Posts by Jeremy Butler

“You will be severely punished for your disobedience.”

Yeah, there is plenty of that going on in this film. What a fragile construct the mind can be, or at least that is how it appears in Bedlam. As the movie progresses, it becomes harder to tell who is more mad, the patients or the people in charge. However, the film does teeter between the line of real insanity and comical insanity.

Well, it looks like Comedy Central is still searching for a viable replacement for the loss of The Chappelle Show almost a decade ago. The newest attempt to recapture the former fan base has to be Inside Amy Schumer. I must confess a blissful ignorance to Mrs. Schumer’s rise to fame; I had no knowledge of her existence in recent years, never glimpsing a cameo of her in a television series or movie (or least one that I was aware of), and then all of a sudden it was like she was everywhere. Television, commercials … she even now has made the transition into film with several projects set to be release in the coming year, and my first response to seeing her was, who is Amy Schumer?

More to the point, Inside Amy Schumer is a sketch comedy show geared towards Schumer’s specific brand of comedy, which is, in a word, raunchy. I believe that is the best word to sum up Schumer’s style, as many of the sketches focus on a sexualized point of view; however, in an interesting twist of fate, this time it is the point of view of a woman. I will say that was most likely the most intriguing aspect of the entire series. Her brand of comedy failed to resonate with me; however, I did have an appreciation for the opportunity to peek behind the veil and see an honest female perspective of raunchy ideals. Granted, I’m sure there are plenty of other female comedians out there who could provide the same perspective, but I doubt it would be in the same way as Schumer.

“That’s exactly what a zombie would say.”

It has been some time since I’ve been able to watch a parody film and speak about it fondly afterwards. If memory serves, the last time that occurred was A Haunted House. (The sequel was an obvious money grab.) Now, I wouldn’t quite put The Walking Deceased in the same caliber of that film, but it does manage to deliver enough crowd-pleasing hijinks to entertain.

This film did not hold my interest at all. I know, I know…kind of a crude way to start off a review. However, I just don’t see the point in sugarcoating my feelings about this film. I had envisioned a completely different movie in my head before popping the disc into the Blu-ray player, and the idea in my head and what was displayed did not match up in the slightest. Perhaps that is my fault; I know better than to go into a film with expectations. And on that front, I will accept my role in my displeasure with the overall product. However, Housekeeping did nothing to help its case, in my opinion.

The plausibility of the film was a major factor in my inability to connect with the story. A young medical student named Lucy (Adriana Solis) is forced to take on a crap job in order to support a brother in trouble. Okay sound premise, I can get behind this; I have seen many a tale of a responsible sibling being forced to do something they don’t want to do to bail out a sibling whose only talent is making the former’s life more difficult. It’s the delivery that I struggled with.

This was a peculiar one, I tell you; if I had to compare it to other films, I would put it in league with Napoleon Dynamite or The Good Girl, in regard to the way the story was told. Neither films are ones that I hold in high esteem; however, despite the dreary way that the story dragged on, I still found myself mildly interested in the story progression. Towards the middle, that is, the beginning was a bit of a snore. The majority of the film plays out within a convenience store during the graveyard shift. The main character, Tania, is the only one usually on shift, and we get to see just how boring her shifts can be. Every now and then we are treated to other characters such as the store manager Rog, or Tania’s little brother Pi, or the regional manager Dean, who has come to the store to perform an evaluation of Rog. Tania’s ultimate goal is to save enough money for a trip to Surfer’s, an amusement park, for brother and herself. I credit the character’s dedication to that goal, as it appears to be the driving force behind the plot.

Intertwined between scenes of Tania’s sometimes tedious shifts is her brother’s descent as he falls in with the wrong crowd and starts using drugs. We do not see a great deal of this subplot, and truthfully I believe that to be a mistake. The fact is the brief time spent on this fact is just a sample, enough to pique interest, and I think that a few additional minutes of the runtime should have been devoted to this subplot. The scenes we see make the character unlikeable, because all we see him do is lie, steal, and abuse drugs. The character needed more depth if it was going to resonate with audience. I think a scene showing some inner turmoil, perhaps showing him considering the advice that his sister had given him, would have gone a long way in establishing this character’s likeability.

I feel obligated to say that I somewhat saw the ending for this one coming. Maybe not all the details, but there were some clear signs from the beginning that pointed me in the direction of how the film was going to conclude. However, as I’ve been told some many times in my not-so- long life, it is not about where you end up but how you get there. In the case of this film, the journey is quite the experience. The film opens with a bit of a flash-forward which comes off a bit disorienting at first, because we don’t really know the context for the type of incident which has occurred. Slowly I was able to sort of put the pieces together. A man walking around the apartment was a cop, and he was at the house of the victim familiarizing himself with the details of the crime. The flash-forward doesn’t drag on, which is a plus, given that in truth it wasn’t very interesting, and my interest was beginning to wane. From there we are introduced to our central character, Jacob, although he prefers to go by Nicks (his last name).

