Melancholia

Melancholia

Directed by: Lars von Trier

Written by: Lars von Trier

Plot:

Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide into the Earth.

Review:

Holy moly, what a depressing and eye opening film. Right from the very beginning, Lars von Trier set the tone of the film shooting slow motion visual spectacles that lasted for at least the first 5 minutes of the film. This opening reminded me a lot of Tree of Life (http://bigbobbosreviews.blogspot.com/2011/07/tree-of-life.html) , but Melancholia turned out to have more of a concrete narrative.

The film was broken up into two parts. The first half following Justine (Kristen Dunst) at her wedding reception with her husband Michael (Alexander Skarsgard). This might have been one of the strangest wedding receptions I have have watched but it gave so much character development that was needed for the second half of the film. The second half turned the focus onto Justine’s sister, Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her astronomer husband John (Kiefer Sutherland). John studies the planet Melancholia and seems very sure of himself that it will not pose a threat. It was very effective having the film split into two sections each focusing more closely on a certain sister because it gave us very different perspectives of each character. 

Even with a narrative structure, there is a lot of room open for interpretation when the film concludes. I thought that there was very religious or spiritual subtext with Kristen Dunst’s character as the movie progressed.

Kristen Dunst gave her best performance to date. She is definitely past her Spiderman days and gave a moving performance. Lars von Trier uses a lot of close ups and Kristen Dunst always has the perfect expression on to convey what she is feeling. Charlotte Gainsbourg also gave a fantastic performance as the sister. She went from the sane one to the hysterical one trying to keep everything together and her son safe. Honestly, everyone gave a fantastic performance. It was nice to see Kiefer Sutherland not being Jack Bauer. Alex Skarsgard got to show his acting talents outside of True Blood and every other character in between had their own little characteristic that made the film special.

With spectacular visuals that will blow you away, this slow paced piece of art should really make you think. Besides a couple little plot holes, like why Kristen Dunst’s family have british accents when she doesn't, this film is great. Melancholia really moved me and you walk away from the film thinking that you need to enjoy life while it lasts or it’s not worth living at all. I hope it moves you like it as moved me and you take something away from it, whether it’s the same message I took or another.

Rating: 8/10

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The Muppets

The Muppets

Directed by: James Bobin

Written by: Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller

Plot: 

With the help of three fans, the Muppets must reunite to save their old theater from a greedy oil tycoon.

Review: 

I was a little surprised to see that The Muppets was rated 97% on rotten tomatoes before I left for the theater but now I can see why. The Muppets was a crowd pleaser for sure. It is wild and witty and the musical numbers are extremely catchy. The Muppets are definitely aimed for kids though, and even though Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) wrote this film, they keep true to who The Muppets are and don’t add crude or obnoxious jokes that are unfit for theThe Muppets personalities. 

The movie follows a new Muppet into the Muppet universe. His name is Walter and he played the Muppet brother of Jason Segel’s character, Gary. The two of them grew up as huge fans of the Muppets and when Gary was bringing his girlfriend Mary, Amy Adams, to LA for their anniversary, Walter came along to see Muppet Studios. This is where the problems begin when Walter overhears a rich oil tycoon (Chris Cooper) who wants to shut down the studio and drill for oil. The Muppets must reunite to save their theater. Yes, the story narrative and story telling isn’t very complex, but it is for children and it doesn’t need to be. The movie was pure fun and it carried the movie along with its all star cast.

Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, Rashida Jones, and Jack Black were the front stars in this film but there were a ton of cameos. Neil Patrick Harris, Selena Gomez, Ken Jeong, Jim Parsons (may have been my favorite cameo), Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis, Donald Glover, and many more all made small appearances and provided tons of laughs. Jason Segel was the lead in this film, which I thought was a problem. Jason Segel should not have been the lead in a Muppet movie. He felt too dominant and I get it, he wrote it and did a ton of work on it but he should have cut down his role a little bit to give more screen time to the Muppets. All the Muppets did get screen time and they left nobody out but some of the Muppets only appeared once in the fore front. Kermit and Walter had a ton of time, Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear had a decent amount of time but everybody else felt like they were left on the back burner to let Jason Segel have more screen time.

The musical numbers were the best parts of this film with nifty dance numbers to accompany them. The best one by far is “Man or Muppet” when we get to see a Muppet version of Jason Segel and a Human version of Walter, played by Jim Parsons. The Muppets is a celebration of what Jim Henson created and should bring back many fond memories. 

