New Releases For Home Viewing This Week: Two really Good Films

ME BEFORE YOU

Directed by Thea Sharrock
Screenplay and Novel by Jo Jo Moyes
Starring Emilia Clarke and Sam Clafin



Lou Clarke (Emilia Clarke) takes a job as the caregiver for Will Traynor (Sam Claflin) who is Paralyzed.

I read the book. I had to get that out of the way. I always prefer to see a film before reading the book. I think if you watch the film then read the book, you let the book expand on the film. However, like noted, I read the wonderful book. Which makes it difficult to review this film without thinking what they left out. I will be honest without giving out spoilers with a review that will mention the book when need be.
Right away I will tell you I liked the film, I loved the book. I like the premise of the film and the thought process of the book being............. attack life.
Where did the movie miss the mark making it just likable?
Lou Clark. In the book she is struggling with life outside of her job/relationship with Will Traynor.
The relationship with her sister was written out. The deeper struggle with her boyfriend. The struggle with not having a place in her own home. All written out. The maze scene was a real deep situation in the book also written out, and that told us where Clark is coming from. I feel it is important that the struggles are shown and it was a bad decision. Why? It adds to the ending. The meaning of where she is at the end (no spoilers). Where she is, compared to where she came from, not financially, but it is part of her growth. Big mistake. What we get is Clarke playing Lou as an odd happy go lucky person which comes across in the beginning as annoying and her eyebrows almost become a character in the film.
So now I compared the film to the book, How was this film standing all by itself?

If I was in charge of the movie world (I hope you vote for me) I would make sure that Thea Sharrock will never direct another film. How can she take this really good story and make a shockingly bad decision to add a soundtrack to this film????!!!! At some point she thought....I do not think this film brings enough emotion....lets add some sad/or happy songs!! UGH!!! It was eye rolling because the music was not needed. Maybe just trust the words and add a score!!! Again UGH!! There is a reason why the book was popular. The page!! The feelings coming off the page. Trust!!

Yes I know most of this review has been negative. You need to know there is a lot to like. In fact there is a lot to like.
The heart of the story is still there.
The acting in this film is wonderful. The chemistry between Clarke and Claflin is spot on.
Claflin has a difficult role of acting without moving which makes it a struggle for him to project emotion. He is very good.
As for Clarke. With a film covering tough subjects she does do a very good job at adding levity and humor to this movie. It is funny, that in the beginning, I thought....this is not the Clark from the book, however as the story went on she grew on me. Not as the Clark from the book but as a different Clark, the character in this movie. Which is okay, she became her own Clark.

One last note: So I am watching this film and thinking, that gentleman playing Patrick, Clark's boyfriend, I have seen him somewhere before. Where? I know I have seen him before. Where? Where? So I stay for the credits and ...WOW! Patrick was played by Matthew Lewis!! Yes Neville Longbottom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He looks so.................UN-NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM!!! It shocked me lol!!

Well 4 out of 5 stars for Me Before You. You have to try, I know it is hard, to approach without the book in your head. Clarke and Clafin are wonderful together. It does deliver the emotion and laughs that you come for. I hope this film did well enough so they can also do Me After You.

JUNGLE BOOK

Directed by John Favreau
Screenplay by Justin Marks
Based on the book by Rudyard Kipling
Starring Neil Sethi




Jungle Book You know the story.

This film is gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful!!
The film does not veer to much from the cartoon we all know and love. In fact it is the same plot minus the same ending. It even has Bare Necessities and I Wanna Be Like You (it does not have the March Of The Elephants).
So you know the plot.
Amazingly there is only one actor and that is Seth as Mowgli. He performs wonderfully against nothing if you think about it. He is by himself against a green screen I am sure. I hear they put him with Bill Murray a couple times but he is not a bear!! The kid is real good and I hope they remember him at Oscar time.
Have to say great voice work by Bill Murray (Baloo); Ben Kingsley (Bagheera); Idris Elba (Shere Kahn); Christopher Walken (King Louie/with a little tip of the cap to the cowbell by the way); Lupita Nyong'O  (Raksha). They do a great job at voicing emotions. With help from wonderful CGI work.
And finally the score by John Debney is fantastic, it sets the tone nonstop through out the film

WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!
This film is violent. Death and killing. Scary jungle scenes. I would say 8 and over. If your kids get frightened still by the flying monkeys in The Wizard Of Oz, they will be scared here.

4 out of 5 stars for this Beautiful Jungle Book. I just wished they would have done something different in this remake. Still see it, yes you know the story but this is gorgeous looking.

From the shadows as usual thanks for your time.

