways to stick out. Next was the characters themselves.

It's a pretty busy episode, but luckily an exposition-light one. Runaways is primarily character-driven, or at the very least "Reunion" is. They've all become loners in their own way, but also there are glimpses of that reaching out shown. Going out to parties, trying out for sports, offering/requesting tutoring. Indirect ways of saying, "talk to me." "Reunion's" director made sure to emphasize how social media and tech can make this so much more difficult, when used improperly. The selfie, it's ripe for mocking, but a personal attack is still a personal attack.

What hit hard was one of the characters, Gert (Ariela Barer), a social activist, passing out flyers for the club she's starting. It's probably the toughest way, especially in high school, to get back out there, but also the most rewarding.

So one character's a social activist, there's also a reclusive gamer named Alex (Rhenzy Feliz), the sister of the deceased friend whose name is Nico (Lyrica Okano), a church-going girl seeking rebellion called Karolina (Virginia Gardner), a jock going by Chase (Gregg Sulkin), and last but not least, the coming of age Molly (Allegra Acosta).

It sounds stocky because these things always start out that way. It's helped by a cast that has great chemistry with each other, and with the actors playing their parents, and by a warmer feel than these kind of scenarios usually create. Typically these shows or movies start out with a real uphill battle for friendship, and every second is devoted to making that work. Instead "Reunion" was able to spend time on individuals and then bring them together properly. You can bet that it'll go a long way when they start kicking butt together.

Runaways starts slow on the superhero aspects of the show, as it is an origin story. From what's been shown so far, the show has a pretty good visual effects budget and knows how to use it. Feats of super-strength are easy to film, but because of how it's shot,  it's still fun to see someone, in this case Molly, stop a moving van and feel that excitement run through her veins. Even if it didn't, Runaways looks to be putting intrigue before spectacle. In the closing minutes a mystery begins, and when it's a mystery involving parents wearing red robes and standing in a circle, it's a mystery worth checking out.

4/5

I'm not one to do season/series long reviews, but wanted to get this one out there because I highly recommend people try it, or at least something like it. If you love it, or if you're looking for something a tiny bit different, I recommend CW's Black Lightning too. It's also set in high school, but if the principal had powers, and it's a mix of The Incredibles, DC, and Luke Cage.

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Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) | Spoiler Review

Solo: A Star Wars Story
I wanted to love Solo, I really did, but it has serious problems that cannot be overlooked, and it makes me question some of what Lucasfilm is doing. How will they move forward after Episode IX? By looking forward.

Solo: A Star Wars Story has a semi-similar issue The Last Jedi had. In The Last Jedi, the humor was forced and similar to Marvel movies. In Solo, callbacks are forced, harder than they were in Rogue One or any other recent Star Wars movie, and they often set back the movie. The references go out of their way to ask and answer questions that could've been left alone, like how Han got his name and how he and Chewie met.

Depending on the viewer, the answers to these questions may fall under character assassination. Chewbacca is a bit of a brute when he's introduced, as he was held prisoner of the Empire, and killed and ate deserters of the army who were dropped in his pit.

Some of these references unnecessarily setup the original trilogy, or foreshadow it in a way that's more like fortune-telling. Rogue One had to setup the original trilogy because it's a tight timeline. On that note, Solo does fix one issue in The Last Jedi, the use of fuel in ships, and that's appreciated. Solo's timeline isn't clear, so talking about a job on Tatooine near the end of the movie is over-icing the cake.

There's still a good cake underneath though. The production issues people were nervous about do not show. This movie should've looked like a mess story and editing-wise, but if any of Phil Lord & Chris Miller's work was used (about 30% of it was), it's mixed seamlessly with Ron Howard's. In fact, there's only one scene for sure I can say with certainty that's done by Howard. The cast is great, not perfect, but great.

Alden Ehrenreich is doing his damn best to capture Han, and Harrison Ford, and make it his own all at the same time. Overall, he nails it. My only complaint with him, and it may be odd, is I wish his voice was deeper. That's all I would've needed to buy it 100%.

Donald Glover faces the same challenge but hits the mark as Lando. He gets everything just right, and adds a great deal to Lando, like his eccentricities, beautiful wardrobe, and his relationship with Han, Chewie, and the Falcon. When either of them is sitting in the captain's seat, I flashback to the original trilogy, and it does feel right, even if most moments like that feel off.

It's just a misfire, a movie that shouldn't have been made, but I don't feel like my time was wasted by seeing it, either.

If you want the full nostalgia treatment, and the Kessel Run (which is a great sequence), see Solo while it's in theaters. If you're nervous about the movie, wait til it can be seen at home, but don't pass on it entirely.

2.75/5


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Thursday, June 7, 2018

The Star (2017)

The Star
The Star,
directed by Timothy Reckart, is what the Bible, and by extension Christianity and other religions, was made for. It's an adaptation of a story. It can be adapted a hundred different ways, and viewed another hundred different ways. Being, partly, a major studio film (Columbia Pictures and their subsidiary Sony Pictures Animation), The Star's target audience is everyone, so it handles religion differently than the faith-based films that have been coming out. Actually, this isn't a faith-based film as much as it is just The Nativity Story for kid. The only problem here is kids over a certain age may not find it funny.

