Category: Misfit pieces of prose

Family. Human interest stories. 9/11 tributes. All the articles that don’t quite fit into one particular genre of writing.

The Eternal Echo: Uncomfortable yet thought provoking

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What if a child was raised on nothing but technology? Instead of books, he was shown fighting videos and pornography. Instead of nurturing and a comfy bedroom, he was kept in a dark basement? Instead of parents, he was given three doctors to track his rise(or descent) into madness. That is the basis of Jeff Musillo’s new novel, The Eternal Echo.

If you are tired of cliche riddled crime stories or burnt out romance novels for your lunch hour or evening reading, give this book a shot. This is one of those books that will make you extremely uncomfortable because of the questions it asks the reader every page and the quality of hammer it swings at the plot as it is thrust into the reader’s attention spans.

You won’t find this kind of story anywhere else. Imagine if Dr. Frankenstein got a hold of the internet back in the day when he was creating his monster. Technology lies at the center of this story. Dr. Ravensdale adopts a baby and along with a pair of doctors, raises the kid in an abandoned house that he calls “the laboratory”. They call him “The Subject”. Ravensdale isn’t looking to be a good father or start a family. He wants to get to the bottom of the human psyche. What makes people tick? Why do they need certain things like love, communication or connection? Can they live without those things?

The story is told in flashback as the Good Doctor recounts his story(from his psychiatrist’s diary of questions and observations) about how he went about his plan from a jail cell. There were three phases. Job, Date, Bullying and Sweating it Out. It’s not that simple folks. Ravensdale doesn’t just torture his lab rat pet. He puts him through the ringer. Inter-cut with questions from the shrink, it’s clear early on that the Good Doctor is mad as hell.

When asked about the lengths he went to and if he regretted it, Ravensdale says that it’s okay if you are trying to achieve something amazing. What follows is heart wrenching, shocking and gruesome. There’s science fiction, horror, action, drama and tons of thrills in this book. The Subject is put through several tests, involving getting a job at a library(doesn’t go well), dating(doesn’t go well) and other various tests and it becomes less about the Subject than it does about the upbringing of the Good Doctor.

This book has no real good guy. Nobody comes to the rescue of this wicked plan until its too late. That’s the part that makes it so real and interesting. Musillo avoids any normal pratfalls or plot twists. He doesn’t soften the blow at all. When the Subject loses his mind as his laptop is taken away or he can’t watch anymore videos, he goes crazy. When the Library Manager tells him to get to work, the reaction is something so chilling you may want to stop reading but you won’t be able to.

Musillo asks the most uncomfortable questions with a piece of fiction. If an experiment is important to human psychology, what line can’t be crossed? If you pass that threshold, what does that make you? A mad man or a mad scientist? The Good Doctor, Subject, assistant doctors and other unfortunate bystanders may be the stars of this show but the real star of this story is the brain. Something scientists, doctors and mere mortals are still trying to do this very day. That is the basis of Musillo’s thought provoking and horrifying new novel.

If you rewired a few circuits in the brain and isolated the person, what would happen? Would you create a monster or just fail? Dr. Ravensdale sees it through. So should you.

I appreciate writers who try something new and tackle a new avenue instead of following in others footsteps. Musillo does that with The Eternal Echo, asking the uncomfortable questions and letting the reader answer them.

The Eternal Echo is available on Kindle now and will hit paperback in April.

Batman v Superman trailer teases greatness

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“Maybe Gotham and I share the same opinion. We have a bad history with freaks who dress like clowns.”

The tense face-off between Bruce Wayne(Ben Affleck) and Clark Kent(Henry Cavill) is the best part of this new slice of footage from 2016’s mega blockbuster, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. This is the big swing from DC in its response to Marvel, who has taken over the superhero movie scene the past few years. If David S. Goyer’s script has the juice of this verbal face-off, not even the erratic inconsistent filmmaking style of Zach Snyder can mess it up.

For all the people who hated Man of Steel’s over the top finale, where Sup and General Zod’s fight leveled a city, that is the exact definition of the thorn stuck in Wayne/Batman’s side as this movie opens up. The carnage in MOS’finale also leveled a Wayne Enterprises building, killing several of Wayne’s employees and friends. This makes Wayne question the new alien in town, someone who has the power to destroy it as much as nurture and protect it.

The new footage also introduces in depth other key players like Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor as well as a new villain, Doomsday. Any Superman comic book collector knows what the presence of this beast signifies. In the comics, he killed DC’s hero. His place in the movie seems to eventually align Bat and Sup each other instead of against each other.

It should be fun watching the human Wayne take on the otherworldly Superman. At the heart of these films is the ideals of each hero and how the heroism can lead to more death. It begs the question that is hammered down so well in the Captain America films. Are they heroes or vigilantes?

Wild theory time. Here’s something I’d love to see happen. Morgan Freeman makes an uncredited cameo as Lucius Fox at the beginning of this film and in a scene that evokes 9/11, is talking to Wayne when the Wayne Tower is struck by Superman and Zod. Fox is killed in the wreckage and that personally spikes Wayne’s anger. Just an idea that Snyder and Goyer could be hiding up their sleeve. Or Lois Lane(Amy Adams) being killed in wreckage by Doomsday and Wayne making a quip towards Superman, saying “now you know how it feels to lose someone you love to another’s madness”. Something sets Kent off into a mad descent of anger. The possibilities in this DC film universe shaping flick spring out in a number of directions.

