Killing Them Softly is the second collaboration between Brad Pitt and director Andrew Dominik and the end product is gorgeous, tense and gives you a look into the world of criminals you don’t normally see. [Read more...]
Looking Ahead to 2012 – Quarter 4 (October – December)
10/01/2012 by 2 Comments
Alright people, it’s almost the end of the year – which means some big releases are coming out. Some of the biggest albums, movies, and video games are slatted for release, making for one incredible last quarter in 2012. Enough of this, let’s get to our selections. [Read more...]
Film Review: Moneyball
09/23/2011 by Leave a Comment
Growing up in St. Louis, baseball has always been an important part of my life. I made myself sick on stadium food as a child, I was way too proud of myself when my neighbor came over to compliment the strength of my pitch into my father’s glove, currently strangers and I are bonded in the hopes of the Cards furthering themselves in the Wild Card race, as well as a mutual hatred for the Boston Red Sox. Point is, this is America, and we love baseball. Sometimes maybe too much. [Read more...]
Review: The Tree of Life
06/03/2011 by Leave a Comment
The Tree of Life is an attempt to capture a snapshot of a human and our planet’s life through film and I think that Terrence Malick accomplishes this daunting task while leaving you with plenty to mull over after the credits role.
The film looks at the life of our protagonist, Jack, from his birth to his likely early teenage years. Scenes of Jack’s youth are surrounded by departures into the Earth’s origins and Jack’s later years as an adult. The future segments, relative to the main 50′s story line, are dreamlike, abstract, and seem to mainly take place on some meta-physical plain inside Jacks mind or beyond. To dive more into that might be spoiler, but the past segments you aren’t really privy too go way back; to the beginning of Earth’s and the Universe’s existence to be exact.
The film’s first forty minutes are mostly without dialogue, the majority of which is heard through voice over, but is stunningly beautiful and is accompanied by a fantastic music. Whether it’s Alexander Desplat’s score, a selection of classical music or a rousing piece of opera, the music in the film is perfectly paired with the astonishing images put on the screen. Whether Malick takes us into space and through a galaxy, intimately spying on Jack’s first crush or staring at Jack’s new born feet, we can’t look away.
Review: Megamind
11/05/2010 by Leave a Comment
Megamind is a not bad but not great film that takes a very scatter shot approach at lampooning the superhero genre and never steps out with its own message or voice.
The premise of the film is familiar as it is basically ripping off every superhero movie before it. Megamind, like Superman, is jettisoned from his plant at the cusp of its destruction only he doesn’t have superpowers beyond high intelligence. But don’t worry; there is a Superman in this story. Megamind’s arch rival is sent out as his race’s last hope, a much more human like race, from Megamind’s neighboring planet before it too is destroyed. The two become rivals unlike any other in Metro City and they do countless battles where Megamind’s greatest victories are near ones. It’s when an unlikely twist is thrown into their relationship that Megamind is forced to rethink his ways.
Now Playing Review – Megamind
11/05/2010 by Leave a Comment
As the world comes crashing down around two desperate parents, their one last act before their planet is destroyed is to send their son far away to the promising planet of Earth, where he can grow up to live the life that would have been cut short without their intervention. On Earth he will be raised by two loving parents who will give him everything he needs so that he will grow up to be the moral and just person he is meant to be, using his powers for good. Wait a minute… This isn’t a story of Superman. Or Metro Man. See the guy he is punching in the face? Yeah, this is his story.
Megamind could have grown up to be Metro Man had his similar origin story not ended in a rougher part of the neighborhood. Instead his moral compass was smashed during his landing and he chose the path of evil. [Read more...]
Comic-Con International 2010 – My Experience in Nerd Heaven
08/02/2010 by 1 Comment
A couple of weeks ago I excitedly told my aunt that I was going to Comic Con in a week, with a big ol’ smile on my face. I didn’t really expect her to be jealous, but I was overly excited. Then she asked if it was a gathering of comics or something. As in comedians. I then proceeded to try and explain that it was this really cool event that happens each year that has been taken over by Hollywood in the past decade or so. Basically it has everything a nerd would desire to see, including comics, writers, artists, video games, tv shows, and movies. I told her about the panels I was planning on sitting in on and some of the people that were scheduled to attend. I was adamant about making her see how awesome it was, but she just didn’t get it. Color me deflated. Oh well, I guess Comic Con is just for certain people…
Like this girl:
Now Playing Review – Inglourious Basterds
09/14/2009 by Leave a Comment
Forgive me mom, because I am about to dole out a word you aren’t fond of numerous times. Does it count in my favor that it isn’t spelled correctly?
As far as I am concerned, Quentin Tarantino can rewrite everything we have learned from the history books, as long as he films his version.
Though Inglourious Basterds uses Nazi occupied France as its setting, there is little need to know more than the basics about WWII going into this film. Instead, Tarantino creates a history all of his own in this story of the resistance. The most notable are “the basterds,” a group of Jewish American soldiers whose goal is to kill and scalp as many Nazis as they can, inciting fear as the lore of their actions spreads throughout the German forces. [Read more...]
