Saturday, June 25, 2016

REVIEW: The Shallows



I cannot stand a protagonist who is stupid and brings about their misfortune because of making common sense mistakes.  Take Blake Lively's character Nancy in The Shallows, for instance.  She goes to a secluded beach to go surfing by herself.  Granted there are two other people there, but she stays in the water when they leave.  That's not smart.  Then, the best decision of them all, is when she decides to paddle her surfboard over to the corpse of a whale that quite obviously has been eaten by something.  Surprise, surprise, there is a shark in the water.

This is when I would roll my eyes and hope that the worst happens to her, knowing that she brought it on herself by making the dumbest decision in the world to check out something that is always the scene of a shark feeding frenzy.  However, I was shocked when the film continued and I found myself invested in her well being.  This, my friends, is the sign of great acting.  To take someone who I normally want to see being shit out of a shark, and transform me into a fist pumping fan of the character.

The story is essentially her in the water with this shark.  It's no spoiler, that's what the trailer shows.  But to pull it off properly, it needs the attention to detail in the performance, and that is exactly what we get from Lively.  Tom Hanks pulled off seclusion in Cast Away, and we see a similar level of ability here.

What also aids this movie is the fact that it is a blend of schlocky and tension.  With the premise, for the movie to take itself too seriously it could end up being laughable and boring.  However, director Jaume Collet-Serra knows that this movie needs to be equal parts fun and suspenseful.  He uses interesting shots and edits to bring about the suspense, incorporating the score masterfully as well.  And when the shark attacks, it is something out of a glorious b-movie.

Normally I would say that two different tones in a film is not a good thing.  It was what kept me from ultimately recommending 2013's Neighbours, as that film played both in the realm of reality as well as that of slapstick, continuously crossing between the two and leaving me feeling like it didn't know what exactly it was.  In the case of The Shallows, it comes across as purposeful.  The proof is in the fact that I jumped at the startles that occurred, with a glorious smile on my face from being taken in by the director at something that was so goofy looking and crazy.

Not everything needs to be super serious.  In fact, sometimes something that is just plain fun is needed, especially in the midst of blockbuster season.  There is nothing groundbreaking with The Shallows, and yet I would still call it the best shark movie since Jaws.  Let's be honest, there have not been many good shark movies made.  Luckily there is a good one in theatres right now, and it is just waiting for you to sink your teeth into it.

Rating - 3 out of 4 stars

Friday, June 24, 2016

REVIEW: Independence Day: Resurgence



The first Independence Day was a big summer blockbuster hit.  I ended up seeing it in theatres, and even though it was not a perfect movie by any standard, it delivered fun and adventure in a goofy and visually pleasing way.  Anchoring the film was the charisma of Will Smith.  We also had a bunch of supporting actors who were relevant in Hollywood at the time in Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, and, to a lesser extent, Brent Spiner.

The sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence, has many of the same players from the first one, with one major exception.  Will Smith is nowhere to be seen.  And with that departure from the franchise, so did leave the charisma.  Those supporting actors from the previous one were now left to carry the weight of the film, a movie that needed more life and energy than they were up for bringing to the stage.

I shouldn't go that far.  Jeff Goldblum was decent in his return as David Levinson, but that is about as far as I will go in saying that the returning cast was up to the challenge of battling outer space monsters.  Brent Spiner's character was a goofy and cartoonish ploy, intending to bring many laughs that ended up falling flat and inducing groans.  In general, there were many intended moments of comedy, but there was only one time when the audience actually let out an audible giggle.  I giggled at that point as well.

The sad thing is that twelve hours after seeing it, I cannot even remember what happened that made me giggle.  This is a big problem with Independence Day: Resurgence.  It is ultimately forgettable.  Yes, the special effects are magnificent.  Yes, the danger is bigger.  However, bigger is not always better, and it is proven by the fact that there were few standout scenes and moments during the alien invasion.  Heck, I remember more scenes from last year's San Andreas than I do about Resurgence.

Part of the issue comes down to the horrendous script that is full of the most insane expository dialogue that I have seen in years.  Part of the issue could be that there were five people involved in the writing of the script, trying to shoehorn explanation in wherever they could with the minimum amount of effort needed.  The plot issues don't stop at exposition.  We get so many cliches that it feels as though we are watching a spoof of a Hollywood blockbuster.

One of those cliches is Jake Morrison, played by Liam Hemsworth.  He is a too cool for school pilot who plays by his own rules.  Never seen that before.  Hemsworth was quite obviously director Roland Emmerich's attempt at a young lead that would carry a hefty portion of the film.  The problem was that he is not at the level to elevate scenes above the script, which is what Will Smith was able to do.  He plays the role just fine, but 'just fine' bleeds him in with everything else that is nondescript about this movie.

