Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Movie review catchup - 2015 part 1


Melancholy in a good way.  Sad, with hope for better days.   Spot on casting, nice sound track, and a fine writing touch.

Kind of orthogonal to a feel good movie.

Yes, tears were shed openly, but enjoyable all the same.

7/10





Wonderful (based on a true) story of colliding worlds, characters and passions.  Superbly acted, beautiful cinematography and fun and fitting soundtrack/score.  Captivating smiles and infectious laughter shows life is what we make it.

8/10








I thought Renner did I good job.  Not certain I appreciated the plot, but the action and location shots were top notch.  Superb motorcycle chase.  Norton provided a good sense of dread and Weisz a perfect damsel in distress.  Liked all the intelligence tracking and tech - quite believable.  

7/10







Powerful telling of one of America's most important stories.  And one Americans need to understand and remember.  Well balanced production of the horrific brutality with the peace of Dr. King.  Superbly acted, shocking and...

Unavoidable and justified comparisons with twelve years a slave.

Agree with claims of Oscar snubs for Oyelowo and DuVarnay, Happy the movie was recognized and really like the song Glory written for the movie.

8/10



Clever keeps you guessing.   Fatal attraction like.  Interesting layers.   Gripping.  Complex.  Better than expected.  Great casting.  Clinical use of violence and even language.  Behind closed doors.   Don't like the title.   Surprising.   A good old fashioned Hitchcock thriller ?  Some doubtful plot bits.

8/10








Bizarre but beautiful.  Sensual but sad.   Natural but neo sci-fi.   I saw that Nerdwriter has a vlog about it being classic art house.  Haven't seen the vlog yet, but feel this must be what is art house.  Artistic in unusual ways, but many scenes are very realistic and documentary like.  Superbly acted by Johansson and the supporting cast.  Stunning scenario and wonderful cinematography.   Some very clever, unexpected and shocking elements.  Full of drama and suspenseful scenes.  Loved how she was so natural in her seduction and so unnatural with almost everything else.  Liked the weather influences, especially the scene at the castle.

7/10



Violent gang pursuit balances the film's very ambitious ideas.  I liked it.  Suspension of disbelief is critical to enjoying it.  Pretty close to Scarlett's brilliant detached role in Under the Skin - type casting ?   The drug does exist.  Cool to think about the real possibilities.  

Made me wonder how unbelievable this life I lead (and tech I use) today would seem to someone at the turn of the 20th century.

How can we feel comfortable seeing such far out science fiction ?

Entertaining.  7/10



Wonderful story of an amazing man, and his amazing wife Jane.  Superbly acted by Redmayne and Jones.  Sad and tragic but Hawking's frequent humour was / is a welcome tonic.  For love or for science. What can I / we learn from him ?  I have to read the book now (had it for a long time).  Aligns with my feeling about religion - not certain, but I feel life is sometimes beyond science and my understanding.   

8/10






Fury

Good old fashioned war movie.  Standard mix of characters thrown together in the horror of war.  Well acted, well produced.  

7/10










Dallas Buyers Club

Superb performances for McConaughey and Leto.  Well crafted story (albeit a little bit of a stretch for the lead character).  Tragedy of massive proportions in right versus wrong drama.  Loved the flawed characters.

8/10








Safety Not Guaranteed

Great chemistry all around.  Very sweet.  Great writing.  Super dialogue and quotes.  Surprising love stories.  Personal feelings and parallelism.  Closed and open - love it.  Johnson reminded me of Mark Ruffalo.  Great soundtrack too, incl. Arctic Monkeys.

7/10








The Judge

Good to see Downey Jr. In a serious role.  Yes, he still got to be a little funny, but Duvall perhaps brought the best out of him.   

Good story of family, the law and life.  Great supporting cast.  


8/10


Whiplash


Loved the casting.  I think it helps to be a fan of Jazz, or at least beautiful music and the people that create it.  Great dramatic acting and straightforward plot with gems of goodness.  A few decent turns and no cheese.  Liked it.  

7/10








Parallels

Pilot turned movie - I'll take it; interesting idea, mediocre acting.   

6/10



Extremely violent, a little embarrassed to say it was a lot of fun. Great cast, clever Bondesque plot.  Superb action scenes and fx.   Not as funny as I expected.  Very entertaining.  

7/10.






The Amazing Spider-Man

I liked it.  Garfield much better than McGuire.  Stone doesn't really pass for a 17 yr old and lots of plot holes, but hey, this is a superhero movie, who cares.  Great lizard monster, good dark mood and excellent supporting cast.  Even got a Coldplay number in there.   Lotsa fun for genre fans.  Great fx and spidey movements.  

7/10







Horrible Bosses 2

Sidayskis was top drawer.  Superb supporting cast.   Lots of LOLs (nice on an airplane).  Must have been hilarious on the set; great closing credits outtakes.  Even good twists.  Constant chuckles on the plane.

