Everything to do with films!
The Lobster takes place in a world where if you are single for too long, you are turned into an animal, and if you really want to be single, you have to go live in the woods. It sounds weird, and it is, but it’s also a hilarious commentary on our world and relationships and how we sometimes get what’s important wrong. Yes, it’s a bizarre movie, but the best kind of science fiction often is.
Continue reading “VIFF Review: The Lobster”
The Assassin is a beautiful film in which nothing at all happens.
Continue reading “VIFF Review: The Assassin”
Turns out crime doesn’t pay. Who knew?
Continue reading “VIFF Review: Beeba Boys”
It turns out if you cast charming people in a charming story, you’ll end up with a charming movie. Who knew?
Continue reading “VIFF Review: Brooklyn”
Two summer movies that I saw! Hooray!
Continue reading “Catch Up Reviews: ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’ + ‘Straight Outta Compton’”
Improbable as it may seem, it’s not Jessie Eisenbergs’ transformation from anxiety-stricken stoner to peerless fighting machine that causes American Ultra to stumble. In fact, the choreography of the fight scenes make his activation as covert CIA agent all the more brutal and believable. Where the film falls down is that it succeeds where so many other have failed: it creates a stoner couple who are not only bearable, but actually extremely likeable. Unfortunately, past the midway mark the movie squanders that gift and limps to a total damp squib of a finale.
I saw two movies this weekend! And I’m actually writing about them! Huzzah!
#### Shaun the Sheep
Would you like to have a delightful time at the movies? Then you should totally see _Shaun the Sheep_. In 90 minutes of beautifully stop-motion animation by Aardman –the folks behind _Wallace and Gromit_ (among other things)– Shaun the clever sheep leads a flock of sheep on an adventure to the big city. It’s funny, sweet, and emotional and despite having no dialogue manages to have a pretty menacing villain, a pretty great central story, and a delightful musical number in the middle.
Sure, it’s a kids movie, but it’s a great kids movie and you should totally see it.
#### The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Would you like to be bored at the movies? Really? Why would you want that? To each their own I suppose. In that case you should totally check out _The Man From U.N.C.L.E._, Guy Ritchie’s update of the 1960s TV show. It’s not outright bad but it’s all style and no substance. Shallow is the word and since the main characters never feel like they’re in any real danger it’s hard to get excited during otherwise fairly well executed action sequences.
Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer don’t really have that much in the way of chemistry which is a problem too. Cavill in particular didn’t really work for me. Hos character is supposed to be cool as ice and aloof but many of his one-liners fell flat for me since he came off so detached. Hugh Grant is in it too but he’s famous enough that when he shows up in a seemingly innocuous role it’s easy to predict what’s going to happen next. His best one liner is spoiled in the damn trailer, and then at the end when they finally form U.N.C.L.E. he just says it and the screen goes black. It’s annoying because this movie really felt like it could have been a lot better but as is it’s just a sloppily handled bore.
It’s been a while since I made one of these lists! There have been two new Marvel films since [last time](https://awesomefriday.ca/2014/08/the-films-of-the-marvel-cinematic-universe-ranked-guardians-of-the-galaxy-edition/) so it’s time to see where they fit into the mix. I rewatched all the Marvel films in the lead up to _Avengers: Age of Ultron_ so the films are still pretty fresh in the mind.
While the movies here are ranked from worst to best, I’m also grouping them into three categories: The ok ones, the good ones, and the great ones. If you’re wondering why there’s no “bad” category it’s both because I still enjoy the “ok” ones and because I can still appreciate the bad ones for the development of characters, story, and themes that run through the entire MCU (even if they’re pretty thin at times). Also also, it’s an exercise in being less negative.
Anyway, let’s get on with this.
Continue reading “The Films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ranked, Ant-Man Edition”
Let’s take a closer look at the shiny new trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This will be mostly conjecture and guess work on my part but I think it’ll be fun!
Continue reading “A Closer Look At The Second Star Wars: The Force Awakens Teaser”
Best of lists are hard. Choosing the films I liked best isn’t hard, but keeping it to a reasonable number and ranking them is. One thing that’s not so much hard as it is annoying: coming up with something to say other than "I loved this and you should watch it".
I saw a lot of films this year but there are plenty I missed. I didn’t see Birdman, Whiplash, or Mommy, all of which are on many other best-of lists for the year (and in the case of Whiplash I can guess it would have made mine) but I also did see Boyhood, Gone Girl, 22 Jump Street, and a host of others that didn’t make my list.
All in all, I saw over 75 movies released in 2014. Not a huge percentage when you think about it but certainly more than the average person.
So with all that in mind here are my favourite dozen movies from 2014.
It’s December which means I have pretty much exactly no time to do anything lately but that hasn’t stopped me from seeing a couple of movies, just from writing them up in a timely manner.
But since I’ve seen so many you’re gonna get the shortest version of each of these reviews that I can muster.
_The Theory of Everything_ has all the right ingredients to be a major award contender. It’s a period set drama that has happened within our lifetimes, it has some great talent in the main roles, and it’s about a world-famous scientist who everyone loves. Sometimes a film comes together to be more than the sum of its ingredients. Other times, like this time, it doesn’t.
_The Theory of Everything_ isn’t bad though, it’s just that it suffers from all the problems that biopics tend to suffer from and the two great central performances aren’t quite enough to elevate the film above that.
_Interstellar_ is probably the most ambitious film I’ve seen all year. It aims high in terms of scientific accuracy, storytelling, and cinematic scope, and it very nearly succeeds. But not quite. That’s not to say it’s a bad movie, but I was hoping for a great movie and this is just a good one.
I’ve been on hiatus so here’s me catching up on the movies I’ve seen.
Continue reading “Catch Up Reviews: Dracula Untold, Kill The Messenger, John Wick, and Nightcrawler”
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