Kingsman is a odd movie to me. The previews turned me off of it quite a bit, and frankly I had no real interest in seeing it. However the buzz around it was surprisingly very positive. Much like John Wick, another film I passed on, it started to become this film that I had to see. If for no other reason then to see if I was correct in my initial thoughts or not. I can honestly say after seeing it, the preview is a good representation of the final product. However, I was to harsh on it at first, the things that I didn't like in the preview grew on me as the movie went on. It was a little cheesy, and the action was over the top. The main character looked very out of place, but that was part of his role. Samuel L. Jackson looked stupid and was annoying, but he was the villain so it helped make me dislike him. It was a movie that didn't take itself to serious, and even poked fun at that fact. And in the end, one that I truly enjoyed, far more then I thought I would.
The Kingsman were tailors for very influential people during a period of war. A lot of their kids went off to war and never returned. This left a company of rich tailors with no heirs, and a desire to fix the world so other families did not have to go through the same hardships. They formed a secret society and became gentleman spies of sorts. The movie starts off in modern times and is about Samuel L Jackson's character trying to fix the world. I won't spoil that for you, but he is collecting influential people and trying to win them over. In these attempts he kills a Kingsman without knowing who they are, and this opens up a spot for a new member to join. The movie follows Taron Egerton's character "Eggsy" as he tries to become the next Kingsman. As well as dealing with Jackson's plan and his desire to save the planet.
This is a action movie plain and simple. It does have a good plot, and the story works much better then my poor description may lead you to believe. There are a lot of English accents, which may or may not be a issue for you. If you watched attack the block and had no issues understanding what was being said, you will be fine. If the quicker speaking moments just left you staring blankly at the screen....well maybe turn the subs on. There were only a few times I had no clue what was being said, but that could simply be my lack of exposure to people who speak in that fashion. Jackson also gets a pretty neat accent, and I now choose to believe that is his normal way of talking.
If you research this movie online, one thing is constantly brought up. There is a church scene that was edited out in some countries, and simply edited down in others. It is a shame some didn't get to see the entire scene play out. It was easily the most memorable part of the film, and it also really showcases what the film is all about. Over the top and stylish violence, simply for the sake of entertainment. When we see fighting in this movie, we get some crazy camera angles. We see a first person view from the kingsman spy glasses, a view of the top of the gun similar to a video game. Cameras attached to the actors bodies as they fight. They really went over the top with these sequences and they made the movie that much better. Bodies would fly unrealistically when hit, and there was flipping and bullet dodging.....it would have easily been to much in most movies. However the set the tone of this one very quickly, and the action fit right in. I heard a lot about how brutal and gory this movie was, but after seeing it I felt let down. Not to say I enjoy that in my films, but it was non existent in this one. Yeah you see some blood, but not much and it is only briefly shown.
I really enjoyed the story, and how it was presented. All the characters were fun, and there were some cool inclusions such as Sofia Boutella as Gazelle the amputee ninja. Apparently she does have legs in real life, that shouldn't be disappointing to find out, but it is. I also enjoyed Obama being in the movie, even if they never showed a good shot of him. If you are a republican, you will get more out of his role then the democrats. I may have jokingly told my wife that her father would love this movie after Obama's scene. The movie also did a great job of developing all the different roles, and by the end I can't think of anybody who really didn't get that treatment. Little things like showing 30 seconds here and there of Eggsy and his sister for example. It makes a scene later on mean more as you know about their relationship and how much he cares for her.
I am trying to think of a negative about this movie. I really can't, it was action perfection. It didn't take itself to serious, it even mentions that in the movie. They had catchy diolgue, and some of the best fights I have seen in a while. It reminded me a lot of the movie Wanted, which I loved. But unlike that movie, this one had much better pacing and was far superior in the long run. It also didn't have any magic string that told them who to kill, so that was a plus. And we got a amazing Firework display at the end that you simply have to see. There is a cool moment where two characters are talking about their childhood and how they loved the old Bond spy films. One wanted to be Bone, and the other wanted to be the villain. The movie really is about that, the love of the old spy films. It has the fanfare you would expect from something like that, the absurdity that was associated with them. The over the top villian with the swanky layer in the side of a mountain. And some how it is able to pull it all off.
The Kingsman is not only one of the best action films I have seen recently, it is one of the best I have ever seen. It mixes a classic spy tale with Colin Firth's character Galahad, and a more modern tale with Eggsy. If you love violent visual films, go watch it.
