Category: Movies

Everything to do with films!

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Review: Transcendence

Transcendence Johnny Depp

Transcendence is the directorial debut of Wall Pfister, a great cinematographer who has worked with many great directors but who is probably best known for working with Christopher Nolan on every one of his films. He’s been nominated for Academy Awards four times: 2005, 2006, 2008, and a win in 2010 for _Inception_. I’m telling you all this because I think Wally Pfister is a great cinematographer who has done great work on great movies. The problem is that these facts don’t seem have translated into him being a great director.

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Review: The Raid 2: Berendal

The Raid 2: Berendal

Those of you who saw _The Raid: Redemption_ probably don’t remember much beyond the crazy fight scenes and there’s a reason for that: the movie didn’t have a lot beyond the fight scenes. The set up was pretty much as simple as it could have been for the good guys and the bad guys to clash and they did. Man, did they ever.

_The Raid 2: Berendal_ seeks to out do it’s predecessor in two ways: the fights are more extreme (although not by much) and the story has quite a bit more scope. Does it succeed? Not entirely. Does it matter? No, because while the story is probably a little too convoluted the fight scenes are among the best I’ve ever seen.

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Review: Draft Day

Draft Day

Sports movies often have a bit of a stigma in that if you make a football movie then while football fans will probably want to see it there’s no guarantee that anyone else will. The best sports movies get around this by doing something pretty clever: not really being about sports.

Draft Day is one of these. It’s a well put together drama with a great cast doing what they do best in a movie that happens to be set in the office of an NFL football team.

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The Films Of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ranked

Marvel

So you read my [breakdown of the Marvel Cinematic Universe](https://awesomefriday.ca/2014/04/the-state-of-the-universe-the-current-state-of-and-speculation-on-whats-to-come-in-the-marvel-cinematic-universe/) and are now wondering how I think the films stack up so far? Well, I thought you’d never ask!

No, seriously, what took you so long to ask?

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Review: Noah

Noah

Darren Aronofsky is a film maker who has made some of my all time favourite films, _Requiem for a Dream_ and _The Fountain_ being two of them. His films are not always pleasant to watch but always leave a lasting impression. He’s able to craft a story and a message in such a way that resonate, and characters who are at once larger than life and relatable. _Noah_ is a good example of these skills, though maybe not the best he’s done.

I am just going to say this above the fold though: you should see this movie if you get a chance. I’m about to tell you that it’s good but not great but here’s the thing: we don’t see films like this much. This is a weird movie that takes a story held sacred by many (literally sacred, not Trekkies and Star Trek sacred) and re-imagines parts of it, changes others, and plays with the motivations and struggles of the lead character. It’s a big effects movie with creatures and animals and battle scenes but it’s not a tent pole action movie. TL;DR version, this movie represents a unique film maker taking a lot of chances and a studio taking a chance on him, this is the type of behaviour we need to support. Good? Good.

Now on to the review.

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Review: Divergent

Divergent

There’s a fine line that adaptations of novels have to walk. Leave too much in and you risk your movie becoming plodding and boring. take too much out and you risk dumbing down or losing a theme or moment or sub plot integral to that story. Nowhere is this more clear than with Young Adult novels. Because they are generally fairly easy to follow in the first place the smallest choice a director makes can have drastic consequences for the movie you are making.

Case in point, _Divergent_ is a movie that I am sure is based on a good book that discusses and explores interesting themes, but the movie itself glosses over all of this to tell a pretty by the numbers story about a girl in a not-that-dystopian future.

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Review: Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars

Just so this is out-of-the-way up front: I never watched the TV series _Veronica Mars_. I have pretty much zero context for the film other than that a lot of people really liked the show but then it as cancelled and then last year the makers of the show started a [KickStarter project](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project) to make a movie. With a $2 Million goal they had modest hopes, but then they were funded to the tune of $5 million dollars from people in 21 countries, became the fastest kickstarter project to his $1 million and then $2 million, and now we have a movie. A movie which a lot of people have really been looking forward to but I have no context for.

So how does it stand up? Pretty well actually.

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Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson is a film maker with a distinct voice. He tells stories with emotional cores and often tells them using characters that don’t always seen to want to, or even know how to, express those emotions and sets them in a world that is just over the border into absurdity and littered with all kinds of fine detail, interesting colour palettes, and now stop motion.

Basically he crafts a whimsical world and then populates it with non-whimsical people.

In any event, The Grand Budapest Hotel may be his best film yet by virtue of the fact that it’s probably the most Wes-Anderson-y film he’s made to date, but in the best way possible.

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Review: 300: Rise of an Empire

300 Rise of an Empire

When the original _300_ came out I remember at first liking it but upon further viewings it became more and more problematic for me. See, Frank Miller is a right wing nut job and _300_ is, at best, a set of pretty 1 dimensional characters in a story that is hero worship of what is effectively a selfish and fascist society. _300: Rise of an Empire_ is interesting then in that in addition to having better developed characters (antagonists especially) acknowledges that fact and says _”that’s what they’re doing, that’s not really cool, but maybe we can use their machismo BS to our advantage”.

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Review: Non Stop

Non-Stop

Liam Neeson is a celebrated actor. He’s been in epic romances, costumed adventures, and important historical dramas. Lately though he’s carved out a niche for himself as a slightly older action star. There’s only one reason why this works: Liam Neeson is great. The movies he’s making are kind of dumb, heavy handed, and full of plot holes, but for some reason they just kinda work. _Taken_ is probably the first (and best) example of this. _Non-Stop_ is just the latest.

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Review: Need for Speed

Need for Speed

When Need For Speed opens next month you may read that one of the selling points is that all of the stunts are practical and not CG. That–to me– seems strange considering it’s an adaptation of the EA driving game series. One would think that fans of the game would have no problem at all with wildly improbable physics and unlikely crash scenarios that might have been less expensive to render in computers than with real cars and stunt drivers but lets give the makers credit: When it comes to cars and driving they deliver.

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Review: The Lego Movie

The Lego Movie

Sometimes you hear about a movie and you think “how are they going to do that?” because the concept is so weirdly specific or, as is the case with Lego, so enormously broad. I’m of the opinion that you can make a good movie out of anything though because, as it turns out, you totally can.

The Lego Movie is one of the best movies you are going to see this year. Bold words for the first week of February I grant you but it’s true. Run, don’t walk, to your nearest theatre with your best friends and watch as all the freedom of imagination you had as a kid is projected on screen. It’s seriously amazing.

I’m going to talk a little bit about why I loved this movie now but that’s going to entail some slight spoilers so my recommendation is that you stop reading and go watch. Ok? Ok.

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Review: 47 Ronin

47-ronin-posters-featured

Japan is a beautiful country. I know that even though I’ve never actually set foot on its soil. Thousands of years of myth and steadfast tradition has long enthralled the more relaxed Western cultures, and cinema has always revelled in the deep cultures of its picturesque history. Modern filmic takes like the animated *Spirited Away* go into great detail to bring their Japanese worlds to life, and often this can result in deep, complicated and slow-burning plots that weave through character and mystery.

Unfortunately, *47 Ronin* is what happens when someone called Carl watches a Japanese samurai classic and thinks “you know, this could be more *accessible*.”

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