A British American science fiction directed by Alex Garland, starring Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tuva Novotny and Oscar Isaac.
A biologist's husband returns from a military assignment bleeding profusely. On the way to the hospital, the husband and wife are abducted by cops. The wife goes into an area where an extraterrestrial presence is changing things with a group of other women.
Not so great. The main issue was audio. It seemed like the actors had all taken out a restraining order on microphones. No audio capture device was to be allowed within 20 feet of them. The plot was the next problem. It didn't really make sense and maybe that was because I couldn't hear what anyone was saying. The ending didn't make sense either, but I don't spoil that kind of thing. Suffice to say, there was CG involved. The good CG was used on an alligator and a bear, which constituted the only good parts of the film. Characters seemed to be trying to develop, but that failed because most of them died soon after they shared back-story. Pacing and cut speed were relatively slow for being such a new movie and I appreciated that. The women approaching the alien barrier looked like a scene from Ghostbusters because of their large backpacks and the guns in their hands (image). Overall, not something to go out of your way to see. I rate it o.k.
An American science fiction directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Ben Mendelsohn and Simon Pegg.
A young man plays a virtual reality video game and makes friends there. The creator of the game has left 3 hidden keys that combine to grant their finder ownership of the game. There is a corporation out to find the keys as well.
This was a fun movie to watch. If you're looking for deep plot, complex characters and artsy production, this is not it. If you're looking to watch pop culture characters mix and mingle in CG, this is definitely what you want. The '80s and '90s references made this even better to me because I knew exactly what was being referenced, had watched it, played it and had the toys. The CG being less realistic and more like a video game was appropriate for the plot. The male lead and his team fit the tradition of video games perfectly. A soundtrack of '80s hard rock and glam metal seemed a good fit to me. If you are around 30-40 years old when I post this, you will appreciate the references as much as I did and I would recommend watching it. Younger viewers would miss too much of where stuff came from. I rate this awesome.
A British American science fiction directed by Ridley Scott, starring Michael Fassbender, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride and Demian Bichir.
A ship of colonists are awakened from hypersleep when their ship is damaged in space. They hear a transmission of someone singing an American pop song and land on the planet to investigate. 2 of the crew members become infected with a substance which causes them to spawn alien-like creatures and one crew member blows up the landing ship while trying to kill one of the creatures. They soon meet a synthetic who has been living on the planet for 10 years.
Not bad, but it should have been much better. The complex plot held my attention, but the characters were all very shallow, except the synthetic from the planet. Although he was the antagonist, he was also the main character, filling a role usually reserved for human protagonists. I've noticed a trend in recent films in which robots are not only treated as people, but sometimes portrayed as being better than people. Just look at Transformers and AXL (which I want to see soon). The robots show emotion and form attachments like humans. Anyway, this film did not have enough aliens for me and the action scenes were a little too short. The CG looked impeccable, of course and it suffered from short shot syndrome (too many quick cuts). What happened to pans and tilts? Nobody does that anymore? I rate this adequate. You might want to check it out.
An Animated mystery directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman.
The son of Vincent van Gogh's mailman is trying to find one of the dead artist's family members to deliver a letter to.
A pretty waste. The visuals looked great and the animation was done well and in the artist's style. However, the plot was seriously lacking and the settings seemed extremely derivative. The whole premise of why this was supposed to be good was because it was hand painted in van Gogh's style, but that turned out to be a negative aspect. The filmmakers leaned too heavily this, using it more as a crutch than a starting point. It started with Starry Night, the bedroom and cafe made an appearance and then there were the fields. The actors were rotoscoped and composited from green screen onto painting backgrounds and you can tell by watching it. This process made the renderings too realistic and un-van Gogh. I also thought that the color vs black and white scenes should have been the opposite way around. Wouldn't it make sense to have vibrant colors when the artist was alive and a lack thereof now that he has died? I can only imagine that the filmmakers wanted to portray a difference between past and present, but it didn't make sense to me. This whole deal with the artist's mailman's son delivering a letter seemed forced, contrived and too distant from actual events. He talks to people in town and tries to figure out who knows how Vincent died and who is lying to him. I was really hoping for a film portraying the artist, his work and his eccentricities. I can appreciate how much work went into making this and it did look good, but that is where positive aspects end. Everything else was inadequate. I rate this tolerable. You should probably watch My Love (2006) instead.
An American crime drama directed by Jameson Brooks, starring Glenn Morshower and Marilyn Manson.
A group of punk rockers in a small town have conflict with the local high school athletes and one night, a young man is killed.
I think that this is an accurate depiction of how things go almost anywhere in America. It's totally wrong, but the punk rockers get abused by everyone, the cops are dicks and the "popular" high school kids are impervious. Marilyn Manson's intro and outro speeches were very appropriate to use in the context of this film. The punks dressed correctly. One of them had a jacket that was like 100% spikes that I really liked. I could prattle on and on about cinematic elements or societal group differences, but to what end? Nobody reads this. I rate this good.
An American documentary directed by Morgan Neville.
The story of Fred Rogers' life and career is told with interviews of family members and co-workers.
Technical proficiency and a positive message are what make this worth watching. It was a little tame for my tastes, except one short clip. I can't seem to find it in the timeline, but Fred Rogers says "I'll tell you what children need" in a way that makes the viewer know he means it. I thought that was priceless. The documentary covers his decision to start a television program, his rise to fame, how the show worked, parodies and controversies and finally, his death. The interviews were filmed well, even though some of them may have been "single camera single take" jobs. The audio was very level and video from multiple formats and dates were combined in a coherent fashion. Subject matter was ordered in a consecutive and sequential (by date) manner, with re-occurring themes that supported Mr. Rogers' philosophy and beliefs. I'm rating it adequate because it was of a high quality, but didn't go that extra step into good.
A Chinese American wuxia directed by Yuen Woo-ping, starring Donnie Yen and Michelle Yeoh.
A thief is sent from West Lotus to steal the Green Destiny sword from Sir Te's house where it was supposed to be hidden. Shu Lien captures the thief and hires a group of "Iron Way" warriors to help her guard it. Shu Lien's new student turns out to be related to the thief, everyone fights and most of them die.
Sometimes sequels are not so great. The original Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) was much better because it seemed sincere and there was not as much fast editing going on. The slower pace of the original allowed audiences to digest what was going on before something else happened, but this sequel seemed rushed. The flashbacks, storytelling and training scenes were too short. It seemed like the audience was not allowed time to get to know the characters in order to care about them. I also noticed that people were flying for no real reason. In the original, the wire flying was always motivated by a purpose in the fight or the plot. The plot in this was unoriginal: they are still fighting over that same sword. I know that the current trend in movies is sequels, prequels, reboots and remakes, but there are actually some decent original films being made. Sorry to Bother You (2018) is a good example of this. Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie and not fix what is not broken (cliche' sentence anyone?). I rate this tolerable because it was insincere, unoriginal, but upheld the basic requirements of the genre.