I was looking through my review history, hoping I had something written on the first Avengers movie I could look at. I don't recall my exact feelings on it, but according to my wife it was not overly positive. I only ever saw the movie once, so that probably is accurate. It would also explain why I was not excited about this Avengers movie. I had a few problems with the first one, nothing major that I recall. I didn't like how various characters were handled, but it had good action and visuals which will win most over in the end. It also served as a origin story of sorts for the team. Not for the individuals themselves, but for the team coming together. They did tie it into the story, but it did drag it down a bit in my eyes. The new movie does introduce new roles, but they really didn't have much back-story to go over which allowed it to move at a better pace for the most part.
The story for this movie revolves around Tony Stark and his arrogance. He wants to create a "Armor around the world" which he tries to do by use of a AI or artificial intelligence. Bruce Banner and Stark create the Ultron AI using technology from another world and it ends up creating a crazy muderbot with Tony's personality and quirks. It wants to save Humanity by forcing them to either evolve or die out in the process. In the end, his plan simply comes down to wiping everybody out and seeing what rises from the ashes. The avengers decide to stop him, and the fighting commences.
While this movie does not have to talk about how the team came together, it does decide to elaborate on some of the back stories we have not explored yet. We get a few sequences that show off Black Widow's past and some details to explain how she became who she is today. We get a very forced Hawkeye dynamic that seemed only there to explain the sudden romance between Widow and Banner after the last few movies have been very much about her and Hawkeye being together. We get a few details about the two new characters of Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. They leave out who exactly their parents are which was disappointing given who their father was. But since Fox owns the rights to that character, it was not un-expected. Their powers are also acquired in a different way due to fox owning the rights to "Mutants" sadly, but none of that really detracted from the film. Ultron is also explored with his new origin story, which was one of the few gripes I had with the film. We are getting a ant man film very shortly, and it features Ultron's creator Hank Pym. So why they felt the need to have Stark and Banner create him instead just confuses me.
Ultron was also given Starks Personality, which caused him to make jokes which seemed odd given the character. In the books Ultron is cold and meticulous. Seeing him making jokes and trying to inject humor into scenes where it had no place was jarring at times. I understand the whole idea of a AI is to make it less robotic, but it was part of the only real problem I had with the film. The movie is a action flick, but it also wants to be a comedy. Every few moments they are making a new joke, or doing what they can to make sure no scene is serious the entire duration. It just felt like it took away from certain moments and made it hard for me to enjoy what was going on. That is not to say some of the comedy didn't work well. Captain America is part of a gag that runs throughout the entire film and it was always enjoyable. Thor's few lines in the film usually had me smiling, and even Banner had some good moments in his own awkward way. If it fits the character, and makes sense, I am fine with it. Ultron was a good character, but having two Tony Starks was just to much for me. There was also a potential rape joke made by Stark that got some internet buzz a few days ago. It went entirely over my head since I had no clue what prima nocte meant. So I have no clue if it really was as offensive as some people are making it out to be. After reading up on what it actually means, I would say people are being to sensitive. That is just Stark's personality. If the 3 Iron Man movies, and the other Avengers one had not clued you into that....well now you know.
The two new Characters of Scarlet Witch and Quick Silver were big news before the movie came out. Honestly I don't even recall them ever going by those names in the movie, but they probably did at one point. Quick Silver was Pietro and Witch was Wanda. They were introduced in the last Captain America film in the final sequence. In the comics they are mutants like the x-men, however Fox has those rights so they had to come up with something new for this one. So they gave them a similar back story to Captain America. They are the product of Science and experimentation. Pietro has his classic powers of Super Speed, and Wanda gets a odd mix of Jean Grey powers instead of her normal comic stuff. She can move things with her mind and invade people thoughts and bring their fears to the forefront. Wanda was easily one of my favorite things about the movie. Her new powers were very well used, and red effects they had with them were fantastic. I also loved how they had her move like she was in a horror film. She would walk backwards in a twitchy manor, and it was perfectly creepy. Also her fear based powers led to some of the cooler parts of the movie. And she served to prove the one fact that the first Avengers film missed so heavily. Hawkeye is the best Avenger, and that is a fact. Wanda is able to seemingly go toe to toe with every Avenger except Hawkeye, and that made me happy. Pietro and Hawkeye also have a rivalry going throughout the film, and they created some of the more memorable scenes together. Easily the funniest part of the film for me involved the two of them, as well one of the more impactful ones. Everybody will compare the Avengers Pietro to the one from the last X-men movie seeing as how they are two very different versions of the same character. For me the Avengers one wins hands down. Yes the x-men movie had that great scene in the kitchen, but Avengers made the character much bigger and allowed him to do so much more. The two new roles for me really added so much to this film, and was one of the main reasons I really enjoyed it that much more then the first.
