Category: Movie Reviews

Suicide Squad > Batman VS. Superman

· Leave a comment ·

Prediction: Suicide Squad will be better than Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice(BvS) and for a couple simple reasons. Tighter focus and David Ayer.

I trust Ayer as a filmmaker more than I do Zach Snyder. Each guy is dealing with the DC comics crew but one’s vision is shining a lot brighter than the other. Snyder has hit close to the bullseye with big bombastic cinema such as 300 and Man of Steel, but he’s never dealt fans an emotional thrill ride like Ayer’s End of Watch and Fury. Each have dished fans a turd or close to it(Snyder with Sucker Punch and Ayer with Sabotage), but what I trust and appreciate Ayer’s writing more than Snyder’s. At his worst, Ayer reverts back to his gritty LA corrupt cop landscape with Dark Blue, Harsh Times and Training Day. At his worst, Snyder is Michael Bay’s slightly more talented brother yet erratic.

Ayer, writer and director of Suicide Squad, has a better idea of what he is trying to do with this big summer release. Snyder, working with David S. Goyer’s script, is still chasing down Christopher Nolan while tracking down his own identity. SS feels like Ayer’s baby, while BvS feels arbitrary and adopted. One is authentic and the other could be Spider Man 3.

A lack of focus is seriously affecting BvS, because Snyder and Goyer are packing every single comic book character into the film and overstuffing it. Man of Steel 2 has turned into a DC broken heroes and villains gala. Suicide Squad has an identity and deftly mixes in a little Batman and Joker future setup while producing tons of spinoff possibilities. At first, BvS was two super popular heroes squaring off. Then, Lex Luthor was thrown into the middle. Then, Wonder Woman is also showing up. Aquaman is there too. Doomsday is going to show up and eventually be the big bad, and he came from General Zod’s DNA, manufactured by Luthor. Somebody else may show up.

Why do I know all this? The trailers told me. The seemingly endless supply of trailers. Ones that play during television shows, sporting events and theater showings. You can’t avoid them or look away. It’s too hard. It’s like walking into a Victoria’s Secret photo shoot and not peeking. With a movie sporting so many heads, less is more but that is impossible with Snyder. He goes big or he goes home.

He’s doing this team up film because Man of Steel had a mixed reaction. Everybody didn’t love it like they did other comic relaunch films. I sincerely believe this. Warner Brothers thought about this pairing and went with it over another solo Sups film. They are trying to keep up with Marvel and can’t afford another slumping effort. While I really like what I’ve seen of Ben Affleck’s Batman/Bruce Wayne, I doubt the rest of the film.

On the other end, Suicide Squad looks like a punk rock concert in the 1970’s. Wicked cool, assured, and delivered with a succinct unknown flavor. The two trailers have dished out the plot, some action scenes but haven’t spilled the entire canister of juicy details. How Batman and Joker connect. How this story ties to the bigger picture. How the pack of villains will turn on each other but how? Where will the film leave Jared Leto’s Joker? So much is left to the imagination. I always trust a graphic novel over a comic book pairing. One film seems forced and the other feels easy going.

Will Smith’s Deadshot. Maggie Robbie’s Harley Quinn. Jai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang. Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flagg. Scott Eastwood, Adam Beach and others are playing these hypnotic interesting characters that non hardcore fans know little about. The less we know the more interesting it sets up the film to be.

The plot is also killer. A bunch of bad guys being dispatched on a suicide mission to save the world, or basically apocalyptic Chicago. Doesn’t that sound more interesting than a mortal Dark Knight fighting an alien before they join forces and maybe form the Justice League. I have hope for BvS but I don’t feel like I need to worry about Suicide Squad.

Both films tie into the DC comics plan. One seems to have a handle on what it’s doing. One is showing all the cards way too early. One is making Queen’s greatest hit sound relevant again. One is pounding us with Hans Zimmer’s score.

Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice arrives in March. Suicide Squad arrives in August. I am anxious for one. I can’t wait to see the other.

