Movies Watched The Week of 2/22 - 2/28

Hello everybody.  We got a nice selection for this weeks update for you guys.  That's a bit of the silver lining of getting a concussion at work and being home for a few days.  Movies galore.  And all for you guys.  Well, it's all for me but you guys can enjoy it too.  So enjoy the whiplash like variety of things I've watched.  There's only one garbage heap in here, so YAY! I'm done now.  Read it or not.  I got either shit to write.  Bye.

The Bank Job (February 22nd, 2015)

Director: Roger Donaldson

Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, David Suchet, and Peter De Jersey

Statham is one of the most unique action stars of all time.  He may not be the best actor of them all (Stallone), the most iconic (Schwarzenegger), or the most ironically enjoyable (Van Damme).  But he is the one who takes the most chances and does movies that aren't typical shoot em ups.  The best one is probably Redemption, but this movie here is one of them.  Marketed as a Guy Ritchie esque action flick, this is much more in line with 70s Brit crime flicks. Based on a true story, Statham plays a low level criminal who is roped into a plot to rob a bank by an old flame (Burrows).  But the plot is much more complex than a simple bank robbery, and all hell breaks loose after.  While this isn't a grim dark flick, it's a serious affair.  There are consequences.  It's also a surprisingly political movie, being based off a true story, it has a real cynical look at the game.  It's a breezy fun, with maybe a little too short a run time.  It woulda been nice to spend more time with the crew before some of the consequences land, but it still works.  Statham is great and the plotting is like a well oiled machine.  This is a good little flick and one of the underseen gems in the Statham filmography.  

Rating: 8.5/10

Kick-Ass 2 (February 23rd, 2015)
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Starring: Aaron Taylor Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Chris Mintz Plasse, and Jim Carrey


Having now seen all of the movies based of Mark Millar books, it's safe to say that only Matthew Vaughn should spearhead the adaptations.  Because of the 4 made, he did 2.  And the other 2 are just absolute garbage.  Those are Wanted and now this, a sequel to the Matthew Vaughn directed adaptation.  Now, the funny thing about all the books is that they are garbage.  The first Kick-Ass book is the closest to good, but it suffers from Millars current trend of being over the top, nihilistic and immature with no point.  But Vaughn and writing partner Jane Goldman manage to see the strengths in the books, wring out the crap and make something special. But here, you got a director who couldn't make the god awful sequel book work, so we got a pretty bad movie.  Like the book, it's a half assed and over the top look at escalation from a "realistic" standpoint.  And by realistic, it just means really fucking ugly with no point or weight.  This was just a slog to get through.  Johnson is still and will probably always be a blank slate, a nothing of a performer.  Moretz does what she can, but is given a lot of nothing to do.  And Carrey makes the most of what he's given, giving a solid performance. There really isn't much to say.  This is a pretty garbage movie and is an affront to the pretty solid original.

Rating: 4/10

Big Hero 6 (February 26th, 2015)
Directors: Chris Williams and Don Hall
Starring: Ryan Potter, Genesis Rodriguez, TJ Miller, and Scott Adsit

Getting it out of the way, this didn't deserve to win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.  And no, it shouldn't have gone to The Lego Movie for all you wonderfully hip adults out there.  That honor should have gone to How To Train Your Dragon 2.  But the movie is really good, so I'm not upset that it won.  It isn't the Birdman for animation.  Its a really good, old school movie that fits right into the Disney mold.  Young kid suffers a loss in the family and goes on an adventure to learn how to deal with the loss, while gaining a new family that accepts him.  Add in a funny inhuman creature, this time being the medic robot named Baymax that becomes the surrogate to the lost relative.  The movie is visually fun, set in a San Francisco that was merged with Japan stylings (minus any of the weird sexual depravities, thankfully).  The directors stage the movie with a real panache.  The flying stuff is great. Not as great as Dragon 2's flying scenes, but great nonetheless.  And while not featuring any of the well known Marvel characters, it's use of the ideas and characters gives it a nice world to separate it from other cartoons.  The characters are all well written and charmingly performed.  It's also nice to see a cartoon (and movie in general) that values intelligence and craftiness over good looks and brawn.  It's a thrilling and funny movie that works well for kids and won't bore any adults.  It's a nice little superhero movie that isn't too dark for the kiddies.

