Author: Essa

No comments

Movie Review: Into the Woods (2014) – a surprisingly well done film!

  By , ,

into-the-woods-trailer

Into the Woods is one of the highest budget fantasy movies of the winter and it’s already grossed about $31 million, while holding the number 2 spot at the box office. In addition to that, it’s also pleasing critics and is certified fresh on the popular movie site Rotten Tomatoes, which is high praise indeed.

Into the Woods is a retelling and modernization of multiple fairy tales. This heartfelt musical follows Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford) Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk (Daniel Huttlestone) and Rapunzel (Mackenzie Mauzy) as they help a baker and his wife fight an evil witch played by Meryl Streep.

I’m not usually one for musicals. In fact, I’m pretty sure the only musical I’ve ever liked is The Book of Mormon and that hardly counts. Regardless, I decided to give this one a shot and I have to say I was more than pleased.

The acting was first-class. There is literally no one in this movie that didn’t pull their weight and really drag watchers into the story. Little Red Riding Hood is precocious, Cinderella is idealistic and Meryl Streep is delightfully evil and quirky. It’s Johnny Depp’s Wolf that’s the real scene stealer in this one though.

As for the music, let’s admit that the majority of this cast is not known for their musical talents. While everyone gets an A for effort, there was clearly a lot of auto tune needed to make a few of the musical numbers work. For the most part, it isn’t the singing that shines, but the delivery of the music that makes it stay with you.

into-the-woods-meryl-streep

blunt-emily-into-the-woods

The score was well done and quirky, though I doubt we’ll be seeing a lot of number 1 hits come out of this. The musical numbers were still foot tapping good though, despite the fact that there really isn’t anything you haven’t heard before in it.

The scenery, costumes and backdrops were all beautiful and stunning to look at. They really did a good job of world building and creating a fairy tale worthy land. Streep’s makeup alone must have taken hours, but was well worth the effort. For much of the movie, she was completely unrecognizable.

It was a well-written film. Despite that fact that there are multiple storylines going on, they are all interwoven seamlessly and you will never find yourself wondering what is going on. It’s a fast paced move and none of the 2 hour run time is wasted. Usually, that’s something I can’t say, as only the most epic movies can take up two hours and not drag at some point. This is clearly an epic movie and despite the fact that it is a musical, did not feel padded with music.

This is a film that is worth the watch. If you’re looking for something unique and interesting to bring the family to this winter, then it might be worth heading Into the Woods.

WE GIVE IT: 4.5 STARS!  Official Movie Trailer and Movie Poster Below.

four and a half stars

 

 

[youtube id=”L6Yz5BRMGIQ” width=”680″ height=”383″]

into-the-woods

 

No comments

Movie Review: The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies – An excellent end to the Series

  By ,

hobbit

As a massive nerd, I’ve been waiting for this movie to come out for years. I literally have been in line, dressed as a hobbit, since 2011. Ok, well that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I wanted to see if the final installment of the Hobbit trilogy was as good as the first.

In this final installment, we meet up with Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield and the Company of Dwarves shortly after they reclaimed their land from the Dragon Smaug. Of course, as it’s never a good idea to peeve off a fire breathing dragon, this has had some totally foreseen consequences. Smaug is taking his anger out on the innocent villagers of Laketown. On top of that, Thorin is going just a bit nutty and obsessed with his treasure, which drives a wedge between Bilbo and him. Toss in some Gandalf, a whole bunch of Orcs and Elves, and you get to end with a bang.

The movie was extremely well done and an excellent end to the series. They lost none of the power of the original. In fact, I think this might be the best installment yet. CGI, good makeup and fantastic settings created a mystical, beautiful world with heart pounding action and breathtaking scenery.

Martin Freeman plays Bilbo Baggins with the same humor and honor, creating a multifaceted conflicted character that we want to see win. His Everyman character is one that most people can relate to, even though they know hobbits don’t exist.

The battle scenes are impressive and well choreographed, and director Peter Jackson clearly found his forte in filming battles. The scenes are convincing without being overtly gory and the strategies involved are a bit more realistic than in the first two films.

the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies-dwarves-group

hobbit

What this movie could have used was a bit of comic relief. Compare the Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings, and you’ll always find the Hobbit lacking. That’s probably because in this installment, we don’t really get to know the characters as well. The scenes are a bit more battle heavy and there is less humor or emotional connection to the characters.

