Snowpiercer [Film Review]

Chris Evans has hardly ever impressed me. Never, apart from this film. He was decent in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but he was doing comedy. Comedy's fun to act, drama's more difficult. Or so I've experienced. And the Captain America performances... I'm sorry but in my opinion he tries much too hard to be the admirable and patriotic hero, and doesn't put near enough emotion into his performances there.

But now... Snowpiercer has shown me a powerful side of Evans' acting that has me hoping for his future. Can't wait to see Puncture (whenever I get around to that...). He's truly amazing here, and he shows some tremendous emotion. Of course he acts well in the action scenes... though I have problems with the Cap performances, he does do well with action (talking up close action, not stunt double action).

Snowpiercer is another one of those post-apocalypctic films, with a bit more of a confined space. The entire thing takes place on board a speeding train which fights off the freezing outdoors. After an unsuccessful attempt to defend against global warming, the world has declined into another ice age, and most of humanity is dead. The remaining living are on board this train that works on a perpetual energy engine.

It's clear from the beginning that through this cultural collapse and consequential dependence on authority/government has spawned a potentially Hitlerian treatment of humanity. Those on board the train have been split into categories: those in the cars near the front, who live in lavish quarters and have wonderful views, and those in the tail end of the train, who don't even have windows and are all jammed together in extremely cramped areas. All of your belongings there stay on your bed or on your person.  When it comes to that part of the film, it feels far too... Hunger Games ish. It matches up with that film in the obnoxious idea that rich people look flippin' stupid, which is totally untrue and ridiculous.

It also reminded me a tad of City of Ember, in that the characters have to climb through authority to get to a place where they can overcome the inhumane and secretive society. There are some plot holes... or should I say unanswered questions... throughout the film. such as what the heck is up with characters cutting fish? Why are people oddly not-pale for not having seen sunlight for seventeen years? Why isn't anyone trying to figure out a way to fix the earth's current conditions? Why weren't any vehicles put on board the train, like a helicopter or something, using a miniature version of the same technology the train runs on?

Of course with a film like this you're going to have unanswered questions. But these probably could have been answered... or even fixed... easily. For example, many of my complaints with the plot as it progressed were answered by the end.

The cast is good... and excellent when it comes to Tilda Swinton. She is a stunningly unappreciated actress, and she always gives a role her best. Here she excellently plays an antagonist character, and it is just so fun to watch her act an eccentric character like this!

Despite the mentioned plot holes and some annoying shaky cam, this film is an absorbing and rather action packed film about a revolution aboard a train.

Once Upon a Time in America [Film Review]

Yeah... I was just expecting one of those classics of cinema that I just didn't completely catch onto. It happens a lot with these greats, and often I just need to give it another go and I find the greatness in it. It usually takes a little while though. I had my doubts at the beginning, but after the first thirty minutes or so, after I finally began understanding the timeline and what was going on (thanks to a wikipedia page...), I experienced a true cinematic classic.

It works rather subtly, but the last hour hits hard. You come to care for these characters, even though they're not even close to admirable and their morals are askew in many MANY ways. It even becomes very difficult to accept the main character, Noodles, as a good main character. But, then again, a main theme of this film is forgiveness.

In some ways, this reminded me of 25th Hour, as the characters dig holes for themselves with crime and examine their lives and how all of their actions have influenced their lives up to crucial and pivotal moments.

Ennio Morricone's beautiful and emotional soundtrack contributes hugely to the film. It accents a large number scenes and gives them a tragic feeling which they did in fact already have, but it emphasizes that feeling. I recognized some of the tracks as at least one had been used in <i>Kill Bill</i>, but the most emotional theme isn't, which made it more new and made its heartbreaking sound more shockingly beautiful.

The two key actors, Robert De Niro and James Woods, are nothing short of excellent. De Niro often has to entertain the audience on his own, especially in the first half hour, but in each scene he's absolutely tremendous. And James Woods gets angry several times, which seems to be the primary or at least the best use of his face. He seriously has a terrific angry face.