This Nativity Story centers around Bo the donkey (Steven Yuen) wanting to do something important with his life and joining the Royal Cavalry. Instead, after breaking out of the mill he worked at, he winds up in the care of Mary (Gina Rodriguez) and Joseph (Zachary Levi), just as Joseph realizes that she's pregnant. The scene is handled great, as they carefully sidestep the term "immaculate conception," while still stating and accepting that that's what happened. Instead, Joseph instantly jumps into scared and unprepared, but excited, father-mode. If Joseph had asked for an explanation, the movie would've either become inappropriate, boring, or both, so it's best to avoid the conversation. They soon leave for Bethlehem, and the movie is only about a third of the way through and some padding is needed. 

The Star isn't a movie that should have a conventional villain, but it does, unfortunately. When King Herod (Christopher Plummer) is informed that a new king is coming, he requests a soldier and two dogs (Ving Rhames and Gabriel Iglesias) track down and kill the king. It sounds terrible because it is terrible, but it also sparks substantive conversations about religion. There are a few moments like that, such as when God appears to a flock of (literal) sheep and asks them a request. That could play incredibly negatively to a religious-minded audience, but it's done lightly in a sincere adaptation of this story, so it's not a piece of commentary by Ricky Gervais or David Cross.  If nothing else, these moments lead to some mild action, chases, and excitement for the heroes. 

Speaking of which, one of the biggest surprises of this film is the animation. Sony Pictures uses their animation/visual effects studio ImageWorks to do some eye-popping work that ranges from the most photo-realistic (The Amazing Spider-Man movies) to the most rule-breaking and cartoony (Storks and the Hotel Transylvania movies), and The Star appeared to be no exception. But it is. The reason the animation looks more restrained than the off the wall nature of Hotel Translvania and Storks is because Cinesite is the animation studio responsible, and they did great. The animation is very clean and very smooth, and the texturing on every little clay or wooden object really shows. Most importantly, many characters at least look distinctive, even if their traits don't stand out. The best of Cinesite's work in The Star is their depiction of God. He's a beautiful blend of light and particle effects, and he's given just the right amount of personality and time on screen for this movie. 

The Star is a pretty standard, harmless family movie, but that means it's one of the few harmless contemporary Christian films. It may be the start to repairing the divides between religion, Hollywood, and the people. One of the last lines the movie is "[...]he's just a boy." And if these words are just insane ramblings then that means The Star is just a movie. One that may be worth trying.

3/5


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Sunday, May 20, 2018

Don't Kill It (2016 or 2017) | Short Review

Don't Kill It Poster
Mike Mendez's Don't Kill It is a backward B-movie, with pretty good writing and acting but weak action and editing. That's enough to save the movie though, as surprising as it sounds. The film is about Jebediah Woodley's (Dolph Lundgren's) hunt for a demon that takes possession of the person who kills it's last host. The demon finds a fun hunting ground in Chicory Creek, Mississippi, and Woodley is given the perfect opportunity to try to contain the threat. 

What's great about this movie is the performances by the leads, Lundgren and FBI Agent Pierce (Kristina Klebe). They work really well together, when the movie isn't trying to push them toward each other. Those moments come off forced, with Pierce going from stick in the mud to potential love interest.

It's slightly balanced with Woodley being consistent. He's a fun guy to watch, and he's set apart a bit from most heroes, even if it's in ways that don't amount to much. It's mainly in the vape, the net gun, and the cowboy hat. It's the little touches that draw people to him. Strip those away and he's the smartest guy in the room, with a solid moral compass. It all adds up to a great savior that could show Evil Dead's Ash a thing or two.

Don't Kill It Poster
Dolph Lundgren is way past being a national treasure. He's a global one | Copyright 2017 GSC Movies

The writing has a similar approach. For one thing, this is the only movie or show that actually does the police jurisdiction cliché in a way that isn't stupid. The FBI actually justify their reason for showing up, and it's something other screenwriters should take note of. Don't Kill It also builds itself up well, and quickly, making good use of its short runtime by focusing on the demon hunt and Woodley's character. At least that's how it seems on paper.

Mendez also edited the film, and at times it's choppy. It's most noticeable when Pierce is going over her origin. Every line is a separate cut, and every single one feels like it was shot separately from the one before it, so the scene artificially drags on. The action has similar issues. 

The action just feels slow, like it wasn't well choreographed or edited. Impacts don't really connect unless they're gunshots, and the saving grace is that the movie was clearly done practically and on-location. People with a bloodlust are going to have to look elsewhere, but people into mild psychological torture may enjoy the demon reveling in its inability to die. 

Don't Kill It is a fun action movie for all the wrong reasons, but that shouldn't stop it from being checked out. 

2.5/5


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Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (2018)

The Dark Knight Returns
introduced the theory that Batman riding a horse is the mark of a good movie. Director Sam Liu's Gotham by Gaslight is compelling evidence and a great movie in its own right anyway.

Gotham by Gaslight is an alternative universe story where a 19th century Batman (Bruce Greenwood) must catch Jack the Ripper. At 78 minutes, that sounds like a streamlined story, but Liu and screenwriter Jim Kreig fit a lot into their runtime. This new setting includes a reestablished origin for Gotham.

