Friday, January 27, 2012

Friday Preview: The Grey

The Grey




This is Liam Neeson's winter badass movie. It seems like he has some sort of action movie coming out in the early part of the year every year. This time he takes on nature, and nature has no chance. All kidding aside, this does look pretty entertaining. Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News included it in his top ten of 2011, and the production company is planning a rerelease late in the year to drum up talk of Oscar contention for Best Picture and Best Actor. It's a lot of hype for a January movie, but we'll see.

The Director - Joe Carnahan - His last movie was The A-Team which was stupid fun, but a dime a dozen action movie. Smokin' Aces I felt was overrated, but Narc with Ray Liotta was a pretty good movie. Again, there is a lot of awards hype for this movie, so expectations are high.

The Writers - Joe Carnahan and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers - Jeffers wrote the short story this movie is adapted from. This is Jeffers second writing credit. His first was Death Sentence that was directed by James Wan (Saw, Insidious). Carnahan has written mainly the features that he has directed.

Starring
Liam Neeson... Ottway
Dermot Mulroney... Talget
Dallas Roberts... Hendrick
Frank Grillo... Diaz
Nonso Anozie... Burke
Joe Anderson... Flannery

The cast really isn't important. This is Neeson's movie and how good it is will completely depend on how good his character is. Other than that, the rest of the cast is wolf fodder.

Early Reviews
Colin Covert - ***1/2 out of 4
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/138137413.html

Michael Phillips - *** out of 4
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/sc-mov-0124-the-grey-20120126,0,2419038.column

Roger Ebert - ***1/2 out of 4
http://www.rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120125/REVIEWS/120129984/-1/RSS

Lisa Schwarzbaum - C+
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20483133_20556661,00.html

May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Monday, January 23, 2012

Red Tails Review

Red Tails
Directed by Anthony Hemingway
Written by John Ridley and Aaron McGruder

Starring
Terrence Howard... Colonel A.J. Bullard
Cuba Gooding Jr. ... Major Emanuelle Stance
David Oyelowo... Joe 'Lightning' Little
Nate Parker... Marty 'Easy' Julian
Tristan Wilds... Ray 'Junior' Gannon
Andre Royo... Antwan 'Coffee' Coleman

Story
In 1944 the Tuskegee Airmen, an all black fighter pilot group, are asked to provide cover for bombing runs into Germany. This is their first real combat after performing mop up duty miles away from the front lines in World War II. If they do not succeed their unit will be shut down and disbanded.

The story is very simple and definitely not the most appealing part of the movie. Based on user reviews on other websites it seems if you go in expecting a moving piece of historical drama you will be disappointed. But if you go in expecting a fun popcorn flick with lots of action, you will be more than satisfied. It may have been easier and more profitable to use a different storyline to showcase WWII aerial fighting, but I don't think they pay any disservice to the Tuskegee Airmen in this movie.

Acting
This is a very talented cast, but there is no standout performances. It seems like George Lucas had a very specific vision for this movie and it didn't include any variance from it. He wanted a 50's war movie with updated special effects, and that's what he got. Watch any old war movie and you will see similar characters and storylines. Most of the characters have one memorable trait that sets them apart and that is their entire character. Although most of the roles are one dimensional they are fun and lighthearted.

Review
Like I said before, if you go in with certain expectations that will be what you get. If you go in wanting to like it, there are things to like, and vice versa. Some people hated the prequels so much, and rightfully so, that they'll never let Lucas live it down. I enjoyed the prequels, but I admit that I am a Star Wars junkie. However, in every review people agree that the aerial dog fights are amazing and are the best part of the movie. So, if you think you'll hate, don't go, but if you like some fun action it's worth seeing.

*** out of 5

May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Friday Preview: Red Tails

Red Tails


This is George Lucas' first production since the Star Wars prequels. He has been trying to get this movie made since the late 80's, but has had trouble finding financing and a distributor for the film due to it's all black cast and unknown black director. The special effects and the action sequences look fantastic, but the dialogue in the trailer looks a bit preachy. Lucas has said that he wanted to make an old fashioned war movie with true heroes without faults. I liked Spielberg's War Horse a bit, and that was supposed to be a throwback movie, too. Whether this is a good movie or not will depend on how the actors playing the pilots do. Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Terrence Howard will give the corny speeches that were in the preview, but the lesser known actors have a chance to make this a memorable movie instead of the usual trash that is released in January.