I was reading on another site a article that talked about how this movie compared to Superman in a very specific way. It was funny because it was something I very much disliked about that movie. In the most recent Superman movie, well Supes pretty much kills civilians and it is just ignored. There is no way he caused that much destruction without some causalities. It is also a very big thing in Supes character, he protects life. So when Avengers goes out of its way to deal with civilian casualties, and even brings up the fact that they are fighting in a way to endangers people, it really made me happy. They try to relocate the fight if they can, if not they do what they can to protect the people even if it puts them at risk. It was great to see, and I hope other super power movies in the future follow suit.
The movie is very action orientated. It does have some down time in the beginning, but once the main plot kicks off it just goes full force until the finale. The action is very well done, it always is with marvel. Iron Man's suite looks fantastic, and his big scene with Hulk that we have been seeing in all the trailers does deliver. The Avengers that got little screen time in the last film get their chance to shine in this one. Hawkeye is a major focus, and Black Widow gets some good action in. Captain America has a great fight with Ultron in the city. If you are a Thor fan however, sorry to say he gets very little screen time and isn't really a huge factor in this film. If you are looking for a action film you can just relax and watch, this will easily deliver.
Age of Ultron was a great film that I found myself enjoying far more then I thought I would. I loved the new roles with the exception of Ultron himself. And I liked how they tried to incorporate some of the different characters from the other marvel movies as well. We get Warmachine and Falcon for example. The story was stronger then the first films, and I love how the Avengers movies have some world ending events. It really sets them apart from the other movies in the franchises. The action was great and frankly makes me wonder how other big hollywood films like the hobbit can get it so wrong. Avengers who got pushed to the side in the first film not get their time to shine. Captain America, Hawkeye, and Widow all get bigger roles, which made me quite happy. Widow and Hawkeye also get forced stories that kind of made that last point weaker, but in the end I was happy with how those characters were used.
If you liked the first Avengers, this one is better. You will enjoy it, and it sets up the new one Infinity Wars, quite nicely. If you are worried about which other marvel movies you need to see to get the full picture, I would suggest Cap 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy as well as the obvious original Avengers. Cap 2 will explain the state of shield and what is up with Fury and some other characters. And Guardians goes into the whole infinity stone thing which will be the primary focus of the next film. They also are injected into this one, so Guardians will get you up to speed on he basics of that. It also makes the final sequence make sense. If you want to you could also add Cap 1 as it introduces the cosmic cube which does make a very brief appearance in some form, but it is not necessary.
Around the 20 second mark we see a lady in nightwear and a kid. She shows up in other trailers to, this caused a lot of speculation as to who she was and if she was important. For the fun of it, I will address it in a non spoiler fashion. Yes she is important, but not in the way you think she would be.
"I used to say I live my life a quarter mile at a time and I think that's why we were brothers- because you did, too. No matter where you are, whether it's a quarter mile away or half way across the world. The most important thing in life, will always be the people in this room. Salute mi familia. You'll always be with me... And you'll always be my brother."
