Birdman Review

There are some films for actors that help reinvigorate their career. For Michael Keaton, Birdman is that film, but it is just more than that. It shows what we have all been missing from Keaton. Keaton stars as Riggan Thomson, a washed up actor who decades ago was famous for playing a super hero. Now he is trying to reclaim whatever acclaim he had with a play he is acting and directing in.
 

During rehearsals, one of his main actors is doing horrible and Riggan just wants him gone. With a stroke of luck, a light falls on his head, knocking him out. Riggan needs a new actor and he finds one in  Mike Shiner (Edward Norton). During the first preview night, Mike has a scene in which he has to drink, and he drinks real liquor on stage. Making him stinking drunk and ruining the rest of the show for that preview night. Riggan has to deal with this new actor who is trying to outshine him, and try to create a new persona of himself that is not Birdman anymore.
 

Riggan's daughter played by the wonderful Emma Stone, is estranged from Riggan and during this play, is his assistant. His best friend and lawyer, Jake (Zach Galifinakis) helps keep him sane and his production afloat. Birdman is not only the character that he use to play. The Birdman persona is there always at the back of his mind. On screen, he literally is there. Birdman has become Riggan's conscious and tells him when he needs to stop acting a fool and when he isn't trying hard enough.


Birdman is one of those perfect films where the cast is perfect, and wonderfully made. The film is shot to look like is was done in one continuous take. The great thing about this film is the commentary it has about super hero movies. Both Keaton and Norton have both played superheroes, but Riggan has a small monologue where he makes fun of every actor that has played them.
 

Birdman is a film about mattering in an age where you might not matter anymore. It shows that sometimes to matter in today's world you have to do something crazy, stupid, and stupendous. Birdman is brash, bodacious, and brilliant. I give Birdman 5 levitating Michael Keatons out of 5.

 

Exodus: Gods and Kings Review #2

Exodus: Gods and Kings Review
By Erik Luchsinger

                                                                     www.screenrant.com


The story of Moses and the Exodus is known to many people for many different reasons. Many of us know it from the Dreamworks classic Prince of Egypt. Others know it from this book called The Bible, and still others know it as just another elaborate lie the Jewish World Order has spun to garner sympathy for itself and to hide the doings of our evil reptilian overlords. This year we have yet another retelling of the story, this time by Ridley Scott of Alien fame.

The first exposure any of us had to Exodus was undoubtedly the trailer, which was fucking sweet. Here's Christian Bale, some dudes in excessive eyeliner, and massive, sweeping shots of the plagues fucking up a beautifully rendered ancient Memphis. Every time I saw the trailer I would turn to my moviegoing buddy and quietly exclaim "fuck, that looks AWESOME!" And I was right, It did look awesome. Exodus has a very engaging visual style that's cleanly executed, resulting in a movie that doesn't hurt to look at. Unless, of course, it's meant to be. The landscapes are vast and breathtaking, the city of Memphis is glorious. The storms send a tingle up your spine. When the frogs and locusts and crocodiles descend upon Egypt the visuals evoke the kind of revulsion you may actually feel if being set upon by millions of frogs of locusts in the comfort of your massive royal palace. If you are looking to see the biblical plagues depicted in stunning 21st century graphics, go fucking see Exodus, because that's easily the best thing about the movie.

                                                                       Wrong Memphis
                                                                 www.memphismeansmusic.com


The acting was also good. Christian Bale does quite a good Moses, even if he is a bit more of an arrogant swordsman than the bible depicted him. Joel Edgerton's Ramses is also very entertaining. I don't know if it was the actor himself of the eyeliner, but Ramses displayed a lot of emotion. The scenes between the two were actually engaging and I wish more time had been spent on that.

Those good points aside, I really disliked Exodus for numerous reasons. If I had to put my complaints succinctly, I would say that this movie came off as a young Michael Bay's re-imagining of the tale. 

First, I will address the Michael bay comment. Exodus was thoroughly Hollywood-ized. Flashy visuals trumped nearly everything, including any kind of story or character development. Before you even have a chance to figure out which movie you're seeing we're thrust head first into a massive battle. It's relentlessly loud and everything is burning, screaming or gushing blood. Bale does some Batman-esque martial arts and sword fighting while chariots and horses fly everywhere. According to the story, the scene was necessary because of a prophecy (made 2 minutes prior in the preceding scene) about a hero saving someone and the savior becoming a leader. According to anyone who knows Hollywood, the scene was necessary because they thought our little brains might get hurt if we have to deal with something that doesn't involve burning death for more than a couple minutes at a time. I don't feel like the whole prophecy angle was necessary to set up some kind of schism between Moses and Ramses, as Moses being a secret Jew provides that schism well enough. Plus, such a pitifully small amount of time is spent exploring how Moses and Ramses feel about each other that any strife the prophecy brings to their relationship would be rendered irrelevant.