7/10








Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

As before, I didn't really buy into the fx but I liked the premise and story elements.   

6/10










Nightcrawler

Captivating, Completely transformational performance by Gylenhal.

Great writing, rock 'em sock 'em dialogue, lovely cinematography.   Fab car chase.  Comical, but very disturbing.   Morals and ethics tossed aside for news media - what could go wrong with that.   Snappy closing line.  Brilliant.


9/10







The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

Fragile solider.  Kept expecting a big twist, but there were only minor turns.  Well played by Lawrence and Harelson stole a lot of scenes.   Seeing Seymour-Hoffman's performance was a little eerie.  Didn't like Moore's role and the part 1 ending.  Lovely song by Lawrence.

6/10








Interstellar

I liked the multiple layers of this complex sci-fi adventure.  And especially liked the mind boggling finale.   As expected, a little hard to fathom at times and the fx were lost a little for me on the tiny Air Canada seat back screen.  Entertaining, but will watch again on my big screen shortly.   

7/10








Virunga

Brave doc, but I got a little muddled on the non-doc looking scenes (wasn't certain if they were re-enactments).  A complex real life tragedy unfolding before our eyes - very eye opening to us less informed.  Gorilla elements were superb as well as cinematography.   Dramatic, scary, saddening but beautiful at times.

8/10









Heartbeat

Lovely Canadian find on Air Canada flight home.  Touching, simple story of music, love and friendship.   Beautiful lyrics and music by Davis - yes, I'll be downloading her tracks.   

7/10









Focus

Loved it.  Keeps you guessing.  Great cast.  Love the soundtrack.  Sexy, stylish, funny and highly entertaining. 

8/10










Birdman

Better than expected - superb acting by the entire cast, bizarre setting and plot that took a while to settle into.  Made me want to revisit the theatre and see a Broadway show next time I'm in NYC. 

7/10









Predestination

Loved it for the most part, but ultimately thought it tried to be too clever.  Or maybe, it was too smart for me.  I got lost.  Big time.  Need the synopsis on IMDB.  Thinking hard.  Maybe they are all the same person.

7/10









Ex Machina

Quite well done.  Really interesting setting and characters.  Well made sci-fi with just enough amount of believability, context with today and life changing possibilities.   Low budget or just minimal for the effect.  Liked it

7/10









The Hangover Part III

A ton of laffs at every turn, if you like this kind of stuff.  Jeong was superb as usual.  Just saw the scores of IMDB - disagree.   Maybe I was just in the mood for silly shenanigans, college music and a caper.  Entertainment in spades.

7/10









Paul 

Missed the beginning, but hit record and watched over a couple of nights.  Really liked it.  Pegg and Frost were the usual comedic pals, but Rogan's voiceover for Paul was brilliant.  Great supporting cast.  Lotsa fun.  Saw the beginning on a Delta flight to MSP 3 months later.  Good stuff.  Watched most of it again. 

7/10







The Phone Call

Saw this on TriBeCa film fest on United flight.

Beautiful short.   Superb, simple story and portrayal. Very touching and pure.  

9/10



Orbit Ever After

Saw this on TriBeCa film fest on United flight.

Bizarre, creative Sci-Fi short.

7/10










Trust me I'm a lifeguard

Saw this on TriBeCa film fest on United flight.

Silly but fun.  

6/10









Ant-Man


Lotsa fun, giggles and hip tech.

Super comfy and cool AMC cinema upper west side NYC with an old friend made it even better.

7/10







The Age of Adaline

Although the concept is far fetched, the story is a simple tale of family, love and history.   Far from Sci-Fi, it was a love story with a lot of romance.  Well played by x and a decent supporting cast, incl. some good emotion from Ford.

7/10









October Gale

Very Canadian - Georgian Bay, Clarkson (originally though her Canadian, but actually from New Orleans) and a slow, beautiful and dark plot.  Liked it a lot.  Roth was a bonus.  

7/10


Standby


Really nice romantic movie, sad that I watched it by myself.  Unusual indy casting but it worked; and supporting cast were brill.  Great soundtrack, incl. another lovely bit by Pare.  Before Sunset meets the replacements crossed with ... 

7/10




Divergent

Woodley plays a perfect heroine.  Film follows book pretty closely (from what I can recall).  Good sci-fi premise with interesting possibilities for a trilogy+, plus good fx and action scenes.   Actually made me want to read/see part 2 - Insurgent.  Less than believable fight scenes.

7/10







Magic in the Moonlight

Delightful.  Wonderful Woody dialogue.  Beautiful scenery and cinematography.   Expertly cast as usual.  Much better than expected.  Charming entertainment.  If you're a Woody fan, you'll love it.  

8/10









Basquiat


Much more about the man and the NYC art scene than his art.  Superb lead acting by Wright - quite the departure from his recent recurring role as Felix Leiter in Bond.  Fantastic big star supporting cast.  Like the exhibition I recently saw at the AGO, I'm still struggling to relate to his work.


​7/10​















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