American: The Bill Hicks Story
American: The Bill Hicks Story is a marvel of archival footage and interesting narrative. The film chronicles the life and death of Comedian Bill Hicks and his years in the American comedy scene.
Hicks career was full of alcohol, drugs. anger, laughs, music and psychedelic mushrooms. His career took off in an age before YouTube, CDs and Internet message boards. His anti-war and angry stage presence made him a savior amongst comedians and critics but he never caught on with the American populace. His style of comedy was never popular but it was groundbreaking. He allowed fellow comedians to follow in his trail blazing failures.
The documentary does an interesting thing with the narrative and visuals. Instead of various talking heads it employs pictures of Hicks to be used in interesting ways. What follows is an innovative way to tell a story. If you are a fan of stand up comedy you should know about Bill Hicks. His presence and material are apparent in Bill Maher, Lewis Black and multitudes of other comedians.
Watch this documentary if you are a fan of visually interesting film making. The story of Bill Hicks is an innovative doc that tells a wonderful story of a man who was appreciated too late.
Watch the wonderful Senna as well. They are both solid docs on Netflix.
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Melancholia
Two hours of beautiful depression. A collection of moving art featuring depressed rich white people. Directed by one of the most polarizing directors today. A director who requires his own poster and promo photos when he makes a movie.
If you are a fan of film then you should be familiar with Lars Von Trier. He is a mad genius who polarizes the movie going populace. His movies look great but they are rarely positive and often controversial. His movies range from experimental (Dogville) to insane (Antichrist).
Regardless, he still manages to make beautiful looking films that focus on depression, depravity and more depression. This is the first time that one of his films have pushed into the mainstream. This still isn’t his Drive but he is closer to the outskirts of the mainstream. If he learns to curb his insanity and depression he could make a brilliant looking film that might make some money.
The depression in this movie is understandable. The movie focuses on a planet named Melancholia that is two weeks away from hitting the earth. The movie starts at a wedding and ends on a golf course. In this time marriages end, suicide happens and the world is destroyed.
All of this depression looks beautiful. Von Trier creates a visually rich stark world. The shot selection is picturesque and the acting wonderful. Also, Von Trier uses the Phantom camera in creative and practical ways. The super slow motion shots are works of art.
Kirsten Dunst is also really good at playing a character that is more of an emotion than an actual person. The actors in this film play off the various stages of grief that occur when a huge planet is about to obliterate the planet.
This movie is like hiking to the top of a mountain. The journey is a monster but the view is great. You won’t enjoy many moments of the trip but the hike makes you stronger and you can tell pretentious stories while at parties.
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Prometheus
Prometheus looks for answers and succeeds in sparking conversations. love it or hate it you will want to talk about it. It is a philosophical science fiction film that shares the same DNA as The Grey. They are both films that question life, death and survival. However, they were marketed as slam-bang wolf punching terror. They were never meant to be huge. They were personal films made by two capable directors.
Prometheus is about two scientists searching for the engineers who created life. One uses faith the other science. The problem is that you don’t always want to find the answers because the answers will kill you and provide the DNA for the Alien series.
The reason this film will not go down is a classic is simple. The top six thriller films according to AFI are Psycho, Jaws, Exorcist, North by Northwest, The Silence of the Lambs and Alien. These films feature people who are doing their job or are in over their heads. Their motives are not filled by greed, power or selfishness. They are dealing with the situations they’ve been handed. Thus, you support the characters because they are doing what they have to do. Prometheus focuses on the gains of several people and you dont have the connection with the characters like you do in Jaws or Alien.
Michael Fassbender steals the show as the android David 8. He is the wild card in a ship full of personalities. Is he like Ash from Alien or Bishop from Aliens? Regardless of his motives he is the catalyst for all the chaos.
Noomi Rapace holds up in the physical scenes. Logan Marshall-Green is appropriately confident. The supporting characters are good but inconsequential. The most engaging character moments happen between Idris Elba’s smooth captain and Charlize Theron’s icy supervisor.
