Reviews

So long had it been before seeing Uncut Gems did my pessimistic attitude toward mainstream cinema releases dissuade me from wanting to go to the theater, expecting a feeling of emptiness that is all too familiar after sitting through the mediocre trash constantly released.

Uncut Gems reinvigorated my excitement for film and filmmaking. Excellent in nearly every regard. It's inspiring to learn how the Safdie brothers got to this point, and even more inspiring seeing their end result. This is one of the most stimulating and downright physically exhausting movies I've seen in the cinema (in the best way possible). Not once did I feel as though the Safdie's treated the audience as if they were unintelligent. An absolute MasterClass in script writing and creating natural tonal shift.

This is movie is suspenseful, heartfelt, genuine and surprisingly comedic all at once. Everyone interested in film should see this movie.

One of the worst films I have ever had the displeasure of seeing in the cinema. I don't think Star Wars will ever be quite the same in my eyes. Nonsensical, impatient, over-indulgent, downright insultingly stupid. Bloated mess that's a miserable slog to sit through.

It seems that for some reason this great premise was best put to use as an hour and a half of boring, dull fluff with unlikeable characters and then 2 minutes of fun antics at the end. The humor is childish but likely wouldn't make a child laugh.

Yeah this movie could have been Oscar worthy if it weren't for that terribly executed, irredeemably bad ending. I get the premise of it but I refuse to believe that there couldn't have been a better way to do it. I was loving everything else up until the last 60 seconds, which was seriously one of the most unsatisfying endings to any film that came out in 2017. It's such a shame.

A very dated film and feels a little Phoned in from most leads. The characters are mere archetypes but without any understanding of their flaws. I dunno, just felt kind of empty.

This movie is completely generic and the dialogue and script often times make not a lick of sense. Killmonger is not an interesting villain. He is in literally 4 or 5 scenes. The humor is somehow even worse than what Marvel typically churns out with each new release. It's funny people claim this movie to be bold and refreshing when it's really not.

The final 20 minutes of the film give it a surprising amount of depth and gives so much backbone to the rest of the film. Filmmaking perfection.

Tom Green doesn't want you to think that this movie is smart. Quite the contrary. However, the complete inanity and absurdity in this movie is not enough to counter the abundance of terrible jokes. To its credit, it manages to stay entertaining throughout, despite being somewhat unbearable at points. The meta humor is quickly unveiled in a few (very few) brilliant scenes. But at the end of the day, they're nothing. They mean nothing and have no substance or message to give. Tom Green makes it clear that is the point.

So X-Men: Days of Future Past is about the dystopian future, where sentinel robot drones seek out and kill all mutants and X-Men. The X-Men realize there is no way to save themselves from the sentinels and their inevitable extinction if they don't send someone's conscious back in time to change the course of history, and prevent the sentinels from being initiated onto the mutants. The only one strong enough to go back in time is Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), and it's up to him to unite Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) in the past to prevent the grim future from happening. There is actually quite a lot of depth to this movie's plot, and I did enjoy many aspects of it. This movie exudes confidence from Bryan Singer, and I love how he can take X- Men back for himself after a couple of terrible X-Men movies from 20th Century Fox that put his work in the first two movies to shame. This movie is a sequel to one timeline of X-Men and another at the same time. The cast from X-Men First Class is the same, which is great to see. James McAvoy is really great as Professor X in this movie, and Michael Fassbender is still killing it as Magneto. These actors are more prominent in this movie, and the dystopian future is focused on less. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are given a little less screen time, which is fine by me because they still sell their role. Peter Dinklage as Trask is also the antagonist for a portion of this movie, and he is very good. He always gives a good performance, even if he isn't too picky about his roles. Like how anyone would ever agree to star in an Adam Sandler movie based off of old videogames is pretty beyond me. The performances that stood out the most to me in this movie were definitely James McAvoy, Hugh Jackman, Michael Fassbender and Evan Peters (Quicksilver). The characters all had great chemistry with each other on screen, and the majority/entirety of these actors performances was in the past. We also got to see a new side of Wolverine and young Professor X in this movie, with Wolverine being more reserved and less aggressive, and Professor X being at his lowest low, and essentially a junkie at the start of the film.