Rating: 9/10

Munich (February 26th, 2015)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, and Geoffrey Rush

This is one of Spielbergs lesser known movies, mainly due to the lack of box office success.  There was also a bit of a controversy surrounding the movie, with some claiming it to be anti semitic.  Which is gold, because it’s from the guy who made Schindler’s List.  But hey, fuck that because it doesn’t make Israel seem like the cleanest and most noble place.  But despite it’s almost forgotten reputation and lack of adventurous moments, this is one of the best things he’s ever made.  By far, it’s the most morally ambiguous movie he’s ever made.  When 11 Israeli Olympic team members are killed in a hostage situation by a Palestinian group, Israel puts together a black ops sqaud to kill 11 men involved in the attack.  But by putting us in the shoes of the team leader (Bana), we don’t get all the information.  We are in his shoes, so nothing is clear.  Are these names actually involved? What’s the proof?  Will killing them even make a difference? What does killing men in cold blood do to a soul, despite a righteous belief? Can you kill an enemy easily after having a real conversation with them?  This is a powerful film that doesn’t pull punches.  It’s brutal and unflinching, managing to damn nor praise either side.  It takes a swipe at the very idea of war and the circuitous nature of revenge.  The whole thing is about ambiguity, never answering a good deal of questions.  It’s a movie that’s another answer from Spielberg that he’s too sentimental and childish a director.  It’s a god damn minor miracle it even got made and is as good as it is.  Another masterpiece by the beard, this one should be seen by all.

Rating: 10/10

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (February 27th, 2015)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, and Francois Truffaut


For the longest time, I just couldn't get into this movie.  I tried and it was painfully boring to me.  But after delving into the Spielberg filmography, I had to finish the movie to be a completist.  And this time, I actually was able to appreciate what he was doing.  It still isn't a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination.  The pacing is way too slow.  Deliberate and slow I can handle.  But this was, at points, way too much so.  But upon this rewatch, I can also see how this is him trying to bring the tone and style of Jaws to an alien movie.  A slower paced character piece with a bigger element involved.  Where Jaws was about an outside nuisance (the shark) making Brody overcome his fears to protect his family and people he oversees as Police Chief, this is about an outside nuisance shaking Roy Neary free from his stasis and realizing he wants more.  Which is all fine and dandy, but the end with Neary going off with aliens and abandoning his family.  Leaves a sour taste, despite being fitting and making sense to the story being told.  But whats also nice, and almost unfathomable, was Spielberg making the aliens not world conquerors.  Back then it was unheard of, especially the same year Alien came out.  Even today that's not always the case.  And by making a movie about alien contact and not making the Government a shady bunch of scumbags.  They're just concerned about what could happen, but are just as ecstatic about it as Neary.  And as one of the few movies written by Spielberg, it is a very telling movie.  For one, it's like the origin story of the Spielberg father, a man who grows unattached to his children.  And it also gives a glimpse into Spielbergs feelings of living in middle America, feeling like an outsider from the rest of the world.  And the ending works as his way of taking a world changing leap.  It has it's tense moments, as it works like Jaws, but it's almost like a sucker punch.  Overall, it's a positive movie with an idealistic view of life outside the planet.  While it could have used some tightening in the editing bay, it's an overall good damn flick.  It'll always have a lower place in the Spierberg canon to me, but it's a nice follow up to a game changing masterpiece.

Rating: 8/10

Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths (February 28th, 2015)
Directors: Lauren Montgomery and Sam Liu
Starring: Mark Harmon, William Baldwin, Chris Noth, and James Woods

It took a while, but I’ve found the new low in the DC animated canon.  But being a DC animated film, it’s still a good time.  This time out, we have a movie dealing the multiverse and the Crime Syndicate.  The Syndicate is the evil versions of the JL, occupying another dimensions Earth.  We see in the beginning that that worlds Lex Luthor is a good guy, battling the Syndicate.  But in a last ditch effort, Lex sends himself to the Earth of the JL.  After convincing them to help, they all go off to fight.  Except Batman that is.  What follows is a movie very heavy on action.  Which is all well and good, but doesn’t really get into the characters heads.  Martian Manhunter gets a half assed attempt at an arc, but it’s not well executed.  But the worst thing is that the voice cast isn’t that good.  It’s the worst cast wrangled up in DC lore so far.  The only one who works out is James Woods, actually trying to play a character.  But the rest seem out of place.  But despite a quick runtime and a lack of story with a slightly miscast crew, it has it’s entertainment.  Mainly of the explosive variety.  But there’s some good character interactions here, making it a fun and quick run.