Which one do you want to see more? Which one has been marketed better?

5 Reactions to The Oscar Nominations

· Leave a comment ·

Hollywood has spoken. The Academy Award nominations are out. Here are five instant reactions to the decisions.

*Best Supporting Actor category is rightly packed and has so many contenders. Glad Academy saw Ruffalo’s brilliant work in Spotlight yet I am still pulling for Stallone’s career best work in Creed. Mark Rylance and Tom Hardy are also very deserving.

**Side Note: Can Hardy have his own category? For the second straight year, he has rocked three completely different roles. Mad Max: Fury Road, Legend and The Revenant. Magnificent talent.

*Hat tip to George Miller. Fury Road is one of the top nominated films and scored Best Picture and Director nods. 71 years old. Went back to the desert. Made an original film and did so his way. He won’t win for Best Picture but deserves a fair look.

*Sicario‘s cinematography is brilliant. Benicio Del Toro gave the best performance in 2015 that wasn’t going to be nominated. However, the way that film was shot is almost as good as Mad Max.

*Best Actor was packed and Will Smith/Johnny Depp did get snubbed. However, Damon’s ability to blend comedy/drama was superb. Leo was a must. So immersive. Fassbender was underrated as Jobs. Redmayne can’t be denied. 2015 was a great year for film and it showed in the snubs.

*Quietly hoping Thomas Newman gets the award for his brilliant and poignant Bridge of Spies score. He won’t. Morricone will win for Hateful 8. Still, Newman is great.

Extra thought: Cate Blanchett has the best actress award in her handbag already but it would be nice to see out of nowhere Brie Larson steal it for her phenomenal work in Room.

Yes, Quentin Tarantino did get snubbed and Spotlight deserves best picture.

Rest and peace and salute to Alan Rickman, who died Thursday morning at the tender age of 69 years young. He was most memorable as his work in Die Hard and the Harry Potter series, but he was also very good in Michael Collins, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Truly Madly Deeply, Sense and Sensibility and Love Actually(poor cheating Harry!). He may be remembered for shouting “Where are the detonators?” and sporting the best tailored suit and beard ever known to man, but he put in 37 years of work that spanned 70 different roles. He will be missed and marks the second 69 year old performer who was taken by cancer this week along with David Bowie. Cancer truly sucks.

Come back for more entertainment news this weekend. Thanks for reading.

Top Five Movie Villains

· Leave a comment ·

Alan Rickman turned Hans Gruber into a legendary villain back in 1988. It was his first movie role after a series of TV work. Playing a terrorist hellbent on robbing rich executives in a high tower in Los Angeles, Rickman helped create an iconic movie character. A true villain. The best villains stay in a film addict’s mind decades later. Rickman played a few different unique villains and got me thinking about other great bad guys of cinema. Here are five that come to mind.

Heath Ledger’s Joker(The Dark Knight)

Ledger took over a role that Jack Nicholson made iconic and didn’t just paint a better shade of evil on it, he won an Oscar and created a role that help transcend what comic book bad guys are supposed to be on the big screen. His work led to many interpretations and impersonations. It consumed him and may have led to his early departure. Ledger didn’t just take a script and memorize lines. He did his own makeup, kept a diary as the Joker and locked himself in a hotel room for six weeks becoming this guy. Mastering the walk and the voice. Full immersion. In the end, Ledger made Joker the good guy and made you feel for his character and crave more. It is easily my favorite movie performance of all time and something all movie fans could respect.

Daniel Day Lewis’s Bill The Butcher(Gangs of New York)

Playing the epic bad guy in the old streets of New York facing off against Leonardo DiCaprio’s Amsterdam Vallon, Day Lewis created a nasty, cynical yet charmingly bashful bad guy. Ruthless, tough and all the necessary evil involved. However, Bill had a cause that he deemed noble. He wasn’t a villain or evil in his eyes. He was simply chasing a belief that suited his morals. Like any great bad guy, they aren’t really evil in their eyes. Just chasing a different thing. Worse than the good guy.

