I watch movies every week and then write down my thoughts. Read my previous reviews!
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it.
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| Self/less - Above average action sci-fi movie. |
Self/less (2015)
Watch Selfless
Written by: David Pastor, Àlex Pastor (screenplay)
Directed by: Tarsem Singh
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Natalie Martinez, Matthew Goode, Ben Kingsley
Rated: PG-13
Plot:
A wealthy man with a terminal illness contacts a company that can insert his consciousness into a new body.
Verdict:
Despite the contrivances and predictable story beats, it's an interesting and entertaining sci-fi story.
Watch it.
Review:
What legacy does a man leave? Damian Hale (Ben Kingsley) has terminal cancer, but he's not ready to leave this life. A company promises him a new body and life.
I wondered how starting a new life from scratch would work. Where do you get identification and all the pedigree information? How would Hale cope in leaving his empire behind? The movie hand waves the details. Hale is rich and can buy anything.
Barely pausing for us to catch our breath, we get the bare minimum on setup and jump straight into the old switcheroo. Hale's new identity is Edward (Ryan Reynolds). I appreciate the movie didn't make the process seem easy. Hale has to train his muscles, learn to walk, and memorize his backstory. He also takes medication to ease the mental transition.
Once trained, he has a fancy car and apartment. There's a montage of him buying peanut butter in bulk (he used to be allergic to peanuts). I like that the movie doesn't feel the need to explain again he had a peanut allergy. Hale welcomes the younger lifestyle, going to clubs, playing basketball, and making friends. The pills he takes raise a question. What do they really do? Why must he take them so often?
The movie soon answers this. Hale misses a dosage and has a vision of a military veteran and someone else's life. Where did the body come from? Finally we get to the conflict!
The doctor knows more than he reveals and Hale plays detective. He finds a water tower painted like a pumpkin that he saw in a vision. The house Hale needs to find is conveniently located right next to the water tower. He sees a picture of himself in the house and realizes his new body has been stolen. His bodies name is Mark. Mark's wife comes home, sees him, and is stunned. Hale has no time to explain as he's been followed. The lab has a ruthless security team.
Security try to reason with Hale, explaining that Mark donated his body to get the funds to save his daughters life, but Hale is aghast. In another convenient plot point, Hale retains the muscle memory of Mark who was a soldier. He's able to defeat the people tracking him and when he find himself in a house fire, there is a convenient duct in the floor that lets him and his pseudo-wife escape. The action isn't bad. It's clear what's happening, which is a detail many contemporary action movies fail to grasp.
The new question, other than the urgent mission to topple the evil doctor and his lab, is whether Hale will stop taking the pills that repress the memory of Mark and lose his own consciousness or keep the body and atone for being a deadbeat dad himself.
Hale discovers that his doctor was a famous neurologist who underwent the switcheroo procedure himself. In case we didn't get the clue, Hale rewinds the video and watches it again. Thanks for thinking I wasn't paying attention movie!
In a clever bit of editing Hale (in Mark's body) explains to Mark's wife what happened. We don't hear the explanation as the camera shifts from a wide shot in the car to Mark's daughter. There's no way to give a good explanation. This is a good way to avoid it altogether.
The beats of the movie become predictable, though still entertaining. Hale turns to an old friend for help, but discovers that his friend used the switcheroo procedure on his son and is indebted to the lab. Hale is on the run again from lab security. We get a few car crashes, but surprisingly no airbags ever deploy. Hale is captured. The doctor is going to give his body to one of his injured security guys who can make use of the military training. Earlier in the movie, the doctor told Hale metal messes with the switch. In a contrived moment, Hale is able to secure a bullet while no one notice and put it in his mouth. It stops the switch from happening, unbeknownst to anyone. I assumed it was like metal in a CT scan since the equipment looks the same. It's not, that would complicate the contrived bullet detail.
Hale's doctor believes the end justifies the means, but Hale ends the doctor and the lab with fire. This movie likes fire. We get two scenes of Hale running away from a fire.
I wasn't sure which road to redemption Hale would take. Would he go with the obvious path and give Mark back to his family and sacrifice himself or try to raise the daughter to atone for being a negligent father. As you might have guessed, he chooses to die.
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| The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - An entertaining fantasy adventure. |
Watch The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Written by: Terry Gilliam, Charles McKeown
Directed by: Terry Gilliam
Starring: Christopher Plummer, Lily Cole, Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell
Rated: PG-13
Plot:
A traveling show discovers a man hanging from a bridge by his neck. Doctor Parnassus thinks the man may be the key to win his wager with the devil.
Verdict:
It's an entertaining and fun watch, with stunning CGI set pieces. I was skeptical about four actors playing one role, but it works completely.
Watch it.
