You Gotta See This
I love the film Once. I love the soundtrack. I love the Swell Season. Glen and Marketa are great together….However, they broke up. This documentary chronicles their time together. Can’t wait to see this@
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Warrior
The best film of the year so far.
This film almost made me shed man tears. You like the characters, the fights are realistic and Warrior features easily the best scene of the year.
Warrior is a film about a broken family putting themselves back together. One brother is a teacher who is deep in debt and needs to keep a roof over his families head. Tom Hardy is an Iraq war vet who is fueled by anger and can punch through six feet of metal. Nick Nolte is a reformed drunk who is trying to piece together everything he broke apart.
I am a huge fan of MMA. Warrior features great fights. The only odd thing is that none of them go to the judge’s decision. I love the film Rocky and its sequels but the fights are cartoonish. In this film you feel each punch due to the realistic choreography and the use of actual MMA fighters.
The director Gavin O’Connor was able to collect young and old talent. Tom Hardy is a force of nature. Joel Edgerton is a rising star and Nick Nolte is the best he has been in years. What I loved about Edgerton’s character is that he is a teacher/fighter/bouncer who fights for family. I used to be a teacher/bouncer and it is great to see similar characters making it big.
Watch this film. It needs the support. You won’t be disappointed.
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Legend of the Tsunami Warrior (2008)
By John Leavengood
MY CALL: This is a mediocre Asian saga movie. It’s like they tried to combine Pirates of the Caribbean without the comic relief and Red Cliff without the awesome. I’ll give this an unsensational C. WHAT TO WATCH INSTEAD: Here is a list of my Thai action favorites…Chocolate, The Protector, Ong-Bak. For those looking for a more solid Asian saga, stick with Red Cliff.
The most confusing part of this movie was the plot, or plots, or understanding the direction the story and its motley plots are taking. In the beginning these giant, powerful cannons are lost in battle and sink to the bottom of the sea. Some Princess anticipating more of an unending battle with her nemesis wants to retrieve them, but they’re just too gosh-darned deep. So this princess’ engineers try to recreate the technology, but fail. Our attention then begins to shift between a love story of sorts, a fisherman-sorcerer whose powers grants all the insights offered by your local weather forecast and allow communication with sea life, a sundered tale of betrayal and revenge, a sorcerer who employs a cadre of pirates and Thai-style ninjas, another maybe-not-bad sorcerer, flashbacks involving some Dutchmen and the cannons, and a Dragonball-like sorcery training session. Basically a whole lot of sorcery and a whole lot of random crammed into a whole lot of generally slow-paced movie. Two hours of it to be exact. But wait, towards the end we come full circle back to the cannons in a siege battle.
Just about everything in this movie is of inconsistent quality. The combat choreography is not complex, some of the moves are filmed crisply while others seem poorly executed, and a few solid acrobatics are snuck in among other lethargically-wired maneuvers. This movie features beautiful underwater shots and gorgeous set design. However, the CGI effects (when they are not CGI sea creatures) are of inconsistent quality and the wardrobe follows suit, ranging from stunning to uninspired. Most outfits are dull and maybe authentic, but then the team of assassins in the beginning had the most impressive garbs of the entire movie. What gives?
That said, it appeared that they were trying really hard to make this a Thai mega-adventure movie. I can respect that. I’d never watch this movie again, but I wouldn’t necessarily suggest that you never watch it. I have a feeling that you’ll either love it (like many an Amazon reviewer seemed to) or just feel “eh” after watching it (like me). Here’s the trailer. The trailer is not high quality, but the movie’s production value is well above average.
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Everything Must Go
A nice little flick about a guy overcoming alcoholism, depression and an expensive love of koi.
The problem with this film is that it all feels too easy. He loses his job, sleeps on his lawn, meets a nice kid, becomes friends with the new neighbor and drinks gallons of PBR…….. Then he gets better.
After working in a bar for three years, listening to former alcoholic Craig Ferguson’s audiobook and watching The Beaver I know that alcoholism is never this cute.
This is a nice film. You like Will Ferrell, Christopher Jordan Wallace is a nice kid actor and Michael Pena has a sweet stash.
Watch it if you are craving a breezy little flick about a guy putting himself together by getting rid of everything.
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John’s Horror Corner: Contamination (1980)
By John Leavengood
MY CALL: As tasteful and organized as a man’s detonated entrails, this movie is a cheap, poorly executed, un-thought-out Alien rip-off. After the first couple scenes it loses any promise of being a fun “bad” horror flick. I’ll give it a “D” only because I enjoyed the beginning. WHAT TO WATCH INSTEAD: Just stick to Alien and The Thing if you want an alien-contamination creep show. IF YOU LIKE THIS, WATCH: Probably any “Roger Corman presents” classic.
A strange, unmanned Caribbean ship approaches a New York harbor and is quarantined. Upon investigation, members of the crew are found “ripped apart” to various degrees, one of whom evidently appeared to have exploded like a small bomb was inside his chest. They also find a huge shipment of coffee bean boxes filled with over-sized avocado-like egg things that are bioluminescent, pulsating, somewhat translucent and covered in green ooze. These eggs should clearly come with a warning
label indicating that handling them results in their detonation, spraying you with acid, and somehow causing your chest to explode. These “eggs” turn out to be more than just eggs and—dun, dun, duuuuuuuun—of alien origin.