Another reason why Prometheus will never be a classic is because of the occasional head scratching choices the crew makes. Why take off your helmet while in an alien built catacomb? Also, there are a couple of moments I want to mention but for spoiler sake I will not. These choices do not matter in the long run (they would die anyway) but they do take you out of the story.
What Prometheus excels at is creating a beautiful look and eerie mood. The practical sets blend perfectly with the CGI and there is always a sense of dread. The look and practical sets achieve a look rarely achieved on-screen. The movie lived up to the visual hype that has been building in my mind.
Prometheus swings for the fences and almost gets there. However, that “almost” is enough. I’d rather watch a film with hiccups that attempts to build a world. Many movies simply try to manage expectations and keep a ship afloat. Prometheus asks big questions, provides memorable visuals and has given the populace an adult science fiction film to discuss.
If you go and watch Prometheus on IMAX 3D make sure your IMAX glasses are clean. They recycle the glasses and they have smudges. I was plagued by the smudges while watching John Carter. I made sure the glasses were cleaned this time. The lady at the ticket drop was cool and cleaned them again. Thus, the viewing was smudge free. Don’t be afraid to ask for them to be cleaned.
Enjoy Prometheus. Watch it and comment.
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MY CALL: So bad. At times funny, but ultimately not worth the guilt of choosing to watch something so inane. I never want to see or hear about this movie again. [D] WHAT TO WATCH INSTEAD: Want to see someone with cool powers fighting a cool devil? Watch Constantine (2005).
They waste no time lacing this movie with implausibility. Even after we accept the existence of the supernatural Ghost Rider as a given, the super high-tech monks in minute-two had me Oh God-ing from the very start. I’ve seen these monks before, too, so this ridiculous concept isn’t even original. The Van Damme-Dennis Rodman buddy action flick Double Team (1997) had them, too.
Spirit of Vengeance follows the new wave franchise trend of going international with the storyline. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker saw Rush Hour traffic in China and France. The Karate Kid series kicked young adult butt in Japan and China. The Fast and the Furious stamped their passports in Japan, Brazil, and the UK in the upcoming Fast 6 with Haywire’s Gina Carano and returning Dwayne Johnson. And the Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible series always takes place in other countries.
We receive a nice little Cage-narrated background of why and how Johnny Blaze became “the rider.” Later, we also learn just what the Spirit of Vengeance actually is. We meet some techno-monks and learn that some child’s fate will determine the fate of the world. And then there’s the incentive. Some “ancient church” will remove Blaze’s curse if he saves this boy from the devil.
Let’s add some cynical irony, shall we? In Stigmata and Dogma our theological keystone characters were atheists and one of them worked at an abortion clinic. In this, the boy and his mother are drifters who hustle their way from one meal to the next. Then there’s our cell-phone toting, business class devil (Ciarán Hinds; The Woman in Black). I prefer my devils more like the Bedazzled Elizabeth Hurley, Angel Heart’s Louis Cypher or Constantine’s Lucifer. Our devil just isn’t sleek, off-putting, or handsome; just a lame, old school CEO-type. His powers are limited on Earth, in human form, and he relies on deals to find emissaries to carry out desired tasks.
For Ghost Rider the action is good, what little there is, and the effects are A-one. They also had a little fun with the concept that whatever Ghost Rider rides becomes sort of a Hellfire version of itself.
But the cons outstandingly outweigh the pros. The story is lame, the primary antagonist is a regular human schmuck (Carrigan) and he is later transformed into a somehow even less interesting and dumb looking supernatural semi-undead villain, Cage has some really weak father-figure moments with the boy, and the boring devil’s role is minimal. Also Carrigan’s post-transformation make-up is awful and his action scenes are poorly imagined. Carrigan’s face off with Ghost Rider is a complete disappoint.
So this is the best they could come up with? Son of Hobo with a Shotgun, here? He looks like he should have a cardboard sign at an interstate exit ramp.
