This Is the End

This Is the End (2013)

Directed by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen

Screen Story and Screenplay by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen

Based on the short film "Jay and Seth vs. The Apocalypse" by Jason Stone

Stars: Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride

That's right, bitches. I'm back. I know that it's been a minute and half since I posted a review. My usual burnout. I think from now on, I am going to watch my movies that I want to watch, instead ones that I should watch. Seeing the teaser trailer for this movie was brilliant cause you thought it was going to be something for Pineapple Express 2, but it was for this movie. I have seen plenty of apocalypse movies, this is certainly different.

Everybody is this movie is playing a deviated version of themselves. Jay Barchuel comes back to town to be greeted by Seth Rogen at the airport. They do what they do best; drink, smoke weed, eat and play video games. Seth has an idea to attend James Franco's housewarming party. Everybody that is everybody is there. It is like a Judd Apatow reunion. The problem is that Jay doesn't want to be there. He doesn't like the Hollyweird lifestyle. Something bigger happens, the end of days is happening outside. Jay, Seth, James, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride are stuck together in the house while all hell is breaking loose.

I heard ramblings bout this movie when it was released last summer. It was mostly good things. Is this the best comedy of the year? No. There were some moments were I laughed out loud, but they were few and far between. The movie is not bad. If I saw this in the movie theater instead of at home on my TV, I might had a different opinion. My reaction was indifference. The Rogen/Goldberg tropes are wearing a bit thin. I need something different than pot smoking and dick jokes. That's all.

My Rating

2014 Oscar Nominations

Best Picture

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Dallas Buyers Club

Gravity

Her

Nebraska

Philomena

12 Years a Slave

The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Christian Bale – American Hustle

Bruce Dern – Nebraska

Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street

Chiwetel Ejiofor – 12 Years a Slave

Matthew McConaughey – Dallas Buyers Club

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Amy Adams – American Hustle

Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine

Sandra Bullock – Gravity

Judi Dench – Philomena

Meryl Streep – August: Osage County

Best Actor in A Supporting Role

Barkhad Abdi - Captain Phillips

Bradley Cooper - American Hustle

Michael Fassbender - 12 Years a Slave

Jonah Hill - The Wolf of Wall Street

Jared Leto - Dallas Buyers Club

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine

Jennifer Lawrence - American Hustle

Lupita Nyong’o - 12 Years a Slave

Julia Roberts - August: Osage County

June Squibb - Nebraska

Best Animated Feature Film

The Croods – Chris Sanders, Kirk DeMicco and Kristine Belson

Despicable Me 2 – Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin and Chris Meledandri

Ernest & Celestine – Benjamin Renner and Didier Brunner

Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho

The Wind Rises – Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki

Best Cinematography

The Grandmaster – Philippe Le Sourd

Gravity – Emmanuel Lubezki

Inside Llewyn Davis – Bruno Delbonnel

Nebraska – Phedon Papamichael

Prisoners – Roger A. Deakins

Best Costume Design

American Hustle – Michael Wilkinson

The Grandmaster – William Chang Suk Ping

The Great Gatsby – Catherine Martin

The Invisible Woman – Michael O’Connor

12 Years a Slave – Patricia Norris

Best Directing

American Hustle – David O. Russell

Gravity – Alfonso Cuarón

Nebraska – Alexander Payne

12 Years a Slave – Steve McQueen

The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese

Best Documentary Feature

The Act of Killing – Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen

Cutie and the Boxer – Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher

Dirty Wars – Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill

The Square – Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer

20 Feet from Stardom – Nominees to be determined

Best Documentary (Short Subject)

CaveDigger – Jeffrey Karoff

Facing Fear – Jason Cohen

Karama Has No Walls – Sara Ishaq

The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life – Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed

Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall – Edgar Barens

Best Film Editing

American Hustle – Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten

Captain Phillips – Christopher Rouse

Dallas Buyers Club – John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa

Gravity – Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger

12 Years a Slave – Joe Walker

Best Foreign Language Film

The Broken Circle Breakdown – Belgium

The Great Beauty – Italy

The Hunt – Denmark

The Missing Picture – Cambodia

Omar – Palestine

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Dallas Buyers Club – Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – Stephen Prouty

The Lone Ranger – Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny

Best Music (Original Score)

The Book Thief – John Williams

Gravity – Steven Price

Her – William Butler and Owen Pallett

Philomena – Alexandre Desplat

Saving Mr. Banks – Thomas Newman

Best Music (Original Song)

