Rush

Rush directed by Ron Howard, starring Christ Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl.

This is one of Ron Howard's best movies and not that than it's one of his best directed movies. I say this as not being a Ron Howard fan, but this movie was done very well.  I'm also not a huge fan of race car driving, nor race car driving movies.  But this movie had me thoroughly engrossed in the lives of these two men that I actually cared about the races they were racing.  Two of Ron Howard's best movies have come on the heals of real life stories: Apollo 13 and this one, Rush.  I think he needs to stick to directing real stories, he seems to be very good at them.

There's two sides of this movie happening: each one tells the true story of a race car driver, James Hunt and Niki Lauda.  Each person is on the different end of the spectrum.  James Hunt is wild, brash, egotistical, a party animal, and addicted to speed.  Niki Lauda is scientific, arrogant, thorough in his business of racing, quiet, and addicted to speed.

The movie and the screenplay does a great job of showing about 2 years or so in their lives, when they first met, and started competing against each other.  It was some really good editing that weaved their lives together before my eyes and made the car races completely engrossing.  Both actors rose to the challenge to play these guys who started out enemies but grew to respect each other as their relationship eventually turned into a sort of friendship as the competition cemented them together.  There's some really good scenes between Hemsworth and Bruhl that show the relationship growing between them.  Like I said before the movie doe a great job of showing the wildly different life styles both of them had.  This is one of the meany things that helps to hold this movie together and keeps the pace of it racing along with the same amount of speed and engrossment as the races themselves.  

Inside Llewyn Davis

Inside Llewyn Davis written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, starring Oscar Isaac, Casey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, and John Goodman.

I don't necessarily like all of the Coen brothers movies but I respect them and their ability to do movies the way they want to do movies as they stick their middle finger up at Hollywood each and every chance they get.  Their movies are always interesting even though not always good, at least I don't like all their movie but they do make more movies I like than movies I don't like.   

This movie is one of their ones I like.  It was very interesting and had me watching it without worrying about time as it flowed by at a quick pace.  It's basically about 72 hours in the life of the title character Llewyn Davis as he tries to get his life organized, trying to find reason in a life that he doesn't want to admit might have been wasted.  He's not a real likeable character but is interesting as the juggles his struggles, his loneliness, his homeless, his scruples, his artistic freedom, his family, his girl friend, his "friends", and his music trying to find some place in the world he's journeying through.  Music is his outlet, his way to communicate everything that he's going through.  He pours his passion into his music.  The Coen brothers really let his music not just be music, but it's an extension of everything about him and it grows in wild organic ways as he refuses to compromise who he is artistically - on a metaphorical level I think this is how the Coen brothers feel about their career within Hollywood.  It almost plays like a sort of biographical movie.

All the Coen brothers normal treatments are here and work within the movie's world without bagging it down or being distracting.  There's weird characters, some great dialogue, some great cinematography, everything expected of the Coen brothers.  Then the one thing great about them is that they let the actors actually act without destroying scenes with over editing or hyper cutting.  Something a lot of directors have no clue about today.

I still don't know what to make of the ending as it had a sort of meta ending but not in a pretentious, snobby sort of way but in a way that made me want to watch the movie again and piece everything together because I didn't quite see that ending coming.  It's not a surprise or shocking ending but it definitely is an ending I didn't see coming and one that gets the mind a thinking.

   

Words of Radiance

Words of Radiance: Book 2 of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson.

I finished up this book about a week ago but it's safe to say that it's a good sequel that does what a sequel is supposed to do.  It deepens the world Sanderson created in the first book and answers a lot of questions along the way.  I get so tired of books and other media outlets that seems to always revel in leaving more questions than giving answers, so it's refreshing to see a series that actually answers questions - that's one of the best things about this book and these series thus far.

