Stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon, Clément Sibony, César Domboy, James Badge Dale, Steve Valentine and Ben Kingsley Directed by Robert Zemeckis Back in 2008, there was a documentary that chronicled Phillippe Petit’s audacious stunt of walking across the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. Man on Wire was a fascinating documentary and this movie is very much a dramatisation of that walk and what led to it. The movie often breaks the fourth wall by having Petit (Gordon-Levitt) introducing himself right at the beginning and personally telling his story, from atop the Statue of Liberty of all places. The narration, and Gordon-Levitt’s charm alone carries much of the movie as Petit himself is not an entirely sympathetic character, particularly once his obsession take hold. It’s almost as if he is the very representative of the arrogant Frenchman who holds himself in extremely high regard and everyone else is someone to be used, or as Petit often puts it- accomplices. The story simply takes us through the initial spark of an idea to the execution of the audacious plan, which is nothing very much from what one would already know from watching the documentary. What director Robert Zemeckis delivers is some very stylised shots throughout the movie, building to its titular climax. All of which makes this movie a wonder to behold in 3D. Zemeckis smartly uses the numerous straight lines throughout the movie to enhance the field of depth right up to the vertigo inducing finale of following Petit out onto that wire and all around it. In that, the movie earns its raison d'être. Buoyed mostly by Gordon-Levitt, the rest of the cast manage with their thinly sketched characters with perhaps Ben Kingsley having the second most fleshed out character. There is some humour among these secondary characters, but the focus is on Petit and his efforts. The production design alone is a wonder, taking us back to that bygone era of the early 70s be it Paris or New York, and Zemeckis’ team does an amazing job of evoking that era, right to the existence of the twin towers themselves. As much as it is Petit’s story, this is also a tribute to those towers at the time when they became something a little more than just a pair of architectural wonders. In all, this is something to catch on the big screen and the bigger, the better. The Walk is designed for IMAX 3D, even if the movie leading up to the event itself seemingly takes its time getting there. The drama is still well-paced and delivers a not-too-complicated narrative, despite the occasional life-story gymnastics going on. Even so, it is a cinematic marvel. Rating: (as a movie) ***1/2 / 5 Please support by buying or recommending to others. Thank you. - b
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Stars Vin Diesel, Rose Leslie, Elijah Wood, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Julie Engelbrecht, Joseph Gilgun and Michael Caine Directed by Breck Eisner There is this thing in Hollywood called The Blacklist. This is a annual list of the best scripts yet to be made into movies in any given year. Cory Goodman’s The Last Witch Hunter got listed in 2010. Along the way through production, two writers, Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, were brought in for rewrites. The original director Timur Bekmambetov left the project when it got delayed due to star and producer Vin Diesel’s other movie (FF7) being delayed a year. Break Eisner got the gig and here we are. It all makes me very curious what the original script was like, because what we got was a rather run-of-the-mill modern fantasy. The movie follows witch hunter Kaulder (Diesel) who was cursed with immortality by the Witch Queen (Julie Engelbrecht). Working with a clandestine secret society, The Axe and Cross, Kaulder has maintained a peace between the society and the witches for centuries, until decibels of the Witch Queen begin work to resurrect her, and Kaulder is key to that resurrection. Somewhere in all that is the germ of an epic fantasy adventure that could have been. Diesel carries much of the movie with his charisma but there is little else that seems to be going for it. Eisner’s direction is workman-like that serves to deliver the story but little else. What could be cool in terms of the fight scenes, the visual effects or even the settings seemed to have been dealt a short shrift, like a far tighter budget than expected. It also makes one wonder what Bekmambetov, the visual mastermind behind the likes of Night Watch, Day Watch and Wanted would have made of the material. Still, taken as it is, The Last Witch Hunter can be considered a decent modern fantasy with some decent effects, and would have likely been successful in the video rental era. In this time of higher expectation and crowd-pleasers, the movie is very likely getting a drubbing while suffering the pangs of an origin movie; establishing