Blue Jasmine (March 3rd, 2014)
Director: Woody Allen
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins, Bobby Canavale, Alec Baldwin, and Andrew Dice Clay
Rating: 9/10
Got to this one late, literally a day after Cate took home the Best Actress prize at the Oscars. And having seen most of the noms, she deserves it. I'm not well versed in Woody's filmography but one doesn't need to be to appreciate the superb story being told and a high level. The cast is all around stellar, Cate obviously doing great work. But also Sally Hawkins as the simple and good hearted sister, Bobby Canavale as the put upon boyfriend of Sally, Baldwin as Cates ex husband, and a surprisingly heartbreaking turn from Andrew Dice Clay. But the real credit here goes to Woody, with a great script that is his version of A Streetcar Named Desire and direction that makes the movie feel like real life, which makes the hits land harder. A real achievement from a legend in his twilight years.
Rating: 9/10
Lone Star (March 4th, 2014)
Director: John Sayles
Starring: Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Pena, Kris Kristofferson, and Matthew McConaughey
True Detective is a big hit right now, and rightfully so. It features some career high performances from Woody Harrelson and Matthew MacConaughey, as well as some of the best writing and direction TV has seen. So if you wanna see a movie that almost definitely inspired some aspects of the show, this little seen gem from the early 90s is a good starting point. A slow burner burner of a mystery, the story kicks off when two soldiers find a skeleton out in the boonies. Enter Sheriff Chris Cooper, son of the legendary Sheriff Matthew McConaughey. While looking into this case, Cooper starts to uncover things from his fathers past that he may not wanna hear. Now, when I say it's a slow burner, I mean it. There is almost no drive to the movie. It takes it's sweet time getting to it's sucker punch ending, acting as if this mystery is really just a way to introduce us to these characters. Very much like the pilot of a TV show. The acting is great all around, with Cooper and McConaughey being the standouts. Cooper just brings a weary presence to the Sheriff, a man who has hard feeling towards his Dad and wants to escape his shadow. And even though he's only in the movie for about 5 minutes, McConaughey is a heavy presence in the movie, lingering about as the Sheriff the entire town loves. One of the first signs of the potential he has. This is a good movie that meanders a bit and doesn't have a real narrative drive, but it's a gorgeous movie with great acting and a solid ending.
Rating: 8/10
True Detective is a big hit right now, and rightfully so. It features some career high performances from Woody Harrelson and Matthew MacConaughey, as well as some of the best writing and direction TV has seen. So if you wanna see a movie that almost definitely inspired some aspects of the show, this little seen gem from the early 90s is a good starting point. A slow burner burner of a mystery, the story kicks off when two soldiers find a skeleton out in the boonies. Enter Sheriff Chris Cooper, son of the legendary Sheriff Matthew McConaughey. While looking into this case, Cooper starts to uncover things from his fathers past that he may not wanna hear. Now, when I say it's a slow burner, I mean it. There is almost no drive to the movie. It takes it's sweet time getting to it's sucker punch ending, acting as if this mystery is really just a way to introduce us to these characters. Very much like the pilot of a TV show. The acting is great all around, with Cooper and McConaughey being the standouts. Cooper just brings a weary presence to the Sheriff, a man who has hard feeling towards his Dad and wants to escape his shadow. And even though he's only in the movie for about 5 minutes, McConaughey is a heavy presence in the movie, lingering about as the Sheriff the entire town loves. One of the first signs of the potential he has. This is a good movie that meanders a bit and doesn't have a real narrative drive, but it's a gorgeous movie with great acting and a solid ending.