The Director - Anthony Hemingway - This will be his first feature directing job, however he has quite a few excellent television credits. He has directed episodes of The Wire, True Blood, Community, Battlestar Galactica, Treme, and Fringe.

The Writers - Aaron McGruder, John Ridley - And here's what has me worried about this movie. Ridley's biggest credits are as the creator of the Barbershop TV series and the head writer of the Wanda Sykes show. Then McGruder is the creator of The Boondocks on Cartoon Network. I haven't watched any of these shows, but this seems like a pretty big jump in production size. At least Anthony Hemingway was directing big budget television shows.

The Actors
Terrence Howard - I didn't like Hustle & Flow, but he seems like a good actor. Doesn't look like he has much to work with in this movie though.

Cuba Gooding Jr. - This type a movie only needs one guy to give long spirited speeches. Seems like an unnecessary character to me.

Bryan Cranston - I haven't seen Breaking Bad yet, so I'm not sold on him as a great actor.

The pilots - No big names, so we'll see how they do.
Nate Parker, Tristan Wilds, Elijah Kelly, Leslie Odom Jr., Kevin Phillips, Cliff Smith(aka Method Man),

Early Reviews
Michael Phillips - ** out of 4
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/sc-mov-0117-red-tails-20120119,0,1748740.column

Roger Ebert - ** 1/2 out of 4
http://www.rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120118/REVIEWS/120119986/-1/RSS

Colin Covert - ** out of 4
http://www.miami.com/039red-tails039-pg-13-article

Owen Gleiberman - B-
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20483133_20556657,00.html


May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Contraband Review

Contraband
Directed by Baltasar Kormakur
Written by Aaron Guzikowski

Starring
Mark Wahlberg... Chris Farraday
Kate Beckinsale... Kate Farraday
Ben Foster... Sebastian Abney
Giovanni Ribisi... Tim Briggs
JK Simmons... Captain Camp

Story
The basic premise of Contraband is pretty similar to another Giovanni Ribisi classic, Gone in Sixty Seconds. Chris Farraday's brother-in-law is forced to dump a shipment of cocaine when his ship is boarded by the Coast Guard, and is in debt to a local drug dealer for $700,000. Here comes Marky Mark to the rescue. He is a former smuggler, but has gone legitimate as a home security installer. Unable to reason with Tim Briggs he is forced to do one last job to come up with the money. Of course, he won't smuggle drugs because he has such high morals, but is willing to smuggle in millions of dollars in counterfeit money.

Acting
No standout performances, and a couple very mediocre ones. Mark Wahlberg is very attractive and can do no wrong. (Guess who produced this movie?) Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, and JK Simmons all do their part, but their characters are pretty two dimensional. And Giovanni Ribisi shouldn't be allowed to do an accent, or play a tough guy. I can't think of a person I would be less afraid of than him.

Review
I had pretty low hopes going in, and those hopes weren't even met. Every character is thin, the action sequences are a mess and impossible to follow, and the story is very predictable.  If it had a little more edge to it, and the risks seemed a bit more real it would have been better.  But if you like a nice simple  heist movie, it has some enjoyable parts to it. You know Farraday will get away with it, so the question is how will he do it? They come up with a couple of low tech ways that seem plausible, but I'd like the Mythbusters guys to take a look at it. The big action sequence with the duct taped face army from the preview is completely pointless and the worst part of the movie. It makes no sense why the characters would be there, or what purpose they serve, and it was poorly shot and edited. The camera is shaking so much, and bad guys and policemen appear out of nowhere with fully automatic weapons that must be misfiring when they aim at Mark Wahlberg. All in all, an average movie that has been made better before this.