The other thing I liked about this book was how Sanderson continued to deepen the characters in the book.  They become changed from the events of the first book, that deepening of them just makes reading this book a joy and gave me a total connection with them.  This book went into the past of the one main female character, Shallan, just like the first book did with Kaladin.  Sanderson uses this device with great effect as it really helps to sharpen Shallan up as a character, giving her a lot more depth and complexity.  Her character really grew on me in this book.  Looking forward to seeing who Sanderson might choose to do this with in the third book, if he's going to do it all because of the events at the end of this book might not permit it, but who knows what will happen later.

Sanderson is also a good writer as he likes to put in a bunch of nerd moments that makes reading certain scenes a cant-put-it-don-have-to-see-how-this-scene-ends kind of way.  Adolin's big dual being one of those scenes along with Kaladin's big fight scene near the end of the book.  Well actually the whole last part of this book was really a big couldn't put it done kind of read.  One of my favorite scenes was between Shallan and Adolin as they talked about things people don't normally talk about when wearing Shardplate - that scene had me in stitches as it was quite funny and furthered the two lovers relationship at the same time.

Sanderson also took a big gamble with this book as the character of Kaladin was kind of asshole through most of this book and Sanderson stuck to his guns on this, which was bold of him.  But the events of him leading up the choices and decisions he made, made complete sense and to betray this would have betrayed his character.  Also, Sanderson's writing has a very flowing and passion to it that I thought was lacking from the first Mistborn book, which is I think one of the reason why I didn't finish it.  To end this, I can say I'm really looking forward to next book(s) in this series and hope their as long as the first two books were.    

Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas Buyers Club directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, starring Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, and Jenifer Garner.

This was a lot more interesting movie than I thought it was going to be as it tackled a true life story with some gusto and firmness one of aids and the getting of medication for that virus.  The screenplay was good in that it did allow McConaughey's character to change but still kept him as unlikable as he was from the beginning but yet it allowed me to draw sympathy for him.  That is a hard feat to accomplish but the movie worked its magic towards a completely unlikable character. 

Yes, McConaughey is memorizing as he looses himself in the role of Ron Woodroof as it Jared Leto who also looses himself in his role, playing the complete opposite of McConaughey's character.  Leto definitely interjected the movie with some life as each scene he's in totally brightens up the movie and injects some much needed humor in what is basically not a happy story. 

The movie was very compelling as it tackled the FDA and basically anything touched by our beloved government and all the red tape Woodroof ran up against in his pursuit of money and helping himself get cured of the aids virus.  His pursuit of these drugs becomes the focal point of the movie as it goes from a pursuit to an all out journey as Woodroof totally throws himself into a life that now revolves around Aids.  Watching him deal with Aids helped to enhance everything I thought about his character despite the fact of his unlikableness.

The direction of this movie is very raw and reminded me of the movie Blue Valentine as it really helped to move me into the world of Woodroof.  This is one of those movies people will come to watch the performance of McConaughy and Leto but will stay for the focused and compelling story that will ultimately end up drawing the viewer in with ease.   

12 Years a Slave

12 Years a Slave directed by Steve McQeen, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Paul Dano, and Sarah Paulson.

The main reason I wanted to see this movie was because of the director Steve McQeen.  I have seen his two previous movies Hunger and Shame.  Both of them blew me away by his direction as he never seems preachy or pretentious.  He just tells a story and gets out the way.  He has an uncanny ability to focus on complex characters.  He is very anti-Hollywood.  He does movies how he wants to do them and will release them unrated if that's what it takes.  He's not into the shaky cam way of directing, actually likes to set his shots up, and explore the world he's bringing onto film.

He didn't disappoint with this movie and lived up to every expectation I had for him, which dealing with movies now-a-days, that a hard feat to achieve.  There's only a handful of directors working today that have done that on a regular basis.

His direction was simply amazing and in my opinion completely matched what Alfonso Cuaron did for Gravity.  This movie definitely has more weight and complexity than Gravity or for that matter most movies that come out of Hollywood.  I was ready for his direction but it was simply mind boggling how better it's gotten since his two previous movies.  He certainly a director to keep an eye on as he makes movies.