The best part about the characters in this movie is that you can identify with them. With the exception of Trask, the character motivations are never confusing or unclear, so that at least you can understand one of the antagonists reasoning. Although Peter Dinklage gave a good performance, there isn't that much substance to his character, and he didn't have that much of a motivation for his character. What was a really interesting concept in this movie, was that there wasn't a clear, defined antagonist. The antagonist is different for different characters and their perception of the unfolding events. This movie also had a couple of great action scenes, and some intense moments as well. There's a fantastic scene involving a lot of mutants that sets the third act into motion in Paris, where a lot of civilians witness mutant powers for the first time. The way they shot that scene with different excerpt shots that were meant to look like people filming on cameras from the 1970's really added to the terror of the humans. As for the action scenes, they were all choreographed just fine and were kept to a minimal. I would say that for this type of movie that less is more, because it made room for more creative fight scenes that I won't spoil, but went beyond just average fist-fighting. One problem I had with this movie was that although the story was unique to the universe and really interesting, there were still a couple of predictable points in the movie. The story this movie told was really good, but some character dilemmas or choices were really easy to predict, which took me out of the movie somewhat, but didn't ruin the movie for me.

This movie has a lot of hope and emotion stretched throughout, and I like how well balanced all the characters roles and screen time is in this movie. Every person feels necessary to the movie. Bryan Singer did a great job with this movie. I liked how a part of this movie was a somewhat emotional and mental conflict, which can sometimes be hard to come by in superhero movies, where usually the conflict just lies with the antagonist. Bryan Singer did intentionally mess with the X-Men timeline, which I liked since it was basically a big middle finger to the terrible movies in the series. People who are supposed to be dead are still alive, vice versa and a couple of other changes that are kind of confusing if you don't go into the movie with the knowledge that it doesn't build off the last movie. It's a kind of jerk move to disregard another director's work in the same franchise, even if it is terrible, rather than build off of it. But I can totally forgive this movie for it since it solves all the problems that X-Men 3 and Origins: Wolverine had. I had a great time with this movie, with a couple of fun Marvel references that seem to be obligatory in any Marvel movie. I will definitely say that this is Singer's franchise, and this movie just proves it.

+ Fleshed out characters - Trask's character pretty bare and dry cut + Compelling story - Somewhat predictable at points + Great Acting + Confident directing courtesy of Bryan Singer 6.6/10

There isn't much hope, or anything to really cling to in this movie. The gritty story is told in a gritty manner, and the environment this movie surrounds you with is very filthy. That's not to say that the camera-work or color palette makes this movie look bland because the cinematography in this movie was top notch. In fact, Roger Deakins very stylistically shot this movie, to showcase the brutality and to be more interesting to watch at the same time, so it doesn't feel like senseless violence. Another thing I enjoyed about this movie is that it keeps you on edge for the majority of the run time. The music by Jóhann Jóhannsson was very odd and eerie and was used sparingly. The music was mainly used as a tool for giving a sense of anxiety. The great music, combined with beautiful/odd shots of random objects, and closeups of seemingly random objects actually builds a lot of suspense. The way this film does it is incredible, with these oddly eerie scenes that give you a sense that something bad is going to happen soon. These riveting scenes have dramatic slow build, and there were points when I, unaware of it at the time, got a huge knot in my stomach. Even if there isn't that much happening to advance the plot in these scenes, it is still wildly entertaining. There is a great scene in an airplane where for some reason, I felt on edge with the eerie music and weird close-ups of objects with extreme attention to detail. I'm thinking that Denis Villeneuve decided to build suspense and anxiety in these random scenes to delve into the subconscious of all these professional agents who have seen their fair share of disturbing things. Using these scenes to emphasize the vibe of the anxiety in these characters was a genius editing choice.