Don't worry, Bruce Wayne's parents aren't featured in the movie, but the Monarch Theatre plays a central role, as Jack attacks women who perform there. First up, is a de-powered Poison Ivy (Kari Wuhrer) who starts things off on the wrong foot. The movie opens with her performance, and the animation feels noticeably rigid. While not wanting Poison Ivy to dance to provocatively is a good thing, there are ways to give her a creative, well-animated performance that's clean. She just kind of moves left and right a little. Luckily, once Batman tries to intervene the animation picks up considerably. The fight scenes are choreographed and sound similar to the ones in The Dark Knight Returns. Batman and Jack are fast, but their blows feel heavy and satisfying.

After their first meeting, a lot of time is spent on Bruce Wayne and the locals of Victorian Gotham, and Gotham by Gaslight becomes its own film. The setting and characters are well-developed and set up in a way that suggests Liu and Kreig will return them. Characters featured include Harvey Dent (Yuri Lowenthal), Catwoman (Jennifer Carpenter), and, interestingly, multiple pre-Robin Robins who already know each other. There's no telling how this could evolve, and Gotham by Gaslight encourages second-guessing of ideas.

Similar to the opening of the movie, animation, unfortunately, isn't the only thing that's occasionally rushed. Harvey, also unfortunately, isn't that well written as the links between Jack the Ripper and Two Face are clear to anyone old enough to watch the movie. It's handled in a very upfront matter, and how annoying the audience finds it will vary. At the very least, all the lines are delivered well by the cast, especially Batman's.

Bruce Greenwood as Batman
Also, is there any correlation between a distinctive cowl and a well-portrayed Batman, or a good Batman movie? | Copyright 2018 Warner Brothers

Bruce Greenwood returns to the booth, after voicing Batman in Under the Red Hood and Young Justice. He's fantastic, and like Kevin Conroy and Roger Craig Smith (Batman: Arkham Origins), he understands what makes Bruce Wayne compelling with and without the cowl. Working with Jennifer's Carpenter's Catwoman and an extended amount of time as Gotham's socialite adds new dimensions to a role he already had down to a science.

Occasionally rushed writing and animation hold back a would-be perfect addition to the DC Animated Universe, but these moments are in a world as well-realized as the one in The Dark Knight Returns. That one, technically, got a sequel, so maybe this one should too?

3.5/5

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Wednesday, April 11, 2018

A Quiet Place (2018)

A Quiet Place
 doesn't string audiences along through tension, building it from the beginning until the scares ultimately pay off or fall flat. Instead, it starts with an actual sense of security backed by the film's family. When the monsters appear, we're with this family as tightly as they're with each other, through thick and thin.

John Krasinsky's film is directed extremely carefully, as the premise dictates. It relies on characters, a couple (Krasinksy and Emily Blunt) and their three children (Noah Jupe, Cade Woodward, and deaf actress Millicent Simmonds), making as little noise as possible to avoid the detection of blind monsters with extra-sensitive hearing. Every movement is deliberate to create as little sound as possible. And the use of sound, and shots, is completely engrossing, but loose enough to create needed breaths of fresh air every now and then.

A Quiet Place is surprisingly not scoreless, thanks to composer Marco Beltrami, and speaking is as crucial in the film as communication is in real life. Sign Language is used throughout the film, but what's surprising is what's being signed can be every so slightly heard sometimes by some characters. The variances in the language are brought out through moments like that and shows, if only for a moment, security has broken through the tension. Your heartbeat may spike at a moment's notice, but it is not toyed with.

The family, however, is toyed with. Krasinksy is not starting with a perfect story, as writers Bryan Woods and Scott Beck pull the rug out from under the family with a tight grip every once in a while. The monsters aren't given an unfair advantage, it's just whatever starts a potential attack, to a certain extent, is avoidable, sometimes it's frustratingly avoidable. Once that is out of their hands though, the movie doesn't add insult to injury by placing the family somewhere like a wind chime factory. In fact, great care is taken in showing that their environment is the anti-wind chime factory, with many everyday objects they use replaced with paper and fabric versions, so it evens these "get the ball rolling" moments out pretty well. The only other cheap shot like this that stuck out was some exposition, but at least it was given visually. The history of the monsters and the family's situation is slammed in the audience's face a little harder than it needed to be with some shots that could've been cut. 

A Quiet Place Poster
Theatrical Poster | Copyright 2018 Paramount Pictures

On that subject, the use of shots, by cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen, beautifully display the Hudson Valley and upstate New York. Parts were filmed in the same county as my college. What's displayed is quite an original site, aside from the woods and beautiful mix of natural and nighttime lighting. Krasinsky and his crew imagine new pits of terror and impersonal, environment-based torture. Those impersonal moments are heightened when the audio-centric monsters, designed by Jeffrey Beecroft and Scott Farrar, attack. The shots are too. Whenever the camera is on them, there's a want for it to stay there, to study the design. It should be considered an honor. One given to the Xenomorphs and Heptapods, and many in-between, that came before.

It's not necessary to encourage viewers to watch where they're going upon exiting the theatre. They'll be doing that on their own, at least until they start driving or return and feel comfortable to crank the volume on something, anything, to make sure they've snapped out of it.

