A Solid Remake For Oldboy

Oldboy had been skipping through Hollywood directors' hands for a little while before Spike Lee got to stake his claim to the property.

He threw in some of his old tricks,

but ultimately managed to create a worthy successor to the original... rather, if it had to be made I'm glad it was made this way with this cast and crew. Because they didn't hold back. Sure there are a few minor discrepancies. Perhaps the editing could have been more consistent and the ending was a little off...

Spoiler
I recall a certain someone taking a certain something to a certain part of their body that you would never take that something to in the original.
End Spoiler

But over all, it was there. The same movie repackaged in a language I can understand with a cast that I recognize in a part of the world that I may have visited at some point in my life. Like Vanilla Sky, Let The Right One In, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo before it... I really don't have a problem with remakes like this so long as they stay true to the source material. Even though I still maintain a deep affection for each of those originals.

Josh Brolin was pretty much perfect. I gotta say, I grow more fond of his acting chops with each movie. He's managed to subtly activate a different kind of energy for every one of his roles over the last 10 years. That's worth a couple thumbs up and a trip to the bank. Same goes for Elizabeth Olsen. I've only caught two of her films thus far (the other being Martha Marcy May Marlene), but she has done an excellent job in both. She is by far the most talented Olsen sibling.

Samuel L. Jackson played his part well. It was so fun watching him go back to his acting roots with this role. It reminded me of Jackie Brown, True Romance, and Hard Eight all at once. Sharlto Copley was again an interesting choice. I think the audience instantly sees him and wants to side with him, but he's so obviously a sick individual this time around that it forces some weird emotions on all of us. Let me note that while we were introduced to him as a sort of hero in District 9, his last two big films have had him playing very bad people. Makes me wonder if he'll ever be the good guy again.

Spike Lee pulled it together this time around and brought us a pretty solid interpretation of a known and loved piece of art. So I've gotta say, "thanks Spike for not screwing it up."

Catching Fire Is So Much Better Than Its Predecessor

I did not expect much from Catching Fire.

After all, The Hunger Games had managed to take an interesting concept and make it utterly boring. Before the film was first released, I actively wanted to sit down and read the books. Then I saw what had made it to screen and felt the novel couldn't possibly be as good as everyone said. But Catching Fire has inverted that disposition. Now I'm back on board. I wanna read all three. I really do.

There was something about this film that was just so much more compelling. Granted, the information had to be there from the first one. But this time around it just felt as though the filmmakers managed to hit all of those little notes that the first one skipped over. Characters were more relatable, relationships seemed more consistent, the world felt clearer... pretty much anything that could have been better, was.

Well minus some of the effects, but even most of those were passable.

The thing that worked the least for me about the first one was the foreknowledge that almost everyone you met was going to die (something that's never a problem in Battle Royale by the way).

Oh, they're all gonna die.

This was made worse by the casting of a slew of no-names with little to no shot of ever being recognized for their five seconds of screen time... Once again, Catching Fire fixed that.

In adding actors like Jeffrey Wright, Philip Seymour Hoffman (a huuuge upgrade over Wes Bentley), and Jena Malone in supporting roles it felt like the filmmakers were actively making decisions about how big this franchise could be.

I know there's only one left, but perhaps that one can be the biggest and best.

Catching Fire is simply a better movie than I anticipated. And I'm glad. I mean, who likes to waste their time on a bad movie?

Disney's Frozen Is Not At All What It Seems...

...And I'm so relieved.

When the first teaser came out for Frozen, I thought it looked... well, bad.

Then the trailer came up.

I really felt I couldn't get a solid grasp on what kind of movie this would be. So I wrote it off. And I honestly didn't care to research any further. Let me be clear, Disney did a piss poor job advertising this movie. But... they also made a really great animated feature.

First, let me appeal to all of the Disney fans out there... this is a musical. You hear that? The trailers somehow managed to snip and dodge any of the musical moments (which take up maybe 65% of the thing) and that's why they felt so all over the place. Now most of the songs were a bit too pop for my taste, but that didn't hinder my enjoyment. And while I was a big fan of Tangled, their last epic fairytale musical, I think Frozen is better. Why?

Well, it's just so damned refreshing to have two... count 'em... two real and relatable female leads. And a little bit of that Disney magic certainly doesn't hurt. In seeking story concepts from classic fairytale authors like Hans Christian Andersen, Disney is managing to stay true to their core fanbase. This is something I would have denied a few years back. But they are still managing to make movies that remind me of my childhood.

I think this movie is a success for Disney in a place where Pixar failed drastically. When Brave came out, I was excited but scared. After all, Cars 2 had just flumixed me into submission and suddenly I wasn't sure I could trust the studio anymore. Then Brave utterly destroyed my perception of Pixar as an unbeatable creative machine. It was just so incredibly flawed. The worst element being that this was supposed to be their mother-daughter story...??? So here comes Frozen a few years later with an actually compelling sister-sister relationship that not only drives the film, it is the film. Great Job Disney!

However, I could have done with less of that snowman.

Does Delivery Man Deliver?

Ummmm...

Delivery Man is a somewhat annoying movie. In some scenes it wowed me with legitimately authentic human moments while in others it just went for cheap laughs and somehow managed to fail at those. It's a schizophrenic, middle-of-the-pack movie with an excellent heart and concept. It's just too bad the team couldn't figure out that they weren't really making a comedy.