Joe Pesci’s Tommy DeVito(Goodfellas)

I’ll strike down upon thee with furious anger…

The smallest guy in the room who happened to be the toughest. You didn’t want to cross Tommy DeVito because he’d kill you and had help. Sure, Pesci threw a B-side album twist on this character in Scorsese’s Casino, but his most ruthless role will always be Tommy. A guy who beat a man to death with a gun, go to his moms house for dinner and a knife, and then shoot and carve that bloodied man and bury him. He’d oversee the killing of women if they got in the way and even killed a poor bus boy who crossed him. Pesci taught the world that size and muscle doesn’t mean much unless you are fearless.

Denzel Washington’s Alonzo Harris(Training Day)

Oscar winning performance for a reason. Denzel went full bad here and stepped into evil, playing a corrupt cop in need of a big score on the same day he is training a new detective(Ethan Hawke, the soft innocent foil to Washington’s rage fueled Kong). At first, he was merely corrupt. Then, he turned into a cold blooded murderer. Afterwards, he was willing to hand over his young partner to a drug kingpin in exchange for an escape plan. At the end of the film, you hated to see him go but loved watching him catch a thousand bullets in the chest. After a career of playing bad guys, Denzel went rogue in the most brutal way possible.

Rickman’s Hans Gruber(Die Hard)

The perfect suit. The perfect beard. The perfect silver plated handgun. Ruthless, cunning, and with an accent that even Alfred would be envious of, Rickman burst onto the scene with Gruber. The mastermind terrorist who has a simple plan thwarted by a relentless cop from New York.  He was 44 when Die Hard came out, getting a late start in the movies after being content on the stage and on the smaller screen. As much as Willis commanded the screen as the action hero, Rickman held your attention as the action villain. You wanted them to get another movie perhaps and go at it again in a different high rise. Every Die Hard that followed the original wasn’t as good because they couldn’t find a bad guy as good as Rickman. He was a cinematic virgin and after Die Hard, couldn’t stop finding work over the next 25 years.

Rickman was five weeks shy of his 70th birthday when he lost a long battle with cancer this morning. He will be remembered for Harry Potter by most people in their teens and 20’s but for the film addicted souls of the 1970’s and 1980’s he will be Hans. Forever. Rest in peace. Hopefully they buried him in a suit half as good as Hans’.

The Big Short: Dense yet fascinating

· Leave a comment ·
The Big Short/Paramount

Adam McKay is well known for directing comedies, and he didn’t just depart into an easy going action film or fictional drama. He picked up a big stick and took a swing at the mighty banks who drained the economy in 2006 in the Economic crisis. A dollar bill monster that ate up 5 trillion dollars(pensions, 401K, savings, bonds), took away 6 million homes and 8 million jobs. The Big Short(adapted from Michael Lewis’ novel) details a group of outsiders in the world of finance who notice the impending doom that is setting and set out to take a shot at the banks, government and media who stood by, did nothing and got rich. That is the easiest way to explain this film. Unless you want to know what a CDO is.

It’s a dense adventure. Watching The Big Short is like watching a slow moving heavyweight boxing match. The two large men stalk each other for a few rounds in the ring, throw some jabs, and hug a lot. Suddenly, one throws a deafening left hook and knocks the other man out. That is the way McKay and fellow screenwriter Charles Randolph treat Lewis’ prose. They pepper the audience with hedge fund terminology, stock broker jargon and David Mamet like delivery to make your head spin. At times, you feel like Google search is your best friend while watching this movie. You wonder about a world where it was impossible to pause a film and look stuff up. The Big Short isn’t for everybody. For hundreds of thousands who watch this film, it will anger them and feel like a band aide getting ripped off. For the rest, it’s a day at finance school.

There were wolves and there were sheep in the spring/summer of 2006, and when numbers like the percentage of unemployed going up correlating with thousands of people ending up dead, your attention is perked. When you don’t know who to trust and can’t tell a snake from a shark, the film only picks up speed and gathers you in its storm. It’s not easy to keep up with a film that seems to have sprint on a treadmill as you gathers lost papers behind it.