Rating: 8/10

Snake Eyes (February 28th, 2015)
Director: Brian DePalma
Starring: Nic Cage, Gary Sinise, Carla Cugino, and John Heard

It’s a damn shame that DePalma has fallen apart in recent years, because this guy really knew how to put a god damn scene together man.  The visual flair he showed for decades was stunning.  It almost seemed like he was showing off most of the time.  And while this movie may not be the best thing he ever did, but this is a solid entry from a guy late in his career.  Starring Nic Cage managing to act and make the moments of Cage-ness work within the character.  What we got here story wise is a fairly typical convoluted conspiracy plot with backstabbings galore.  But with the panache that DePalma brings elevates this completely.  It’s fun and gorgeous to watch.  There isn’t much depth to the flick here.  But it is a very morally grey movie.  Cage isn’t a straight up hero.  He’s a corrupt cop wrapped up in this plot and decides to do the right thing.  But what’s really refreshing is that it blows up in his face.  His corruption is his downfall.  It’s nice to see the anti hero get his comeuppance even though he does the right thing.  So while it is no Blow Out, Scarface or Carlito’s Way, this is some damn fine pulp entertainment.

Rating: 9/10





Top Movies

1. Munich
2. Big Hero 6
3. Snake Eyes
4. The Bank Job
5. Close Encounters Of The Third King
6. Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths
7. Kick-Ass 2

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched The Week of 2/15 - 2/21

Hey guys.  Welcome to the newest addition of this damned blog.  It's a Spielberg heavy week.  This is gonna be a quick one, just because the Oscars has taken up alot of time of my writing.  So sit back and enjoy.

Hook (February 15th, 2015)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Bob Hoskins, and Julia Roberts

It's very weird to see a Spielberg movie where he completely whiffs.  Just takes a swing for the fences and just goes down swinging.  It's even weirder to see him make a movie that feels like it has no heart to it, as if he's just going through the motions.  Even Indy 4 had some moments of life to it.  But this is just a heartless, entertainment free slog of a movie.  A story about what happens when Peter Pan leaves Neverland and grows up, its not interesting.  He essentially turns into a Spielberg Dad, a jerkoff of a man who doesn't have time for his children and then learns how to be a great dad.  It's all very half assed.  But even so, it doesn't even come out in a visually good way.  This is the only movie he's done that isn't even good to look at.  The visuals are dank and murky, trying in a half assed way to look like Gilliam or Burton.  The cast is not good, completely miscast.  Williams doesn't do a good job as the asshole version of Pan, and just goes into typical Williams schtick when he goes back to his old self.  Hoffman is just an embarrassment as Hook, a real poofty dandy with no real sense of villainy or danger.  The only one who does any sort of decent work is Roberts, playing Tinkerbell just right.  It's a damn shame he whiffed on this one, but it seems like he was focused on doing Schindler's List and Jurassic Park to really do this well at all.  Skip this crap and be glad you did.  

Rating: 4/10

The Interview (February 16th, 2015)
Directors: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
Starring: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Randall Park, and Lizzy Caplan


With all the hoopla surrounding this movie, you'd think it would have to be a genius piece of satire that really cuts into North Korea.  But really, all it is is a solid little comedy that makes Kim Jong Un look like a little baby.  That's about it.  The movie really is a simple story.  Rogen and Franco go to North Korea to interview Un, and are tasked with his murder by the CIA.  Hijinks ensure.  It starts off a little slow, but has some moments in it.  It's when they get to North Korea and Un shows up, the movie picks up steam.  And by the time the end rolls around and the interview is under way, the movie hits the highs it should have been at the whole time.  That may be because Rogen and Goldberg didn't actually write it that it isn't as good and hilarious as it should have been, but they focused on directing and it pays off.  While one wouldn't say this is Awards worthy directing wise, but it's a nice step up.  Visually good looking with some nice little flourishes, they also shoot violence really well.  And the violence here is just nasty and surprisingly brutal.  The MVP of the cast is Park, just totally going for it as the big blustering baby that is Un.  The weak link if Franco, just showing how completely useless he is when it comes to comedy for the most part.  He goes big and it's too big, so big it loses any sense of a real human being in the character.  Basically, it's a moderate comedy.  It's not the worst comedy of the year (hello A Million Ways To Die In The West) or the best (Inherent Vice).  It's better than Neighbors, so Rogen stepped it up a bit.  Give it a go and enjoy hopefully.