Rating: 8/10
Non Stop (March 4th, 2014)
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy, and Corey Stoll
Rating: 7/10
This movie was severely mismarketed. In what was marketed as an early in the year action movie with Liam Neeson just doing Taken, this movie is not that. Like The Grey and, I'd later find out, Unknown before it, this is not what we thought. This time, it's actually a tense little thriller. There is two fight scenes and only a few gunshots. Yes, it has the moment when the plane goes zero gravity and Liam grabs his gun and kills a guy. But for the most part, it is an over the top B movie Hitchcock thriller. Liam, once agains, anchors the movie with a good performance that lends some credence to the thing. With Moore, McNairy and Stoll aboard, they give underdeveloped characters some charm and nuance. And Collet-Serra manages to keep the movies face straight, even through the idiocy that rears it's head. Now this isn't classic stuff, and the end goes a bit full retard with the villains motivation. But it's a surprisingly solid thriller, one I'll be happy to rediscover late night on tv.
Rating: 7/10
Unknown (March 5th, 2014)
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Liam Neeson, January Jones, Diane Kruger, and Frank Langella
Rating: 6/10
This was another in the line of Neeson flicks that were mismarketed as just another vengeance seeking romp when it's really just a Hitchcockian thriller, but with more B movie insanity. Neeson plays a doctor who gets into a car wreck and loses his memory. But when he recovers it, he realizes that his identity has been stolen and no one recognizes him. But did he? The movie is pretty coy at revealing what is actually happening for a while. But when it does, it gets insane. More so than Non Stop, the next collab between the actor and director. But Neeson, again, anchors the flick and keeps us invested. The supporting cast is ok, except for Jones because she just is not good. In anything. But it's a tense little movie that isn't as polished as Non Stop, and is more forgettable and insane.
The Grandmaster (March 7th, 2014)
Director: Kar Wai Wong
Starring: Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi
Another Oscar nominee that I just missed seeing before the show, this time a foreign film. And usually when you think of a foreign film up for an Oscar, you don't normally imagine a Kung Fu movie. But when you get the visionary director, Kar Wai Wong, you can understand why it was nominated. In this, we see his take on the iconic Ip Man, the man who trained Bruce Lee (note: It is not apart of the Ip Man series that came before, despite being about the same man). Now it being a Kar Wai film, it is a visually stunning movie. Rightfully nominated for Best Cinematography, it elevates what could have been a simple movie about a man of honor during the hard times in China during the middle of the century into a must watch. Visually stunning and acted quite well by Leung and Ziyi, the movie lacks a bit in the narrative/screenplay portion. The movie can be a bit unwieldy in that department, as time just flies by with a title card instead of actually telling the story. There's also a lot of convoluted business about a new Grandmaster and the war gets mentioned, then Leung gets pushed out of his own movie for a bit to see Ziyi go for revenge. It's not very streamlined, a bit choppy. With a bit more work or some editing (adding/subtracting from the movie) could have helped it and elevated it. But as it is, it is a beautiful looking movie with good performances and some well done fight scenes that just misses the mark of greatness.
Rating: 7/10
Starring: Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi
Another Oscar nominee that I just missed seeing before the show, this time a foreign film. And usually when you think of a foreign film up for an Oscar, you don't normally imagine a Kung Fu movie. But when you get the visionary director, Kar Wai Wong, you can understand why it was nominated. In this, we see his take on the iconic Ip Man, the man who trained Bruce Lee (note: It is not apart of the Ip Man series that came before, despite being about the same man). Now it being a Kar Wai film, it is a visually stunning movie. Rightfully nominated for Best Cinematography, it elevates what could have been a simple movie about a man of honor during the hard times in China during the middle of the century into a must watch. Visually stunning and acted quite well by Leung and Ziyi, the movie lacks a bit in the narrative/screenplay portion. The movie can be a bit unwieldy in that department, as time just flies by with a title card instead of actually telling the story. There's also a lot of convoluted business about a new Grandmaster and the war gets mentioned, then Leung gets pushed out of his own movie for a bit to see Ziyi go for revenge. It's not very streamlined, a bit choppy. With a bit more work or some editing (adding/subtracting from the movie) could have helped it and elevated it. But as it is, it is a beautiful looking movie with good performances and some well done fight scenes that just misses the mark of greatness.