Rating: 8/10

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Martha Marcy May Marlene

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Directed by: Sean Durkin

Written by: Sean Durkin

Plot: 

Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult.

Review:

Oh Martha Marcy May Marlene, how you will keep me awake at night. With a powerful and emotional tale about a woman who is taken in by a cult and when she escapes them, she can’t seem to forget them. The film cuts back and forth between Martha with her family and Marcy May (her new identity) during her time in the cult. It is so elegant the way they move from scene to scene as an action or dialogue that happens in one time zone is actually going on in the other. For a first time director and feature length writer it is really impressive, heck it’s really impressive either way.

As the story jumps back and forth you learn more about our heroine’s past and the experiences she had to face at the farm in the Catskills where the cult made camp. The cult family is set up beautifully with Patrick (John Hawkes) playing the father figure of the  group, but even as he is this father figure to everyone by making everyone feel comfortable, safe, at home, he casts a great shadow over everyone. He comes across as a great evil that they learn to accept. Even after he rapes Martha, this is their initiation into the cult, he then sings a hauntingly beautiful song, featured in the trailer, where he serenades her by saying, “She’s just a picture, that’s all”. They focus in on her and Martha is framed as a picture for his connivence. 

Martha was played by none other than Elizabeth Olsen. Who is this, you ask? She is the younger sister of the famous twins Mary Kate and Ashley. Well I would not be surprised if 22 year old Elizabeth became more famous that those twins in the very near future. She gives a tragically beautiful performance as a broken down girl who was brainwashed by the wrong people. When her and John Hawkes were on screen together it was just pure brilliance as they both were masterful in their respective roles. 

With multiple unnerving scenes that send shivers down your spines the cult actions go from things that unnerve you because they are in a cult to actions that overstep the bounds of normal society. This all overlaps to when Martha has escaped the cult and is spending time with her family and all of these situations come into play making her sister’s life very difficult.

Martha Marcy May Marlene is a movie that I will have to see again because a lot went on and I feel I will understand the movie better during a second watch through. It had a very ambiguous ending which I liked but it would have been nice to have some sort of concreteness to it. It was very abrupt, and I have my speculations and theories but I will not share them as it will ruin the movie. Enjoy the film, enjoy having your specualtions and theories and enjoy the fantastic performances from John Hawkes and Elizabeth Olsen. 

Rating: 8.5/10

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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

Directed by: Bill Condon

Written by: Melissa Rosenberg

Plot:

A bunch of stupid vampires and werewolves care about some teenage girl who gets pregnant for some stupid reason.

Review:

I am now dead inside. To just make this clear, here and now, I have not read any of the books nor watched any of the previous films. I saw this film to purely rip on it. If you don’t like that stop reading and find the nearest bridge and jump because you like Twilight. My only enjoyment during the watching of this film was the fact that I ruined the experience of a theater full of tweens as I laughed constantly at the dialogue and story.

This movie was so bad I watched Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill to make me feel better.

This movie was so bad even Hitler thought it was torture.

This movie was so bad after Joe Paterno saw the film he called the cops.

The only thing worse than this film is the fact that they split it into two movies. It is a shame to think that each of these films are going to make an estimated $500 million. I mean nothing happened in this film. Let me give you a run through. The first forty minutes were spent at a wedding where crappy jokes were made, minute long kiss scenes took place, and Kristen Stewart was nervous about having sex. The next forty minutes were spent on their honeymoon which was pretty much a forty minute montage.  First a montage of them in a beautiful area of the world, then a montage of Kristen Stewart preparing to have sex, then a montage of Robert Pattinson not wanting to having sex with her anymore and then we find out she is pregnant. The first hour and a half of this film literally nothing happened. 

The last twenty minutes were spent with Kristen Stewart looking like shit and a bunch of vampires and werewolves surrounding her like she is the one person to save them all. She dies giving birth but sadly is turned into a vampire so their has to be another movie. Ending ruined, sorry. There are books so get over it. 

It’s a shame  Kristen Stewart and Robert Patinson are attached to this movie, as they are talented actors. Check out Water for Elephants if you want to go see a good performance from Robert Pattinson. Kristen Stewart was great in Adventureland and Welcome to the Rileys and I’m looking forward to her next role in Snow White and the Huntsman. 

Taylor Lautner on the other hand gives another one of his traditional no emotion, I might as well be a dead corpse performances where he has to have his shirt off in at least one scene. He is the worst. I rip on him more in my Abduction review, which is really a taylor Lautner bashing (http://bigbobbosreviews.blogspot.com/2011/09/abduction.html). 

