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.
No comments:
Post a Comment