Not to say that it’s bad. In fact, it might be one of the best fantasies I’ve seen, aside from Lord of the Rings. I think that’s the problem with this franchise entirely. The Hobbit would have been groundbreaking if they hadn’t already raised the bar with The Lord of the Rings. It kind of makes me wonder what would have happened if they’d started with the Hobbit and done Lord of the Rings afterwards. Would the franchise have gotten the same momentum?

Of course, as with the Lord of the Rings, I did have some problems with the under-representation of female characters. Yes, I know Tolkien didn’t write it like that, but he also didn’t write much about the Battle of Five Armies in the books either, and they’ve turned that into the focal point of this entire movie. Would it have hurt to throw in a decent Liv Tyler elf or something like that?

Again, I have to say, this is worth the watch. Heck, I might even watch it twice. I’ve barely gotten any wear out of my hobbit costume.

WE GIVE IT: 4.5 STARS!  Official Movie Trailer and Movie Poster Below.

four and a half stars

 

 

[youtube id=”iVAgTiBrrDA” width=”680″ height=”383″]

The-Hobbit-Battle-of-the-Five-Armies-poster-7-700x1024

No comments

Movie Review: Night at the Museum: Secrets of the Tomb – A Franchise that’s lost its magic.

  By ,

natm-gallery1

I think we all know that Night at the Museum movies are hardly high art. In fact, they’re about one step up from those straight to video movies the Olson twins made in the 90s. But the magic they do have is that they’re entertaining. So does Night at the Museum: Secrets of the Tomb hold up to the original?

This time around, Larry (Ben Stiller) learns that the magic Tablet of Akhmenrah, the Egyptian artifact that brings the Museum of Natural History’s various exhibits to life, is starting to lose its powers. That means that Larry will soon have to say goodbye to friends like Teddy Roosevelt (the late Robin Williams), Egyptian Pharaoh Akhmenrah (Rami Malek), miniature cowboy Jedediah (Owen Wilson) and his Roman general friend Octavius (Steve Coogan). So off Larry goes to a British museum, so he can find a replacement magic tablet.

So yeah, the entire plot was conceived with the purpose of sending the museum guard to yet another museum, so he could continue meeting various historical figures. The previous movies did well with this formula, so I guess there seems to be no reason to stop now.

54522c91e0f26

 

museum-action

Except, this results in a strange lack of energy, as if everyone is just sick of making these movies. Of course, I guess that’s what you get when you base an entire franchise of movies on a 32 page children’s book. You know what this movie is? It’s that movie you play over and over for your kids so you can get a break from them. It’s more background noise than anything else. It’s a PG non-interactive babysitter.

And an excuse to show off an array of CGI effects. Those are still as decent as the original. But that’s about all it has going for it. The first movie was supported by a cast of heavyweight comics. In this third installment, all the priors are tired and Robin Williams carries it all with his frantic energy.

Much like the tablet itself, this franchise has lost its magic. A phone in script and exhausted characters go on a short trip. In order to pad the script, two of the characters get stuck in a heating shaft and everyone has to go look for them for 45 minutes.

One bright shining spot in this is Rebel Wilson, who plays the British equivalent of Stiller’s character. As a guard at her own museum, she steals every single scene she’s in, making Stiller fall even more flat.

He clearly phoned in his effort and I think I know why. Rumor is, that when he was trying to get The Secret Life of Walter Mitty made, he actually had to sign on to do a third installment of this series. I guess when you shove someone back into a role, and hand him a tired script, you can’t really blame him for not putting forth much of an effort.

Hopefully, the studio will get the message and stop making these movies. But I highly doubt it. The movie has already raked in $17 million and is holding steady at number 2 at the box office. Despite the fact that it’s not worth the watch, it apparently was worth the making.

WE GAVE IT: 2.5 Stars

2.5 Stars

 

[youtube id=”KMKk7Dn__-Y” width=”680″ height=”383″]

night_at_the_museum_secret_of_the_tomb

No comments

Movie Review: Annie (2014) – An auto-tuned, outdated remake.