I just don’t see the appeal in these movies. There are just so many points in this movie that pissed me off and are so out of place. In the first scene, Robert Pattinson tells Kristen Stewart that he hasn’t told her everything about himself. It’s the fourth fucking movie and they are about to get married and now all of a sudden their is more information. Then this information leads to nowhere and has no narrative meaning. The whole movie felt like a music video, with montage after montage with cheesy music. The CGI and green screen use was either terrible or obvious. Are werewolves suppose to be Samoan? Every actor that was a werewolf looks Samoan, I just don’t get it. And when the werewolves talk in their werewolf form I completely lost it. I laughed so hard and got so many dirty looks, it was the most glorious moment of my life. Other things out of place were the vampires watching college football for some reason and they googled hybrid human/vampire babies and all the information in the world was there including detailed pictures. Also why can these vampires walk around in the sunlight. That is the exact opposite of what a vampire should be. 

Horrific acting, terrible dialogue, frightful storytelling, horrid science fiction series, abominable twilight fans. These are the things that are wrong with the Twilight franchise. Thankfully in six months time it will all be over with and these tweens can stop admiring this Bella Swan character, who is just a terrible terrible person. I hate you Twilight and all of your fans. Until Part 2 when I can copy and paste this review.

Rating: ---0/10 (Triple negative zero because a double negative is actually positive).

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J. Edgar

J. Edgar
Directed by: Clint Eastwood

Written by: Dustin Lance Black

Plot:

As the face of law enforcement in America for almost 50 years, J. Edgar Hoover was feared and admired, reviled and revered. But behind closed doors, he held secrets that would have destroyed his image, his career and his life.

Review:

J. Edgar is one of the most powerful movies I have seen this year. It dove into the personal life of J. Edgar Hoover, during his career as the FBI director. It gave us an understanding of who is was as a person, how he was a man who lusted for power and the film strongly dealt with the acquisitions that J. Edgar Hoover was a closeted homosexual, which I learned tonight. I’m not going to lie, it threw me off when the film started dealing with these issues. Just because this was a powerful movie doesn’t make it an amazing film, don’t get me wrong it was great, but there was still a lot that went wrong in this film.

The story was told through the eyes of an older Hoover as he was retelling his life story. He was retelling his life story for his memoir that for some reason was being typed up by other FBI agents, that would rotate on this duty. I bet they didn’t have something more important to do, like stop a crime. Anyway the story would jump from present to past and it was a little confusing to pick up at first, but eventually started to make more sense.

The big story of this film is DiCaprio’s performance which of course is fantastic. He really brought Hoover to life and he is lock for a best actor nomination. Leonardo DiCaprio gave an incredibly believable performance of a man in self denial about his sexuality. Even though, Hoover’s sexuality was only speculated, J. Edgar portrayed Hoover as 100% a homosexual and this kind of inner turmoil of a closeted gay man has never been so dramatized in such detail on the big screen. 

Hoover’s lover goes by the name of Clyde Tolson, which was played by Armie Hammer and he gave a spectacular performance as well. I thought he started off slow but once he was in some intimate scenes with DiCaprio, Hammer’s talents really showed. The one thing that bothered me about his character was his make up as an older man. It was absolutely horrendous and was not believable at all. You would think they would have put a little more effort into since DiCaprio’s old man suit was great.

The big reason this film was not amazing and just great was the script. It wasn’t consistent with the character, dialogue, and story structure. I have already mentioned that the story structure was a little confusing as it jumped from present to past throughout the film, and it should be noted that some of the same shots were shown twice, for what seemed like no real narrative driving reason. But the character traits and their dialogue should feel consistent in a high profile film like this one. Leonardo DiCaprio had a great accent and would sound very old fashioned but then he would say something more modern a second later.

I know I did a lot of ranting on flaws in the film but really this film is enjoyable. At a 140 minuted long it does not feel like it drags even though it is a very slow paced film. Clint Eastwood gives you a beautiful looking (besides Armie Hammer’s makeup) film that really delves into the dark secrets that Hoover hides about himself and the country. Check it out, a likely best picture nomination and a definite best actor performance.

Rating: 7.5/10

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Immortals

Immortals

Directed by: Tarseem Singh

Written by: Charley Parlapanides and Vlas Parlapanides

Plot:

Theseus is a mortal man chosen by Zeus to lead the fight against the ruthless King Hyperion, who is on a rampage across Greece to obtain a weapon that can destroy humanity.