Our investigators discover a warehouse full of them in the Bronx. They connect the dots to an international conspiracy which includes NASA and the Colombian coffee industry. This may sound exciting, but after the first 20 minutes (which were delightfully gore-tastic) this movie really slows down to a disinteresting pace where scenes devoid of action are needlessly dragged out. Clearly this flick was made to prey on sci-fi fans left hungry for more since the release of Alien, which also had chest-burst-inducing, extraterrestrial, acidic, slimy eggs. What a co-inky-dink, right?
The concepts are conveyed poorly and the three portions of the movie (the first 20 minutes, the next hour, and the last 20 minutes) each included a new plot element which linked poorly, if at all, to the others. The makers of this atrocious flick clearly had no idea what they were doing and forced out this movie with all the grace of passing a kidney stone. Don’t watch this unless you stop it after they investigate the ship in the very beginning.
FYI: This movie was Contamination but then retitled Alien Contamination in 1982. You’ll find both on Amazon with the exact same info. The catchphrase on the movie poster “You will feel them in your blood” does not apply to any single aspect of this movie at all! WTF!?!
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The Guard
- Brendan Gleeson as a rural Irish police officer with a penchant for escorts, pints, finding ways to get under your skin and his mom
- Don Cheadle as an uptight FBI agent whose reactions to all that he encounters are the perfect counterpart to Gleeson’s Boyle
- A very, very angry drug smuggling Englishman named, Clive Cornell played by Mark Strong (The Eagle, Kick-Ass, Sherlock Holmes, Sunshine)
- The scenery, hello…Ireland? I told you the movie is well shot, well the locations didn’t hurt in that respect
- A few choice comments on how the IRA has managed to infiltrate MI5
Oh did I say 5? Well I have more…
- Best use of a derringer in a film in the past decade
- A host of 3-Dimensional characters- Bad guys who discuss philosophy and are annoyed by cops who doubt their integrity in criminal activities, an understatedly smart small town cop with a biting and profane sense of humor, an uptight American agent with a killer sense of fashion and high levels of tolerance, a by the book cop with a secret life and more bravery than his entire department
- 94% ON ROTTEN TOMATOES– if that isn’t enough right there then I don’t know what is!
- The cinematographer for this movie, Larry Smith, is known for his work with Kubrick on Eyes Wide Shut.
- This is now the most successful independent Irish film of all time.
- The writer/director, John Michael McDonagh is the brother of In Bruges director Martin McDonagh
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Bad Movie Tuesday: The Good Bad, the Bad Bad and the Ugly Bad of Summer
Summer wouldn’t be summer without bad movies. big budgets, bad writing and recycled plots. These films enter the theaters hoping for big opening weekends and international grosses.
I’ve put together the first annual Bad Summer Movie Awards and I’m awarding the multiple bad films that have graced the cinemas this summer.
1.Movie Poster that raises the most inadvertent questions about how a guy could get on top of thousands of skulls award
2.I spilled coca cola on my girlfriend while at the Drive-in and when we looked up the movie was over award.
Super 8. Decent film but it ends incredibly abrupt and leaves you scratching your head…Not only was I a bit disappointed with the movie but I had lost most of my soda.
3. Didn’t I see a better version of this a couple of years ago award?
The Hangover Part 2 follows all the rules of sequels. Bigger, badder, meaner, grosser, angrier, unfunnier, dumber, longer. It almost loses every bit of good will The Hangover amassed
4. Most hilarious use of that guy with the deep voice who talks on the previews award.
Hearing the guys booming voice while he says “One day a year these good-looking white people find love and companionship” had me laughing in the theater.
5. MFF award for achievement in making two very bad movies starring a bored Paul Bettany as an angel/priest award.
6. The only movie in the world that can be described as milquetoast.
I felt zero emotions towards this movie. Nothing about it evoked any type of reaction. I didn’t even think about this during the movie because thinking this would have evoked emotions.
7. How can a movie called Final Destination have four sequels award?
8. How were they able to rip 0ff 117 films during 100 minutes award?
Yes, Priest is the Gone With the Wind of the Moviesfilmsandflix summer awards.
9. Why is Mickey Rourke flying on Megan Fox’s back Award?
If you made it through Passion Play you find out Rourke is dead and Fox is an angel he saved from Bill Murray.
10.Movie I thought I would hate yet didn’t hate despite it giving me every reason to hate it award.
Transformers 3. Better than the second, not as good as the first, sorta fun
11.Worst movie of the summer/year/last year/near future/post-apocalyptic future award
Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides
200 Million Dollar Budget
One Billion Dollar World Wide Gross
3-D aplenty
0 Fun + 0 Originality = An Annoyed Hofmeyer
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Contagion
By John Leavengood
MY CALL: I really liked Outbreak, but this simply blew it out of the water! If movies were rated based on the seriousness of their content, this would be the “R” to Outbreak’s “PG.” This gets a solid “A+” without question and I imagine that this will be an Academy Award nominee for set design and music, if not more. IF YOU LIKE THIS, WATCH: Outbreak (1995).