That is the final line spoken in the movie, it also stands as the theme for the entire franchise. These movies on the top are about cars and action, but the stories are always about family and standing by them. This one is no different. The story picks up after the last film with the previous villain Shaw in the hospital. We are introduced to his big brother Deckard who is played by Jason Statham. Statham vows revenge for his brother, for his family. We are then taken to Dom and Letty (Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez) who are driving through the dessert. Letty still has not regained her memory and we are treated to our first glimpse of a re-occuring theme in the movie. Vin is taking Rodriguez to "Race Wars." A event featured heavily in the first film, and we even get to see some familiar faces there. This movie actually revisits the previous films quite a bit. The opening to the movie is kind of slow, but it is entertaining. We get the Rock facing off against Statham as he tries to steal the info on the team who attacked his brother. But then there is a prolonged time where we are mostly just given the story information. If you saw the third movie, you know it ended with one of Vin's crew Han being killed. In the 6th movie we found out Statham is the one who killed him, but we also know that has not actually occurred yet. We do not see him kill Han in this film, but we see him call Vin as soon as he has. This is the main catalyst for the rest of the movie. Statham has killed one of Vin's family for what he did to his brother. He lets him know he will hunt down the rest of them until they have all paid. Shortly after we are introduced to Kurt Russell's character, Mr. Nobody. He is government, and no we never find out his name. He gives Vin and his team jobs to complete in order to get the info they need to find Statham. From here the movie goes into full on action mode, and does not until the very end. The story was nothing spectacular, but it did a good job of setting up how everything played out. It added emotion by focusing on the human aspect of the characters. Family is a strong thing, and it being the main driving force behind both sides added a lot. While i would never say the story was award winning, for this kind of movie it was more then enough. It referenced the previous films, and tied them all together nicely. There really was not much else to ask for. We even got to revisit Tokyo and find out who won that race at the end of Fast 3. It was funny however, when Shad "Bow Wow" Moss and Lucas Black came on screen, there was a audible groaning from the audience in my theater. Tokyo Drift is not overly well liked, but the two leads from that movie had a reason to be in this one. Elsa Pataky who you may remember from Fast 6 as Elena also reprises her role in this film. She is working along side Hobbs (The Rock) and even gets a scene with Vin that comes off rather awkward given their characters history. I greatly enjoyed these inclusions. Acting usually is not a huge deal with action flicks. You can forgive some over acting, you can look past some poor performances, as long as the adrenaline gets going when it matters. Thankfully everybody here can act, and yes that includes Mr Walker regardless of what my wife says. Kurt Russell is a stand out, and he plays the his role very well. He is a funny bad-ass us agent. And while he is showing his age, he still is very much a action star. He oozes charisma, and takes over a lot of the scenes he is in. Luda and Gibson play the comedy roles, and I love them for it. Both have transitioned well into the profession. They both had me on the verge of tears from laughing at one point. But Both can pull it back and do a serious moment if needed. We also finally get to see Luda fight, which was a treat. Vin and Walker were both solid, you know what you are getting with them. The Rock is the same, good actor that drops the one liners. Statham was a good addition, I had not seen him in the past few years. He was a great villain, and seeing him show up at the worst possible time over and over again never got old. His accent and voice mixed with his personality create some great scenes. He just sounds like somebody you don't want to mess with. Then you see him fight, the guy is just plain scary. The action is the main draw here, you really can't claim anything else. And if you have seen all the movies, you know they direction and even genre of the films has changed in the last few. If you liked 5 and 6, you will like 7. 5 was more of a heist film, while 6 was all action. 7 is pretty much a combination of those two. We get Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Tej (Ludacris) planning how to rob a armored convoy. We get cars vs helicopters. Cars vs Drones. The Rock vs.....well I guess all of the above. You have great hand to hand fights with awesome choreography. If all you want is to zone out and watch a great popcorn flick, this will fill that void greatly. Every action sequence, and there were a lot of them, was just fantastic from start to finish. The final scene was especially tense as you really didn't see how everybody was going to make it through. If you have kept up with the trailers, you know Ronda Rousey even throws down in this one. She does have a few lines, and honestly they should have avoided that. Her real MMA career seemed to shine through in her fight scene, but the 2 lines she had before it just fell flat. Walker also had a very cool sequence with Tony Jaa (from the movie Ong-Bak) that was easily one of the more memorable moments of the movie. The only real draw back was the camera work. It was superb in almost every way, but 3 or 4 times in the movie it did something I can't stand. It would roll the camera to mimic the movements of a actor. Jason Statham gets thrown once and rolls out of it, so the camera rolls with him. The Rock slams a guy through a table, so the camera turns on its side and follows that movement. It is just disjointing to see. Each time it did it, it just pulled me out of what was going on. It didn't ruin the scene, but it did detract from it. With Walkers passing, this movie was very important to a lot of people. Vin's tribute at the end left me with tears in my eyes, but the entire movie was pretty much a tribute to the man from everybody who worked on it. The movie was not finished when Walker passed, so they brought in his brothers and used cgi to impose his face onto their bodies. There are a few scenes using this technology, but only really one moment where it is very apparent. They do a good job of not showing his face, not showing him close up, or just making him out of focus. It was good to see this finished, and if read any of the interviews with the cast, you know how much this meant to them. While I have not talked about Walkers character Brian much in this, to me he was very much the main character in the franchise. The story was always about him, even if the later movies seemed to be more from Dom's perspective. This movie ended with him being written out of it, so if they do decide to continue on he would not be a factor. This makes sense given what happened, but to me it also means the end of the franchise. Walker was the heart and soul of these films. Dom is always fighting for his family, but Brian is the one who he ends up fighting for in the end. Brian is the one who has the kid and wife, and even this film is about Dom trying to protect that above all else. It makes for a sad overtone throughout, assuming you are a Paul Walker fan. It also make for a bittersweet film. This is the end of his career, and his story within this franchise. And while that is sad, he couldn't have asked for a better way to go out. Plenty of people will tell you these are not great movies, but they were not made for them. The first film was made for people who liked cars, cheesy dialogue, and some solid action. If you know anything about Paul Walker, you know he was that kind of guy. The movie has a nice ending, it feels like the end of something big. It doesn't seem to leave any real loose ends, though it does leave it open for a spin off with Dom and Hobbs (Vin and Rock) if they decided to go that way. We get a look back at the entire franchise as Dom remembers his time with his sister and Brian. And we get a touching farewell before the credits roll. It was such a different tone from the comedy and action that came before it. But it was beautiful, and it was what the series needed to go out on.
