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Reviews
Trance (2013)
Another Danny Boyle Classic!
This was another great film from Danny Boyle! This is a heist movie, in a non-traditional way. There is a heist, but most of the movie revolves around trying to find out what happened to the painting after the heist. McAvoy, Cassel, and Dawson were all excellent in this. It is an exciting psychological thriller, with visually interesting film making throughout.
I enjoyed the many twists and turns throughout this movie. I enjoyed McAvoy's performance in this quite a bit. I haven't seen anything he has been in since Wanted, so I forgot how good he was. He plays a man who works at a high end auction gallery.
This is not a straight-forward heist movie, and that makes it that much more entertaining. It is a bit artsy with Danny Boyle's touch, but it is well done. There is some good action sequences, and the way it is shot makes you think about things a bit. I like how it is a bit confusing, then it becomes clearer and clearer as the movie goes on. It is has an excellent ending that was thrilling. Check it out if you are a fan of smart thrillers, or Danny Boyle. 8/10
Bridge of Spies (2015)
Good Spielburg Drama
I thought Bridge of Spies was a well made period drama. I really enjoy that Spielburg takes efforts to make you feel like you are in the fifties in this one. The cars, the style, and even the authentic train Hanks rode to work made it excellent. I enjoy period pieces, they are more engrossing when the environment around the actors seems to match the era they are supposed to be in. The little touches were great.
I found, like another reviewer, this movie to be more humorous than I expected as well. I really liked Abel's repeated "Would it help?" to comedic effect. This was a well written drama by the Coen brothers as well. The combination of the Coen's writing with Spielburg's vision was great.
Tom Hanks is fantastic in this movie as he usually is. I am a big fan of Tom Hanks, he has always been very versatile. Here he plays a lawyer tapped to defend a suspected Russian spy in court, and negotiate the return of captured Americans in exchange for the spy. Hanks does well with these types of roles.
There isn't a lot of action in this movie, but there is still an excellent Spielburgian action sequence. The movie moves along fairly quickly for such a long movie, and that is no small feat, as some of the material is pretty dry. This movie could have been much more boring than it was, the story was told well. I am a huge Spielburg fan, like many movie fans, and he does a great job again. The cinematography from Spielburg's regular team was excellent.
Overall I enjoyed this movie, and I am not generally a fan of spy movies. I find spy movies boring sometimes, even ones with great action sequences. This movie is a well made period drama, that should satisfy fans of the Coen brothers, Tom Hanks, and Steven Speilburg. Check it out if you like biographical period dramas. 8/10
Bad People (2016)
Forced and Clichéd
I don't know what the deal with the proliferation of movies like Movie 43 have been lately, but it is a bad trend. This is another sketch comedy/multiple vignette style movie. I decided to give another one of these type a go because I was in the mood for a dumb comedy, I just wasn't sure how dumb. I enjoyed Movie 43, and the other one like this that I watched that was mostly acceptable (5/10) was InAppropriate Comedy. While that was was markedly worse than Movie 43, this one is worlds away from Inappropriate Comedy. I mean, at least that one had Rob Schneider Adrien Brody, and Michelle Rodriguez, for better or worse.
I did not know anything about this movie before I watched it. I just turned it on, watched the start of it, and the comedy seemed a bit off beat, so I decided to keep watching it. The first segment has some funny dialogue, but the older white guy quickly becomes annoying. I kept hoping that the other guy would get upset with his verbal nitpicking and shoot him. It then goes on to a fake news segment that is used throughout the movie. They keep some sort of news story of the mayor in a sex scandal an ongoing segment and each of the actors in these segments are atrocious. In the first segment, the male news anchor was almost funny, but went south fast.
Each of the segments were less and less funny. I found a couple of the jokes to be amusing, but it was mostly lame and cringey. Sadly there were really no laughs in this movie. Some of it tried to be dark, but it just ended up being laughable, in a bad way. It feels like a high school students attempt to write "smart, edgy" comedy, mixed with a stoned high school student's idea of what is funny (the news segments). Most of what is supposed to be funny in this movie felt forced and clichéd. I mean, the social worker in the cage after six months was almost funny, but not... Most of the acting in this movie was just terrible, and it felt like a bad audition tape. The only segment I found half amusing was the one with the social worker, and even that was annoying ("Black, Jewish - Bluish?" So they proceed to serve bagels and lox and watermelon....Ugh).