You can really get into the rhythm of this astonishingly deep and powerful four-hour long (practically) film. It's about how choices can affect your life... which is a common theme in films (The Place Beyond the Pines, Locke...) but it's still a really great theme, and there are many great films that have been made off of it.

Frank [Film Review]

I knew when I saw the trailer it was going to be good, but I didn't expect it to be this abstract and phenomenal. I mean, the idea of Michael Fassbender putting himself inside of a giant fake head to play heavily independent music with a bunch of mental patients is an insane idea for a film in the first place, but it certainly sounds intriguing as heck.

Michael Fassbender's always been amazing. In all of his performances he shows a ton of talent. He made Magneto more awesome than ever in Days of Future Past, and gave one of his best performances in Shame. Of course, this is now my favorite Fassbender performance. I mean how could it not be? WITH THAT FREAKING FIBERGLASS (or papier mache, whichever) HEAD?!

It's got commentary on a lot of things with its ensemble of amazingly eccentric characters... independence, the positives and negatives of publicity, the virtue of being yourself and making something that you enjoy. It has some immensely dramatic scenes, and it's also consistently hilarious, mostly due to Fassbender. Seriously, he is hysterical. I can not emphasize this enough, Fassbender is pretty much the life of this movie, along with the music.

THE MUSIC. As I said before, it's very abstract, and often it seems like the lyrics are complete randomness, but IT WORKS. I don't know how, but it just sounds fantastic. It's incredibly obscure, hard to go along with, but it's fresh and unique. And of course I must address the song everyone's freaking out over, "I Love You All": It's worth freaking out over. Essentially, it's awesome and amazing, but also is like the music I've described above, obscure, random, abstract, fresh, unique.

The ending also almost made me cry. I was tearing up a bit.

This just astonishingly passed up Under the Skin as my third favorite film of 2014, and it's going on my Favorites of All Time list. I wish I had money for the soundtrack, but as an unemployed seventeen year old, I do not have the money (and I live on an indian reservation so I can't really get a job because people here are freaking racist). You've all got to see this movie though.

300: Rise of an Empire [Film Review]

300: Rise of an Empire has a lot of what its predecessor had, and not in a good way: bad writing is turned up a notch, there are far more hollow characters as there are far more characters, and the blood that 300 shed, is shed in more excessive amounts here.

Seriously, I must first address the blood. It's the worst error made in the CGI department here, which all considered generally does a great job in the film. Except for the blood of course. The blood which is shed in ridiculous amounts is unbelievably thick and comes out in insane amounts from even the most minor wounds.

The action scenes are decent and some good fun, and that's the reason that most liked 300, was because of the insane beheadings and kicking-into-pits (This is Sparta is said in this film by the way). But the film, though divided by transitions with the title 'scene' slapped onto them hastily, is basically one giant action scene. There's barely room for character development at all, and characters abandon their ideals in one scene while standing strongly by them in another.

Oh, and there's a ridiculous sex scene that seems like an action scene, and it is backed by action music. It's oddly violent and angry, and it's just awkward. Almost as awkward as the sex scenes in The Room. ALMOST.

I did enjoy Eva Green's performance overall, and while her character wasn't deeply explored and she mostly just seemed like a typical persistent villain with motives based in an off-the-shelf backstory, she was still an entertaining 'strong' female character (quotations around strong as she is strong-willed and strong physically, but not strongly constructed as a character).

The film is fun if you're looking to sit back and watch limbs and heads get cut off and blood fly around in unrealistic proportions, but as a film to be examined, it's not great. It takes a lot of time from the beginning to understand the timeline it's following (it's not quite a sequel, and it's not quite a prequel...). It's a flashy and gory film.

Le Samouraï [Film Review]

It's easy to see, now having watched this film all the way through, why many consider it great. It doesn't reach my Greats list, but I understand completely why many consider it to be one of the great films (including Ebert).

