Category Movies

Bugsy Malone, a Mobster Musical

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This was one of my favorite movies as a kid, and I still enjoy watching it as an adult. It’s a musical about prohibition era gangsters, with a cast of only children, and their weapons shoot whipped cream, and their cars are peddle powered. Yes, it’s a little odd, kind of quirky, but honestly the kids do a pretty good acting job and the songs are really catchy.

The only people you will recognize from the movie are Scott Baio and Jodie Foster, who were 15 and 14 respectively when the movie was made. It’s the music that will stick with you though. Paul Williams did an absolutely amazing job writing the score for this move, I would rank the soundtrack among my top 5. So You Wanna Be A Boxer is a great motivational song, Tomorrow will bring tears to your eyes, You Give A Little Love is an ear worm that will stay with you a long time and Bad Guys is just plain fun.

I was hesitant to write about this movie, not because I’m ashamed of being 45 and loving this movie as much as I do, but because it used to be hard to find. Until Blu-rays, it was only available on Region 2 DVD and VHS, plus… not a lot of rental places around anymore.

If you can find it, give it a watch.

Spider-Man : Into the Spider-Verse

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I really enjoyed the two Toby Maguire movies (I like to pretend the third was a bad dream I had), disliked the first Andrew Garfield film so much I never bothered to watch the second and loved all three of Tom Holland’s outings as the infamous wallcrawler. I loved Spider-Man: Homecoming so much I told anyone who would listen it was my favorite Spider-Man movie… until I saw Into the Spider-Verse last week. Continue reading “Spider-Man : Into the Spider-Verse” →

watched Pontypool

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It’s a tradition for me that once the kids stop showing up for candy, the decorations are put away and the lights are turned off, I watch scary movies while eating nachos with a dip made of cream cheese, salsa and cheddar. Okay, as traditions go it’s not the most imaginative, but I like it.

pontypoolThere are a lot of zombie movies out there but Pontypool is different. No guns, no machetes, axes, swords or chainsaws. The gore is minimal and most of the violence happens in the viewers imagination.

I first heard about the movie from an article on films that take place in only one room, this one is set in a small town radio station in the basement of an old church. Since everything happens in just this one location it really places the viewer in the shoes of the main characters. We, like them, can’t see what is going on in the world. The reports about the outbreaks of violence are something we only hear via the calls from the stations traffic corespondent and interviews with the police. The atmosphere builds as we try and build a picture of what’s happening in the world outside of the station.

I liked Pontypool, it’s a refreshing take on the Zombie genre, even going a different route with the method of infection (which I won’t spoil) and I loved the emphasis on suspense over brutality, but it wasn’t perfect. I think it would have benefitted from a few more script revisions. Instead of building the clues to the mystery into the conversations with people on the outside, they rely on an info dump in the third act from a character who literally comes out of nowhere. In addition, their version of the zombies themselves is a cool idea, but really high concept. It probably works great written, but is difficult to try and convey on screen.

Overall, the acting is great and it’s a movie worth watching, but I also would not mind watching a re-make that tweeks things a little to allow the viewer to figure things out and maybe fleshes out the infection better so that it makes more sense when you discuss it after the movie is over.

went to see Disneys Maleficent

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Maleficent_posterThis was a Disney fairy tale, done live instead of animated and minus the musical numbers.
I liked it, I didn’t love it.  I’ll be clear,  it was a fun movie,  Angelina Jolie gave a wonderful performance,  the action scenes were well done,  there were great comedy beats,  and tear jerking scenes, I think I just wasn’t the intended audience for it.  My wife and grandson both loved it, so they must be the people Disney is aiming for.

With Maleficent, Disney attempted to do what Gregory Maguire did with the Wicked Witch of the West.  Take a character who was the central evil in a story, but about whom we knew very little, and turn the narrative around to make them a misrepresented hero.  I think they succeeded.  I think Linda Wolverton improved greatly on the original story, but  again I don’t think I’m Charles Perraults target audience either.

If I gave out stars or thumbs up, I’d give this movie some, it was a fun afternoon, and at no time did I feel like it dragged.

Watched Cloud Atlas

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It’s not a movie, it’s a time machine. I don’t say this because Cloud Atlas is actually six stories in one that spans past, present and future, but because the movie started at 1:05, I blinked and then it was 4:00. The Wachowskis do such an amazing job of weaving the tales in and out like a tapestry, you hardly notice the time go by.

The film as a whole is about breaking out of the roles that society imposes on us. It’s about the patterns that humans seem to repeat, of those with power taking from those without, in order to grow their power. It’s also about love.

Like many of their previous movies, Cloud Atlas is very dense in dialog and rich in imagery. Each time period is distinctly portrayed in costuming, set design and dialect. Instead of telling the six parts one at a time, the filmmakers mix and match shifting from one to the other, like a well choreographed dance routine. It’s hard to describe the masterful job they’ve done here. You never get bored or distracted, even in a movie this long. I could easily have watched each story line as a separate movie. Especially the one in Neo-Seoul. I love Ridley Scott, but after this weekend, I desperately want Larry and Lana to do the Blade Runner sequel.

I don’t think anyone needs to be told that with a cast which includes no less than three Academy Award winners (Tom Hanks, Halley Berry and Jim Broadbent) the acting is superb. Every character is unique, wholely fleshed out and three dimensional, despite cast members each needing to play 3, 4, 5 and sometimes 6 different parts. Special mention needs to be given to Jim Sturgess. The man is a chameleon. He inhabits each person he plays so wholely you scarcely recognize it’s the same person playing them all.

