Behold! A Trailer For THE DARK TOWER Is Finally Here...

...and it actually looks pretty wizard.

Okay, it may come as a surprise to some of you that I, a young man with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the many realms of pop culture, am not very familiar with Stephen King's much beloved Dark Tower series. That having been said, you better believe that I can easily get behind a series that's essentially a blend of fantasy, westerns, science fiction and horror (seriously, any piece of art that positions cowboys as knights will probably catch my interest). And, after a rather extensive pre-production period (at one point, J.J. Abrams and Ron Howard were attached to the project before Nikolaj Arcel ultimately became the film's director), it's finally coming out a few months from now.

Now, that I've given a quick little explanation about this whole business, you may be waiting for me to actually give my thoughts on the trailer. Well, hypothetical reader, here goes... I think it looks pretty good. Whether or not it's faithful to the source material is something that A) I don't have enough investment in said source material to deliver an informed opinion on (if you want a look at this trailer from the eyes of a fan, I'd recommend reading this: http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2017/05/03/and-now-a-definitive-breakdown-of-the-first-dark-tower-trailer) and B) we'll have to wait until August 4th to know for sure. But, for now, I have hope for this one. Visually speaking, it looks quite impressive, especially when I took into account that the budget on this film was significantly less than your typical blockbuster nowadays. Granted, this isn't to say 60 million dollars isn't a staggering amount of money (it is). All I'm saying is it's interesting that a movie of this size and scope wasn't as costly as other films of similar nature (at least, if we're just talking about the production budget). The action sequences look slick and inventive (mainly the stuff involving its unique approach to cinematic gunplay). With all of that in mind, what really peaks my curiosity is Matthew McConaughey's villain. From what I've seen, this looks like new territory for him as an actor and I'm curious to see what he does with this role.

Before I go, I'd like to mention that they did release a couple character posters the day before this trailer was dropped and they're also pretty wizard.

 

Home Video Catch Up: LIVE BY NIGHT

In many respects, Live By Night feels like a good movie struggling to become a great movie. Although it doesn't the achieve greatness or much in the way of cinematic depth, Ben Affleck still delivers a solidly entertaining gangster flick and its such a shame that it was rejected so heavily by critics and audiences.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like this movie quite a bit and I'd give it a modest recommendation when all is said and done. With that said, one can't truly appreciate the good, or even great, things about a film without acknowledging (or, better yet, seeking to improve) its flaws. And, without a doubt, the two biggest problems with this movie are pacing and story beats. While the majority of the film moves along at a rather well-balanced clip, the first act does feel like its in a bit too much of a hurry to get to the meatier parts of the story proper. Also, certain characters do have a tendency to exit the movie for noticeable stretches of time. Well, that and there are some parts of the story that felt like they should've been fleshed out more. Granted, this could be that the studio wanted a shorter running time* and a lot of scenes were left on the cutting room floor; but, until someone involved actually sheds some light on it, I guess we may never know if this was the case or not.

Still, those glaring flaws don't prevent it from being a pretty entertaining ride. The performances are great. The direction is borderline masterful (at this point, that's to be expected from Ben Affleck). The dialogue is snappy and I'll probably be quoting a few lines from this sometime down the road. But, what really deserves special mention is the film's cinematography. Look, I get that I tend to drone on and on about how pretty a film looks;  but, I'm sorry, guys. I'm just a sucker for a well-composed shot. And, quite frankly, Live By Night is absolutely chock-full of remarkable, expertly framed images.

Overall, while I do think this film would greatly benefit from an extended cut (and a 4K Blu-Ray release, major hint for Warner Brothers), Live By Night has too many good things about it to call outright bad.

LIVE BY NIGHT gets a...
NICE JOB, MAN! out of TEN

*It should be noted that important scenes getting cut for the theatrical release of any movie is a fairly common practice.

FREE FIRE Review

I'll admit upfront that I'm not all that familiar with the collective filmography of one Ben Wheatley; yet, upon a cursory glance of his body of work, I can say that he's certainly an interesting figure in the world of independent cinema. If nothing else, Free Fire is exactly the kind of starting point one would need to kind of get how demented and truly out there this guy is as a filmmaker (which is, in and of itself, kind of weird considering how the movie itself isn't particularly bizarre)

The basic pitch is pretty simple. Its a late night in the 1970s and a bunch of criminals are in a warehouse for a gun deal. Before long, things go sour and the rest of the movie is basically a feature length shootout. So, yeah. This isn't especially deep material; but, there is a such thing as beauty in simplicity and Wheatley delivers on the thrills that premise and title promise. Besides, I haven't seen a movie this funny in such a dark way in a long time.