I’ll just start by saying “WOW!” Sure, this movie had a legion of A-listers including an excellent director, yet still this movie exceeded my already high expectations. While its pace was consistently somewhat slow, the content, in turn, was consistently interesting, socially revealing and gripping.
This movie follows the outbreak of a novel and swiftly lethal virus from patient zero. With a short incubation period, the highly contagious strain raises the CDC’s concern readily ensued by the panic of the masses. The medical community scrambles in a losing race against time as the numbers of infected and dead patients grow at a staggering pace. Controversy, capitalism, distrust…all are likely products of slowly-solved epidemics.
The cast flawlessly conveys the very best and worst of human qualities responding to a deteriorating society and economy. Panic, desperation, fear and altruism are all tactfully delivered with humbling realism. Adding to the already palpable emotions of the characters was the tension-setting music which, coupled with the concept of this movie, shall haunt my thoughts. More than once I questioned how I would react in these situations.
FUN FACTS: This movie features Matt Damon, Gwenyth Paltrow and Jude Law, who were all in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Matt Damon and Elliott Gould, both of whom starred in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s franchise, were reunited for their fourth film together.
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Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil
I loved this flick. It is a hilarious take on the slasher genre.
Two hillbillies buy a summer home in the woods. Along the way college kids mistake them for killers. Awesomeness occurs. I loved how Tucker and Dale are incredibly nice guys who just think that college kids are killing themselves around them.
Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Knight’s Tale) and Tyler Labine (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Reaper) are pitch perfect as the two guys who just want to fix up their summer home, drink beer and fish. I loved all their reactions at the crazy things going on around them.
I loved the concept of this film. It reminded me of Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.
Any time you can take the horror genre and spin it on its head it is a beautiful thing.
The biggest problem with this film is that the previews gave most of the laughs away. However, the only way to hook people on the concept is to have them watch the preview. It is a double-edged sword.
Hopefully, you will just take my word and rent the film On Itunes, On Demand, or PS3. It is ten dollars but well worth it. Support the film, recommend it, and enjoy the niceness that is Tucker and Dale.
If you do want to watch the trailer check out the September Movie Preview.
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Friends With Benefits
By John Leavengood
MY CALL: Justin Timberlake is always great, but this is the first time that Mila Kunis ever won me over with a role. Their chemistry is narcotically addictive, the movie is very well-written and I left feeling happy. I give this a solid “A”. IF YOU LIKE THIS, WATCH: 40 Days and 40 Nights, one of my Desert Island movies.
The story follows Dylan, an artistic web designer turned GQ artistic director by Jamie, a NY head hunter, as he moves to NY and they form a friendship…and then some. The first few minutes gave the writers a chance to prove that you weren’t wasting your time with this movie. We are monsooned by a clever mix of classic and rather risqué anecdotal break-up quips as both Dylan (the ever-charming Justin Timberlake) and Jamie (the saucy Mila Kunis) both find themselves single again via synchronous break-ups. They both make the same claim: that they’ll essentially be sexually aloof and just enjoy themselves.
For some reason the movie depicts LA folks like they’re from some kind of cow town—extra cautious about crossing the street, mild-mannered, socially naïve, non-confrontational and claustrophobic in the skyscraper-rich concrete jungle. Likewise, New Yorkers come off as more in-your-face and edgy. I really think of LA as sort of a drier NY with a tan, but otherwise city folks are city folks. Despite the constant flinging of pro-NY propaganda both actors are their naturally charismatic, audience-pleasing selves.
The first (sex) scene that lives up to the movie’s title is a hilariously endearing and very chatty session which seems like a rehearsal before filming a how-to instructional video on sex. Great moments of this movie include a sex scene montage with a lot of well-placed and relatable dialogue, Woody Harrelson thinking JT is gay, every single Shaun White cameo scene, JT rapping and busting out some old school Criss Cross, and Woody Harrelson choosing Shaun White over Barrack Obama for a GQ cover. Yup, that’s what America has been reduced to.
With small roles, the brilliantly cast Jenna Elfman (Dharma & Greg), Nolan Gould (TV’s Modern Family), and Richard Jenkins (HBO’s Six Feet Under, Burn After Reading) are the sister, nephew and father you want to bring a girl home to meet. All actors do a perfect job of showing us that they see what Dylan and Jamie don’t. It reminds me of my own friends waving their hands at me saying “it’s nothing serious” or “we’re just friends” and then getting a wedding invitation a year later. It’s so cute when they don’t see it yet, isn’t it?
Kunis and Timberlake’s on screen chemistry is so strong that it just made me feel good whenever they were interacting with one another. The movie gets tactfully real a bit towards the end, but it should come as no spoiler alert that you feel all warm and fuzzy at the end. This adorable RomCom is well worth the watch.
Here’s the trailer from our July Preview.
Movies, Films & Flix 