Category Archives: Movies

The Incredibles 2 (2018)

08 Sunday Jul 2018

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Incredible is a subjective term,
As critics and colleges can confirm.
One man’s amazing and top-of-the-class
Is another’s mundane because people, alas,
See things either clearly or through rosy glass.

Incredible is a desirable word,
So rarely deserved yet so commonly heard.
At times, there’s consensus for some shining star,
But mostly we just must agree on the bar
And how we compare them decides what they are.
___________________

MPAA rating: PG

Of all the studios churning out long-awaited sequels, Pixar has arguably the best track record. Whether it’s Monsters University, Finding Dory, or Toy Story 3 (I mean 4), the decade-waiting sequelization of their canon is well underway and, with the exception of Cars 2, has turned out surprisingly well. (They’re all weaker than the originals, but they’re by no means bad, except Cars 2.) Yet strangely, Pixar has made fans wait longest for the follow-up to the one film in their oeuvre that was actively crying out for a sequel, namely The Incredibles. Perhaps due to the influx of superhero franchises since 2003, director Brad Bird finally delivered, and I’d say the fourteen-year wait was worth it.

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Picking up immediately where the first film left off, The Incredibles 2 reminds us that, even after saving the world from Syndrome, the Parr family still have to deal with the fact that superheroing is illegal. After their battle with the Underminer goes south, Mr. and Mrs. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter) and Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) are approached by millionaire entrepreneurs Winston (Bob Odenkirk) and Evelyn Deavor (Catherine Keener), a brother and sister team who are actively trying to bring supers back into the spotlight. Due to her less destructive abilities, Elastigirl is the new face of their law-bending campaign, and while Bob deals with the headaches of parenting at home, Helen faces off with a mind-controlling villain called the Screenslaver.

There are certain elements borrowed from the previous film, such as the family disagreements on how to handle hiding their powers, and if you suspect their new benefactors aren’t entirely on the up-and-up, you’d be somewhat right. Yet The Incredibles 2 does an excellent job at differentiating itself from the first and from other superhero films in general. Chief among the differences is the inclusion of other supers joining the crusade for superhero legality, and their presence allows for added creativity in the battles and actual super-vs.-super fights rather than the repeated super-vs.-robot fight of the first. Anyone who wanted more Elastigirl and Frozone shouldn’t be disappointed, and while Bob seemed sidelined by suppressed egotism and Mr. Mom franticness, it wasn’t as bad as the trailers implied. Ultimately, even with some mature themes being broached, this is still a film for and about families, with Bob’s first-hand struggles with superpowered child-rearing offering a nice counterpoint to the more action-packed beats with his wife.

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One thing that seemed like a retroactive change is that the Parrs apparently didn’t see baby Jack-Jack use his powers at the end of the first film, allowing for all of them to be surprised again by his multifaceted abilities. Jack-Jack even steals the show at times, whether he’s paired with an ornery raccoon or fashionista Edna Mode (Brad Bird). Likewise, Violet (Sarah Vowell) and Dash (Huck Milner, seamlessly replacing Spencer Fox) get their fair share of screen time, especially after the villain is revealed. Speaking of which, the Screenslaver may not have as compelling a backstory as Syndrome, but the philosophy spouted by the shadowy figure has a point in denouncing people’s reliance on computer/TV screens and lack of responsibility. It’s the kind of motivation that works well for a supervillain, bearing a kernel of truth but taken to a malevolent extreme, which actually offers a legitimate threat against the supers.

I’ll be honest: I intentionally had very low expectations for The Incredibles 2. Others I know have said they had enormous hopes for it, but when you’re dealing with a film as awesome as the first Incredibles, it’s going to be hard to match. Perhaps that’s why I enjoyed it so much compared with one of my disappointed coworkers, who likely had too many preconceived notions of what the perfect sequel should be, not unlike Star Wars fans of late. Yes, The Incredibles 2 doesn’t quite reach the heights of its predecessor: It lacks the meaningful character arcs of the first film, its villain mystery is semi-predictable, and it raises more thematic questions about right, wrong, and responsibility than it even tries to answer. Yet it was so enjoyable to spend time with these characters again that I didn’t mind, and it still stands head-and-shoulders above the majority of animated films nowadays.

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I think I’d go so far as to call it the best Pixar sequel since Toy Story 2, at least in recapturing the spirit of the original. The action scenes are as cool and polished as anything in the MCU, and Michael Giacchino’s bombastic score is still the perfect complement to its comic book world. It’s not above some complaints, but if you compare The Incredibles 2 to Cars 2 rather than the first Incredibles, I think you’ll agree it’s an “incredible” sequel. Pixar does it again!