One shining star was the performances of both Maika Monroe and Joey King.  I have long been a fan of both of those young actresses, and they show more depth than they should have here.  Really, they should have just been reading the lines and forging themselves into the mosaic of bland scenery, but instead they decided to bring something more to their characters.  They brought life and emotion, something their contemporaries were without.

This film is an orgy of special effects with paper thin plot and characters.  It may not have been the best blockbuster season this year, and this film is just another one to add to the list of 'see it if it is on television.'  There are some who may get a kick out of the nostalgia, but for people who are looking for something energetic and new, you will be left yawning and wondering what the hell you just sat through.

Rating - 2 out of 4 stars

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

REVIEW: Warcraft


The movie is based off of a video game of the same name, or it could be based off of the video game World of Warcraft.  I have seen debate on gaming forums as to which is most true, but it seems to be that most people feel it is based off of the hugely successful World of Warcraft.  The player base for that game peaked in 2010, making the film six years late to the party.

The world of orcs is no falling apart and is not longer habitable.  It's a shame, really.  This means there needs to be a new land to travel to and claim as their home.  That's bad news for the humans of Azeroth, as they seem quite happy to be living in peace.  It is also bad news for all the poor bastards who are imprisoned by the orcs, as their souls are used to create the portal needed for the orcs to travel to Azeroth.  It sounds like those damned orcs only care about themselves.

A war party of orcs is sent through the portal to capture humans to fuel the 'fell' (the dark magic power used by the orc leader Gul'dan) in order to open the portal a second time to bring the rest of the orcs through into Azeroth.  It is quite reasonable to believe that this plan does not sit well with the humans, who rely on the leadership of King Llane (Dominic Cooper), the mighty warrior Sir Lothar (Travis Fimmel), and the guardian Midivh (Ben Foster), who is a very powerful magic user and protector.

What does this all lead to?  Well, it leads to a story with an exorbitant amount of alliances made and broken, as well as one of battle, blood, and anguished faces.  Thrown into the mix is Garona (Paula Patton) who is a half breed orc that is captured by the humans and finds her allegiances challenged.  There are a lot of players involved in this movie, I haven't even mentioned the main orc Durotan (Toby Tebbell) or magic user Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer).  With so many key members of the cast, there is a lot of ground to cover in showing why each is important and motivated.  This does not do well at keeping the pace of the film clipping along in the realm of completely enjoyable.

The story itself feels like nothing new, but director Duncan Jones and fellow script writer Charles Leavitt do something that a lot of films are too afraid of when it comes to movie making - they are not ashamed of killing major characters.  This addition into the story, and the fact that it clearly becomes and introductory piece to what is a hopeful franchise (the title has just now been changed to Warcraft: The Beginning), allowed me to still predict how it would end but with no idea as to who would survive.  Predictability along with doubt is the best thing that this movie offers.  That being said, there were certain characters that the audience knew would not be killed.

Being a huge fan of Duncan Jones (Moon and Source Code), there was a certain level of expectation that followed me into this cinematic tale.  This is his first foray into a special effects fuelled spectacle, and there were times that sadly it felt like a really well done video game cinematic.  The visuals weren't awful, they just were not up to the standards that we have already seen set for 2016 from Jungle Book.

The action sequences were fun enough, with a no-holds-barred approach to showing people getting annihilated, something that most movies shy away from.  The unfortunate part is that these moments were scattered amongst some useless scenes that were over doing it with the bloated cast of characters.

In the end, it was just too much of 'already seen,' and it did not feel like a completely fresh product.  There have been many other fantasy films in the past, and the few things that this movie had going for it were not enough to elevate it above its contemporaries.  It is a fine movie, but that is about it.  Warcraft excels as a video game cut scene, but falls short of the quality and emotions needed for a tentpole flick.

Rating - 2.5 stars out of 4

Monday, June 13, 2016

Thank The Paranormal Activity



As a horror fan, I need to take a few minutes here and really thank the Paranormal Activity franchise.  I have never recommended a single one of the films.  The first one was a breakout hit, but it left me agitated with my theatre experience.  I hated the husband of the main character, and I begged for his demise.  There was an understanding by director and writer Oren Peli as to how to create tension for what has become the modern day 'jump scare,' but there was a fragmentation when it came to character development and story telling.

Taking a look at the state of horror at the time Paranormal Activity achieved mass distribution, there was a lot of attention being paid in the horror industry to bring life back into the big named slashers that dominated the 1970s and 80s.  We had seen lifeless and impotent reincarnations of Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street was a year away from thudding into theatres.  There was no lustre to the horror scene.  It was just attempts by studios to hold onto the past, believing that the slasher sub-genre was the way forward for fans.



How wrong they were.

