Thursday, May 31, 2018

Batman Ninja

Why not call it Ninja Batman? I don't know.

Boy was this a trip. Where to begin with this movie? Well I was hoping to see it in theaters, it came out just 3 days shy of my birthday but thankfully it hit video not all that long after. I didn't hear much about the movie beyond a trailer and it looked interesting. It has a cool and fascinating premise, it's almost Elseworlds material! What if Batman, the Bat Family, and a collection of his rogues gallery instead of 21st century Gotham, were in 14th century Japan? The result is...bat shit insane (no pun intended). I mean Jesus fish, what did I just watch? Only in Japan folks. Okay, gotta back up. So Bruce and company are trying to take down Gorilla Grodd who has collected Joker, Harley, Two-Face, Penguin, Ivy, and Deathstroke when suddenly all the characters get time warped (or should I say TARDIS-d?) away to feudal Japan where the rogues have become warlords, while Batman has arrived two years later thus forcing him to gather his forces and take out the tyrants. Told you it was insane. Now things must be said, I love the designs. They fit the era and look incredible. The voice cast, both in Japanese and English are really damn good. My hat especially goes off to Wataru Takagi in the Japanese version, he is having the time of his life playing Joker and it is awesome! The english cast is standard but great, we got Roger Craig Smith back to do Batman after Arkham Origins, Grey Griffin as Selina, Tara Strong as Harley, and Fred Tatasciore as both Grodd and Deathstroke. All excellent as always and a joy to see again. I highly suggest you see both the Japanese and American version, because both are good but neither are better. I get the immense feeling though you are not meant to bring logic with you into this movie. There are multiple points where you ask basic questions and no good answers are given. How do they have 21st century tech to create war mech/Gundam/Voltron castles? No I'm not making that up. This movie is hopped up on something and my God is it glorious. Logical? No. Awesome? Actually, yeah! So don't expect say, Mask Of The Phantasm or Under The Red Hood levels of plot and character. Just say the title, that's all you need. It's meant for spectacle, and the animation is amazing yet something I have never seen. The backgrounds are 2D with a very older look to them, think Samurai Champloo yet less defined and done more in a Japanese woodblock painting. You can even see the imprint of the texture of the paper in the sky! But here is the odd part, the character models are 3D, yet are drawn in a 2D fashion. You follow me? They are 3D models walking along a 2D background, yet made to appear 2D, with stencil marks and shading you do with hand drawn animation. And the whole friggin' movie is just as weird as that. Granted it's a fun movie, that is great for a popcorn night with friends, but the meat is not in the story or characters but the atmosphere, animation style, and spectacle of the action. And you know what the bad part is? I don't think I have ever seen a samurai movie. I mean, ever. Closest thing was this, and I've seen Samurai Champloo 2 or 3 times, and of course Samurai Jack. But no Kurosawa and you know, it's hard to call yourself a film critic when you have not experienced one of the most well known and influential director's work in history. So no doubt we will do a Kurosawa week, hell it may even be longer than a week. But next week we say sayonara to Japan, and hello to Vegas.

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

In Retrospect: Black Panther

I hope you all enjoyed Infinity War. I didn't see it obviously, but the news of the passing of my two favorite Marvel movie heroes is distressing.