its ideas, its world and its rules, trying to be bigger than what it appears to be, or rather, what it could have been. Rating **/5 Stars Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Michael Gaston, Scott Shepard, Austin Stowell, Amy Ryan with Dakin Matthews and Alan Alda Directed by Steven Spielberg Director Steven Spielberg continues his stretch of historic based films (since Munich, War Horse, and Lincoln), retiming with star Tom Hanks for a fourth time (Saving Private Ryan, The Terminal, Catch Me If You Can being the previous efforts). Although the crusading lawyer fighting an unpopular battle bit has been done numerous time, this might be the first time it’s been tackled by Spielberg. True to form, Spielberg’s direction is impeccable with some beautifully designed shots crafted to his particular storytelling style, slowly building the tension within the story as it rolls along. Given that the movie is “Inspired by True Events”, the conclusion may be a given, but that never stops Spielberg, nor his any of his stars from delivering the goods as one would expect. Set during the cold war of the fifties, Insurance lawyer Jim Donovan (Hanks) is given the unpopular task of defending suspected Russian Spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) in a trial that everyone knows is a simple show-trial; to show that even a spy is given a supposed fair shake. Donovan holds true to his belief rather than the court of popular opinion and ends up forming a respectable friendship with his client, Abel. The interplay between these two in the first half of the movie becomes the foundation for Donovan’s efforts in the second half when he asked to negotiate a trade after an American spy plane and its pilot, Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), is shot down over the Soviet Union. The drama is in line with such period thrillers such as Thirteen Days or even JFK, where the words used are the weapons being handled. For Donovan, clarity is key even when double-speak is in play, especially in the second half when he has to negotiate with both the Russians and the East Germans. In all that, the dialogue crackle alongs, so anyone expecting some shooting action may be severely disappointed. As with his previous historical films, Spielberg does appear to indulge the story a little too much, but unlike with Munich or Lincoln, Bridge of Spies doesn’t feel overly bloated. Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography is beautifully stark, with elegant staging. Thomas Newman fills in John Williams’ considerable shoes well enough but he is missed. Hanks is solid, but it’s Mark Rylance who steals the movie as Rudolf Abel. His performance is fairly quiet, but the stoic nature and realist outlook of his character affords Rylance some opportunities to steal the scenes from Hanks. In all, this is another solid production from Spielberg and his team, with strong performances from his cast of excellent character actors. The pacing barely drags and there are the typical light touches that are part of Spielberg’s storytelling and directorial techniques; a showcase for why Spielberg is still a respectable filmmaker. Rating: ****/5 Please support by buying or recommending to others. Thank you. - b Stars (vocally) Emi Nitta, Aina Kusuda, Aya Uchida, Pile, Riho Iida, Sora Tokui, Suzuko Mimor, Yoshino Nanjou, Yurika Kubo Directed by Takahiko Kyōgoku Taking off from where the series’ second season ended, the school idol group, μ's are called upon to support the Love Live by participating in an international performance. This leads the girls on a trip to New York even as Honoka ponders the future, be it for the group or simply her own future. As with most of these movies that transition from the TV series, it helps loads to be familiar with the series, especially when you have nine lead characters. That being said, the movie chooses to focus the story around Honoka as she was the one who initially brought the group together and by this point, the three senior members are graduating and the fate of the group itself becomes a sticking plot point. One simple question is raised to Honoka early on and that becomes the gist of her story, and it serves very well to carry the movie. So, on its own, the movie is fairly paced with a number of catchy new tunes, with the strongest ones closing out the show. The animation is beautiful as you can expect from a film production effort although the use of CGI becomes super-apparent when filling in the crowd scenes (see the armies in The Lord of the Rings trilogy series) that there is a slight disconnect between the CGI and the hand-drawn styled animation. As it is a movie following a series, the main cast all know their characters well so there’re no complaints there. If you’re not used to anime of this nature, the vocal performances may be grating, so be warned. The direction, particularly on the musical