I can’t get enough of Affleck’s Wayne/Bat. He is the perfect guy at this particular age to play this character in this story. An older, wearier and angrier hero who doesn’t trust what this new alien brings to the table.

This movie could be incredibly good or overstuffed. It’s hard to not think about Spider Man when you see all these characters at once. Then again, Joss Whedon pulled it off with Avengers so it’s not impossible.

Are you pumped for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice?

Watch the trailer for yourself.

Man Vs. Woman: Guilty Pleasures

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It’s once again time for Kristen Ashly and Dan Buffa to go head to head in popular topics. One man. One woman. One topic. This week, it’s guilty pleasures. What do you watch and kind of feel bad about afterwards? What do you eat and wish you hadn’t done so? Is it something else? Do you like plaid shirts or turtlenecks or that polka dot dress or shirt? What is it?

Buffa- 1980’s and early 1990’s action films.

Little dialogue, little logic and lots of one liners, muscles and bad special effects powered action. Fist crackling fun. I am talking Robocop. Commando. Lock up. Cobra. Double Impact. Lionheart. Out for Justice. Showdown in Little Tokyo. Soak it up ladies and gents. They don’t make them like they used to, and for the most part that’s a good thing.

Remember Out for Justice. Sure you don’t. The bar scene where Steven Seagal walks in, covered in black and rocking a pony tail, looking for William Forsyth’s Richie. Clean shaven (facial hair was petrified to grow on that face) and moving like a jungle cat, Seagal stalks the place before kicking the shit out of everybody in sight. Check it out.

I don’t know what it is about these films, but I eat them up like skittles. As Seagal says in the clip, maybe it’s my need to impose my will on my fantasies. How one man can walk into a room, talk tough, and back it up with an ass whopping few men can handle. He didn’t need bulging muscles either. Just a well-known mastery of many martial arts. Did I mention the man wore all black? Fear and common sense are the only things that could stop Seagal and even they failed miserably.

Commando. Arnold in his heyday. A one man army looking for his daughter and stopping at nothing until he got his girl back. It’s 85 minutes that seems like 25 because all Arnold (who also doesn’t need a beard to be tough) does is find people, beat them up and collect guns and one liners along the way. “Let off some steam, Bennett!” So good.

What was better than Jean Claude Van Damme back in the day? Two Van Dammes! Try out Double Impact, where twin brothers from Belgium with knots on their foreheads dish out leg kicks like pizza at a parlor on Friday night.

Cobra. Under-appreciated Stallone classics. Sly’s cop in Cobra didn’t utter more than 10 words but he had a cool pistol with a…guess what…cobra on it and he wore an incredibly heavy trench coat and rocked a little stubble. What else did a man need in 1986?

They don’t make them that hot anymore. Special effects, box office needs, superheroes and the need for remakes have drowned out the glorious days of a movie simply about “one man, one job and one line required in the alphabet”. It’s a dead ship that must be revisited from time to time. Watch one of these movies and make a cheap Jack’s frozen pizza while you do it. Drink a six-pack of cheap beer too, like Stag or Steel Reserve.

Kristen- Taylor Swift

Yeah, I can hear you grumbling. I don’t care.

Taylor, born in Wyomissing, PA, moved to Nashville at the young age of 14 to pursue a career in country music. She did just that. She became the youngest songwriter ever hired by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house. The release of Swift’s self-titled debut album in 2006 shot her to the top of stardom. Her third single, “Our Song,” made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number one song on the Hot Country Songs chart.

Her second album, Fearless, became the best-selling album of 2009 in the United States. The album won four Grammy Awards, making Swift the youngest ever Album of the Year winner. Swift’s third and fourth albums, 2010’s Speak Now and 2012’s Red, both sold more than one million copies within the first week of their U.S release.

As a songwriter, she has been honored by the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Swift’s other achievements include seven Grammy Awards, 22 Billboard Music Awards, 11 Country Music Association Awards, eight Academy of Country Music Awards, and one Brit Award. She is one of the best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 40 million albums—including 27.1 million in the U.S.—and 130 million single downloads.

The facts speak for themselves. Sure, most of her record sales were due to her ever growing crowd of tween fans, but that crowd is arguably the biggest track buying group, anyways.

Personally, her music speaks to me. She’s a few years younger than me, but I went through similar trials and tribulations. Every girl in her teens and early 20s likely will. Her music is classic, timeless, and ever evolving. Yet, her message never changes: women and girls have needs and wants, and you should listen to them. Her style is also classic and timeless. She’s tall, blonde, lovely, and rocks red lips like no other. She always reminds me of the movie starlets from the early years, with no regret. Just look:

Her personal life is pretty public, and critics and haters often bash her for that reason. But really, who hasn’t had a roller coaster of a love life? Who hasn’t made dumb decisions they later regretted, especially at such a young age? Throw the first stone.

I’m not the only one who thinks she’s talented, and her songs catchy. Artists like Bill Withers, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Jon Bon Jovi, and Lindsey Buckingham have all sung her praises, stating she’s sure to stick around for a long time. How can you argue with any of them? You can’t. Just try. No, really.

If you ever get the pleasure of seeing me cruise around town, just watch for the song I’m singing at the top of my lungs: guarantee it’s a Swift.

Kristen Ashly contributes to Up All Night News. Follow on Twitter @KristenAshly.

Civil War: Ranking the MCU Movies

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You’ve heard about them, like it or not. The Marvel film franchise. MCU. With Captain America: Civil War serving up its first teaser, I wanted to present my ranking of the Marvel flicks up to date.