“Alone Yet Not Alone” from Alone Yet Not Alone - Music by Bruce Broughton; Lyric by Dennis Spiegel

“Happy” from Despicable Me 2 - Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams

“Let it Go” from Frozen - Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

“The Moon Song” from Her - Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze

“Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom - Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson

Best Production Design

American Hustle – Judy Becker (Production Design); Heather Loeffler (Set Decoration)

Gravity – Andy Nicholson (Production Design); Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard (Set Decoration)

The Great Gatsby – Catherine Martin (Production Design); Beverley Dunn (Set Decoration)

Her – K.K. Barrett (Production Design); Gene Serdena (Set Decoration)

12 Years a Slave – Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Alice Baker (Set Decoration)

Best Short Film (Animated)

Feral – Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden

Get a Horse! – Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim

Mr. Hublot – Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares

Possessions – Shuhei Morita

Room on the Broom – Max Lang and Jan Lachauer

Best Short Film (Live Action)

Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me) – Esteban Crespo

Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything) – Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras

Helium – Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson

Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?) – Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari

The Voorman Problem – Mark Gill and Baldwin Li

Best Sound Editing

All Is Lost – Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns

Captain Phillips – Oliver Tarney

Gravity – Glenn Freemantle

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Brent Burge

Lone Survivor – Wylie Stateman

Best Sound Mixing

Captain Phillips – Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro

Gravity – Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson

Inside Llewyn Davis – Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

Lone Survivor – Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow

Best Visual Effects

Gravity – Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds

Iron Man 3 – Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick

The Lone Ranger – Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier

Star Trek Into Darkness – Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Before Midnight – Written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke

Captain Phillips – Screenplay by Billy Ray

Philomena – Screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope

12 Years a Slave – Screenplay by John Ridley

The Wolf of Wall Street – Screenplay by Terence Winter

Best Writing (Original Screenplay)

American Hustle – Written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell

Blue Jasmine – Written by Woody Allen

Dallas Buyers Club – Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack

Her – Written by Spike Jonze

Nebraska – Written by Bob Nelson

Only God Forgives

Only God Forgives (2013)

Written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Stars: Ryan Gosling, Kirstin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm, Gordon Brown, Yayaying Rhatha Phongam and Tom Burke

I am back one again with my monthly review. Trying something a little different, I rented Only God Forgives from Google Play. After I raved about Refn's last effort, Drive, I wanted to see his next feature. After this movie got a mixed reception at Cannes, I wanted to know if the movie is as bad as the critics say it is. The answer is yes.

In this neo-noir thriller, Ryan Gosling plays Julian, an underground drug dealer that runs his business from a Muay Thai area. Julian's older brother, Billy (Burke) who has a penchant of liking underage girls kills a child prostitute.

Lieutenant Chang (Pansringarm) allows the girl's father to kill Billy, but cuts off his arm, because he let his daughter go into the sex trade. Julian's mother, Crystal (Scott Thomas) flies in from America to bury her eldest son. She knows about the dirty business the brothers were in. She wants Julian to kill the man that killed his brother. When Julian is about to exact his revenge he hears the story about about why Billy was killed and ha a change of heart. This leads to a dark descent into chaos.

The reviews of this movies have been scathing. People said it was style over substance. That is true. The visuals of the film were something to behold. The story was stale. I have seen this story is multiple configurations through my movie watching experience. There are no likable to grasp here. Who wants to hear about kiddie fuckers, comparing the size of your sons' dicks, calling a girl a "cum dumpster or the endless karaoke numbers, for fuck's sake.

The movie was boring to watch. I didn't give two shits about what happens to the characters. I want my money and time back.

My Rating

The Butler

Lee Daniel's The Butler (2013)

Directed by Lee Daniels

Screenplay by Danny Strong

Based on the article, "A Butler Well Served by This Election" by Wil Haygood

Stars: Forest Whittaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Colman Domingo, Terrance Howard, Yaya Alafia, Cuba Gooding Jr., Lenny Kravitz, Elijah Kelly, Robin Williams, John Cusack, James Marsden, Minka Kelly, Liev Schreiber,  Nelsan Ellis, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda and Clarence Williams III

This might be the regularity of my posts. It might be monthly. Work is gobbling up all my time. I missed some movies that I wanted to see. On the rarest of family outing, we went to the movies to see Lee Daniel's latest. I wanted to see the film, because it has all sorts of Oscar buzz surrounding it. The lesson I took from the movie is that the butler didn't do that much.

Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) has always known that he was always going to be a domestic. He made it his missions to be the best he could be. He made quite the impressions when the White House personally picks him to come serve the President personally. Starting at the Eisenhower administration, Gaines, his boozy wife, Gloria (Winfrey), militant son, Louis (Oyelowo) and idealistic baby son, Charlie (Kelly) watch the tides of the country change towards Black people. The Butler served under six presidents and his outlook is forever changed about the country he served silently.

The way that the movie was promoted, I thought that the Butler had a huge impact of the civil rights movement. It's not the case. It was a subtle shift in perception as white folks thought blacks were violent, inhuman, inferior. On the flip side, you have Louis that was one of the Freedom Riders that is more in your face with confronting the prejudice at that time.

I remember stories when I was growing up about my mother being spat on and called a nigger to her face at that time. It makes me appreciate what the older generation had to go through in order for me to have the same freedoms today.

Something about this film seemed forced and phony to me. It felt like a TV movie that has that overt message about racial bigotry. It felt like the characters were superfluous. They were more like archetypes of who black people were back then. It didn't highlight the fact that Gaines served six presidents. It glossed over keys moments of JFKs assassination or Martin Luther King's. They were afterthoughts. The movie felt lean and not something I could sink my teeth in to enjoy it.

My Rating

World War Z

World War Z (2013)

Directed by Marc Forster

Story by Matthew Michael Caranahan and J. Michael Straczynski

Screenplay by Matthew Michael Caranahan and Drew Goddard & Damon Lindelof

Based on the book by Max Brooks

Stars: Brad Pitt, Mirelle Enos, Daniella Kertesz, Fana Mokoena, James Badge Dale, Ludi Boeken, Elyes Gabel and David Morse

There has been a lot of bad press surrounding this movie from the inception, the constant reshoots, Brad Pitt clashes with the director and rewrites to the script. Everybody thought the movie was gonna suck major donkey balls, including myself. My thought was that it was gonna be a trainwreck and marvel in its awfulness. After watching movie, it's not godawful. It's bland.

It's a typical day in Philadelphia where Gerry Lane (Pitt) spends quality time with his family. All of a sudden, a mysterious epidemic sweeps the world. People panic, running from people that look like they were on bath salts, the world is ending around them.

Gerry gets a call from an old friend, Theirry (Mokoena)-- Gerry and Thierry, really?-- to hide out in battleship where the outbreak reach them. Some of the greatest minds the field of medicine try to determine what kind of outbreak it is. Gerry was tasked to find the source of the outbreak so they could figure out a way to stop it.

Having only read the first ten pages of the book when I borrowed it from the library must have saved me from eviscerating this movie. The movie was supposed to be a December 2012 release. I don't think it belongs in the middle of summer movie season. It looks like it on more grand scale that it is, but its not.

The way the movie plotted along was disheartening for me as a viewer. The "twists" were seen from a mile away. It felt like the movie was dumbed down. It insulted me. The movie unsatisfying with dull action scenes, the stale dialogue and the "are you fucking kidding me" climax. Blurgh!

My Rating

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

Behind the Candelabra

Behind the Candelabra (2013)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Screenplay by Richard LaGravenese

Based on the book, "Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace" by Alex Thorleifson and Scott Thorson

Stars: Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Rob Lowe, Scott Bakula, Dan Ackroyd, Tom Papa, Cheyenne Jackson and Debbie Reynolds

It has been a hot minute since I last reviewed a movie. There are so many movies coming out that I cannot decide which to see. Some of my most anticipated films have been panned by the critics. I decided to watch a television movie, which supposedly Soderbergh last movie before his "retirement." With all the praise this movie is getting, I had an empty feeling after watching the movie.

Behind the Candelabra is retelling of the relationship between the flamboyant piano player, Liberace (Douglas) and the naive boy, Scott (Damon) that the world didn't know about. The movie starts in 1977 when the old lover, Billy Leatherwood (Jackson) is on his way out with the young chippy, Scott comes in. Liberace is smitten with Scott that wants to adopt him and be Liberace's chauffeur for his concerts. Over the course of their five year relationship, the movie recounts the ups and downs with sex, drugs and botched plastic surgery.

Here is another case of having too lofty expectations of a film. I thought I was going to be enraptured by the glitz, glamor, and lavish way that film was going to portray this over-the-top life of Liberace. That old adage, "All style, no substance" comes to mind. It looks like the filmmakers wanted to make sure that the sets were as extravagant as possible to put together a cohesive story together. There were moments that I laughed and that I liked the movie, other times it was painful to watch.

It seems that I was more disappointed with the movie than hated it.

My Rating