Review:

Immortals is a movie that you get exactly what you expect going in. Lots of action and no story. No amount of action could make up for the lack of story in this one. The script was a mess that jumped all over the place, adding in random characters just to get Theseus from one battle to the next. You don’t get attached to any of the characters, including the lead character Theseus, played by Henry Cavill. He just goes from one scene to the next killing people to avenge his mother. Even the lead actress, Frieda Pinto, was just put into the script to add a sex scene (great side boob shot) into the film and once Theseus had planted his seed, she completely disappears from the film with forty five minutes left to go. The action was great but the fact that I couldn’t get attached to any of the characters really hurt the film.

The action was spectacular to watch once it got going, which took forever. They were trying to set up a backstory that was completely boring, very inaccurate and very slow paced, but eventually they got to the fighting. Obviously these were the best scenes and are the reason you go to the theater to see a movie like Immortals. The scenes with Theseus were great but whenever the gods got involved, the fighting was taken to a whole other level. Heads turning to dust, killing five people before they can even move, blood spurting out in all directions. It all put a big grin on my face. 

The thing that surprised me the most coming out of this film was how psychotic and insane Mickey Rourke’s character King Hyperion was in this film. This might be one of the evilest characters in the film. The film focused on his demonic ways even more heavily than the fighting scenes in this film and were horrific to watch. It was surprising how graphic they got and how much focus was put on these images. 

As Greek Mythology goes, I don’t think the writers are experts on it. The entire script is completely inaccurate to Theseus’s adventures and it would have been nice for them to put a little effort into making it a accurate film. For those of you who don’t know a lot about Greek Mythology I would recommend reading up a little bit about it before going to the film because you will not get very much information about Theseus’s backstory in this film.

Even though there was no character identification or development I thought the casting for this film was well done. Henry Cavill plays a great hero and I am excited to seem him next in Superman. Mickey Rourke played a great villain, which might have been the best character in the film. Henry Cavill’s and Mickey Rourke had a great final fight scene towards the end. Luke Evans, was casted as Zeus, which he pulled off really well. He got some badass fight scenes too. I think Luke Evans is very talented, he was last seen in The Three Musketeers and will be seen in The Hobbit as well. 

Immortals is a very ridiculous movie. Don’t expect great characters, don’t expect a accurate mythology, don’t expect a clear cut story because there are a ton of plot holes in this film. Go into this film knowing that action is worth seeing and Mickey Rourke will give you one fucked up show.

Rating: 5/10

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Tower Heist

Tower Heist

Directed by: Brett Ratner

Written by: Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson

Plot:

When a group of hard working guys find out they've fallen victim to a wealthy business man's Ponzi scheme, they conspire to rob his high-rise residence.

Review:

Tower Heist was a fun film that exceeded my expectations. I thought this film was going to be a lost cause with former A-listers, Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy taking the leads and Brett Ratner behind the camera (I just can’t trust him anymore after his performance working in the X-Men franchise). But surprisingly it all works and had a great mix of a good comedy and a good heist film. It is very reminiscent of the Oceans movies, which is not surprising since one of the writers, Ted Griffin, worked on the Oceans 11 screenplay.

This is also the second film I have seen in the past week relating to our countries economic state. The other being In Time (http://bigbobbosreviews.blogspot.com/2011/11/in-time.html). In Tower Heist we get a Bernie Madoff type character, played by Alan Alda, who cleans out the pockets of the middle and lower classes, the everyday man. 

In Tower Heist the everyday man strikes back. With a great ensemble of likable, everyday men, misfits that come together to take down the titan that is Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda). Ben Stiller plays the leader of this group and the hero of the film. Ben Stiller was the Manager of the building they tried to rob. It was traditional Ben Stiller humor but he mostly played the straight character in this film and did not bring too many laughs. 

His supporting cast though made this film very funny. They include Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Michael Pena, and Casey Affleck. Eddie Murphy went back to his roots in this film. He went on rants, made great faces, and brought many laughs. I hope to see more of him in the future as long as he stays with his roots. He stole a bunch of scenes in this film. The character that brought the most laughs besides Eddie Murphy was Matthew Broderick. He played a Wall Street Whiz who was down on his luck. Pena and Affleck were both fine int heir respective roles. Pena played a elevator operator turned heist technician and Affleck played Stiller’s brother in law. 

One thing I really liked about this film was the script. It all flowed well and all of the character’s decisions and actions made sense. The reasons and planning of the robbery was logical. All relative to the world of the movie, of course. The film also did not have a cheesy romantic story or a cliche ending. I really thought I would hate the ending going into this film, but yet again i’ll say this film exceeded my expectations. 

