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mr-davis85
Reviews
Man of Steel (2013)
A Decent Superhero Movie
In its' own right, Man of Steel is good, but compared to other superhero franchises, The Dark Knight, Spider-man, Iron Man, The Avengers, and even the first two Christopher Reeve Supmerman movies and the last Superman that was done, these are far better franchises. The storyline feels rushed as we see Cal-El being sent off Krypton one scene and then the next scene he's on a ship, and quickly we must flashback to Clark's childhood, the movie picks up in the middle and then gets overblown by non-stop fighting sequences that replaces plot.
Having been a lifelong fan of Kevin Costner, it was disappointing and would have been better with more Kevin. Simply put, if you saw the trailer, you saw almost all of K.C.'s part in the movie. It's disappointing that even after a Golden Globe and Emmy winning performance for Hatfields & McKoys that this kind of cameo underdeveloped character work is still the best Kevin Costner can get in his attempt at a comeback. I hope he is given more to work with in his supporting role in the new Jack Ryan movie coming out this Christmas holiday 2013. He does have some leading roles coming up in 2014, so looking forward to that.
One good solid supporting role was that of Russell Crowe playing Jor-El. Russell Crowe received far more screen time than I imagined he was going to get. I imagined Russell Crowe was only going to be in the opening sequence. Russell Crowe seems to be re-establishing himself in later age as a supporting actor.
Overall, not bad, but not a great superhero movie in my book. I'll stick with Batman!
Argo (2012)
Ben Affleck snubbed for Best Director
I'm calling it that Argo will win Best Picture this year at the Oscars, Alan Arkin will win Best Supporting Actor. Ben Affleck should have gotten a directing nomination, the most outlandish snub at this year's Oscars by far.
I for one especially appreciated that Ben Affleck accurately portrayed in his brief storyboard history lesson that we brought the hostage crisis on ourselves, a consequence of our attempts to nation build Iran. We murdered a ruler acting in the best interest of the Iranian people because he wouldn't give us oil and put in a despot who would. We grant that ruler amnesty when he is overthrown and what happened next, the Iranian hostage crisis. Some may call that liberal propaganda, me...I call it the truth.
The Company Men (2010)
Decent "Three Star" Film, should have had more Kevin
This movie was supposed to have been released between October and December 2010 for Oscar consideration, no doubt,but then finally got pushed to the beginning of 2011, and limited release at that. That's too bad, really it is, while I doubt the film would have garnered Oscar nominations, it is a film worth watching and a good movie. I agree with the mostly three star out of four reviews it got from such esteemed critics as Roger Ebert, Rolling Stone, and USA Today. I would have loved to have seen more Kevin in the movie myself. He doesn't even appear in the movie until about 20 minutes in and he's only in like three or four full scenes. I grew up on Kevin Costner and it had been sad to see the career turn he has had from a top-billed, Academy Award winner to what basically amounts to a cameo of no particular significance. The "Bah-ston" accent is much better than it was in Thirteen Days, I just would have loved to have seen Costner's character more developed than it was.
The Ides of March (2011)
Create a Best Ensemble Oscar
Because if there were such a thing...the award should have gone to The Ides of March. Starring three Academy Award winning performers George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Marissa Tomei as well as two other Oscar nominees, Ryan Gosling and Paul Giamatti, collectively, the cast is flawless. George Clooney has become sort of a master of ensembles, no doubt rooted in his experience on ER. Every part is absolutely essential and shines in its' own right. He did it exceptionally well on Good Night and Good Luck which to date remains his best movie as a director, but this one does come in too a close second, a warning on the crookedness of politics. I left this movie convinced that one could lose their own soul in politics before Hollywood. Ryan Gosling plays the idealist who learns that to stay in politics, you have to get dirty and sell your soul doing so. George Clooney takes the supporting role as the seemingly quintessential presidential candidate, who, like so many politicians today, has some skeletons in the closet in which he will stop at nothing to keep there. Kind of the darker, more cynical version to Mike Nichols' more light-hearted Primary Colors. Every top performer does very well which should prompt the Academy to create a Best Ensemble Oscar and award it to the one who casted the movie.
