The Counselor
Went to see Ridely Scott’s latest, The Counselor, because it was filmed in Monte Pego. (Pego! Pego! Monte Pego!) It’s another fast and loose film about drug deals gone awry. Boring stuff. I’ll forget this in a month.
3 of 5 stars.
Ender’s Game
I’m not sure how to approach reviewing Ender’s Game. I should treat it as a movie, but there’s the book. It’s been twenty years since I was steady reading science fiction novels, and Ender’s Game was a favorite from that time. And it’s a good read, a very good read. It’s got that battle school thing going for it. Imagine Hogwart’s but like a first-person shooter. It was the best part of the book, and it showed that how good a tactition Ender Wiggins was. Of course, this was barely shown in the movie, and that’s what’s wrong with the movie. It can’t do the book justice.
It zooms through the more interesting things, gives a few glimpses of the intrigue of the aftermath, and talks, talks, talks, about how good Ender Wiggins is. Show don’t talk. Show.
Read the book. Don’t watch the movie.
2 of 5 stars.
Escape Plan
Escape Plan featured Arnold and Stallone. It comes twenty years too late in either of their careers. They are no longer the action movie heroes. They are old guys in a really obvious movies. As soon as the caper is afoot, you’ll know who’s behind it all.
Stallone is jailbreak artist whose job is to find the holes in the security of seemingly un-breakable prisons. He signs up for testing a secret-secret CIA prison, but finds out that he’s been put away for forever. There he meets Arnold who’s been put away on false pretenses or so we are led to believe. Why are they there? Can they get out? What’s the deal with this prison?
It is senseless movie meant to fill a Saturday afternoon. Forget it already except when it shows up on USA network.
2 of 5 stars.
Enough Said
Watching Enough Said and you start seeing Julia Louis-Dreyfus as her Elaine character from Seinfeld. As the movie continues, you start to see that it could almost be another episode of Seinfeld.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Eva a masseuse who gets involved with a new client’s ex-husband. She doesn’t tell her or him that she knows the other. It’s like a plot from Seinfeld.
It was a nice little film with a woman’s role that perfectly suited Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It also had one of James Gandolfini’s last roles. He’s wonderful in it. They dedicated it to his memory at the end. Sad to think that he’s dead. Life moves on not like a plot from a television show.
3 of 5 stars.
Gravity
What’s driving the hype behind Gravity? It’s a spectacle, but is it as good a film as advertised? Will you vote for it when it’s one of the few to get an Oscar nod?
Gravity is about an astronaut, Sandra Bullock, trying to make her way back home to Earth after space debris has destroyed all orbiting space vessels.
That’s it. That’s the plot.
Pacfic Rim was castigated because it was all action and no depth. What’s the difference in this case? Why is there such a rush to anoint Gravity a best film of the year? I still don’t understand.
It’s not that good, but it isn’t terrible. Just a film that makes most of what it is meant to portray: the harrowing hell of space. The end results is a fun ride with great spectacle.
The ISS? Didn’t Michael Bay blow that up real good in Armageddon? Plus I miss the real Russian space hero.
3 of 5 stars.
Prisoners
I almost forgot that I saw Prisoners. I would’ve posted my thoughts earlier, but NewsRadio Quote Month may have kept me from doing that because of running out of NewsRadio quotes.
Anyhow, Prisoners is similar to The Silence of the Lambs except it throws in every parents nightmare of kidnapped daughters. And like the Jodie Foster movie, Prisoners will keep you guessing until the very end as to the identity and whereabouts of the kidnappers. But if you’ve seen plenty of movies, you’ll know before the end.
It’s a better movie than expected.
3 of 5 stars.
“We send a reporter to the scene, he asks the transit police if he can go into the tunnel, they say no, he says okay, I go on the air every eight minutes and say, ‘Still no news on that disabled train.'”
Pulled from the Shelves: From Up on Poppy Hill
The great animation director Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement this past week. He’ll be sorely missed, but if Ghibli continues to make animated films as lovely as From Up on Poppy Hill, the studio is in good hands.
From Up on Poppy Hill is directed by Miyazaki’s son, Goro Miyazaki. The father wrote the screenplay based on a shojo manga from the early 80s. Ghibli films are known for their leading ladies. Choosing a shojo manga heroine is natural. Although, this is the first time one can say that Ghibli is doing a moe film.