Rating: 8/10

E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (February 17th, 2015)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Michael MacNaughton, and Drew Barrymore


I was never the biggest fan of this movie growing up.  It never connected and always grated to me.  But I'll be the first to admit that I had a weird childhood with cinema.  I didn't watch many of the typical kids movies, so this may just have not worked for me no matter what.  But now being a little older and appreciating the craft of Spielberg, I can appreciate it alot more.  It also might just be that having seen Hook so recently gives his movies a curve.  But there is some genuine worthiness in this movie.  Spielberg knows how to craft a damn movie, good looking films with just an absolute ease for crafting scene.  He gets some good performances out of the kids, a difficult task for anyone.  And the dynamics at play with the family is nice and not driven into our faces so much, with the dead beat father aspect there to color things.  But mainly, the relationship between the boy and ET is good.  It's not overly sappy and too melodramatic.  Done with a deft touch, it works.  That and it has a scene where ET gets drunk, so I was sold.  Is it perfect? No.  Like many 80s kids movies, it is a little formless and just shambles about till the ending when a plot kicks in.  But it's charming and has it's moments.  So I'm glad to have rewatched it, giving it a second chance to grow on me.

Rating: 8/10

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (February 21st, 2015)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, John Hurt, and Frances O'Connor

Well, here seem to be the first movie in Spielbergs career that just didn't need aliens to show up at the end.  Like, I get why it had to happen to make it's point.  But it is just so jarring, especially in a movie that had it's ending point that was so much more poignant and fitting.  Yeah, it was a bleaker ending, but the movie ends in a bleak spot anyway.  So go bleaker with it, and let it hit.  And that's not Spielbergs fault at all, like the naysayers of his that proclaim he's too sentimental compared to Kubrick (this was supposed to be a Kubrick joint, but Kubrick passed it off to Spielberg).  This is the script Kubrick wanted.  And Spielberg cna go cold and brutal, like in Schindler's List or Munich.  So it seems he wanted a bittersweet ending for their Sci Fi Pinocchio.  It also just makes the middle part of the movie almost worthless, a middle that was already a bit weak and prolonged.  But the beginning is really strong.  Watching this little robot boy try to be human and deal with love, love that was forced on him and can't change.  Trying to get a soul and get his mommy back.  Visually, this is better than Hook overall, but has some not great looking moments in the neon futuristic city scapes.  The CGI is fantastic though, not usually a problem with Spielberg. Mainly, this is a movie that is too long and loses steam along the way.  But it has some great ideas in it, some really heady stuff and it's ambitious.  But the script gets a bit in the way.  Its worth seeing just to see another Spielberg joint, doing something different.  But it falls in the back end of his filmography.

Rating: 8/10

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched The Week of 2/8 - 2/14

Welcome back gang, to an all new and still continuing blog entry of my Disney kick.  Yes, I still get the Disney stuff going, with a look at a live action flick.  But cartoons dominate, and they’re all really good.  It’s a great week for movies, so sit back and enjoy.  

Robin Hood (February 8th, 2015)

Director: Wolfgang Reitherman

Starring: Brian Bedford, Phil Harris, Monica Evans, and Peter Ustinov

Robin Hood is a post Walt movie, being made and released after his death.  So it’s not crazy to say that some of the magic in the movies released during his time is gone from this.  But while this isn’t a groundbreaker or something truly special with that certain something, this is a damn fun movie.  Like many Disney movies, it is a family version of a classic story.  This time it is the story of that archer from Sherwood forrest.  But instead of being a little british ninny or drunk Russell Crowe, Robin is a fox.  All the characters are anthropomorphic animals, fitting their characteristics.  And if you know the story, it’s fairly faithful to that.  The voices are great fits for the roles, Ustinov as Prince John being a standout.  It’s a good looking movie and is just fun.  It’s like the Disney version of Oceans Eleven.  That’s about it.  Good ole time and fun for all ages.  Give it a look.  