Where this movie starts to weaken is its screenplay. The story and premise for this movie could have had so much more done with it. There were great performances all around, though these actors did not have much to work with. I mean, sure, there were moments where the characters acted really sad and angry when they needed to, but there was nothing to really define these different characters. Besides the fact that the only thing that I could really differentiate these characters from was their opinions on some situation on hand, these actors did a phenomenal job with what little direction they most likely had, with essentially no character arcs. There were a few character dilemmas that were done well, but there was nothing interesting or unique to make any of the characters feel all that special. There was not much dialogue to give us more information about these characters. Another thing revealed much later on in the movie, but still slightly unclear, is the main characters and all of their different motivations for the large, elaborate drug bust they are trying to execute. That only comes much later, and it is still unclear what Kate's motivation is. Nothing else besides that really gives anybody a unique or special personality. I was surprised to see that by the end of the movie that Benicio del Toro was becoming the star of the movie, rather than Emily Blunt. I was fine with that since I know that a spin-off is being made for del Toro's character later, but I was annoyed with the fact that the del Toro's character, Alejandro, got more of a resolution than Kate Macer. Since the majority of the movie led me to believe that she was the main character, I was a little weirded out to see her weaven out of the majority of the last 20 minutes of the movie, and then a very brief scene at the very end with her. This felt really sudden, and the studio was very obviously rushing to get the last act packed with screen time for Benicio Del Toro, to set up the spin-off. The ending was sad and left a bitter taste, but was fitting for the general overtone of the film.

In the end, this movie was put together very smartly. The characters were only mediocre, as well as parts of the script during the final act of the movie. Sometimes Emily Blunt's character motivation made little sense, and a lot of times there were missed opportunities that I felt could have been good places to insert some dialogue to let us learn at least a little bit about these characters. I have a feeling that the script was used more of a guideline than an actual script. This movie is worth a watch, even if it starts very strong and almost dies with a faint whimper in the concluding scenes.

+ Good acting all around - Messy script + Interesting premise + Good suspense building, good use of music + Insane camera-work 7.9/10

Collateral is a movie from twelve years ago by Michael Mann and a great script by Stuart Beattie. It stars Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx and showcases LA like a painting.

Collateral is a crime-drama/thriller about a cab driver named Max (played by Jamie Foxx) who is seasoned with his directional skills in LA territory. An unsuspecting Max has a hit-man named Vincent (played by Tom Cruise) in the back of his cab, paying Max a large sum of money to ensure that he takes him to five different locations and waits for him. Once Max learns that Vincent is a hit-man, Vincent takes him as a hostage and threatens to kill him if he does not drive him to all his stops, or in reality, all five of Vincent's targets. This movie had a few thrilling moments, but in between these is some really well-constructed dialogue. The screenplay is great, and I love the relationship between Max and Vincent. Most of the movie is them trying to make conversation in the taxi, usually by ridiculing each other for missed opportunities or no regard for consequences of actions. There is a lot of great character building in these scenes in the cab, where we learn more about these two men while they try to figure each other out at the same time. I also really liked to see Tom Cruise as the bad guy, after all being in heroic roles for the majority of his career.

Michael Mann makes this film look absolutely gorgeous, with stunning shots of the LA skyline, and somehow essentially recreates LA to look extremely colorful and pretty. There was a lot of nice colors in this movie, like pale greens and washy blues. What impressed me with Collateral was how the film slowly winds up tension between these 2 characters. With each conversation they have, they start to resent each other more and more, and the final act of this movie was extremely well handled. The ending to this movie was perfect, and the resolution made sense. That being said, I didn't have that many problems with the movie, but one thing I would have liked to see would be the really good action scenes or intense moments spread throughout the movie more. The last thirty minutes of this movie are extremely fast paced, but they should have had more of these incredibly good scenes.

The pacing in this movie is done well, they still could have added a few more action scenes to keep the audience interested. The dialogue in this movie is really smart, so the movie never dulls or feels boring. This movie was wild and unpredictable, and it had a genius concept for a movie.