With that being said, it’s time to rank the other Marvel Cinematic Universe film series. I am not talking about the Spider Man films or the old Hulk film. I am swinging via the Thor hammer at the recent batch of films that started with Jon Favreau’s Iron Man back in 2008 and most recently produced Guardians of the Galaxy last August. So let’s see which films are awesome, which are great, good, okay or as Thor himself would said, “tiny”.

12.) Thor: A Dark World

I wasn’t impressed with this second solo act with Hemsworth’s tortured demi god mission. To me, he is the weakest Avenger and this sequel proved that he needs the group to make a true impact. You basically have him and Loki teaming up(that won’t last) and going up against another powerful baddie that will get extinguished. What was so fresh about the first Thor(fish out of water hero tale on Earth) gets forgotten here and a regular action superhero mashup takes place. Thor is the least interesting Avenger and this film showed it. It wasn’t a bad film but it was kind of tiny compared to the other films.

 

11.) The Incredible Hulk

Sure, Norton did a lot better of a job as Banner than Eric Bana(rough get up from the start) and the movie captured a tiny more of the idea of the monster’s origin, but once Mark Ruffalo blew our minds in Avengers it’s quite silly to think of anyone else as The Hulk. It may have served more juice to the idea that this character is much better in smaller doses. While it had good action, a solid pace, a decent end fight and wrap up Stark tease at the end, this Hulk is nothing compared to the one and only Ruff-Hulk. Again, it’s hard to find a bad film in this set, but this one vanishes from my memory quick when it’s mentioned.

 

10.) Thor

You may see that I am not the biggest solo Thor movie fan here and I stand by it. While better than the sequel and having some good moments between Thor and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and some unexpected humor in the beginning, I don’t think on this film and remember any game changing moments. It’s just a standard character introduction piece(let’s get Hemsworth into the mix and make a movie around it). Granted, Hemsworth is great here and is a better actor than given credit for, but the story around him(compared to the other heroes here) is kind of trite. The whole “I am a god thing and can swing a very heavy hammer and look amazing doing it” gets old quick. The fish out of water parts of the film are great and it’s never a waste of time to see Natalie Portman.

 

9.) Iron Man 2

I was a bigger fan of the sequel than most were because I thought it was a cool old school action film and I loved Mickey Rourke’s bad guy so much that he made me forget about Sam Rockwell’s character. Yes, the reshoots and stress from director Jon Favreau does show in the film but I dug it. Having a three year old who is tearing into Marvel’s movie also helps because I’ve recently watched this movie at least ten times. I love the opening reel of Stark’s speech playing as Rourke’s Ivan makes his suit. I love the race car track showdown and the introduction of Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow. Don Cheadle’s entrance as Rhodes didn’t make me feel any better about Terrence Howard’s departure, but he grew on me a bit as the film proceeded. My favorite scene was Howard Stark(the classy John Slattery playing the role here) sending that private message to Tony and that made him create the element that saved him. Iron Man 2 was flawed(too many baddies and subplot) but it was a thoroughly enjoyable and rewatchable flick. Also, the interrogation scene between Downey Jr. and Rourke was a lighter faster version of The Joker and Batman. The coolness of this flick does survive on the easy going charm and rock star talents of RDJ though. The man is a genius.

8.) Avengers: Age of Ultron

The more I thought about this film, the more it rubbed the wrong way. Maybe it was James Spader’s dull and ineffective Ultron. Maybe it was the overlong action sequences or the need to duplicate or top Avengers. The story was imbalanced and weighty at the end of the running time. For all the hype it got leading up to May, the end result was tiring. It is watchable, entertaining but after a few viewings, just decent. That’s it.

 

7.) Guardians of the Galaxy

Everybody else went nuts on this film, but all I saw was a light cool funny Marvel film that had a great soundtrack at first viewing. After a few replays, I liked it more and more. The wise crack touch of  Chris Pratt was good and Vin Diesel did more with one line than most could do with 20. Danny Bautista’s beast Drax with his eccentric vocabulary and deadly touch worked. The whole idea of this movie being wicked great never struck me but it had a perfect tone. I didn’t finish it and feel the need to write a 3,000 word essay on it(I did that with Pacino and DeNiro’s Heat). I thought the bad guy was terrible. The whole time he can take out our heroes but doesn’t and Bautista’s character CAN’T beat him in a fight and keeps trying.  Bradley Cooper’s Rocket was hilarious and in the end, I didn’t just want to be Groot…I wanted more Groot.

 

6.) Captain America: First Avenger

While I wasn’t as crazy about Red Skull as a villain, I loved the way Hugo Weaving played him and Chris Evans did some truly good work here as Steve Rogers before he came magnificent. It was the scenes before he became Captain that really allowed me to love his character later. “I’m just a kid from New Jersey” never got old and by the end, when he throws himself, the cube and the jet into the ocean only to wake up decades later without the love of his life, you feel his pain because Evans created that in the first hour. Real breakthrough for Evans. The film is a little long but brilliantly realized. Rodgers is the red, white and blue hero but Evans always gives him an uncertain edge. It started here.

