The Way Way Back

The Way Way Back written and directed by Nick Faxon and Jim Rash, starring Liam James, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Same Rockwell, Allison Janney, Nick Faxon, Jim Rash, Anna Sophia Robb, Rob Corddry, Amada Peet, and Maya Rudolph.

This is actually a little gem of movie that needs to be seen by more people.  There's nothing special in the story line as it's the standard coming of age type of movie where the teenager is at that time in his life when he's trying to figure out who he is.  This movie captures the awkwardness of those moments with a keen eye.  But over all it's the actors who inhabit these characters that make this movie shine as they are then teamed up with a decent screenplay that believes in itself enough to always keep the perspective of the narrative focused on the main character - and what you end up with is a very good movie.

The first 20 minutes of this movie really have you rooting for the main character to do something or anything with his life as it really puts you in his shoes.  All during this first act we see how his world is crumbling around him as he's left buried under its rubble, fighting and breathing for air.  I really wanted something to alter his life and that something comes in the form of Sam Rockwell who breathes a fresh air not only into the life of the main character but also into the film (just like he seems to do in about every film he acts in - proving once again what a great actor he is). 

It's amazing how an idea of a kid working at a water park one summer can alter his life, which seems on the surface to be a bad a idea but in the end with the characters, the acting, and screenplay, it all works in some wonderful ways. 

All in all it's just a good movie that's funny, poignant, heart breaking, sad, uplifting, and inspiring all rolled into one movie.

Kon-Tiki

Kon-Tike directed by Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, starring Pal Sverre Hagen, Anders Baasmo Chrsiansen, Tobias Santelmann, Gustaf Skarsgard, Jakob Oftebro.

This movie is very similar visually to Ang Lee's Life of Pi.  But where as that movie was more of  a metaphorical, spiritual, and allegorical journey, Kon-Tike is a historical, non-fictional, and reality based story.  Now I'm not saying everything that happened in this movie actually happened but the main characters did travel over 5000 miles on a wooden raft built only from materials around the time period of the culture the main character Thor was studying.  I found this movie thoroughly engrossing as I can't imagine the amount of balls and guts Thor had to do what he did just to prove a theory he had.  On the surface what he did doesn't sound all that great but to visually see how they traveled those 5000 miles is quite another thing and only adds to the story.  Another thing that makes this movie good is that it comes in right around the 90 minute mark, so there's not a lot of time to commit to watching this movie and the film makers keep the movie riding along at a good pace. 

I just really enjoyed this movie as it chronicled the exploits of Thor and his friends from him first coming up with the theory he has, to fully realizing his theory in physical form the only way he could, which was to build a raft and set out to do what was in theoretical form in his mind.  It's a total explorer based movie where the exploration is everything that drives the movie forward as the visuals totally help the sell the exploration theme and back it up one hundred percent because these characters are seeing things and documenting things never before seen.  

The movie does a good job creating the characters that travel with him and showing how the strain and isolation of being on a raft can play games with the mind.  The raft itself becomes an extra character in the movie as it also starts to break down from the strain of isolation on being on the open sea for that long of a time.  This movie had a very old school feel to it that many movies from Hollywood clearly lack now-a-days.  It's a thoroughly enjoyable movie well worth your time to see.

The World's End

The World's End written and directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg (also co-writer), Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, Pierce Bronsan, and Rosamund Pike.

I saw this movie a few weeks ago and have been having a hard time trying to figure what to write about it because it was that good.  It always seems the good movies are harder to write about than the bad ones, which are just bursting through the seams with all kinds of ideas about how bad they are.  The World's End - it was the best movie I saw over the last few weekends - was way better than I thought it was going to be.  I was just expecting an overall entertaining time but this movie went way beyond my expectations and even the shift from buddy pub crawl movie to alien invasion sci-fi movie was done with such grace and loving care that it blended together seamlessly without any flaw.

This movie is the last in Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's "Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy," which consists of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and ends with this movie.  But you don't have to have seen the first two to appreciate this movie nor do you have to have any previous knowledge of the first two films to understand this movie.  In fact this is one of those trilogies where you can watch any movie in no particular order, getting total enjoyment with each passing second.  I will say this though The World's End is the best of three and if you do watch them in order you can see the evolution of their writing skill, while at the same time seeing how Wright has progressed - for the better - as a director.  This evolution is reason enough to watch these movies in order. 

This is basically a quest type of movie as in going from point A to point B and normally these types of movies I don't like because there a lot of wasted shots of people just walking, running, standing, and staring at things.  Not so with this movie.  Simon Pegg's character clearly sets out the goals with the ten pubs they are to go to with each one of them being clearly defined with some memorable names and logos.  As far as journey types of movies go, this is one of the best I've seen as there aren't those wasted shots I was talking about earlier.  The movie always stayed in progression as it keeps the characters in the front line the whole time, because if you don't make me care about the characters then I'm going to have a harder time grasping everything that goes on.  Fortunately, for a Wright and Pegg movie, they are good at creating some memorable characters and making the audience care about them. 

One of the best things I liked about this movie was how the five main characters blended together and how their personalities were clearly on display and totally individual.  The movie gave each one of them plenty of room to breath and all five actors rose to the challenge brilliantly.  The dialogue between them had a ring of reality to it as it helped to make their relationships believable without feeling forced.  It wasn't just dialogue for the sake of being dialogue (like Tarantino seems to do) but the dialogue furthered the story and developed the characters as it did.  It wasn't just there for the sake of being cool or sounding witty.  

The actions scenes were violently funny and directed with some great skill.  I was never in confusion as to was happening in them and for some directors these action scenes are where they go lazy with "shaky cam", not so here and for that I thank you Wright.  The all out violence of it reeked of Looney Tunes and fit in with everything else going on that it never for once felt out of place.  All in all it was a good night of watching movies and I can honestly say I would like to see this movie again.   

