Armageddon Time

Armageddon Time (2022)

Written and directed by James Gray

Stars: Banks Repeta, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Jaylin Webb, Anthony Hopkins, Tovah Feldshuh, John Diehl, Ryan Sell, and Jessica Chastain

Can I say this out front? I hate the movie title. Atrocious. I was hearing that the movie was getting buzz for Anne Hathaway's performance and possibly Anthony Hopkins. I completely forgot that this movie came out in theaters until I saw it on Twitter. 

In this semi-autobiographical look at James Gray's life in 1980 New York City. Gray's avatar is Paul Graff (Repeta), a 11-year-old that dreams of being an artist one day. He and his friend, Johnny (Webb) get into constant trouble. The plot gets a bit muddy.

The truth is that I zoned out in this movie. I understand that the movie is very personal for James Gray. Cool. I cannot empathize with a Jewish boy living with his conservative family in the 1980s.

I get that Gray wanted to make a commentary about race relations, family dynamics and all that. The movie did not move me enough to care about what was happening to the characters. I did not care for Paul's older brother, Ted (Sell). He was being a huge asshole. He can fuck off. The father, Irving (Strong) was awful. The dynamic is the family was odd.

I didn't mind Hathaway or Hopkins in the film. They were serviceable. It felt like the movie was paint by numbers that I knew what was going to happen before it does. It felt like one of those Oscar baity movies that try to get a nomination and failing.

Rating: 4/10

Interstellar

Interstellar (2014)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Screenplay by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan

Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, David Gyasi, Wes Bentley, John Lithgow, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Mackenzie Foy, Timothée Chalamet, Casey Affleck, Bill Irwin and Josh Stewart

For the longest time, I have stayed away from Nolan's movie as of late. I felt that he has become to big from his britches. People blindly loved all of his movies, and I'm not part of the cult. 

In a dystopian Earth where a blight has wiped out all chances of sustainability, Cooper (McConaughey) and his daughter, Murph (Foy) is shown coordinates to a supposed decommissioned NASA station. Cooper learns from Professor Brand (Caine) that there might be a chance to colonize an Earth like planet.

Why did this movie have to be almost three hours long? I think the characters pontificating about their motives got on my nerves. Thirty minutes could have been cut out and I would have been happy.

I'm not going to shit on the movie that much. I will say that first half on the movie was good. All about the journey, going back to be with loved ones. Cool. My heart ached for Cooper trying to find a way to get back home to his family.

The thing is when an action of a certain character is revealed, I rolled my eyes. The aftermath of that sent the movie careening off course. Nolan lost me. The ending of movie was nonsense.

Hans Zimmer's score... Why was music so loud? It was sonic booming all over during the action sequences. It took me out of the experience. I liked the score when it was quieter.

I don't hate the movie, but I think people are overly praising it.

Rating: 7/10

Les Misérables

Les Misérables (2012)

Directed by Tom Hooper

Screenplay by William Nicholson 

Based on the stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg & Alain Boublil (book) and Herbert Kretzmer (lyrics)

Original French text by Alain Boublil & Jean-Marc Natel

Additional text by James Fenton

Based on the novel by Victor Hugo

Stars: Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, Sascha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks and Daniel Huttlestone

There was no inclination of me seeing Les Misérable, because there was no intrestest in seeing it. I might have to give up my gay card, but musicals are getting played out. This is a straight person's musical with lots of death and drawn out ballads. I like the flashy musicals. What can you do? Since the movie with nominated for eight Oscars, it was my duty to see it. The title is fitting. It was a miserable expierence.

Taking place in France, a prisoner Jean Valjean (Jackman) is released from serving hard work when he stole a piece of bread. Excuse me, that is the starting point of the movie. I think that so fucking stupid. Valjean is released by Javert (Crowe), a ruthless policeman that attended for Valjean's life to be a living hell. Under the conditions of his parole, he has to check in frequently. Valjean decides to go on the run and change his idenity. 

Years later, he is a mayor of small town. One of his factory workers, Fantine (Hathaway) is tossed out in the streets. She has to turn to prostitution to help pay for the care of her young daughter, Cosette. When Fantine dies, it has become Valjean's duty to help raise Cosette as he promised to Fantine. Valjean and Cosette has to live their lives on the run from Javert.