  By , , ,

annie-jamie-foxx-quvenzhane-wallis-cameron-diaz-rose-adewale

Right in time for the holidays, Columbia pictures released the heartwarming story of a single man who adopts a young orphan girl, with little to no government oversight, simply because he’s rich.

Wait, is that seriously the plot to Annie? Wow, that’s just wrong.

In this modernized rendition, Quvenzhané Wallis stars as Annie, a young, tough as nails orphan who was abandoned by her parents, with a promise they’d be back for her someday. Of course, they cared so much that they dumped her off with an incredibly cruel foster mom, Mrs. Hannigan, played by an evil Cameron Diaz. Then, she gets pulled from that life when Will Staxx (Jamie Fox) a wealthy New Yorker and mayoral candidate does the rent-a-orphan thing as a campaign ploy.

I’m going to say it. Annie is from a time when the world was a bit more innocent and people didn’t go on sex tours of Thailand. So regardless of how handsome or rich, there’s just something about a single man adopting a little girl that bothers me. I know it’s wrong and I know my mind is in the gutter, but the original movie had its roots in depression era America. Child sex trafficking was the furthest thing from anyone’s mind. Today, that’s no longer the case.

annie-cameron-diaz-quvenzhane-wallis

I have to say that I like the understated acting in this movie. In the past, Annie tended to be a bit too over the top and made of so much sugar, she could give you cavities. Quvenzhané Wallis had the ability to give enough edge to the roll to not make Annie unbearably sweet this time. Her singing was a bit more low key as well and anyone could tell they auto tuned the crap out of her performance of “Tomorrow”. But it was her acting, and her ability to play the role with grace that really did it for me.

But that’s all it did because the rest of the movie was just plain Bad, and that is with a capital B. Jamie Foxx has all the range of a stationary bicycle and Cameron Diaz seemed to think she was on a Saturday night live skit, with her completely unfunny comedic overacting. It was like Diaz was afraid to be mean to children, which is ridiculous because she rocked that role in Bad Teacher.

annie-quvenzhane-wallis

But it was Foxx who really chewed the scenery with his ‘overacting by under acting’ rendition of Daddy Warbucks. Honestly, if I had the choice of being an orphan or living with the robotic Foxx, I’d pack my bags for the orphanage. I don’t think his facial expression changed once during the film.

Finally, who told the lead character that the ideal way to gain votes would be for a single man to adopt a small girl? Was it the same person who wrote the script?

Let be honest. The original Annie wasn’t that convincing, the acting was over the top and the characters were caricatures. But it had some catchy tunes. The first time I heard “Tomorrow” I knew that I’d be forced to listen a rendition from every single little girl with musical aspirations until the end of time. But this movie is missing what the original Annie had; music that is a virtual earworm.

WE GAVE IT : 3 STARS!  Watch the Official Trailer and See the Official Movie Poster below

stars

 

[youtube id=”F6lNi7cZ-Ho” width=”633″ height=”356″]

url19

No comments

Movie Review: The Captive (2014) – A tired 2nd half makes this prime for a Red Box Rental

  By ,

the-captive-ryan-reynolds-michelle

There is nothing quite like a lighthearted romp about an abducted child, right in time for the holidays. Sigh. The Captive is an indie flick that is currently suffering from some seriously poor timing, on top of a been there, done that script.

In The Captive, we meet landscaper Matthew Lane (Ryan Reynolds). One snowbound Canadian day (is there any other kind?) his daughter Cass (Peyton Kennedy) disappears from his parked car. Of course, his wife Tina (Mireille Enos) blames him and the tragedy destroys his marriage. Jump to 8 years later when we meet Cass’s abductor Mika (Kevin Durand), as well as the teenage Cass (Alexia Fast) who has herself a hefty case of Stockholm Syndrome. Thrown into the mix is a police officer who won’t let the case die, Nicole Dunlop (Rosario Dawson) and her skeptical partner Jeff Cornwall (Scott Speedman), who seriously suspects Matthew in the girl’s disappearance.