** out of five stars

May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Friday, January 13, 2012

Friday Preview: Contraband

Hi everybody,


Last year I set a goal of seeing 100 movies in the theater, and I reached that goal. I also wanted to write reviews and give ratings for all those movies on my blog as I saw them. That didn't really happen. So, this year I will change the way I write the blog. Instead of throwing up random movie reviews, I'll try to keep it a bit more structured. Every Friday I will post a preview post of the movie that I will be seeing over the weekend, and then on Tuesday I'll put up a review. Easy enough, let's get started.


Contraband



The preview leaves a little to be desired. It's the same premise as the Nicolas Cage Gone in Sixty Seconds. A career criminal leaves the business only to be pulled back in when a family member gets caught up with the wrong crowd. And what's with the duct taped masks? Wouldn't it be easier to just get some ski masks, and a hell of a lot less pain to take off? Also, can anybody tell me what accent Giovanni Ribisi is using? It sounds like a mix of creole, southern, and testicle squeezing.


The Director - Baltasar Kormákur - A filmmaker from Iceland. Seems like this is his first hollywood movie. Can't say I know much about him, but if this is any good I might check out some of his other movies. He also starred in the original Reykjavik-Rotterdam.


The Writer - Aaron Guzikowski - First time writer.


The Actors
Mark Wahlberg - Doesn't look like he breaks much of a sweat here. Typical action role where he gets so worked up that every line he says he sounds like he's out of breath.


Kate Beckinsale - Doesn't look like she is in it all that much. Probably just need an attractive female to put on the poster and make out with Marky Mark.


Ben Foster - Good actor, I hope he is in more than the preview shows.


Giovanni Ribisi - He looks god awful in this. Hope that I'm wrong, but I doubt it.


Early Reviews
So far on RottenTomatoes.com it is sitting at 25 positive and 28 negative.


Roger Ebert - ** - "Contraband" involves a lot of energy, but I'm getting tired of violent retreads of these heist elements.
http://www.rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120111/REVIEWS/120119998/-1/RSS


Richard Roeper - A- - This is a first-rate action film with a great cast, a talented director and a strong script.
http://www.richardroeper.com/reviews/contraband.aspx


Michael Phillips - ** 1/2 - Wahlberg has the presence, the glower and the laconic line readings to guide us through a mess of pain, painlessly.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/sc-mov-0111-contraband-20120112,0,4388609.column


Colin Covert - *** - It's like an exciting police procedural turned on its head.
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/137194693.html


I hope everyone likes the new format, and give me some feedback if you have any ideas on how I could make this blog better.


May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Top Movies Coming in 2012

Hi, I hope everyone had a good 2011, and a good start to 2012. Starting next week I am going to try to post more frequently here with a preview of a movie on Friday, and then a review of the movie on Tuesday. For this week though I'm going to take a look at the most anticipated movies coming out this year.

John Carter - March 9 - This movie has been an on again, off again production for nearly a lifetime. It's finally coming to the big screen, and is being directed by Andrew Stanton(Wall-E). Hopefully he is as successful as Brad Bird going to live action with Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol. It has a Star Wars, space fantasy feel to it, but I'm not sure Taylor Kitsch is the choice I would have made to carry this franchise. Hope it turns out well. Here's the trailer.




The Hunger Games - March 23 - I liked the books and was really looking forward to it. The first casting announcements were great, with Jennifer Lawrence playing Katniss and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch being fantastic choices. Then it started to go downhill. Lenny Kravitz was cast as a linchpin character. I looked up Gary Ross' film history on IMDB. Big, Pleasantville, and Dave were not the type of movies I was thinking of when I read the book about a dystopian future where the elite, ruling class  make children fight to the death. And then this trailer came out, and almost all hope is lost.


I'm hopeful, but feel this is going to be a big disappointment.


The Avengers - May 4 - Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor all lead into this comic book movie to end all comic book movies. Should be a huge spectacle, and I cannot wait :)



Men In Black III - May 25 - MIB 2 was an atrocious pile of shit, but the original is one of the best sci-fi comedies ever made. I'm hoping this isn't just a cash grab for the studio and this franchise gets back on track the way Transformers did last year.


Prometheus - June 8 - A prequel to Alien being directed by Ridley Scott. A fantastic cast (Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, Guy Pearce) and a cool first trailer will make me consider going to a midnight showing of this.