Ant-Man-Paul-Rudd-Shower.jpg

5.) Ant-Man

I admit. The mere mention of this film at first wasn’t exciting but Paul Rudd knocked this shit out of the park. Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Corey Stoll, and Bobby Cannvale rounded out a perfect cast. Director Peyton Reed delivered a similar dose of Marvel versatility that the first Iron Man and GOTG were. Easy going yet potent fun. Rudd’s interaction with Anthony Mackie’s Falcon couldn’t have teased Civil War better. Give me more. You’ll never look at an ant the same way again.

 

4.) Iron Man 3

People hated the card shark switch that director Shane Black did with the Mandarin here, but I loved the changeup. Tell me you expected that to happen when Ben Kingsley’s hapless drunk actor turned terrorist spewing bad guy came out of the bathroom. Black’s light touch mirrored Favreau’s original film method of madness, and I liked Guy Pearce and James Badge Dale’s bad guy combo and the coming out badass femme fatale party of Gwyneth Paltrow enjoyed at the end. This film carried such an effortless cool pace that I didn’t want the film to end but it wrapped up the last solo journey of Stark quite well and sets up Avengers 2 in the process. The greatest strength of Kevin Feige and Marvel is connecting all these films seamlessly and mixing in the stories without overstepping. It’s confidence. I am glad they supported Black’s idea to throw a change at the fans. Iron Man 3 was strong.

 

3.) Iron Man

The original stake in the sand by Marvel is still a cool ride seven years later. Favreau’s plea to bring in Downey Jr. being looked on with risky stress but now looking like a stroke of genius. All of it still plays well today, especially Stark’s transformation in the desert when he sees up close and personal the destruction his weapons can do. The way Stark became this guy who wanted to better himself by burning up his past and starting something new was so well done. Downey Jr. is at the heart of the greatness, putting exactly the right amount of cynical charm and bravado in the role that people debated for so many years. Howard’s work as Rhodes is bittersweet because he was good effortless and had great rapport with RDJ. Jeff Bridges Obadiah was well rendered, as was Paltrow’s first piece of work as Potts. There’s something nostalgic about Iron Man. It was the beginning and always will carry a certain juicy flow with its experience. Before the Avengers Assemble could happen, Tony Stark had to light the match.

 

2.) Captain America: Winter Soldier

Talk about combining real life world weary issues and mixing in the Marvel madness. Every time I watched Winter Soldier, it got better. The transformation of Bucky into the Winter Soldier that changes our titular hero was the key ingredient in this madness. Sebastian Stan’s work is astounding and he does it with barely any dialogue. Just looks, action and moves. Frank Grillo’s Brock Rumlow also got a much needed tease here before his deadly Crossbones heats up Civil War.  Anthony Mackie’s Falcon was also a nice light touch to the proceedings, as were Scarlett and Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury(who always gets just the right amount of screen time per appearance). The scenes near the end between Stan and Evans, as two best friends facing off, is heartbreaking and thrilling. Winter Soldier may go down as the most complete Marvel film. Maybe.

 

1.) Avengers

That’s right. The moment where the Avengers Assemble kicked off.  Joss Whedon’s ability to take all these misfit toys, toss them together and spin them into this kickass, poignant and thrilling combo of heroic danger was such a miraculous feat. I don’t think any other director could have blended the personalities and actions of these heroes as well as he did. He got the best of Thor and brought out the Hulk we all knew was there in Ruffalo’s rendition. There isn’t one part of this movie that feels flat and it can be consumed and savored well today with the right amount of surround sound. It plays like a greatest hit and it’s only three years old. The shot towards the end during the huge NYC battle where the camera whips around to all our Avengers fighting is still a piece of art. Avengers is going to be money decades from now and that makes the expectations for this week’s Age of Ultron fly through the roof with ease.

That’s my list. What is yours. Civil War may end up being #1 in the end.

Fifty Shades of Shitty

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I know what you are thinking. How did I actually end up watching Fifty Shades of Grey? Over a candlelight dinner with a cup of coffee and I eyeing one another like two long lost, no, I’m fucking with you. It didn’t happen in a theater. I didn’t pick it up at Redbox. It was on HBO, otherwise known as my not so secret lover. It premiered a short while back and it came on and I decided to stick with it. Having already made an indent on the sofa and not wanting to move or watch Taken 3’s ending again, I decided to partake in this sexy fantasy novel turned cinematic experience. What a waste of time.

Sam Taylor-Johnson tried to direct E.L. James first novel in a series of three. She really did. The book she was working from with screenwriter Kelly Marcel was crap. No mainstream Hollywood film was going to take the sexual leaps that the book did. I mean, come on. Jamie Dornan spanking Dakota Johnson with a whip or bending her over a piano isn’t what those two got down to in the book. It had to something steamier. I didn’t want to ask my wife about it. The script was elementary, pulling all the sharp edges from previous bad boy romance novels. It was bad bad. Dialogue came out of the teeth and slammed to the floor. Cringe worthy. Dornan and Johnson aren’t good enough actors or interesting enough people to make it up on the run or fool people into the idea that the movie isn’t really bad. She had been in bit roles and Dornan had been in very little. Sure, it doesn’t take Oscar worthy peeps but something more than this.

When the best part of the movie is a conversation between two fully clothed people about what butt plugs are, the film missed out. I found myself wanting more from this or expecting some far more erotic. Once again, Hollywood isn’t going to release a mainstream equivalent of Real Sex. Not happening. It was always going to be soft. I didn’t expect it to be this boring, soft and stupid.

