Reviews of movies, television, games, and whatever else strikes our fancy.
It’s hard to know where to begin with *Europa Report*. Not because it’s bad; it’s really not. More that the measure of what it *might* have been is heavy enough to weigh the final product down. For all the talk of it being a return to real, “hard” science fiction, the film turns out to be just another adequate space thriller.
Solomon Northup was a free born black man living in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1841. Known as a talented violin player he was approached that year by two men who identified themselves as entertainers with an offer to accompany them for several performances in New York City. He took the job and thinking it would be a short trip didn’t tell his wife. Once there they convinced him to continue with them to Washington, D.C.
Once in Washington Northup was drugged, stripped of his clothing and identification, and sold into slavery. After 12 years he was freed again and later published a memoir of his experiences. Now Steve McQueen has made a movie out of those memoirs.
It’s a movie you need to see.
What do you get when you put four amazing, ageing actors in a movie where they play best friends reuniting for a part in Last Vegas? You get a movie that offer few surprises but more than a few big laughs.
The latest edition of Marvel’s assault on cinemas everywhere is a charming little beast. Thor was always going to be one of the more difficult characters to make the transition from inky page to silver screen, (certainly when compared to his Avengers brethren) but given most of the legwork was done in *Thor* and *The Avengers*, very little time is wasted getting on with the plot, such as it is. Rather than *The Dark World*, they should have called it *The Wibbly Wobbly Time/Space Shifting Shenanigans*. Anthony Hopkins knocks out a bit of exposition (primarily to let you know who to boo – it’s evil elves this time, led by Malekith, played by a virtually indistinguishable Christopher Eccleston) and on with the show we go.
Have you ever seen that one movie? You know the one, it’s based on a young adult novel and it’s starring a hot young actor alongside a few veteran adults? The one where the trailer looked pretty cool but then when you saw it you realized that they had cut _so much_ of the actually important parts of the story that the movie ended up not being very good?
Yeah I saw that movie tonight. It’s called _Ender’s Game_.
Robert Redford is a hell of an actor. His career spans decades and he’s appeared in some of the most memorable film roles in history. If you wanted to make a movie about a man alone at sea in a sinking boat you could certainly do worse than to cast him. So that’s what JC Chandor did in _All Is Lost_. Good thing too because it turns out that _All Is Lost_ is probably going to go down as one of those most memorable roles I mentioned.
When I first heard about _The Counselor_ I was intrigued. Ridley Scott directing and a screenplay by Cormac McCarthy? Sounds good to me! Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, and Penelope Cruz starring? Sounds great!
Then [there was a trailer](https://awesomefriday.ca/2013/07/the-counselor-trailer-you-dont-have-any-friends/) and I became ever more excited for what sounded, and now looked, like a great movie.
Turns out I was wrong. _The Counselor_ is a bit of a mess.
You’re probably aware that I really love going to the movies. It seems self evident just based on how much I go to the movies, really. One of the great pleasures of movie going for me is those times when I get to sit down and watch one of the great actors of our time work their magic. This is the experience you will have with Captain Phillips.
Richard Curtis has an interesting filmography. Of the films he’s directed, most of them are fairly lighthearted fluff which is, depending on your disposition, sweet or saccharine. Films like _Bridget Jones Diary_ and _Love Actually_. He’s written far more, including the likes of _War Horse_ for Steven Spielberg, but it’s the sweet stuff he’ll likely be remembered for.
His latest effort, _About Time_ appears to be much of the same but with a dash of time travel thrown in for good measure. Is it good? Well, I dunno about that. Is it bad? Well, I dunno about that either.
It’s hard not to love Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He started out as your average adorable child actor and then rather than transitioning into fluff pictures he went indie, working on great films like _Brick_ and _The Lookout_, building credibility and honing his acting skills. Now, after building a bank role with more mainstream fare he’s made the leap to writing and directing.
Turns out he’s pretty damn good at those too.
