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Today I watched The Counselor and posted this rather superficial review at Netflix:
I have such mixed emotions about this movie. First, I was disappointed to see in the opening credits that it was written by Cormac McCarthy, not one of my favorite writers and, in my opinion, one of the most overrated writers in the business. But I was willing to give it a chance, and, though slicker than most works by the writer, still seemed to exalt excess over believability, and I groaned at many of the speeches that screamed out that they were the words of a writer who refused to edit himself — some of those speeches would have been more appropriate in Shakespeare’s “Richard III” than in this mostly grim film! Almost everybody is a criminal of one sort or another, with Michael Fassbender, with his credible American accent, intent on broadening his expensive lifestyle. At first I assumed that that would be the heart of the story and struggled to keep the many characters and story lines straight. But whether or not you can follow that is of little consequence. Just realize that Fassbender does something generous for a former pro bono client once assigned to him by the court, which sets in motion a series of grotesque murders that are as excessive as they are unjustified. One point: I think that Cameron Diaz’s character is able to do to Penelope Cruz’s character what her character wanted to do to Cruz in “Vanilla Sky.” While thinking about the film right after watching it, I thought of a lot of things I wanted to write that would have required a spoiler alert, but was able to describe how I felt about it without going there.
Incidentally, at one point Diaz's character expresses her great admiration for the fine killing machine of the cheetah (and I see that people from the movie have been strongly criticized for their use of 2 cheetahs in the film).
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Posted: |
Aug 2, 2014 - 7:40 AM
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By: |
mastadge
(Member)
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The July round-up:
Started my Jerry Goldsmith project with Black Patch. I expect this project, seeing every Goldsmith-scored movie available, to take 4-5 years, and for this and budgetary reasons I have opted not to include the Goldsmith-scored TV episodes as well.
I also started working through Sergio Leone's filmography, and found his early efforts underwhelming but not too bad.
Best new movies of the month included Burning Bush, Snowpiercer, Enemy, Prisoners, Under the Skin. On TV, Brooklyn Nine-Nine was hilarious, proving to be one of the very few sitcoms I can watch more than an episode of at a time.
The new RoboCop was pretty bad but the original remains excellent and has aged well, for the most part.
I liked P.T. Anderson's first film much more than I thought I would.
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I saw Sebastian 1968 last night, I love Goldsmith's score, & wanted to see how it worked in the film, & the film is just about OK. It's on You Tube, probably the only way you'd get to see it.
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Posted: |
Aug 2, 2014 - 3:50 PM
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By: |
TominAtl
(Member)
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Guardians of the Galaxy -
Probably the only Marvel film that I was not interested in seeing, I did so at the insistence of my friend and who by the way bought the tickets.  In addition, I saw it in 3D in IMAX.
Well, it's not anywhere near the stink bomb that I or many others on this cranky board anticipated it to be. In fact, it's pretty good. Not on par with the likes of "Iron Man" or "Thor" or "The Avengers", but it is a fun film, breezy and sports a good cast and top notch special effects. Chris Pratt is great but the scene stealer, if you can believe it, is the walking tree character Groot. He's as funny as he is strong and his only sentence "I am Groot" is a long running joke that is quite funny.
The movie is quite busy on the visual scale, particularly during the fight scenes and the final battle. Whether that is a good or bad thing is dependent upon your own tastes. For me, simpler is better. The 3D is good but is not essential to enjoy the film.
Overall it is an enjoyable ride but I was not as enthusiastic about it as many of the critics have been. The raccoon character was too off putting to me and I was one step ahead in each scene thus there were no clever surprises or differences of a story arc. It's a safe, predictable summer Marvel film that gives its audience what it wanted and required...basically to not suck.
*** out of 5
Lucy
Another Luc Besson actioner who's protagonist just happens to be a female. An American girl while in Paris gets suckered in doing a delivery favor for a 2 week old boyfriend and ends up being a mule for some Chinese drug kingpin. However, the drugs she is carrying in her body burst open and the dope makes her brain start to function at a higher than 10 % functionality. In fact, it marches towards 100%. Bottom line, she becomes super smart and strong and starts kicking some super ass. Morgan Freeman is a scientist who studies the brain and he is contacted by Lucy to help with some answers. It's all pretty much hokum and as her brain smarter, the movie gets dumber. If you don't figure out how it's going to end, you haven't seen many movies.
Not worthy of seeing in the movie house, but it can make for a quick Saturday night movie party at someone's house.
**1/2
Hercules
One of the rarest of the rare...an action film that is not prescreened for critics that actually turns out pretty damn good! First thing to note: the previews are NOTHING what the film is really about. In fact, it's best not to divulge the style and tone or even plot of the film or I would be at risk of ruining it's first of many surprises. Safe to say, this IS the film and character that "The Rock" was born to play. He gives it his all and gives the best performance of his career. While that may not say much, he has some scenes that require more than a grimace or an arch of his eyebrow. The interplay between characters feels genuine, with a couple of actors who are notorious for playing villains seem to be so grateful for playing on the good side for a change and are obviously relishing the part.
This is a fun, exciting and at times very funny film that I would recommend to just about anyone. Trust me, the cheese part of the film happens in the first 2 minutes, and deliberately so, and after that it's fun and enjoyable ride.
*** out of 5
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Continuing the story started in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", years later the apes have made their home in northern California, just outside the nearby ruins of San Francisco, where some human survivors have holed up and are trying to recreate their lives. Caesar still is ruling the apes, unbeknownst to most if not all of the SFO residencesare unaware that they even exist, much less know about their "new and improved" status. And very soon of course they are found, in a great scene by the way, and are let go by Caesar, on promise they never return. Well of course they do. The humans want entrance to their home so they can possibly restart the nearby dam so they can get electricity back. After much negotiation the apes allow entrance and for a brief time there is a peace between the 2 parties. To be expected there is mistrust between several humans and apes and things get messy on a personal level on both ends and soon war erupts between the camps. There are many great scenes in this film, which is a smartly written and character driven film. The effects are spot on and the score by Giachino is both tender and brutal. While the surprise factor is gone from the first film, this is a quality and intelligent action film that ranks it among the best of this year and certainly among the series.
****
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Posted: |
Aug 3, 2014 - 8:05 PM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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Space Pirate Captain Harlock (2013) 2.5-5
Sadly the Japanese have become as cliched, and predictable with their storytelling as Hollywood. The story in a nutshell is a convoluted mess. Like Godzilla 2014, Captain Harlock was almost a supporting character in his own movie. Instead the story focuses on two feuding brothers (and a lame underdeveloped love triangle.) Furthermore to much of the movie was "told" to us in narration or flashbacks which is always the sign of a weak script.
This is a completely CGI film and the animation was spectacular. The backgrounds, sets, hardware, and special effects were beautifully rendered. Some may find fault in the human characters, but it's about the best anyone has ever done in this regard, and I saw it more as a stylistic approach than a technical failure. The Japanese are usually very good at story boarding exceptionally exciting action sequences, but for the most part they fell rather flat. Eye catching, but not very exciting.
Sadly the score takes on an RC flair thus it's pretty limited in themes or scope other than a few pronounced dramatic cues. This surprised me as I always thought the anime used classical music too good use.
It's on Netflix steaming and might be worth seeing just for the animation. But don't expect to much from the story or shallow characters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFkuIQiYZVE
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