Of course, the cast has some fun turns that I'd be remissed to leave out of any discussion about this movie. Brie Larson*, Jack Reynor, and Cillian Murphy provide good work as the only three characters in the movie that could be considered level-headed in any capacity. Armie Hammer gets quite a few chuckles with his laidback, completely serious demeanor. But, really Sharlto Copley ends up stealing almost every scene he's in as the guy selling the merchandise. On one hand, he's easily one of the film's slimier characters. On the other hand, he seems to be one of the few characters in the movie that seems to have an actual soul. Its performances like this that remind me why I get excited when he shows up in a flick. Plus, Sam Riley is astoundingly slimy and Michael Smiley is always a hoot in stuff like this.

Do I have complaints? Sure. Despite the action being consistently entertaining for the most part, there are numerous small points were things seemed to slow down too much. Granted, part of this can be blamed on how energetic the editing in the trailer was; but, personally, I think its because of how infrequently the music is used. Maybe, there's some underlying point about how pathetic these people are for descending into senseless mayhem so easily (to be fair, that wouldn't be surprising given how this director's last film was an adaptation of one of J.G. Ballard's more scathingly satirical novels**). That having been said, this could just be me reading too much into the most basic of cinematic subtexts; besides, people are here to see funny people shooting each other and the film delivers on that front in spades.


Ultimately, Free Fire is still a ridiculously entertaining, unabashedly crass exercise in gallows humor and a gleeful bit of ultra-violence. If this is playing near you, I'd definitely encourage you to give it a look. Although its certainly for an acquired taste, chances are good that you're not going to see anything else quite like this in your local multiplex at the moment.

FREE FIRE gets a...
HEY, THAT'S PRETTY GOOD out of TEN

*Incidentally, this is the second movie I've seen this year that stars Brie Larson and uses Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Run Through The Jungle". (The first one is Kong: Skull Island).
**That movie is High Rise, in case you were wondering.

Bits n' Pieces Of Cinema News (04/19/2017)

Hey! Would you look at that? I'm introducing yet another new (possibly occasional) series of posts. Here, I'm going to talk about small news snippets that are worth discussing, even if they won't fill an entire piece. With that out of the way, let's get the ball rolling.


Being the guy who still hasn't made an outright bad movie in his entire career (if you don't believe me, look at his filmography -> click here), Guillermo del Toro is always a filmmaker to pay attention to. Seeing how his latest movie involves shenanigans involving a fishman set against the Cold War, I shouldn't have to explain why that's the case. The cast includes some really heavy-hitters like Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer and del Toro regular Doug Jones. Definitely keep your eyes peeled for when this hits theaters, come December 8th.


So, we finally know what's going to be on Awesome Mix Volume 2. That's nifty! Like the last movie, it looks like James Gunn has assembled another eclectic concoction of classic tracks. My only gripe is that apparently that there was going to be another David Bowie song this time; sadly, the scene it was featured in was left on the cutting room floor. Still, that's a pretty minor nitpick and any has Electric Light Orchestra on it has to be worth something.


One of Marvel's upcoming flicks finally has a director (or directors, in this instance). The duo behind Mississippi Grind and Half Nelson are apparently helming this one. Granted, those are two movies I regretfully haven't seen yet; that said, considering how strong Marvel's creative confidence is and that the two aforementioned films have a relatively respectable reputation, I think I can safely say that this project is in good hands.


Blind Al's coming back for Deadpool 2. Nothing else to say other than she was one of the funniest things about the first Deadpool and I'm happy to hear she's returning for the sequel.

That's all I got for now. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves about my routine ruminations.

Home Video Catch Up: ROGUE ONE

If nothing else, we finally have a thoroughly good, occasionally great, Star Wars prequel now. Initially. when I saw it in theaters and to a certain extent afterwards, I thought that Rogue One was in the top five best Star Wars movies. Now, having had time to reflect on my initial thoughts and to rewatch the film on Blu-Ray, my opinion on the film has somewhat soured; that having been said, I will concede that Rogue One is still an exceptionally entertaining film that's only a few inches away from greatness.

Before I get to gushing over all the stuff I like about this movie, let me point out some of this film's biggest weak points. Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor make for two staggeringly bland leads. Come to think, none of the characters are well-developed to be described as three-dimensional. Forest Whitaker's voice is jarring and kind of laughable at times. The CGI used to bring back Grand Moff Tarkin is, while very impressive, perhaps TOO realistic (it's the whole "uncanny valley" effect once again). Finally, the first half of the film really drags the pacing down.