Christopher Lambert (Beowulf, Highlander) plays the ancient church’s monk leader with mad face tats. They are pressure point senseis, expert winemakers with a 2000-year old wine cellar, and gunsmiths of advanced artillery—making them the second least plausible monastery ever in this movie (second only to the techno-monks).
Nic, that’s exactly how we all feel after watching your movie. Now how many Aspirin do I have to chase with vodka to forget that this movie ever happened?
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Bad Movie Tuesday: The Devil Inside
A 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an “F” cinemascore guaranteed that I would watch this movie. It deserved all the internet vitriol, audience boos and twitter hate. However, it did make $20 million in its opening weekend and only cost $1 million.
This movie would make an interesting case study in marketing success. If you promote anything at the right time you will have yourself a hit film. However, so many internet savvy people watched it the opening weekend it cost the film dearly. Because, afterwards the internet exploded with Devil Inside dislike. It was an interesting phenomena. The marketers fooled the audience and it cost the long-term success of the genre. Take for instance, the better reviewed Chernobyl Diaries did poorly at the box office due to fatigue.
I cheated a bit while watching this movie. I fast forwarded through all of the exorcism moments because they were unnecessary and exploitive. I could care less about a bunch of actors wrestling with an old woman with a deep voice.
The reason I watched this movie was to understand the badness. I figured it out in the first thirty seconds. The movie is supposed to resemble a found footage film but the acting is bad. It feels like people are acting and not being natural. A found footage movie hinges on the acting. Paranormal Activity worked because the two leads were natural. The Last Exorcism somewhat worked because of the strength of Cotton Marcus. Troll Hunter worked like gangbusters with its creativity and solid acting.
The Devil Inside is incredibly bad. The acting hurts, the plot wonky and the source material vague. When I say bad acting I mean that the actors cannot play natural. You can tell they are trying…They watched other films and copied them. Thus, it feels forced and not believable.
The movie is humorously promoted as “inspired by an actual story.” So, If I’m inspired by a football game and I write a dinosaur movie I can say it was inspired by an actual story. Also, they asked the Catholic Church for help. The church said no. So, now they promote how the Church wouldn’t help them.
This film made money however it hurt the genre. This is a great thing. It will force the creators to come up with creative endeavors that don’t exploit the movie going audience to make a few dollars.
The Devil Inside is a bad film that will do good things for the found footage genre. It will force creators to re-evaluate the audience and create interesting things that people will want to see.
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John’s Horror Corner: The Woman in Black (2012)
MY CALL: Three things, ordered from good to bad. 1) Daniel Ratcliffe can actually perform non-Harry Potter roles effectively. 2) The mood in this movie was very cool, though misadvertised. This is a horror flick, but the mood is more mystery/thriller-ish. 3) This film has no synthesis and then just “ends” without a real ending. [C/C-] WHAT TO WATCH INSTEAD: Some house-themed horror-mysteries that pleased me include The Skeleton Key (2005), Session 9 (2001), What Lies Beneath (2000), and maybe The Others (2001) or Darkness (2002).
Let’s just be real for a moment. When I saw the preview for this I saw This Old House meets a period piece version of Dead Silence with a Nightmare on Elm Street nursery rhyme. Throw in Harry Potter’s Daniel Ratcliffe and I’m even more skeptical. I didn’t doubt he could act. I loved him as Harry Potter. I just didn’t trust that he could convince me that he act any other role.
Ratcliffe plays Arthur, an alcoholic English widower who is leaving his small boy for a few days of work out of town. He is a lawyer charged with auditing a dead woman’s estate to ensure that a final will and testament is held. His arrival to the small town is met with unwelcome. The local tavern “lost” his reservation and has no room available except for the attic where, in the opening scene, we saw the three young daughters of the tavern keepers commit synchronized suicide.
In fact, all of the locals from peasant to commissioner are not only aware of the lawyer’s presence, but they all clearly don’t want him there. The uncooperative commissioner tries to convince him that there is no need to audit the house; that he already has all of the relevant documents. They go so far as to convince him that all means of contact to London are barred. But one local man, Mr. Daily, whom he met on the train, was kind to him.