Moe? Yes. It’s got plenty of tropes from anime of the last few years: twin tails, seifuku, school clubs, school setting. For a second, From Up on Poppy Hill feels almost like any anime lately. That doesn’t really detract from it. I’m only noticing because of the amount of anime I’ve been watching.
The plot revolves around young love. The heroine falls for the charismatic editor of the school newspaper. She helps him in saving the old club house building from being demolished. They are meant to be together but certain family ties stand in their way.
It’s a simple film. Girl meets boy. Girl falls for boy. Boy falls for girl. They both are in love. Plain and simple.
I bought the Blu-Ray/DVD combo and I have both discs in both TVs ready to be watched. The English dub is completely different than the original Japanese. Goro Miyazaki trusts his viewers to understand what’s showing on the screen. The English dub doesn’t; it opens with a voice over from the heroine setting the scene fro the rest of movie. The Japanese version opens with just the soundtrack playing following the heroine as she wakes up, prepares breakfast, and gets ready for the day. We are meant to infer what’s happening, let the story unfold, and figure out the setting. That’s trust by showing and not telling.
Animation is not a genre. It’s a technic. This film could easily have been live action. I’m glad that Ghibli did it animated. Animation isn’t just for kids. Plenty of stories can be animated. I wish more directors chose it. Thank you Hayao Miyazaki.
4 of 5 stars.
“Joe, this doesn’t look like a stun gun.”
Closed Circuit
I think I’m the only person living in America wanting to go see Closed Circuit. It’s because I’ve got the hots for Rebecca Hall. So, I tricked my mom to catch an early Saturday show. It bored the hell of her. I was too busy looking at the beauty on the screen to see that it was really a average pot boiler.
The film’s plot is about 2 English barristers (they wear wigs!) who have to defend an accused terrorist. Eric Bana is the terrorist’s main lawyer who gets the job after the original defender jumped from a building. Rebecca Hall is the terrorist’s special activist for the top secret trial. Both have a sordid history in the past which may conflict with their sworn duty, and both have to defend themselves from a higher power keeping them from unravelling the true mystery of the terrorist bombing.
The film plays out as you expect it. “Trust no one.” When terrorism is on trial, question all motives from the terrorist to the prosecution. Every one is under suspicion.
The movie even though boring at times is thoroughly adequate for a late summer/September release. You’ll forget about it by the time the leaves change color. You’ll remember it when it comes time to think about Rebecca Hall.
3 of 5 stars.
The World’s End
The World’s End finishes up the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy. Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead being the other two. On a side note, I searched my blog for an entry for Shaun of the Dead, but the movie came out a month before this blog started in May of 2004. I can’t believe that movie is almost 10 years old. I can believe this blog is almost 10 years old and devolving slowly to no entries.
Anywho, while this film was as enjoyable as the others, it’s not as good as Hot Fuzz, my favorite. Mostly, its unhappy ending contributed to a less favorable impression. It’s a bleak ending with the world literally ended. Oops, spoiler alert!
The film is two films: the first about reclaiming past glories and the second an alien invasion flick. Simon Pegg tries to regain his mojo by returning to the ultimate mistake of his youth, not finishing a bar crawl in his old home town. He recruits the very same crew to redo it almost 20 years later when they are in their 40s. His crew are more responsible adults. They’ve gotten on in their lives. They don’t wear the Ministry shirt and black trenchcoat of their youth. They were respectable adult clothes. Pegg is stuck in the past. Yet the future is about aliens who have taken over their old home town and the world in order to bring Earth and her inhabitants to the future. Pegg wants to stop this. He’s selfish in both dragging his pals as well as keeping the world from joining the ‘Federation.’ Who knows how to be an adult? And is it worth it? His cohorts think so.
I love drinking movies! I was all set for the bar crawl. It’s like Beerfest. Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! It’s always a riot when thinking about drinking as much as possible. I feel that even though I no longer drink that I want to get rip roaring drunk again. I’m going on my own Golden Mile.
4 of 5 stars.
Despicable Me 2
I never saw the first one, but Despicable Me 2 doesn’t need you to be familiar with its predecessor. You’ll get the gist of everything you missed from the first one in the film’s opening minutes. Evil mastermind turned loving father because of the cuteness of the kids. Evil mastermind uses his technology to make kids have fun. Evil mastermind is really a softy at heart.
I enjoyed the movie. It was good and it makes me want to catch the first one.
The cutest thing ever was that costume of the princess on the unicorn. Do they make that in real life?
3 of 5 stars.