Despite that, I still do enjoy Black Panther immensely. If memory served I said I liked it better than Doctor Strange, and....I don't know. I'm still torn on favorites, I love Doctor Strange and I love Black Panther so I believe there is no superior film. And now that time has passed and multiple viewings have been taken into account, I am still glad I went to see this movie and bought this movie. But why did this movie grab me when really, no other Marvel movie did? Was it because it took on a more serious story with a low emphasis on comedy? Absolutely. Because of the characters and the unique world it created? Certainly, the characters are all great and the world is absolutely stunning to behold. But the truth is, and this is as snobbish as I am ever going to get, nobody unless you were a hardcore Marvel comic fan wanted or knew about Black Panther. So it had that mystery, that allure of something no one knew about. It was like Guardians Of The Galaxy, no one unless you read the comics knew who Rocket Raccoon or Groot was and yet they still took the time to make a movie about them. I mean really when you get right down to it, nobody really knew the extent of Marvel characters. If you asked me in say, 2005 who did Marvel had I would tell you Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, and Thor. That's it. And I'm sure it was like that for countless other people. So when I heard of this Black Panther guy, despite me not seeing Civil War, I wanted to know more about him and was intrigued when his own movie was getting made. Pretty much same for Doctor Strange, except they had Ben and Mads to make me obligated to see it. But Black Panther had nothing beyond intrigue so the movie paid off for me in aces. I love the characters, and while Chadwick Boseman is a fantastic actor and held this movie to something beyond your regular popcorn flick, Danai Gurira steals the show for me! I love her character, she's a badass but has deeper motivation and identity beyond that, my eyes were glued to her everytime she was on screen. And yet another good thing it did, it gave ample screen time to characters that are more off to the side. If this was another studio all the time and screen presence would be dominated by Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, and maybe Martin Freeman, with very brief scenes of Letitia Wright or of Lupita Nyong'o but they expanded upon them which helped the film greatly. Yeah it does suck that Andy didn't get much screen time but hey it looked like he had fun doing it! But what really sold me on this being a good if not great film were the visuals. There is such deep rich color in costumes, set design, and effects. When a movie makes you stick around at the credits to appreciate the visuals, they did something right. And just a sidenote, I am so happy I did not sit until the after credits scene cause I just watched it and my reaction was pretty much this, "Who the f*** are you? Who's White Wolf? Is that the, what's his name, the Winter Soldier? I'm so confused...." and that's it. That would have kind of pissed me off royaly in the theater. At least in Doctor Strange I could be like, "Oh hi Thor. This sounds interesting, I wonder what the next movie will be.", there's none of that here. It was so bad they had to put, Black Panther will return in Infinity War. Must have been a slow writing day over at Marvel. Oh well, we know how it ends. Have fun crying kids over characters you have probably grown up all your life watching! Say hi to Thanos for me! But yeah, Black Panther is a good movie.


It's a slow week here, I only got one more movie for the week. But for the sake of interest, tomorrow we will be looking at Batman Ninja.

Friday, May 25, 2018

Solo

Huh. Well that went well.