Much of the film's excellence is due to Alain Delon. His performance here is absolutely stellar. He acts with a straight-faced dignity, so confident and sure of all his actions, and it truly contributes to the character. The man he portrays, Jef Costello, is a hired assassin, who is seen in this film in a single trip-up, likely one of the only ones he's ever faced in his career, that sets the entire film off: a woman catches him in the act of an assassination. In the moment it is brushed off as he stares at the woman for a second, but it has dire consequences that are reflected throughout the film.

A majority of Le Samourai is watching procedure. The audience observes Jef's habits and the specifics about his character, and his attitudes. He is quick and calm under pressure, and cares a lot about his appearance, as in the opening scene he adjusts his hat specifically, running his hand across its rim thrice.

Subtly entertaining and terrifically engaging, Le Samourai, though not quite great (yet) in my eyes, is clearly a brilliant piece of original cinema, though often relied upon in modern films.

Guardians of the Galaxy [Film Review]

James Gunn has done something DIFFERENT with the Marvel universe! Instead of going with the classic heroes going through their problems while being surrounded by ridiculousness, fighting in a highly boring way, Gunn has made a film that really knows what it's doing!

Something about the Marvel films has always annoyed me. None of them ever feel RIGHT. They all feel off in one way or another, or in many ways. The Marvel films up to this point, while crowd-pleasing, have been hollow and often contradictory (what the heck is up with Thor). But this is pure, unrestricted fiction. They don't try to put any bit of reality into it, they don't try to explain these phenomenally odd creatures. This doesn't even feel like it's part of Marvel, it's so good. This feels like just a really incredible movie.

The comedy throughout is brilliant, and actually works (unlike the comedy in Avengers, which left me very straight-faced). The comedy, much of which relies on a brilliant compiled soundtrack, in the movie called 'Awesome Mix Vol. 1', is absolutely perfect and adds an excellent spice throughout.

The characters, each individually incredible, are well structured and acted. Chris Pratt is of course the greatest of the cast (maybe it's because I've loved his performances on Parks and Recreation, perhaps I have a bias), and he acts with a good amount of flamboyance and attitude. Bradley Cooper excellently portrays a persistently angry raccoon, and Benicio Del Toro has a brief but tremendous appearance as what is described in the script (reportedly) as an outer space Liberace.

The action is pretty awesome, and incredibly well-filmed. The soundtrack is also well utilized with it, exemplified perfectly in a scene using the song 'Escape'. Chris Pratt grooves to music while taking out enemies in style, in his red-eyed helmet.

Guardians of the Galaxy is without a doubt my favorite Marvel film, partially because it's so disconnected from the universe I've rather come to dislike. It's fun, hilarious, incredibly enjoyable and smart. James Gunn is likely the best thing to come to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and he's now made a film that is like The Avengers, but good, actually comedic, and with great characters. I eagerly wait for the sequel, as long as it's got James Gunn and Chris Pratt.

The Rover [Film Review]

"You should never stop thinking about a life you've taken. That's the price you pay for taking it."

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we've got another Blue Ruin on our hands. Though it's not quite as good as that brilliant film, it is nonetheless a riveting and absorbing film of revenge.

The Rover is something of a western, though it's far more evasive than your average film from that genre. The moral scale of the characters in the film tips back and forth so often it's hard to keep track of who you're really rooting for. The film begins with a man's car being stolen by a group of thieves. This man being Guy Pearce, you know he's going to do something about this.

The majority of the film he is constantly pushing forward, eager and desperate to get his car back by any means necessary. He employs the help of one of the thieves that were left behind, played by Robert Pattinson, to help him find the group. The question of why the car is so important is the primary thing that drives the film forward. That, and several tremendous action sequences and some stunningly stupendous cinematography (I actually find good cinematography to be entertaining all on its own, which is one of the reasons why I find The Master and The Life Aquatic entertaining while my friends consider them boring).

Guy Pearce takes center stage with ease as he has before. He plays a strong, mysterious character with little described history. He seems to be the classic western immortal character, heartlessly executing people and then later stating that you pay a price for each head. He's a dark and persistent man with unknown motives, and its so perplexing it helps keep the film afloat.