                   I'm not the opening sequence this movie wants, or deserves. But I'm the one it gets, regardless.
                                                                                                             www.schmoesknow.com


This brings me to my next point, which is the character development and general plot. Everyone already knows the story of the Exodus, which suggests to me that there is some fertile ground for re-thinking the smaller details while still leaving the major plot points unchanged. Scott and the rest of the Exodus team took this opportunity and squandered it by making Ramses and Moses generic badass sword guys and just blowing over every single other detail in the story. The relationship between Ramses and Moses is very simple and not at all interesting: they are loving brothers willing to die for each other, then Ramses finds out Moses is a Hebrew from a scheming Viceroy, then Ramses wants to kill Moses because he's angry. Very deep stuff. Oh, and that Viceroy I mentioned? He's like, a tertiary character at best, but he's far more developed than anyone else in the movie. He starts off as an overseer of slaves who's squandering money on his palace and has an active hate for Moses because of an inferiority complex. Later, he ends up being a trusted councilor of Ramses after tipping him off that Moses is a secret Jew. Even this slight arc is more interesting than Ramses and Moses, who are just left to be flat and boring for reasons I don't know or understand. Everyone else in the movie is glossed over entirely.

Speaking of which, Exodus has the tendency to spend a lot of time on shit that doesn't matter and no time at all on stuff that does. Moses spends all of 3 minutes tops making a perilous climb up a forbidden mountain in the middle of a rainstorm. This is a big deal in a religious sense (God forbids climbing this mountain in particular), it's where he first sees and speaks to God (a big deal for the plot) and it's just generally interesting because he's in danger and can't just stab the things that are threatening him. Meanwhile, we get 10 minutes of the same boring "charge" sequence as Ramses' army rides their horses into a tidal wave for no good reason. Moses meets, marries, has a kid, and then abandons them to help the Jews in Memphis in the span of 5 minutes. Meanwhile, the whole 10 commandments/golden calf thing is shoehorned in at the end. Exodus tried to tell way more of the story than it needed to. This resulted in important character development being eschewed for flashy battle scenes and half-assed plot peripherals, not to mention the movie being at least half an hour too long.

                                                                                  Fucking yawn, amirite?                                                                        www.ibtimes.co.uk


Overall, I really didn't enjoy Exodus. It was exceptionally long winded and boring. It didn't have any sense of what parts to give time to, which parts to be short about, and which points to completely cut from the movie (re first battle scene, golden calf incident). The characters are so hard to care about that watching them charge into battle under a thousand-foot tidal wave could barely convince me to keep my eyes open.While the visuals were stunning and the acting was good, the rest of the movie lacked so significantly that I don't ever want to see this movie again. With the notable exception of the plague scenes, Exodus: Gods and Kings was pretty forgettable and a real snoozer. I give it 2/5 bible stories that are actually interesting if they aren't ruined by yawn-inducing writing and Hollywood-ized battle sequences. Go see it if you wanna see crocodiles turn a river to blood in epic CGI glory or if you're trying to go to sleep. Otherwise, go see something else. Or just take a nap.

Exodus: Gods and Kings REVIEW

I should preface this review with something...I love Ridley Scott. Ever since his feature length directorial debut in 1977 with The Duellists, Scott has been consistently releasing incredible, dramatic action flicks. Some of his best and most popular works include Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator (my favorite!), American Gangster, and Prometheus. He has three best director Oscar nominations for Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down. All I'm trying to say is, this dude is talented as shit and prolific as hell. He makes damn good movies and I've been looking forward to Exodus: Gods and Kings for months. On top of all that, I also really like the film's lead, Christian Bale. He's a talented actor, an Oscar winner (The Fighter), my favorite Batman, and I typically enjoy the movies he works on. So, it's safe to say my expectations for this film were higher than Snoop Dogg at a Willie Nelson concert.

He's the hero Canaan deserves,
but not the one it needs right now.

With all that being said...I was not disappointed. In addition to another great performance from Christian Bale, the film featured Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, and everyone's favorite meth-head, Aaron Paul.  The story began with Moses and Ramses as adults, the tale of baby Moses in a basket floating down the river was skipped right over (but mentioned later). Religious folks might not be too fond of this film since Scott took a few creative liberties with the Biblical tale. Moses first spoke to God after hitting his head and his wife was convinced that he was hallucinating. The plagues and the parting of the Red Sea were caused by events that could be explained; there weren't any miracles. The film is basically an agnostic version of The Exodus. As expected, the production design was incredible. Many film critics are are ranting about the high number of white people in Egypt and the inconsistencies between the accents that many of the actors used. The film's score from composer Alberto Iglesias  wasn't quite as epic or powerful as it should have been. Hans Zimmer (who composed the score for Gladiator) must have been busy with Interstellar. So, if I had to pick three things I didn't like about the film, those would be it.