That 4 is kind of a compromise. To me it was easily a 5, I doubt I will enjoy even Avengers 2 as much as I did this film. But it was also a special one to me. Fast and the Furious has been one of my favorite franchises for years. Consider that 4 the score for a average movie goer just looking for a good action flick. If you are a fan of the series, you will love this one. Now if you will excuse me, I need to go find some tuna fish. I am feeling sad and nostalgic again. If you have a Xbox one or 360, you may be interested in checking out Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast and Furious. It is free until april 10th, and is a 3 hour racing game featuring the cars from the latest movie. This includes Toretto's Charger from the first film, Brian's GTR, Letty's Challenger, Tej's jeep, and Dom's sexy Roadrunner, as well as a few more. It does not have a story related to the movies, but more just lets you race and play around in horizon using said cars. The only person from the movie to lend there voice is Luda, and you never actually see him. If you like cars, it is a great pick up. And if it is after the 10th, the 10$ they are asking for it is more then fair. I will drop a trailer for it below the movie one along with the link to the game.
Not really a review this time, as I didn't finish either of these movies. Though don't hold that against them, it was not related to my enjoyment or lack of but mostly family related things. Same thing happened during the lego movie, I loved that one but I still walked out of the theater.
Annie, I will start off by saying I have not seen the original. Or if I had years and years ago, I don't recall it. I knew the basic story going into it, but that was about it. Annie is the story of a orphan who is trying to find her parents. It is also the story of a would be politician who tries to use her to his advantage to win some votes. Together they seemed to be helping each other in their own way, though I never did see the conclusion of it all.
Quvenzhane Wallis played Annie, she is a cute kid and she can sing. She seems like she can act, though this role never really called for that in the 70% of the film I saw. She just came off as underwhelming most of the time. Though given her age, I can't really fault her to much for that. She is already far better at acting then I could be. Still she was enjoyable enough to watch, and she brought a decent amount of energy to pretty much all her scenes. It would be hard to dislike her or the character.
Jamie Foxx played Will Stacks, the Daddy Warbucks of this movie. For those of you groaning about them swapping up the characters, the movie actually opens with a little girl who resembles the original Annie. They have a decent joke about it and move on, I think that is a pretty good attitude to have in these sort of situations. Foxx is a great actor, no doubt about that. And he did great in this role, I was just disappointed I didn't get to see him sing. Maybe it happened near the end, who knows. His character provided a good amount of humor, and Foxx played him in a quirky manner that was enjoyable to see.
They did borrow a few songs from the original, they pretty much had to. Though they did touch up some of the lyrics to fit the songs within the more modern setting. They also came up with new arrangements for similar reasons. The songs were not bad, catchy enough. Though I do wonder if the purists will enjoy the more pop variations on the classics. The new songs really did not stand out as much, though that could have easily been due to them not having the iconic status that something like "It's a Hard Knock Life" It is a musical, you go into it wanting to hear solid performances. It had some good moments, but overall it never really delivered on that aspect of it.