4/5

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Thursday, March 22, 2018

Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)

Back in December, I said that the 2007 Hitman film, "was able to maintain its faithfulness [to the games] and follow the key lessons of Filmmaking 101. It's not a perfect picture, but it feels like a complete picture." As a reward for its effort, it deserves a better trailer. That project is on hold, but I have a good start on it. When it's finished, both reviews will have links to it at the bottom of the page.

The 2015 film, Hitman: Agent 47, directed by Aleksander Bach, doesn't deserve a fan trailer, it doesn't deserve the sequel it tries to tease, but it doesn't deserve pure hate either. It at least has a few things going for it.

First, and most importantly, the basic story is simpler and easier to follow from the start. Agent 47 (Rupert Friend) is protecting the daughter, Katia van Dees (Hannah Ware), of the man, Dr. Litvenko (Ciarán Hinds), who creates agents.

Well, the basics are simpler. Writers Skip Woods and Michael Finch try to give the movie a heart and soul by giving these characters connections to each other that are a little ridiculous and arcs that are underdeveloped. Ware is forced to go from would-be victim to assassin on par with 47 in a short time-frame, but she's written like a bumbling sidekick a little too often. When she does come into her own, she's great, but seeing where the inspiration for her may have come from, there were better options. If the filmmakers wanted to pull from the games, specifically Hitman: Absolution, they should have made her more competent from the start, or, like that game, made her a kid who's either hidden away from the villains for most of the movie or allowed to make rookie mistakes.

Second, the actors are pretty good. Friend makes the role his own and is very different from Timothy Olyphant's Agent 47, who had some swagger and humor. This time around 47 is scarier, more intimidating, and truly uncompromised. Ware, again, is best when the movie allows her to be. Other than that, she's just solid. Zachary Quinto's agent hunter John Smith is mostly a good match to Friend.

The problem with Friend's Agent 47 is he's an ass for no reason other than because that's seemingly the only way to sell killing machine. He regularly puts people, including Ware, unnecessarily in danger, threatens children (at least not directly, but through their parents). He's just not a fun guy to watch most of the time. He's an overcorrection from eight years ago, to the point where scary is more like a killer in a horror movie more than a man just doing his job. It's clear in the shots that show him by himself, from a distance, standing absolutely still.

Rupert Friend
Opinions on Friend's 47 will be divisive, just like when Olyphant played him |  | Copyright 2015 Fox

Third, the hand-to-hand combat is well-shot. It may cut too much, but it's tough to get lost in what's going on, and it's another area where Agent 47 could've just fallen apart. The fights can be pretty fun too, the best ones being between Friend and Quinto. On paper, they may sound boring, since two killing machines fighting dredges up memories of Terminators, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which I watched earlier today), but their skills vary enough to keep it entertaining.

Other action scenes are ridiculous and there's a noticeable lack of stealth in Agent 47. The most appalling examples involve intentionally blown cover in an international embassy, a blown-up helicopter, and stopping an opponent by throwing a random bystander into him. The point of making movies under this license is it's supposed to inspire something a little more thought out than that. Unfortunately, it didn't this time.

So, some good, some bad, and some ugly. Throw in some intrusive product placement, cinematography that's all over the place, and two out of a handful of jokes that work, and at least it has its moments.

2/5

If you're completely new to this franchise, please still give the games a shot.

Update: My fan-made trailer for the 2007 movie and for this one. I may have been overly harsh in my criticism of this movie, but overall I stand by this review.
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Thursday, January 18, 2018

The Prestige (2006)

The Prestige
First, watch it twice. If you can, wait roughly a decade between viewings. It makes a difference.

Occam's Razor, or the idea that the simplest explanation is usually the right one, isn't just at the center of Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, but it should be at the center of Hollywood. In the age of big budgets and CGI, the simple camera tricks still are enough. The real legwork begins in pre-production because Occam's Razor doesn't mean create an endless stream of remakes, no matter how complete those scripts start.

Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) are competing magicians with different approaches to the art. Angier is more cautious but feeds of the admiration of a crowd. Borden believes in pushing the art and understand that it comes with a price. Yet, both lean on the same showstopper, "The Transported Man," and its many innovations and interpretations.

The film takes audiences through these scenarios, weaving in and out of each, across the long lives and careers of Angier and Borden. It's not always clear when an event is happening, but little details become memorable thanks to strong performances from Jackman and Bale, and this allows pieces to come together when needed.

Supporting the leads are some of the best performances from Michael Caine as Angier's engineer, Cutter, Rebecca Hall as Borden's wife, Sarah, and Scarlett Johansson as Angier's assistant, Olivia. If Angier and Borden are too cold to follow...they don't help things.

That's why the second viewing helps, it was easy to focus on how terrible Angier and Borden are too each other. This time around, the focus was on terrible they were to others, but their better sides came through as well. Just two good men brought down by obsession. A difficult thing to watch, but with hope.

The Prestige shows that when obsession takes root there are glimmers of hope, and (more concretely) ways out and compromises that can be made so that the thoughts subside at least a little, if not completely. Typically, obsession is shown as more inner torment, and situations are all-or-nothing. This gives the outsider's perspective. For people who deal with obsession internally, watching The Prestige may frustrate them, but it may help as well, as the credits roll and the conclusion sets in. There's a clear line, and while that line may move, it's still there and can be stepped away from.