Let’s get the facts out of the way. There’s a brief cock shot and a few glimpses of Johnson’s vagina crop, but that is it. She gets naked a lot(neither of their asses are noteworthy) but he remains clothed, much to the chagrin of the ladies. It’s not sexist to expect more from a novel series that extended millions of marriages across the world and replaced chocolate ice cream pints and big blankets for a week or two. If there isn’t acting going on, there better be some hot stinky horny sexy time happening. In the end, it was lame. Neither actor is good looking enough either. Johnson isn’t ugly but she isn’t hot either. Sorry.

There’s as much here for men as there is for women. Story steers its gears towards both sexes. Anastasia Steele is an innocent young woman looking for adventure and finds more than she bargained for in the rich wealthy and handsome bad boy prince Christian Grey. A contract is presented, some spanking happens, some sex, pancakes are made, more sex, a ride in a plane and some million mile stares. The funny thing is, Ana leads him on. He tells her early on that all he wants to do is strap, load, spank and reload, but she tries to change him. This could have been over the minute he showed her the red room, but no she said keep going. She gets spanked, teased and fucked but only when he really whips her does she figure out that this is how he gets off. It takes two hours for her to realize this. Really?

I also hate movies where a guy is so fucking rich yet we never see him do any actual business. There’s the loud phone call where a deal seems to go bad. There’s lots of paper signing. Lots of suits. Lots of end of days. No deals. When Richard Gere’s hot shot played the rich card in Pretty Woman, we got to see him work. And work with Jason Alexander no less Here, it’s just expensive suits, nice cars and leaving the office. Bullshit.

There will be more. Fifty Shades Darker and Freed come in the next three years. Dornan is excited. Johnson probably isn’t. I am not. Leave these things to the books. Let the women who read this horseshit fill in the blanks and details. They will make money. For the same reason Adam Sandler films still make money. People like trash of all kinds. After a long day at the office or wrestling with kids or co-workers, watching Ana get wooed by Christian into a lovely nut of asshole fisting and teasing nipple clamps has its rewards I guess.

Fifty Shades of Grey made 166 million(94 opening weekend) on a 40 million dollar budget. All they needed were hot cars, three suits, a penthouse, mansion and some aerial shots. The biggest action sequence was Johnson’s ass jiggling from the whip. There will be more and they will make lots of money.

Save me the argument that these movies exploit violent sex crimes. Please. Ladies and gents, the women who read these novels are doing worse things to themselves after they put the book down or their husband Harry is. Ana isn’t a victim. She likes it all until she doesn’t. It’s all voluntary. The only thing worse than this flick are the people hating it for the wrong reasons.

Hate it because it’s a terrible excuse for 125 minutes of your time. They should have just let Cinemax really step into it and do all the dirty scenes in depth. Hollywood took a half swing and foul tipped it into the catcher’s mitt. Weak. That’s all it is.

It’s better to just think of it as Batman romancing poor young Ana….

Michael Clayton: George Clooney’s best film

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George Clooney is a classic movie star that occasionally acts his ass off. He’s charming, affable and loves to dish and dice up his bad decisions(Batman and Robin) and offer cool behind the scenes stories about Hollywood. He’s also a fine actor, and an Oscar winner(for the hard boiled drama, Syriana). However, that isn’t his greatest performance. Granted, Clooney is also an acclaimed writer/director/producer who recently won for Argo and has directed quiet gems like Goodnight, Good Luck but his finest hour came in the underrated Tony Gilroy thriller, Michael Clayton.

In the film, Clooney plays the title character, a “fixer” for a prestigious law firm who specializes in dirty cover ups and soulless work. He’s also a flawed parent and degenerate gambler who wanted to open a restaurant and failed. In the film’s central plot, Clayton is brought in to remedy a situation where one of the law firm’s best lawyers comes undone while he is hammering a nail into a chemical company he knows is guilty in a billion dollar class action law suit.

Gilroy’s method of madness here is putting this seemingly familiar pot of goods on the burner and slowly turning the heat on the characters. The film starts out with Clayton running from a burning car and flashes back to one of his easy fixes(which involves the brilliant actor Denis O’Hare). Gilroy establishes that Clayton is a man slowly losing touch with who he is and that the work he is doing is beginning to eat into his soul. A man who has the connections to fix everybody’s problems except for his own. The film is a marvel of work due to Gilroy’s script and his direction, but also from the performance of Clooney. The man is in nearly every single scene of this film and if we don’t buy into his remorse and feel some contempt for his character, the movie doesn’t work.

He has plenty of fine company to dine with here, including Sydney Pollack’s last complete work, Tom Wilkinson’s Oscar nominated turn, and Tilda Swinton’s Oscar Winning work. For my money, Clooney is the best of the bunch and that’s because he shows us a slow transformation in Clayton that takes place over the two hour running time. This isn’t easy work because this movie was made in 2007, which was the height of Clooney’s reign. He was doing the Ocean films, popping up in other notable movies and beginning to unwind as a filmmaker. He is in the public eye constantly and that means as an actor, he has to work so much harder to produce a signature performance. This isn’t feeling sorry for a rich man, but explaining the difficulty in Clooney’s drive to be taken seriously.

He has been great elsewhere and the list isn’t short. Syriana. Oceans Eleven. My Brother Where Art Thou. Up In The Air. Three Kings. There are more but in Clayton, Clooney digs deep and doesn’t wear an ounce of makeup or use an accent to hide who we see him as. He’s a wounded warrior trying to find a way home in the most dangerous cutthroat world, the corporate empire.