Priced with a budget of only fifteen thousand dollars, Paranormal Activity hit the screens in 2009 and became a phenomenon.  It took in over one hundred million domestically, and another eighty five million from foreign markets.  Regardless of what I think of the quality of the film, it showed that there was something that movie goers were craving, and it did not have to do with nostalgia and stories from yesteryear.

The initial impact was felt right away, with a glut of cheap, found footage films.  This, however, is not the true legacy left by Paranormal Activity.  Sure, it is the most visible impact, and I may have a lot of people disagreeing with me on this, but the mark it left of movie history was something vastly different.  It showed conclusively that budget meant absolutely nothing, and that atmosphere and attention to pacing and tension could bring in the box office numbers.



This was not the first film to hit the low budget, big numbers benchmark for horrors.  In 1999, The Blair Witch Project introduced found footage to the masses and was a low budget success.  It had an immediate impact on films, but its impact was felt in the independent market, with its doppelgängers never seeing the cinema.  And then in 2004, James Wan's Saw raked in just over one hundred million world wide.  It fell in nicely with the established slasher attempts of the day, so it is less of an anomaly.

With Paranormal Activity, it's successful notes were noticed by its producer, Jason Blum.  Blum realized that it was not the fact that it was the gimmick of found footage that made it successful, something that many people equated with it, but rather the fact that a managed budget could mean success for a film whether it found its way to nationwide distribution or simply video on demand and streaming services.

This is what makes Blum a visionary.  Throw stones at me if you will for calling him a visionary, but this is exactly the word that one should use when describing him.  The success of the Paranormal Activity franchise brought him into the game, being able to wield money and not throwing it out in big chunks looking for the next big thing.  Instead, he stuck to the same financial formula that made Paranormal a success.

At first, the films that were coming from him were similar in feel as they focused around hauntings and possession, the rising fad that horror was undergoing.  But, it was his unwillingness to deviate from the movie making formula that led him to being able to branch out and begin producing different types of low budget films.  While the competition was still looking back at Paranormal Activity, Blum was looking forward and allowing directors with new and interesting stories an opportunity to get their ideas out there.



The biggest step forward for Blum and his production company, Blumhouse Productions, was with 2013's The Purge.  It showed that his formula could be completely separate from hauntings and the supernatural and still maintain success.  This is the forward thinking that I had referenced.  He knew that it was not just about recreating the same films in different formats, but by taking fresh ideas and bringing them out by keeping the budgets in check.  Made for a budget of three million, The Purge brought in eighty nine million worldwide.  Its successor, The Purge: Anarchy, had a slightly higher budget of nine million, but took in one hundred and eleven million across the planet.

While horror was the main financial driver for his production company, it allowed for a massive variety of films to be made.  From a suspense in The Creep when he teamed up with Mark Duplass, to  giving actor Joel Egerton a chance to direct The Gift, to producing the Oscar nominated Whiplash, there was a great deal of diversity coming out of Blumhouse Productions.  He even provided a fresh ground to down and out director M. Night Shyamalan with a great come back movie in The Visit.



Without Jason Blum understanding the correct lessons learned from Paranormal Activity, horror would be in a much different place today.  He could have easily stuck with keeping to the same story format, believing that the success lay there, but he thought bigger.  He believed in high concept stories with low budgets, giving the creators freedom to create.  Just like the found footage success took a few years to be really felt in mainstream cinema, Blum's true formula took a while for others to understand and emulate.

Without Jason Blum, would The Shallows be getting nationwide distribution?  Would James Wan's The Conjuring and its sequel have gotten the distribution support that it received?  Would It Follows have been the modest hit that it was?  I could go on and on, but that would just become boring reading.  The important thing to focus is the fact that Blum's ability to take chances on films because of keeping the budgets low while allowing creative freedom has brought many wonderful horrors, suspenses, and thrillers to audiences, either directly or indirectly thanks to Jason Blum.


Friday, June 10, 2016

REVIEW: The Conjuring 2



I will start this by saying that I enjoyed the first Conjuring.  It should be taken with a grain of salt, though.  It was a decent horror film that ended up switching tones and going for the ultimate in chaotic once the third act came around.  Director James Wan said it was his last horror film, but ultimately he could not stay away and returned for this summer's sequel.  If what we have been given in 2016 in the way of sequels is a trend, it would be believed that The Conjuring 2 would be without soul and just a reason to put out a film with a recognizable name.

Luckily, however, there is plenty of heart and soul to be found in this paranormal caper.  It follows the ghost investigating husband and wife team of Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) as they come off the case of the Amityville haunting.  This is based off of actual people, and there was an actual Amityville case, but, truth be told, it was one giant hoax.  That doesn't stop it, and the fictional house that symbolized it in the 1977 film, from being used in cinematic tales of ghosts to this day.  After investigating the case at Amityville they decide to hang up the gloves, only to be drawn in one last time, heading to London to deal with a family that has been tormented by an evil spirit.

