GHOSTBUSTERS
Directed by Paul Feig
Screenplay by Kate Dippold and Paul Feig
Starring; Melissa McCarthy; Kate McKinnon; Leslie Jones; Kristen Wiig; and Chris Hemsworth
I often critisized trailers on this blog for misleading the paying movie goers.
Well....the Ghostbusters trailers shockingly goes the other way. Lets face it, the trailers for Ghostbusters were dreadful. They were stunningly bad. So, I went in to the theater with...well not much hope. Boy was I wrong.This film was pretty good!! Stunned!!
What went right:
The script/main characters. The women were not silly imbeciles, all four were really smart strong women which I loved.
The casting. Well you already know Mellissa Mccarthy who plays Abby Yates and Kristen Wiig who plays Erin Gilbert were going to be good, so I will spotlight Kate McKinnon and Chris Hemsworth . McKinnon who plays Jillian Holtzman steals the movie. Kate is hilarious as she spouts out her lines. Her physical comedy is fantastic. When you see this film, watch her while other people are talking. You will agree with me, she steals this film. I read a review and this reviewer said she is annoying. She was suppose to be!! She is cra-cra!!
Chris Hemsworth, whom in the just okay remake of Vacation shocked me by how funny he was during his 10 minutes on screen. Here he has more time to be funny. He is great as a stumbling bumbling Admin. Assist. Laugh out loud funny.
Cameos: I loved the cameos by most of the living cast members, and the cameos did not disrupt the story. It was a nice tip of the cap to ones who paved the road.
Faults:
The script/plot. There seems to be a lot of describing to us what is going on. There is a bad guy and maybe I missed it but there is no reason given for why he wants to do all this. No background...nothing. Just odd, we are suppose to think he is just being evil to be evil I guess. No revenge ...just evil.
Also the film gets a little wacky in the last 20 minutes with many plot holes. Wait a minute, Jillian created a nuclear weapon without telling anyone???!! Obviously it was thrown in to find a way to close the film. In other words they had trouble closing.
I thought Leslie Jone's Patty, who was the NY history expert of the group, did not seem to have much to do but almost do play by play.
3 1/2 out of 5 stars. Is it one of the best films of them year? Probably not. However it may be one of the funniest films of the year. You want to laugh, and you get plenty of laughs, four of the funniest women on screen right now. I think it is okay for the whole family(10 and up). Not often there is a good film that is not animated for the whole family. You want to see the battle with ghost, you get plenty of that. The film delivers what you want. It just had trouble closing a bit. Stay through the credits.
I mean who you gonna call anyway?
THE LEGEND OF TARZAN
Director David Yates
Screenplay by Adam Cozad and Craig Brewer
Based on the charachters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Starring Alexander Skarsgard; Christoph Waltz; Samuel Jackson; and Margo Robbie
This film does a lot right.
David Yates, like in the Harry Potter films, does a very good job, mixing in the CGI with real location and sets. He may have gone a little to heavy with CGI here, I would have liked to have seen a little more real location because Africa can be a beautiful location. Still it all looks good.
Acting: Every one is pitch perfect. Jackson, as George Washington Williams, is pretty much the viewer, our eyes. He takes us on the trip and watches in awe at everything like we do.
Waltz as the bad guy. Well you know he is a great bad guy. I have to wonder if he is getting tired of playing the bad guy. It almost seems like he is now type cast as a bad guy.
Margo Robbie as Jane. Beautiful as always and playing a tough strong woman which I found believable.
Skarsgard as Tarzan is absolutely perfect. He sure looks them part.
The scriptwriters made some real odd choices.
The story was real slow in development.
They decided to show Tarzan's history in flashbacks. They also showed Tarzan's and Jane's history in quick flashbacks. I did not like that at all. It broke up the story that was happening in real time and I wanted more backstory!! We just see a little bit of how the relationship between Jane and Tarzan developed. In fact I think they left some backstory on the cutting room floor, because they had conversations about some parts of a story line that we never saw or have any basis on why.
I also felt the character of Tarzan was more of a superhero. Which was unnecessary. Tarzan that I read in books was not superhero he was smart, one with nature, which made him dangerous.
Logistics. There are many logistic plot holes in this film. I can stretch my belief often but here it was tough. Per example...Characters on a boat on a river and somehow pop up for a fight deep in the jungle 5 minutes later, Did they fly???!!!!
3 1/2 stars out of 5 for The Legend Of Tarzan. Great acting. Lots of action. That is what you expect, that is what you go to see. You will not be disappointed. Not much development of character...which I think is a missed opportunity, because this is based on a great character in literature, who was not a superhero, but just a man raised in the jungle by apes.
From the shadows as always thanks for your time as always.
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