Overall I was very disappointed in both this movie, and myself for finishing this movie and wasting my time with it. I kept hoping one of the segments would redeem all the others, but it never happened. I suppose it is my fault for not at least fast-forwarding to the next segment, but then I really wouldn't have seen the movie. I'd be as bad as people seeing a bad movie trailer and rating the movie a one. This movie does hold the golden distinction of being my worst rated movie so far, even worse than V/H/S Viral, which I gave a 3. I found this movie seemed to drag on. Even at a brief 80 minutes, this one is a chore to sit through. I am a fan of these style of movies, and a big fan of sketch comedy, but this movie just wasn't funny. It was amateurish and the segments were boring. Don't waste your time like I did mine, I don't recommend this movie to anyone. 2/10
The Paperboy (2012)
Difficult and Weird
I don't really even know what the movie was fully about after watching it, I guess the story of Cusack's character and the murders...? I knew nothing about this movie, and vaguely remember seeing some poster with multiple big name actors and I swore one of them was Brad Pitt, so when I started this movie I thought it was a Pitt movie...
Well, I was surprised by who was in it, and pleasantly so as each new character was introduced. I like M'Con, I find he does have a place in Hollywood movies. As I've mentioned before I am a fan of Cusack, so it was a surprise when his creepy prisoner character showed up.
There are several weird and kind of disturbing parts in this movie. The scene with Cusack and Kidman in the prison was just gross, but apparently it was arousing to old M'Con's character. It felt like it was trying to hard to be dark, and the narration from a mush mouthed and incoherent (literally) Macy Gray was very annoying. I had to strain to understand what she was saying, because she doesn't seem to pronounce her words very well. She acted fairly well in this movie, it's just she was hard to understand.
The Paperboy had some strange moments with Cusack in the swamp, and Zac Efron saying the N word, it really wasn't that good. The actors in this movie are all quite good, it's just the poor story and narration that makes this movie a fail. From what others have said repeated viewings help to improve the murkiness of the story and things you may have missed become clearer. I may give this one another shot another time, but for now it stands as a weird one for me. 5/10
Irrational Man (2015)
Philosophical Character Study
I would have to say that I did enjoy this movie. It starts off slow, and at first I was not sure what kind of movie it was going to be. I thought it might play out like a romantic comedy. I also thought it might of been a period piece too, the way they were dressed at the beginning, but it was just the rich East Coast college style. At its core Irrational Man is a philosophical character study, about a teacher and his student, who form a relationship.
It starts off quite slow, but builds up and gets better. The main meat and potatoes of the story regards a plot to kill a judge, and the fallout after the murder. It is an intriguing story that kept me interested, even though it did become a little predictable once Stone suspected. I am a fan of River Phoenix, and enjoyed him in movies like Walk The Line and The Master and thought he did a respectable job in this movie. Emma Stone was also good as the student that falls love with him. Overall it is a pretty good movie that will have you thinking about the morality of his actions, and whether he was right or not. I liked how things began to unravel for Phoenix as his two lovers suspected him. Not the best, but an interesting murder plot that will give you a couple of things to think about. 7/10
Dog Eat Dog (2016)
Another Average Outing For Cage
I will start this review by saying that I am a huge Nicolas Cage fan. I love a lot of his movies, even some of his newer ones. I enjoyed 2 other 2016 Cage movies, The Trust, and Army of One giving them both an 8. He is absolutely classic in movies like The Rock, Matchstick Men and even his performance in Bad Lieutenant was awesome (to me). I also love Willem Dafoe, who is great in Boondock Saints and Spiderman. He is a strong actor that usually excels. This movie is one of those ones that Cage and Dafoe clearly did just for a paycheck.
I found the story to be disappointing and poorly executed, about a group of ex cons planning to kidnap the baby of a rival mobster. Cage tries to do a couple of lines that might have been amusing, you know the type, like in Matchstick Men where he is at the pharmacy and says "Hey have you ever been dragged to the sidewalk and beaten until you PI**ED BLOOD!" but just fell flat. One was "Naw, I'll get us a real good gig, I'll get us such a good gig, take her t*** off!" in a Cage like way. It was kind of funny, but didn't really fit well.
Dafoe plays a crazed drug addict with a penchant for hookers. For what material is given to him he does OK, but has some horrible lines too. One of the worst was Cage was like "what's that thing to make a baby quiet, you put it in their mouth?" Dafoe responds "a d***?"......SO wrong....