Rating: 9/10

Whiplash (February 10th, 2015)
Director: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Miles Teller, JK Simmons, Paul Reiser, and Melissa Benoist

Fuck man.  Just…fuck.  This is a god damned movie.  What seemed like a too serious, self important movie about music (the Birdman of music), we got a very musical and well crafted story about the obsessive drive to be the best.  What can’t be sold in a trailer is the perfectly antagonistic relationship between Miles Teller and JK Simmons.  Teller is a young man in college, desperate to be the best Jazz drummer in the world.  When he is tapped to join Simmons band in school, he is ecstatic.  But Simmons isn’t any old teacher. He’s like a Nazi, abusing all his students verbally, emotionally and physically.  He is a firestorm.  For most of the movie, we think he’s just an asshole with a perfectionist stick up his ass.  But it’s not that simple.  He’s trying to bring the best out of people and does that by breaking them down to see if they get up stronger.  Simmons is the best thing in the movie and is going to get himself an Oscar.  Teller himself is no slouch either, nailing that almost spectrum like drive that his character has.  He’s almost inhuman, unable to understand others behaviors.  This role actually does give hint that he could make a great Reed Richards.  They are the only two we really focus on, giving the movie a razor focus.  The unsung star though is Chazelle, a first time director.  He shows a hell of an eye for story and for editing, bringing his musical background to the movie, giving it a good flow that feels like a Jazz performance.  He also knows how to wring tension out of scenes that aren’t typical tension scenes.  But the story he lays out gives them an edge and the fact that Simmons can do anything is unsettling.  This is a great fucking movie that features on of the best endings of all time, a perfectly calibrated scene of tension and narrative momentum climaxing perfectly.  It’s a hell of a flick, the best movie that’s nominated for Best Picture, and one that sadly won’t win.  But it’ll have a better future than The Theory of Everything.

Rating: 10/10

Sleeping Beauty (February 12th, 2015)
Directors: Eric Larson and Les Clark
Starring: Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Taylor Holmes, and Eleanor Audley

I’ll just get the negative out of the way quick.  The story at hand here, of the arranged marriage between a prince and princess who actually fall in love with each other, isn’t for me.  This is the blueprint for all these fairy tale love stories, with the princess and the prince and blah.  But that’s all fine, being that this is the best looking animated movie ever.  It’s really quite insane how gorgeous this looks, being as it was made in 1959.  It is absolutely stunning to look at.  Every frame is like a stain glass piece of art.  It is an ambitious piece of work and the high mark for animation.  Nothing has topped it since.  And the love story nonsense may not be for me, there is Maleficent.  She’s got the simplest motivation for setting the plot into motion.  She wasn’t invited to a party, so she gets all pissy and places a curse on an infant.  She’s a wretched bitch, and its all because she’s petty.  Fantastic stuff.  That and it all ends with one of the most gorgeous scenes in cinema, a fight between the prince and Maleficent who turned into a dragon. 

Rating: 9.5/10

101 Dalmatians (February 14th, 2015)
Directors: Clyde Geronimi and Hamilton S. Luske
Starring: Rod Taylor, Cate Bauer, J. Pat O'Malley, and Betty Lou Gerson

If there’s a simple reason for why I love this movie, it’s because there’s a shit ton of dogs doing dog things.  Simple as that, cute dogs are abundant.  But there’s more to it than that.  For one, it’s funny.  Pongo is a great Disney hero, the patriarch Dalmatian with a great positive attitude.  Always got a smile on his face, and he is such a bro.  That and the two henchmen for Cruella are great little idiots, english dirtbags.  And the other dogs besides from the Dalmatians are great too, one of whom is a old codger and that’s great.  There’s a cat too, and he’s a skittish little guy.  But the story itself is simple.  Pongo helps his pet (the human) get a woman who also has a dalmatian, Perdita, and they end up having pups.  When those pups are kidnapped by the fur coat loving shitbird Cruella Deville, it’s up to Pongo and the underground society of English Dogs to bring them back.  It’s a nice little adventure with some darkness to it, fitting into the Disney mold.  It’s a nice looking movie too, a step down right after Sleeping Beauty but it’s still good to look at.  This is a nice little movie with fun for all ages.  Give it a go.

Rating: 9.5/10





Top Movies

1. Whiplash
2. 101 Dalmatians
3. Sleeping Beauty
4. Robin Hood






Top 5 Performances

1. JK Simmons - Whiplash
2. Miles Teller - Whiplash
3. Rod Taylor - 101 Dalmatians
4. Peter Ustinov - Robin Hood
5. Eleanor Audley - Sleeping Beauty




Top 5 Moments

1. The Final Scene - Whiplash
2. The Dragon Fight - Sleeping Beauty
3. The Car Wreck - Whiplash
4. The Archery Contest - Robin Hood
5. The Family Watches TV - 101 Dalmatians

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched The Week of 2/1 - 2/7

Hello everybody.  Welcome to the new post and it should be a good one.  It’s a cartoon fest this week, even in the live action movie I watched this week.  And funnily enough, the live action cartoon is the worst movie of the week by a long measure.  So sit back and relax, and let the animation get hold of ya.