The Prestige, like "The Transporting Man," is a great mystery, but it boils down to a few things, too. Fantastic performances from its cast, continuity editing that doesn't call attention to itself (the time jumping does that enough), beautiful sets, and brilliant storytelling. It's not a trick, but solid filmmaking.
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Spy Hard (1996) | Short Review

While Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, released just a year later, has more memorable characters, Spy Hard may be the better film.

With a style of humor closer to Airplane and Leslie Neilsen taking the lead, Spy Hard is rapid-fire comedy, instead of prolonging jokes at the risk of killing them. The problem with the spoof genre is the feeling that filmmakers given free reign to be absurd leads them to not care and try anything. Luckily, that's hardly ever a problem here, and when Spy Hard goes too far, it's not really painful.

Spy Hard holds up surprisingly well, and even the dated jokes (except for one that'll be seen as racist today) have some standing on their own, like a sequence related to Home Alone. At one point the movie even ahead of its time, when bringing up the state of the country.

For people who aren't sure about seeing it, start with the theme song by Weird Al. If he can't convince you to check it out, nothing can.

Spy Hard


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Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Hitman: Unrated Cut (2007)

When adapting material to film, is it better to be faithful to that material or make a great film, if both aren't possible? The question of which audience to alienate has plagued Hollywood, and the answer most likely changes based on the time and the movie. Xavier Gen's Hitman tries to balance both but ultimately gambles on putting one side over the other.

Hitman tells the tale of early Russian espionage (as opposed to the current, real stuff), as the upcoming re-election of their president, Mikhail Belicoff (Ulrich Thomsen) attracts the attention of the CIA, Interpol, and FSB (Russia's CIA). The "Hitman," Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant) must take out the president without being witnessed. The hit doesn't go as planned, and gamers are treated to the story of what happens when the restart button isn't an option, but all other options are waiting to be explored.

Hitman moves quickly, and luckily coherently, from set piece to set piece, as it captures the tone of the games almost perfectly. To start, the sets themselves are meticulously crafted and shot, pulling audiences into 47's everyday life of contingency plans and caution, all dialogue-free and in the first few minutes. Once that's established, viewers are treated to 90 minutes of 47s greatest hits as gameplay elements are crammed into the plot. Still, it works and is a lot of fun to watch because the scenes still are complete and are boosted by the film's own aesthetics and performances by the cast.

Olyphant has the difficult task of balancing the Terminator side of 47 with his deep, deep down caring side. He tends to float more toward caring, but it's brought out mainly because screenwriter Skip Woods has him teaming up with Belicoff's trafficking victim, Nika (Olga Kurylenko). The romantic angle never feels forced, but only by looser standards set by other movies. Olyphant's main problem is he talks too much, but again, he's making the role his own, and most importantly he's having a lot of fun with it. 47 has a touch of swagger this time around, and it means the sickening humor of the series can move from his targets to him this time around, as Nika is kidnapped and stuffed into the trunk of a car with a corpse.

Timothy Olyphant
Olyphant is a mixed bag as 47. Some people will like him, but it's not surprising if fans don't | Copyright 2007 Fox

Kurylenko's Nika is a great companion, and she works well with Olyphant. Again, it's a tough role because the obvious choices are to be overshadowed by the hero or try to one-up him in a quipping contest. Instead, they're partners, without putting Nika over her head in some insane fashion. She also contributes to that swagger mentioned above, but more importantly, to that caring side. 47 doesn't usually have anyone to bounce anything off of, and it's refreshing.

Action-wise, it's a mixed bag. Stealth moments happen throughout, thank god, but the more direct approach has editing issues. Fights are edited a little too hastily when it's more than a one-on-one battle. They start fast, but then settle into the pace they should've been building to. It's weird. It's not as bad as improper use of shaky cam, but it would've benefited greatly from a stylized approach. It's worth mentioning, however, that it inspired a future game mechanic.

Fox took a risk with Hitman, one they'd take again with Assassin's Creed in 2016. The key difference is Hitman was able to maintain its faithfulness and follow the key lessons of Filmmaking 101. It's not a perfect picture, but it feels like a complete picture.

3/5

Update: My fan-made trailer for this movie and for the 2015 one
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Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Loving Vincent (2017) | Short Review

Loving Vincent is a beautiful detective movie that is able to downplay the tried and try mystery aspects, and instead, it respectfully brings the victim (Vincent Van Gogh) front and center.

Many frames in flashback scenes look like real photographs, they move and become shots that look like live-action film. Cut to the next scene and you're reminded of the painstaking work that went into this movie.

Loving Vincent




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Sunday, December 10, 2017

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Steven Spielberg threw everything into the kitchen sink with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and it shows, with an alien movie that tries to have it both ways. It feels like both a big adventure/road journey and what is typically expected from the genre, something much more focused and local. At times, it feels like he bit off more than he could chew, but if at any time the audience feels lost, focusing on the filmmaking aesthetics and how they've been homaged and built upon over the decades can help pull viewers back into the story.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind shows how different people react to the possibly of incoming otherworldly contact, and why they may do it. Some are just looking for answers (Roy, played by Richard Dreyfuss), some are secondary victims of abduction (Jillian, played by Melinda Dillon), and some are the military and government, who come off much better in this movie than the genre typically allows them to.