We also quickly learn that the theme of the movie is the random death of small children…and it’s somehow linked to the marsh estate. The remote, ocean tide-bound estate is decrepit, dark, stony and cold. In the beginning it’s not really very eerie. The occasional, quiet sighting of the woman in black and some loud, cheap scare tactics keep us on our toes, though. It went something like this…
Hey, what’s that out of focus thing moving in the background. OMFG! The woman in black!
What’s that there? Right there…to the left…in the doorway, out of focus. WTF! The woman in black!
What a fabulous view. FML! The woman in black!
When Arthur has nowhere to stay, the Daily’s host him. Mrs. Daily is clearly still disturbed from the loss of her son nearly twenty years ago and is medicated, apparently with ether, to suppress delusions of serving as her dead son’s medium. Mr. Daily (Ciarán Hinds; Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance) warns of chasing shadows with superstition and furiously defends him from the lynch mob mentality of the other townsfolk who swear that Arthur is to blame for a recent child’s death. You sympathize with Mr. Daily, who supplies travel, alcohol and the companionship of his dog. But you also can’t help but to wonder why he is so helpful.
Yeah, I was REALLY worried about the dog, too.
The scares and creepiness become more tactful, but the film is more intriguing than it is horror-ish. I want to know what’s going on whereas, in most horror, I’m there to be scared or gored and am simply along for the ride to discover the backstory’s motive or origin. Later on, the movie turns into a fruitless ghost wild goose chase.
Creepy-intriguing writing on the wall.
Creepy-intriguing toys and rocking chairs.
Creeped out and intrigued Harry Potter with a hatchet.
For me the ending was the major disappointment. I was given no closure as to why the ghost was doing what it was doing or why the story ended the way that it did. I’m most disturbed that I had read about a sequel to this movie. Why have a sequel to a story that has no middle or end? Essentially, from the time of the first act, we never get anything new that sticks throughout the movie.
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Movies, Films & Flix Roundtable: Premium Rush
Mark: JGL and Michael Shannon star in a movie about a bike messenger who is hunted by a really angry guy. Add Nu Metal and bike stunts and you have…..a movie that I still cannot believe exists.
Ham Sandwich: The extreme life of a bike messenger in NYC….followed by the extreme life of the hot dog food cart and sky scraper window washer
Jay: It’s like Quicksilver meets the Transporter, starring Kevin Statham a.k.a. JGL.
John: Okay, what on Earth did I just see. Fine! I’ll watch it. I’ll probably even enjoy it. But make no mistake this will be a bad movie and, clearly, indicates JGL’s (or JGL’s agent’s) first serious lapse in judgment. Levitt has been getting great, serious roles and even some lighter-hearted sincere ones as well. Were it not for Christopher Nolan’s grab bag of preferred and re-used actors, I’d worry that this could cause a serious hick-up in JGL’s career. I mean, when this was in pre-production what was the role being cast? 22-year-old bike messenger with a dim future? And his agent jumped on this? Sounds like somebody owed somebody a favor.
……Now that the critical rant is over, I really do think this will be some mindless fun to watch.
Mark: I’m thinking it will be Cellular on bicycles or Timeline without time travel.
John: Cellular with considerably less muscle mass between the pro- and antagonists. Timeline without time travel is really just Paul Walker yelling with a sword in his hand
Mark: I just watched this trailer again and the thought “rush” did not come into my mind. These are three thoughts that did.