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (February 1st, 2015)

Director: Ethan Spaulding

Starring: Matt Lanter, Sam Witwer, Sumalee Montano, and Jason O'Mara

DC Animated has started off the new year with the first new animated movie and it is another home run.  In adapting the storyline from Geoff Johns’ run on Aquaman recently in this animated universes continuity, they have made a good showcase for Aquaman.  Down in Atlantis, Prince Orm is trying to provoke his people into attacking the land dwellers by framing the land dwellers.  But this brings the attention of the Justice League. And when the Queen realizes that Orm is planning this, she sets into motion the events that leads her true eldest son, Arthur Curry, to reclaim his rightful place in Atlantis.  As per usual with DC Animated, the movie is gorgeous to look at.  It’s like a mixture of Jim Lee drawings and anime style.  It fits like a glove and leads to some amazing visuals and big action pieces.  The action is yet again great with the movie, giving little beats for every hero, but giving more to Aquaman.  And while Justice League is in the title, this is Arthurs movie.  His growth from shiftless harbor bum to King of The Sea works and broadens the world of DC animated quite a bit.  And with a post credits stinger that suggest we may be getting a more Superman centric story, things are looking up.  The only thing I wish was that it was a bit longer.  Maybe get a bit more into the characters, emotionally.  Stretch out the narrative to let it breathe.  But that’s a minor issue.  So if you like comics and/or animation, give this a look.  It’s well worth it.  DC’s best since Flashpoint. 

Rating: 9.5/10

The Great Mouse Detective (February 2nd, 2015)
Director: Burny Mattinson and Ron Clements
Starring: Barrie Ingham, Val Bettin, Susanne Pollatschek, and Vincent Price

Disney is the premiere Animation studio, still to this day.  Despite a dark streak in the 2000’s, the studio has done so much great stuff that it will always be the watermark.  And the 2000’s wasn’t the only time they hit a rough patch.  In the late 70s/early 80s, they hit a bad patch too when Walt wasn’t around anymore.  But then they managed to get the right people in and kicked started a new renaissance for the studio. And it started right here.  This is a damn good movie, one that flew under my radar.  But when it was describe as “mouse Sherlock Holmes”, I was sold already.  And that’s exactly what the movie is.  The mouse versions of these characters.  And it is kid versions, but still true to the characters and darker than you’d think.  Drunks are murdered, there’s rat prostitutes, a bar brawl, and a tense fight on top of Big Ben.  Not as kiddie as one would think.  For a plot, it’s basically a kid version of The Reichenbach Falls.  It’s a great little animated film and one with a nice spot in history.

Rating: 9/10

Dumbo (February 4th, 2015)
Director: Sam Armstrong and Jack Kinney

This managed to be a nice surprise while not being a surprise at all.  I knew of the movie and that it was a classic, an important movie in the animation field.  I knew that Dumbo flies (thank you Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and there were some hilarious black stereotype crows.  But I didn’t know how very experimental it was.  This is a movie that even today would be an odd duck.  It’s barely an hour long and has almost no dialogue from most of the main characters.  Only the mouse talks.  Dumbo himself says nothing and you don’t mind that he doesn’t.  You get all the info and emotions you need through the great animation.  It is a truly beautiful, astounding work.  There’s not much I can say that hasn’t been said already.  Just that I love how it becomes an acid trip for a few minutes. It’s a great and should be seen by all and shown to all little kids. 

 Rating: 9/10

White House Down (February 7th, 2015)
Director: Roland Emmerich
Starring: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Jason Clarke, and James Woods