I think with future viewings I’ll find even more layers, and when it is released on Bluray I will certainly make room for it on my shelf with the Matrix movies, Assassins and V for Vendetta (not Speed Racer though, sorry, everyone makes a mistake once in a while)

I have not read the book upon which the movie was based, but after I hit post on this blog entry, I’m heading to the Kobo store to see if it is available in e-book format.

 

Watched Woman in Black

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That, Possession, that is how you do a scary movie. I know it’s a little late, Halloween was two nights ago, but it’s tough to watch a scary movie when underage monsters are knocking at your door. Glad we finally got around to watching this though.

it’s a period movie, I don’t recall seeing a date anywhere, but it seems to be set during whichever time period steam locomotives were popular, automobiles were scarce and people still sent telegraphs.

The movie has a slow build, lots and lots of quiet scenes with no dialog, but incredible atmosphere that really sucks you in. It’s a mystery that doesn’t give everything away right at the start, but unfolds slowly. You learn what’s going on at the same pace as the protagonist.

I have to give special kudos to Daniel Radcliffe. He quickly makes you forget about the boy wizard and portrays a very believeable and sympathetic character. I think this is someone who can survive being a child actor and have a long future acting.

It’s been a long time since I saw a really good ghost story, most of the horrors these days are serial killers or torture porn, this was like a trip through a really great haunted house.

 

Saw Dredd

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Jurys. Executioners. Judges. Real actors aren’t afraid to leave their masks on.

I liked this movie a lot and will definitely add it to my collection when it is released on Blu-ray. I have never read the comic book, but the movie has inspired me (unlike the Stalone version) to see if there any tpb or graphic novels I can get my hands on, since the disappointing box office showing makes it sound like there will not be a sequel.

The movie plays like an 80s cop movie in the vein of Lethal Weapon or 48 Hours, just set in a dystopian future. It starts with a crime to solve and ends with a hail of bullets and explosions. The pacing is great. Not once in the movies hour and a half did I feel like it dragged or felt the need to look at my watch. I also appreciated that the writer and director went with a “show don’t tell” approach to the story, letting the audience figure things out for themselves and keeping exposition scenes to a minimum.

The violence is graphic and brutal, some of it taking place in slow motion. Now, I watched Suckerpunch a couple of months ago, and the over use of slow motion was one of the many things I did not like about the movie. In Dredd the slow motion is a) used sparingly and b) punctuates the violence. It also has a purpose in the movie itself. Bullet time in the Matrix movies showed points where the characters were able to get their minds working fast to overcome the artificial constraits of the simulated world they inhabited. In every movie since, the directors used it just ‘cuz it looked cool. In Dredd the slow motion is used when someone is under the influence of a drug called Slo-mo.

What really stands out for me though is the acting. It is a rare actor who will allow themselves to have their face hidden, or intentionally made ugly for an entire movie. Here we had two. Karl Urban is able to project emotion and presence with 3/4 of his face hidden and Lena Headey’s beauty is completely submerged in the scared drug addict she portrays. I’m not sure people realize how hard it is for an actor to perform when their face is hidden, it’s why you’ll see less capable actors like Stalone or Andrew Garfield keep taking their helmets and masks off, but the more skilled performers like Urban and Tom Hardy will see it as a challenge. I mentioned this to my brother, and he likened it to Kane Hodder as Jason in the Friday the 13th movies. Jason has been played by several different actors, but people always seem to remember Kane’s portrayal best, as he is able to convey a sense of menace, danger, even evil, all without saying a word or even being able to see his face.

Like I said at the top, I loved this movie and only wish more people had gone to see it, just so that I could selfishly get to see sequels.

 

watched Possesion

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It wasn’t the worst movie I’ve ever seen, but I’m glad I saw it on half price Tuesdays.

The biggest problem this movie had was it’s predictability. Almost every seen you knew what was going to happen, to such a degree you could almost even predict the dialog. People talk about movies they see being formulaic and this one really looks like someone had a checklist that read “scenes to be put in exorcism movies”. I saw so many scenes that were lifted from other movies, towards the end I started openly laughing at them. Would be a good trivia game for Halloween, watch the movie with friends and everyone writes a list of stolen scenes, and whoever finds the most wins, or you could turn it into a drinking game I suppose.

The second problem. For a horror/suspense movie, it just wasn’t very scary. You could see the film makers tried to build the atmosphere, but the tension scenes were few and far between, and There were too many things that didn’t make sense when I dirst watched it. If the spirit is trapped in the box, why didn’t it wan’t the box destroyed so it could not be shoved back in? If the spirit is so powerfull it can toss people around like they were nothing, why then, when it is being excersised, all it does is kick and scream? I could easily make up some answers if we wanted to argue about it but I shouldn’t have had to do it myself, they movie should have spent more time explaing the mythology of the demon, and less on the main characters relationships with his ex wife, his daughters, his job. Or maybe the marketing was bad, this was really supposed to be a drama, and It was my fault for thinking this was a horror.

I like Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgewick, but I don’t think I’ll be watching this one again. If I feel like watching a movie about someone who’s been possessed, there are a lot better choices, like the obvious ones of The Exorcist or The Amityville Horror. There’s also the excellent, yet underrated The Prophecy, or even The Fallen which, while much of it was boring, had an awesome scene in the middle (if you watch it, you’ll know whatnI mean, I don’t want to spoil it) and and ending twist that totally redeemed the movie and was better than anything M. Night has come up with since The Sixth Sense.