You know, for a movie that absolutely no one including myself either wanted or had any faith in....it's a good movie guys. Is it great? No. Is it the best Star Wars movie I have seen? Absolutely not, I rank it above The Force Awakens but just below Last Jedi. But it surprisingly hit the mark I wanted, they made it a western. Not outright, but they took concepts of western movies and tweaked it to fit in the Star Wars universe. Rogue-ish hero loses the woman he loves, meets a band of outlaws, performs a train robbery, meets the villain, gets in contact with a suave smuggler, essentially performs a gold heist for the villain, only to culminate in a final fight, peppered with action scenes and double crosses throughout the whole film. That's pretty much how it goes, and I do enjoy it. The action is good but mostly like in a western, most of it deals with planning, build up, and talking but it works. The characters are, kinda hit and miss. Alden Ehrenreich is a good young Han Solo, he's not full on Harrison Ford but you can see it. Within the film, the mythos work for Han Solo, I believe this is how his story went. Donald Glover said all of 2 lines then I was sold that he was Lando, he was great. Emilia Clarke (who I just remembered is the dragon chick from Game Of Thrones) is...decent, but her character was just sorta there. Woody Harrelson didn't take the mentor role like we thought, he just sees potential in Han and hires him, so he did well. But I won't lie, the movie has issues but not movie breaking issues, just stuff that really annoyed me. The bad part is, there's no real villain. That cool viking looking dude completely shit the bed, I'm so tempted to reveal this twistb you guys are gonna love it! So this really cool guy, who can handle himself in a fight and leads a group of pirates is, get this.....a 14 year old girl. Are you dead sucking ferious? This short ass, freckled, curly haired girl who hasn't even hit her first period is leading a group of maurauders?? Kiss the darkest part of my pale white ass! But wait, there's more! L3-37. Okay. *RANT INCOMING* To fully grasp my issue with this character, I need to divulge something. I am part of a Star Wars group on Facebook, and quite a few, not all, but a few are these jackasses that throw terms like feminist, feminazi, SJW, and cuck around like it's candy. They cannot get off their high horse and just agree that women can do buisness and that Disney is shoving girls down our throat at every turn. Now they are semi-correct. Episode 7, we got Rey and people still bitch about Rey. Rogue One, we got Jyn and not many people complained. Star Wars Battlefront 2 we got Iden Versio, and I have severe issues with her but not because she was a woman but because she was a TRAITOR!! Episode 8, we got Rose and apparently I was the only one who liked her. Now in Solo, we got L3-37, who is without a shadow of a doubt the most annoying, brazen, and insufferable social justice warrior character. And it was funny cause when I heard her voice I was like "Oh hi Phasma, guess you needed to actually do something huh?", it's not really Phasma but it does sound like her. I don't know I just get the feeling that, 20 years down the road people are going to look back at movies from about 2015 to whenever these gender issues are resolved, and just wonder what the hell we were on about. People never get this, but the whole feminist thing is going to date certain movies badly, I'm not saying feminism is bad, but movie studios I feel don't fully get the term and thus date a movie. L3 broke my back, this was the character that made me just quit on girl characters in Star Wars. Iden was bad, but they didn't try anything with her, they just told her story and left. With Emilia Clarke, they told her story and didn't bullshit around. But L3 is equal rights this, and "liberating" minds of droids that. It gets old quick. But the good news is she dies! My point is, stop your political bullshit in movies, especially Star Wars! Star Wars is above your nonsensical f***ery! Stop it!! *RANT OVER* Anyway, what was I on about? Oh right bad things. There are some contrived scenes. Apparently Han Solo is not Han Solo, his name is just Han. Cause why would we want to just let his name be Han Solo? Oh let's make his last name just a made up name the Empire gave him when he enlisted! Idiots. He meets Chewie in a rancor like pit, apparently wookies eat people. Cause that makes sense! The talks about a rebellion, I mean really? We have Rebels for a damn reason people. But we get a special character near the end, and he makes up for most of the problems I had with the movie. No it's not Thrawn though God knows I wanted it to be.  But anyways, this is a good movie! It has slight issues but I can get over it (mostly) and you should go see it. And this is my sacrificial lamb for the Kenobi movie which has appeased the Disney gods and pre-production has started on it! Huzzah!

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

What a way to go out.


Star Trek 6 is a pretty damn good movie. For many reasons, bust mostly the story. The story involves the Klingon Ascendancy convicting Jim of attempting to assassinate the Klingon leader while on the verge of finally coming to peace with the Klingon race, thus forcing Jim, and Bones to escape a prison planet to push for more aid to the Klingons after their homeworld has been damaged. And this is a great story cause it reflects our own ending of the Cold War when this film was being made. The characters have all got great sign offs, with Jim retiring along with Bones and Spock, being replaced by a skilled doctor and a young Vulcan played by none other than Kim Cattrall. Of course! Wait, what? Kim Cattrall was a Vulcan? Fascinating. Sulu gets the new flagship the Excelsior, everybody gets to someplace different and better than where they have been kinda stuck. I daresay the best part of the movie is Christopher Plummer as Chang, who is an excellent villain that loves quoting Shakespear because as all Trekkies know, every great villain quotes classic literature! I do have to say though the prison planet segments drag hard and it gets boring but the rest of the film is great and I really love it. I recommend Star Trek 2, 3, 4, and 6 those are the best. Next Generation movies are more miss than hit but maybe I'll get to them soon. Until next time, I will see you guys out there amongst the stars.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

I can sum this movie all up in one line, "What does God need with a starship?" and if that doesn't clue you in for the levels of stupid then boy howdy, here we go.