The opening frames of this movie, I knew that I was going to hate it. No. I don't hate it. The movie is like being in a canoe in the middle of a hurricane. There is this build up then the eye of the storm comes and some remnants remain. You just want to toss your cookies.

I'm not going to bag on the entire movie in this review. The notables highlights of the film were the breathtaking visuals, the costumes. It was aesthetically pleasing, but the movie is 97% singing. Everything seemed muddled together. I enjoyed the female characters in this movie more than the males. Anne Hathaway was transcendent in her part as Fantine, the prostitute dying of consumption. She broke my heart. A special commendation goes to Samantha Barks who played Éponine. She was fantastic in brief appearance in its 2 1/2 hour runtime.

Does Hugh Jackamn deserve his Oscar nomination? I'm debating on that. Hugh was fine. I have a huge problem with Jean Valjean's intentions. The decisions that he made where questionable. I cannot get into many details without spoiling it. Russell Crowe was cringe-worthy. He has his "band", but him singing was painfully bad. His monotone delivery was almost unbearable.

The main thrust of this movie was the commoners rising up to the establishment. The message of the revolutionaries was trivial. It was an afterthought. I didn't care for it. The movie tried to be the sweeping grand epic, but it felt disconnected to me as the audience member.

My Rating

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer

Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan

Based on the comic book series, "Batman" created by Bob Kane

Stars: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotillard and Matthew Modine

First of all, I want to sent my thoughts and prayers for the victims of movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

Next thing I want to say that this review will contain some spoilers to the film. You have been warned.

Eight years have passed since the tragic events of The Dark Knight. Harvey Dent is definitely dead and is remembered by making a Gotham holiday out of it. Crime is banished from the city due to the Dent Act that incarcerated all the criminals from the streets. The Batman is gone, but not forgotten. Bruce Wayne (Bale) is a recluse like Howard Hughes except without the jars of urine lining the walls. He meets a slick jewel thief named Selina Kyle (Hathaway) that tries to get his prints for an ominous purpose for Wayne's rival, John Daggett (Ben Mendelsohn) to usurp his wealth.

Peaceful Gotham is rocked by an anarchist with the face mask that sounds like a bad impression of Sean Connery named Bane (Hardy), who tries to restore disorder into the city. He knows the truth about what happens that fateful night at the end of the last movie. Noticing the threat to the city, a hotshot cop named Blake (Gordon-Levitt) goes to Bruce to see if he could summon The Batman ,which he inexplicably knows Bruce's identity. Chaos ensues when Bane is trying to be like Robin Hood and The Batman is the only one that could stop him.

Coming into this movie, I was not expected to dislike the movie as much as I did. I enjoyed Batman Begins and The Dark Knight was a fantastic movie that had problems with it. The downfall of this movie is that the premise is fine, the execution is not great. I thought the story was very convoluted.

I didn't understand the purpose of putting Bane in the movie. The purpose of Scarecrow in the first movie was to instill fear for good to rise from the shadows. The purpose of Joker is to bring chaos into Gotham and that good men could turn evil like with Harvey Dent into Two-Face. I guess, Nolan was trying to make a social statement about people's greediness and if that money is taken away, you are nothing. It did nopt come across to me on screen. It was a bloated movie that has tons of monologues that didn't need to be there.

I think Christopher Nolan is great film director, but I think that he gets to wrapped in talking. I want to see action. Don't tell me that you are going to do something, do it. Show me. There is weird romance that was supposed to be between Bruce and Selina aka Catwoman that I felt was just there. I am familiar that Bruce and Selina have a cat and bat relationship where it was forbidden their attraction to each other. I did not feel that here.

There were a couple of sequences that incomprehensible like the opening scene where you meet Bane, the action towards the bridges or the herd of GCPD. I felt like I was gypped in this movie. There were "twists" coming that I knew were coming a mile away that completely implausible. The last couple of minutes of the movie were a slap in the face of how Nolan set up the universe. I couldn't wait to get out of the theater.

My Rating