This movie wasn't at all preachy or pushing an agenda.  It simply tells the story of a free man named Solomon Northup who gets conned and sold into slavery and stays there for the titled 12 years as he does what he can do so survive and get back to freedom.  That's it, there's nothing more to the story, but it's everything about the movie that makes it great.  From the production design, the costumes, and the acting, everything helped to make this movies the sum of its parts. 

The acting was simply amazing as they assembled some great character actors.  Michael Fassbender was once again astounding. I will continue to see any movie that he's in.  He seems to be McQueen's go to actor as he was the main actor in Hunger and Shame, and this is fine with me if McQueen keeping giving him these meaty roles to play.  Fassbender is just memorizing as the plantation owner.  He plays a person of feral disposition that rides on an emotional roller coaster the whole time.   His scenes are chilling because I never knew what he was going to do, ever.  I know I'm talking a lot about Fassbender but truly everyone was great in this movie as they weaved their way through the story with ease.  Only Brad Pitt was miscast as his star persona completely interrupted the flow of the movie and seemed to remind me that yes I was watching the movie.  But then again he did help produce the movie, so I think I can forgive him for that one part, he did a good job with that part but it was just the baggage that he brought to the part didn't gel well with the movie. 

Saving Mr. Banks

Saving Mr. Banks directed by John Lee Hancock, starring Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, BJ Novak, Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, Bradley Whitford, and Colin Ferrell.

This needs to be said first before I go any further.  I am not a  Tom Hanks fan at all.  I don't think he really acts in lot of his movies and just seems to bring variations of himself in those roles that don't really connect with the story line.  However, in this movie he really helped to bring his version of Walt Disney to life and truly connected with the storyline in ways where he was helpful instead of being distracting.

All of that being said, this is Emma Thompson's movie and she does a great job of bringing the Mary Popping's writer to life in all of her psychosis, scruples, and complexity.  This movie turned out to be a great movie as it dived with full force into the world of writer as they deal with certain things in their life and pour out those things on the page.  Who would have thought the story of bringing the character of Mary Poppins to Disney would be so engrossing and captivating?  I certainly didn't think it would and was pleasantly surprised by this movie for being as engaging and interesting as it turned out. 

Another thing that made this movie good was all the character actors in who really helped to bring everything in this movie to life.  Their presence in every scene with Emma Thompson was great as they all sparked with a chemistry I don't find in many movies.  This movie was perfectly cast and the director actually let the actors act without ruining the movie with too many cuts or over editing.  This movie had an old school Hollywood feel to it, which is by no means an insult, but a huge compliment as the director didn't get in the way of the story and let the story tell itself without hindrance. 

Sherlock Holmes: Season Three

Sherlock Holmes: Season 3, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Una Stubbs, Rupert Graves, Mark Gatiss, and Amanda Abbington.

Another good season of the updated/modern BBC version Sherlock Holmes.  This just proves how great the British actors are, as everyone in this series is perfectly cast and helps to bring this series alive.  Plus, they keep coming back to do more seasons despite the fact the two main stars of this show have become hugely in demand. 

I didn't much like the first episode of the season: The Empty Hearse.  I did like all the interaction with the characters, that was the best part of this episode but I didn't fully buy into the scenario of Watson being the only person Holmes didn't tell of him being alive. It just didn't ring true and for me was the only thing that hindered this episode from being really good.  I did like the many James Bond references in this episode though, those were a nice touch.  This episode does introduce the wonderful Amanda Abbington as Mary Morstan and she throws a huge bump in the Holms and Watson relationship, which is a delight to watch.


The Sign of Three: this was one of the best episodes of the series hands down.  It brought to the table what makes this show so good: the interaction between the characters and it helps to flesh out more the newly introduced Mary Morstan as Waton's soon be wife.  This time it had this interaction woven together with a plot that mattered - namely the marriage of John Watson to Mary. Watching Holmes give the best man speech was laugh out loud funny and the opening scene was pure genius as it brought together a couple of other elements of the show and made the punch line of the joke totally believable.  Easily one of the best episodes of the series. 