This movie starts out well enough, because there is a sense of suspense and disaster. Ryan Reynolds plays the part of the grieving, bereft father well, and his emotional reunion with his daughter is a tear jerker. Dunlop is suitably no nonsense and vulnerable. Had this been a straight shot, the movie would have been a winner in my book. Heck, it would have been right up there with Gone Baby Gone. It has the directing chops behind it, with the amazing Atom Egoyan.

Egoyan ruins it with far too much jumping around in the timetable. While flashbacks can be a great addition to a frightening story, I find them unnecessary when the story isn’t much of a mystery. Cutting back and forth in the timetable took a lot of the dramatic tension out of the film, which is something this movie really had going for it.

the-captive-alexia-fast

the-captive-mireille-enos-rosario-dawson

Then, with the addition of two poorly written characters, the script never really recovers. The first is Mika, who is such an over the top evil mastermind, he even twirls his pencil mustache. It’s like Egoyan wanted to make this character weird, but took him to a level that made him cartoonish instead. The unnecessary asides about how much he loves The Magic Flute are both strange and confusing. Durand has the skills of a high end B movie actor and his inability to turn his character into anything more than one dimensional evil ruined Mika.

Next was the character of Jeff Cornwall, who just didn’t fit. Yes, I get every cop is skeptical in a missing child case, but this guy goes too far. He is so corny and over-dramatic I had to check and make sure I wasn’t watching a Lifetime movie.

This movie feels like a half and half effort. The first half is excellent, with well written characters suffering from every parent’s worse nightmare. The second is just strange, with unbelievable characters and over acting. The pacing kind of mixes everything up. As a result a good effort falls flat. While I will say this movie is worth the watch, it’s probably best viewed for free in the comfort of your home… when it makes it inevitable premier on Lifetime.

WE GAVE IT: 3.5 Stars – Watch the Official Trailer and Official Movie Poster below!

3.5 stars

 

[youtube id=”s47PNjsKHjU” width=”639″ height=”383″]

captive_xlg

No comments

Movie Review: After the Fall (2014) – Silly plotting and unconvincing psychology creates a cinematic dud.

  By ,

TL9A6144.CR2

I’ve never accused a movie poster of false advertising, until now. When I saw the name “After the Fall”, with a grizzled guy standing in front of the American flag holding a gun, I was expecting a blood spattered, incredibly tacky action flick. Instead, what I got was a study of morality and how far it will take an average Joe during the direst of circumstances.

Darn it.

We meet Bill Scanlon (Wes Bentley) as he’s poking around in a car at a scrap metal yard. Because he used to be an insurance agent, we think he’s there to work a claim. Turns out, he’s an out of work insurance agent who just can’t get insurance out of his blood. Scanlon still can’t bear to tell his wife and young sons about the loss of his job, so he leaves the house in the morning every day and returns at night like he’d been working all day. Generally, in real life, someone could only pull off this feat for about a week. In movie time it goes on for like… I don’t know a decade? Just know it’s a ridiculously long time. After realizing that people might start to notice he’s got no money coming in, he robs couple at gunpoint and so starts his career as a bank robber.

This movie was clearly meant to be psychological, in kind of a ‘what would you do?” scenario. The problem is, all of this is so unbelievable. First off, I get that they want to make this guy white collar in order to show how far down he’s sunk, but hasn’t anyone told the writers of this movie that the insurance industry is actually booming right now?

Next is how fast this guy decides on the whole ‘life of crime’ route, rather than just filing for unemployment like a normal person. One minute he’s broke, and the next he’s like “hey, you know what? I think I’ll rob people now.” If you’re going to turn a movie like this into a psychological study, then you need to actually write a character in a way that a normal person could actually relate to. Give the guy more reason to turn to crime rather than, “I lost my job in insurance.”

TL9A4599.CR2

TPD_01501.CR2

I mean, I worked in insurance before. When I left that job, I don’t walk out all forlorn. I pretty much back-flipped out of the building.

The scenery and symbolism are overdone. It’s like they couldn’t be intellectual with plot, so they decided to do it with scenery and contrast. They contrasted water with the harsh desert landscape of New Mexico so many times, I spent half the movie in the bathroom.