Review:
This was Heath Ledger's final film, as he passed away during filming. Depp, Law, and Farrell also played Ledger's role. If I didn't know what happened during production, I would have assumed the movie was written that way. It makes perfect sense why the same role appears as a different character.
From the start, you know this world is fantastical. A drunk disrupts an outdoor show and then enters a mirror that transports him to and otherworldly dimension. This dimension is Doctor Parnassus's imagination. The drunk has an important decision, choose a bar or choose to ascend twelve steps to something even better. Of course, the drunk succumbs to his base desires and the bar explodes after he enters.
The performers of this show and their horse drawn stage don't fit into the modern world, yet here they are with the powerful Doctor Parnassus. As the performers state, the world is full of wonder for those willing to see. Their words fall on deaf ears, children pass by watching phones, and adults are too busy arguing to see the wonder.
The wonder has a cost. The devil has come to collect. At this point we're not sure what, though I wondered if it was Doctor Parnassus's soul. The devil proposes a wager. The first to gain five souls wins an unknown bet.
The stage show discovers Tony Shepherd (Heath Ledger) hanging from his neck by a bridge. They rescue him and discover he's alive. Parnassus believes they've encoutnered Tony for a reason, and he allows Tony to update the show. Tony is a skilled speaker and easily attracts a crowd that's willing to pay. The more people that enter the imaginarium, the more chances Parnassus has to win a soul away from the devil. When Tony enters the imaginarium of Parnassus with a customer, he looks different because that's how the customer wants him to look. It's a clever way to solve the issue of not having Ledger for every scene.
Doctor Parnassus's wager is over his daughter. He agreed to give the devil his daughter Valentina for the ability to appear young and woo the Valentina's mother.
Everyone in Parnassus's imaginarium makes a choice for good or bad. The bad choice is something they want, though it's morally corrupt, their soul going to the devil.
Tony agrees to give his soul to Parnassus, but not without a cost. Tony wants to know the secrets of the imaginarium. The devil modifies the bet and will free Parnassus's daughter for Tony's soul.
Parnassus gives the devil Tony's soul, but is trapped himself in the imaginarium. It's not until he makes a choice of his own, that he can escape. He had wanted others to make a selfless choice in the imaginarium, but he hadn't made a selfless choice in his deal with the devil. Parnassus had to give up the prize to make it stop. He had to let go of his daughter, the reminder of the deal he made with the devil to falsely woo Valentina's mother.
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| One Day -An endearing, well-written love story. |
Watch One Day
Written by: David Nicholls (screenplay), David Nicholls (book)
Directed by: Lone Scherfig
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess, Patricia Clarkson
Rated: PG-13
Plot:
A series of snapshots on the same day each year chronicling the friendship of Dexter (Jim Sturgess) and Emma (Anne Hathaway).
Verdict:
One Day could have been tighter paced, but it's meandering is also part of the charm. Life has it's ups and downs, but this movie has a distinct destination. It has a great, if not bittersweet ending. Spanning twenty-three years, love, life, and tragedy occur as we check in on two characters on July 15.
Watch it.
Review:
It's a unique situation when the guy and girl don't get together. Emma and Dexter meet after graduation and for whatever reason don't follow through on a one night stand. I wasn't sure about Hathaway employing a British accent, but she's not bad. The movie plays up the subtlety of the relationship, leaving us wondering will they or won't they.
We follow their trajectories through the years. Emma is working in a restaurant, going to school to become a teacher. Dexter snags a job as a late night television host. She gets an annoying boyfriend, though we know she can do better. Dexter has a string of girlfriends, but he doesn't seem interested. This movie captures the little things in life, how people change, come together, and drift apart.
The actors have great chemistry and snappy dialog. Emma sarcastically tells Dexter, " If i can't talk to you, what is the point of you?" We know the dialog is flirty, and we feel like they want to be together. We root for them and the movie knows this, teasing us throughout. The scenes where the two interact are good, but there are many scenes where they aren't together which drags.
Emma publishes a children's' book. As she becomes successful, Dexter is fired from his television gig and later gets a divorce. It's revealed to the viewer his wife was having an affair, leaving us to wonder if he ever found out.
Finally the movie makes good on it's promise. Emma and Dexter get together, but it's only for a brief moment. In a big surprise I didn't see coming, elevating this movie above a typical romance flick, Emma is killed. Dexter's coping method is a perpetual drunken stupor. He's not just hurting himself, but his daughter from his previous marriage.
One of the final scenes inter-cuts Dexter taking his daughter for a walk against the first day Dexter and Emma met and walked to the same place. It's revealed that Dexter and Emma had decided to get together, though it seemed like they hadn't. Their plans are interrupted by Dexter's parents, but they stay friends. It's a stellar bit of editing that crafts a solid ending.