Brave - June 22 - When Pixar makes a bad movie I'll stop getting excited to see what they do next. (Cars 2 was pretty average, but not terrible.)


The Amazing Spider-Man - July 3 - About as bad a first look as you can get with its first trailer. My friend Tom thought it was a sequel to Superhero Movie, a spoof of the original Spider-Man. Haven't heard much about this since the trailer came out. I like the character of Spiderman and I liked Andrew Garfield in Social Network. We'll see.


The Dark Knight Rises - July 20 - By far the most anticipated movie of 2012. There is no way this can live up to the hype, so I think quite a few people will be disappointed. I'm hopeful it will be better than first, and close to as good as the second. Can't wait to see Tom Hardy as Bane.


The Bourne Legacy - August 3 - A Bourne movie without Matt Damon. Jeremy Renner has pretty much taken over Hollywood. Rumor has it he will be the lead in the next Mission Impossible movie, he's part of the Avengers, and now is taking over the biggest spy series outside of 007. He's a great actor and I'm looking forward to the trailer for this one.

Skyfall - November 9 - The only thing better than a new Bourne movie is a new Bond movie. Yay!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - December 14 - This is my most anticipated movie of the year. I love the LOTR movies and enjoyed the first book, but The Hobbit is a far superior story in my opinion. In Fellowship the story focuses on the nine members of the group and their journey across Middle Earth. Now take that concept and replace the boring humans with some lively dwarves. Martin Freeman was brilliantly cast a Bilbo Baggins and having Peter Jackson back directing is for the best.



Well, I hope you enjoyed reading my 2012 preview. I think this will be a great year for movies and I wish that it was this year that I decided to see 100 movies in the theater since it looks much more promising.

May the Force be with you,
CHUD

Monday, January 2, 2012

Top Ten of 2011

Here's my top ten. Hope you enjoy it.

One thing, I haven't seen everything this year, so in a month or two this list could change, but I'm confident that nothing will crack my top five.

10. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Written by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec
Directed by Brad Bird
Starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton

I really like the Mission Impossible series, with the exception of part 2. Brad Bird makes his live action directorial debut and doesn’t disappoint. The action sequences were original and the increase of screentime for Pegg was a good decision. Breaking into the Kremlin and the skyscraper scene in Dubai were two of the best sequences of the year.

9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Written by Steve Kloves
Directed by David Yates
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint

By now I’m sure you know whether or not you’re a Harry Potter fan. I am, so it makes the top ten. David Yates has directed the last four HP movies, and I have to say his high water mark was his first try, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. However, he has done solid work in each film and I’m curious to see what he does next.

8. The Adventures of Tintin
Written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish (you’ll see his name later J)
Directed by Steve Spielberg
Starring Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig

When they announced Indiana Jones 4, this is the type of movie I was expecting. Instead, we got fucking aliens. This is the globe trotting, action adventure that I was hoping for. Tintin is what Indiana Jones should have been. It had great action sequences that could have only been done animated, and the banter between characters was funny and kept me entertained. And the 3D for this movie is the best since Avatar.

7. Bridesmaids
Written by Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo
Directed by Paul Feig
Starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Melissa McCarthy

I’m not a huge fan of Kristen Wiig on SNL, but I have liked her in the few movies she has been in. This was definitely a breakout movie for her, both as a writer and actress. Paul Feig, who has done some great TV work, does a great job balancing the raunchy humor with the more sentimental parts of the movie. Also, Melissa McCarthy steals every scene she is in.

6. The Descendants
Written by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
Directed by Alexander Payne
Starring George Clooney, Shailene Woodley

By now you should know what to expect from Alexander Payne. A middle-aged man that is having a midlife crisis would be a loose plot description of every movie he’s made. But he does it so well that I don’t really want him to make anything else. George Clooney gives an excellent performance, and Shailene Woodley is most definitely the breakout star of the year.

5. Super 8
Written and Directed by JJ Abrams
Starring Joel Courtney, Riley Griffiths, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler

JJ Abrams is one of my favorite directors whether it’s TV (Lost, Alias) or movies (Star Trek, Mission Impossible 3). When the trailer came out in the summer of 2010, this immediately became my must see movie of the year. A love letter to the Goonies-type movies of the 80’s that’s directed by JJ Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. What’s not to like? While Super 8 has some flaws and some incredibly corny scenes it was a lot of fun to watch.