A couple things about Nicks become clear very early on: he was a soldier in the United States Army, he has returned home from service, and he is haunted by something that happened to him during his service overseas. Nicks leaves a relatively quiet life; he works the night shift at a theater as a projectionist; he is very enthusiastic about film, as he regularly has film developed at a local establishment, and he frequents a local dinner usually just for coffee. It becomes evident that Nicks doesn’t sleep. In fact throughout the film I don’t believe we ever see him sleep. The one thing Nicks tends to do that strays from the norm is to frequent the same prostitute regularly, it would seem. This appears to be the character’s only relationship of substance, as it is obvious that he desire more from the relationship than just sex.

Grace takes a refreshing approach to unfolding the story; it gets right to the point. When Grace is introduced, she is right in the thick of things, waking up alone half-naked on a beach after a night of excess. She is shown some kindness by a stranger who wastes no time letting her know that she has been where Grace has been and offers her the opportunity to change. Now, naturally, this is too easy; any audience member would see through that. The one thing everyone knows about life is that though as human beings we have the capacity to change, we tend not to do it until something forces our hand; we need a catalyst, and fortunately the film provides a great one: the threat of jail time.

OK, OK, albeit the threat of jail time is a bit cliche when it comes to forcing someone’s hand, it is arguably the best way to get someone to do the desired action; otherwise police would have to find a new tactic to get criminals to testify against one another. Grace is ordered to attend mandatory Alcoholics Anonymous sessions to help her get a handle on her problem. As to be expected, she resists at first. In this area the film does not strike any new chords, Grace repels in your typical ways: hostility, avoidance, etc. However, during this period it is where the supporting cast becomes important, especially those we come in contact with through the mandatory AA sessions. For it is their addition that helps move the plot along.

“Do you want to be a banker or a gangster? Why can’t I be both?” 

I really kind of dug the concept of the film, definitely. Two guys try to bring down a crooked CEO from within the company. I like that it was done as a comedy instead of a drama; that distinction allows for a more enjoyable experience as a whole. Though the idea could have worked as a drama as well, I think most people would agree that it is always better to laugh. Unfortunately, the way the film was done left some things to be desired. As a whole the movie becomes more of a cheesy experience with cliché characters, stereotypical situations, and a weak, uncharismatic cast.

Here’s a movie that took me by surprise, and for anyone who knows me that is a high bar to clear. I was not expecting much from the picture and miraculously found myself hanging on every second. It is not your traditional horror film with a clear-cut antagonist; in fact, at some point it becomes difficult to determine who the real enemy in the film is. Which is not to say that the presumed antagonist is in any way redeemable; it just means that once you know the story there comes the possibility, no matter how slight, that you may find yourself sympathetic to their plight.

The film gets off to a good start; there is definite intrigue in the estranged relationship between Lara (Eleanor Tomlinson) and her father Dr. Hill (Stephen Rea). The film does not immediately clue us in to what has caused the rift in the relationship, but we are treated to glimpses. Based off the brief moments that allude to the strain, we gather that the mother is not in the picture, father and daughter do not spend much time together, and that the reunion is due to something the daughter was suspected of doing at her boarding school. Consider me intrigued.

I have multiple bones to pick with this film. Normally I would start at the bottom and work my way up. However, this time I simply feel the need to address what I believe the film’s biggest flaw: giving me a false sense of hope that it might actually turn out to be a decent film. I know, I know, part of this transgression is my own fault given that I am supposed to remain impartial. However, the blame for the monumental disappointment I felt when the credits rolled cannot be put on me alone. To clarify, the reason this the biggest transgression for me is because it had all the makings of a decent movie and squandered its runtime trying to be a bigger production than it was with cheesy special effects, conflicting and underdeveloped storylines, and unnecessary characters that the story could have simply gone without.

The film started with a decent introduction. An actress diva (in every sense of the word) throws a hissy fit on set and stomps off to her dressing room and a few minutes later is found dead with two punctures in her neck. So from that point on, you know what kind of movie to expect (if your answer is not vampire, you shouldn’t be reading this review). This introduction, albeit somewhat overdone, is fine as far intros go. It gets to the point, no muss no fuss. It also allows a little bit of mystery into the plot as we are now thrown into a who-done-it scenario. From there we are introduced to one of our leads, Detective Hung. Now I can’t explain why, but I thought he was going to be the breakout star of this production. He was calm and centered, he was aware of what was happening in the city, and he endeavored to do something about it. I will touch on this character more later; as I stated, this was not a great intro, but it was solid enough to lead into the rest of the film.