Before the credits rolled, there was a dedication to director Tony Scott (best known for Top Gun), Ridley Scott's younger brother who committed suicide in 2012.

4/5: Great Scott! Another fantastic flick from Ridley!
(But keep in mind, I'm biased...)

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay REVIEW

Erik Luchsinger

                                                                        http://collider.com

Following in the footsteps of the ticket-sales boosting geniuses that did the Harry Potter movies, the last book of The Hunger Games trilogy has been split into two movies. Despite the fact that it kind of disqualifies it from being a trilogy now that there will be four movies in total, it's a very smart movie business wise. Story wise, it may not be, though.

 Mockingjay, Part 1 was a vastly different movie than the last two. This isn't necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're walking into it to get more of the same, you'll be disappointing. The biggest difference is that there is no hunger games at all. No tributes, no teens killing each other on tv, no crazy monkeys or hallucinogenic wasps. Instead, Mockingjay, Part 1 is more of a political thriller that seemed to me like a Bourne movie made for the YA audience. There is political posturing, intrigue, and lots of dull gray scenery.

                                     Unfortunately, we don't get to see Katniss murder anyone with a pen...
                                                                         http://bleistift.memm.de

SPOILERSOMG!SPOILERSOMG!SPOILERSOMG!SPOILERSOMG!SPOILERSOMG!SPOILERSOMG!

It was also missing a lot of the emotion of the past two. I remembered feeling nervous and disenfranchised watching the Reaping scenes in the first movie, and completely betrayed when President Snow decided to make the Quarterquell a victors-only event. Mockingjay just left me wondering what the food in that weird cafeteria tasted like. Sure, we get to see a pit of charred bodies where District 12 used to be, but it falls flat. Anyone who has seen a movie in the past 20 years has seen gore beyond belief, and that failed to elicit any kind of strong emotion. All of the people we care about in the story are safe, which takes away from the emotionally tense moments in the first two movies. Except Peeta, that is. But I'll get to him in a minute.

                                              Doesn't even phase you does it, seasoned movie goer?
                                                                    http://www.infocenters.co.il

The movie does have it's exciting parts. Perhaps the most engaging part of the movie is the rescue mission part, where a team of District 13 operatives are able to infiltrate the Capitol after the power has been knocked out by a dam explosion. We are treated to an incredibly tense rotation of scenes: Finnick revealing disgusting truths about President Snow in a pit of rubble, Beetee doing some hardcore hacking to keep the Capitol unaware of their intrusion, Gale, et al attempting to rescue Peeta and others, and the tensest Skype session in history between Katniss and Snow. The whole ordeal really grabs your attention.

Peeta is a real piece of work in Mockingjay, Part 1. Throughout the movie we see him used as the Capitol's spokesman, urging the common folk not to revolt at every turn. We see him get more and more haggard as the two sides bash each other with propaganda (and occasionally missiles). While it generates the same "I'm very emotional right now" face from Katniss every time he comes on screen, it is interesting to watch his character degrade more and more. When he and Katniss are finally reunited we are treated to some intense action as Peeta tries to kill Katniss, having been brainwashed by the Capitol into hating her. If you caught those leaked pics of J Law and are into BDSM you'll especially enjoy this part of the movie.

                                   This isn't a porn site, so here's a drawing of what happened, you sick fuck.
                                                                     http://fc09.deviantart.net

All in all Mockingjay, Part 1 was an enjoyable movie, even if it's an abrupt change of pace from its predecessors and can be a little boring at times. It feels more grown up than the first two films and it definitely left me wondering what the second part will be like. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to longtime fans of the series as well as laypersons alike. 8/10 actresses wayyyyy hotter than Megan Fox, go see it if you haven't already!

Interstellar REVIEW

We can stop waiting now!

Catwoman and Alfred team up with Matthew McConaughey to--you know what? Christopher Nolan and his screenwriter partner/brother Jonathan Nolan very rarely disappoint their audiences. Remember Memento? The Dark Knight Rises? Inception? Yeah, bitch. That was them. Just go see the fucking movie.

5/5

REVIEW: Nightcrawler

There are some movies, where the main character is thrown against the wall, and the audience roots for him to succeed. Nightcrawler is not one of those films. In fact, the only reason you would want to root for the main character is to see how depraved he can truly be.

