Archive for November, 2011
Way late review: The Last Exorcism
Thursday, November 24, 2011
The synopsis does a good job summing things up:
Ready to expose his miraculous deeds as mere trickery, Rev. Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) invites a documentary crew to film his final exorcism. But when the devil actually possesses a girl’s body, Marcus must regain his faith and engage in the fight of his life.
Cotton Marcus is a unique character. He’s a man who was raised to sell the gospel (lowercase “g”). Whether that was the intent of his dad, a long time preacher, it’s hard to say. But Marcus knows where he makes his money, never mind that he doesn’t believe a word he preaches. A man has to provide for his family he argues. An odd angst exists for Marcus though. On the one hand he wants to make his money off his pretensions of faith, even going so far as to perform fake exorcisms. On the other hand he abhors those who do the same. The main target of his anger is at those who bring harm to children as a result of trying to perform exorcisms. Thus he wants to perform one last exorcism in front of the camera so he can prove that it’s nonsense and help stop the practice. Despite his sleazy tactics, the Cotton Marcus character is likeable. He has a charisma that is difficult to ignore. It’s easy to see why people would fall for Cotton Marcus’ schemes.
After Marcus’ last exorcism he’s faced with a crisis of faith. He’s forced to consider whether he’s met his match and is dealing with something supernatural. The deeper investigation into this case is interesting until about the last quarter of the movie. It is at that point everything shifts to pure horror genre. I can’t say I fault the director (Daniel Stamm). The movie is called The Last Exorcism. Expectations have to be met at some point. But therein lies the biggest problem – the movie won’t likely please the majority of horror fans as it takes too long to get to what they crave, yet it doesn’t completely satisfy people like me who are interested in the fake documentary format. Stamm takes what could have been a very good film and makes it less so by compromising the story to appease an audience he likely lost thirty minutes into the film.
This post is part of my Way late reviews. Read more reviews here.
Topics: Entertainment, Movie Reviews | No Comments »
Way late review: Thor
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
The details behind the story of Thor are not all that important. There’s quite a twist of characters and subplots in the world of Asgard. None of them matter that much. The key was that the early scenes in Asgard were OK. Yes, they tended to go a bit overboard with the manufactured drama but none of it was overdrawn. The overall plot moved forward fast enough where we eventually we see Thor thrown down to earth as a mere man.
I enjoyed the fun natured take of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on earth. I liked Hemsworth’s character and had a fun time watching him interact in the foreign land Thor found himself in on Earth. The good natured back and forth between Thor and his friends on earth, including Natalie Portman, kept things light and entertaining. It had a bit of a Superman 3 movie feel to it at times, complete with attempts at slapstick humor.
I’d normally complain about the lack of a good villain, which Thor is guilty of, but there was too much fun to be had throughout. And that’s not even to mention Marvel’s obsession with making all these movies feed into The Avengers. With that said, I enjoyed the movie for what it was – a fun ride that never confuses itself for more than that.
This post is part of my Way late reviews. Read more reviews here.
Topics: Entertainment, Movie Reviews | No Comments »
Way late review: X-Men: First Class
Monday, November 21, 2011
Thundercats Hoooo!
Much like Captain America: The First Avenger, we have another wasted opportunity of superheros interacting with real history. We get a convoluted plot involving a former Nazi scientist, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), who is responsible for the escalation of the Cuban missile crisis. Bacon plays a decent bad guy but that doesn’t change the fact that his character seems totally unnecessary.
The rest of the X-Men cast is solid, though limited by the screenplay and a general shallowness of the characters themselves. Each back story feels like a retread being told only to move us to the major conflict. The most fun I had was watching the X-Men come together to train and harness each of their individual powers. After that comes the obligatory big last battle and the tease for the follow up movie.
Another ho-hum 2011 superhero movie. Sigh.
This post is part of my Way late reviews. Read more reviews here.
Topics: Entertainment, Movie Reviews | No Comments »
Way late review: Captain America: The First Avenger
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Maybe my expectations were wrong and that set me up for disappointment. Captain America is a rather generic superhero movie set in WWII but ignoring much of the historical significance. Apparently Nazis and the fate of the world at stake weren’t good enough. Captain America creates a replacement for Hitler in Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), who captures a mysterious glowing cube. The cube is supernatural and leads to the transformation of Weaving from a Nazi to the ultra strong Red Skull. Think Darth Maul minus the lightsaber. Red Skull creates super weapons based on the cube’s power. These weapons don’t just kill people, they make them explode and disappear at impact. With a comic book villain and weapons from a galaxy far, far away in place, we have the creation of HYDRA. Goodbye Nazis, hello HYDRA.
Meanwhile the US knows about HYDRA and has a refugee German scientist Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who is working on a super soldier program of his own. Dr. Erskine runs into the future Captain America, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). He discovers that the puny Rogers has attempted to join the armed forces numerous times, even going so far as to lie on his applications. Dr. Erksine decides that Rogers is the right man for his super soldier experiment. Rogers goes to training camp, shows a lot of heart but little physical prowess. Throw Rudy into WWII era basic training and you’ve got the idea. Dr. Erksine finally runs the experiment on Rogers, which transforms Rogers into a tall muscular man capable of superhuman tricks. The experiment appears to be a success and this should lead to an army of new soldiers for the US Army, but a HYDRA operative steals the special sauce and kills Dr. Erksine.
