Again, I know I took a long break here, but I was busy watching Scott Pilgrim another 5 times (no, I'm not kidding, go see the movie) and doing school work. Incidentally, the only new film I've seen since Scott Pilgrim was Piranha 3D, and chances are you already know if you're going to see that or not, but if for some reason anyone reading this is undecided, leave a comment on my facebook so I know to review it for you.
Category: Action-Adventure Mystery
Premise: ...really? Alright. Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) and his steadfast companion Dr. Watson (Jude Law) are thrust into the fold of Lord Blackwood's (Mark Strong) plot to take over England using dark ritual practices.
Zer(o)verview:
First of all, I'd like to give a sincere thank you to Guy Ritchie for being his already excellent directing ability, (see Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) to mainstream films, especially in the "shadows of London" atmosphere that so fits Sherlock Holmes.
But, to the movie. From the first time I saw the preview, I knew I would like this movie. Not just because I love all 3 headliners (Downey Jr., Law, and McAdams) but because Guy Ritchie finally stopped portraying Sherlock as a good guy.
Have any of you read the stories that Sir Doyle wrote? Holmes is mad. He's a lunatic. He has deeply ingrained drug and alcohol problems, and although Ritchie only touches on the drugs briefly, he consistently brings up the alcoholism. Bravo! And Downey Jr. does an excellent job emulating this insanity on-screen.
Speaking of Downey on-screen, his chemistry with co-stars Law and McAdams is exemplary. Jude Law finally delivers the Watson I've wanted since I was young. Not a bumbling idiot that follows Holmes around and never really contributes. A Watson that balances out Holmes' insanity with sound logic and strong physical presence. For God's sake, Watson was a decorated military hero, why was he ever portrayed as a bumbling idiot? While Downey's Holmes is still the bread-winner here, Law's Watson is the example I would show directors who want to make a Sherlock Holmes film in the future.
Rachel McAdams plays Irene Adler, who, unless you are an avid Sir Arthur Conan Doyle reader, you probably have never heard of before since she's only mentioned in like 1 story. Ever. At all. But, I excuse this due to the fact that Guy Ritchie fleshed her out and made her story and the story of Moriarty more interesting (setting up for a sequel, no doubt), and the fact that he cast McAdams as the actress to play her. +1 for Mr. Ritchie. And she does a pretty good job to boot.
Mark Strong is the antagonist of the show, Lord Blackwood, an outcast British lord with ties to "The House of Four" which is essentially an Illuminati-esque organization in England and America. He is believed to have supernatural powers and uses them to exert control over England. To be honest, he was the weakest character out of all the leads, which is unfortunate, since the villain development is crucial to making the story believable and deep. Fortunately, with a director like Ritchie, villains are never the focus of the movie, the atmosphere and plot are.
Ritchie uses the "shadows of London" atmosphere brillantly, and has a compelling music score throughout. The real gems of the movie are still the interactions between Holmes and Watson, and the audience trying to deduce how Blackwood accomplished all the things he did before Holmes reveals all of it. On top of that, it's genuinely funny. The sub-plots, Watson's engagement to Mary, and Holmes and Adler's obvious sexual tension, aren't built up much at all, but again, they don't need to be, that's not the focus of the movie. It doesn't take away from the movie, but it doesn't add much to it either, except the Adler-Moriarty set up for the sequel.
GROUND ZERO: An excellent performance by Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, and Rachel McAdams, combined with an interesting plot, captivating atmosphere and genuinely funny dialogue all guided by the direction of Snatch's Guy Ritchie make this a must-see for all mystery buffs.
5 out of 5.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
So, the short version: Scott Pilgrim is my favorite movie this year. Even if your movie taste isn't exactly like mine, the movie is still very fun and very enjoyable.
The long version incoming in 3, 2, 1...:
Category: Indie Music Action Comedy Drama, if you need a better description, think High Fidelity (the movie) meets No More Heroes (the Wii game).