Best line: (Edna) “Done properly, parenting is a heroic act. [Glares at Bob’s exhaustion] “Done properly.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy (joining the first film)

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
585 Followers and Counting

 

2018 Blindspot Pick #6: Some Like It Hot (1959)

06 Friday Jul 2018

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What do soup and summer days
And bedtime milk and big buffets
Have in common with your tea
And pie and wind and panini
And thoughts about celebrities
And temps for different types of skis?

Have you thought of it or not?
Yes, that’s right! Some like them hot.
Some also like them cold, and so
Which one are you, I’d like to know?
_______________________

MPAA rating: PG

Well, I’m still trying to catch up on my Blindspots, and since it’s been hot as blazes outside lately, Some Like It Hot seemed like a good choice for my next review. (For the record, I do not like it hot. I can’t wait for fall.) This is one of those classics among classics that it just seemed more and more wrong that I, as a movie lover, hadn’t seen it yet, which is exactly what this Blindspot series is for anyway. Now that I’ve seen it, I can recognize its special place in the pantheon of comedy, but there have been plenty of funnier movies since.

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I don’t mean to badmouth a classic, since that is what Some Like It Hot is. Starting out more like a gangster movie than a comedy, the film follows the misadventures of two musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon), who keep finding themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time. When they happen to witness a mob massacre by the vengeful “Spats” Colombo (George Raft), they escape Chicago by dressing as women, calling themselves Josephine and Daphne, and joining an all-girl band on their way to Miami. Of course, things get inevitably complicated when Joe becomes attracted to fellow bandmate Sugar (Marilyn Monroe) and a millionaire (Joe E. Brown) improbably falls for Jerry.

I guess crossdressing is just inherently funny, at least in the movies. That’s what the AFI seems to think, placing Some Like It Hot at #1 on their list of top 100 comedies, with Tootsie right behind at #2. (Incidentally, Mrs. Doubtfire is at #67, and I love that one more than either of the others.) While Some Like It Hot had me consistently amused, especially once Curtis and Lemmon donned their feminine alter egos, I find it laughable that this would be considered the best comedy ever made, much less one of the greatest films overall.

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Certainly, there are elements I can tell have influenced comedies since, such as Joe’s rush to change between his male and female clothes, much as Robin Williams did 34 years later. However, Joe does this in order to fool Sugar into believing he’s her wealthy dream man, which begs the question of how he thought he could get away with such a ploy in any lasting way, and his dishonesty not only makes the runtime a bit too long but is also blithely ignored when the truth comes to light, in contrast to the collective shock at the end of Tootsie or Mrs. Doubtfire. Lemmon, on the other hand, gets the best comedic scenes, sometimes struggling with his “femininity,” while other times losing himself in character.

As shameful as it is for a cinephile to admit, this is actually the first comedy I’ve seen of director Billy Wilder (I’ve at least watched his The Spirit of St. Louis) and the first film starring Marilyn Monroe. Wilder’s direction is beyond reproach, and he includes a few clever cinematic touches, like the repeated shots of “Spats” Colombo’s shoes to portend the approach of danger. Monroe had a greater challenge, though, since I had always associated her with her short-breathed, dumb blonde persona (which my VC can’t stand, for the record), but I was pleasantly surprised by her and her musical moments. Despite being a gold digger, her portrayal of Sugar was hardly one-note, even expressing weariness at her own “dumb blonde” proclivities, and I’m now much more interested than before in exploring her other iconic roles.

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While I wouldn’t call Some Like It Hot the amazing movie it is commonly considered, it was still a good one and worthy to be called a classic. I finally got to understand the context for many familiar clips, such as the famous last line and that grating “poo poo pee doo” song parodied so perfectly by Ginger on Gilligan’s Island. So, complaints aside, I’d call this a successful and long overdue Blindspot pick. By the way, did you know it’s based off a 1935 French film called Fanfare of Love? I guess that’s another film I’ll have to check out for comparison’s sake some day.

Best line: (Sugar) “Water polo? Isn’t that terribly dangerous?”   (Joe, pretending to be rich) “I’ll say. I had two ponies drowned under me.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
584 Followers and Counting

 

Midway (1976)

04 Wednesday Jul 2018

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History tells us when battles were fought
And whether they meant more than others or not,
But those who once knew them
And had to live through them
Experienced more than the lessons now taught.

A few passive words on a page about war,
Discussing the facts of who died and what for,
Are hardly precise
To recount sacrifice
Or the bloody-badged heroes on some foreign shore.

It’s hell, they say; so, we imagine the worst
From comfortable couches, no terror, no thirst,
So free to be blind
That we must be reminded
That freedom must be paid in sacrifice first.
________________________

MPAA rating: PG (PG-13 would be better due to frequent profanity)

I couldn’t let July 4th pass without reviewing a patriotic war movie, and since I’d seen it once a long time ago, Midway seemed ripe for a rewatch. One of the last big war films of yesteryear, Midway distinguishes itself less in the story department than in its in-depth overview of the battle and its sprawling cast of famous faces.