The main character in Nightcrawler is Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal). He is thrown against the wall and thrusted into a new depraved territory. He is a very low level thief where the film opens up with him stealing wire fences so that he can sell for money. Whilst selling materials he makes an impromptu interview with the seller to work for him. Every tip that any one has ever given any one about an interview he takes to heart and creates a crazed caricature of what the perfect interviewee is supposed to be. 

After the failed interview, on the freeway he sees a car accident and like a moth to a fire, exits his car to watch the carnage. While there he meets a nightcrawler. Someone who video tapes crimes and crashed during the night while the tv stations union workers sleep at night.  He sees them in action and decides that this is a career he could possibly excel in. He steals a bike, sells it, and uses the money to buy a camcorder and police scanner.

On his first night listening to the scanner, he finds a car jacking gone wrong and is able to get pretty good footage. He takes it to a news station where Nina (Rene Russo) buys it from him, and tells him he he has good eye for this sort of carnage.

As the film progresses, so does Lou's business. He tapes more dangerous crimes, and he does whatever he can to make sure he can get amazing footage. Lou soon evolves into a monster that only wants to be bigger and better than when he first started out.

Nightcrawler is one of those films that is a commentary not only on the promotion of violence, but on how the media wants and needs it so it can prosper. Lou also shows what happens when people try their best to such an extent that it becomes vilification. 

Watch Nightcrawler. It has some of the best performances from Jake Gyllenhall and Rene Russo in their careers. One of the best third acts of a film that I have ever seen in quite a long time. I give Nightcrawler 5 Extremely Awkward Mexican Restaurant Scenes out of 5.

The Book of Life REVIEW

On the Day of the Dead, a group of children visit a museum to learn more about the holiday. Their tour guide takes them underground to teach them about the holiday. She tells them that there are two gods: La Muerte and Xibalba. La Muerte is the ruler of the Land of the Remembered and Xibalba is the ruler of the Land of the Forgottern. She then tells them a story from the Book of Life. In this story, which is enacted with wooden dolls, there are three best friends which are completely inseparable: Manolo, Joaquin, and Maria. The three of them live and play together in the town of San Angel. Manolo comes from a family of matadors, but his true passion is music. Joaquin comes from a family of soldiers. Both boys are in love with Maria. On the Day of the Dead, La Muerte, disguised as an old woman, asks Manolo for some bread. He gladly gives it up, saying it's what his mother would want. In exchange, she gives Manolo's family a blessing. Later, Xibalba, disguised as a strange man, asks the same of Joaquin. He refuses until Xibalba offers him the Pin of Everlasting Life. Joaquin gladly accepts. Shortly after, Xibalba bets La Muerte that Maria will marry Joaquin. The winner will become ruler of the Land of the Remembered. However, the next day Maria sets a bunch of pigs loose in the town in an attempt to save their lives from the butcher. Because of this, she is sent to boarding school in Spain.

By the time Maria returns to San Angel, Manolo is a skilled bullfighter and Joaquin, with the help of the Pin of Everlasting Life, is the town hero. Both men are still madly in love with her. Manolo fights a bull and when it comes time to finish the bull, he refuses. Maria admires his compassion. Joaquin throws a party and proposes to Maria. Maria's father urges her to marry Joaquin so he can take care of her. She doesn't give Joaquin an answer. That night, Manolo serenades Maria underneath her balcony. Later, Manolo and Maria meet together but Xibalba's rattlesnake shows up and bites Maria. She dies immediately. Wanting to be with his love, Manolo allows the rattlesnake to bite him twice. When he arrives in the Land of the Remembered, Maria is nowhere to be found. In a Shakespearean turn of events, Maria had merely been in a deep sleep. One kiss from Joaquin, and the Pin of Everlasting Life, wakes her up instantly. But Manolo is still stuck in the Land of the Remembered. This leads him on a quest through the afterlife where he must face his biggest fears in order to be reunited with his love.

The Book of Life is director Jorge R. Gutierrez's first feature length film. It was produced by Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labrinth, Pacific Rim) and features the voices of Diego Luna as Manolo, Channing Tatum as Joquin, and Zoe Saldana as Maria. It also features Ron Perlman, Christina Applegate, Danny Trejo, Ice Cube, Cheech Marin, and Gabriel Iglesias. The music was fantastic. It featured mariachi versions of popular songs such as "I Will Wait," "Just a Friend," and "I Can't Help Falling in Love." The art design and animation were absolutely stunning. An Academy Award nomination for Best Production Design wouldn't be surprising in the least bit.

3/5 Visually outstanding and very fun.