Starting with that, the military and government are given a light touch in Close Encounters. They do their job, and some of their actions are reprehensible, but they're humanized, and not the "robots" that typically fight and dissect the martians in these scenarios. There's a feeling of unity in Close Encounters that relaxes, but also raises the tension when it's realized that all the humans are on the same side, but is everyone in the movie on the same side?

Going into the aesthetics, the first thing people may pick up on is the use of light. It's beautiful, calculated, and arguably in one scene it creates one of the finest jump scares in cinematic history. The language of light and music is comparable to the recent movie Arrival (2016), which focused on language and communication in its plot.

The effects and especially camerawork are top notch. Little things like how a scene is blocked and edited go a long way in maintaining engagement. One scene that stuck out was when Dreyfus is interrogated by scientist Claude Lacombe (Francois Truffaut) and his assistant Robert (Lance Henriksen). When Claude or Robert are speaking the camera always keeps both of them in frame, emphasizing that unity needed to ground the film. Also, closeups on either of them would have created unnecessary cuts in a scene that demonstrates that less is more.

Less however isn't enough when it comes to the ships and aliens. Douglas Trumbell (Visual Effects Supervisor) and Carlo Rambaldi (alien designer) nearly overwhelm with spectacle, trusting that it won't be too much. The ships are incredibly detailed, beautifully colored, and bathed in a warm (very warm) glow. What keeps this from becoming too much is the initial opening of the film. Close Encounters starts with a slow burn tone, but doesn't exactly maintain it. How people feel about that is up to them, as the uptick in speed comes with a spreading out in plot.

Close Encounters could have used a little more focus as it feels a little unsure where it's going, even though it actually is. All that's lacking, or feels lacking, is breaks to check in on everyone else in the film. It's frustrating, but it's only an issue on the first watch. Rewatchers will be rewarded with time to go into the mind of Roy, his family, Jillian, and others.

Roy's a great everyman, searching for the truth and shrugging off nearly all others in his path. Dreyfus makes him his own with some humor and the way he interacts with his kids. Speilberg's father-son tropes, for lack of a better term, are mostly sidelined here. However, when they come out it's heartbreaking.

It's tough to imagine how people will react to extraterrestrials, if or when the time comes, tons of movies have captured the scenario (seemingly) pretty accurately, but Close Encounters feels like one of the first to explore all aspects of what may happen. It's not all invasions and slavery, but it's not all peace and love either. It's a great mix, like this movie. All excellent, if a bit all over the place, too.
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Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Life (2017)

Life
When (human) life is created, it can become anything. Life, successfully, tries to be everything. Daniel Espinoa's space thriller takes a lot from Alien, Gravity, 2001, and, most likely others. However, it's only enough for the audience to get initially engaged in the film. After that, it's the best kind of bumpy ride, rivaled only Space Mountain.

Life is about six astronauts who find an advanced human specimen, that slowly, but surely, turns of them. Survival quickly becomes the backup plan, when it's clear that keeping the alien away from Earth is the top priority. These characters take that extremely seriously, and it benefits the film immensely. Life doesn't feature any stock characters. People could certainly be fleshed out more, but enough time is spent with everyone so there's someone for the audience to latch onto. The actors had a difficult challenge, having to act scared, believably human, pretend they were in a zero-gravity environment, and perform an opening long take that bests Gravity in its complexity. The standouts will vary person to person, thank goodness, but Jake Gyllenhall and Ariyon Bakare up there. It may be because their characters can be the toughest to identify with, but again, that can vary.

The alien, named Calvin by some STEM-centric elementary schoolers via a webcam (this is a very sweet movie sometimes), is a wonderful creation. His evolution and behavior are literally put under the microscope, and every little detail of the CGI-beast looks seamless. He may look a little like a Xenomorph or Predator, or a symbiote, in some shots, but there's enough original design around his face to balance that out. On the Xenomorph side of things, Calvin may be more deadly, and this is illustrated through some interesting first-person shots. This is also where some of the 2001 influence comes in, along with some of the most gruesome space deaths on screen.

This is not a horror film, but it is a violent, R-rated one. There are no jump scares, but there are buckets of free-floating blood, which could definitely freak out some people. If you can get past that though, you're in for a treat because this is one of the few thrillers that can take every opportunity to slow down without loss of momentum. That sweet moment with the STEM kids isn't the only one in the film, there are little touches like that here and there, as a character is mourned, or a gut-wrenching decision is made.

The ending may seem underwhelming, and upon rewatch, Life may have some major plot holes that shouldn't be overlooked. Still, at least at first glance, 2017 brought another breath of fresh air to one of the genres that instinctively tightens throats.
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Monday, August 7, 2017

Storks (2016)

No one gets society like Warner Brothers Animation. Cartoon Network shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe handle equality and representation, We Bare Bears and Regular Show handle(d) millennial culture and how technology impacts all of us, and on the big screen Storks addresses a little bit of both, corporate culture (including what an empire Amazon is becoming) and workaholism. If it sounds like The WB isn't making content for kids anymore, don't worry, they are and Storks is a return to that and a bit of their former looney-ness.