Silly plotting and unconvincing psychology makes this movie not buyable, despite all the lofty dialog. Though there is one thing I did like about this film.

That would be the grizzled, hard drinking detective played by Jason Isaacs. This law man has no morals and could have come right out of an Elmore Leonard screenplay. He was possibly the most well written, dimensional character, but he was only a bit part player, compared to how long the lead spent moping about.

“After the Fall” fell a bit flat for me, and I can’t even say this one was worth the watch.

WE GAVE IT: 2 Stars – Watch the Official Trailer and Official Movie Poster below!

2 Stars

 

 

[youtube id=”JMuogFWjpeI” width=”633″ height=”356″]

After the fall official movie poster

 

No comments

Movie Review: Dying of the Light (2014) – An intellectually void, sloppy effort

  By , ,

cdn.indiewire.com

I have a theory about how Nicholas Cage picks scripts. His agent hands him a pile to read and Cage hands them right back after saying “I’ll take them all”. 343 days have passed this year, and I’m pretty sure Nichols Cage has made 342 movies.

This is a movie that had a lot of drama to start with, when the notably temperamental Paul Schrader left the movie after he stated changes were made to just about everything without his consent. Apparently, he had so much trouble with the changes, he got a couple of partners from the movie, Nichols Cage and Executive producer Nicholas Winding Rern to wear T-shirts featuring their non-disparagement agreements from their contracts. I guess it was their way of speaking out against the changes when they really couldn’t speak out. Based on how little faith the main players in the movie had in it, I was expecting to see a massive flop.

n

My expectations were met.

The movie stars Evan Lake (Cage), a CIA employee who, 22 years after being captured and tortured by a Muslim fundamentalist named Muhammad Banir (Alexander Karim), receives two pieces of life changing news. First, he has a degenerative brain condition that is leading to complete dementia. Second, the man who captured and tortured him years before might still be alive. With the help of Milton (Yelchin), a CIA colleague, Lake decides to go rogue and find Banir himself. On its face, this is a ‘nothing left to lose’ action movie. The problem with it is that they tried to make it more artistic than action.

Schaeder, who wrote Taxi Driver, knows how to mix action and intellect, so I’m starting to think that there is something to be said of the changes they made without his permission. The pacing of the final product is awkward. There is no intellect. Instead, there is about an hour of vigorous patriotism and the belief that America has lost all its values. Instead of coming across as an intelligent review of the current state of our country, it comes across as more soldier sniffing and lecturing.

Dying-of-the-Light-Nicolas-Cage

dying_of_the_light

The scenes cut around and don’t seem like they’re cognitively melded together. The movie jumps around a lot, but not in a clever way. In addition, there’s very little build. I mean, Lake is hunting down a man who is so ill he can’t even get out of his chair.

I can’t blame Schrader for this mess, nor can I blame the leads. Whoever put the final work together did a sloppy job and clearly lost whatever meaning Schrader was going for. Without seeing it uncut, I can’t say for sure, but I imagine the Schrader would have done things a lot differently.

This movie is an action movie without the tension. When you’re dealing with ‘nothing to lose’ characters, you tread the line of making people not care about them. In this case, I felt like I never got to know them. This was an intellectual movie that only scratched the surface of the conflicts America faces right now. It was a bit like asking a 15-year-old their views on politics.

Dying of the Light was a disappointing effort. Even more unsettling, the leads were disappointed with it before it ever came out. My suggestions are that moviegoers avoid this one… and that Nicholas Cage actually starts reading the scripts before he accepts the part.

WE GAVE IT: 2 Stars – Watch the Official Trailer and Official Movie Poster below!

2 Stars

 

 

[youtube id=”Q48g1ijnSlI” width=”680″ height=”383″]

 

11181378_800

11 Comments

Movie Review: Top Five (2014) – An all star cast delivers the very definition of comedic drama

  By , ,

Top five, Chris Rock Walking with Rosario Dawson

Chris Rock has a gift for comic realism. In his third turn in the director’s chair, he releases the wonderful comedy/drama Top Five.

