Shop Talk
By BOP Staff
January 29, 2014
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Felix Quinonez: American Hustle - I loved it. The movie was filled with great performances and it was pretty hilarious at points. It was very entertaining and I'm glad it is doing so well at the box office.
Desolation of Smaug - Even though I don't consider this a great movie by any means, I thought it was a vast improvement from the first installment. This one was a lot more entertaining and, unlike the last one, it didn't feel like you sat through an hour of nothing before the movie even starts. And of course Smaug was visually amazing. Benedict Cumberbatch was awesome in the role. Also I know a lot has been said about Evangeline Lilly's character and the fact that she wasn't even in the book but even though that's true I thought she was a great addition. And I think Lilly is awesome so I'm all for seeing her in any movie.
Gravity - Visually it was amazing. And the movie itself was great. I really enjoyed it. I think the comparison has been made before but I feel that it was a similar experience to watching Buried, with Ryan Reynolds. I thought it was just really intense and I found myself literally holding my breath at points. I really loved Sandra Bullock in it and I hope she gets some Oscar recognition for her performance. One thing that bothered me, and I don't think I heard anyone else mention this, but I found Clooney to be really annoying in the movie. I felt like he was just being himself and I know a lot of people think he's super charming but I found him to be really, really annoying. I really just wanted him to shut up. But otherwise I loved the film.
Her - I really wanted to love this movie but instead I just liked it. I thought it was obviously well written and smart but I just couldn't connect to it on an emotional level. No matter how well Scarlett Johansson acted, I just couldn't get over the fact that it was a voice over the phone. And I knew that going in but for some reason I couldn't get emotionally invested in their relationship. And I don't want to go into any spoilers but there were some scenes that I'm sure were meant to be important and might have seemed really good in the script but in execution, were just silly.
Thor: The Dark world - I thought it was great, way better than Iron Man 3. I liked it about the same as the first Thor. I thought it was fun, had a lot of action and it felt like more of a fantasy movie than your typical superhero movie. The only complaint I have, and this is to be expected in a movie that has so much mythology going on, but there was A LOT of exposition. You have to sit through a lot of Anthony Hopkins speeches before things get going. But once that's out of the way, the movie is very strong.
Jason Barney: The only film that I went to the theaters to see recently was Anchorman 2, and I was pleasantly surprised. The beginning of the film, when all of the characters are reuniting was fun, the middle kinda dragged, and the ending was very good. Well worth the price of the ticket and very entertaining.
Max Braden: Over Thanksgiving I went to see Frozen with my family. I had very low expectations of it because the trailer made it look cheap to me. I was really surprised at how good it was. Now, I won't say this is the best Disney animated movie of the recent productions as many are saying (I like Tangled more, and maybe even Brave), but I think what really worked for Frozen was that there were no weak points - it was good in every department. I happen to favor the "In Summer" song the most, but man that Let it Go performance was a hell of a power ballad. After Frozen I saw Anchorman 2. I don't think Anchorman is in my top three favorite Will Ferrell movies, but I do like the completely absurd and inappropriate dialogue. Anchorman 2 delivered on that again (like "chicken of the cave" and Brick's shadow). The shark bit was dumb and I won't go back to Anchorman 2 as a classic, but it provided some good laughs. I also saw American Hustle. Despite some fantastic advertising, I've seen some weak buzz come out of the theater. I think that's due to its slow pacing. I saw it as almost dreamlike. I wouldn't pick the movie as a top Picture contender, but I did think the acting was great (except for an occasional De Niro-esque delivery from Bale).
Some movies I've seen on DVD:
All is Bright - This looks like a holiday movie because it takes place over Christmas, and you could even make a case for some silver lining at the end, but wow this is a depressing movie. Giamatti starts as a broke ex-con and nothing changes. This movie made me hate Christmas.
The To Do List - Odd that a teenage scoring movie like American Pie can hit it big but a female version like this is an afterthought. Aubrey Plaza is funny on her own but the best moments are her versus her sister played by Rachel Bilson.
The Internship - Typical Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn predictable comedy. Josh Gad had some great, brief moments.