Storks answers the age-old question of where babies come from. Someone writes a letter to the stork, the baby factory automates the entire process, and storks deliver the bundles of joy. At least they used to. This was a failing business model, to say the least, but when a little boy asks for a little sibling (with ninja skills), and the baby factory is accidentally turned on it's, up to our main stork Junior (Andy Samberg) and his human co-worker Tulip (Katie Crown) to brush off that old employee handbook and go on an adventure.

The adventure is told at a fairly fast pace, if only because some of the dialogue is either a little expositional or on the nose. If these moments stretched the film out, it could've been painful. For instance, they have a locker room scene that demonstrates how career-focused Junior is, but they could've cut it and taken him almost directly to meeting his boss CEO Hunter (Kelsey Grammer) and no ounce of his character would've been lost. Instead, what we get is some reflective 21st Century water-cooler talk. It's so bad it's good, featuring a brown-nosing bro-pigeon (Stephen Kramer Glickman). It's something straight out of a "What Not To Do" LinkedIn article, and it's wonderful. A lot of the film is like that, with ridiculous profit charts, figuring out what being a boss means, and in-office golfing.

Anyway, out of the office, and in the suburbs, a couple of the same rules apply. That little boy, Nate (Anton Starkman) is the son of two workaholic parents (Ty Burrell, being very Phil Dunphy, and Jennifer Aniston, who doesn't do enough voice work). This sounds familiar, but Storks sets itself apart from most films by showing their whole home life, and not the parents' work life against Nate's home life. A baby isn't expected to magically just fix things if it shows up at the door.

The voice cast isn't just remarkable by name-recognition alone. In addition to those mentioned, Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key are the baby-loving wolves Alpha and Beta, and Danny Trejo as Jasper one of the last of the baby-delivering Storks.

Alpha and Beta, and their pack are something special. In pursuit of the baby, the comedy dream team of Key and Peele will form Voltron-like Wolf-Vehicles and objects by linking themselves together. This is straight out of Saturday-morning cartoons, and exactly what WB fans would expect...What they won't expect, however, is these beautiful, silly visuals were created by Sony.

Sony Imageworks, who has created some of the most photorealistic CGI in the last twenty-five years, animated this entire film. It's shocking until you see the one sequence the filmmakers decide to replay. Everything else is gorgeously built from scratch and Imageworks, even with nothing to prove, showed that old wolves could learn some fun tricks. The visuals are fast and cartoony. Hopefully, when Warners Brothers starts making CGI in-house, they marry their legacy with what Imageworks has blessed them with.

Penguins
The animated penguin trend may have been on its last legs at this point, but Storks helped it finish strong | Copyright 2016 Warner Media

Finally, one note about the sound. The film's score, by Mychael and Jeff Danna, occasionally uses a comedic orchestra. This is usually a pretty funny gag, and most likely it typically uses stock audio. Storks does it more than once, and it's a surefire hit each time. More than likely these were fresh recordings, and when thinking about it, it sounds more and more like this film was a real collaborative experience for those involved.

If you can ignore the unintentional existential questions about overpopulation and unwanted children this film raises (just bury it deep down in the dark corners of the mind), enjoy Storks.
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Thursday, July 27, 2017

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)

There's no shortage of things to talk about with DreamWorks Animation. Sinbad is a lean 80 minutes brought down by a mean title character who leaves the strengths of his film elsewhere. Sinbad's (Brad Pitt) journey is to return The Book of Peace, from Eris The God of Chaos (Michelle Pfeiffer). This is so Sinbad's friend Proteus (Joseph Fiennes), this film's "Socrates," and that's actually meant with complete sincerity, won't take his place in his death sentence.

First of all, this friendship is based in exposition, and not the fun, improvised exposition from The Road to El Dorado. Second of all, Sinbad's actually starts on this mission because Proteus's fiancee, Marina (Catherine Zeta Jones) is keeping an eye on him. The film goes out of its way to make him unlikeable and even further to never give us a good backstory on why. It's basically because...it's expected of pirates, even though the rest of his crew seems like a stand-up bunch. If he had a few better, wittier lines, all of which are at least well-performed, he'd be acceptable.

The humor's actually pretty funny, when it's not blended with the action, forced, homophobic (albeit, it was a different time). DreamWorks's trademark adult humor lands pretty well. There's even a silly nipple joke that's reminiscent of a classic episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The jokes generally just aren't sharp enough, and it's easy to assume that the script needed polish in that area.

Jumping back to the action, it's very solid. The camera and editing quickly draw viewers in with attention-grabbing, but not distracting movement early on. The CGI backgrounds and creatures that back the set-pieces up haven't aged well, but they're also a product of the time, and some beginning animators may find the models endearing. Personally, as a failed animator, I do.

The action also has a certain restraint that I noted was in the entire final act of The Road to El Dorado. Please watch this film's siren-song scene and compare it with Ice Age Four's. This one is actually creative with how the crew reacts to the creatures, as it's a slow burn to their potential demise and not being instantly lust-struck. The creatures themselves, liquid beings, are actually alluring and good vocalists.