In this movie, we see a realistic portrayal of an ageing comic looking to move into more serious lines of work. Andre Allen (Chris Rock) is a comic who made his money from playing campy character Hammy the Bear. Tired of his comedy roots, he chooses to make a dramatization of the 1791 Haitian Revolution. Of course, the New York Times pans the movie. Then, on the opening day, Andre gets the opportunity to spend time with Times writer Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson) thanks to pressure from his agent (Kevin Hart.)

This is an extremely well-cast, star studded movie. For once, when the casting agent blew their budget on big name stars, they knew what they were doing. No part is underplayed, from Gabriel Union’s reality show diva role, to Kevin Hart’s flustered manager, all the stars in this one, whether appearing as themselves on someone else, got a fair amount of funny screen time. It’s a veritable who’s who of iconic comedians.

While funny, the movie is also surprisingly realistic. In fact, many of the stars in this film have gone through the same issue that Andre is dealing with. They were previously joke or gag comics who want to be taken seriously by the world. For everyone who manages to make it, there are ten more who’s first efforts flop, much like Andre’s movie “Uprize!”

Of course, this movie isn’t 1000 percent perfect. In several instances, it becomes a bit disjointed and confusing. It’s a loud movie with a lot going on. But even in all that confusion, you want to see Andre succeed. And you want to know why Chelsea would bother to spend all day with a man who her newspaper had already thoroughly panned.

top

top-five-chris-rock-tracy-morgan

The direction was impressive, with the main focus being New York City, and the wide panning style makes the city breathtaking, while at the same time unflinchingly showing the more humble parts as well. In a way, it reminds me of an old Woody Allen movie. It doesn’t seem deep at first, with two characters running around New York doing silly things. But the longer you watch, the more you realize this is a deep movie. It gives you a lot to think about.

Despite the fact that this is a drama, there are still a lot of breaks from it due to the right kind of comedic timing. Chris Rock never stops being funny, but that hilarity becomes more of a self defense mechanism than it is part of him. Andre is probably one of the best comic characters I’ve seen in a long time.

One thing I like is that they made it clear that Andre’s movie was joke worthy, just by showing the poster; Chris Rock looking violent and brandishing a machete. Despite the serious nature of the film, it’s easy to see why people would laugh at it.

All in all, Top 5 is worth the watch. It is the very definition of comedic drama and is worth seeing just for the excellent ensemble cast. If it had the right distributor, this easily would have been a box office hit.

WE GIVE IT: 4.5 STARS!  Official Movie Trailer and Movie Poster Below.

four and a half stars

 

[youtube id=”T-j4ZoBLpuY” width=”680″ height=”383″]

Top five Official Movie Poster

No comments

Movie Review: The Babadook (2014) – A strange, suspenseful, unsettling little gem

  By ,

Babadook

It’s a real shame that indie movies very rarely make the box office. Usually, that’s due to a non-existent marketing budget, where they are forced to compete with big budget movies that have millions to spend. Sometimes, though, an indie gets lucky enough to become a sleeper hit. If there’s any movie that deserves that status, it’s this one.

Amelia (Essie Davis) is having a hard time. She’s the single mother to an out of control 6 year old named Samuel (Noah Wiseman). But Samuel’s problems aren’t just getting in trouble at school or failing his math test. Nope, Samuel is convinced that an evil creature is coming to kill him and his mother. Tortured by monsters that only he can see, Samuel becomes violent and dangerous. That’s when Amelia is forced to medicate him. It’s only after she does that she starts to see the sinister forces that her son was trying to tell her about. Turns out, she should have listened to her son’s warnings.

This was an extremely well written movie that has many mirrors of society. It deals with the very real conflict of caring for a child who might be mentally ill. It shows the mother’s hopelessness in the face of a problem she can’t control. Then, it throws a twist in there and makes the conflict not just heartbreaking, but potentially fatal.

This was a genuinely frightening movie. It wasn’t frightening in the sense of jump scares or scary monsters. It was frightening in the way that a truly well written horror can be frightening. This doesn’t really count as a spoiler. Instead, it’s a warning. You will actually find yourself frightened of a children’s story. The Babadook is actually a character in a children’s book that Amelia finds on her son’s shelf, though has no memory of buying it. The rhyming text inside could only have been written by someone who hates children.