With all of that out of the way, Rogue One isn't without its redeeming qualities. Even the characters they're portraying aren't especially deep, the cast turns in some rather fine work. Personally, Alan Tudyk's gleefully sardonic work as K2SO and Donnie Yen's sheer awesomeness were my favorites out of the bunch. It should also be noted that Ben Mendelsohn makes for a great villain. And while the first half really does make the film feel longer than it actually is, the finally battle sequence is one of the best moments in the entire Star Wars franchise. Speaking of which, I must give credit where credit is due (considering that this movie gives the world what might be the best Darth Vader moment ever)*. Michael Giacchino once again proves why he's one of the best composers working nowadays with a rousing score (even if I still wish that the producers didn't scrap Alexandre Desplat's allegedly more unique compositions). Plus, it's all beautifully shot (it looks even better than Episode VII).

In the end, I do think that The Force Awakens is a better film overall; but, that isn't to say that Rogue One (I still refuse to call it "A Star Wars Story") is not worth your time. It's a good enough movie in the Star Wars saga that just a few strokes away from greatness.

ROGUE ONE gets a...
HEY, THAT'S PRETTY GOOD out of 10

*If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch this.

Trailers! Trailers! Trailers! #4

Well, it's that time again! Let's see this week's new trailers

THE BAD BATCH

Oh yeah, I've been looking forward to this one for a while now simply because it's a movie about cannibals that has Jim Carrey as a hermit and Keanu Reeves as a cult leader. Call me crazy but I think this one looks like a real winner. The cinematography looks appealing and I'm more than intrigued to see what twisted directions this goes.

DETROIT

Hey! Kathryn Bigelow made another movie. In my book, that's usually a thing to keep one's eyes peeled for. And, boy, does this movie look intense. I'm not sure if the whole shaky cam aesthetic clicks together with the rather accurate looking recreation of late-1960s America; but, its certainly interesting and I'm curious to see how it all plays out.

TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT

Is this going to be any good? Probably not, seeing that the Michael Bay Transformers movies have garnered a well-deserved reputation as the worst modern blockbuster cinema has to offer. That said, this trailer does look pretty cool and it looks like The Last Knight might bring something new to the table from a plot perspective. Of course, there's also other cool stuff like more robot dinosaurs and what looks like Optimus Prime gone bad. Overall, color me cautiously optimistic for this one. While I won't be surprised if this ends up being a stinker, I'll be happy if this ends up being the first good movie in this series since 2007.

That's all for this round. Tune in again when I ramble on about... something else.

Home Video Catch Up: DOCTOR STRANGE

Doctor Strange is hands-down Marvel's best-looking film (and no, I'm not just saying that because Captain America: Civil War came out within the same timeframe and that looked about as drab as a comic book filtered through concrete). It's color palette is often and put into effectively great. To put it simply, this film deserves to be seen on the best screen possible, be it either in an IMAX theater or on an HD television that resides in a humble living room. Plus, the effects are so good, Oscar gold is practically gift-wrapped for them (sadly, The Jungle Book snatched that prize from this, but, oh well). Seriously, a lot of this movie's visuals look like the filmmakers pulled through the back catalogs of Steve Dikto's* original comic art, trippy rock album covers from the seventies & eighties, tons of surrealist artists (M.C. Escher and Salvador Dali, in particular) and even cult classics like Altered States & Enter The Void.

Besides the beautifully psychedelic visuals, Doctor Strange works for a lot of the same reasons many other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe work. The main characters are well-developed & likable and the action sequences are fun & inventive (that one is especially true in this film's case). Aside from the excellent effects, I was also pleasantly surprised by what this film does better than some of the other entries in the MCU. For example, Michael Giacchino's score is easily the most distinct, memorable score in the whole franchise (a lot of that is mainly seen, or rather heard, in the film's main theme). 

Of course, the cast also turns in some great work. Benedict Cumberbatch exceeds as Stephen Strange for much the same reason that Bruce Campbell succeeds in Army of Darkness (i.e. both actors pull off making their characters cocky but undeniably charismatic). Tilda Swinton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Benedict Wong are all fantastic in their supporting roles (their characters and the mythology that surrounds them are, quite simply, some of the MCU's most interesting facets to date). Mads Mikkelsen brings a decent amount of gravitas to what is otherwise a typically one-note villain. Sadly, while Rachel McAdams' performance is perfectly serviceable, it does kind of feel like the script left her character as an afterthought rather than someone who's been fully realized. Still, that's a pretty minor gripe and it doesn't effect the movie as a whole.

Overall, Doctor Strange is easily in my Top Five Favorite Marvel Movies** and the mind-blowing visuals alone make the film worth at least one viewing.

DOCTOR STRANGE gets a...

BADASS out of 10

 

*For those who don't know, Steve Ditko is the artist who co-created Doctor Strange with Stan Lee

**I may do a piece about that very topic in the near future. So, keep your eyes peeled. ;)