New Film Review: Don't Think Twice

DON'T THINK TWICE

Directed By Mike Birbiglia
Screenplay by Mike Birbiglia
Starring Mike Birbiglia; Gillian Jacobs; Kate Micucci; Tami Sagher; Kegan Michael Key; and Chris Gethard



One of the best films of the year.
There are movies that are made for multi millions of dollars knowing full well it will be a blockbuster film or even a blockbuster failure.
Then there are smaller films that have award season goals. That is not bad. I tend to like those films because they seem to be better written. I also can go the other way with them because they tend to be depressing.
Then there are films like Don't Think Twice, that are low budget, and are so small that it falls under the radar of award season because it does not have the advertisement push and such (See also Sing Street). However they get made because along the way a producer saw a nice funny quiet story.

Here come Don't Think Twice, one of the best films of the year.

There is not one thing I can find wrong here.
Directing and the screenplay and even the acting by Mike Birgbiglia is all spot on and wonderful.
The film follows a small comedy troupe and close nit friends called The Commune. When one member gets the ultimate job to be on Weekend Live, jealousy and egos start to find its way into the troupe but also into the friendships.
The script is funny touching and thought provoking. Mainly because this type of situation does not just happen in acting/comedy, it happens in the real world. When a co-worker/ friend gets a promotion. When friends go in opposite directions. It is real.
The known star here is Key, But he steps back and lets the other actors shine and they do.
They are all great performances however Gillian Jacobs as Samantha shine above them all.
She is amazing here spotlighted by her last performance on the stage for The Commune. Tears and laughter all at the same time. She is great and one of the best female supporting performances of the year. However like noted in the beginning, it may be even too small for Oscar voters.

Small yes. It does not take away from this emotional yet funny fantastic film. I wanted to see more, I did not want it to end.

5 out of 5 stars for Don't Think Twice. Small but still you have to find it.


From the shadows as always thanks for your time.

New Film Review: Don't Breathe

Don't Breathe

Directed by Fede Alvarez
Screenplay by Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues
Starring Jane Levy; Dylan Minnette; Daniel Zovatto; and Stephen Lang




A couple plot holes (Worst police investigation ever). Many times I want to scream at the screen move, stop staring, move!!!!!!!!!!!

However.....I can give that all a slight pass. Why? Because this film delivers what you go to this movie to see or experience. Scares. Tension. Shocking reveals. Crazy twists It does everything right.

It has wonderful acting highlighted by Jane Levy as Rocky. She is a very good actress (See Suburgatory in which she was better than the scripts she worked with), who is in almost every scene here and she really sucks you in as you feel her fear.
Also Stephen Lang as The Blind Man is spot on. This film does not work without a good bad guy, and in a very difficult part to play, Lang is believable and almost scary pathetic. Because of his size he almost seems like a modern Michael Myers.

Negative and a big one:

This will not be a spoiler because it is the first scene you see. Lang dragging Levy down the street.
Who made that stupid decision!! It reveals.................well.......what is to come......if that makes sense.
No spoilers here so I will not go further.

Like I noted this film delivers what it promises, it is almost exhausting. So Tense!!
4 stars out of 5 for Don't Breathe. Fun, scary film.

By the way, I started thinking this film has a lot in common with Hell Or High water the film I also reviewed today, in that it has us cheering for people to steal money. It is not theirs!!! Yes the characters in both films have a very good reason to want the money but....it is not yours. Funny how films can pull at our heart strings and have us cheer on people to do the wrong things.

Well from the shadows as always thanks for your time.

New Film Review: Hell Or High Water

HELL OR HIGH WATER

Directed by David Mackenzie
Screenplay by Taylor Sheridan
Starring Jeff Bridges; Chris Pine; Ben Foster; and Gil Birmingham





Wow. After a summer full of so-so films, or just okay or better than okay films this shows up in August. One of the best films of the year period.
I think about films and TV shows that show bank heists, that the viewers seem to always cheer on the bank robbers. Even here, with Jeff Bridges as Marcus Hamilton, a pit-bull of a Sheriff who is doing the right thing. Even here with Hamilton's side kick Alberto Parker played wonderfully by Gil Birmingham as he puts up with Hamilton's off color jokes. Even here with Ben Foster, in another of his great performances, as a wacky unlikable bank robber Tanner Howard who shoots before he thinks. So why do we cheer for the bad guy to get away with a bank robbery? This film touches on it. Here in modern times especially, banks are looked upon as the bad guy. This movie touches on this often, and that makes the film even more interesting. We as viewers are kind of split in our emotions. We love a successful bank robbery but we also want Hamilton to catch the robbers, to be successful as he winds down his career.