Violet and Daisy - It's supposed to be shocking that a couple of sweet teenage girls are killers. Okay, then what? The rest of the movie just drags.
The Way Way Back - Allison Janney made me want to quit this movie before the first 10 minutes but I hung in because Sam Rockwell makes everything great, and he delivered.
We're the Millers - As good as Jennifer Aniston looked as a naughty brunette in Horrible Bosses, she was utterly dull as a stripper in this movie. The kissing scene was funny, though.
2 Guns - Mark Wahlberg made this movie fun when it should have just been an average action flick.
Elysium - There are some cool visuals and Sharlto Copley makes for an intimidating villain, but this movie doesn't match up to District 9.
The Lifeguard - This movie was released to DVD almost unannounced, which is too bad because it means people are missing a pretty good movie. Kristen Bell's character isn't exactly respectable, but I think she's totally understandable.
The Hunt - This is one of those movies that is well done but you never really want to watch again.
Paranoia - Even if the A list talent was good here, and they weren't, Liam Hemsworth just isn't strong enough to perform on this level as a lead yet.
Savannah - Jim Caviezel gets to play a slightly more animated role than he does on Person of Interest. It's an interesting bit of Southern history but the unintended takeaway I got from the movie wasn't about a man who communed with nature, it was just a bunch of complaining about the good old days of the South.
Sweetwater - A western about a religious zealot would normally be a movie I skip, but Ed Harris really delivered a wild and eclectic character.
Planes - I loved Cars, but this seemed like a Saturday afternoon cartoon version of the series.
The Act of Killing - This world this documentary reveals is insane. If you tried to imagine a Germany where the Nazi party and its leadership survived the war without trial and continued to stroll around the country it would be absurd. And yet here's Indonesia.
Kim Hollis: I've been on a huge binge as I catch up on all the 2013 releases I've meant to see. Here's a sampling:
Her - I'm always a little apprehensive when I watch Spike Jonze films. As much as I enjoyed Being John Malkovich, I despised Adaptation. and was disappointed by Where the Wild Things Are (though I like it more in retrospect than I did on first viewing). I was not necessarily expecting big things from Her. I found it to be quite a pleasant surprise. It was a singular love story that was extraordinarily well acted. I found the future it imagined to be believable (even if the clothes were silly). A lovely little film.
Inside Llewyn Davis - This movie has stayed with me, so much so that I find it hard to imagine it won't be in my top five for 2013. It's a wistful tale with a mesmerizing performance from Oscar Issac. The Coens can be hit and miss for me, but this one was a beautiful story.
12 Years a Slave - I wanted to like it more than I did, mainly because I like Chiwetel Ejiofor so much. It was a pretty overwrought film and kind of a miserable viewing experience overall.
The Wolf of Wall Street - While I think Leonardo DiCaprio is terrific in the film, man is this an oppressive movie to watch. The characters are all so awful and you just sit there thinking how terrible they are and the story keeps going on and on and on and they keep doing terrible things. I've seen people say that this is a spiritual sequel to Goodfellas, and I think that's true, but Goodfellas had some restraint.
Dallas Buyers Club - Here's the second of three Matthew McConaughey movies I watched (though his role in Wolf was small). I enjoyed the film a great deal, and I think it's interesting that Jared Leto seems to be the slam dunk acting winner, because I liked McConaughey's performance significantly more. And I'm probably McConaughey's biggest detractor. He's truly great in this movie.
Mud - He's great in this one, too, albeit in a supporting role. I enjoyed how this film was crafted and the two lead kids in the film were perfect for their roles. It took some unexpected turns, and since I really didn't go into the film knowing anything about it, that's pretty impressive.
David Mumpower: This portion of the calendar is when I catch up on all of the major 2013 releases I hadn't watched. Largely, I found 2013 to be a fantastic year for cinema. Here are my thoughts about a few of the 50 titles I have watched over the past month.
Runner Runner starts off so well that a half hour in, I was wondering why critics had hated it and its distributor had abandoned it. Then, I watched the rest. I do not know what happened with the script. I just know that despite thinking a third of the movie is excellent, I would still consider it one of the worst 25 movies of the year. Justin Timberlake yet again proves he is a lousy choice as a lead actor while Ben Affleck's apathy is unmistakable. And the convoluted twists and turns are equal parts unneeded and ill-conceived. Once the conversations stopped being about money and scamming, the movie collapsed completely. The Rounders team should be able to make a better movie than this given the fertile subject matter that inspired them, the Full Tilt Poker scandal.