It starts like some sort of wonky Trainspotting segment or something, with Dafoe shooting heroin, being tripped out in a mirror, and then slaughtering his girlfriend and her daughter when she tries to kick him out for watching Asian porn on her computer. That segment was entertaining, and seemed to set the scene for a dark, gritty, and bloody movie. It sadly went downhill from there, when Nic Cage was introduced in the club, and started with his voice overs. They go through the whole movie, but explain some bits of the story and characters, and they are used more sparingly in the second half.
Overall I think Cage did a bit better job than Dafoe, but I still enjoyed Dafoe's performance. For me Cage will always be a top notch bankable actor, it is just a number of his recent choices have been average at best. I will still watch anything with him, as he is one of my favorite actors ever, if not my favorite, that is why it has been hard to watch his steady decline over the years. He was such a big superstar in the nineties, almost everything he did was a big success. There is a pretty cool scene at the end where Cage attacks a cop, but it does not redeem the movie. Dog Eat Dog fails on many levels, but if you are a fan of either Dafoe or Cage I say check it out. Stay tuned until the end for an amusing Cage Humphrey Bogart impression, and another shoot out with the cops! 5/10
Suicide Squad (2016)
Disappointing and Boring!
I just watched this movie and thought it was pretty bad. It has a boring story that takes like an hour to even develop. All of the characters are introduced, for whatever reason, because none of them are are really used to propel the movie forward. What was the purpose of half of them even in the movie? The Aussie, Katana, and Croc Man were all just basically extras in this movie for no reason.
This movie basically stars Will Smith, who I am generally a fan of, and Margot Robbie who I am liking more and more. They starred together in 2015's Focus, which I enjoyed quite a bit and gave a 7. Will Smith gives his regular recent Will Smith action performance, something like Hancock mixed with After Earth. He is fighting to see his daughter again. While Margot Robbie is clearly the highlight of this movie with her hotness throughout, she is also one of the worst parts with all the terribly annoying dialogue they give her! Seriously, she has got to have some of the most annoying, clichéd lines I've seen in recent movies. This unfortunately made her character unlikable. I don't understand why they had to make her character so dumb and annoying when she is supposed to be a psychiatrist... I know some of her lines were meant to be funny but they pretty much all fell flat.
Another highlight of this movie is Viola Davis in a pretty bad ass role for her as the leader of the squad, by force. She does her job well, and I am glad to see her in more and more big roles. The rest of the cast does a passable job moving this over blown budget monster through the motions. Jared Leto does an annoying Joker too, hideous makeup, and he just doesn't come across as "menacing".
The story was boring like I said... Some witch wants to take over the world...And these magical special effects... I just didn't dig the whole magic world, crushing the heart, whatever lore it was about... It just didn't feel like the Gotham world, even though Batman (Ben Affleck) appeared in it. It felt like some supernatural movie or something, not a comic book movie. I am generally a fan of comic book movies, but I feel they have been overdone for about 10 years, with no relief in sight. I am not that familiar with the Suicide Squad comics, so I didn't really connect with any of the characters. I wanted to like Joker, with how hyped he was before the movie was released, but I just didn't. I don't rate anything a 1 or a 2, those types of movies don't really get green lit for major Hollywood budgets. The only thing I might rate 1 or 2 would maybe be some poorly edited Youtube trash or something. I haven't seen a movie yet that I would rate a 1. I do dislike Suicide Squad though, and probably won't watch it again. I may check out the sequel though, because I want to see if they will improve Joker's story line next time out. My lowest rated Hollywood movie so far was V/H/S Viral and I gave that a 3...That movie was terrible. This movie was pretty bad, but it had pretty good production values, great costumes, and some OK special effects. Watch at your own risk, you've been warned. 4/10
The Ice Harvest (2005)
Amusing Non-Traditional Christmas Dramedy!
This movie is pretty funny, as I have always been a fan of the main actors in this movie (Billy Bob Thornton, John Cusack and Oliver Platt). It also features the beautiful Connie Nielson. This is a crime dramedy, about a plan to steal 2 million dollars. It is a good adult comedy that has a fairly interesting story. I also really enjoy Harold Ramis's comedies, writing or directing, Groundhog Day and Bedazzled are 2 of my favorite romantic comedies, and Caddyshack, Stripes, and Ghostbusters are just classic. I had fun as the dialogue is great and I always enjoy Cusack's brand of humor. One amusing line from Thornton was "Your dead, don't just stand there pretending you're not".