Sinbad
A DVD cover from the classic era. They just don't look like this anymore, thanks to a leaning toward simplicity | Copyright 2003 DreamWorks Animation and Universal

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas is great for making comparisons, but as a road movie, it's not much of one. Well it is one, but it doesn't tell the audience how close the characters are to the destination, and then rushes back to the starting point, so the plot needed a re-write. While the ending of the film doesn't make these issues worse, and is a bit redemptive, Sinbad could've started stronger. This would be DreamWorks's last 2D film, so they should've ended on a high note.
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Monday, July 3, 2017

Baby Driver (2017)

Baby Driver
Edgar Wright has officially made his mark with Baby Driver, and by that I mean, he's turning a would-be cult-classic into a smash-hit at this very moment. And I don't believe, for a single second, that he had to compromise anything in this film to do it. So, what does that give us?

Baby Driver is the heist film for the new millennium (not "for the millennial," don't start thinking that), following the getaway driver Baby (Ansel Elgort) on his last few jobs as he tries to get out of the business and settle into the quieter life. He's earned it, as demonstrated by the break-neck opening getaway.

Wright's chases aren't just fast, they're smart, properly paced, and take risks. Baby uses every (realistic) trick in the book, everything we dreamed while stuck in traffic, running late, and/or just cruising. The only difference between him and everyone else in the driver's seat is he goes for it, and will run through the guardrails or down those hills to get off the highway. (Seriously, why don't we plant more trees in those open areas?)

If this doesn't sound like everyone else in the world, does jamming in the car and blasting music at least sound close because not only does he do that, but Elgort makes it a cornerstone of his performance. Roughly 80-percent of his work is non-verbal and synched to a track, and that track was specially crafted, not just selected, to the film. It may sound like Baby's got his own Awesome Mix, but Wright either thought ahead or was quick-to-adapt because he sets himself apart from that by miles. A cassette player gives Guardians support, whereas an old iPod gives Baby Driver everything, but without the film living or dying based on the specific tunes (which are top-notch anyway).

Rounding out the cast, Lily James is the perfect partner for Elgort, and luckily given much more to do in this than in Cinderella. Her character, Deborah, plays the perfect partner in crime for him, but not in the typical her crazy matches his crazy way. They're not crazy, just their circumstances are, thanks to the rest of the cast.

Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Jon Bernthal, Jamie Foxx, and Eiza González are their own little ensemble in Baby Driver, and if we were to follow any of them instead, we'd apply that last sentence to them as well. Wright takes it to heart that "we're the good guys" is a relative term, at least to a point.

There is a point where Baby Driver does shift into a different gear (sorry for that one), and you may not completely be on board with that, but the consistency is with the characters. Stick with them, and the movie will stick with you in return. If you find yourself home alone at the end of the night, it's a guarantee that your speakers will be getting a workout, and you will too.
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Sunday, June 25, 2017

Rough Night (2017)

Rough Night
Rough Night
is a hot, as in sometimes good and funny, mess. Considered by some to be another female-equivalent of The Hangover, Rough Night fits the mold but doesn't break it. While The Hangover, and Bridesmaids, wrote their characters as people first, Rough Night writes them as stereotypical women first, and characters second. Sometimes it works well, but often it doesn't.

In Rough Night, Jess's (Scarlet Johansson) bachelorette party is derailed because of the accidental death of the stripper that, of course, she did not ask for or want her friends to order. Because of the circumstances of his death, she and her friends Alice (Jillian Bell), Frankie (Ilana Glazer), Blair (Zoe Kravitz), and Pippa (Kate McKinnon) try to cover it up, and plot contrivances make the situation go from bad to worse.

Tonal shifts, personally, are rarely an issue when watching a movie, except this time. This death scene is one of the more jarring ones in a movie because it feels so disconnected from the rest of the film. It's played completely straight by the cast, but attempted humor is sprinkled in over screams and panic. The jokes are good, like one about a much-needed YouTube video on CPR being pre-empted by an ad, but everything else about the scene is saying, "if you laugh now, you're a bad person, and other people in this will look at you in disgust." What may have helped is if the director (Lucia Aniello) had the composer (Dominic Lewis) step in and leave a hint. One thing about the music, the soundtrack is less on the nose than Bad Moms.

As mentioned, the plot is lacking, and some things make no sense, like how Jess's fiancee is unable to contact Jess for part of the film. Does he really not have any of her friends' numbers? However, Rough Night tries to make these issues its strength, relies on its actors instead, and plays on the audience's expectations of new humor in the continuing R-rated comedy revolution. So, moments like a tame bachelor party, where Jess's fiance Peter (co-writer Paul W. Downs) is being consoled by his bros, work really well in the post-Apatow world. Downs, by the way, is one of the standouts on-screen.

The entire cast is great, after a rocky start, but only given so much to work with. McKinnon is a shining example of that. She must have trusted Aniello and Downs when they said, "do that thing you do, and we'll give Pippa something real the audience can hold onto." Pippa is almost exclusively comic-relief and is only as strong as McKinnon's crazy eyes and Australian accent. She's more than a plot device, and McKinnon is having a blast playing her, but that's because she owned the role.

Rough Night is a much-needed film, for the cast, for the genre, for its audience, but its success will only come from the similar movies that surpass it...I'm certain some of them will be better attempts from this group.
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