Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 22nd, 2014
The main thing I look for in a movie is “not the same old thing”. So many movies are retreads into comfortable viewing. If we've seen it a million times, we must like it, right? Why fix it if it isn't broke? Unfortunately, most movies are the same old thing because of laziness and apathy. Hollywood doesn't really welcome new ideas. Are You Here is not “the same old thing”. Some people might not like something new, but I do. I like to be challenged by characters that grow right before your eyes and become people you never expected they'd be. Are You Here is basically a romantic comedy, which makes it even more unusual for it to have such challenging characters.
Steve Dallas (Owen Wilson) seems like a loser when we first meet him, with maxed-out credit cards and multiple dates. It turns out he's not a loser, but we don't know that until we see him visit a real loser who lives in a dilapidated mobile home in the middle of nowhere. The loser is Ben Baker (Zach Galifianakis), who is his friend since childhood. They are comfortable, close and happy together as friends, indicating that they may not be that different. The difference is that Steve is so charming and good looking that nothing ever worries him, and everything comes easy. Ben worries about everything, and even though he nearly got his masters’ degree, he is severely dysfunctional. It should be noted that Steve is fairly shallow and Ben is extremely concerned about major issues, but it all evens out when they smoke pot together.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on August 17th, 2014
Vampires have been popular since Bram Stoker and Sheridan Le Fanu started writing about them nearly 200 years ago, but vampires have been around much longer than that. That seems to be how the story goes. That's part of the problem. In Only Lovers Left Alive, it's difficult for a vampire to overcome his boredom and disappointment with “zombies”, as he calls the human mortals. These vampires try to subsist on blood banks. Not only is it more humane, but that way they know the blood is tested. They don't like blood-borne pathogens. Jim Jarmusch makes his own kind of movies that no one else makes. He is one of the last directors working in Hollywood who hasn't sold out, partly because he never has worked in Hollywood. He's too cool to sell out. That's why he's made a vampire movie no one else could have made. It has a great cast, because all the cool actors would love to be in a Jim Jarmusch film. Tilda Swinton played the angel Gabriel in Constantine. Tom Hiddleston is Loki in the Marvel universe in movies like Thor I, Thor II and The Avengers. Anton Yelchin is Chekov in Star Trek and was fighting vampires recently in Fright Night. Mia Wasikowska was Alice in Wonderland, and that movie literally and truthfully made over a billion dollars. Jeffery Wright and John Hurt are two of best actors alive, so look that up. Bill Murray and Johnny Depp have starred in Jim Jarmusch movies for no other reason than that he asked them. If you haven't seen a Jim Jarmusch film by now, you're probably not ready to see one. Go spend a few years in the East Village to prepare yourself.
All that said, Only Lovers Left Alive is a luxurious and enjoyable experience. Our main vampire, Adam (Hiddleston) is a reclusive rock star who lives in a ramshackle mansion in a deserted Detroit neighborhood. He rarely leaves the house, and his needs are mostly tended to by a spacy groupie, Ian (Yelchin). He labors over music with equipment he has cobbled together over the years. His electricity is furnished by generators based on the principles of Nikola Tesla. He gave away some music to Hayden many, many, many years ago. He shows up at a hospital blood bank unannounced to buy from Dr. Watson (Wright). That is basically his life. He recently got Ian to procure a bullet made out of one of the densest woods imaginable. Just one bullet.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on August 14th, 2014
by Normandy D. Piccolo
When I first saw the title, Ja’mie: Private School Girl, I thought, “Cue the bow chicka wow wow music.” Did I have it wrong. What came to mind after looking at the DVD cover instead was more, “Dude Looks Like A Lady.” To some Ja’mie may be the hottest, funniest chick to prance across the screen since Divine or Candy Darling. To others, she may be an unbearable, annoying train wreck to watch. Ja’mie: Private School Girl is a spinoff show based on a character created by popular Australian comedian, Chris Lilley. Ja’mie was featured in Mr. Lilley’s other two shows, We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High. Not only does Chris Lilley play the lead role, Ja’mie, but he also wrote this documentary spoof. Seems any time someone writes and stars in a production, it’s nothing short of a narcissistic disaster. Ja’mie: Private School Girl, in my opinion, is no exception.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 12th, 2014
Experimental film can mean lots of different things. Usually it means chaos and disorientation as we are plunged into worlds we have never seen before, but experimental can merely mean doing something that has never really been done before. In this case, it is taking a simple idea and seeing if you can make it work. Can you make something interesting that seems too simple and too basic? Anything can work if you apply discipline and intelligence to a project. In this particular case, that is what happened. A simple premise has been executed brilliantly due to a number of factors. The first factor would be the actor Thomas Hardy.