4. X-Men: First Class
Written by Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Bacon

A much needed step in the right direction for the X-Men franchise. Now with Bryan Singer back in a role as producer it can forget the abominations that were X-Men 3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I love alternate history movies, and this one doesn’t disappoint. Unlike Inglorious Basterds that rewrote history, X-Men takes a real event (Cuban missile crisis) and throws a big what if in there. Kevin Bacon plays an excellent villain as Sebastian Shaw that is trying to start a nuclear war. But the relationship between Charles Xavier, Magneto and Mystique is the highlight of the movie and my only complaint is that we didn’t get more time with them.

3. The Adjustment Bureau
Written and Directed by George Nolfi
Starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt

Pretty much anything based on a Philip K Dick story will get me in the theater. However, I usually end up seeing Paycheck. But The Adjustment Bureau was probably the biggest surprise of the year to me. It was marketed as an Inception type of science fiction, but is a much more straightforward love story. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have fantastic chemistry onscreen, and is what makes the movie a winner. This might be a little high on my list, but why regurgitate the same list over and over that you can read from all the critics?

2. Drive
Written by Hossein Amini
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks


Ryan Gosling gives the best performance of the year as Driver, a movie stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver. You’d expect a movie like this to have more chase scenes and car crashes, but there’s only a handful. I liked the relationship between Driver and Irene, but that is only to give him something to care about and adds weight to the decisions he makes later in the movie. What makes this movie so great though, is watching Gosling get his revenge against the mob guys that double crossed him. And what really puts this movie over the top is Albert Brooks as the villain Bernie Rose. Great performances by both Brooks and Gosling.

1. Attack the Block
Written and Directed by Joe Cornish
Starring John Boyega

I recommended this movie to everyone that I talked about movies with. It shows you don’t need Transformers budget to make an awesome sci-fi movie. I liked Super 8, but I would say this is a better Goonies type movie than Super 8. Joe Cornish has worked with Edgar Wright a lot in his professional career, and I see a bit of Shaun of the Dead in Attack the Block. So, hopefully he follows Wright’s career path and brings us more awesome movies.

Honorable Mentions
The Muppets – An excellent Muppet movie, but not quite top ten material.

The Ides of March – Interesting look at the relationship between politics and the media.

50/50 – A buddy flick about a guy who gets cancer. Funny and sweet, but it ends exactly how you think it will end.

30 Minutes or Less – The director and star of Zombieland make another great comedy.

Fright Night – If you do a remake, take a flawed movie from yesteryear and try to fix it. Fright Night is what a vampire movie should be. Not great, but lots of fun to watch.

The Debt – A fantastic cast, but incredibly slow moving. Could be the second half of a double feature with Munich.

Horrible Bosses – Second best comedy of the year. Great supporting performances by Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell.

Fast Five – Not a good movie by any means, but it has the best fight scene of the year(The Rock vs. Vin Diesel) that is in the realm of They Live(Roddy Piper vs. Keith David.) Also, the most destructive car chase since Bad Boys 2.

The Source Code – Saw this and The Adjustment Bureau around the same time. The performances by Damon and Blunt trump Gyllenhal and Monaghan.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Movie Ratings for Nov-Dec

Hi people,

Sorry that I haven't posted anything for two months. Haven't had much time with work and the holidays, but I was able to make it to my 100 movies seen in the theater goal. So here is the ratings for the last couple months of all the movies I saw.

In Time - **
The Rum Diary - ***
Tower Heist - ** 1/2
Immortals - * 1/2
The Descendants - **** 1/2
Hugo - * 1/2
J. Edgar - **
The Sitter - ** 1/2
Arthur Christmas - *** 1/2
The Muppets - ****
Puss in Boots - ***
Young Adult - **
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - ***
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - ****
The Adventures of Tintin - ****
The Darkest Hour - **
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - ***
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - ***

Again, sorry for not updating the blog. I should have a Top Ten list up soon, so stick around.

May the Force be with you,
CHUD