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If you’re looking for some gritty war story with non-stop explosions, this isn’t the film for you. Midway is far more interested in the build-up and strategy of the battle and spends most of its 132-minute runtime on the set-up. Certainly by the end, there are scout planes being sacrificed and battleships defending themselves with barrages of skyward gunfire, but we also get to see how the Americans deciphered Midway as the coded Japanese target, how unexpected illnesses and bad luck brought certain players to the fore, and how each side endeavored to figure out the others’ movements before it was too late. All the background information isn’t exactly boring, but it can get a bit dry…yeah, that’s the word. Yet what it lacks in dynamic entertainment, it makes up for in the sense of getting a comprehensive reenactment of how events played out at a time when the American forces were still on the defensive and sorely in need of a victory.

Midway’s greatest strength is its multitude of familiar actors. Just reading the cast list is a who’s who of both big-name stars of the time and some stars to be: Charlton Heston as Captain Garth and the de facto main character, Henry Fonda as Admiral Nimitz, Robert Mitchum as Vice Admiral Halsey, Hal Holbrook, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Cliff Robertson, Glenn Corbett, Robert Wagner, Erik Estrada, Tom Selleck, and Dabney Coleman (five years before starring with Henry Fonda again in On Golden Pond). That’s not to say all of them get much time to shine in their cameos; I’m not sure Robert Wagner even spoke at all, but it’s always fun to try and pick out someone you might recognize. Of course, not being as familiar with TV of the ‘60s and ‘70s as my mom or grandfather (who loved this movie), I’m no doubt missing out on the full “look-it’s-so-and-so” experience.

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In addition to all the western actors is a collection of pretty much every actor of Japanese descent known to American audiences back then (except Mako; where the heck was Mako?), most notably Toshiro Mifune of Rashomon and Seven Samurai fame as Admiral Yamamoto, whose voice was oddly dubbed by Paul Frees. There’s also James Shigeta of Die Hard, Pat Morita of The Karate Kid, Robert Ito of Quincy, M.E., and quite a few others I’m sure I’ve seen on M*A*S*H before. Unlike modern war movie trends, all the Japanese characters speak convenient English, but there’s no effort to demonize them beyond some references to Pearl Harbor. They are simply the opposing side in this life-and-death game of Battleship. Questions of prejudice are raised with the romance of Edward Albert as Heston’s son who falls in love with a Japanese girl (Christina Kokubo), but that story doesn’t get much closure by the end and is present simply to add some human interest to the film.

It’s interesting to note that, despite being a box office hit, Midway is something of a black sheep among war classics, largely because it borrowed many scenes from other films, perhaps to save money on a budget that likely went to casting its prestigious stars. The graininess of certain shots clearly marks them as actual footage, but many of the actual battle scenes are from films like Tora! Tora! Tora!, Away All Boats, and Battle for Britain (at least according to Wikipedia), which now makes me curious to see all those films and spot what was borrowed. Even if its parts were cobbled together to some extent, Midway thrives on its star power and paints both a broad and detailed picture of a decisive World War II battle.

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On this 4th of July, whether you celebrate it or not, I want to wish all my readers, both foreign and domestic, a Happy Independence Day! Let freedom ring!

Best line: (Admiral Nimitz, after the battle) “It doesn’t make any sense; Admiral Yamamoto had everything going for him: power, experience, confidence. Were we better than the Japanese or just luckier?”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
584 Followers and Counting

 

Genre Grandeur – Vantage Point (2008) – Rhyme and Reason

01 Sunday Jul 2018

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Here’s my review of Vantage Point for MovieRob’s June Genre Grandeur for Political Thrillers. I’ve been meaning to review this perspective-changing thriller for a long time now, and this was a prime opportunity to catch up on an underrated film.

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For this month’s next review for Genre Grandeur – Political Thrillers, here’s a review of Vantage Point (2008) by SG of Rhyme and Reason

Thanks again to Tony of Coog’s Reviews for choosing this month’s genre.

Next month’s Genre has been chosen by Satu of FairyTale Pictures and it is Bestselling/Popular Novel Adaptations.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of June by sending them to novelideasatu@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box! Great choice Satu!

Let’s see what SG thought of this movie:

______________________________________

Vantage Point (2008)

 

What you see is not the truth,

But one component of one role

From but one angle you control.

And though you think yourself a sleuth,

The truth is always out of reach,

For each man’s view belongs to each.

Only God and storytellers

Know what viewpoints form the whole.

____________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Political thrillers aren’t…

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A Quiet Place (2018)

29 Friday Jun 2018

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Stop, do you hear that? I do, but do they?
The runaway rhythm of hearts in dismay,
It pounds ever harder and makes the rib cage
A tight echo chamber, a tremulous gauge
Of the worry of war that no man wished to wage.