Wilson and Farmiga reprise their roles in terrific fashion, with a true chemistry between the two.  In a way, this is a story about their love for each other as much as it is about the case of the haunted house.  We get enough back story into their relationship to understand both their caring and concerns for each other.  Solid relationships that the audience can believe in are paramount to every film, and The Conjuring 2 manages to pull this one off.

Knowing the current state of haunted house horror films, it is easy to go into this movie and believe that everything will be solely about the jump scares.  The first Conjuring laid heavy on them, but Wan showed a crafty ability to keep them from being too predictable.  This time around they are a little easier to anticipate, but there is a greater detail paid to the atmosphere and the story.

The first half of the film builds on the tension of these jump scares that the Hodgson family is dealing with.  Poor folks can't get a decent night's sleep without jumping at a scare.  There were audience members who were jumping as well, but, as mentioned, they were easily spotted.  Once the movie entered the halfway mark, it was less about this and more about the narrative, turning it from a startling horror into more of a thriller.  In a number of ways, this format was similar to Insidious Chapter 3, which turned out to be a very fun ride.

Paying more attention to the characters and the story elevates The Conjuring 2 above what my expectations were.  We are treated to a well cast company of actors, anchored by the young Madison Wolfe who plays a child who is most afflicted by the paranormal baddy.  There are four people with screenplay credits, which can usually mean a film feels disjointed along the way.  Not so here, as it is competent for being a summer horror film.

Keeping it from being great is the aforementioned predictability of the scares.  But for those who have not seen nearly as many horror films as I, it should still prove to be frightful.  The characters are great, the relationships are believable, and Wan shows his slickness with the camera attention to set details.  There are so many failed sequels this year, but The Conjuring 2 does not rank among them.

Rating - 3 out of 4 stars

Thursday, June 2, 2016

REVIEW: The Do-Over



As I sit here htikning about writing a review for Adam Sandler's latest film, The Do-Over, I figured that I would put the sae attention into the quality of the review as they put into the making of the film.  That means what I write is what I write..  No going back and editing things, leaving the mess where it lies and expecting that it will be good enough for general consumption.  That seems to be the approach that director Steven Brilll put into it, so it is the same effort that the review will get.  I would apologize about the spelling and grammar mistakes, but since there is no apology forthcoming from the makers of the film, I will follow suit.

The movie is about two best friends of former years who meet at a hgighschool reunion.  We have the geeky bank manager, Charlie (David Spade), and Max (Adam Sandler) who we will quickly come to understand is just  a bit of a dick.  Well, that is an understatement.  He is a giant knob.  Much like other Sandler movies, he pays someone who just isn't that relatable.  This is the case with Max, as he is a self-centred bucket of mean spirit, which is a good summary for the film proper.

With adam Sandler movies, you can generally make a list of things that you will expect to see and then check them off as they happen.  Will there be meanness towards children?  Check.  Will there be urniation jokes?  Check, there is urination sprayed everywhere.  Will there be massturbation jokes?  you betcha.  Will it make fun of people who look different?  Yeppers.

This is the problem with his films (or one of the problems with his films): they cater to the lowest of juvenile humour and do so in the same repeated ways.  Essentially it feels like if you have seen one of his recent films, you have seen them all.  There appears to be no effort really put into them, and that is something that netflix should be conscernded with.  They have an exclusive movie deal with Sandler, and so far what hwe have gotten is The Ridiculous 6 and this current pile of misguided humour in The Do-Over.

I suppose I have not talked at all about the plot, but what would be the point of that?  As the movie rolls along the plot becomes more convoluted and dumber with each sequence.  I am already writing at a dumbed down level right now, and I don't want to sink any deeper in the abyss that I have tread.

If you were looking for meaningful analysis about this movie, I am sorry but that is just not going to happen.  I have more important things to do right now, such as cut my fingernails.  Seriously, they are clicking on the keys of my laptop right now and it is driving me insane.  I should also pet my cat and then clean the litter box, in that order specifically.  Little John McClane does not need to have my sweaty, litter spattered fingers running through his bad-ass coat.

If you are a fan of Adam Sandler movies as a whole, I am sure you will like The Do-Over.  It is billed as action/comedy, although, if you ask me (and in a way you did by reading this), there is too little of either element to stick it in either genre.  If things like homophobic gags and scenes with sweaty testicles are not your thing, then you can just forget about watching this movie.

About Me

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I'm smarter than a bat. I know this because I caught the little jerk bat that got in my apartment, before immediately and inadvertently bringing him back in. So maybe I'm not smarter than a bat.