Throughout the movie as the year appears on screen, it's edited into the scenery and background really well, taking that extra bit of time. This is a well-crafted movie with a very good script.
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| Dark Was the Night - Welcome was the end. |
Watch Dark Was the Night
Written by: Tyler Hisel
Directed by: Jack Heller
Starring: Kevin Durand, Lukas Haas, Steve Agee
Rated: --
Plot:
A logging company inadvertently unleashes something evil upon a small town.
Verdict:
It wasn't released to theaters, and it's easy to see why. The movie's color palette is too blue. Shadows and skin tones all have a blue hue. Even if you don't typically notice the color of the movie, you will notice it in this movie. It's that pronounced. It feels like a fan fiction X-Files episode stretched to a movie, and the fan fiction isn't that great.
Skip it.
Review:
This movie is heavily color graded to the point of being distracting. It looks wrong, like something is wrong with your screen. It's been heavily de-saturated and the blue cranked up. It's a terrible decision.
The movie attempts drama and backstory, but it just seems muddled and amateur. It makes a big point that the cop had a son die, but they easily could have just stated it and moved on. The movie isn't about a cop dealing with grief. Forget the backstory and focus on the monster.
The tension is kept high with a mysterious presence in the town. The cop finds tracks throughout the town, but no one can identify what kind of animal could do that.
The movie tries hard. but it just doesn't succeed, falling back to the horror movie trope of terrible decisions.
The cop finds a mauled animal in the road, has seen unidentified tracks and decides to chase after a potential wild animal or worse on foot. Genius.
Instead of killing him the beast removes the mauled animal from the road. Did it want to save leftovers?
This is an X-Files episode attempt that's just not that good. I like that a hunter has a little infrared activated camera mounted in the woods that produces high quality images on photo stock paper.
These beasts have a respect for cops. It's in the cops house, but doesn't kill him. Upon exiting the house it doesn't kill the cop in the driveway either. The beast has been shown as murderous. Does it have standards or something?
The cop directs everyone to the bomb shelter in the church. That sounds plausible, right? The cop is going to tame the beast somehow. This is another case where you should not have shown the monster. Bad CGI ruins it. The monster I created in my imagination was so much better than what I saw on screen. A practical effect of a man in a suit would have been better than the CGI. It's worth noting, the beast moves super fast unless it's terrorizing people in a church. The cop shoots the beast a few times, but apparently the beasts weakness is knives. Yeah, I don't get it either. But wait, there's a twist. There wasn't just one beast, there are dozens and they are all crawling on the church exterior. Once you realize everyone is going to die, the screen cuts to black. I guess that's one way to end it.
If you want a good low-budget indie horror film, check out 30 Days of Night instead.
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| Witness - Help! Harrison Ford is lost in Amish country. |
Watch Witness
Written by: William Kelley and Pamela Wallace Earl W. Wallace (story by), Earl W. Wallace & William Kelley (screenplay by)
Directed by: Peter Weir
Starring: Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Lukas Haas, Danny Glover
Rated: R
Plot:
A Philadelphia detective (Harrison Ford) must protect a young Amish boy (Lukas Haas) who witnessed a murder by corrupt cops.
Verdict:
It's an interesting premise to put a cop in Amish country, but this movie is no comedy. It's part Serpico, part West Side Story, though it reaches the heights of neither.
It depends.
Review:
The movie starts with clips of Amish life. These clips provide us just enough information to understand the life without inundation. It lures us into the world as we see an Amish child and his mother venture into Philadelphia. Any child would be curious in a big city, but Samuel has never seen this way of life. This world comes crashing down as Samuel witnesses a murder in the restroom.
Not many movies get into police work, but we see line ups and mugshot books. It's introducing not only Samuel, but us to the institution. The movie is very much looking through his eyes.
When John Book (Harrison Ford) realizes it was a fellow police officer (Danny Glover) that committed the murder he takes Samuel to his sister's house for protection.
In a shoot out with the corrupt cops that occurs in the parking garage, Book manages to escape and takes Samuel and his mother back to their home. The Amish country is the only place they can be safe.
Book crashes his car right after dropping them off, prompting me to wonder how close was he to crashing when they were in the car? He had been wounded in the shootout.
Book goes from cop to Amish, hiding from the cops and healing from his wounds. The movie really slows down with Book outside of his comfort zone. I'm surprised it didn't cut back to the corrupt cops hunting him down just to help the pacing.
Book gets a fun moment where he punches a local man that was harassing the Amish. Book is told it's not their way, but Book counters it is his way. It contradicts the Amish principles but I was rooting for him and it reinforces that he cares. He's invested.
The cops find Book, but of course he triumphs. He bids the Amish farewell as he returns to the English.
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