The-Babadook1

 

Babadook

I also like the way motherhood was treated in this film. Too often, single mothers are portrayed as selfless, hard working Madonna’s whose only care is taking care of their angelic, perfectly well behaved child. This movie actually treats single mothers like humans for a change.

They show the bad sides of parenting, especially when parenting a child who isn’t well behaved, who is entirely too demanding and who is extremely frustrating. This is not the horror where the mother keeps getting warnings from her perfect kid, who never lies, and refuses to listen. No, when Amelia refuses to listen to Samuel’s complaints, you can understand why. This kid is a total attention hog!

The leads were well chosen and believable. The conflicts were intelligent and the underlying fear makes the whole movie tense and genuinely chilling. This was a horror movie written by someone who truly understands the genre of horror realism.

The movie has had limited release in theaters, but it’s available on demand right now. Either way you see it, it’s going to be worth the watch. I have to say, of all the high budget, overdone, relentlessly marketed horror movies I’ve seen this year, not one single one could outshine this strange, suspenseful and genuinely unsettling little gem.

WE GAVE IT: 5 Stars

5 Stars
[youtube id=”k5WQZzDRVtw” width=”680″ height=”383″]

babadook_612x901

No comments

Movie Review: Horrible Bosses 2 (2014) – It wasn’t Broke, They tried to Fix it and Failed

  By ,

horrible-bosses-2

 

I liked the original movie “Horrible Bosses”: but they didn’t seem to leave much room to make a sequel. Needless to say, I was curious as to how it was going to work out. While it hasn’t done as well as the original, Horrible Bosses 2 is doing well at the box office, though it’s not performing as well with critics.

In this story, our previous leads have invented something called the Shower Buddy. They form their own company, so they can be their own bosses and never have to deal with bad bosses again. They strike a deal with some unscrupulous distributors. When the deal goes sour, the three create an improbable kidnapping scheme (via 9 to 5) in order to take back their invention.

I’d say my biggest complaint was how far away they strayed from the original. Though exaggerated, the bosses in the original were actually bosses you could have. The bad guys in this one are complete caricatures of snake oil salesmen, and it’s pretty amazing that the three fall for their schemes.

Of course, that was accomplished by the three somehow dropping like 30 IQ points a piece since the last movie. The guys in the first movie were unlucky, but they weren’t stupid. The ones in this movie are complete idiots. The reason I liked the first movie so much was because I could say “hey, those guys remind me of me.” In this movie, they don’t remind me of anyone I’ve ever met.

In fact, they were so dumb it was nearly impossible to sympathize with them.

The office genre comedy is successful because there are so many office drones out there who feel the same way. Whether it’s tedious work, irritating coworkers or bosses that are more robot than human, we all feel like we’ve been there. Horrible Bosses 2 loses the magic of that, by turning these guys into business owners with a ridiculous invention, and then having them fail because they made a bad business decision.

horrible_bosses_2

horrible-bosses-21

It’s much harder to sympathize with a character in one of these movies when they’re the ones making the mistakes. I mean, I’m a business owner. I would never work with a distributor without vetting them first…. or even talking to a lawyer. In this movie, the cause of the conflict was so completely unrealistic, and the characters changed so much, I could no longer empathize with them. I didn’t even care about them.

I had another problem with the movie and that was Jennifer Aniston’s character. While playing the foul mouthed sexual harassment vixen in the first movie, she was hilarious and hate-able. In this one, she does something that I think went way too far, when she pretty much sexually assaults a man who has been drugged. If the genders had been reversed, this would have been outrageously controversial and not a bit funny. I don’t care how pretty the aggressor is. If you’re going to make a joke about something like that, you better damn well be able to make it hilarious.

They didn’t

I have to say that I was disappointed by the sequel. In fact, I wish I had never seen it so I would still have the memory of the first good movie in my head. Now, that memory has been forever tarnished.

WE GAVE IT: 2.5 Stars

2.5 Stars
[youtube id=”pa8U_15D0OE” width=”680″ height=”383″]

horrible-bosses-2-poster