Arrival

Arrival (2016)

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

Screenplay by Eric Heisserer

Based on the short story "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang

Stars: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Mark O'Brien, Tzi Ma

I'm trying to catch up to the movies that I missed out on during my hiatus of watching movies. This is one of them. I heard nothing, but good things about it. It's Denis Villeneuve. I would expect an experience and it was. 

Louise Banks (Adams), a linguist professor from an unknown university is having a normal day until the Earth is visited by twelve spaceships positioned around the world. She is summoned by the military to make contact with help of theoretical physicist, Ian Donnelly (Renner) at one of the sights in Montana.

When you go into a Villeneuve film, you know you are going to get eye candy. The visuals, the sound, the cinematography are top notch. The action is a slow burn. I like a slow burn. It doesn't have to be us versus them mentality that other movies have done.

Amy Adams went through it in the movie. I was surprised that she was not nominated for an Oscar for this. She was the anchor. It hinged on her being perfectly in the moment. She was. Mind boggling.

The things that hindered this movie was the ending. I did not care for the ending. It felt like a cop out. You gonna go this route. When all is revealed, you felt like the ending is a slap in the face. You are on this journey and rug is pulled out from under you. Eye rolling moment. 

The other thing is Forest Whitaker who plays Colonel Weber. More importantly, his accent. His first scene, I thought that Weber was South African. Nope. Apparently, he was going for a Maine/New England accent. Some of the words that came out of his mouth were hard to hear. Who made that choice? It was the wrong one.

Rating: 8/10

Nocturnal Animals

Nocturnal Animals (2016)

Directed by Tom Ford

Screenplay by Tom Ford

Based on the novel, "Tom and Susan" by Austin Wright

Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Michael Shannon, Isla Fisher, Ellie Bamber, Armie Hammer, Laura Linney, and Michael Sheen

After I enjoyed A Single Man, I was looking forward to watching Tom Ford's follow up. I heard that the movie didn't get that much fanfare when it came out. I can see why.

A gallery owner, Susan Morrow (Adams) receives a book manuscript in the mail. It comes from her ex-husband, Edward (Gyllenhaal). As Susan begins to read the manuscript, the events of book are shown onscreen.

I have plenty of thoughts. I understand that Susan did not like or encourage Edward's writing career when they were married. Fine. The story that Edward wrote is not good. It was annoying to me. I did not care about the book character's lives. I was checked out.

I would have like the movie better if the book parts happened in the beginning and then it is revealed to be a book. Sure.

I cannot with this mess. Sorry.

Rating: 1/10

Man of Steel

Man of Steel (2013)

Directed by Zack Snyder

Story by David S. Goyer & Christopher Nolan

Screenplay by David S. Goyer

Based on the comic book series created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster

Stars: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Christopher Meloni, Harry Lennix and Richard Schiff

My feelings for reboots of reboots are that they are unnecessary filler to get butts in the seats. Man of Steel is no different. Everybody and their mama knows about Superman's origin. We don't need to have it retold for the the billionth time. This movie has been getting slammed in the reviews. I kinda understand where they are coming from. The common denominator is that telling a Superman story is boring.

As the planet Krypton is imploding, Jor-El (Crowe) sends his only son in a capsule to escape the planet's fate. At the same time, General Zod (Shannon) organizes a coup to get rid of the higher officials of the planet, including Jor-El. Zod and his army are tried and sent into The Phantom Zone. Over thirty years pass as the baby's capsule crash lands in Kansas, the baby is raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent (Costner, Lane) and the boy-- now named Clark (Cavill), has to hide his secret from the people of the planet. A nosy journalist, Lois Lane (Adams) tries to find the stranger that consists various acts of heroism.

I tried not to have too lofty of expectations with the film, because of my feelings of Superman in general. Superman is a boring character to bring to the comic books, video games, television or the big screen, because he is too powerful. He has heat vision, bulletproof, flame retardant, able to fly and has super strength. Nothing could harm him. That's the biggest flaw with the character. He could only be weakened when the story fits around the situation.

The angle of Clark being discovered as an alien amongst the people of Earth was a good idea, but it could have a gone further with it. If they did this with Lex Luthor, who is known to hate Superman, an alien, I would have got into the story more. I know that the makers of this movie wanted to make a grounded version of Superman that could be relatable to the masses. It felt that the idea of Clark not getting caught being superhuman was something lost in the film.

I felt bored with the movie some of the time. Other times the action felt like a Michael Bay movie one minute and the next it was like an episode of Dragonball Z with a bit of the "climatic" scene of Thor thrown in there. I don't think the movie is greatest movie ever, but it's not the steaming pile of shit that sent fanboys in a teezy online. It was passable.

My Rating

The Master

The Master (2012)

Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Laura Dern, Ambyr Childers, Jesse Plemons, Rami Malek, Kevin J. O'Connor and Madisen Beaty

I have a sketchy track record with PT Anderson movies. I generally liked his movies. There are some that I out right hate like Magnolia. The Master has divided audiences since it was released last month. It divided my audiences when I saw it. The movie needs to marinate after you see it to make your judgment.

Freddie Quell (Phoenix) is an alcoholic former Navy seaman that is struggling to adjust to civilian life after WWII. He bounces from job to job until he stowaway on a boat that belongs to Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman). The Dodd family is celebrating the marriage of the daughter, Elizabeth (Childers) and Clark (Malek). Freddie is being introduced to the world of The Master as Dodd calls himself. He is an author of the Cause that is a form of hypnosis that inducing past live regressions. The Master wants to spread his message and make Freddie his guinea pig.

I saw the film yesterday and at first I loved most of the movie, but felt dissatisfied with the ending. It was very abrupt. I was left hanging. Now, I feel that the acting was far superior that the movie as a whole. I thoroughly enjoyed PSH's performance as the charismatic Dodd who tries to tame the unpredictable, hotheaded Freddie who acts like a bratty ten year old.

After Phoenix's "hiatus" from acting, I was concerned about what he will do here. I was mixed with him. He was brilliant in certain moments, but sometimes he would be going off the rails and lose me. I was looking at him and his choices. I asked myself, is he a hunchback? Does he have Bell's palsy? I could barely understand what he was saying a good portion of the time.

This movie is described as the Scientology movie. I don't believe that it is. I deals with the genesis of a religion. People thought that Christianity was a cult. The same can be said of Mormonism, Kabblah, etc. As I said in my Religulous review, I am not a big fan of organized religion. The Master's way of entering your mind can be on the lines of brainwashing. The people are free to believe what they will.

There were only five people in the theater I was in. A pair of older ladies left after Dodd's wife, Peggy (Adams) jerked Dodd off in the bathroom. The bangled lady left when Dodd was spreading his message about the evolution of The Cause. The Asian guy left two minutes before the movie ended. I could tell that this movie is not everyones cup of tea. I found myself bored with the movie. I expected a little more with it. I was slightly disappointed with the film overall.

My Rating