numbers in the first half, seem to lean more towards a music video aesthetic rather than staged dances normally associated with musicals, but the movie ends in high style that matches the ends of the two seasons that preceded this; one in a grander scale than before, and one in a more intimate nature. Fans of the series may gripe a little if their favourite character isn’t getting enough screen time, but they all do have their moments. The humour is there and the entertainment / enjoyment level is high. In typical Japanese fashion, some elements are open to your own interpretation which may inspire discussion among the fans (who may want to add an additional 1/2 star). (The movie was screened in Japanese with English, Chinese and Malay subtitles.) Rating: ***1/2 / 5 Please support by buying or recommending to others. Thank you. - b Some reviews have gone up on my main blog rather than here, so this is a list of links for movies where the reviews went up there... Sorry I haven't updated here in a while. Hail, Caesar! [2016] Posted Feb 20, 2016 Gods of Egypt [2016] Posted Feb 27, 2016 Hero War (Covering Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice [2016] & Captain America: Civil War [2016]) Posted Apr 29, 2016 X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Posted June 1, 2016 The Nice Guys [2016] Posted Jue 13, 2016 Warcraft [2016] Posted Jun 16, 2016 Beyond the Sea- Finding Dory [2016] Posted Jun 26, 2016 Independence Day: Resurgence [2016] Posted June 26, 2016 ~and we're all caught up. Partridge Publishing / Barnes and Noble / Amazon / ISBNS Net (for best deals) - Please support by buying or recommending to others, then I can watch more shows and do more reviews. Thank you. Stars Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam, Jim Beaver, Burn Gorman and Doug Jones Directed by Guillermo del Toro I did the utmost to stay away from all the trailers and promotional clips before going to the cinema for this one. The most I knew was that it would be a gothic romance/horror set in a haunted house. For me, the benchmark of a haunted house flick is Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963) which got by with minimal special effects and superior use of sound effects to create a truly nerve-wrecking flick, poorly updated by Jan de Bont (thanks to the inclusion of CGI special effects, made it less scary). For Crimson Peak, director Guillermo del Toro truly makes the house a living and breathing character in the film. It literally ‘breathes’, and the walls are constantly ‘bleeding’… and there’s a bit of a gripe to that one that came to mind only after the movie. There is a logical explanation to that idea, too, but there is a gripe. Won’t mention here tho. Still, this is del Toro in familiar territory albeit his first gothic horror in English (see Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone, and Pan’s Labyrinth) and there is a sense that he is trying something new and different. Even without his usual cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, the visuals by Dan Laustsen are lush and beautiful, especially in showing off the design of the dilapidated mansion itself. The colours within the mansion practically pop, more so when crimson comes on screen superbly contrasted against the pureness of the snow that constantly falls, or the deep dark shadows from which the ghosts may appear. Yes, there are ghosts, and del Toro does a superb job of maintaining certain rules for his ghosts and how they behave. To that end, in collusion with some sound effects and music, the ghosts may conjure some scares, but the true horror lies elsewhere. Let that be all to be said about it and I’ll leave it to you to enjoy the chills. The movie is tightly paced with strong performances. Mia Wasikowska does most of the heavy lifting and is beautifully contrasted by Jessica Chastain, with Tom Hiddleston ably supporting the two central women in the film. Hiddleston brings some of his considerable charm to the role that belies his motivations within the story. Doug Jones continues his artistic collaboration with del Toro by essaying two of the main ghosts, giving them truly memorable form and movement that is unique and engaging. The design of the ghosts themselves is key to the movie, and they have a nice ethereal presence in one way, and freakishly unnerving in another. Although some of the jump-scares are manufactured, either via sound effects or music, the chills gets quite palatable in its own way with one or two gruesome moments. Otherwise, it plays to its gothic roots very well. del Toro’s sure hand in direction and handling his cast elevates the material well, and he delivers what is a classic haunted house, as well as a classic movie for the ages. Rating: ****/5 Please support by buying or recommending to others, then I can watch more shows and do more reviews. Thank you. |
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