Planet Terror

Planet Terror written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, starring Bruce Willis, Rose McGowan, Josh Brolin, Naveen Andrews, Freddy Rodriguez, and Michael Beihn.

This movie can be summed in one line: Girl with a machine gun leg.   Granted that doesn't happen till way over half way through the movie, but when it does the movie goes all out crazier than it already has, thus making the machine gun leg all the more welcome.

This movie is bad.  The dialogue is bad.  The story line?  Well there really isn't any story line beyond the cliched zombies taking over and people fight back storyline.  But that's the whole point of the movie as it harkens back to the good (bad?) old days of the lower than B movie level of movies, called the Grindhouse movie.  On the rating board I would say it's in the Z level range.  Robert Rodriguez knows this and runs with it in full force and has a complete blast making this movie.  Bad dialogue? Yup, it's real bad but it's all on purpose as every bad or terrible line the movie is done in the spirit of the Grindhouse film, so everything done in this movie is for a reason.  There's even a point where a section of the film goes missing and a good chunk of the story line is bypassed (it couldn't have happened at a more inappropriate time either, in my opinion).  It's all part of the fun of this movie.  Don't get me wrong I had a blast watching this movie and laughed out loud several times such is the craziness on display here.

Rodriguez does what you're supposed to do when making a film like this, go all the way on the insanity and don't look back, not for once.  So he does with never an over the shoulder look.  He keeps his face always looking forward.  He completely bathes in the awfulness of what he's making and so doe every actor and actress in the movie.  They chew the terrible dialogue like with a seriousness or corniness that completely sells the movie and their 2 dimensional with little or no effort.  I could tell everyone in this movie was having a good time.  I think Rose McGowan had the best time when she finally got the machine gun on her leg as she just went crazy.  I also think Freddy Rodriguez had a fun time play against type as an all out bad ass.  He delivered his lines and presented his character with dramatic presentation of an action star of the 80's.  It was also really refreshing to see Michael Beihn acting again as it's been a long time since I'd seen him in a movie.  I didn't realize how much I missed him.

But the bulk of this movie is all Robert Rodriguez.  I've got to admit I don't really like all of his movies but I've got some respect for him as his movies don't go over budget and generally look better than what they cost, which is something Hollywood just doesn't understand.  He makes movies he likes and doesn't give a damn about what Hollywood thinks, for that he will always get my respect.  Much like the Cohen brothers, whose movies I don't always like but they seem to just make the films they want to make without giving any thought to Hollywood.  Neither one of them (the Cohen brothers nor Rodriguez) seem to get caught up in their own hype (paging Tarantino) nor do they make movies that diverge in pretentiousness (paging Spielberg and any number of directors directing now who seem to make movies just to win the affection of the Hollywood elite). 

All and in all it was a fun movie to watch.  I had a good time with this comedy/horror/gore-infested/action movie.

The Fog (2005)

The Fog (2005) directed by Rupet Wainwright, starring Tom Welling, Selma Blair, and Maggie Grace.

I'm going to have to see the original The Fog now because I think John Carpenter made a way better film than this one turned out to be.  His track record is much better and besides this is a remake and it lives up to every meaning of that word. 

There are somethings to look for in this film.  Does Tom Welling have at least one scene where he's shirtless?  Check, that scene is in this movie.  I think his contract has a clause in it where he has to show his bare chest in at least one scene in a movie.  I do believe he had that same contract for Smallville, only in Smallville had to had to show his chest once in at least once per episode.  Does Maggie Grace have at least one scene where she's wearing some kind negligee?  Check, there's one scene where she is wearing nothing but that.  Like Tom Welling, I think it's in her contract to have at least one scene in every movie where she's wearing something skimpy. 

Overall a typical Hollywood remake that I'm going to imagine doesn't add anything new to the original, which I will have to find out here in the next few weeks when I check it out from the library.

2 Guns

2 Guns directed by Baltasar Kormakur (whoever he is, I IMDBed him and got really nothing, which explains a lot), starring the three people who really saved this movie, Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, and Bill Paxton.

There's not much to say about this movie: the story line is so so.  It really wants to be funny and witty in the dialogue department but in my opinion it fails miserably and the over all story line doesn't really go anywhere or try anything new.  The twists and counter-twists can be seen a mile before they happen.  Even the characters in the movie don't have any real personality nor is much attention given to make them interesting.  They are the typical cliched characters in a typical cliched movie.  The direction is nothing new and doesn't even attempt to do anything other than a standard action movie and even that falls flat because for a lot of the actions scenes I was confused at to what was happening, which means poor communication skills on the director.  The title, what does it mean?  Where does it fit into the movie?  Is is about Washington and Wahlberg's character as they each hold a gun?  I don't know.  I have no idea nor does the movie even try explain it.  It just seems like some random words were chosen from a hat and slapped onto the title of this movie, which about fits everything this movie is.

Now to the best part of the movie and the only reason it was saved.  Washington, Wahlberg, and Paxton saved this movie with their acting.  Washington and Wahlberg made me wish they had been in a better movie because their chemistry together was believable and likable, I just wish the story line and characters they played had lived up to their potential.  Paxton was creepy and scary as the CIA agent and he was so good as the villain that is presence is still felt throughout the movie, even when he's not in a scene.  This is one of the few movies I've seen were the salvation of the movie was brought on by the actors in it.  So if you're looking for a movie that will not test your mind in way, shape, or form and do like Washington, Wahlberg, and Paxton, then you will enjoy this movie.  It will at least be entertaining.  It was for me but not for the reasons the filmmakers were hoping.