Hide each hollow creak and conceal every crunch
From our foolhardy feet or an indiscreet lunch.
Outlasting this long is no right to survive
When one simple slip-up that fate can contrive
Might cut your luck short when the sentries arrive.

Each whisper so slight from beneath our caught breath
Resounds with regret as it promises death.
Escaping means nothing, nor hiding from view,
When stubbing your toe puts a target on you.
Stop, do you hear that? I fear that they do.
_______________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Faithful readers may know that I have very particular tastes when it comes to horror movies. Generally, the more blood there is, the less likely I’ll enjoy it, because I’d much rather be creeped out by atmosphere and implication than by ever more nauseating murders. That’s why A Quiet Place caught my interest, and indeed it is exactly the kind of scary movie for me, the kind that plays with your nerves rather than your stomach and even gets you to care about the characters in danger.

The film begins several months into an apocalyptic proliferation of monsters who detect their prey by sound and who have effectively ended civilization as we know it, leaving the unnamed Abbott family to scavenge supplies and survive in silence. Over a year later, they’ve built a fairly stable and silent life in their monster-prepared country home, complete with warning lights and trails of sand to soften their footsteps. The father Lee (director John Krasinski) does his best to prepare both his deaf daughter (Millicent Simmonds of Wonderstruck) with hearing aids and his son (Noah Jupe) with survival experience, while mother Evelyn (Emily Blunt, Krasinski’s real wife) tries to make their precarious existence as livable as possible. Yet in films of this type, half the tension is waiting for something to go wrong, and even if those with little patience may be a tad bored by the wordless beginning, they only need wait for the shoe to drop…noisily.

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As far as the plot itself, it’s honestly nothing I haven’t seen before. That’s because it is literally a combination of 2002’s Signs (mysterious creatures with a hidden weakness, two kids in danger, a cornfield) and 2015’s Hidden (a genuinely lovable and caring family living in fear of being discovered if they’re too loud). Luckily, I love both Signs and Hidden, and even if I could write a whole post on how similar A Quiet Place is to them, its combination is different enough to be worthwhile and adeptly made enough to make it far scarier than either earlier film.

Krasinski certainly has an eye for tension, and the sound design heightens the threat of even everyday items. Sometimes, you see the potential scream a mile away (one scene is particularly painful to watch), while others sneak up on you. Yes, there are plenty of effective jump scares, and keeping the creatures out of sight until late in the film adds to their mystery and threat. The fact that Evelyn is pregnant also contributes to the inevitability of sound, and with so much of the film lacking dialogue, the sounds that do attract the creatures are potently jarring for the audience as well.

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Every performance is outstanding in its fear, grief, and familial love, with Krasinski and Simmonds (who is actually deaf) being the stand-outs. Even relying on sign language, they’re entirely believable as a close family, the kind that says grace together before meals, albeit haunted by the trauma of their situation, and their resourcefulness proves quite clever when dangerous situations arise. I kept wondering why they wouldn’t close doors to keep the creatures out, but then I remembered that a closing door would only cause more noise. Some may wonder how they could have built some of their safety measures without making sound (they’re shown to have canned much of their food, and the electricity must run off a noise-making generator), but if you can ignore those niggling critiques, A Quiet Place is the latest proof that an intensely scary movie depends more on the craft behind it than the body count.

Best line (out of not many): (Evelyn, to Lee) “Who are we if we can’t protect them? We have to protect them.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy (tied with Hidden)

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
582 Followers and Counting

 

Opinion Battles Year 4 Round 6 – Biggest Acting Oscar Snub

27 Wednesday Jun 2018

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Don’t forget to vote for what you think is the biggest acting snub at the Oscars! Whether they got a nomination or not, there are plenty of actors and actresses who deserved it more than the actual winner, at least in our impassioned opinions. I chose Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips, which continued the trend of his strong performances being totally ignored by the Academy of late. Take a look and see which snub you find the most egregious.

Unknown's avatarMovie Reviews 101

Opinion Battles Year 4 Round 6

Biggest Acting Oscar Snub

The conversation always comes up during Oscar season, who should have been given an Oscar nomination or even taken the win, we look to select the ones we feel should have been given this honour.

Next Round – Favourite 90’s Animated Movie – Closing Friday 6th July 2018

Milo – Stuff and That

Uma Thurman – Pulp Fiction

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via GIPHY 

Considering my reasoning for my Round 4 pick, it shouldn’t be hard to deduce who I’m picking today. She just oozes aloof cool and I can’t believe, in one of the best performances of the 90s, she was booted for who? Dianne Wiest? In wha–? I can’t even remember.

