Shop Talk
By BOP Staff
August 21, 2014
Begin Again: I saved this for last because I saw it the most recently and is the best movie of the summer, for me, thus far. Not only is the music (composed by the composer of Once) fantastic and perfectly in sync with the movie as it develops, it is masterfully vocalized by Adam Levine (not surprisingly) and Keira Knightley (who knew the girl could sing?). I have never been a Keira fan, but she finally won me over just a tad. Mark Ruffalo is also superb, as he is in his element in this type of emotional life/family dramas like the Kids are All Right (where he plays a similar character) and even Eternal Sunshine. Some of the scenes are truly moving, and emotional without being hokey or contrived. As an added bonus, the movie is essentially a tribute to New York, which I appreciated. I highly recommend this movie.
Kim Hollis: I'm surprised people found Godzilla boring. When I watched, I was frankly not expecting the monster to show up as soon as it did because of all the comments I had heard about the movie's dullness. I think the film moves along at a pretty decent pace. With that said, I didn't love the film - I'd probably give it a B-. I liked how they handled Godzilla but the human scenes did less for me.
You can count me in with the group that loved X-Men: Days of Future Past. I was a big fan of X-Men: First Class (in fact, it's one of those movies I can watch over and over again), and seeing those actors recreate the characters alongside the older versions of themselves was a treat. I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere. I may never enjoy Michael Fassbender more than I do as Magneto. I admit that I do find First Class to be the superior film, though. I think Matthew Vaughn has tighter direction than Bryan Singer.
Edge of Tomorrow was indeed terrific, and I say that as someone who went into the film with high hopes based on the reviews I'd read. I always like Tom Cruise despite his... eccentricities and even occasional insincerity. His persona really worked particularly well for this film. Emily Blunt showed a different side of herself as an actress, and Bill Paxton is hilarious in a smaller role. A lot of people have complained about the ending, but I knew that was exactly where they'd go with it from the moment the reason for the repeating day was explained. I'm surprised people had that much of a disconnect. I warmly recommend the film.
Speaking of warmly recommending, How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a delight. I'm a little heartbroken that it hasn't performed better at the domestic box office, because it is both a natural continuation of the first story and a facile combination of humor and seriousness. I think that people may be bothered by how somber it is - and now that I think about it, this might be a tough film for smaller children - but it is completely heartfelt and moves things forward in the best way possible. Hiccup and Toothless are wonderful.
Bad Words was a lot funnier than I ever anticipated, with Jason Bateman completely cracking me up. It might have been lowered expectations at play, I admit. Still, there's just something endlessly amusing about watching him attempt to mess with a teenager's mind in the midst of a spelling bee.
Finally, Snowpiercer is an interesting apocalyptic science fiction film that can be a little tough to watch at times, but that I'd recommend. I'm happy to see Chris Evans taking a role like this (I know that he's planning on smaller films moving forward, which I assume is an option because of Captain America), and I liked him a lot. Song Kang-ho, who I last saw in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, is terrific. The film has moments that will not be for the squeamish. I won't go so far as to call it unique, but it's a good story executed in a powerful way.
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