Premise: Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) falls in love at first sight with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) but must defeat her seven evil exes in order to secure his place in Ramona's love life.
Zer(o)verview:
So I already said this was my favorite movie this year, and for more reasons then just the style it was filmed. The movie is genuinely funny, the characters are interesting, and the battles are entertaining and fun. It's just a great movie altogether.
Some people may whine about it because they can't look past the geek factor of the filming style to connect with the characters, or they can look past that but don't understand why Scott needs a flaming katana to come out of his chest at one point (Yeah, that happens. Twice.).
Also, Scott isn't the typical "I'm super nice, why would you ever date those jerks instead of a nice guy like me" main character in a romance storyline, he's actually kind of a jerk in the beginning, but it works well. Scott milks his helplessness for female attention after his brutal break-up with superstar Envy Adams (Brie Larson) over a year ago. He sticks to dating high school girls until Ramona comes along, at which point, he doesn't even break up with the high school girl right away, he waits a few days. But I really think that adds dynamic to his character.
On the other side of the spectrum, Ramona Flowers is played pretty perfectly. I can't think of any way that Mary Elizabeth Winstead could've improved her except at 2 points. The fight with Roxy Richter when Ramona helps Scott, and the scene after Scott defeats Gideon Graves. Not the ending, she was excellent in that. I mean the scene right after the fight with Scott, Knives and Ramona while they're still in the Chaos Theatre.
The music track is INCREDIBLE. Music is the most important element of the movie essentially, and it's incorporated fantastically. There isn't a single time that I wish they had used a different song or sound.
As for the exes, I think that the director made the right decisions across the board. I'll do some bullets here to show you.
Matthew Patel-Satya Bhabba. I've never heard of this guy before.
Lucas Lee-Chris Evans. This is the mainstream star the director brings to the movie, except of course for Michael Cera.
Todd Ingram-Brandon Routh. People who watch the show "Chuck" might know him as Daniel Shaw, but he hasn't been in too many movies from what I know.
Roxy Richter-Mae Whitman. Reuniting Michael Cera with his girlfriend from Arrested Development was a smart move on the directors part I think. Mae Whitman played Ann Veal on the show, and also loans her voice to a slew of animated shows, namely Avatar: The Last Airbender, where she plays Katara.
The Katayanagi Brothers-Keita Saitou and Shota Saito. Again, never heard of these guys before.
Gideon Gordon Graves-Jason Schwartzman. Fans of indie movies should rejoice at this name. This is Max Fischer of Rushmore. That's right.
GROUND ZERO: I love this movie. I love this movie so much that I wanted to catch it again since it was showing 5 minutes after the one I went to see got out. But I had more pressing things to do, so I couldn't. This is easily my favorite movie this year, and it's in the running for my favorite movie of all time. It's fun, has a heartwarming story, funny, has interesting characters, and is filmed like No More Heroes. All winners in my book.
5 out of 5.
The long version incoming in 3, 2, 1...:
Category: Indie Music Action Comedy Drama, if you need a better description, think High Fidelity (the movie) meets No More Heroes (the Wii game).
Premise: Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) falls in love at first sight with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) but must defeat her seven evil exes in order to secure his place in Ramona's love life.
Zer(o)verview:
So I already said this was my favorite movie this year, and for more reasons then just the style it was filmed. The movie is genuinely funny, the characters are interesting, and the battles are entertaining and fun. It's just a great movie altogether.
Some people may whine about it because they can't look past the geek factor of the filming style to connect with the characters, or they can look past that but don't understand why Scott needs a flaming katana to come out of his chest at one point (Yeah, that happens. Twice.).
Also, Scott isn't the typical "I'm super nice, why would you ever date those jerks instead of a nice guy like me" main character in a romance storyline, he's actually kind of a jerk in the beginning, but it works well. Scott milks his helplessness for female attention after his brutal break-up with superstar Envy Adams (Brie Larson) over a year ago. He sticks to dating high school girls until Ramona comes along, at which point, he doesn't even break up with the high school girl right away, he waits a few days. But I really think that adds dynamic to his character.