Tower Heist was a very entertaining film and a movie that is hard to hate on. It is a great mix of comedy and heist and hopefully Brett Ratner will get some mojo back since this was probably his best work since Rush hour 2. If you want a fun film, go check out the not so washed up Still, Murphy, and Broderick in Tower Heist.

Rating: 7.5/10

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A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas

A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas

Directed by: Todd Strauss-Schulson

Written by: Jon Hurwitz and  Hayden Schlossberg

Plot:

Six years after their Guantanamo Bay adventure, stoner buds Harold Lee and Kumar Patel cause a holiday fracas by inadvertently burning down Harold's father-in-law's prize Christmas tree.

Review:

Harold and Kumar have done it again. They have turned a moderate problem into a complete shit storm and found hilarious new situations for you to laugh at. In a film which you get everything that you would expect plus more, they also bring you a 3D movie worth seeing. This is hands down the best usage of 3D I have seen. The director really makes sure there are many different objects and bodily functions flying close to your eye balls. Lovely, I know. The script even adds a couple 3D jokes.

Gun fights, Mob Bosses, horny teens, naked nuns, drug addicted children and so much more make up this ridiculous film. Oh, and how could I forget the amazing Neil Patrick Harris or NPH for short. Like the other two Harold and Kumar flicks they are not afraid to make jokes about anything. You can go into this film expecting nothing but pure fun and the joy of knowing there will be lines crossed. 

What I find really amazing is how Kal Penn gets away with making a movie like this. He quit acting to join the Obama administration as an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement and then resigned to make this film (and a couple episodes of How I Met your Mother) and once shooting was over he took back his post at the White House. He must be really smart to keep a job in the White House after making a movie like this one. Anyway, Kal Penn and John Cho are both funny in their Harold and Kumar way. They don’t miss a beat and pick it right back where they left off in Guantanamo Bay. Harold and Kumar are heroes to the stoner community and it is hard not to root for them. I can’t think of a more likable pair in a stoner comedy. Neil Patrick Harris though was the star of this film. Even though he only had about 10 to 15 minutes of screen time he stole the show. Once he entered the film I could not stop laughing. 

A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas is very much your typical Harold and Kumar film. It will follow the general rules of their universe and some of the charm was taken away since it is the third film, but it still manages to make you laugh. With a slow beginning, it quickly picks up speed and laughs keep coming. I can only hope they don’t make a fourth one.

Rating: 7/10

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In Time

In Time

Directed By: Andrew Niccol

Written By: Andrew Niccol

Plot:

In a future where people stop aging at 25, but are engineered to live only one more year, having the means to buy your way out of the situation is a shot at immortal youth. Here, Will Salas finds himself accused of murder and on the run with a hostage - a connection that becomes an important part of the way against the system.

Review:

I am not gonna lie, I am a Sci-Fi sucker. And there was no better way to treat myself on my birthday than this solid Sci-Fi Flick. In Time has a great premise which takes the old saying “time is money” and makes it a reality. It is set in a future world that is not so different than ours. The economy is in the dump, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Yup, sounds familiar.

As great as the premise was, the pacing of the film was a little off. It jumped from fast paced to slow paced too often to gain enough momentum to make it a more exciting film. I would have loved to have seen a couple more fast paced scenes because when the film was rolling it got my heart pumping, especially the last half hour of the film. I liked the way they dealt with the transferring of time. You would hold on to the other person’s arm and can control it with your mind. With that being said, it does seem a little easy to get your time stolen.

In Time was also an enjoyable movie because with a premise of nobody ages past the age of 25, there are a lot of beautiful people in this film, including Olivia Wilde (who was pushing 50) and Amanda Seyfried. Olivia Wilde plays Justin Timberlake’s mother and Amanda Seyfried is the love interest. Both giving solid performances, even Wilde who had very limited screen time. 

Justin Timberlake may be becoming a star. I mean I guess he already is a star, but he could be an A-list actor sometime in the near future. Besides a scene where he cried, which he just was not very good at, he was spot on in this role. He has now proved that he can carry a film in its leading role after being a supporting actor in previous films. He must be doing something right because rumors have it that the Coen brothers are trying to attach him to their next project (http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/10/31/justin-timberlake-llewyn-davis/)

I have to mention quickly that I loved seeing Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory) in this film. I think he is great and he had some great cameos in Entourage as well. Anyway, In Time is a entertaining and a solid Sci-Fi movie that is worth going to see. 

Rating: 7/10

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