 

Darren – Movie Reviews 101

Taraji P Henson – Hidden Figures

In the 2017 Awards for best actress we didn’t get too much competition, we also had two…

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My Top Twelve Films of 2017

24 Sunday Jun 2018

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I know, I know; it’s almost the middle of 2018, and I’m just now getting around to a list of 2017 movies? Yep, that’s right. I’ve never been the type to immediately see every movie out in the theater, even since starting this blog, and, except for certain blockbusters, I typically have no qualms about waiting for the DVD or a second-run showing.

On top of that, Oscar season is rarely as appealing to me as it is to many bloggers. I was impressed with the 2016 Oscar season and did the list for that year shortly after the Academy Awards ceremony, but 2017’s awards contenders didn’t hold as much interest for me, which is why you won’t notice as many Oscar nominees below. Boy, it almost sounds as if I don’t even like movies, but it’s not true, I tell you!

All that to say that I’ve taken my time catching up on 2017’s offerings, and, with 2018 shaping up to be a strong year as well, I think I’m finally ready for a 2017 list of my own, which perhaps reflects my geeky and less-than-critical tastes. All of the Top Twelve made it onto my Top 365 List, and several of the runners-up came quite close. Like last year, I’ll start with the lower films still worth seeing and work up to #1. Keep in mind that these are only my personal favorites and that there are plenty of films I’ve still yet to see, so feel free to recommend your own faves. Time for a walk down recent memory lane.

Runners-Up:

Pitch Perfect 3

Death Note

Kong: Skull Island

September Morning

The Zookeeper’s Wife

Split

Alien: Covenant

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Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Lady Bird

The Man Who Invented Christmas

The Lego Batman Movie

The Mountain Between Us

Get Out

All Saints

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Cars 3

Fits and Starts

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

The Breadwinner

Marjorie Prime

No Game No Life: Zero

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Only the Brave

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

 

 

  1. The Big Sick

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R-rated comedies usually aren’t for me, but Kumail Nanjiani’s semi-autobiographical account of his romance with wife and co-writer Emily V. Gordon had plenty of heart and insight to balance out its needless profanity. Both Nanjiani as himself and Zoe Kazan as Emily bring an authenticity to the strain of a sudden medical crisis, coupled with Nanjiani’s struggles with his Muslim family, while Holly Hunter and Ray Romano turn in fantastic supporting performances as Emily’s stressed parents. I rather wish this had won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar.

 

  1. Thor: Ragnarok

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You might notice a partiality for superhero movies in this part of the list. True, 2017 wasn’t the strongest year for the genre, but its offerings were still consistently entertaining, even as popcorn fluff. Diverging entirely from the established tone of the series, Taika Waititi brought a uniquely absurd sense of humor to Thor, which may have cheapened some of the stakes but still made for a fun ride and a great addition to the MCU in Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie.

 

  1. Wonder Woman

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Well, DC proved me wrong. After I was largely unimpressed by the dreary Batman v. Superman, Wonder Woman showed a better side of the DC universe through a period piece a la The First Avenger. Gal Gadot effortlessly filled an iconic role and, with strong support from Chris Pine, showed us a moving superhero origin story to rival Marvel’s juggernauts. The overblown climax is a bit messy, but the scene at No Man’s Land alone was worth the price of admission.

 

  1. Spider-Man: Homecoming

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I’m honestly surprised that I liked Homecoming as much as I did, since I still consider Tobey McGuire the cinematic Spider-Man. But you could say that I don’t mind a new generation growing up with Tom Holland as the webslinger. Instead of the origin story we’ve already seen twice, Homecoming centers on the formative years of Peter Parker as a teenage hero under Tony Stark’s wing, and its high-school focus and light-hearted tone made it work as a different version of Spider-Man that I could still buy into (as long as that new generation still watches the original trilogy).

 

  1. War for the Planet of the Apes

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I got to catch up with the whole modern Planet of the Apes trilogy last year, and I was shocked that it was as good as everyone said. War for the Planet of the Apes may be the bleakest of the three, but the intelligence and nuance of the first two films are compounded here with Caesar’s apes facing a fanatical human threat. Its CGI is jaw-dropping and its battles and prison escape scenes keep it entertaining, but the moral themes of suffering and empathy are what make this resonate more than your typical blockbuster.

 

  1. Dunkirk

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Maybe revolutionizing the war genre is overstating it, but Christopher Nolan turned the evacuation of Dunkirk into an impressively mounted puzzle, split into time-dilated thirds. Seeing it in the theater, the sense of tension was almost constant, and even if the individual characters weren’t as developed as I would have liked, it was riveting to watch all the pieces come together so masterfully.

 

  1. Chronesthesia (a.k.a. Love and Time Travel)

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This one may be a bit of a cheat since it’s technically from 2016, but it was only shown at two film festivals in New Zealand and Austin, so 2017 was the first chance I would have gotten to see it anyway. I love films that weave together character stories in unexpected ways with a little bit of the supernatural thrown in, and that’s exactly what Chronesthesia does. Hayden J. Weal does triple duty directing, writing, and playing the misanthropic main character, who wakes to find mysterious messages that help him meet and connect with others. Despite not even having a Wikipedia page, it’s a beautifully human film that’s more about compassion, romance, and empathy than the mental time travel its name suggests.