It is well acted, in fact all four actors deserve consideration during awards season. Maybe the best performance of Chris Pines career. He is like us, he knows he is doing wrong but has to push forward with his plan to rob the banks. The same banks that he feels are doing his family wrong and in the long run will help his said family.

The script by David Mackenzie is one of the best if not the best of the year. Kind of a western....kind of not. Kind of a story about the economic plight of land owners in the south, yet kinda not. It has you thinking to the end.

If I had a complaint I thought the ending was too open. Yes I want that final showdown. However maybe the last conversation is all the showdown that was needed. Even that conversation had me thinking. No spoiler reviews as always.
So.......before I end this. The best male performance of the year so far by Jeff Bridges. He is smart, yet rude, yet obnoxious, yet a little sad. He mumbles like he is always saying his thoughts. He is great, just great here.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars for one of the best, interesting, exciting, well written films of the year. Find it, see it.


From the shadows as always thanks for your time.

New Releases For Home Viewing: Including Nice Guys!!

THE NICE GUYS

Directed by Shane Black
Screenplay by Shane Black and Anthony Bagarozzi
Starring Russell Crowe; Ryan Gosling; and Angourie Rice



Holland (Ryan Gosling), who is a kind of a swindler and a kind of a showy private eye. Jackson (Russell Crowe) a kind of sloppy tough guy private eye. They team up to try to find the reason for the suicide of Misty Mountains a porn star in 1977, and the connection  her suicide may relate to some other person they are looking for.

Right to the point. This film is very funny and entertaining. One of the best acted and written film of the year so far.

What works?
Black and Bargozzi's script. They do a great job walking that tightrope between comedy and action and mystery.
Shane Black as the director, brings us into the 70's. A time where there are no cellphones, so investigations meant a lot of leg work. Also a time where parties where way too many drugs are being used, and trying to get information from people at said party is a job within itself.

Then we come to some fantastic performances:
Crowe is wonderful playing Jackson. He is overweight and almost downtrodden. He is a big star who is okay playing the straight-man to Gosling. Gosling as Holland is so over the top funny as a single dad and investigator. He is a caring father and at the same time an awful father. He straddles the line of being almost smart to being just comical. Crowe and Gosling have the best chemistry in a comedy action film maybe since Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon movies.

Final note ...... Angourie Rice as Holly, Holland's daughter!!!! Wow, she seems to steal many scenes from the two leads. Lets face it, that is saying something when she is acting with two of Hollywood's best actors. She was so spot on I had to look her up to see what else she has done because she comes across almost fearless acting with these two stars. She really has not been in many films to scream about. She is a find!!

The film gets a little loose and odd at the end but I still loved it. 4 1/2 stars out of 5 stars for The Nice Guys. Just a fun time in the theater. Plus, they left it open for a sequel.

As always thanks for your time from the shadows.


THE HUNTSMAN AND THE WINTER'S WAR

Directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
Screenplay by Evan Spiliotopoulos and Craig Mazin
Starring Chris Hemsworth; Charlize Theron; Jessica Chastain; and Emily Blunt



A prequel to Snow White And The Huntsman.

I was pleasantly surprised by Snow White And The Huntsman. So I came to Winters War with hope.

The cast as you can tell is awesome.
Hemsworth is pretty much playing Thor.
Theron playing Raveena again, and just like in Snow White she is fantastic. She again looks like she is having a blast in this evil part.
Blunt playing against type as the angry Queen Freya is very good.
Jessica Chastain as Sara, playing a bad ass fighter was ....a stretch.

So you have a very good cast what about the screenplay?
The screenplay has many holes. In fact there is one point where, I am not sure, but I think it was no longer a prequel but a sequel. I was lost a bit. The script sometimes feels like they made it up as they went on. Now I am not saying this film is not exciting, it just seemed to be kinda cold like the Ice queen. It has some nice battles but I am getting tired of mortals doing things that are unrealistic on films. Like strange double back flips to kick two bad guys. Really? Especially when it is not necessary. I just feel like I have seen this film before. Or these battles before.

3 stars out of 5 for Huntsman and the Winter's War


MAGGIE'S PLAN

Directed by Rebecca Miller
Screenplay by Rebecca Miller
Based On The Play By: Karen Ridaldi
Starring: Greta Gerwig; Ethan Hawke; and Julianne Moore




Maggie (Gretta Gerwig) ends up in a relationship with a married man, John (Ethan Hawke).
Later, they are married., but in a strange twist, she eventually decides she wants to return him to his former wife Georgette (Julianne Moore).

I missed this release last week but better late then never.

