I’m not a big fan of Leo’s. Maybe I’ve just chosen the wrong titles, but I’ve never thought he had the range for many of the roles he plays. He always seems so one-note. He’s good here, but once again, it’s one note: angry. To be fair, he has to make do with very little dialogue, about half of it in the Pawnee dialect, which he uses to converse with Hawk, his son by a Pawnee woman. And he has plenty of reason to be angry. Continue reading
In the cinema world, there’s one thing you can be sure of—any film that stars Kevin Costner, Ryan Reynolds, or Bruce Willis is going to take some (in my opinion) undeserved shots by the critics. I don’t know why, but they always seem to pick a few more nits or look a little harder to find something to harangue. Criminal has two of the three thespians, so you can just imagine the critics sharpening up their pens, ready to draw blood. It’s a good thing you guys have me around to set you straight. Continue reading
I’ve been on a pretty good roll with my choices lately. But that ends here. Rage is not only the title of the film, it’s the predominant emotion I felt after realizing how much time I’d wasted watching it. I’ll admit that I’m not really sure about the point of the film, or a lot of the plot. Not that it was that hard to follow, mind you. I just a) didn’t care, and b) don’t think it really matters much anyway. Continue reading
Revisiting an old favorite. Where else are you going to get Burt Reynolds, Jan-Michael Vincent, Sally Field, Brian Keith, Robert Klein, James Best, AND Terry Bradshaw (with hair!) all on the same screen? It’s dated, in the sense that there’s a lot of drinking (and driving), fighting, non-PC language, and drinking, but the central theme, watching Reynolds as movie stuntman Sonny Hooper coming to grips with growing old in a constantly changing industry that always values youth over experience and loyalty still plays pretty damn well. And it’s a really “fun” movie, as well, and I feel like they don’t make many of those anymore. There’s no CGI here; this is old-school, land-on-the-airbag stuntwork, and it’s one of those roles that just seems tailor-made for Burt. IMDB gives it a 6.2, and they’re probably just about right on that. (But just between you and me, I REALLY want to give it an 8.) (running time 1:39)
I’m going to make this a short one. I don’t know if I understand the message in Chappie, but even if I do, I’m not sure that I agree with it. It’s hard to say because the movie is just a mess of mangled, mixed-up morality. It often seems at odds with itself and leaves you scratching your head at its ambiguousness. For example (very slight spoiler), our “hero” (Dev Patel) is told he can’t bring home the leftover robot to experiment on. (Which, let’s face it, would seem a little creepy to most employers. “Sooo….why do you want it, again?”) So he just takes it. That’s right—the hero is an office thief. And we’re not just talking about a box of pens or a stapler or some paper clips, here; this is (I assume) a multi-million dollar piece of equipment. Continue reading
This one was disappointing. It had the star power. The performances were okay. I generally like Clive Owen, and almost always like Morgan Freeman. But it just fell flat. I think the biggest problem was the writing. It sounded like someone wrote it for a freshman creative writing class. It’s basically a retelling of the Japanese tale of the 47 Ronin, but set in some fictitious time and place (that looks an awful lot like Medieval England, I guess), and whoever converted it has the knowledge of how knight-themed movies go, but that’s about all he/she has, as it was nothing but clichés of the genre, and really nothing new. Continue reading
Mission: Impossible? More like Mission: Awesome! This could be the best MI since De Palma’s original. As with most films in the series, the action starts very quickly and never lets up. It could be the most humorous of the series, as well, and it doesn’t seem forced, and fills the gaps nicely. Continue reading
I wasn’t sure I was going to buy John Krasinski as a bearded, ex-military tough guy. I wondered if every once in a while somebody would shout out something obvious (“They’re storming the gate!”) and he’d turn to face the camera and smirk. But it turns out he’s definitely believable as a tough guy. As are all the major leads—James Badge Dale and Pablo Schreiber in particular. Continue reading
Who Cares What You Think? 