His Last Vow: Another solid episode as it brought an master villain to counter Holmes' genius.  Seeing Holmes in a sort of relationship made this episode even more engaging and funny.  This episode also deepened the history of Mary and Watson that I truly did not see coming but they make total and complete sense.  The ending was a perfect cliff hanger, now waiting for Season Four.

Walking Dead (graphic novel)

Walking Dead written by Alex Kirkman, illustrated by various people.

I haven't seen the TV show yet but I just made it through 96 issues of this comic series and I've got to admit it's one of the best stories (not just comics) I've ever read and it's not done being written yet.  The thought of more Walking Dead stories to come fills me with joy.

This is one of best fleshed out, realistic, and fully explored worlds I've read and the fact it's in comic format makes it all the more interesting.  The Walking Dead uses the simple format of a zombie apocalypse and then tries to figure out how people would survive and act in that situation.  The level of reality in this series is startling.  It's brutal, violent, and heart breaking as sometimes in one issue three or four main characters will die.  I also like how Kirkman really fleshes out the characters in this book and makes them three dimensional in ways most comics can't even comprehend.  Actions and chooses always affect things in this series, another things most comics now-a-days can't even comprehend.  Another thing Kirkman did well was not get in a hurry the main characters of this series aren't fully established until about the 20-40 issue mark.  He takes his time and lets the story line and characters develop in a timely manner.  This gives the reader time also to invest into everything that is going on, so when shit does hit the fan, the shock value is earned and never feels like a gimmick.

One of the things I like about these survival type of stories is the the world becomes reduced to a black or white scenario, there is no grey area in this world.  Grey areas means you will most likely die, where as black and white decisions have to be made quickly.  This mantra of grey is woven throughout every issue and lingers on ever page like the plague that brought the zombies - there is no room for grey - grey means you will die.  How this line of thinking affects people makes it part of the enjoyment of reading because normal thinking has to be chucked out of the window in this new world. How this mentality of thinking affects kids is even more brutal than how it affects adults and Kirkman really delivers on this front.  Kirkman also does has a good way of letting characters talk and interact that fell real as they talk about things that's happened them.  By doing this he really breathes life into these characters as they talk about things going on inside of them and how they've become affected by either what's happened to them or choices they've made.

Survival is the name of the game with this series but how this word becomes changed and morphed around as it pertains to the characters was fun to watch, especially as it is defined by the main character Rick Grimes.  Who is a character deeply affected by what has happened.  Watching his mentality change throughout the series was - from a writer's perspective - believably and honestly real.  I couldn't help but root for him and his desire to keep his family safe.  A thoroughly enjoyable read not just from a comic perspective but from a literature perspective.

The Counselor

The Counselor directed by Ridley Scott, written by Cormick McAurthor, starring Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, and Javier Bardem.

Riddley Scott drops another stinker.  He's the director's equivalent of the emperor's new clothes: his films always look good but there's absolutely no substance there just beautiful scenery and production design disguising the nothingness of the storyline there.  All the actors in the movie do a good job of the terrible screenplay they've been given.  But even their acting can't make anything out of the motivations or lack of any information given about these characters.  This is a boring, plodding film that was a waste of the 2 hours I spent watching it - but it does look good, which is I guess a metaphor for Hollywood itself.  As the continue to churn out slick and glossy movie all the time that have no substance hoping the production and money they've spent on it will mask the nothingness that really lurks in the movie.  

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire directed by Francis Lawrence, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutchinson, Woody Harrison, Donald Sutherland, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, Jeffery Wright, Amanda Plummer, Jenna Malone, and Toby Jones.

This is one perfectly cast movie, down to people who might even say one line in one scene.  Everyone is cast to perfection.  Christopher Nolan would be proud.  I listed the majority of actors above for one reason: you get a bunch of good character actors together and give them a good storyline and the movie will turn out very watchable.  This movie is extremely watchable.