For the first half of the film, Clooney does a fine job as Clayton. He works a few facial expressions and builds the seeds beneath which will make this character sing later on in the film. We buy into his plight and his proposed flight. At the halfway mark, Clooney delivers a speech to son, played by Austin Williams. He tells his son about the harrowing world they live in and how looking up to people like himself or the boy’s uncle isn’t the right way to go about it. It’s an out of nowhere knockdown moment that Clooney deftly plays without getting too sentimental. It is also the kickoff of knock down, drag out Clayton that fuels the rest of the film which involves exploding cars, killer showdowns between cast members and a climax that will make you fist bump everyone in close proximity. The final lingering camera shot on Clooney as he rides around in a taxi is so confident, perfect and allows the viewer to wonder if this constant man of sorrow is ever going to realize happiness or just think of as a state of mind.

Gilroy is a master of high stakes thrills and drama. He wrote the Matt Damon Bourne films and wrote and directed the Jeremy Renner vehicle(another underrated gem), The Bourne Legacy. He is constantly raising the bar set by his previous characters and stories, and Michael Clayton is his jewel because it doesn’t have the action but it has all the power of his work.

Michael Clayton can be enjoyed even if you don’t like Clooney, because he isn’t playing the flashy loving talker but a man who goes to great lengths to suddenly retrieve his soul inside a dirty world. As good as his role in Syriana was(his diner faceoff with Christopher Plummer is all time great there), Clayton gives Clooney his own venue to establish his premium talents as a performer. The film suits him and relies on him coming through, which he does in a big way.

If you haven’t seen it, find it, digest it and watch it again. The movie grows on you if it’s too cold or diabolical at first and it gets better if it hits you the first time. Whenever it lingers too long in the realm of suits and misery, it immediately exits and enters a world of family and finding peace. As I mentioned before, the pot gets hot when Clayton decides to clean up his own mess instead of the firms and it all starts in that car with his son.

Other moments that sting and surge inside a viewer’s system.

*A moment with Wilkinson’s character in Times Square and a scene back at his loft reverberate because we all have that aha moment in our life where it all clicks.

*Clayton has a moment after the car explosion where he encounters horses that could went over someone’s head but instead lands right in your chest. It’s quick and fleeting but if you allow yourself to ride with the tempo of the story, it’ll hit you…hard.

*Scenes between Clayton and his brother(Sean Cullen) are so good that you instantly see the past these two characters share. Honest and brutal.

*James Newton Howard’s is subtle and carries certain scenes that are dialogue driven. Howard doesn’t overpower the story, instead spraying lubricant on the tracks of the plot.

*Robert Elswit’s cinematography is shrouded in black and dark gray, echoing the mood of the story and the characters and where their heads are at.

*Swinton is brilliant here as an attorney who prides herself on repetition yet is slowly undone by this case and Clooney’s character. Her faceoff with Clooney towards the end is a polar opposite of their first encounter and serves as a highlight that had to leave Gilroy singing himself to sleep that night after the shoot.

Look, George Clooney’s career speaks for itself and doesn’t require this uninformed opinion to give it any extra airtime. However, whenever I see pics from the movie or think about some of the scenes, I get filled with movie lover ambition and demand a date with my couch and a pot of coffee to relive it again. Michael Clayton is as powerful as it gets and its a beautiful slow burn of a story. It’s greatest virtue is Clooney’s go for broke performance.

Watch it…like right now.

Death Sentence: James Wan’s underrated gem

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Before James Wan got furious with Vin Diesel this spring, he once paired with Kevin Bacon for one of the most underrated crime dramas of the past ten years. The 2007 film, Death Sentence, didn’t make any money or gain critical acclaim but it came on around midnight the other morning and I got sucked in again. This happens when quality if unknown movies sneak up on you when it’s quiet in the house and all you can hear if the coffee slurping from your cup. This is a Lost Boys kind of film. A versatile cast, solid premise, blunt violence and a satisfying if unconventional ending.

What’s it all about? Bacon is a family man who watches his oldest son die in a gas station robbery. Full of rage, he tracks down the killer and takes him out. Unfortunately for this ordinary guy, that guy’s brother is a well known criminal who goes after Bacon’s family, promising the guy a…wait for it…death sentence.

Why is this movie so good? The actors really dig into a familiar premise and give it their all. This is Kevin Bacon’s best work in the last decade. You won’t see this much depth in his work outside of a few episodes from Season 1 of The Following or the sneaky good horror thriller, Stir of Echoes. Bacon’s Nick Hume doesn’t have any fighting ability and barely knows how to hold a gun in the first part of the film. He slowly changes from one type of person to another type of person throughout the course of the film. It’s all about what you would do if your family was seriously harmed and you saw the wrong in front of you. How far would you go and would you change in the process?

Nick is a family guy who seems cut off from the dangerous parts of the world in the beginning. On the way home from his son’s hockey game, he stops for gas in the worst part of town and is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Something terrible happens and it changes him. Bacon’s work is marvelous here because he has to play a few different shades. Innocent, harmless, ruthless and finally, murderous. The movie, written by Ian McKenzie Jeffers based off Brian Garfield’s novel, doesn’t avoid the effect it has on everyone around him. Here, revenge is treated like a grenade. The more Nick pushes for vengeance, the more people close to him he sees harmed. Wan and the producers don’t mishandle that part. They invest in it unlike most films and it feels real, especially due to the chemistry Bacon has with Kelly Preston, who plays his wife.