I will come clean right away, I am a huge fan of Greta Gerwig (though I would love to see her break out and play a different character type. Less quirky.). So maybe my blinders on, but I really liked this film. Not love, but really liked.

Great performances all around:
Greta as Maggie, as noted, love her. Here she spot on as Maggie. A little bit soft but you can see her being exasperated without saying a word, which is key to the part. She also comes across as quietly intelligent, which is also important because she is making moves/decisions that John does not see coming. With all that being said she is spot on funny here with what she is trying to pull off.

Ethan Hawke as John. Is always good in "Talky" films (See Linklater's Before /After films), so he is perfectly cast. He is self absorbed and yet a little aloof and clueless of what is going on around him.

Julianne Moore plays Georgette the first wife. Now she is not in the film that often but when she is she absolutely shines. Lets face it how can she not she is freaking Julianne Moore!!! With an odd maybe European accent she is outwardly tough and a little bit of a hard-ass but as the film goes on you see subtly that the toughness is a little bit of a facade. Note...a little bit.

The screen play by Miller is just okay. We have the plot, however the plot is so one dimensional it kinda of feels like it is almost a shell of what it could be. We do not dig deep into character development. What we see is what we get. In fact Bill Hader and Maya Rudolph have small parts in this film, however we really do not know much about them. I understand they are there to give some comedy relief, but again it is just a shell of character development. The positive is that the script rolls along at a good entertaining pace, coming in at 90 minutes. It just tells the story and gets in and gets out. The film moves through time quickly making the it almost more quirky, lets face it it is an interesting and odd script.

One quick note,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Ida Rohatyn as Lily makes her film debut. Clearly she is the front runner for cutest little kid in a film this year. You can see her in the still up top in the trailer.

3 1/2 stars out of 5 for Maggie's Plan. Well acted with a different kind of story. It is a fun quick watch.

From the shadows as always thanks for your time.

New Film Review: Kubo And The Two Strings

KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS

Directed by Travis Knight
Screenplay Marc Haimes and Chris Butler
Based on the story by Shannon Tindle and Marc Haimes
Voice work by Art Parkinson; Charlize Theron; Rooney Mara;and Matthew McConaughey



This is an odd film.
First lets get this out of the way. The voice work is really good here. Especially by Art Parkinson who voices Kubo.
Second .............The look is fantastic with a mix of stop action and computer animation.

Now the plot. It steals a page out of the Disney book, you need a parent or parents to die.
Then you follow Kubo on his journey to retrieve his father armor.
Kubo is such a good kid which really makes this work. What does not make it work is a plot that can be confusing and odd  dealing with mystical strings and paper ....whatever. I think kids will be really confused. And....the evil sisters....are really creepy....not as much scary as creepy...which may freak out kids. It just seems like the story is in sections broken up way too often having to explain things. It is almost like the story or visuals could not tell the story so they felt like they had to stop and explain constantly. Very choppy. It is a shame I really liked Kubo and I cared about him but I was losing interest in back stories.

So great voice work. Great look. The story is interesting and magical just not that exciting, and the ending which is I guess is suppose to be uplifting seems...blah. 3 1/2 stars out of 5 for Kubo And The Two Strings.

From the shadows as always thanks for your time.

New Film Review: War Dogs

WAR DOGS

Directed by Todd Phillips
Screenplay by Stephen Chin; Todd Phillipsp; and Jason Smilovic
Based on the article by Guy Lawson
Starring Jonah Hill; Anna De Armas; and Miles Teller





It is crazy that this is a true story. It is so crazy and the only way this movie could work is that the actors have to be believable. And ...................................

Jonah Hill as Efraim Diveroli. His character is self involved and edging on crazy. Jonah plays him spot on with some humor thrown in.
Miles Teller as David Packous. He is desperately trying to get away from his massage business, however his desperation makes him blind to Efraim's greed. Miles is pretty good in this but I really do not buy him as a person bossing around gun runners and warehouse workers in war zone countries.
Adding to Teller's problem is his girlfriend/wife(?) Iz, played by Ana de Armas. Miles and Ana have absolutely no chemistry. We are suppose to feel for the couple as they struggle with his job. We do not, it is a weak link in the film. Also, not to be mean, but Arama....cannot act. She is bad. Okay that was mean.

I found the plot fun and shocking and entertaining. I mean they say it is all true even though it sounds unbelievable, I imagine they embellished some parts to make it funny especially the end with Henry Girard (Played by Bradley Cooper who is barely in the film).

3 1/2 stars out of 5 for this over the top true story. Some critics say they push the comedy, true, but is worth a look just because it is so far out there.



From the shadows as always thanks for your time.