What's good everyone? I spend a decent amount time watching movies and TV shows, reading books, and encountering dope music. I often have thoughts on all of these, and this blog is where I will be recording my reflections on cool material I come across.
Oldboy is on my
list of foreign movies I’d really like to see, and it’s beloved by much of the
film community that I read and respect so I was interested to see the director’s
English language debut. I walked into
the theater without having seen so much as a preview, so I had no idea what to
expect. As the film progressed I was
reminded more and more of how I felt watching Black Swan. Both are
beautifully shot and orchestrated well, but the tone is a sort of creepy
melancholy where the audience knows something is disturbed beneath the surface. Taking center stage is the Stoker family:
India (Mia), her mother Evelyn (Kidman), and a previously unheard from Uncle
Charlie (Goode). It’s clear from the outset
that India is highly introverted and off-putting in certain ways, and that she
has a strange relationship to her mother.
Brilliant acting from Wasikowska and Goode on display here, she is
totally convincing and heightens some already ruthless sequences with her cold,
ethereal presence. Meanwhile Goode is
all mysterious charm. (continues after the jump)
Hopefully this movie isn’t taken too seriously by audiences,
because it is completely devoid of any semblance of morality or realism. Instead it combines two of the most idolized
elements of American youth: partying and the crime culture often promoted by
rap music. The result of this concoction
is a crazy, ridiculous, entertaining ride of a movie. Three ladies and their younger friend are
eagerly looking forward to, you guessed it, Spring Break, yet they have no
$$$. To solve this problem they cruise
to a restaurant where Brit (Ashley Benson) and Candy (Vanessa Hudgens)
violently rob the patrons. Up to this
point the movie was a haze of weed and booze and boobs, so this drastic change
of tone worked to great effect. The way
this scene was shot was amazing, and I won’t spoil it here. From a rookie director, I was quite
impressed. (continues after the jump)
I’m struggling to understand the IMDb score for this movie,
as it deserves a much lower rating. This
is a classic $2, sit-on-your-couch-on-a-Sunday flick. Focusing on a scarred (literally and
emotionally) woman on a quest for revenge and a mobster thug who is more than
meets the eye, this is an entertaining but highly predictable affair. Rapace and Farrell’s chemistry propels the
movie as far as it can go on such a weak script, but unfortunately Terrence
Howard is underused. They could have
made him much more sinister or ruthless, but instead I almost pitied him! There are a few bloody and rather impressive
action sequences which were enjoyable, but there’s little to no mystery about
the whole thing. In terms of plot this
will seem like familiar territory for many viewers. (continues after the jump)
Attempting to create a prequel to one of the most essential
and beloved Hollywood classics of all time seemed to me like a very dangerous undertaking. Simple to screw up, hard to do well. Despite this fact, the potential ROI of a film
like this is astronomical and that’s what earned it the green light from the
studio. Imagine you’re Disney and you
see Alice in Wonderland make over $1
Billion in 2010. This is solid gold.
EDIT: Well, after opening weekend it’s only made $155M worldwide against a
budget of $215M so there goes that theory!
It should still make it to $500M.
Thankfully, I was mostly happy with how Oz played out. The story is
shallow and somewhat underwhelming (like the original Oz when you think about it), but the world Raimi and the production and
design teams created is brilliant. I saw
this one in IMAX 3D and it visually blew me away: amazing colors, breathtaking
wide shots, and beautiful special effects.
The tornado sequence was intense and stressful, as it should be. The original score complements the film well, helping to inspire a sense of wide-eyed awe. Overcoming the weaknesses of the plot and
characters, if you get something out of incredible visuals, this one is worth
seeing. (continues after the jump)
Hey everyone, I've been on a bit of a hiatus to help get ready for my dad to return home from the hospital, but I should be posting regularly from now on.
WARNING: I will spoil a lot of Season 7 but not much from previous seasons. Do not read further if this sounds like something you want to avoid! I will say that this was a GREAT season, up there with Season 1 and Season 4 as the best the show can offer. The review begins after the jump.