I stopped the movie, and ended up returning it with 30 or so minutes left. I really wish I had been able to finish it, I was enjoying it so far. It was not a amazing film, and it is not one I would put up against the other big name musicals that have come out in recent years. But it had its own charm, and for a rental that is more then enough.
Into the Woods, also a musical based off of a stage show, is a mish-mash of various fairy tales. It takes a few well known stories and tries to create a narrative that brings them all together into one big story. Little Red Riding hood, Jack and the Bean Stalk, Cinderella, and a few others. They use a central character of The Baker and his wife to do this. The Bakers father angered the Witch who then put a curse on his family so they could not have children. She was then turned ugly in the process due to the Bakers father stealing her magic beans. She enlists the Bakers help, as the two curses can be broken using the same method. The Baker and his wife need to find a Cloak as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a cow as white as milk, and a golden slipper. There is also the added stipulation all must be gathered.....in the woods. You should be seeing how this is coming together. The baker and his wife interact with the other stories and in a sense change them in order to collect the ingredients. Now this is a darker telling of the stories, and it has a big event at the end that furthers that. Though I never saw how it all ended up. 30 minutes left on the clock when I turned it off. Odd thing is, I still have the movie, I just don't care to finish it up.
The way it was presented, you could see and feel the broadway underneath it. It just was a horrible translation into the big screen. Cheap visuals that remind you of a stage show, horrible pacing, and just a bad presentation. It had a cool story, and a neat idea. It just could not do anything with it. It didn't help that the songs were pretty bland as well. Talented singers and actors, but everything just felt dull and boring. Meryl Streeps "witch" was the high point of the film for me. She had crazy down, and seeing her randomly pop up and scare the baker usually brought me a smile. But that was really the only thing I remember enjoying about this one.
For a rental, it may be worth checking out if you are a fan of the stage show. But for everybody else, I would just advise on passing.
So by now we should all know the story behind this movie, or its release I should say. Threats and hacks, which may or may not have been related, caused the movie to be canceled 2 days before its theatrical release. It then went from being a throw away comedy to one of the most talked about films this year. Everybody wanted to see it now, so of course Sony took advantage of that. They released it in a select group of theaters, and then pushed it online though various digital distributors. Almost makes you wonder if they had this planned all along. So now that we can see the movie that sparked all this nonsense, is it actually worth watching?
The Interview is about two friends who work in television. James Franco plays David Skylark who interviews celebrities for his talk show. Seth Rogen plays Aaron Rappaport his producer. Franco is all about entertainment, and not so much actual news and current events. His show has a bad reputation, but seems to have a large following thanks to the work of Rogen. There is a story that comes out saying that Kim Jong-un actually really enjoys american media, and that Franco's talk show is his favorite thing on television. Rogen comes up with the brilliant idea of using the Olympics committee to try and get a message to North Korea asking for a interview, and it actually ends up working. They are granted a 1 hour scripted interview which instantly grabs the attention of the entire world. North Korea is thought to have working nukes that could reach the US at this point, so the CIA decides to take advantage of Rogen and Franco and ropes them into a assassination attempt on Kim Jong-un.
The easiest way to tell if you will enjoy this movie is to simply ask yourself, did you care for any of Rogen's other big films. "This is the End," "Pineapple Express," "Knocked Up," the humor is similar in all of these. If you are not a Rogen fan, this film will not do much to change that. It follows the same kind of formula his past work does. Crass humor, a lot of homosexual stuff, and violence tossed in for fun. That is not to say they do not have some very creative and even intelligent humor. It is just not the main focus of the film. Running gags, drug use, and shock humor are all present. The film easily earns its R rating many times over. If you are a Rogen fan, none of this will phase you however. You will enjoy the movie and enjoy the humor. I myself laughed quite a bit at it. Unlike "This is the End" where the constant sexual jokes eventually wore on me, "The Interview" seemed to keep its humor fresh throughout most of the film. Much like "Pineapple Express" it did seem to turn into a action film at the end, but it worked well enough within the context of the movie. If you read any news story about Kim Jong-un right now, top comments will probably be quotes from this film. There were just so many memorable moments.
Acting, well that is hard to talk about here. Acting was fine, this was a comedy though not a drama. No real huge moments for the different actors to shine. I did feel Franco played up his role a little to much at times. Randall Park did very well with Kim Jong-un, he really was great in that role. His part had the most emotional range, and he seemed to do well with everything he was given. I would be interested to see him in something more serious just to see how good of a actor he really is. There were also some cool cameo's I won't ruin for you.