This is how you do a sequel and not only do a sequel but do it much better than the first movie.  The main reason this movie is better than the first movie is because the director actually knows how to set up and shoot a scene without resorting the lazy-man's way of directing with shaky cam.  I mean I could actually see what was happening in the scenes and got to admire the production and set designs of the scenes without trying to find my bearings because the camera was moving up, down, and sideways all time.  This made a huge difference on the communication level of this movie versus the first movie, which felt like I was watching the TV show COPS in the movie theater.

This movie reminded me of Terminator 2.  What I mean by this is that it did reuse things from the first movie but it also opened up the world and mythology of the world and let the characters grow from the first film, which is what a sequel is supposed to.  And this movie did it beautifully.  New characters are added and didn't feel like a gimmick but actually added to the storyline.  Characters were allowed to develop and grow from things that happened to them in the first movie.  We are allowed to see how actions and decisions made in the first movie have affected this movie, which is something that seems totally lost in Hollywood as sequels and movies are churned out with little passion but for the all mighty dollar.  This movie does not feel churned out.  Catching Fire also rises the bar on the political landscape of the first movie, making the politics even more threatening and suffocating than they were before. 

I will tell you this Jennifer Lawrence has become one of the best young actors acting in movies.  I've been following her since I saw her in Winter's Bone (which if you haven't seen you need to go out and see it because it is one amazing low budget, independent film that's actually good - Lawrence is simply amazing in that film) and it seems every film she's in, which is only a handful - but what a handful to sample- she is simply amazing: American Hustle, X-Men First Class, Hunger Games, and Silver Linings Playbook. She fully breathes life into Catniss and not just embodies a character from a book but makes it impossible to ever seen anyone else playing Catniss, ever again.  She so fully transforms into her.

As far as big budgets Hollywood movies go this is by far one of the better ones to come out in a long time and I'm looking forward to seeing how they are going to end the series, even though I've read the books, I still want to see what they're going to do with it. I'll also be interested to see if Suzanne Collins is going to do anything more than the series after the last movie comes out because we've seen how Rowling has been affected by her Potter universe.  Collins is going to be facing the same sort of thing here in a few years.  This series is slowly reaching those same heights with fans that will just have more fans added as the last two movies come out.  Demand for more things new with the Hunger Games universe might bring some new supplies, look at what Rowling has been doing with the Potter-verse.  I don't think there's anything wrong with this after all it's because of the fans these two worlds have become as popular as they are. 

Fast and the Furious 6

Fast and the Furious 6 directed by Justin Lin, starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Dwayne Johnson, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Luke Evans, and Gian Carano.

This movie makes no bones about what it's going to be and that's an action movie with the theme of family clearly woven throughout it.  The movie is way better for having this theme to fall back on, no matter how over the top the action gets because that theme really grounds the characters and story line in a way most action movies seem to just want to rely on the action only to carry everything in the movie.  Don't get me wrong though the action scenes in this movie are completely insane, but my thoughts on action movies are if you're going to do action scenes go all the way.  Don't just go over the top but go completely insane, over the top, over the top and don't apologize for it but revel in the ludicrous, breaking all laws of physics action in the movie.  This movie does do this in spades and doesn't apologize for anything.  In the words of Tropic Thunder this movie goes full action and goes all the way.

Despite all the action in this movie, the theme of family is what grounds everything.  This theme of family is what ultimately makes this movie work, in my opinion.  It's hard to believe but this movie is basically a family movie: there's no sex and very little language and by doing this the movie supports that theme of family.  It wasn't a bad night of watching a movie.  Not saying this movie is the greatest movie of all time but I had a good time watching it and was entertained for the duration of the movie. 

One of the things I did find funny in the movie was that after the big action scene involving a tank, a highway, and cars, I found myself wondering how they were going to top this because there was a little over a half an hour left.  Then I found out how they topped it: a plane, an airstrip, and lots of cars.  Like I said before if you're going to go action, go action all way and completely insane.