Vince Vaughn was fine. He didn't do too much of the Vince Vaughn thing, though whenever he brought it out I did want to call foul. What was most surprisingly disappointing was the performance by Chris Pratt. I've come to really enjoy his choices over the years. So to see him come off so fake was difficult for me. But then I honestly believe he was poorly cast in that role. At no point did I agree that he could have four kids and be a lawyer (albeit a second-rate one).

Essentially, the meat and potatoes of Delivery Man get lost in weird and unnecessary ad-lib type scenes. And in the end this constant flaw blocks it from being a good movie. I guess I need to watch Starbuck now to see if it's any better.

The Awesome Gravity Tie-In... Aningaaq

I love this!

That the Cuaróns thought to show us this little bit of someone else's story that directly connects to Gravity. It's even cooler when the connection is made that this person exists on Earth, but their situation is also maddeningly frustrating. Beautiful that Jonás and Alfonso Cuarón found another compelling way to work together.

They are a very exciting father/son tandem. And I dearly hope to see more from the two of them.

Lonesome Is The Best Way To Describe The Grays Of Nebraska

It's interesting to see how Alexander Payne chooses his themes. After his big time success with the "paradise isn't paradise" theme in The Descendants, he turned his focus to middle America and a location that has never once been referred to as a paradise of any kind.

Nebraska was a weird but engrossing journey. At the outset, it seemed as if the majority of the characters were going to be rather stubborn, intensely unlikable people. But as the film delved deeper, I came to understand at least two or three of those people and why it is they had become the way they were and lived the lives they had lived. There was a clearcut separation in my mind of what was a good person in this world and what was a bad person. And there seemed to be an incredibly painful, but awkwardly fulfilling message buried just below the surface that this place will take everyone sooner or later and there really is no getting out, but if you can hold on to who you really are, perhaps in the end you'll be rewarded with a more caring family than you thought you could know.

Granted all of this takes time to develop and I may be reading farther into this than what is necessary. But Nebraska flowed so strangely and gave me a lot of time within the stillness of its frames to ponder why the filmmaker wanted me to see these moments. While there seemed nothing but intense loneliness in the beginning something blossomed from that feeling. Something almost beautiful.

This was a strange role for Will Forte. Strange in that he didn't play strange at all. Usually I expect to see him do something out there and crazy, so it was nice and different to see him take a turn at something more down to earth and sincere. Bruce Dern was excellent and after seeing this it's uncanny to me that I haven't gotten to see him in a starring role in my lifetime. But when you're the guy who killed John Wayne in a movie... what do you expect? June Squibb was fun to watch albeit, we don't get as much of a chance with her character. She seemed to be more loudmouthed than anyone else in the film, yet I can honestly say I believed her. I've known of people like that. And I was happy to see Bob Odenkirk in limited time. Once again, it was strange to see him playing such a withdrawn character. Lastly, Stacy Keach did an excellent job as the silky terrible antagonist.

Alexander Payne's a strange director. I feel like every one of his films has been made with the intention of drawing as much awkward tension out of the audience as possible. Yet, somehow, I find myself appreciating that. His films are almost always great and they always seem to be making a point that is, at heart, greater than any one film can be. So I commend him for that.

Nebraska creates a black and white, wishy-washy world filled with vistas of unrecognized beauty.

Some Basic Problem Solving In The Event You've Already Read Some Other Free Birds Reviews...

Yup. I finally caught Free Birds because I like animated films and I had a small lingering hope that it wouldn't be as bad as the critics said it was.

Funny. It wasn't so bad. Sure there were a few jokes here and there that didn't work. But there were just as many that did. And I know for a fact the movie kept kids interested.

I guess the most annoying thing was the useless repetition forced in for the Jake character. Yet on the other hand, the president's daughter kept spouting hilarious zingers... The concept felt fresh enough for Thanksgiving. And this was one animated film that felt like it wanted to incorporate a nostalgia from the 90s without being overly topical. Essentially what I'm saying is it didn't fall into the traps that say early Dreamworks flicks like Shrek frequently would. I think there's an offbeat chance kids could continue watching this in November as a rare event movie for a holiday that almost never gets recognized by Hollywood.

Now onto the problem solving:

One critic called the title unoriginal. Well I'm sorry. That's just looking for problems. In fact, the title Free Birds seems to fit this film perfectly. Consider that these Turkeys... an American staple... are looking to get themselves off the menu. They have grown up essentially behind bars and simply want their basic turkey rights.

Another critic decided to create a mountain out of a mole hill by stating that the turkeys of the past were more or less racially insensitive since they wore old school tribal war paint similar to Native American patterns of the time. Well that's just ridiculous. These turkeys are native to America. And since they are in a war with the new settlers, the choice feels natural. If I were writing a script about Turkeys back during the first Thanksgiving I can honestly say my mind would jump to that conclusion as well... Native American turkeys would probably make it into the script.

For all the hooing and hawing the critics are shouting, Free Birds really isn't a bad film. It's not perfect... and I sure hope it doesn't stop kids from wanting to join their families for Thanksgiving dinner. But it is fun. There are enough things about it that work not to warrant the 18% it's been given on Rotten Tomatoes. And quite honestly, the voice cast is awesome!