Well not a great week for films. One really bad. One bad one. One that is confusing.
COLOSSAL
Director and Screenwriter Nacho Vigalondo
Starring Anne Hathaway; Jason Sudeikis; and Austin Stowell
Critics are loving this film.
Maybe I missed something.
Maybe it is just so deep I have to give it some time.
I gave it some time.....and.....this film is just odd.
Hathaway (Gloria) finds out that the Godzilla like monster in Seoul mirrors her moves. All this is happening after she moved back to her town.
Then we soon find out Sudeikis (Oscar) has the same power as a robot. Oscar is Gloria's childhood friend. We later learn he is an angry asshole.
Then we find out this all manifest from a childhood lightning bolt and a school project.
Points:
-Well points awarded for Vigalondo, just for trying something different. It is nothing you have never seen before that is for sure.
-Points for Hathaway for jumping in to this low budget film which makes no sense. And she give a very good performance. Walking a line between confusion/anger/fear/and kindness.
Negatives?
-I cannot figure out what the heck this was all about. I am going with a M Knight theory they have had these powers since the lightning bolt. But all in all I am just confused.
It is interesting ...I guess...I would give it 1 1/2 stars out of 5 for Colossal...I almost want to see it again for understanding. It is worth a look when made available for home viewing, just to see if you can figure it out. I will throw in another theory....maybe they are not alive and are ghost!!! Still, like I said. it is a mess, my movies need to be cleaner...cleaner endings.
THE CIRCLE
Director James Ponsoldt
Screenplay by James Ponsoldt and Dave Eggers
Based on the books by Dave Eggers
Starring Emma Watson; Elar Coltrane; Glenne Hendry; Bill Paxton; and Tom Hanks
Emma Watson plays Mae, she gets hired at a big Google like company called The Circle. While being excited about this wonderful new job she begins to realize there are some irregularities at this company.
Well how fast can one fall???!! As you may have seen in my wonderful halfway through the year best and worst blog, this was one of my worst films of the year.
Riding the high of Beauty And The Beast's success The Circle come to theaters. And well..it is bad.
There are a lot of problems with this movie:
-The film basically tries to create drama about Big Brother watching and the dangers it can create as Big Brother expands its grasp on your own life. When in reality it is already happening. Which makes the film seem dated, and with absolutely no drama, They try to make Bailey (Tom Hanks-Who is only in this film for like 10 minutes) and Stenton (Patton Oswalt) as the bad guys. However in reality they are just running a business that everyone else is doing already. They are just expanding. Yes there are ramifications from what their company is doing. But that is a slippery slope. Like blaming Facebook for that Facebook murder. Then it is up to the public to make that decision of how much they want a company to poke in to their personal business, by not being part of the company. So in reality...aren't we the bad guys? Again it is dated.
-Emma Watson is just bad here. I do not know if she is just miscast or a victim of a dated and ridiculous script. She is breaking by constantly shifting from a British twang to an American twang, I often thought...Where is she from??!! At one point she goes kayaking because that is what she does. However it looks like she has never rowed a kayak before. In fact she looks silly.
Speaking of silly, the script has her in the middle of the night stealing a kayak and going kayaking without a life vest...I have no idea why!!! Of course she runs into a storm...just odd and silly...because we are being sold that she is intelligent.
-Karen Gilan plays Annie, Mae's best friend, who helps Mae get a job at The Circle. We watch her slowly have a breakdown. And only Mae seems to care. Annie looks like a mess, no one helps but they help Mae with her parents medical condition. Really? This girl looks like a mess and no one is reaching out??!!
I can keep going on but this film is just an odd dated mess. I know the book was popular, so I imagine a lot of the book subplots were left out of the movie. 1 star out of 5 for The Circle. The one star was for Bill Paxton in one of his final roles...still proving he shined until the end.
GOING IN STYLE
Directed by Zach Braff
Screenplay by Theodore Melfi
Based on story by Edward Cannon
Starring Morgan Freeman; Alan Arkin; Michael Caine; Ann Margaret; and Joey King
In a remake of the 1979 classic, three elderly friends decide to rob a bank to recoup money they felt were unjustly taken from them.
The good:
-All three lead actors have great chemistry.
-I really like Joey King. I have seen her in many films, and here as Michael Caine's granddaughter she shines. I just wish she was more involved.
-I like how they modernized the script by putting the banks in the evil position.
-Matt Dillon as Detective Hammer!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes!! Where have you been Matt Dillon???!!!
However there is bad:
-The film, which comes in at a short one hour and thirty six minutes oddly seems...long. I think it comes across as quiet. The good scenes are the ones we saw in the trailer. So nothing jumps out at you. It may be because Braff does Art House Films and his films just lay there for emotion and quiet laughs. This may be his first big film, and you can tell. Again the film just lays there. What is suppose to be funny is just.... not. What is suppose to be emotional,it is just.... not. The film seems to keep missing a tone.
-The script. It just seems lazy. Highlighted by the worst police investigating, and unbelievable police work, in a film in a long time. No spoilers here.
2 1/2 stars out of 5 for Going in Style. Worth a look for home viewing, you could do worse.
From the shadows as always thanks for your time.
No comments:
Post a Comment