It is a fairly dark comedy, that is more of a dramedy. It leans on the Christmas theme throughout, but not too much. It is set on Christmas eve after all. Oliver Platt is funny as the drunk buddy, and Billy Bob is always good when he is getting jerky and angry. There are underlying themes of trust and infidelity that run through the movie as well. There is a few good twists that will keep you interested. A brief movie at just over 80 minutes before the end credits roll, you should have no problem getting through this dark story. Overall a funny Cusack vehicle that will appeal more to fans of his than not. I have always enjoyed him and this stands as one of his better 00's offerings, though there were better. Call me crazy, but my preferred Cusack Christmas movie is Serendipity.
My Week with Marilyn (2011)
Marilyn Was Done Well!
I mostly enjoyed this biopic of the production of The Prince and the Showgirl. Michelle Williams is excellent as Marilyn Monroe, and Eddie Redmayne does a decent job as the 3rd assistant director on the picture. Michelle Williams does an Oscar nominated performance as Marilyn and was wonderful. I enjoyed seeing how Marilyn might of been off camera and it was fun to see her be flirty. I also learned that her marriage to Arthur Miller was on the rocks just shortly after they were married, which makes her interest in Colin Clark more understandable. It shows how she was vulnerable and needed some comfort in a country she was not used to, during a production where she was not being treated as the star she was by Olivier.
The movie is fairly slow, as many biopics are, but does well with the material. I enjoyed Michelle Williams performance mostly, and would recommend this movie to fans of Marilyn Monroe, and of bio pics. 7/10
Movie 43 (2013)
Vulgar, Stupid Comedy Done Hilariously!
I am a big fan of this very stupid movie! It plays like a good, uncensored and vulgar episode of SNL or something. You do HAVE to be a fan of sketch comedy to appreciate the episodic nature of this movie. It barely holds together a frame of a movie, which is a something like a found footage type of spoof. There was another movie that I watched that was not as funny as this, but similar, called InAPPropriate Comedy, and that is much more deserving of the hate it receives than this. That movie, while somewhat funny, falls flat FAR more frequently than Movie 43. This is a star packed sketch comedy that employs toilet humor galore, and enough variety to keep you interested. If it doesn't grab your attention from the first sketch with Hugh Jackman, then this movie will NOT be for you I think. This movie is very divisive among it's crowd, and I think that many people who voted this 1 star didn't actually watch the whole thing.
Like many positive reviewers of this Hollywood fun project, I am a fan of a huge amount of other movies, reaching from pretty much every genre. I watched this movie like other reviewers and laughed the whole way through... Does this make me a moron another reviewer asked? No, it's just we felt in the mood for a good dumb laugh at that time. I have seen this movie three times since it came out and I do not regret it, because I laughed every time. It is funny each time, and though the segments with the teens (the frame of the movie) occasionally fall flat, even they provided a good laugh at the end too. I rate movies based on what it was trying to accomplish it it's genre, and for this one, it did lewd and crude very well. I will say it's not for everyone though, it is quite in your face with the vulgarity of its humor, but if you can stand it, it's hilarious! 8/10
The Art of the Steal (2013)
Lots of Fun!
This was a fun and funny twist on the perennial heist theme! I enjoyed the performances of Russel and Dillon particularly. This was a lot funnier than your standard heist movie. Kurt Russel is always classic as the vulgar ex-con. The two funniest characters were Francie and Uncle Paddy. My favorite segment was when Guy was telling the story of the theft of Mona Lisa, it was a fun segment with an entertaining way of telling it. I like how it was fast paced and funny, it kept the laughs coming while keeping the pace moving. One of the funniest bits was when Russel was like "No, I'm being held at gunpoint by a pirate! I'm in the bathroom, what do think Francie?". The side story of the Interpol agent tracking them is quite funny too. I had never heard of it, but the synopsis looked entertaining, and I like the actors so I tried it and enjoyed it. It is a brief movie, so even if you aren't enjoying the ride, it will be over all too quickly. Many fun twists to be had, give this one a go. 8/10.
Christmas with the Kranks (2004)
Not That Bad
I just watched this movie and thought it was a passable Christmas movie. Yes I agree with the other poster that it is a movie meant to generate Christmas spending by shaming the people who turn away from it like the Kranks, but it was reasonably funny though. I don't care about its message, because in the end they showed he had the Christmas spirit after all. I like Dan Akroyd's militant neighbor role, and Tim Allen is no stranger to Christmas movies. It was generally meh though, but got a few laughs from me. One of my favorite bits was right at the start when that Santa was trying to sell him the umbrella, and later when the priest (Looney "It's Lun-nay, it's French" from Family Matters) encounters them at the tanning salon was pretty funny too. Overall a family friendly (G rated) comedy with a heartwarming ending. 6/10