This movie took a current issue and made it into a joke. It has some valid points to it however. I didn't expect it to go so in depth with how messed up North Korea is. They discussed what would happen if they were able to kill Kim Jong-un, and why it may not be the best idea. They gave some interested figures and facts about the people and how they are treated. They really did a good job with how they presented the country and the way the citizens view Kim Jong-un. I don't know how accurate what was presented is, but from what little I have heard and read in the news it wouldn't surprise me if it was mostly true. I read a story about how damaging this movie could be to the North Korean government because of this. The fact that a simple comedy film took the time to include all this, and to a extent that is actually worried a government is commendable. Is it Rogen's funniest work yet, probably not. But is could easily be the one he is most proud of simple due to the response it is receiving.
If you are thinking about seeing this movie based solely on the hype it is getting now, I would say go ahead and give it a shot. It presents a issues that is very much real, in a way that anybody can understand. There are solid comedic moments, but if you are not into low brow humor you will not enjoy it as much as others. Be advised there is some gore, though not a lot. And it is absolutely not a movie for family night.
I often judge a movie by whether I would watch it a second or even third time. Pacific Rim was the perfect example of this, I could watch that movie over and over again. This is another unique case. Kim Jong-un will continue to show up in the news, and this movie will remain relevant for a long time because of that. That also makes it one that will be easy to re-watch as we continue to be annoyed by its main villain. Right now North Korea is suffering from a internet shortage, probably so its citizens will not watch this movie. They are of course blaming the US, if that doesn't make you want to watch "The Interview" then nothing will.
I managed to catch Interstellar on my anniversary trip with the wife. We were in a town with a IMAX and we had never been to one. Everything I had seen on this movie made it look like the perfect fit for that format. Now my wife hates space, I don't blame her for that. But this was oddly her idea, as the movie wasn't even on my radar at the time. I didn't do a write up at the time though, so this is a good 10 days after the fact. I will try to do a simple overview, and should hopefully stay out of the heavier points of the film.
The story is pretty much the entire film here. Cooper played by Matthew McConaughey is a ex pilot. He and his daughter Murph played by Mackenzie Foy end up finding a military base run by a old friend of Coopers. Professor Brand played by Michael Caine. Brand tells them the world is ending and only has a small amount of time left. There are dust storms that are killing all the crops, and we can only grow corn at this point in time. Somebody has put a wormhole however right outside our planet. We do now know who, but we do know it was intentional. That wormhole gives us access to 12 other planets that may be inhabitable. Nasa sends a subject to each one to monitor and record data to be sent back as to whether we can live there. Cooper is tasked with going to the 4 remaining planets and finding out which one we will settle on. Brand is meanwhile trying to figure out how to get the human race there. The majority of the 3 hour film takes place as Cooper leads a team to the different worlds in search of answers to both problems.
The film is very smart in how it handles space and even time travel to a extent. Time is different out there, and it affects the explorers in different ways then the people on earth. One planet they visit effects them in 7 year increments every hour. So 1 hour on that planet for Cooper is 7 years back on earth for his Daughter. This means we get multiple actors for the different roles which was interesting. There is also a mystery in the opening of the film that spans the entire thing and the 80 or so years the film takes place in. Everything has a point to it, and if a question arises it will be addressed later on. The story was simple, but well put together in a way that created great depth. The acting was all very well done, which is exactly what you would expect with McConaughey, Caine, Hathaway, and Damon as some of your bigger roles. But one of the main things that really caught my attention was the way they shot most of the space of vehicle sequences.
This movie has a lot of space shots in it. If you read my review on Guardians of the Galaxy, you know I love space. Guardians had pretty and colorful space that was simply breathtaking to see. Interstellar has realistic space that is dark and depressing. That doesn't mean it wasn't a visually impressive movie, but simply that it was more realistic in how it portrayed space. They also had a tendency to not actually show the ship or pod as it was flying. It would show a on board camera that was attached to the hull or rear of the vehicle. I don't know if that was to save money, or create a effect, but it was unique. It didn't pull me out of the moment, and it may have even added to the drama at certain points. In movies like Star Wars you want to see the ship, they are usually fighting and doing cool things. In interstellar we don't have space battles, so the closer look makes it feel more realistic instead of giving off a fantasy vibe. The effects when we do get a wide shot are great though. And there were a few moments that IMAX screen really got to shine.