It's an odd revenge thriller with an emotional punch near the end, with some spectacular music and terrific acting from the entire crew. If you understand its messages, please comment! I'd love to hear some interpretations.

Locke [Film Review]

Tom Hardy has been one of my favorite actors since Inception. Time and time again he's given fantastic performances, his most unique of which was given in Bronson. He was the primary reason I wanted to watch this film.

Locke takes a bit of time to get used to. It takes place nearly 100% inside of a car, as Ivan Locke, played by the aforementioned brilliant Hardy, tries to deal with some extremely heavy situations from the driver's seat of his car. Over the duration of an hour and a half car ride, Locke's life begins to collapse slowly around him.

Locke believes that he can fix everything in his life. He does an incredible job of adapting to new situations as they quickly arise around him, but over the course of the drive you can see them taking an emotional toll on him, as he curses his late father. But through it all he strongly takes the driver's seat, literally and figuratively, on the predicaments in his life.

There are some small obnoxious things throughout the film. The phone conversations are often rather repetitive, and we often are subject to, again, repetitive transitions. The music is pretty much the same throughout. But as the film progresses, it pulls you in and you begin to empathize with Locke's complicated situation. It all becomes rather emotional. Tom Hardy holds the audience's attention splendidly through it all as well.

Locke is far from flawless. But if you're willing to sit through the ride, it makes for a rather beautifully tragic story.

Godzilla [Film Review]

I have never seen a Godzilla film, but he's so immensely well known throughout the world, and the fact that this film has Bryan Cranston in it had me excited for it.

Unfortunately, Bryan Cranston plays a very small part in the film (as does Godzilla, oddly). But it's still pretty dang awesome. Godzilla is an awesome piece of special-effects filled cinema. Though Aaron Taylor Johnson does take center stage and at times does not really handle it well, (he never really has), it's still great fun.

I watched this with my brother, and we were not quite in a serious mood... to be honest it was hard to be serious with a subject that has been so commonly parodied, as Godzilla has. So my brother and I were laughing throughout just about the entire film. But it still had incredible action scenes, and an intense atmosphere.

The cast, aside from the disappointing Aaron Taylor Johnson, is pretty spectacular. Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Bryan Cranston and Elizabeth Olsen, though they all have rather small roles, are amazing.

Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000) [Film Review]

I remembered this as an annoying, obnoxious car chase film with little charm. But this revisitation, forced upon me by my family as well as an additional family that moved into our house recently and are huge fans of this film (mostly because they have great interest in cars), made me reconsider it, and I don't know what it was, but it came off this time as the Ocean's Eleven of car movies. Granted the fact that its a car movie does drop it a full star, but it's nonetheless better than I remembered.

Of course the plot is lacking, it's got a ridiculous murphy's law element to it, and the cops in the film don't take near as many advantages as are granted to them, and some that they do take aren't even seemingly possible. Plus I don't see why the two brothers didn't just get out of town right at the start as they had no surveillance on them at all other than the cops who would have been glad for them to get out of town...

Basically the plot sucks. But its still a fun ride, with a thrilling second half which is essentially made up of a giant heist. Angelina Jolie is slightly more charming than her annoying self, and the cast is superb, and Nicolas Cage is allowed a few of his totally weird moments, which he must be allowed as Phillip Seymour Hoffman always had to have his freak outs in his films.

A Serious Man [Film Review]

This is my third favorite film of all time, and it has earned that place.

I just love films that are self-referential. Rango, Seven Psychopaths, stuff like that just makes me super happy. I don't know what it is about it, but I just find it absolutely  .

This is another self-referential film, and I really realized just how much it is on this viewing. The main character in the film, Larry Gopnik, is experiencing many troubles in his life, and is trying to interpret the meaning of this 'tsuris' in his life, and what Hashem is trying to tell him through it.