And you know ehat the saddest part is? There are some real genuine good moments in this movie. Good character development, good comedy at times, but it is covered in so much nonsense that not only did Star Trek fans completely drop this movie entirely, never talked about or referenced again in any of the Star Trek media in decades to come but even Gene Roddenberry did not like the movie. Star Trek has learned it's lesson though and has stayed away from the whole "searching for God/the creator" seen in the original Star Trek movie, but when an entire fandom has universally decreed that this movie is the worst with the only other competition being Star Trek Insurrection which itself is heinously anus but with that movie, there were no good parts to it. It was garbage from beginning to end, but this movie had sparks, brief moments of good things in it. But sadly the bad outweighed the good immensely, I don't blame Shatner for this but I do question his choices. He based the movie off the ridiculous tv evangelists that was a boom for some dumbass reason in the 1980s, cause that's exactly what I want in my Star Trek movie, commentary on religious idiots. Now Star Trek has talked about a lot in it's history from racism, to slavery, ethnic relocation, amongst many other issues that reflected our own time and world at that period. And while they have talked about religious beliefs before, they shouldn't dedicate films to it. It disappoints me, it really does. The dialogue and scenes can work incredibly well, with my favorite scene being just Jim, Spock, and Bones camping. Why? Well after you have seen them fight alien races, and travelling to new worlds, to see them on shore leave and to enjoy their time camping and talking around a fire is incredibly nice to see. They have history together, they bicker but they are great friends, we learn about them and their relationships. Whenever Kirk confides in his friends that he knows he will die alone, that's not there for payoff later. It is there for character building. When Kirk explains that pain is what makes us who we are in life, and that while we do not want it, in the end we need it is a incredible step in the series history. Like....why is there good scenes in this movie?! They deserve a better movie! The comedy works in somes scenes, because it's characters we have known for decades bouncing off and working with each other, and it is great! But then there are comedy scenes that make me feel ashamed with the exception of one guilty pleasure line. Ugh!! Why Star Trek 5? You could have been great, you could have been a contender instead of a bum which is what you are! Screw it, at least Star Trek 6 is a pretty good movie so I can wash this taste out of my mouth. Just watch the Nostalgia Critic's review of this, it's pretty great. In fact, watch all his Star Trek reviews! Which I will go do now, see you tomorrow.

Friday, May 18, 2018

Up

I said I wasn't going to cry. I lied.

Up is not only the best Pixar movie ever made, it is one of the greatest films ever made. It's almost perfect. When a movie is so good that people say that it could have ended almost 12 minutes in and they would still pay full price for a ticket and give endless praise towards it, something is obviously special. And I 150,000% agree with them. Up could have been a 12 minute short, and no one would have complained. The sequence is told almost entirely through visual storytelling, and brings even a bitter old man like me to absolute tears and heartbreak. Everybody loves Up. I challenge you to find one person on this good earth to state, "I did not like the movie Up.", it is impossible to hate. But why? What caused this film to win not Best Animated Feature but Best Picture, to be loved and cherished throughout the world, and to be one of the greatest movies ever made in this critic's eyes? Well the story is inspired and original, with the story of a boy who meets a girl and live their life together until his wife passes away leaving him a grumpy old man who is driven to make it to South America and live at Paradise Falls where his wife always wanted to go. He attaches thousands of balloons to his house and starts a grand adventure, while sweeping away a young boy who helps him along the way as they meet strange creatures and other things trying to reach Paradise Falls. That is a great story. But the acting is great with Ed Asner in easily his best performance, comedy that is genuinely hilarious, emotions that can send anyone into tears or big smiles on their face, excellent animation, heartfelt and wonderful music, memorable and great characters, and an important message to follow your dreams but to not let the past control your life. This review can never do justice for this movie. It simply has to be experienced. And any film that references not only Star Wars but also Steve from Blues Clues is clearly a masterpiece of cinema (I'm not lying about Steve, watch it again). But all jokes aside, if you said to me "Dude you can only watch one Pixar movie for the rest of your life, what is it?" my answer is going to be Up until the day I die. That should clue you in on how much I love this movie.