This is a Christopher Nolan film. Chances are you are familiar with him as a writer, director, and producer. He has done some big name films, heck most of his are big names. If you know me however, you also know I don't particularly care for him. He started strong, but recently he has been in rather poor form. From the lackluster finally to the Dark Knight, to the Man of Steel which I had to turn off multiple times before I could force my way to the end. Interstellar for the most part seems like a return to greatness, that is before the finally. I won't spoil anything, but the film could have been 30 minutes shorter and much better for it. The entire ending actually drug the whole thing down for me.
It was a smart well written movie that simply over stayed its welcome. Decent visuals, and interesting camera work add to the overall feeling of the film. Space is dark and depressing, just like it should be. The only real issues were the eventual reveal as well as some just straight up stupid moments spread through out. The movie did lull at times, and the pacing was a little off. Overall not a bad film, but one I will probably never see again. The high point? Robot TARS voiced by Bill Irwin.
I ended up seeing this movie a few weeks ago while on vacation. I never got around to doing a write up on it, and sadly forgot about the whole thing until just recently. So while the movie is no longer fresh in my mind, I figured I could still put some something about it.
The story is about a young boy named Hiro, his brother Tadashi, and a robot named Baymax. Hiro has lost his way and is starting down a path that his brother does not want to see him on. Tadashi manages to trick Hiro into visiting his school and introduces him to his friends who are all Scientist or Engineers in one way or another. Well except for Fred, he is just the school mascot. This visit inspires Hiro who decides he wants to join his brother. Hiro is a robotics genius and has been making money fighting in illegal backroom battles up to this point. With the help of Tadashi and his friends he is able to make something truly amazing and wows everybody at the audition. If everything went well however, we would be left without much of a movie. Suffice to say something bad happens, and a villain is born. Hiro teams up with Baymax, a nurse robot, and goes after the bad guy.
The movie is based off of a older comic series with ties to the X-men franchise. That comic book series was awful. Seriously don't go read it, trust me on this. The heroes are all pretty unlikable, which given their ages makes sense. And they vary so much from their movie counterparts, that the only real connection is the names. Wasabi no Ginger goes from being a magic blade wielding sushi shef, to a hippy simply called Wasabi. Honey Lemon goes from being the sex symbol of the team and fighting with only a open jacket to a frumpy conservative. Baymax is the biggest change from not only his abilities to his entire persona. While these may sound like changes I didn't like, it is actually the opposite. They changed all the characters into more likable and better variations of themselves. They even changed all their powers to be science based which was cool. They created a team that children could look up to, and that parents wouldn't mind their kids being exposed to.
There are a lot of great moments in this film. From the low power Baymax sequence that makes him appear almost intoxicated, to pretty much every battle sequence. The film has a lot of emotion early on and does a good job of carrying it for the duration. I never felt like I wasn't invested once it took off. And a lot of that has to do with the great writing and voice work. There are a few known names in the film. Alan Tudyk has a decent size role. Damon Wayans Jr. who you may remember from the simply awful "Let's be Cops." Maya Rudoph played Hiro and Tadashi's aunt Cass. And T.J. Miller played Fred, the school mascot and comedic relief of the film. Everybody did very well however, even those I did not mention. Everything about the presentation of the film was spot on and really added to the overall experience. The art style was amazing and I loved the city shots. The animation was fluid and when the robots and battles started up, it was damn impressive to see.
The movie had a good comedic tone to which surprised me. Baymax had a simple intelligence and constantly had me laughing with how the robot responded to the world. From his fist bumping, to the way he talked about the cat. He never failed to make me smile, and I don't recall any of his attempts at humor just falling short. He also provided some of the more emotional moments in the film. I really enjoyed this character, and would say he is easily the best thing Pixar has come up with in years. Fred was the other spectrum of the comedy. He was stupid, but in a good way. He had some good moments, but nothing that compares to Baymax. Also he had a entire segment about his underwear that was a complete miss for me. It is only worth mentioning as it was also re-used in the post credits scene. That one may not be worth sitting around for, at least it wasn't to me.
So Big Hero 6 at a glance.....Good story with strong emotion and great moments. Stunning animation that is fluid and visually appealing. Great voice work and mostly solid writing. Add in a strong ending that had my full attention until the credits started, and you have a solid winner in my book. The fact that they changed all the characters to be better influences is a plus. And I loved the way they mixed up the power sets.