This is the complete and total opposite of Olympus Has Fallen, the other White House attacked movie of 2013.  Where Olympus Has Fallen was brutal and dirty and fun, White House Down is soft and clean and boring.  This is a very bland movie.  Not a surprise, with Emmerich directing.  He is an absolute garbage filmmaker and we don’t mention this enough.  It’s crazy that he’s still being given movies to make, and that the garbage movies that failed that he made are used as a marketing tool for his newer movies.  Why anyone would think “From The Director of 2012” is a good sell is beyond me.  An absolute chore to sit through, this is a big waste of talent.  Tatum does his damnedest here, selling the physicality of the role.  But he is in comedy mode for the most part for some reason, and it is grating.  He wants to be John McClane, but tries too hard.  Jamie Foxx is wasted, coming off Django Unchained, in a terrible written role of President who is a pacifist but is great with machine guns and RPGs.  He has some moments trying to be funny, but can’t save the egregious lines he’s given, one involving Jordans because haha he’s black this is humor laugh now.  The only two people in the movie who do good work is Clarke and Woods.  Woods can’t help but be good, always a magnetic presence.  He brings some actual pain and desperation to the role while making the character a tough man, an old school soldier.  Clarke though is a surprise, giving the main henchman role a lot of menace.  He sells the way this guy moves and talks and acts, the pure hatred he has in him.  When he threatens Tatums daughter, he doesn’t pull back.  He’s really going for it.  But aside from two performances, this is a waste.  Shot with a big budget, it’s too shiny and clean to land.  Emmerich hasn’t done a movie with this kind of action before, and you can tell.  It’s boringly shot and staged, with no real impact to any of it.  The story is ridiculous enough and similar to Olympus Has Fallen, it could have been trashy fun like that.  But Emmerich just brings nothing to it.  Throw in an amazingly obnoxious kid, something Olympus got rid of immediately, this is a grating flick.  A true waste.  Unless you like Woods and Clarke, stay away.

Rating: 5/10






Top Movies

1. Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis
2. The Great Mouse Detective
3. Dumbo
4. White House Down





Top 5 Performances

1. Barrie Ingham - The Great Mouse Detective
2. Matt Lanter - Justice League: Throne of Atlantis
3. James Woods - White House Down
4. Jason Clarke - White House Down
5. Vincent Price - The Great Mouse Detective




Top 5 Moments

1. The Reichenbach Falls - The Great Mouse Detective 
2. Atlantis Attacks - Justice League: Throne of Atlantis
3. Pink Elephants - Dumbo
4. First Flight - Dumbo
5. Tatum and Clarke Duke It Out - White House Down

- Tom Lorenzo

Movies Watched The Week Of 1/25 - 1/31

Welcome back gang, and it is Super Bowl SUNDAY! I kept it nice and quick for all you cats on this holiest of days, and I luckily had a solid week that ended in a nice surprise.  So sit back before the game or during the shitty half time show (seriously, another bullshit pop act?!) and let the good times roll.

Fright Night (January 25th, 2015)
Director: Tom Holland

Starring: William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon, Amanda Bearse, and Roddy McDowall

Even when they aren't very good, 80s horror movies usually are very watchable and have a special place in my heart.  From a simplistic earnestness and a giddy use of violence, the movies don't tend to be mean spirited.  Fright Night is one of those movies, and it luckily is pretty good to boot.  Having talked about the remake a few months back, the movie is pretty much similar plotwise.  But the main thing to separate these two is tone.  The remake is a bit more Looney Tunes, where this original is a bit more serious about the problems at hand.  It is still a funny movie, but not aggressively so. One only has to look at how the vamps are portrayed in the movies.  In the remake, Colin Farrell is a showman and very big.  Here, Chris Sarandon is a low key, kind smug yuppie of a vampire.  He acts as if all of these bullshit is below him and just wants to keep killing bitches, but this nerd insulted him.  That and the movie holds back on the vampiric angle a bit longer than the remake.  It has some problems that plagued many an 80s movie, some cheesy acting and stupid decision making.  But nothing too insane as the kill the movie.  It's a fun time and a nice spin on the vampire story, with a great performance by Sarandon.

Rating: 8/10

Olympus Has Fallen (January 26th, 2015)
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Rick Yune, and Morgan Freeman


Sometimes, we just need some glorious trash to keep us going.  No pretense of importance or deeper reachings.  Sometimes, a movie just wants us to sit back and enjoy Gerard Butler dishing out some serious cranium injuries.  When a group of Korean terrorists attack the White House and hold the presidents hostage, John Mcl... er Gerard Butler has to fight off the terrorists one by one in the White House.  A few things crossed my mind at first.  One, this is an insanely obvious Die Hard ripoff.  That's fine, it's been a good long time since a movie tried to be like Die Hard (the Die Hard sequels didn't even try).  Secondly, this is weirdly prescient in a way.  Obviously the Koreans didn't do anything even close to this level of attack, but we were recently attacked by them in a way.  So, timing when watching a movie is everything, and I had great timing.  Thirdly, Antoine Fuqua is known for making Training Day when this is usually the kind of movie he makes.  Glorious trash.  Mean spirited too, killing indiscriminately and in horrible ways.  This is an ugly movie and really stupid.  But it's so stupid, it feels like it knows exactly what it's doing without winking.  The violence hits hard and is really kind of effective.  It's a fantastic TNT movie, and sometimes that is just a ok.