1. If Michael Shannon stops me then threatens my family I’m going to give him my backpack.
2. There seems to be a lot of CGI in a movie about bicycles.
3. I think JGL said the line “when somebody hits you…you hit back.”
Sweet Sugar: This has to be some kind of joke. Why watch this when i could watch Pacific Blue reruns on TBS? It seems like it should have been kids movie along the lines of Surf Ninjas with a Third Rock from the Sun aged JGL
Chuck Finley: “Speaking of Surf Ninjas, the world needs more Rob Schneider” said nobody ever
Sweet Sugar: … or more of Tone Loc
Chuck Finley: Michael Shannon is a great creep (eg., Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead). On a more important note, what ever happened to Nu Metal? Nothing makes me want to watch a bike delivery movie like some Slipknot and Coal Chamber. And what could possibly be in a parcel that the second that you gave it to the guy you wanted it back? “I really want to send this…(4 seconds later)….Oh yeah I’ll need that back or, uh, I’ll murder you”. Holy overreaction, Shannon. I also think it’s funny that cars were having trouble catching bicycles. Like if you are pedaling fast enough the person in the car is like, “Well we can’t catch them now, Jesus look how fast they are pedaling”.
Mark: He should have just pulled a gun and got the package. Instead he has to slowly drive around listening to Hoobastank for two hours.
O’Lasavath: I get the feeling this movie would be a lot more interesting if it were based on the perspective of Michael Shannon’s character. Why won’t that kid give me the envelope? Where did he learn to do those extreme bike tricks? Where is that numetal music coming from?
Chuck Finley: like no matter what CD or radio station he put on in his car it would be nu metal.
O’Lasavath: At one point in the movie, Michael Shannon gets an epiphany and realizes the best way to track down JGL is to just follow the nu metal.
O’Lasavath: You gotta give JGL’s character a lot of respect. You would never see that level of commitment from the UPS guy.
O’Lasavath: I wonder what’s in that envelope that’s so important? Does JGL ever stop to consider that maybe its just a father’s day card? Maybe the reason why Michael Shannon wants it back is because he forgot to sign it.
Chuck Finley: Maybe in a moment of weakness he put 20 bucks in a birthday card then realized he was exactly 20 bucks short on rent
Mark: David Koepp wrote this film. He also helped write Carlitos Way, Jurassic Park, Spider Man, Mission Impossible, Panic Room and War of the Worlds BUT….He also contributed to Indiana Jones 4 Maybe this is his punishment.
Sweet Sugar: Maybe the crystal skull is what’s inside the messenger bag?
Mark: If JGL starts swinging through the street with the help of city monkeys I will pre-order the film immediately.
Mark: I’ve been thinking about the title and several things come to mind:
1. Orange Juice
2. A remastered Rush album
3. Extreme Paper Clips …
The movie needs a new title. I’m thinking “JGL 500.” Not sure why but it doesn’t make me think of orange juice. What do you think the title should be?
Sweet Sugar: 4. Hold me close, tiny messenger 5. Message Man (I think it’s going to be a long long time) 6. Message in the wind
Chuck Finley: 7. Ja ja ja ja Joey and the mail. 8. Saturday nights alright for biking. 9. I guess that’s why they call it the news
Mark: I do hope I hope he gets help from the Portlandia bike guy. Michael Shannon would kill him quickly but he would make for a nice sidekick.
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Snow White and the Huntsman
John wrote a review for this film…check it out
Snow White and the Huntsman is an enjoyable romp that excels in creating wonderful sets, shots and creations.
However, the characters are given little development and personality. First time feature director Rupert Sanders shows a lot of visual promise but will need to give his characters more personality amidst the unique CGI, vistas and hair styles.
Kirsten Stewart does a fine job as Snow White. However, the role asks for her to look at stuff, be amazed and rock a sweet warrior pony tail.
Hemsworth is a drunk huntsman who finds her, saves her and smooches her. Hemsworth’s physicality works well in the role but he isn’t given much to do. The blandness is not a fault of the actor. The script makes him a drunk widower who eventually becomes a less drunk widower.
Snow White, the huntsman and a young duke battle the vicious Charlize Theron and her blond brother. Theron married Snow White’s father then killed him on the wedding night. The kingdom goes to ruins and the majority of the fair maidens get their souls sucked out. Eventually, the soul sucking queen learns Snow White will be the fairest and naturally decides to eat her heart.