On the other side of the spectrum, Ramona Flowers is played pretty perfectly. I can't think of any way that Mary Elizabeth Winstead could've improved her except at 2 points. The fight with Roxy Richter when Ramona helps Scott, and the scene after Scott defeats Gideon Graves. Not the ending, she was excellent in that. I mean the scene right after the fight with Scott, Knives and Ramona while they're still in the Chaos Theatre.
The music track is INCREDIBLE. Music is the most important element of the movie essentially, and it's incorporated fantastically. There isn't a single time that I wish they had used a different song or sound.
As for the exes, I think that the director made the right decisions across the board. I'll do some bullets here to show you.
Matthew Patel-Satya Bhabba. I've never heard of this guy before.
Lucas Lee-Chris Evans. This is the mainstream star the director brings to the movie, except of course for Michael Cera.
Todd Ingram-Brandon Routh. People who watch the show "Chuck" might know him as Daniel Shaw, but he hasn't been in too many movies from what I know.
Roxy Richter-Mae Whitman. Reuniting Michael Cera with his girlfriend from Arrested Development was a smart move on the directors part I think. Mae Whitman played Ann Veal on the show, and also loans her voice to a slew of animated shows, namely Avatar: The Last Airbender, where she plays Katara.
The Katayanagi Brothers-Keita Saitou and Shota Saito. Again, never heard of these guys before.
Gideon Gordon Graves-Jason Schwartzman. Fans of indie movies should rejoice at this name. This is Max Fischer of Rushmore. That's right.
GROUND ZERO: I love this movie. I love this movie so much that I wanted to catch it again since it was showing 5 minutes after the one I went to see got out. But I had more pressing things to do, so I couldn't. This is easily my favorite movie this year, and it's in the running for my favorite movie of all time. It's fun, has a heartwarming story, funny, has interesting characters, and is filmed like No More Heroes. All winners in my book.
5 out of 5.
Friday, August 6, 2010
The Other Guys
After a break from Inception, I've finally been to the movies again to see The Other Guys.
Before any of you ask, no, I did not go see Dinner for Schmucks. I like Paul Rudd and I heard the movie was bad, so I didn't want my image of him to be downgraded.
Category: Comedy (Mainstream)
Premise: After two superstar cops, Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Danson (The Rock), are hailed time and time again by the city of New York, the desk-jockey duo detectives Allen Gamble and Terry Holtz (Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg) try to step into the limelight by taking on a high-profile case about shady investment banker David Ershon (Steve Coogan)
Zer(o)verview:
First off, let me preface this by saying that comedy is very difficult to review.
I'm sure everyone has heard a joke that ends with "You had to be there". That's what reviewing comedy is like. You can't always read a joke and find it funny. It's the delivery that really counts.
Anyway, to the review.
Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell make surprisingly dynamic leads, with Will Ferrell's ability to deliver ridiculous dialogue with extreme seriousness, and Mark Wahlberg's ability to take everything too seriously. No, really. Do you remember M. Night Shmalyan's "The Happening"? Remember Mark Wahlberg was the main character? Remember the scene in the greenhouse where he tries to make a truce with the plant? Yeah. The seriousness that Mark Wahlberg delivered in that particular scene carries throughout this entire movie, and that makes up for most of the jokes, in my opinion.
The movie starts off extremely strong (there's a particularly funny speech about lions and tuna that almost made me blow Dr. Pepper all over myself) but bottoms out about 20 minutes in and never really picks back up. Sure, there are funny moments here and there, but nothing so hilarious that people will remember it for the rest of the year.
As I said earlier, comedy is really hard to review because it's the delivery of the jokes that counts. Unfortunately for The Other Guys, most of the jokes are predictable, and therefore fall flat before they have a chance to grow (again, in the beginning, this doesn't happen). In fact, the beginning may have set my expectations too high for the movie. The opening had a lot of really funny moments that made me think that the entire movie was going to be hilarious, and aside from a few kind of funny moments here and there, it really wasn't.