Flight (2012)
Sad sad movie but an Oscar nomination I think is in place for Denzel
The movie starts off very well, with an epic sort of a plane crash where "Whip' played very well by Denzel Washington, he will have been snubbed if he isn't nominated for an Oscar for this movie, successfully crash lands a plane full of people, only six are killed, several injured, things could have been worse though as is pointed out in the movie. When the scenario is repeated in simulation, all 10 pilots who take the simulation fail and kill everyone on board, here's the catch....Whip was both drunk and high on coke when he landed the plane. The remainder of the movie is about that aftermath and from there some may say the movie tones down, some may even find it boring, but me, I thought this was a well-done film. It's Robert Zemeckis' first live action film since 2000's Cast Away, in which he really depended on one actor. Flight hangs on Denzel's performance, which is nothing short of Oscar-Worthy. It's his best work since 2007's American Gangster and The Great Debaters, both for which he was recognized at the Golden Globes but snubbed at the Oscars. Flight at first starts off like this will be a story of Whip's redemption, and it is, but it takes a long long detour getting there....Whip quits drinking and doing drugs immediately after the crash, but then he starts again upon finding out he is being investigated in the crash. Whip's relapse is worse than ever before and I for one was getting mad by near the end the movie because it looked like the movie was going to be all about Denzel beating a major alcohol and drug related rap and doing so in complete arrogance and presumption......however, Whip does the right thing in the end. Whip's alcoholism provides a diversion for the audience to what is inevitable, much like thew way it also diverts Whip from the inevitable if he does in fact do the right thing, that Whip will go to prison. Which is what makes Flight such a great but very sad, movie by the time it is all over. I had tears uncontrollably streaming down my fact at the climax of the movie. Flight draws you in, it draws you in to the messed up life that is Whip Whitaker's played Oscar caliber well by Denzel Washington.
Cloud Atlas (2012)
Kept my attention, was interesting, yet fell short of epic [*** of four]
The concept of Cloud Atlas is most fascinating, to view the Hindu New Age/ Eastern religion and philosophical notions play out over a period of about 500 years. The movie's philosophical messages remains consistent to the very end. There is a portion of the movie at the very end that is a fulfillment to a theme present throughout the movie...it's all I can say about it, the movie ends on a great note.
The make-up/ special effects are like no other...Halle Berry playing a Victorian era white woman using hair color and colored contact lenses is amazing. Asians playing Caucasians and vice versa...men playing women...Hugh Grant as a post-apocalyptic war chief who solely grunts....truly amazing. However, some portions of the movie caused this movie to fall just short of epic to me and ventured into being ridiculous.....for instance, that a Mystery Movie Theatre style movie about a nursing home break out that took place app. 300 years earlier inspires a revolution that inspires a system of organized religion hundreds of years later on seemed ridiculous to me. Also, Tom Hanks speaking some form of pigeon/ Caribbeanesque English was hysterical and that's just the "true-true." . The movie is well connected, a major and essential feat for this kind of movie....no other movie spans 500 years so easily in one continuous thread and going back and forth as well.
Overall, Cloud Atlas is enjoyable, it's entertaining, and keeps your attention the entire almost 3hr running time, but some inherent plot flaws in the continuous story from the present day forward as well as some poorly done acts and scenes cause this movie to fall short of the epic it could have been. Overall, it is a movie worth checking out. Like I said, the movie ends very well in a way that subtly fulfills a main theme of the movie.
J. Edgar (2011)
Great Film! Another Snubbed Oscar Worthy Performance from Leo
I would not have nominated this movie for Best Picture, but Leonardo DiCaprio's performance in this movie was most certainly Oscar-Worthy. While there are hints of Leo's earlier performances, like when he played Howard Hughes in The Aviator, in this movie, Leo experiments with a role he hasn't done before. He takes on aging make-up to play an older J. Edgar. For the first time, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a man who may have been a homosexual and plays it off most subtlety, with much nuance, as opposed to the in your face, out there performances of Sean Penn as Harvey Milk or Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain, all of which either won or were nominated for Oscars.
It is amazing that Clint Eastwood has been able to continue to make a name for himself not just as an actor in his twilight years, but more so as a story-teller or director. Eastwood even has his own look to a movie that shines through and helps tell the story of J. Edgar. That sepia-toned look in his movies has become the Clint Eastwood trademark of his films, that and a jazzy soundtrack of his making! The script was well put together. J. Edgar could easily have been a three and a half hour epic movie that covers the entire period J. Edgar was director of the FBI, and would have lost an audience very fast, but the screenwriter chooses two main periods of J. Edgar's life [1919-1935, 1962-1972] and masterfully ties the two periods in together. To clock in at 137 minutes is an epic feat.
While not an exceptionally exceptional Eastwood film, it is one worth seeing, especially if you are a fan of Eastwood, DiCaprio, or both.