Meanwhile, many have mused over this film, and what the Coens are trying to tell us in it. The ending stumps many, and there are many interpretations to it. And that is the point of the film, as the mentaculus proves: We can't ever really know what's going on.

The film would actually, in an ethical way, make a very good prequel or double feature with Inside Llewyn Davis, another Coen brothers film focusing on a character having trouble accepting the things that happen to him (though he learns his lesson by the end).

A Serious Man asks itself the question many will ask about it, and is brilliant in doing so. It's a commentary on interpretation of film, at least I think so. But I don't know, because I can't know, and I'll likely never know. But, as the quote at the beginning of the film states, we should accept with simplicity all that comes to us. As McConaughey tells us in Dazed and Confused, we've just got to keep L-I-V-I-N.

Some may say that this is the Coens at their most pretentious, at their most overdramatic and at their most obnoxious. But I believe it is them at their most philosophical, at their most thoughtful, and at their most intelligent. This film perfectly exemplifies their stubbornness in creating odd stories that can be interpreted in numerous ways. It's just absolutely brilliant all the way through, and one of the most comedic works of intelligent art I've ever seen. It's a charmingly perplexing, infinitely evasive and hilarious film.

A Million Ways to Die in the West [Film Review]

Despite all of the bad reviews for this film, I thought it would at least be good for some cheap stupid laughs. This has been the case with several films that were not well received by critics, that are not high quality films but are really rather funny. At least to me. Like Due Date. Well, this film is cheap and stupid, but provides few laughs.

Seth McFarlane seriously needs to stick to animation, or simply being behind the camera. Because to be honest, his on-screen acting is totally charmless. And his constant commentaries on history and today's society are obvious and obnoxious. I just cannot describe how absolutely annoying McFarlane is in this film. His character is immensely undeveloped... you know, I feel odd judging the character development of a Seth McFarlane film, but I would like at least one decent character, and there are none here.

Everything is parodic, and thus there's really nothing original, or at least nothing original that's good. Everything that is original is original for a reason: it's just so freaking stupid that nobody would ever think it was a good idea to do it. Because it's not. Which is why this movie was a bore, and a failure as a comedy.

And the attempted comedy throughout the film is all weak, crass, and stupid. There are fart jokes, poop jokes, and the comedy in this film is dumber than most jokes in Family Guy. It's ridiculously dumb.

And it also features a horrid misuse of the excellent actor that is Liam Neeson.

The Fault in Our Stars [Film Review]

I went into this film expecting to cry. It was odd when posts started popping up a few years ago, my friends stating their anticipation for an upcoming novel to release. A surprisingly large number of my friends were interested in this novel, and I had no idea why. I had never heard of the author, or the book itself, had no idea what it was about, and had no idea why everyone was so dang interested in this random book.

And then a movie was being made for it. And I thought, hey, I can find out what the craze is all about without having to read a book. I really have nothing against reading, it's just difficult for me because when I have free time, I watch movies. I just like to. I prefer to.

So now, having seen the film, I can make a statement on it.

It's not worth all the craze.

I'm sorry to all the devoted fans of the story, the novel and the film. It's good. It's emotional at times, and I'm sure that the novel is much more of an experience. But this film was just not what I was expecting or hoping for.

The main problem I had and the main reason I didn't cry as I expected to, I believe, is the fact that I don't think that the relationship between the two main characters was well developed. For me, we had two fantastic main characters. But the relationship was not founded, but it was simply essential and obvious. It was clearly going to happen. The film just did not spend enough time developing the relationship between the two.

The film does have some decent points. It's rather philosophical at times. But on the other hand, it's painfully cheesy at times. But it strikes a decent balance between the two, and makes for an enjoyable film.

So, instead of giving this a 9/10 or even a 10/10 as both of my brothers would quickly apply to this film, I instead give it an 8/10. It is decent, it is emotional and it was rather beautiful at times. Willem Dafoe was absolutely incredible, as usual. It's just not one of those great relationship films that really catches you, like, say, The Fountain.