Welcome back folks. Got a new entry for ya. It's a smaller than usual week, but shit happens. It's a decent week. Nothing too amazing, but good work all around. No embarrassments here. So take a look and stay tuned. Enjoy folks, and thanks.
Deliver Us From Evil (January 18th, 2015)
Director: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Eric Bana, Edgar Ramirez, Joel McHale, and Olivia Munn
Scott Derrickson is a good craftsman. His films have a nice polish to them, bringing some real mood and atmosphere to the proceedings. Sometimes that doesn't always work (The Day The Earth Stood Still), but he's been right more times than not. Now, while he's get no classics to his name doesn't diminish that he's a good director. Now, this movie is good. It's a solid movie that does what it sets out do for the most part. Is it the scariest movie in the world? No, not even close. But it has some tension in it. Does the family stuff with Bana work? Nah. Not really. Joel McHale is very much miscast, playing himself again but supposedly a badass knife fighting version. But Eric Bana brings his game, turning in a nicely serious and grounded performance. He's a burnt out cop who's seen too much and has lost all faith in the world. But the real star to me is Ramirez. We've seen him do great work before in Carlos, so it is no surprise he's great here. But in a role that could have been underplayed or just phoned in, he brings life to the man. A priest who's made many mistakes in his life, dedicated to doing good. He brings soul to the man and makes him real, a plus in a genre pic like this. And while the movie isn't scary, its more of a supernatural police procedural. It's a nice little diversion that shows Derrickson knows how to use a camera, a big plus for his upcoming job on Doctor Strange.
Rating: 8/10
The Imitation Game (January 20th, 2015)
Director: Morten Tyldum
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, and Mark Strong
This was a pleasant surprise. What seemed like trite Oscar bait designed to do nothing but get Cumberbatch an Oscar turned out to be quite the interesting story about a man helping to stop WWII. It's still Oscar bait, but it has a good story at the heart of it and has almost none of the stuffiness that plagues many Oscar bait movies. Alan Turing (Cumberbatch) is a genius mathematician, cryptologist and pioneer in computer tech. He is tasked with helping the British government to work on a task force to help crack encrypted Nazi messages. But to do so, he has to craft a new type of machine to do so. While this sounds like it could be stuffy as fuck, it isn't. With a crew of men and Keira Knightley helping out, it comes off like an Oceans Eleven spy movie. The closeted genius Turing is his own worst enemy, making almost everyone around him hate him. His prickly, smug demeanor hides the fact that he truly is trying to do good. Cumerbatch is great in the role, as is Knightley. The movie loses a bit of steam with a framing device that kind of sidelines the tragic life of Turing, but it doesn't completely derail the movie. This is a real solid movie about an unknown part of WWII and gives us the tragic live of a genius who's work changed the world in too many ways to count.
Rating: 8/10
The Theory Of Everything (January 23rd, 2014)
Director: James Marsh
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, David Thewlis, and Charlie Cox
This, not so much of a surprise. It looked like trite Oscar bait, and what did we get? Oscar bait. Now, that isn't to demean the work Redmayne does as Hawking. He does give an astounding performance, completely transforming himself into the man. The physicality alone is amazing. It doesn't hurt that he looks exactly like the man. His performance really is amazing and it's a shame that the movie kind of strands him in a movie so full of itself. Instead of focusing on the work of the man and on his degradation of body, we get brief looks at that. The majority of this movie is the doomed relationship between him and his first wife. And it really is just not interesting in the least. How a movie about a relationship takes itself so importantly is amazing. It's like it thinks just because Hawking himself has done amazing work means everything he did is worthy of a movie. And it isn't. It really just is not. This is as cinematic as a wikipedia article. It really only works for Redmayne. That's about it.
Rating: 7/10
Top Movies
1. The Imitation Game
2. Deliver Us From Evil
3. The Theory Of Everything
Top 5 Performances
1. Eddie Redmayne - The Theory Of Everything
2. Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game
3. Edgar Ramirez - Deliver Us From Evil
4. Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game
5. Eric Bana - Deliver Us From Evil
Top 5 Moments
1. The Big Break - The Imitation Game
2. The Code Breaking Morality Debate - The Imitation Game
3. The Exorcism - Deliver Us From Evil
4. The Bar Conversation - Deliver Us From Evil
5. Alans Medicine - The Imitation Game
The Imitation Game (January 20th, 2015)
Director: Morten Tyldum
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, and Mark Strong
This was a pleasant surprise. What seemed like trite Oscar bait designed to do nothing but get Cumberbatch an Oscar turned out to be quite the interesting story about a man helping to stop WWII. It's still Oscar bait, but it has a good story at the heart of it and has almost none of the stuffiness that plagues many Oscar bait movies. Alan Turing (Cumberbatch) is a genius mathematician, cryptologist and pioneer in computer tech. He is tasked with helping the British government to work on a task force to help crack encrypted Nazi messages. But to do so, he has to craft a new type of machine to do so. While this sounds like it could be stuffy as fuck, it isn't. With a crew of men and Keira Knightley helping out, it comes off like an Oceans Eleven spy movie. The closeted genius Turing is his own worst enemy, making almost everyone around him hate him. His prickly, smug demeanor hides the fact that he truly is trying to do good. Cumerbatch is great in the role, as is Knightley. The movie loses a bit of steam with a framing device that kind of sidelines the tragic life of Turing, but it doesn't completely derail the movie. This is a real solid movie about an unknown part of WWII and gives us the tragic live of a genius who's work changed the world in too many ways to count.
The Theory Of Everything (January 23rd, 2014)
Director: James Marsh
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, David Thewlis, and Charlie Cox
This, not so much of a surprise. It looked like trite Oscar bait, and what did we get? Oscar bait. Now, that isn't to demean the work Redmayne does as Hawking. He does give an astounding performance, completely transforming himself into the man. The physicality alone is amazing. It doesn't hurt that he looks exactly like the man. His performance really is amazing and it's a shame that the movie kind of strands him in a movie so full of itself. Instead of focusing on the work of the man and on his degradation of body, we get brief looks at that. The majority of this movie is the doomed relationship between him and his first wife. And it really is just not interesting in the least. How a movie about a relationship takes itself so importantly is amazing. It's like it thinks just because Hawking himself has done amazing work means everything he did is worthy of a movie. And it isn't. It really just is not. This is as cinematic as a wikipedia article. It really only works for Redmayne. That's about it.
Top Movies
1. The Imitation Game
2. Deliver Us From Evil
3. The Theory Of Everything
Top 5 Performances
1. Eddie Redmayne - The Theory Of Everything
2. Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game
3. Edgar Ramirez - Deliver Us From Evil
4. Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game
5. Eric Bana - Deliver Us From Evil
Top 5 Moments
1. The Big Break - The Imitation Game
2. The Code Breaking Morality Debate - The Imitation Game
3. The Exorcism - Deliver Us From Evil
4. The Bar Conversation - Deliver Us From Evil
5. Alans Medicine - The Imitation Game
- Tom Lorenzo
No comments:
Post a Comment