White escapes into the dark forest, meets some murderous dwarves and bonds with the huntsman. They attack the big castle and many things look beautiful. Sanders handles the action well but he edits the fights so quickly you are never quite sure what is going on. He should have followed the Thor handbook and allowed Hemsworth to show off his action chops with longer shots and better fights.
You are never absorbed into the story but you enjoy the majority of the stuff you look at. This film also teaches a very important lesson. If you are a king/queen and you defeat an army of glass soldiers then find a beautiful imprisoned woman/man do not marry them the next day. Because, if you do you will be stabbed in the heart by a large knife.
The promo photos for this film were very entertaining. In hindsight they guaranteed a visual delight and forecasted what was to come. Stewart is always looking at stuff with lovely hair, Hemsworth poses well with axes and Theron is a believable ice queen.
1. Kristen Stewart never looks at the camera. I’d wager it is to show off her fantastic hair.
2. Hemsworth must hate axes now. He mastered the saucy axe look.
3. Theron loves crows and knives.
Watch Snow White. Dig the look. Count the crows. Enjoy the hair.
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We Need to Talk About Kevin
I still cannot believe that Tilda Swinton was not nominated for an Academy Award. How in the world did Rooney Mara get nominated over her? It makes zero sense. Tilda is a force of nature and carries tons of dread on her shoulders. Mara’s character is a carbon copy of a wonderful creation. I know Swinton is basing her character on a literary character but she is wonderful as a self-possessed woman dealing with a psychotic/manipulative/destructive child.
I do not want to give too much away about this film. I will say that it is about a woman who used to travel, live and love. Then she got married, settled down and had a devil spawn. Her dislike of the child is evident and this flips around as he begins to torture on all mental fronts. There are never scare tactics or jumps. The horror comes from deteriorating mental states.
She lives in a house that after years never feels lived in. It is like she always wanted something else and now she is stuck with a clueless husband, a sadist child and a miraculously sweet girl. She is not an innocent woman. There is a scene early in the film where she tells the child “she would rather be in Paris.” He clearly doesn’t understand but I’d wager he understood her dislike. What follows is her punishment for the dislike.
The movie is filled with dread, loaded with quiet moments and will not leave you happy. However, you will appreciate the intensity and performances from Swinton and Ezra Miller. The non linear editing and lack of horror gimmicks make this a unique and powerful film that sticks in your memory like the paint splashed on Swinton’s wall.
I really like this movie. However, I find it hard to recommend because of the source material loaded with dread. So, be warned. You will appreciate the filmmaking but it won’t make you happy.
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Men in Black III
MIB III works because of Will Smith’s and Josh Brolin’s chemistry. Without these two men the movies would have been crushed under the weight of its unclear plot, disposable bad guy and talk of time travel.
The movie revolves around Will Smith going back in time to keep The Flight of the Conchords Jemaine Clement from killing a younger agent K who is played wonderfully by Josh Brolin. He is equal parts cranky, happy and confident. When acting alongside Will Smith Brolin proves to be equally as capable and the two form a fun relationship of equal personalities.
All the action and plot are secondary to the funny moments between Josh Brolin, Will Smith, Bill Hader and Alice Eve. Watching Will Smith threaten Bill Hader’s Andy Warhol is far more entertaining than any of the loud CGI action.
The biggest disappointment of the film is what they did with Jemaine Clement. Clement has proven to a force of nature in the comedy world but in this film he is given nothing to do and his personality never shines through the boring bad guy Boris. Vincent D’Onofrio was incredibly memorable as Edgar the bug. His big bug man was threatening, humorous and did not want world domination. Thus, he was believable and a perfect foil to Will Smith’s rookie agent. Clement is a monotone, one-armed dude who only wants destruction….Thus, he is boring.
The MIB series has always featured inventive creatures by Rick Baker. MIB III keeps up the tradition of creative design. This film features some creative retro design.
This movie has earned the fresh 69% rating on Rotten Tomatoes because it features likable characters who you enjoy spending time with. However, due to the paper-thin plot and stock bad guy it will be known as the second best MIB film.
Movies, Films & Flix 