 

  1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

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Everyone loves the first Guardians, but I think Vol. 2 was even better, aided by having an already established cast that received greater development on top of all the sarcastic banter, sci-fi coolness, and ‘70s throwback tunes. Kurt Russell made for a great antagonist, and Yondu’s role provided one of the most bittersweet endings in the Marvel canon.

 

  1. Darkest Hour

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Darkest Hour is more than just a showcase for Gary Oldman’s stupendous turn as Winston Churchill; it’s one of the best biopics I’ve seen, bolstered by transportive cinematography and a wittily cracking script. There’s a reason Oldman was a shoo-in for Best Actor, and he truly disappears into the role, showing Churchill at his worst, his best, and his most desperate. Coming out the same year as Dunkirk, it’s also cool to see the same events from a different perspective.

 

  1. Coco

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Even with the over-reliance on sequels in recent years, Coco proves that Pixar’s still got it. I was nervous since the story of a Mexican boy transported to the Land of the Dead seemed too similar to The Book of Life from three years earlier, but Coco is better in every way and far from a copycat. It’s a love letter to family, music, Mexican culture, and lost loved ones, and a stunningly animated adventure to boot.

 

  1. The Greatest Showman

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Have I mentioned that I love musicals? Every now and then, someone tries to remind Hollywood that there is a market for well-done musicals, and along with Les Misérables and La La Land, I can only hope The Greatest Showman will convince them to make more. This was one of those rare theater experiences where I loved every minute, from Hugh Jackman’s charismatic P.T. Barnum to the exuberant choreography to the brilliantly catchy songs by Pasek and Paul. Perhaps not the most historically accurate film out there, but I still loved it.

 

  1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

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That’s right. If any Last Jedi haters are reading this, yes, I think The Last Jedi was awesome. Whoo, glad I got that off my chest. But seriously, I don’t understand the backlash this movie has gotten, because even after hearing a lot of mixed reviews, I went in and loved it. What amazes me even more is that they did to Luke exactly what I didn’t want a year ago, but the rest was so entertaining that I didn’t mind much, though my opinion still hinges somewhat on how Episode IX continues the story. Last Jedi had some of the coolest scenes in any Star Wars film, and I look forward to seeing what else director Rian Johnson is cooking up for his own trilogy.

 

 

So that’s the list. As I said, there are still plenty of movies yet to see, so this is still a work in progress. If I could redo my 2016 list, it would look rather different now that I’ve seen some more worthwhile gems (hmm, maybe I should update it), and the same will likely be true of this 2017 list. Let me know what you think and whatever recommendations from last year you might have, and I’ll be right here planning the list for 2018. We’re only halfway through the year, and it’s already looking good!

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

21 Thursday Jun 2018

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There once was a rogue on the run
Who liked to shoot first with his gun.
He’d often cheat death
Without catching his breath
And make every danger seem fun.

The hand of a princess he won.
Have you heard of the famed Kessel Run?
You may know he’s tough,
But you don’t know enough
Till you see how his tale had begun.
___________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

Of all the opinions swirling around Solo: A Star Wars Story, there’s one thing everyone seems to agree on: It’s not a bad movie. That’s more generous than a lot of films get, but that seems to be the basis around which many are building their views. They may embrace it as a prequel done right or poke every imaginable hole in its plot and execution, but one thing’s for sure: It’s not a bad movie. I’ll go a bit farther than that, though. Solo: A Star Wars Story is a good movie.

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Solo had the unenviable task of recasting one of the most iconic roles in cinematic history, and no matter who they picked for Han Solo, there’s only one Harrison Ford. That being said, Alden Ehrenreich holds his own as a younger and scrappier Han, not quite looking the part, not quite nailing Ford’s mannerisms as well as I’d like, but he still works as a believable version of the beloved rogue. Likewise, Donald Glover slips smoothly into Billy Dee Williams’ debonair shoes, and Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca is, well, the same Chewbacca we’ve always known, one of the perks of playing an alien in a full-body suit. The recasting isn’t quite a slam dunk like J.J. Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek cast, which was arguably a harder sell, but it comes close enough

Joining these familiar faces/characters are a host of other rogues, from Paul Bettany’s scarred crime lord, to Woody Harrelson’s smuggler and grudging mentor, to a group of Cloud Riders led by a masked pirate dressed suspiciously like Hiccup’s mother in How to Train Your Dragon 2. The title of best addition, though, goes to the always beautiful Emilia Clarke as Han’s childhood friend and love interest Qi’ra, whose three-year separation from him among villains leaves you constantly questioning what exactly her role and intentions are. Many of the characters don’t stick around long enough to leave much of an impression, often just to put more focus on Han, but they do their parts admirably. Oh, and I suppose some mention is deserved by Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s irascible droid L3-37, whose strident calls for droid equality shed a different light on the sentience and rights of robots in the Star Wars universe (and an odd, though unconfirmed implication of Lando’s romantic tastes). It’s funny how “sarcastic” describes most of the named droids of Star Wars, and she’s no exception, though I preferred K-2SO in Rogue One.