Another week done, and a pretty amazing one at that. Well you all know what comes out one week from now. So the choice of movies for next week is obvious. See you guys in space.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Ratatouille

It never loses it's charm.



Ratatouille is a remarkable film, one that can be easily loved and deeply appreciated by anyone on this earth. It is filled with love, warmth, and passion that is so rarely seen in animation or any medium of filmmaking. For a story as odd as a rat who has a keen knowledge and passion for food and the culinary arts to be swept away to a restaurant in Paris, where he helps a young man rise to be a respected chef and best a critic who, in this humble critic's view is easily the best character in the film and is played to astonishing perfection by the late Peter O'Toole, it never fails to hold my attention or diminish my love for it through repeated viewings. Pixar has done nothing less than make an incredible film, with absolutely stunning and gorgeous visuals, very good characters each with their own unique design, a story that unapologetically shows it's love and amazement for food and the art of cooking, and most importantly a film that can entertain, inspire, and be loved by countless people regardless of age or their surroundings. Peter O'Toole brings quite possibly the most important and insightful look into a critic's mind that we critics must remember, for it holds great truth and significance for us all. Anyone can cook, and anyone can view this film as highly as I do.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Well It Finally Happened...

I knew this day would come. One of my worst nightmares come true, I've already reviewed a movie I was going to look at. February 8th, 2016 I reviewed WALL-E, and I forgot all about it. Granted the review was very short and done 2 years ago, plus I have memory issues with my reviews mainly because I've done so many movies it gets difficult remembering what I've talked about and what I haven't. I have done over 350 reviews in just 3 years. It's a miracle I know my name every morning. I feel like I should elaborate on my review cause I barely talked about it. WALL-E is an amazing movie, won the most Academy Awards since Beauty & The Beast, has an amazing story that is told to absolute perfection in the first half to where the majority of people feel the second half kinda drags the movie down when we get on the ship and meet people, and hear them talk. The film does such annexcellent job being well, a film. Telling a purely visual story with two characters who don't really talk, it is done ridiculously well and the animation is gorgeous. But I don't hate the second half, I do believe it has it's place in order to tell a more complete and interesting story. Not that a robot romance is by any means shoddy filmmaking, but it works better as a short film than an over hour and a half film. I love the spaceship and it's designs, the humans look like what would happen in several generations time of sitting 24/7 and eating fast food, all the robots are unique and great, there is so much to love in this movie. It's a grand adventure, with comedy, romance, and an interesting story. But there are 2 more Pixar movies that easily ascend beyond the stratosphere and the quality of WALL-E. So join me for really realsies tomorrow for the exquisite Ratatouille.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Big Hero 6

Yeah it only took me 4 years to finally see this movie.


