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

42

42 (2013)

Written and directed by Brian Helgeland

Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie, Andre Holland, Christopher Meloni, Brett Cullen, Ryan Merriman, Lucas Black, Alan Tudyk, Hamish Linklater, T.R. Knight, James Pickens Jr and John C. McGinley

After being criticized for not watching movies with a predominantly African-American cast being a certain family member. 42 is a movie that I actually wanted to see. I grew up watching Astros games seeing the game of baseball. It makes you wonder when you were in the stands back in 1947 when Jackie Robinson first took the field.

The movie starts like any typical biopic with the obligatory text about the where the starting point of the film is gonna be. Jack Roosevelt Robinson (Boseman) was a shortstop for the Negro Baseball League team, the Kansas City Monarchs when he is picked by GM Branch Dickey (Ford) to become the first Negro player in the major league. With the help of his wife, Rachel (Beharie) and sports writer Wendell Smith (Holland), Jackie navigates through the murky waters of integrating into white baseball.

Usually movies about pioneering figures would get into saccharine territory, this movie is not exception. The roar and jeers of the crowd, the swelling music and the obligatory slow motion running on the bases. Watching the movie, you have no idea why Branch Dickey decides to have a Negro player on the Brooklyn Dodger until a conservation happens while Jackie is being stitched up.

42 being so squeaky clean could have been major strike against it. It didn't mind that. I was fascinated about the trajectory of this man being plucked out from the K.C. Monarchs into the national spotlight in manner of two short years. Robinson only wanted to play baseball and be good at what he did. He didn't set out to be a hero. That's what he turned out to be in the end. Players commemorates Jackie Robinson with wearing his number in solidarity. It's a wonderful thing.

I was very surprised that Branch Dickey was played by Harrison Ford in the trailers. Boseman as Jackie Robinson was very good. He made him suave, smart-aleck that would get a temper from time to time. I was surprised that Alan Tudyk from Firefly, Serenity and Suburgatory played the racist manage of Phillies. By the end of the movie, I was tearing up. The movie got me hook, line and sinker.

My Rating

The Place Beyond the Pines

The Place Beyond the Pines (2013)

Directed by Derek Cianfrance

Screenplay by Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio and Darius Marder

Stars: Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper, Ray Liotta, Mahershala Ali, Bruce Greenwood, Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne, Harris Yulin, Robert Clohessy, Emory Cohen and Dane DeHaan

It has been awhile since I have reviewed a movie. I'm recovering from being snubbed by the LAMMY committee for the fourth year in a row. Apart from being the Susan Lucci on the blogging world, I wanted to see a good movie to lighten my mood. Raving about his previous directorial effort, Blue Valentine, Derek Cianfrance follows it up with The Place Beyond the Pines. I hate the title and mostly everything about this film.

Ryan Gosling re-teams with Cianfrace playing "Awesome" Luke, a motocross rider that works for a traveling caravel. The job takes him to his old stomping grounds of Schenectady, New York where he bumps into his ex-fling, Romina (Mendes) that kept a secret from him. A son named Jason. Luke wants to get back into his son's life but there are major hurdles in his way; one is her boyfriend, Kofi (Ali) and not having money to support them. A brilliant idea has been concocted when Robin (Mendelsohn) tells Luke to become a bank robber. Seeing that he was good with it, Luke becomes cocky and alerts the attention of the police, particularly rookie cop, Avery Cross (Cooper).

The movie seems like three movies into one. You have the first act that is trying to be like the infamous Best Picture winner, Crash, where characters have to bump into each other to get any kind of interaction. The second act of the movie is like any stereotypical cop movie where the good cop tries to play with the bad ones and gets in too deep. The third act of the film is trying to say that no matter where you go, life comes back around in a bad way.

There is something about this movie that rubbed me the wrong way. It was like I have seen this type of movie before. The plot felt very contrived and recycle. It was nothing fresh or new about it that could set it apart from any other movie. The motivations of some characters in the final act left me puzzled.

They only thing I liked about the movie with the Bradley Cooper performance. It was a solid performance of a rookie cop that tries to do the right thing in a wrong world.

The expectation of the movie was raised to an impossible level for me to enjoy the film that much. Maybe a few years down the line, my opinion would change.

My Rating