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I’ll admit that Solo didn’t have the same hype for me that past Star Wars films had, perhaps because it’s been only six months since The Last Jedi, perhaps because the marketing made it seem like the least Star Wars-y movie yet, perhaps because of the publicized difficulties behind the scenes that replaced directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller with the ever-reliable Ron Howard. Yet anyone going in with low expectations is bound to have a good time, whether you want a series of well-fashioned heist scenarios and action set pieces or a geeky exploration of Han’s origins, complete with the Millennium Falcon, the Kessel Run, those golden dice I never knew about till Last Jedi, and how he first met Chewie and Lando. I do wonder what Lord and Miller’s version would have looked like, but my VC and I agreed that, even with its changes in casting and a poorly lit visual tone, this still felt like Star Wars, which is the least we fans can hope for as Disney continues to churn out sequels, prequels, and in-betweenquels.

I’m still not entirely sure whether I consider Solo and Rogue One to be 100% canon, even if they may be “officially.” With no George Lucas, Jedi, or Skywalkers involved, they’re more like big-budget fan fiction, and I’m okay with that. To my mind, there has still not been a bad Star Wars movie, and I like how new directors and storytellers have added their own distinctive style to the most recent installments while preserving what made this world so compelling from the start. These Star Wars Stories have managed to surprise me both in quality and narrative. (Solo has a late revelation that I’m surprised isn’t getting more buzz, though maybe that’s because I haven’t seen Star Wars: Rebels. I don’t think this film will be the one-off that Rogue One was, though its box office performance leaves some doubt on a sequel.) Whether it’s real Star Wars or just someone else’s version of it, it’s still darn entertaining and decidedly not bad.

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Best line: (Lando, to Han) “I hate you.”   (Han) “I know.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy (joining Rogue One)

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
582 Followers and Counting

 

2018 Blindspot Pick #5: Sunshine (2007)

18 Monday Jun 2018

Posted by in Blindspot, Movies, Poetry, Reviews, Writing

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Some say because mankind began,
Someday we’ll meet our end.
It’s borrowed time we spend.

Now centuries or more before
That fateful day arrives,
We fear for future lives.

We doubt if such is simply fate.
Should we rage if we could
If that good night be good?

Inevitable it may be,
Yet life is valued right
By how its owners fight.

Is saving life postponing death?
Then may death hesitate,
However short the wait.
___________________

MPAA rating: R (for language and some violence)

I’m a little embarrassed to have fallen behind on my Blindspot series this year, only now getting to May’s pick. Though, in my defense, I have been busy graduating and looking for a new job in web design, so I think that’s a reasonable excuse. Oh, and I discovered a funny little show called Parks and Recreation, which has kind of distracted me from my typical movie-watching schedule. Even so, I’m trying to catch up this month, and Sunshine made for a welcome return to my Blindspot picks.

I was familiar with Sunshine’s music long before I had any intention of watching it, even placing it at #49 on my list of Top 50 Movie Scores. Much of the electronica from composer John Murphy and the band Underworld is complementary for a sci-fi film but unmemorable, yet “Adagio in D Minor” is an immortal cinematic track as far as I’m concerned, serving to heighten the emotion of two visually striking scenes.

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There’s more than the score, though, to make Sunshine worth watching, not least of which is the diverse and recognizable cast, all astronauts aboard the Icarus II on a mission to save mankind by reigniting the sun with a giant bomb.  Cillian Murphy seems to be the lead as Robert Capa, a physicist in charge of the actual payload, while the rest of the crew include Michelle Yeoh, Benedict Wong, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Troy Garity, Hiroyuki Sanada (Lost alert!), and Chris Evans, who was between superhero roles at the time. Actually, it’s telling that five of those actors have made their way into superhero movies, and wait(!) Hiroyuki Sanada is supposedly cast in the next Avengers movie so it’s probably only a matter of time before Garity and Curtis make the leap too. The characters aren’t much more developed than the crew of the Nostromo in Alien (which wasn’t much when you think about it), but the actors do well in giving them distinct personalities and methods, though it was odd to learn that a lot of background information on each one was thought up yet intentionally left out.