Instead of using Rogers in the fight against the Nazis, oops, HYDRA, the US government uses him as propaganda for pushing the sale of war bonds. He’s Captain America, complete with the costume and shield. That goes on for a while until Rogers takes his act on the road for the troops where he is promptly laughed off the stage. This upsets Rogers and gets him in the mood to use his powers for more than just selling government backed paper. Once he learns that his best friend, Bucky (Sebastian Stan), has gone missing behind enemy lines, he takes matters into his own hands and has Iron Man’s dad fly him to HYDRA headquarters. From there Captain America the superhero is born. We see him use his powers as he rescues a large group of soldiers, including Bucky, from Red Skull’s labyrinth.
The story goes on from there and ultimately leads to where all modern day Marvel movies lead, the birth of The Avengers. The details aren’t all that important. Some not so spectacular action sequences take place and we get to the end of the movie. WWII is ultimately rendered unimportant. What we’re left with is a solid origin story followed up by a lackluster retelling of one of the most exciting and dangerous times in (modern) world history.
While this probably makes it seem like I hated Captain America, I didn’t. I enjoyed Chris Evans’ performance throughout the film. I liked his budding relationship with Stanley Tucci’s Dr. Erskine. I even enjoyed seeing how Captain America went from mere propaganda to full blown superhero. The problem became the unnecessary invention of a villain (as if Hitler wasn’t evil enough), a silly magical cube that powers unreal weapons and the wasted opportunity of WWII as a setting. The second half of the movie was only somewhat entertaining as a result and felt like it was only there to fast forward us to next summer’s big event, The Avengers. I can’t say I’m all that excited.
This post is part of my Way late reviews. Read more reviews here.
Topics: Entertainment, Movie Reviews | No Comments »
Way late review: The Tree of Life
Friday, November 18, 2011
I’ve only seen one other Terrence Malick film before this, The Thin Red Line. I thought that movie had its moments and gave it 3 out of 5 stars. I also know that providing that rating just made my friend James Lorenzen punch a wall. Another Malick film, another line drawn between those who love and hate it.
The Tree of Life has no plot. I don’t care what the synopsis says. You can make the narrative be whatever you want. This is a film that has scenes from the present day, 1950′s small town Texas, outer space, and dinosaurs. That’s not even to mention the short scene where Jessica Chastain is floating above the ground in front of a tree outside her house. There is little dialogue and many whispered voice overs. In fact, the whispers must have been a known issue as the blu-ray I watched told me to crank the sound – that’s the way the filmmaker would want you to watch it.
The first forty minutes of the film includes nearly no dialogue at all. Instead of setting up a coherent story, we’re presented with beautiful images of nature, both of the present and distant past. The soundtrack is classical and moving, yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was at an IMAX science film. I was waiting for Morgan Freeman to start narrating at any moment. He never did. Fortunately the Discovery channel like beginning breaks into the 1950′s setting where we see Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and start their family. It is during the next eighty minutes that I was completely enthralled by The Tree of Life.
During the middle of the film we see a young boy (Jack) grow up in a way that captures small yet memorable moments that stick with a person even as they reach adulthood. For example, there is a scene where Jack and his brother are walking across a street in town and they see a handicapped man struggle to walk to his car. They witness some criminals get thrown into a police car. These scenes are shot from the child’s point of view and it’s clear the impression on the kids has been made. Other times there are scenes where a group of boys go out and get into some mischief by throwing rocks at an abandoned building’s window or tying a frog to a small rocket and firing it into the air. There is something tugging at Jack that makes him feel guilty about this. The soundtrack changes its tone during these moments and becomes dark, a bit menacing even. These are small moments in a child’s life but seem much bigger to the child experiencing them.
Another focus of the film is Jack’s relationships with his mother (Jessica Chastain) and father (Brad Pitt) which morph in sometimes disturbing ways. Pitt is a stern father who isn’t afraid to use force to get his point across. Contrast that with the mother, who is almost childlike in her playful, care free behavior – as long as father is away. When father is home, mother is a sad shell of a woman who does her best to protect the children, though by the end of the film, the bond between Jack and his mom was portrayed in an almost unhealthy manner.
Had The Tree of Life ended at around the 1:50 mark I would have been satisfied. Yes, it was a burden for me to make it to the middle of the film, the part I adored, but some things are worth the struggle. However, the last twenty-five minutes or so were pretty brutal. It was much like the beginning of the film, except we get an attempt at some sort of resolution, which includes a grown up Jack (Sean Penn) joining his mother, father, younger brothers in a beach/heaven like setting. In between that we have images of nature once again and soaring music. Beautiful cinematography and music, but Malick had stretched my patience too far. I was eagerly waiting for the end which eventually came, though I was almost convinced it would not and I would be stuck in the ending of The Tree of Life for the rest of my life.
I can relate to both those who love and hate The Tree of Life, as I both loved and hated the film. I loved more than I hated. A strange reaction to a film, but when there is no plot, little dialogue, and lots of weird odds and ends, I guess that’s OK.
This post is part of my Way late reviews. Read more reviews here.
Topics: Entertainment, Movie Reviews | 1 Comment »