Tom Hardy is Locke in the hyperbole of old movies but also because Tom Hardy is the single driving force of the movie Locke. It also helps that Tom Hardy is destined for superstardom. It hasn't happened yet, but those in the know, know it will. People don't know Hardy from The Dark Knight Rises, and I say don't know because you only saw his face briefly, and his voice was a maddening concoction. Hardy was Bane in that movie, and his face was covered by a mechanical breathing device which obscured an effete, elitist and taunting voice. His incredible power as an actor is demonstrated time and time and time again when he steals scene after scene in Inception, This Means War, Lawless, Warrior and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Upcoming roles for Hardy are as Elton John in Rocketman, Mad Max in Mad Max: Fury Road and the lead role in Kathryn Bigelow's True American. He has the burning intensity of a British Brando and the quiet sensitivity and range to do just about anything including bulking up with muscles if necessary. I'm sure he could un-bulk or get fat if needed as well. He's done it before. Tom Hardy's performance in Locke is a tour-de-force.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 11th, 2014
Need for Speed is based on a video game. It caters to people who love the experience of speed. There is a huge audience for this sort of thing. To their credit, the writer and director makes every effort to create an actual story and real characters in this presentation. It is easy to compare it to Fast and Furious, but why bother. That gives these sorts of films too much credit. Fast and Furious and Need for Speed are designed to give people a thrill. If anything, Need for Speed takes things more seriously than the Fast and Furious series. It also focuses more on beautiful and very expensive cars. Some of the cars featured include Koenigseggs, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches, McLarens, and Jaguars, but Ford Mustangs and Torinos get some of the most lavish praise. It could be a commercial for these cars. In fact, the film could be a commercial for the video game and the car culture, in general. One of the plot points is that the millions of invested in these cars is motivation to overlook past hostilities. The other reason for making this film is to give a star vehicle to Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad).
Tobey Mitchell (Aaron Paul) has a high-performance car shop in Mount Kisco. There are some fun street racing scenes right at the start. It should be stated that, at every point in this film, there is zero concern for the safety of innocent bystanders. The driving is always reckless and insane. He connects with his old girlfriend Anita (Dakota Johnson) who was stolen away by an old friend. That ex-friend Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper) is now a big shot in the racing world. Tobey is behind on the mortgage on the shop. Dino offers him $500,000 to fix up a $3,000,000 car. Tobey has no choice but to set their differences aside. All his coworkers and best buddies are totally against it including Anita's brother Pete (Harrison Gilbertson). Pete is also a bit of a psychic and seer, predicting that Tobey will win a great race that ends at a lighthouse. I'm not going to go on about the plot too much, because it's predictable and done just to make sure no one just thinks it's a cheap video game rip-off. Aaron Paul does give full commitment to his role and is actually very good. I don't think he's leading man material, but he is able to convey all levels of intensity. This movie would be better off with a Steve McQueen type, but those are nearly nonexistent (although I think Tom Hardy has potential, but he's not in this movie).
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on August 7th, 2014
by Normandy D. Piccolo
“In this prison your soul will do time.”
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on July 29th, 2014
by Normandy D. Piccolo
“The shark is an evolutionary marvel that should be respected and revered.”
Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on July 24th, 2014
Lucy is good science fiction. Good science fiction challenges scientists to think about the possibilities. Good scientists think they don't know and want to seek the answers and learn more. Bad scientists will tell you the answers because they know. But they don't know. Science is made by making mistakes and learning from those mistakes and then making new mistakes and learning from them. Through that process myths and half-truths are passed along. For a hundred years science said that we only use about 10% percent of our brain, but now we are told that that was a mistake. They say we can map the brain's electrical activity through advanced medical technology. The truth is we still don't know much. We probably only know 10% about how the brain works. There could be endless investigation into storage capacity, the speed of connections, the purpose of electrical activity, dreams and the subconscious, perceptions, personality and self-awareness. 90% of the brain is made of glial glands which we know nothing about as opposed to the neurons which are what we try to track. There is not even a glimmer of an understanding of how to duplicate how the billions of cells interact.
Lucy has revived controversy over science like no amount of superhero movies have done. It asserts the reality of science instead of the fantasy of Superman and Spiderman. Lucy is a superhero, except she doesn't care much about human concerns. It seems there are more important things than our petty concerns.
Posted in: The Reel World by Archive Authors on July 24th, 2014
Zach Braff had a nice long run on the sitcom Scrubs, but he showed the world he was more than that by writing, directing and starring in the indie hit Garden State. Braff starred in some other movies but didn't get much traction. He's not really a leading-man type. He did have a nice supporting part in Oz the Great and Powerful, but Braff had already demonstrated he can do it all. Hollywood is not too friendly to original ideas, so Braff went to Kickstarter and had success. He asked for $2,000,000 and got $3,105,473 from 46,520 supporters. From there he got Hollywood money, and he has a movie.
Wish I Was Here starts with a typical suburban family arguing over breakfast. The head of the family, Aidan Bloom (Braff) is generally dissatisfied with many things. Soon we learn he's not really head of the family. He's an out-of-work actor who has to worry about his kids’ Hebrew school payments. Sarah Bloom (Kate Hudson) holds down the steady job. 12-year-old Grace Bloom (Joey King) cherishes her heritage much more than her younger brother and is mortified she might have to go to public school. It turns out the school is part of a deal he made with his dad, Gabe (Mandy Patinkin). Gabe was paying for the school because it was important to him, but he won't be able to do it anymore, because something serious is happening that he needs to deal with.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on July 24th, 2014
There are people who love horror films and only horror films. For these people, they can never get enough. They will look at anything and everything. There are the people who like movies about high school and sports. Then there are people who like to see hot chicks. All Cheerleaders Die wants to make everybody happy. It starts out with a girl making a student movie about the cheerleading squad. The girls on the squad show off what cool witches with a B they are since they look out for their dogs on the football team. Unfortunately, one of their routines ends tragically with the head of the squad landing on her head from a great height. This opens a vacancy on the squad which is filled by the girl who made the movie, Maddy (Caitlin Stacy from I, Frankenstein) . They all bond pretty quickly at their first big party. Another girl, Leena (Sianoa Smit-Mcphee) is trying to warn her about something but doesn't succeed. The boys come over, but they know it's a girls-only night, which is cool. Leena, on the other hand, is definitely not cool, because she seems to be into occult practices, but it's hard to tell how serious she is about it. Hannah (Amanda Grace Cooper) is curious and listens to an explanation of what Leena does. Leena throws rocks on the ground which seems to be part of a witchy voodoo practice. Leena also has very, very heavy eyeliner.
In the middle of this is the captain of the football team seeing some girl/girl kissing, making him jealous, so they imbibe on drink and smoke. He also plans on playing major head games with the cheerleaders. Things get ugly real quick and it turns into all-out war. The fighting starts out in the woods where they were partying. A car race ensues which leads a car in the river, and the only way to fix things is with black magic. So a little coven is created, and there are tensions on every side: a perfect situation for death.
