Welcome back guys to the newest update to my weekly movie viewings. I'm keeping it short and sweet today guys. I'm feeling under the weather so I'm gonna be in and out. Enjoy it guys and stay tuned for more updates.
Swingers (July 27th, 2014)
Director: Doug Liman
Starring: Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Ron Livingston, and Heather Graham
Doug Liman has had his hands in a lot of things and has been around a good while now, this movie being his big break in 1996. He's done a lot of work but has never really broke out as a big, A list director despite having helped launch a good deal of careers. He directed The Bourne Identity, which then led to Paul Greengrass directing the next two sequels which dropped the cinematic cancer of shaky cam onto action scene for the next decade plus. He helped Sarah Polley on Go, and she is now an acclaimed director in her own right. The power couple of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got started on his Mr and Mrs Smith. And here, he launched Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn. Which is good, because Favreau and Vaughn went on to bigger and better things (Favreau longer than Vaughn). The movie itself is a nice little movie about a guy who is still whining about his longtime girlfriend breaking up with him 6 months prior, and the friends who try to break him out of his funk. The movie is nice and a fun little time, but the dialogue gets a little too irritating at times. Favreau tries to be very writerly, desperate to be Tarantino. The biggest problem is that he also isn't the best lead in a movie. He hadn't come into his own yet, whereas Vaughn found the fast talking dickhead role he'd play the rest of his days. There really isn't much else to the movie but seeing the starting points of men still kicking around the business today.
Rating: 7/10
Guardians Of The Galaxy (July 31st, 2014)
Director: James Gunn
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, and Vin Diesel
Finally, Marvel finally made a movie to top Iron Man 3. The chopped up Thor: The Dark World didn't do it, with it's overuse of Loki which ruined the role of the villain in the movie. Nor did the kind of bland spy thriller Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Iron Man 3 was a big surprise, managing to feel fresh and keep people guessing. It only makes sense that the movie to top it would be another movie made by a real director with a tangible sensibility. James Gunn came in, managed to fit into the Marvel Universe and make a movie that was so off the wall odd but cute. This is a movie where the lead of the movie (Pratt) is overshadowed by a sentient tree (Diesel) and a anthropomorphic raccoon (Cooper). Right off the bat, the biggest difference in this movie compared to the other two non IM3 movies is it looks like a real movie. Gunn has done this before, on significantly smaller budgets, so he knows, like Shane Black, how to use a budget to look like a movie and not a tv show (a constant MCU problem). Next is the ease at which the humor comes without stopping the movie in its tracks, which non Iron Man movies have a problem with. But the biggest change, the one that takes the entire movie showing, is how big it's heart is. Don't get me wrong, it's a Gunn movie so it has some adult moments. My favorite being a prison rape joke by the raccoon. The cast he has here is also outstanding, not a single one being a weak link. There's been a lot of grousing because Gamora (Saldana) isn't the best one in the movie even though she's fun and better than most big budget female characters. Pratt does good work here, showing he is better than his goofy role in Parks and Rec, showing true leading man skills here. Dave Bautista also does surprisingly good work as Drax, a big bruiser of an alien who doesn't get jokes or metaphors. Saldana is great, bringing heart and pain to the super badass Gamora. But the true heroes are Cooper and Diesel. Cooper was a controversial pick, because Rocket is supposed to either sound Cockney or Australian. But Cooper is decidedly neither of those, and doesn't try to sound it. Here, he does a sort of street hood voice for Rocket, bringing real scrappiness to the little mad man. There's also some pain, as Rockets backstory is kind of heartbreaking. But Diesel isn't surprising, as the man who made millions of men cry world wide as The Iron Giant. He is great doing voice work, and he does great work again as Groot. What is surprising is that he managed to do it with only one line of dialogue, I Am Groot, delivered in different ways. It's astounding how much heart and soul he brings to Groot, and he does. Groot is the heart of the movie. He's gonna be huge with the kids and girls who get dragged to this by their idiot boyfriends. There's two people who get short changed in this. Lee Pace and Karen Gillan. Pace is the villain, Ronan. He looks very intimidating. But, yet another Marvel problem, is just not interesting. Aside from Loki and Abomination, none have stood tall. And Ronan falls into that field. Gillan plays Nebula, who is a very striking character. But that's really all she offers. She looks cool. She's kind of Marvels female version of Darth Maul, but she doesn't have as great a fight as Maul did. She is almost criminally wasted. Hopefully this is righted in the sequel. But none of that really matters since this movie is an absolute blast, mixing the right amount of humor and action. It's been a good long while since we've had a big budget movie like this be so adept at humor and action. The last time really may have been Galaxy Quest (I'd have to look into that though). Endlessly entertaining and a sure shot for most fun movie of the year. Highly recommended.