Wan doesn’t skimp on the action here either and it’s brutal and utterly realistic. Shooters actually miss with their weapons and the fights are messy in a visceral way. We don’t see Bacon instantly turn into a badass and throw Van Damme kicks and pick up a shotgun and flip it around like Arnold’s Terminator. He is a fish out of water thrown into a violent world that he helped produce. There’s a shootout in his home, a parking lot faceoff(Wan really loves these) and a finale set inside an abandoned church because why not, where there is a church the devil is close by anyway. This is a movie from the guy who got famous with a little horror film called Saw and from the novelist who gave us Death Wish.

 

It also helps to have a really good cast that seems fit for their roles. Garrett Hedlund may be best known for the horrible Tron remake and his lame duck brother in John Singleton’s Four Brothers, but he’s a gifted actor and can be great when put in the right role. He digs his teeth into young Billy Darling, and doesn’t just produce a cardboard box villain. Hedlund creates this vengeful young man who loses the best family he has and must respond in a horrible way. He shaved his head, grew a mustache, and walks and talks like a man with no fear. It’s old school territory with authenticity.

Aisha Tyler(you know her as the woman who drives FX’s Archer crazy) chimes in as a cop on Bacon’s trail and John Goodman has the two scene juicy cameo as the gun salesman who could be more. Goodman has the best lines of the film and is only in it for 7 minutes. Looking at Bacon after handing him guns, Goodman quips, “Take that gun and go to the desert and start your own Holy War. You’re a cash customer, and you got a killing way about you.”

Hume and Darling are two completely different men who collide with each other on one fateful night at a gas station and the movie is a result. As Darling tells him in the end, “Look at you. You look like one of us. Look what I made you.” The movie never loses sight of what it is and the message it’s trying to get across. Revenge isn’t always ideal and has consequences but it’s a real thing because humans are flawed and make emotional irrational decisions.

If your son dies in a horrible way and you know exactly who did it, what would you do? Tell the cops, hope they get it right and sit it out. Death Sentence is a far fetched action film, but it doesn’t forget about real questions like the one posed above. What would you do? Are you sure?

The movie isn’t perfect. There are instances where the police became useless and way too far behind the main protagonist and his prey, which will make you roll your eyes a bit. There are lots of improbable action sequences that challenge the realistic grounds the film seems to live on. However, the movie is meant to be an action thriller with dramatic elements and a human frailty threat running throughout it. Wan’s violence is a heightened variety but still thrills.

You’ll feel every hit and every bullet fired and even appreciate the slow and calming ending scene with Hedlund and Bacon, and then Bacon at his home. It’s not exactly what you would expect from this kind of film, but the ending put it on another level for me. It circles back to what drove the actions of the entire film. Family, and what we would do if they were taken from us.

Death Sentence has it’s guilty pleasures, but he hits the hardest with its realistic themes of revenge, vengeance and the cost of an eye for an eye.

Captain America: Civil War pits friends against each other

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What if your friends didn’t share the same ideals and beliefs that you did? What if this mutual disagreement pitted you against each other, separating one party into the land of the law and placing the other on the run as a fugitive? The new trailer for Marvel’s next cinematic thrill ride, Captain America: Civil War, promises their best adventure yet because it gets personal. Are these people heroes or vigilantes? Marvel is tapping into their internal Dark Knight questions. Are these Marvel heroes the ones we deserve?

Captain America: Civil War Trailer and Posters are Here!

After the fun yet overlong and silly Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Russo brothers are bringing the Winter Soldier real world touch to the table again, honing in on the conflict between Steve Rodgers’ Captain and Tony Stark’s Iron Man. When the government(welcome back William Hunt) wants to start regulating superheroes instead of simply turning them loose, Stark agrees with the philosophy and Rogers rebels against it. When Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier is targeted, the band splits down the middle.

“If we can’t accept limitations, we are no better than the bad guys.” Stark has a point, and he has come a long way since Iron Man 2, where the government wanted his suit and he said no. This time it wasn’t Garry Shandling asking though.

War Machine, Black Widow, Black Panther(hello Chadwick Boseman) and Vision join Stark while Hawkeye, Falcon, Winter Solder aka Bucky and possibly others join Rodgers. This sets up a showdown unseen before in these Marvel adventures. Namely, it pits Stark against his friend Rodgers. The best line of the trailer was the simplest.

When Rodgers apologizes for going against Tony because of his friend Bucky, Stark’s response is tragic and chilling. “So was I.” Wow. The poster’s tagline couldn’t be more spot on. “Divided we fall.”

This is going to be the must see film of 2016, at least the first half of the cinematic schedule. The people who laugh off the silliness of these superhero films miss the moral of the story from Winter Soldier. What happens when you fail to regulate people with extraordinary powers? Is that a good thing? Winter Soldier asked about the cost of war and if sacrificing civilians for the greater good was digestible or not. Civil War aims for a destruction of the brotherhood. The music used in the trailer is perfect. This is going to be bittersweet and contain mega loads of awesome sauce.

It’s been hinted at before. In both the Avengers films, the crew have tussled internally. Nothing like this though. Civil War puts these matters on a global scale and turns the meter to red before leaving the building with the gas leaking. This is going to be explosive and it’s only six months and change away so start re-watching.

The only letdown for me was seeing no glimpse of Frank Grillo’s Crossbones. A guy who historically(comic book wise at least) has a lot to say about the fate of Mr. America. Someone who lost to Rodgers in the elevator but has come back stronger and deadlier than before. I can’t wait for their showdown. I needed a little Grillo and got none. The only drawback of an otherwise great first look.