Review: Inglourious Basterds
08/21/2009 by Leave a Comment
Quentin Tarantino’s latest is the long in development WWII epic that is not really a war film but a dialogue heavy affair like all of Tarantino’s work and the result is slow burn plot that builds amazing tension through fantastic characters all culminating in an explosive final act that could potentially re-write WWII history.
Split into five chapters, ala Kill Bill, there are a trio of characters/groups that are at play here. Fist off is Aldo Raine. Lt. Raine is the leader of the Jewish American platoon of soldiers dropped behind enemy lines in France to do only two things, kill lots of Nazi’s and take each and every one of their scalps. Next we have Hans Landa, or “the Jew Hunter” who is a detective for the Nazi regime seeking out the truth of the regimes occupied countrymen who may be hiding Jewish families from the authorities. One of these families put in question is at risk in the opening chapter of the film and the hate and fear that derives from this encounter produces our third protagonist Shosanna Dryfus. Dryfus owns a movie theater and after catching the attention of a young Nazi soldier, her theater is put into the running to be the host of the world premiere of the perceived German masterpiece, Nation’s Pride. These three paths eventually fall in line and lead them to the premiere where the Nazi high command is in attendance and their intentions lead to ups and downs along the way. [Read more...]
The Decade's Best – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
07/10/2009 by Leave a Comment
David Fincher’s – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
David Fincher’s 2008 film stands up with any of his best films by telling a wonderful story, getting fantastic work out of his actors, and utilizing ground breaking special effects that are so good you don’t even know you are watching them much of the time.
The story of Benjamin Button is that of a child born of unusual circumstances. He was born old and as he ages his body gets younger. Born practically deaf, blind, and with arthritic bones as he ages all of these things get better becoming more youthful and spry as he ages. Raised by an adoptive mother, Queenie, he lives in the retirement home she manages and is surrounded by older people that look similar to himself at his young age. The story here is Benjamin’s life and the experiences he has, there is no great struggle, no horrible emotional issues over his condition, no real plot whatsoever. We just are along for the ride and that structure is really hared to grab on to as we experience this film for the first time. Films aren’t made in this fashion all that often, especially major studio fare like this, and the film only grows in richness on multiple viewings. [Read more...]
Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
12/23/2008 by Leave a Comment
David Fincher’s latest is an epic tale of the life of Benjamin Button and it is an amazing tale, fantastic production value, and a film that will only grow richer on subsequent viewings.
When Benjamin (Brad Pitt) is born he doesn’t look quite right, and upon further inspection by a doctor, he shows all the signs of an elderly person, wrinkled skin, arthritis, cataracts, hearing loss, he was born and old man and given little to no chance of survival. But his adoptive mother, Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), decides to take him in anyways and as the years pass Benjamin keeps hanging around and he slowly grows as an old man living as one among the elderly in the rest home Queenie helps run and manage. Benjamin learns a lot in this home, living with people reaching the end, while he is just discovering the world yet constrained to the view from the porch. But as Benjamin grows older, his body gains more strength and seems to be getting younger, and he also gains a friend of sorts in Daisy who is the granddaughter of one of the tenants at Benjamin’s home. Benjamin instantly held a connection with her and the two would cross paths throughout the rest of his life once he finally gets out and begins a life of his own. [Read more...]
Review: 'Burn After Reading'
09/12/2008 by Leave a Comment
The Coen Bros. latest is an exercise in pitch black humor and absurdity that, after a bit of adjustment, is a solid comedy with some great work by the actors involved.
Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is a recently demoted CIA agent who decides quit and writes his memoirs instead. His wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton), is cheating on him with Harry (George Clooney), who is a Treasury agent that trolls the internet dating world for quick sex between, “getting a run in.” In Katie’s preparation to file for divorce, she makes a copy of Osborne’s files on his computer that in one way or another ends up in the hands of Hardbodies employees Linda (Frances McDormand) and Chad (Brad Pitt). Linda is looking for love, and hopes to increase her chances with some desired plastic surgery, while Chad is a dimwitted trainer who sees a potential for some money from this, “secret CIA shit,” that the two have stumbled upon. A large tangled web of intrigue (?) begins and a whole lot of people get themselves into a mess of trouble over the loss of this CD of Osborne’s. [Read more...]
Review: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
10/19/2007 by Leave a Comment
What we have here is an amazing, gripping, and fantastically produced piece of cinema, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is one of, if not the best, film I have seen all year. Now there is a lot of time left in the year, and a lot of good looking movies on the horizon, but this one will be tough to beat in my eyes.
The film looks at the life of Jesse James (Brad Pitt) after his last heist and his interaction with a new gang member Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) and the people that surround their two lives. The long title is more than appropriate for this film which looks into each of these men’s souls as we follow them toward there infamous last meeting. [Read more...]