Videodrome (August 1st, 2014)
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: James Woods, Deborah Harry, Sonja Smits, and Leslie Carlson
David Cronenberg is a weird guy. When the least fucked up movie in your bag is A History of Violence, we know we got a weird dude on hand. And seriously, does he have some issues with vaginas. My god, the vag imagery on hand here is just astounding. It all culminates with Woods pulling a gun out of the vagina in his stomach. Yeah, its like that. Now, the movie is weird as all hell. But it is meant to be, like a demented dream. Woods is great in it, the only real sort of good performance in the thing. Most everyone else suffers from 80s B movie syndrome. Sort of stiff and not very great. But Cronenberg hit it right when he got Woods, the real ace in the hole needed to anchor the oddity of the movie. Dealing with violence and sexuality and the technological advancements in society, the movie is just out there. It's like a better version of The Ring, but instead of a trad Japansese horror movie girl trying to kill you, it's hallucinations and weird body enhancements and exploding tumors. It's so odd, but Cronenberg managed to handle it well. It does suffer a bit from a rickety beginning, and isn't as clear as it could be without ruining the ambiguous feel of the movie. But it somehow comes together. The real MVP though has to be Rick Baker, making some really impressive makeup effects that are still nasty and good looking today. It's no shock he is one of the best there is. This movie isn't for everyone, but if you dig really odd stuff and wanna see a unique 80s horror flick, you could do much worse.
The Battered Bastards of Baseball (August 2nd, 2014)
Director: Chapman and Maclain Way
Starring: Bing Russell, Kurt Russell, Todd Field, and Rob Nelson
I heard about this documentary when it was making the rounds at some festivals. I heard it was about Bing Russell, Kurt's dad, and I knew I was gonna watch it no matter what it was about. When I heard how it was about Bing starting an independent baseball team, I was even more intrigued. I didn't know Bing did that, nor that Kurt almost stopped acting to keep playing for the team. But the story is so much more interesting than it already seems. I won't get into the nitty gritty, but I will say that it is almost a real life Slap Shot but for baseball. A team made up of the losers of baseball that said fuck you to the establishment (MLB) and became wildly successful. It's a beautiful tale of Bings love of the game, and it's infectious. You fall for the game, either again or for the first time. But at the same time, you end up hating baseball because you see how shitty the MLB can be in business dealings. This is a completely engrossing documentary and is an essential for fans of baseball, underdog stories and Kurt Russell, because you see the love he has for his father and the ingenuity he possessed. An absolute treat and one of the best surprises of 2014.
Best Movies
1. Guardians Of The Galaxy
2. The Battered Bastards of Baseball
3. Videodrome
4. Swingers
Top 5 Performances
1. Post Credits Scene 1 - Guardians of The Galaxy
2. The Verdict Is... - The Battered Bastards of Baseball
3. The Prison Break - Guardians of The Galaxy
4. Long Live The New Flesh - Videodrome
5. Dance Off - Guardians Of The Galaxy
Top 5 Performances
1. Bradley Cooper - Guardians Of The Galaxy
2. James Woods - Videodrome
3. Vin Diesel - Guardians Of The Galaxy
4. Chris Pratt - Guardians Of The Galaxy
5. Vince Vaughn - Swingers
- Tom Lorenzo
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