And you know what sucks? I was all for seeing it, and I didn't know a thing about the movie. Didn't see a trailer, didn't see one bit of promotional material besides a poster. So what took so long? No idea. Life perhaps. But after finally seeing it in it's entirety how was it? Pretty outstanding to be honest. Sure the film is very comic book-y but since it was adapted from a manga it makes sense. Hiro Hamada lives in the quite frankly beautiful and amazing city of San Fransokyo (though I always just call it San Fran-Tokyo) in the year 2032. Hiro is a boy genius and is tempted to join his older brother's science institute but after a fire and the loss of his brother, Hiro for lack of better words falls into a depression until he meets a medical robot developed by his brother named Baymax who soon uncover a mysterious villain who caused the fire claiming his brother's life, leading Hiro and Baymax to become super heroes with the help of his friends. Told you it was comic book-y, they even refer to it as an origin story! Where to begin with the positives? Well the city is gorgeous, taking the best examples of art and architecture from San Francisco and Tokyo and melding it perfectly, though I see more Japanese influence but hey brownie points for that guys. The characters are all really dang good, Hiro and his friends are all fleshed out and given personalities though honestly evennthough they are self proclaimed nerds, they are highschool stereotypes. Jock, cheerleader, punk, geek, and your normal kid but that doesn't take anything from their character, all the voice actors give a lot to their parts and make it their own. My personal favorites being Baymax, Honey Lemon, and Aunt Cass, dear sweet Christmas they bring me such joy! And while the story is kinda been done, the variety of location and characters make it feel fresh and original. The movie is fun and wonderful from beginning to end, and if you ever wanted to know what I look like look no further than Baymax. It is almost too close, just subtract the karate and medical knowledge and bam, you got me! It's a great movie, but we got 3 more movies better than this, so join me tomorrow where we look at the acclaimed WALL-E.

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure

And so comes the end of another week of movies, with arguably the best one of them all. Needless to say this is the most colorful and funny of all Tim Burton's movies...


I love this movie. I've seen it countless times and my enjoyment has never diminished over the years. And it does kinda break my heart that while the movie was succesful, it's still not a household name like the others we talked about. That's an incredible shame cause this is not only one of Tim Burton's finest movies, it would be top 5 in his filmography for me easily but it's a great movie that is hilarious, has memorable characters, a fun story, and one hell of a climax. If memory serves, this was the first Pee-Wee Herman movie before even the tv series hit the airwaves which just shows that this is the movie that started it all. So what causes the eponymous big adventure to this movie? Well Pee-Wee is living his normal life, or as normal as you can get when you are Pee-Wee when he loses his beloved bike and becomes obsessed with hunting it down leading him to meet a whole slew of fun characters all the way to San Antonio, where honestly I feel the filmmakers got this city right. You come for The Alamo and then leave. Before a grand chase through the Warner Bros. backlot where he finally retrieves his bike. Where to begin with a movie as crazy, and fun, and memorable as this? Well the characters are great, Paul Reubens is of course on top form in this movie, easily being the best part but the supporting cast is excellent too. That's Elizabeth Daily as Dottie, better known as the voice of Tommy from Rugrats and Buttercup from The Powepuff Girls among many, many other credits and I never saw this when I was young but she is awesome in this movie! I never fully appreciated her character, and now she's the greatest gal ever and yes I am crushing on her hard. She's a total cutie pie and I will fight you on this. If I had to pick my favorite side scene, which are essentially all just Big Lipped Alligator Moments because I mean come on this is a roadtrip movie, there is going to be lots of those moments.....I wanna say the biker club. Two reasons for that, one obvious and one not so obvious. The song is, unforgettable. And if you know who that woman is that grabs him in the bar, I'm proud of you. This is only the tip of the iceberg as to why this movie is so great, every minute is enjoyable, the humor and the sometimes creepy scenes are all outstanding, I just love this movie and strongly urge you to go see it if you haven't. It's great for kids, it's even more enjoyable for adults in my opinion cause you can appreciate the technicals and little bits of character scattered about, I give this movie the easiest 4 stars in history. Also, I got some weird but awesomely amazing trivia for you. During the big chase through the backlot we encounter a Godzilla set done in true tokusatsu fashion, I mean they got everything right though I do wish Godzilla movies if they were made in America did have full Japanese crew but I digress. This movie came out August 9th, 1985. Guess what came out two weeks later? Godzilla 1985. What the french toast? How did they know?? Granted the scene was not done with the effects found in the Heisei series, but more a Showa production with King Ghidorah flying around and done justice in every aspect of the filming of those movies and their effects, but what a coincidence! That blew my mind when I looked that up! I love being a nerd.