I tend to enjoy the science fiction genre in general, and Sunshine had many of the ingredients I like, from intelligent problem solving in the face of disaster to a foreboding, often claustrophobic setting, plus a few creative subtleties, as when pictures of dead crewmen are momentarily glimpsed in the glare of flashlights. The script was also thought-provoking as it repeatedly put the characters in life-and-death positions in which the death option meant the death of mankind. As for the plot, it reminded me of a cross between the Firefly episode “Bushwhacked” (searching a derelict ship with a crazed danger on board) and  Alien: Covenant (picking up a distress signal that jeopardizes the mission, though Sunshine had a better reason for their following of said signal). I know some have criticized Sunshine for how the last third suddenly veers into slasher-style horror, but it didn’t seem incompatible with what came before and, if anything, strengthened the parallels to an Alien movie.

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Directed by Danny Boyle, Sunshine has a lot in its favor, which makes its fate as a box-office failure even sadder, but it’s also far from perfect. It’s hard for me to fault the grand spacefaring visuals, but there were multiple scenes where I just wasn’t sure what I was looking at, whether because of the unique design of the ship or because the scene was drowned in sunlight or shielded in darkness. This is the only Blindspot I’ve watched twice, the second time with my VC, who had the same trouble but still enjoyed it, and I did find it easier to understand on the second go once I knew what was happening. Coupled with that objection is how the “monster” of the film was kept semi-concealed, not through shadowy editing but through camera distortions that just became overused.

In addition, for a film about the potential end of humanity, there’s very little spiritual dimension to it, only reminders of man being “stardust” and some religious ramblings of a madman. I always find it weird when disaster or apocalyptic movies seem to intentionally avoid or demonize religion, since that’s where many a mind goes when death draws near, and the fact that Cillian Murphy reportedly “converted” to atheism due to this film reveals how coldly unspiritual its underpinnings are.

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Despite these qualms, Sunshine was still a sci-fi journey worth taking, buoyed by strong casting, effects, and music. You could almost say it’s a better Alien movie than most of the Alien sequels, and that’s without any aliens. While its fatalism can get heavy and its visuals require some thought to decipher, this is one more corner of science fiction I’m glad to check off the ol’ to-watch list.

Best line (showing writer Alex Garland knew his influences): (Mace) “We should split up.”   (Harvey) “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea….”   (Mace) “You’re probably right. We might get picked off one at a time by aliens.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
582 Followers and Counting

 

For the Love of Spock (2016)

15 Friday Jun 2018

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Ideas are born and met with scorn
More often than embraced.
It’s hard to tell what might do well
Or else end up disgraced.

That’s why the rise of one franchise
Can be a wondrous thing
When someone’s pitch can find its niche
And gain a following.

Ideas sow seed while sponsors lead,
But icons call for skill,
For one who spans the dreams of fans
To live and prosper still.
__________________

MPAA rating: Not Rated (should be PG-13 for 2 F-words)

I don’t typically watch and review documentaries, but as a lifelong fan of Star Trek, I couldn’t pass up a celebration of Leonard Nimoy and his most iconic role. Funding through Kickstarter, For the Love of Spock  is unique in that Nimoy himself was actually involved in its production until his death in 2015, and his son Adam Nimoy not only finished the doco but turned it into a moving retrospective of his father and their rocky relationship.

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I love Spock. Who doesn’t love Spock? Whether it’s Nimoy in the original series and films or Zachary Quinto in J.J. Abrams’ reboots, the half-human, half-Vulcan science officer of the Enterprise is a both compelling and surprisingly lovable character, even with his famous emotional reserve. For the Love of Spock dives into the original man behind the ears, from his early acting days to his musical and artistic pursuits to how he and his family reacted to the sudden stardom that Mr. Spock foisted upon them.

Apart from Nimoy and his son, there are a plethora of celebrity interviews that provide commentary of Nimoy’s life, whether the experiences of co-stars like William Shatner and George Takei or the geeky influence he imparted to Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jim Parsons, and J.J. Abrams. It’s a brilliantly edited encapsulation of all that Nimoy and Spock have given popular culture and boasts the emotional resonance of the loss of a legend and some surprising stories of how that legend developed, such as the Jewish origin of Spock’s “Live long and prosper” hand gesture. (You probably can’t see, but I’m doing it right now.) Occasionally, it’s also very funny, as when it recaps Nimoy singing “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins,” which is possibly the biggest what-the-heck moment I’ve seen all year and which I had to include below.

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As I said, I don’t often watch documentaries, but I’ve liked the few I’ve seen, with For the Love of Spock up there among the best. I use a simpler “Thumb” system for docos since they’re harder for me to compare to narrative films, but this is undoubtedly worth Two Thumbs Up. Perhaps certain periods aren’t covered in as much detail, like the original films or Nimoy’s first autobiography I Am Not Spock, but Star Trek geeks and semi-geeks alike will find plenty to enjoy.

 

Rank: Two Thumbs Up

 

© 2018 S.G. Liput
582 Followers and Counting