_note: I’m finally back from vacation so regular posting will resume._
Movies about people driving fast cars can be pretty hit or miss. It’s a good thing then that _Rush_ is a movie about the people who drive fast cars instead. The film follows the 1976 season of Formula One racing and the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda, the former a hard drinking fast living playboy with a natural talent for driving and the latter a cool headed, clean living son of a businessman who relies on technical genius and precision. In short these men are polar opposites, an unstoppable force and an immovable object, and while both at the top of their game it makes complete sense that they would end up butting heads.
And it’s pretty fun to watch as a result.
The problem with converting books into movies (or into stage shows or comics or, less frequently, games) is that the medium has certain elements that cannot be recreated. The level of depth and flow of language can only ever be from a certain perspective when flipped into the flesh of a different storytelling vehicle. Ask any *Harry Potter* fan for their favourite entry in the series and they’ll soon light their eyes with elements of the book that the film didn’t capture. The wonderful thing about books is that often they tell a story in a way that could not be expressed as fully in any other medium. These are the ones that capture us and leave us breathless at the end, mourning for the closure of the final page.
What’s so special about *Gravity*, then, is that it is a film equivalent. This story, these characters, this situation – none could be told with the same level of effectiveness in any other form (books included). Not only an easy contender for film of the year, *Gravity* is one of the finest pieces of filmmaking you’ll ever see, and God help you, see it on the big screen. It is the true definition of a “cinema movie”, the white-eyed airless immersion a vital tool in director Alfonso Cuarón’s approach.
_Ed. Note: I know this is really late, but I’m on holiday!_
You’ve already [seen the trailer](https://awesomefriday.ca/2013/06/prisoners-trailer-hugh-jackman-goes-crazy/) for Prisoners so you already know the basic set up. Hugh Jackman and Maria Bello are best friends with Terrance Howard and Viola Davis On thanksgiving they share the evening together and the couples youngest children go outside to find a lost toy and never return. Paul Dano plays a simpleton named Alex who is the best suspect and is arrested by Jake Gyllenhaal but it quickly turns out that Alex doesn’t have the faculties to have committed such a crime and is released. Angry, desperate and searching for answers, Hugh Jackman kidnaps Paul Dano and proceeds to torture him for answers.
Turns out though that there is more going on. I’m going to talk in more detail after the jump and while I’m not going to directly spoil anything this _is_ a mystery story so talking about it will give you clues. If you want to skip the review and know what I think? Yes, go see it. It’s good. It’s not perfect but it’s well thought out and incredibly well acted and beautifully shot. Details after the jump.
_Apologies for the tardiness of this, I’m on holiday again._
You know it’s been 13 years since Pitch Black hit theatre screens. Not an amazing movie by any measure, but entertaining enough that it made a bunch of money and put Vin Diesel on the map.
In the movie a transport ship crashes and the few survivors have to deal with Richard B. Riddick (Diesel), a sociopathic mercenary who happens to have night vision being transported in said ship but then it turns out that the planet is infested with monsters that only survive in the dark and that there is an eclipse coming, so they have to work with Riddick to survive. Talk about shitty contrived luck.
Both of these facts lead to a sequel in 2004 in which Riddick turns out to be the prophesied hero who will stop an army of dead guys who are killing their way across…. you know what? I’m not even going to finish that because it doesn’t matter. _Chronicles or Riddick_ wasn’t that good, and this new movie basically doesn’t pay any attention to it. In fact this movie is pretty much literally just _Pitch Black 2_. Or maybe _Pitch Black Again_.
Is that such a bad thing? Well…. yes and no.
2010’s Kick-ass was a movie not without problems, but what problems it had were easy to forget because it was actually fun. It melded over the top violence and profanity with an upbeat and optimistic “holy shit we’re superheroes” tone which gave the movie a unique energy, and a couple of brilliant casting moves made the whole endeavor…. well _fun_ really is the operative word here.
It’s 3 years later both in our world and theirs and Kick-Ass 2 is here and you know what? It holds up pretty well!
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