If you're looking for the best comedy this year, it won't even come close to the mark. There aren't even any hilarious quotes that I intend to overuse to death, which is extremely unfortunate. But, I'll concede and say that it's worth the going to a $5 matinee or whatever they have where you live to go see it.
GROUND ZERO:
I didn't expect the greatest comedy since Anchorman (and yes, Anchorman is one of the best comedies of all time, I don't care what any of you say) walking into this, but I expected more then I got, especially after an extremely solid exposition to the movie. Like I said, it's worth matinee price, but you wouldn't be losing out on much even if you waited to rent it from Red Box in a few months. Overall, it's funny, but I didn't laugh as much as I hoped.
3 out of 5 (I would give it a 3.5, but I'm not gonna start using decimals and it wasn't good enough to merit a 4, so consider it a 3 1/2 out of 5 if the number of stars it gets is a big deal-breaker for you)
Before any of you ask, no, I did not go see Dinner for Schmucks. I like Paul Rudd and I heard the movie was bad, so I didn't want my image of him to be downgraded.
Category: Comedy (Mainstream)
Premise: After two superstar cops, Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Danson (The Rock), are hailed time and time again by the city of New York, the desk-jockey duo detectives Allen Gamble and Terry Holtz (Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg) try to step into the limelight by taking on a high-profile case about shady investment banker David Ershon (Steve Coogan)
Zer(o)verview:
First off, let me preface this by saying that comedy is very difficult to review.
I'm sure everyone has heard a joke that ends with "You had to be there". That's what reviewing comedy is like. You can't always read a joke and find it funny. It's the delivery that really counts.
Anyway, to the review.
Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell make surprisingly dynamic leads, with Will Ferrell's ability to deliver ridiculous dialogue with extreme seriousness, and Mark Wahlberg's ability to take everything too seriously. No, really. Do you remember M. Night Shmalyan's "The Happening"? Remember Mark Wahlberg was the main character? Remember the scene in the greenhouse where he tries to make a truce with the plant? Yeah. The seriousness that Mark Wahlberg delivered in that particular scene carries throughout this entire movie, and that makes up for most of the jokes, in my opinion.
The movie starts off extremely strong (there's a particularly funny speech about lions and tuna that almost made me blow Dr. Pepper all over myself) but bottoms out about 20 minutes in and never really picks back up. Sure, there are funny moments here and there, but nothing so hilarious that people will remember it for the rest of the year.
As I said earlier, comedy is really hard to review because it's the delivery of the jokes that counts. Unfortunately for The Other Guys, most of the jokes are predictable, and therefore fall flat before they have a chance to grow (again, in the beginning, this doesn't happen). In fact, the beginning may have set my expectations too high for the movie. The opening had a lot of really funny moments that made me think that the entire movie was going to be hilarious, and aside from a few kind of funny moments here and there, it really wasn't.
If you're looking for the best comedy this year, it won't even come close to the mark. There aren't even any hilarious quotes that I intend to overuse to death, which is extremely unfortunate. But, I'll concede and say that it's worth the going to a $5 matinee or whatever they have where you live to go see it.
GROUND ZERO:
I didn't expect the greatest comedy since Anchorman (and yes, Anchorman is one of the best comedies of all time, I don't care what any of you say) walking into this, but I expected more then I got, especially after an extremely solid exposition to the movie. Like I said, it's worth matinee price, but you wouldn't be losing out on much even if you waited to rent it from Red Box in a few months. Overall, it's funny, but I didn't laugh as much as I hoped.
3 out of 5 (I would give it a 3.5, but I'm not gonna start using decimals and it wasn't good enough to merit a 4, so consider it a 3 1/2 out of 5 if the number of stars it gets is a big deal-breaker for you)
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