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

A Series Of Unfortunate Events

This is a review that has been long since coming, and has finally come to light.


Now I must stress that I have not seen the Netflix series bearing the same name as this film nor have I read the collection of books. Though I do recall them being highly popular right alongside Harry Potter from a time since past. And I recall even more loving and enjoying the adaptation that was surprisingly released before the book series ended; 3 books to be exact. I am not sure if it was well recieved or widely loved when it came out, and I have no doubt that it has achieved cult status in recent years. The story concerns a group of children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny who one day have the unfortunate news to bear that their parents have perished in a fire that has destroyed their home. They are sent to live with the odious Count Olaf who is hell bent on obtaining the orphans inheritance no matter the cost. With no help from the authorities or their distant relatives, the children must unmask Count Olaf themselves. I believe it is a very good film indeed, with excellent set design, good acting, and a interesting story that will keep you interested until the end. What I especially love besides the awesomeness that is Jim Carrey in one of his better and yet less known comedic roles, is the underlying mystery. Throughout the film there are hints, glimpses, and questions surrounding the children's parents who were part of some secretive society and it is genuinely intriguing and there are no real answers, but it does make one desperately wish to know them all. I must praise the attention to detail in these very expansive and lovely sets, each having it's own identity and character connection. Which thus brings me to the actors, and in the case of the Beaudelaire children they are wonderful. Emily Browning is amazing and really does deserve to be in more films, Liam Aiken is smart and attentive which comes in handy when foiling the plans of a despicable actor, and of course we have Jim. In my humble opinion I cannot see how Neil Patrick Harris could ever top Jim Carrey in this role. I almost dare to say this character was made for Jim to potray, because he hits every mark for the character. Threatning, funny, despicable, prideful, and able to play against anyone and steal the show. He is what makes this movie so loved in my eyes, I was a huge fan of his comedic roles in my youth and have delved into his more serious roles in my adult years, so his appeal has never truly died for me. There is much to be enjoyed in this film, and should be looked at again to see if the fanbase can grow even more. But one word of warning, for those of you who suffer from ommetaphobia I urge you to turn away now.

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

I can't believe I haven't talked about this movie earlier.


This is a movie that needs and fully deserves to be a household name! I saw this movie many years ago, and found it had an incredible charm and lovely atmosphere, with very good characters, and even more surprising some truly heavy issues for a kid's movie. Molly played in my opinion incredibly by Natalie Portman, works at a toy store run by the quirky and quite frankly lovable Mr. Magorium played by Dustin Hoffman who brushes off such magic and love that the store is literally alive. But all is not well and Molly soon has to come to terms with well, life. And that's the most amazing thing about this movie besides it's incredible fun atmosphere and just feel good nature, the surprisingly deep and challenging things you have to face in life. The death of a loved one, to have faith in yourself and your abilities fully, to balance being an adult and yet still doing things you love. And they don't just bring it up once and leave it at that, no these are central themes of the movie! But it looks like a colorful, fun, and completely nonthreatning and nonchallenging movie. Well this is yet another example of an incredible and amazing kid's film, because some people get the fact that this is a movie little kids will see and it can address and answer some of their questions. Other people are making movies like Show Dogs. One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong. And thank God for these people who make outstanding media for kids, you do more for shaping future generations than you can even imagine. You can educate, inspire, enlighten, and of course entertain children and give them something to take with them for all of their life. This is one of those movies without a doubt in my mind. It's a wonderful, lovely, great movie with excellent acting, good issues to teach your kid, and can leave a great impression on them. It can teach them to be creative, have a love for joy and to have fun in their own way, appreciate life and happiness, and to an aging adult that is something to remember.

Thursday, May 3, 2018

In Retrospect: The Shape Of Water

It just got better.