Rating: 8/10

The Equalizer (January 27th, 2015)
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Denzel Washington, Chloe Moretz, David Harbour, and Martin Csokas


Another Fuqua joint! This time he returns with the much less ugly and stupid, but just as brutal actioneer/pulp revenge movie starring Denzel.  Returning to a project helmed by the man who got him an Oscar brings out some really good work in Denzel.  Never one to sleepwalk through a role, he still goes above and beyond here.  In a move you can tell was all him, Denzel makes his character of John McCall a man with OCD.  Not in quirky way.  He is a man who is always precise and everything has to be in place.  It's not an obnoxious tick where he drives people crazy.  It doesn't even come in to play to make him nuts.  It's just a little flavor to make him richer, and it works.  These ticks work because it plays into his past as a CIA operative, a man who went through such a rigorous and routine driven life, it stays with him.  When this man befriends a young prostitute (Moretz), he feels compelled to get justice for her when the men who run her put her in the hospital.  And the best thing is that he does this immediately.  It's not the whole movie.  He does it and goes about his life, helping others in similar ways.  But the meat of the movie springs forth from this action, when those mens bosses come looking for who did this.  And when it finally comes back to McCall, he springs into action and starts to take apart the organization piece by piece.  It's a much more well written and plotted movie than it needed to be.  You coulda just thrown Denzel on screen and had him whoop some ass and we'd all be fine.  So it's nice to see some sort of work went into it.  What else stands out is how dark the movie gets without being unrelenting.  Child prostitution and brutal violence, stark and cold make this unique among the old man action movies.  It grounds the cliched action movie formula.  While it does run a little too long, this is a fine enough film for action fans and Denzel fans.

Rating: 8/10

Crimson Tide (January 30th, 2015)
Director: Tony Scott
Starring: Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, Viggo Mortensen, and James Gandolfini

There are two directors who have gotten career best performances out of Denzel and they are two varied, completely different types of directors.  You got Spike Lee on one end, getting Malcolm X and He Got Game out of Denzel.  Then you got Tony Scott, who got Man on Fire and Crimson Tide out of him.  I've said before that Denzel is always putting serious effort into his roles, but these two guys unleashed something in him in those 4 movies.  Something real came out of the collaboration.  Like this movie for example, Denzel is playing a cerebral, almost anti war soldier.  At the least, he is cautious and isn't too keen on using the nuclear warheads he is responsible for.  Set in a slightly off of reality early 90s, a Russian civil war is breaking out and a Nationalist is threatening Nuclear war if any Russians are killed by outside forces.  So America is sending out nuclear subs to Russia just in case.  One of those subs is headed by Gene Hackman and his new number 2, Denzel.  Hackman is an old school type badass, doing whatever the orders tell him too and busting ass when he has to.  But Denzel is more of a thinker, and when a message comes in to launch a nuke, the sub goes to work.  But what happens when a second message comes in but is cut off before the message can get to its point? Do you try to get the message, putting your sub at risk at being found? Or do you go through with the launch, having the orders you have with the risk that they are outdated? That's the dilemma at hand.  And the movie actually takes it's time to have these debates and let them simmer.  Aside from a duel between subs, this is not a movie filled with action.  It's a tense movie, making you wait on the edge of your seats to find out what is gonna happen.  And it even makes Hackman the villain, but an understandable villain and one who isn't a total bad guy.  Hell, he isn't even a bad guy.  Just a man who may be past his due point, and he recognizes that and it's refreshing.  The movie is surprisingly smart from Tony Scott, and it's a nice reminded of what he was capable of with a good script.  This is a good little 90s thriller with a morally grey outlook on things and it's a refreshing change of pace for a war movie.

Rating: 9/10







Top Movies

1. Crimson Tide
2. The Equalizer
3. Fright Night
4. Olympus Has Fallen





Top 5 Performances

1. Denzel Washington - Crimson Tide
2. Gene Hackman - Crimson Tide
3. Chris Sarandon - Fright Night
4. Denzel Washington - The Equalizer
5. Gerard Butler - Olympus Has Fallen





Top 5 Moments

1. Relieved of Duty - Crimson Tide
2. McCall Equalizes The Pimps - The Equalizer
3. The Club Scene - Fright Night
4. The Attack - Olympus Has Fallen
5. The Final Message - Crimson Tide

- Tom Lorenzo