Mouse Guard: Fall and Winter

Mouse Guard written and illustrated by David Petersen.

This was just a flat out beautifully drawn and executed story.  Some great world building and story development.  There are moments of Tolkien woven into this story that don't feel stolen but completely borrowed.  Good characters with plenty of room to breath and grow.  The world Petersen creates feels fresh and new with shades of Redwall but more like Redwall on a visual front without only words.  

Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler written and directed by Dan Gilroy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Bill Paxon, Riz Ahmed and Rene Russo.

This movie completely took me be surprise by how good it was.  I don't find to many movies that seem to want to have a comment about our news media as this film does.  It does a great job of infiltrating this world and showing an interesting side of new broadcasting:they buying of self shot vidoes.  Everyone did a great job of making this movie good: spot on direction, production, screenplay, and acting.

Gyllenhaal has had sort of a revival in his movie career over the last year or so with the movies Prisoners, Enemy, End of Watch, and this movie.  I mean each of those movies have been some of the better films I've seen with each character being different.  There's not a lot repetition happening in there and Gyllenhaal has stepped up to the plate and done some really good acting.  His character in this movie is basically an unlikable, dishonest, and selfish character but yet Gyllenhaal and the writers do make him somewhat sympathetic.  I'm not saying he's always sympathetic but I always knew what his motivation was throughout even when he ended up doing something I might not have liked.  I understood why he was doing it.  They also made him a completely interesting character as he started navigating the media/news empire he gets involved with.

All in all go out and watch this film.  





  

Kick-Ass (comic)

Kick-Ass written by Mark Millar, illustrated by John Romita Jr.

This comic ended up being much better than the movie.  I still don't Millar is a great writer because he never lets his ideas fully evolve but seems to be stuck in the superhero mentality of writing where development is a four letter word.  It's funny comparing this comic to Watchmen.  Where as Moore was way more subtle in his critique of superheros, Millar is more like a sledge hammer to the face.  One thing I really did like about this book better than the movie was that I didn't ever feel Millar was wanting me to feel bad for the main character.  Where as the movie I always thought they wanted me to feel bad for the main character and I never did because his choices and actions were getting him beat up and into the violent situations he got into.

The same with the movie as here: Hit Girl steals the entire story.  Her character is just way better written, explored, and interesting.

Personally I think John Romita Jr, stole the entire series with his art work.

The Imitation Game

The Imitation Game directed by Morton Tyldum, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightly, Matthew Goode, and Mark Strong.

This movie was held together by the performance of Cumberbatch (and I still think Matthew Goode is one of the more underrated actors acting right now, his performance is still as magnetic and good as every film I've seen him in).  It's weird because Cumberbatch is basically playing Sherlock Holmes without the same kind confidence and arrogance but yet it comes across as being completely a different performance.  This guy is on a completely different level of acting than mostly everyone else in the world.  His scenes with Knightly only prove what a one note kind of actress she is and dove tail into my dislike of her - as an actress.

This movie does have one problem as most biographical movies do - there isn't a lot of tension as to what is going on because we already know how it ends.  Therefore the relationships and characters of the movie need to be built up and strengthened to make the story line flow.  Sadly I don't think either of those two items were addressed that well in this movie.  But the story of Turnning's machine and solving the Nazis code did end up being entertaining. 

The Babadook

The Babadook written and directed by Jennifer Kent, starring Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman.

Honestly I thought this movie was rather boring considering all they hype I read about it.  I think I just expected a little more than what was delivered.  This movie is proof of why I don't watch many horror movies because they all are basically they same kind of movie with little or no deviation from the chains or cliches that are stable with horror movies.

That being said there were some good visual scenes in this movie and enough of a background of the main characters as to make a good connection with what was happening.  But ultimately I thought it just stuck too much to the standard confines of the genre.   

A Most Violent Year

A Most Violent Year written and directed by J. C. Chandor, starring Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, Albert Brooks, and David Oyelowo.

A film that harkens back to 1970's of film making and this movie wears those years in almost every frame of this movie.  The ties between this film and The Godfather are, I'm sure, intentional. 

This film is a complete opposite of Coppola's masterpiece, where in that film the main character was building his empire by dishonest means; in this movie the main character is trying to build his empire through honest means.  I think this film could have benefited from being longer so as to explore more of the relationships happening with in this film.  There were a lot great acting set pieces that would have had more impact if there had been more scenes between the key players to help set everything up.  There is a great film lurking under this movie, one that really wanted to break free and be great.  Sadly this movie is only sub par but still better than most of the other films being released now. 

Ultimately the actors help to save this movie making each scene a worth while.  I've got to say Oscar Issac is one of the best actors acting today as I've seen him a few movies and each performance has been unique and very good.  If given the right kind of scenes in the new Star Wars movie - he could really have his break out role in that movie and steal the entire film.  Here's hoping he does.  Jessica Chastain has been just great in everything I've seen her in.  It was fun watching her and Issac go at in this movie.  As the movie went on I began to wonder about their relationship and what kind of connection and spark they had together because their personalities really clashed and seemed to be at odds with each other.  I was talking about this earlier - there needed to be more scenes that established those kind relationships between the characters to make everything gel together even more coherently.