Oh The Shape Of Water, what a strange yet charming movie you are. I love it still and was so proud to hear it won Best Picture (calling the winner yet again), because well this is a prime example of the medium we know as film. Now what do I mean by that? *BRIEF TANGENT ALERT* I never understood documentary films or films potraying real true stories. It is made more for television in my opinion, I mean how many times do you see a documentary on an event or a person on television? All the time is the correct answer. So what makes it so special that people make films out of this? To put it blunt, real life stories rarely make for compelling cinema. Movies are for the fantastical, where imagination and creativity run wild, it is for spectacles and emotional climaxes! What would you rather see, Zero Dark Thirty or Star Wars? Public Enemies or Inception? You (hopefully) can see my point. The Shape Of Water encompasses all of these incredible elements and more. It is in the real world but with elements of the fantastic and romance to an unlikely love interest, kinda like Beauty And The Beast, normal world set at a time period and yet has magical elements and an unconventional romance and people fell in love with that movie, and still treasure it until this day. The Shape Of Water is as much a visual film as anything, I'm pretty sure even if you removed the sound and color it would make a gorgeous silent film. There is imagination in the design of the creature, there is creativity in the story, there is a spectacle that is a bit silly but it appeals to your heart and not your mind, and it has a lovely and dare I say perfect emotional climax and ending. Sally Hawkins is sheer perfection in it's finest form, that's all I can say about her without gushing for the next 400 pages. Doug Jones does incredible work in the suit and can potray a wide variety of emotions without saying anything. Michael Shannon is a intense and let's be frank, a bit of an asshole villain but I'll be damned if I said he doesn't do well as a villain. Every actor has all strength and no weakness to my eyes. The mosy bad thing I can say about this movie is, maybe the russians were needless to the plot? They don't do much, they pose no threat, so why are they here again other to enforce it's the 50s? That's about it. Oh, and why did they kill the cat? Answer me Mr. Del Toro. Was it really necessary to still establish this creature was dangerous after ripping Michael Shannon's fingers off? I kinda got the point that yeah, he's innocent but still dangerous. That screwed with me a bit, don't do that. And that's nitpicking! Beyond that, I got nothing. Go see the movie, buy it, rent it, it is well worth your time and money! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to fawn over Sally Hawkins for another 2 hours.

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

In Retrospect: Lady Bird

I get it more now on the second go.



Lady Bird is a movie about life, identity, and acceptance. It's a very good movie and that while I feel came just a touch late in my life, in some respects it still holds great truth at this point of my life. And I think this movie could be seen 100 years from now and still hit people close to home. I understood the greater emotion to it all and that's what the movie's drive is, emotion. The character's while still thinking, logical beings are guided and driven by emotion. Christine wants to be recognized as an individual, Lady Bird, and yet falls into following others and not doing what she wants to do until the end. It made me think an awful lot about my teenage years and honestly this movie wasn't that far off, I was emotional, I was trying to figure stuff out, I was not appreciative of certain people and things but I got better at life and not taking things for what they are. The movie is an important movie, and one that should be seen regardless of age or other factors in life. The ending kind of puzzled me the first time seeing it in the theater, she wanted to go to New York, she got there, achieved what she wanted and I thought the credits would start rolling not long after she walked out of the subway station. So why keep going until she calls her mom and then end? It's like in The Graduate how the ending keeps going after a point where every other movie would stop. Well, realizing more of the emotions and motivation for Christine on further viewing made the ending makes sense, she accepts the person she is and not the person she wants to be, she is Christine and not Lady Bird. She accepts it, but still remains who she is almost as if Christine and Lady Bird were synonymous. Now that may seem odd, it's the same person so why act like they are different yet the same? Names are really the most arbitrary thing to a human being besides, well....the human being. She realized regardless of whether her name is Christine or Lady Bird, she is who she is so there was no reason for Lady Bird to still be her name. It's a clever and meaningful ending to her character. I for one am happy to see this movie again and will no doubt give more insight in future viewings.