+ Great Character building - These intense moments could be more spread + Gorgeous setting and camera-work + Some well directed intense moments + Character interaction and dialogue really well written 9/10

The plot twist is really, really good because it is actually unexpected. This plot twist does bear flaws the more you think about it and makes the story even more confusing to piece together. This is a great movie to dissect and think about, but I would be lying if I said that Shutter Island gets better with each watch.

I will give this movie credit for being very engaging, and the suspense is handled really well. There is also an abundance of weird dream sequences that were well done and didn't feel like a cheap narrative device. Like I said, this movie doesn't try to spell out everything for you, and it makes the most with its visuals to delve into Teddy Daniels' mind. There were a lot of interesting and obviously director-specific stylistic choices from Martin Scorsese that were very interesting to see, especially in the creepy dream sequences. There was a lot of restraint for the amount of special effects used in the appropriate applications, which is good to see in a genre which suffers a lot from that. There was not, however, a restraint shown for the music and the fitting time to use it. The music was not an original score and was selected by Robbie Robertson. The music selected suited the mood and the tone of the movie well and was a blend of bold, grand and haunting. The music is used in scenes that would otherwise be deemed as fine without it, like casual scenes, extreme wide shots and other scenes that made the music, or at least the specific music selected seem out of place. More held back and less in-your-face music would be subtle and add to the movie in these scenes, rather than be kind of distracting.

After thinking about the plot twist at the end for awhile, I found that it was a little too far fetched. I still like the plot twist and enjoyed it, but there were events in the movie that didn't coincide and went against the logic of the plot twist. The final, ambiguous shot of the movie pulls a double plot twist on you, so it's hard to know exactly what to think of the story. After pulling a double plot twist in this movie's case, ((double plot twist - noun - 1. A plot twist and then another plot twist that directly invalidates the first plot twist's logic, meaning, reasoning and/or implications - 2. A plot twist and then another consecutive plot twist that reveals more information about the story and/or character/s that goes hand in hand with the first plot twist)) it feels like a cheap way to go against the other plot twist's logic, where if something doesn't match up with one plot twist, the story can have an alternate one to use that makes sense according to that other plot twist's logic, and therefore is the seemingly correct one. Laeta Kalogridis (or whoever executed this in the movie), if you want to pull off two entire plot twists only five minutes apart from each other, you need to make sure the details in the movie supports both plot twists, not go against both to make one seem more right than the other. Also, to make the plot twist/s feel more genuine, the information given in exposition should have been more spread out over the course of the movie, and not have an overabundance of revealing all the necessary information in the last ten minutes of the movie. There should have been more clues in the movie to make the plot twist make more sense by the end, where something confusing happens that is then revealed. It's hard to go over this in depth, but there weren't enough clues to make the plot twist be as smart as it could have been. There should have been more moments in the movie to refer to that seemed out of place, for the sake of the plot twist being revealed. Instead, the reveal of the plot twist uses clues that no one would have ever been able to refer to since nothing out of the ordinary or weird was implied about these aspects of the story! The plot twist did catch me off guard, and added to my experience with the movie, but there was a lot of small details that could have been put into the movie without that much hard work, besides some careful thinking, that could have made the plot twist's reveal feel less rushed.

Besides the story aspect of the film, the great colors, and camera-work, stylistic choices used and performances made this movie very entertaining to watch. I enjoyed Shutter Island for what it was, and this movie did a good job of at least engaging me in the story. The suspense was, again, done very well, and there were a lot of thrilling moments of this movie. After all the problems I discussed for this movie, my biggest is that there isn't a whole lot of rewatchability to this film. I feel like I would watch it again for fun in around a year, or maybe even a couple months from now. The first time you watch this movie will no doubt be the most enjoyable. Watching this again, I could imagine picking up on a few more errors than I would have encountered for the first viewing, and feeling a little more dissatisfied.

+ Good suspense - Music used inappropriately at times + Very engaging - Some hiccups with the story arc + Good premise - Rare occasion where a movie needed more foreshadowing + Performances were great - Not much rewatchability + Unexpected plot twist 6.2/10