Watch for yourself.

 

Canelo Alvarez arrives with Cotto defeat

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Two years and change ago, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez succumbed for the only time in his career, to Floyd Mayweather Jr. While his handlers asked him to wait before taking on the best pound for pound boxer in the sport, Canelo didn’t hesitate and lost in honorable fashion. He ate what seemed like 20,000 Floyd jabs and could never break into the vault that Mayweather built over 15 years in the ring.

Saturday night in Las Vegas, Canelo turned the tables and used the exact same strategy on Miguel Cotto. He had become the teacher in the ring. The wiser one. Cotto only landed 129 of over 629 punches, assaulting the thin air more than anything. Canelo was nearly perfect, winning the fight easily and taking the middleweight belt from his challenger.

Say hello to Canelo, boxing fans. This is a name you will want to remember for the next 5-10 years. And at last, it won’t be for his distinct look of red hair, pale skin and freckles. It will be for his dominance in a boxing ring.

The 25 year old took the final step into legitimacy Saturday night when he took down Cotto. For 12 rounds, Canelo frustrated the attacking Cotto and didn’t let the older fighter land his signature hook. It was like a dog chasing a car that never stopped moving yet Canelo didn’t have to run. He threw and landed a punch, pivoted, moved his head and set up his next assault. It marked Canelo’s final test in transitioning from a puncher to a boxer.

Alvarez tagged Cotto at will throughout the fight. He would slip his jab and punish Cotto’s body, like a hammer swinging down at the kidneys. When Cotto got risky and peered in towards Canelo, he was tagged with another jab and Canelo would unleash the hook to the body. There was nothing Cotto could do but take the punishment or risk getting dropped. Nobody got knocked down Saturday night, but Cotto’s career hit the canvas and Canelo’s rose to the rafters.

As 2015 ends, boxing is shifting away from Mayweather Jr. and towards fighters like Canelo and Russian sensation Gennady Golovkin. The future may represent the adventures of true action fighters. Boxers like Canelo and Golovkin prefer action rather than speed racing in a ring. They don’t fire a punch and run away. They fire multiple shots, step forward and throw more. Whenever people tell me boxing is dead, I tell them about Canelo and Gennady. With atom bombs for fists and a will that matches a moving tornado, these two guys will set up what could be the blockbuster fight of 2016.

In May, Gennady Golovkin and Canelo could very well meet and decide who gets to be the new face of the sport. It doesn’t matter who is the pound for pound champ. It doesn’t matter who has the most wins. It matters whose name comes into fight fans minds when the word boxing is uttered within their earshot. Between them, Canelo and Golovkin have 66 knockouts in 82 fights. For people that beg for action in the ring, look no further than these two.

Cotto won’t retire from the sport but his days as a championship contender have been fractured. He enjoyed a late career renaissance under Freddie Roach, but had no idea how to connect with anything sinister on Saturday against Canelo. A great warrior took his final pay per view bow on Saturday. Another is just getting warmed up.

It’s not about his Mexican background and legion of fans. It’s not about his look. It’s about his ability to cut down any style of fighter in the ring with him. Canelo Alvarez has arrived and isn’t moving anytime soon. No longer a novelty, he is an action packed delight that boxing fans, hardcore and casual minded, should know and appreciate today.

 

The New James Bond: My three candidates

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Spectre is thriving at the box office and even though Daniel Craig is contractually obligated to scrap on the tux, take a beating and pound shaken martinis one more time, I want to talk about the future of the franchise. Who plays him next? Craig sounded exhausted on the press tour for the latest adventure, so I would be surprised if he did more than one more ride. He has one foot out the door so let’s talk who plays him next. Here are my three candidates.

Michael Fassbender

He is suave, taunt, intense and has the build to slide right into MI6’s high wire theatrics. He hasn’t played a character like this either, yet built his career similar to Craig’s on solid roles and art house fare. He has a head start on the mainstream, having played Magneto and Steve Jobs in recent movies. The point is, seeing Fassbender here wouldn’t be tiring or a sad case of “seen that, forget it” misfortune. He can act and slays the ladies. Did you watch Shame? He can play a sad Lothario as well.

Tom Hardy

Cut from the same type of bulldog mold as Craig, Hardy has proven himself in action roles yet fares equally well in independent films. He has a presence that few can attain through film school or director longing. When he shows up, authenticity takes precedent over mere make believe. He’s played a Batman villain, filled Mad Max’s shoes, and rocked different accents in Locke and The Drop. His role in Bronson will forever be his ticket to the table, but signature roles in Lawless and the recent Legend stamp his place as a force to reckon with. I can easily picture him as the first Bond with a five o’clock shadow.

Idris Elba

Suck it Anthony Horowitz. The Bond author slammed the British actor’s credentials as a future Bond because he was too “street”. Aka too black. How shortsighted and unfortunate. If you have taken the time to watch Luther, the BBC detective series with Idris leading the party, you know how good he would be as Britain’s most famous cinematic creation. He has the look, the voice and the build to knock the role out. He also may add a sense of humor to the reckless agent.

These are my three guys. My bet is Craig shrugs his shoulders and takes a huge paycheck to come back for a 5th film. He wasn’t the problem with Spectre but the director and writer need to produce a better setting and appetite for the actor to play around in. If he leaves, go with one of the sly fellows mentioned above.