Last month saw me enter the sacred movie house on many
occasions - and it was good. Well, it was great actually! Except for that one
time.
Let me explain.
The latest Marvel film hit screens and, as I have enjoyed
all of them before, I ventured out to view it with high levels of anticipation.
High expectations are often the death of joy in such instances but in this case
Mr. Wedon and his associates pulled yet another Ace from their sleeves and gave
us a fantastic adventure. Much like the first one AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON gets
its weakest moments out of the way in the first act dropping us into the action
with only some dodgy CGI to mar the fun. It was these first few minutes that
gave me some slight trepidation but luckily the remainder of the film was
sure-footed and just as emotionally satisfying as it was exciting. These truly
are the films I hoped - nay - wished for as a young lad reading and rereading
every comic book I could afford. They make me glad to be alive!
Next I went to Nashville 's
only second run theater and caught two movies in one evening. This near
overindulgence in cinema made me giddy with a rush of endorphins even if the
films viewed were less than excellent. First up was the superior of the two,
Neill Blomkamp's third science fiction feature C.H.A.P.P.i.E. which I found to
be very quite entertaining but narratively clumsy. The film is quickly paced,
well performed and flawless in its depiction of its future world and its
special effects, but it is also painfully simple-minded in its plotting and
story. That's not to say I wasn't swept along and even brought (I swear) to
tears on two separate occasions, but I too often felt the hand of the
manipulator subtly shifting the playing field to set up the required set piece
to come. Also, the eventually villainous individual played by Hugh Jackman is
too sketchily drawn to be more than a cardboard bad guy. It seems that there
may have been more ambition in the script to paint him as a religious zealot
and the outline of that trait is present in the finished film but the movie
slides away from it too often for it to deepen him as a character. I liked the
film but it is very flawed.
THE LAZARUS EFFECT on the other paw is a fairly dull affair
that wastes a pretty good cast. The film has a good horror premise but
squanders it by sanding the interesting story ideas down to silly foregone
conclusions. It is a flat, barely interesting but competently produced film
that would have merited a 5 out of 10 until the end scattered any remaining
good will to the winds. I suspect the sad final act was the third or fourth
version attempted by the filmmakers trying to juice an otherwise blah movie. Oh,
well.
The Fast & Furious franchise (say that three times
fast!) has become a reliably fun and exciting action series since Vin Diesel stepped
back into the series and gave it focus. As bizarre and silly as the car stunts
and fights often become these movies remain great fun bin the same way a Marvel
superhero film can be. FAST & FURIOUS 7 proves that there is still plenty
of gas in the tank as the merry, motley crew deal with the fallout of their
last government sanctioned adventure. This time Jason Statham is the
relentless, deadly villain (as brilliantly teased in the last film) and my man
Kurt Russell enters the scene as a potentially valuable ally against The
Stath's one man army. I've often said that while some action movies play with
the bounds of what is physically possible the Fast & Furious films laugh at
gravity and drive past the laws of physics while shooting it the finger - all
while looking pretty damned cool. Half the fun of these movies is wondering
what outrageous thing they'll come up with next and number 7 does not
disappoint in the 'Holy Shit' category of eye-popping crazy.
I worried that the death last year of series star Paul
Walker might put a damper on the whole affair, but it did not. They cleverly
took the opportunity to very touchingly say goodbye to Walker in the final moments of this film and
essentially write his character out of future installments without doing away
with him. I'm not ashamed to admit it got a little dusty in the theater before
the credits rolled. I think the smartest choice Diesel and his co-creators on
these movies have made is instilling a sense of family in the DNA of the
character interactions throughout the series and they use that effectively here
for more than just a motivational device. Well done.
THE NOVEMBER MAN (2014)- 8
(very good spy thriller)
THE CANAL (2014)- 7 (well
done Irish horror film)
THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON
(2015) - 9
REC 4: APOCALYPSE (2014)- 6
(the least of the series)
DAY OF ANGER (1967)- 8
(rewatch)
CHAPPIE (2015) - 7
THE LAZARUS EFFECT (2015)- 4
THE VAMPIRE'S NIGHT ORGY
(1974)- 7 (rewatch)
UP THE ACADEMY (1980)- 3 (terrible
comedy linked to Mad Magazine)
THE TIME GUARDIAN (1987)- 5
(better than expected post-apocalyptic tale)
THE COSMIC MONSTER (1958)- 5
(not bad British SF monster film)
THE ALPHABET MURDERS (1965)-
7 (fun, slightly silly Agatha Christie adaptation)
HOUSEBOUND (2014)- 9
(excellent New Zealand
horror comedy)
FAST & FURIOUS 7 (2015)-
7 (incredibly fun and completely ridiculous)
TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD
(1972)- 8 (rewatch)
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015)- 9
PREDESTINATION (2014)- 8 (fantastic
Heinlein adaptation/expansion)
BATMAN VS ROBIN (2015)- 7
(good animated tale)
THE LAST OF SHEILA (1973)- 8
(rewatch)
FRANKENSTEIN CONQUORS THE
WORLD (1965)- 8 (rewatch)
2 comments:
After listening to your latest "Bloody Pit" podcast, I re-watched both FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD and its pseudo-sequel, WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS... Loads of fun kaiju craziness!
Rod, you just gotta watch WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS -- pronto!
I will, I wil!!
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