300: Rise of An Empire (March 8th, 2014)
Director: Noam Murro
Starring: Sullivan Stapleton, Evan Green, Lena Headey and Rodrigo Santoro
Restraint. If there is one thing nobody ever thought they would attribute to the first 300, restraint would be it. A movie that is just excess comes off as a Tennessee Williams play compared to its sequel. Now this is a sequel no one assumed would ever come to be, seeing as the first ends with (SPOILERS AHOY!) the Spartan battalion being slaughtered by Xerxes. But through some admittedly clever writing, the movie isn't about the Spartans but about the Athenians. If the first was a comic book version of a Spartan legend, why not apply that idea to the Athenian part of the war between Greece and Persia? Set before, during and after 300, the sequel is about two main people. Athenian General Themistocles (Stapleton) and Greek Born, Persian Commander Artemisia (Green). Themistocles is trying to unite Greece as one nation to fight off the impending horde of Persians. This could have been a slam dunk. But under the direction of Murro, the movie does not reach the heights it could have. The main problem is that he tries to be Zack Snyder, but Snyder he ain't. Visually, the movie looks the same as the first. But going back to the beginning of this review, there is no restraint. It's almost like what people think a Snyder film is supposed to look like. An over abundance of the slow down/ramp up technique from the first, even faker looking blood and some shotty CGI take the movie down. It makes one appreciate how perfect on a technical level the first movie is, and how Snyder directed the hell out of it. Not helping the cause is Stapleton trying his best Gerard Butler and not exactly selling it. He tries but is kind of lost at sea. Faring much better is Eva Green, who eats the entire movie whole with her performance. The best thing about it, she is a feral beast dead set on burning Greece to the ground. Lena Headey returns as Queen Gorgo, pissed off at the loss of her husband, and gives a good performance in her limited screen time. It's funny that in a movie that is all testosterone and homo erotic overtones, the best performances are from the women. Now while it seems like I hated the movie, it does a serviceable job at entertaining with its action. But on a whole, this was the Batman: Arkham Origins of the series. If they make another one, which the movie sets up, they can lure Snyder back for one more go to end the series proper.
Rating: 6/10
Director: Noam Murro
Starring: Sullivan Stapleton, Evan Green, Lena Headey and Rodrigo Santoro
Restraint. If there is one thing nobody ever thought they would attribute to the first 300, restraint would be it. A movie that is just excess comes off as a Tennessee Williams play compared to its sequel. Now this is a sequel no one assumed would ever come to be, seeing as the first ends with (SPOILERS AHOY!) the Spartan battalion being slaughtered by Xerxes. But through some admittedly clever writing, the movie isn't about the Spartans but about the Athenians. If the first was a comic book version of a Spartan legend, why not apply that idea to the Athenian part of the war between Greece and Persia? Set before, during and after 300, the sequel is about two main people. Athenian General Themistocles (Stapleton) and Greek Born, Persian Commander Artemisia (Green). Themistocles is trying to unite Greece as one nation to fight off the impending horde of Persians. This could have been a slam dunk. But under the direction of Murro, the movie does not reach the heights it could have. The main problem is that he tries to be Zack Snyder, but Snyder he ain't. Visually, the movie looks the same as the first. But going back to the beginning of this review, there is no restraint. It's almost like what people think a Snyder film is supposed to look like. An over abundance of the slow down/ramp up technique from the first, even faker looking blood and some shotty CGI take the movie down. It makes one appreciate how perfect on a technical level the first movie is, and how Snyder directed the hell out of it. Not helping the cause is Stapleton trying his best Gerard Butler and not exactly selling it. He tries but is kind of lost at sea. Faring much better is Eva Green, who eats the entire movie whole with her performance. The best thing about it, she is a feral beast dead set on burning Greece to the ground. Lena Headey returns as Queen Gorgo, pissed off at the loss of her husband, and gives a good performance in her limited screen time. It's funny that in a movie that is all testosterone and homo erotic overtones, the best performances are from the women. Now while it seems like I hated the movie, it does a serviceable job at entertaining with its action. But on a whole, this was the Batman: Arkham Origins of the series. If they make another one, which the movie sets up, they can lure Snyder back for one more go to end the series proper.
Rating: 6/10
- Tom Lorenzo
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