About Time is the latest masterpiece from Richard Curtis. Bill Nighy has never been better than in this role as a time traveling (well, time repeating) father who mentors his boy in how to use special abilities. I appreciate that the film has been billed as a romantic comedy, and it is that. What resonates with me, however, is the idea of replicating memories with loved ones. There is much more romance in that concept, just not in the sexual sense. About Time is a masterpiece that causes me to once again give thanks for the tenderness of my parents.
Computer Chess is one of those mumblecore indie films that has a small but passionate fanbase. And I am about to piss them off. I actively disliked this movie. The conceit of the film, one I will not reveal here, involves the second set of guests at a hotel where the primary set are hosting a computer chess convention. I understand exactly what is intended in the message, and I even chuckle a bit at the fetishism of the 1980s computers. I simply hated every aspect of this film including characters, dialogue, direction and acting. I feel misled by the buzz on this one.
Europa Report is the better version of Computer Chess in that it is primarily a found footage science fiction film. Its strongest selling point is the cast, which includes the villain from Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, that dude who had problems in District 9, the ping pong player with Balls of Fury and Karolina Wydra (you don't know her but she's demonstrated a lot of range on Justified and True Blood). The story is straight out of an Arthur C. Clarke 2001 sequel, as astronauts attempt to investigate mysterious readings on one of Jupiter's moons. As was the cast with Apollo 18, I enjoyed the set-up more than the resolution. Still, Europa Report gives good Sunshine.
Don Jon is an overwritten story that doesn't work well. All that I learned from it is that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a compulsive onanist. If you only watch one Scarlett Johansson movie from 2013, pick the one where she provided the voice rather than did any acting.
The Family is critically reviled. And all of them who give it a thumbs down are wrong. This is an effervescent script that I swear has some touches of The Addams Family in it. No matter what happens between all of the various members of this government-protected mafia clan, they all seem to adore one another. That sort of familial cohesiveness is oddly refreshing for any genre, much less this one. The high school children in particular are well matched and quite charming together. The Family is one of the pleasant surprises of 2013 cinema.
Epic and Free Birds are kindred spirits in that each of them was a relatively disappointing box office performer. Both of them are gorgeously animated; in tandem, they also combine into a great movie. Epic is a spirited story of survival among a race of tiny people (well, people-ish) that lacks a lot of laughs but tells a wonderful story, although not quite epic enough for the title. Free Birds is predictable enough for anybody over the age of 10 to anticipate all of the major plot points. What it possesses in spades, however, is a wonderful sense of humor. Scott Mosier, a key member of the View Askew group, crafts several jokes that make giggle even in hindsight. In particular, I am a fan of all the ones that reference a time machine named Steve. Epic is a film that a child will find magical; Free Birds is a film that an adult can enjoy with their children. I recommend both while again stating that we are in a golden age for animation.
Drinking Buddies stars Jake Johnson of New Girl as a brewery employee who is dating Anna Kendrick. The catch is that he has feelings for Olivia Wilde. Since both women are into him, Jake Johnson has options. Really, really good ones. Drinking Buddies is slight yet I think it tells a nice story about the complexities of that phase of development from college to regular employment to long term dating. A lot of those decisions feel crucial yet they happen so organically that sometimes no decision is ever made. I admire the honesty regarding this in the movie.
Finally, I would note that What Maisie Knew is the inverse of Runner Runner and other films that lose me after act one. I was ready to turn this movie off after a half hour, which is saying something since it was a Christmas gift from a dear friend. I am glad that guilt kept me watching because the rest of the movie is quite wonderful. It explores the idea of how a young girl copes when she knows that neither of her biological parents is well equipped for the job of raising her. I started to suspect the endgame early in the movie. That in no way negated my enjoyment of it, though. What Maisie Knew is an optimistic kind of story in an industry that relishes telling the pessimistic side of the coin most of the time.