McKay was smart and cast well liked and good looking actors like Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Steve Carell, John Magaro, and Christian Bale to portray a variety of roles that springs some against type(Carell) and settle others down in their comfort zone(Bale and Gosling). Carell fares the best, playing Mark Baum, one of the minds who saw this jenga stack crumbling from a mile away.

Adapting a different method of speaking and curling himself into a ball of morose rage, Carell really creates something here instead of high stepping through scenes.  Gosling’s mad hat ring leader has some nice moments while Bale gets to revert back to wackiness as Michael Burry, a hedge fund CEO who slowly saw everything around him fold up even though he was convinced he saw this happening years in advance. Difficult yet fascinating.

Some get rich, most felt guilty and the others sulk and brood their way through the film’s conclusion. I found it very hard to love The Big Short but it was well done and I tip my hat to McKay in NOT casting Will Ferrell for once and taking on a project that wasn’t easy to spin. I don’t see a ton of Oscar potential in this film and while it’s not brilliant, it will get you thinking and teach you a few things about the collapse you may not have saw on CNN.

Kudos to McKay for including my favorite Led Zeppelin song, When the Levees Breaks, in the end credits in its entirety. Jimmy Page’s lyrics fit inside the threads of this film perfectly.

DiCaprio is the beating heart of The Revenant

· Leave a comment ·
The Revenant/20th Century Fox

Hey Hollywood, meet the new golden standard for survival flicks. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s The Revenant reshapes the expectations, entertainment and the overall brutality level of survival films. Leonardo DiCaprio finds yet another first class director that gives him a project to sink his cinematic chops into. This is a different kind of performance and one that anchors, elevates and sustains the film and its extended running time.

This isn’t just acting. This is full immersion into a role and a world that was known for its dead or alive status. Give DiCaprio a golden glove for the bear mauling scene that sets the film’s plot in motion and an Oscar for the go for broke all in performance he gives. You won’t see anything like this this year. DiCaprio barely speaks any English, grows a massive beard and allows the ugly to come out of his character, Fur trader turned death defying beast Justin Glass.

Glass is a good man haunted by the memory of his dead wife, who was killed in a raid. His son, half Indian, is all he has left in this world. The only thing for him to cling to while he makes a living hunting and killing bison and stripping their fur for cash. When a bear attacks him viciously and he is close to death, his crew abandons him, leaving him behind. They do so behind the propaganda jargon of the evil Fitzgerald(another dozy of a role for the fearless Tom Hardy). Left with nothing, Glass literally crawls across the earth, healing and gathering strength for the ultimate revenge mission.

Hardy is something else here. Fitzgerald isn’t just a bad man. He’s a twisted soul who is good at his job but not at much else, including compassion and respect for his fellow man. His fight with Glass during the film isn’t as fierce as the one raging in himself. Hardy doesn’t spare the audience one moment of pause, exposing himself to be something he has never played before. A true villain with purpose. Fitzgerald isn’t bad. He’s bent the wrong way.

Inarritu hangs the film, though, on DiCaprio’s shoulders. While the story springs away to follow Hardy’s Fitzgerald, there are extra long stretches of Glass withering, hobbling and doing anything to stay alive. Whether it’s crawling inside a dead horse for warmth, pigging out on raw Bison guts for dinner, or befriending an Indian(formerly his enemy) in order to stay breathing. While it’s slow moving, The Revenant is captivating in every moment. For a two hour and 36 minute movie, no scene or shot is wasted.

This film kicks your butt. It’s brutal, bare and asks all the powerful questions heavyweight dramas do this time of year. What are you in this world at your lowest level of function? When does the beast take over? Are their good and bad men, or just people with a certain philosophy that compels others to follow them? Also, when approached by a bear do not try to fight back unless you have a knife. A big knife.

That is the scene that will have everybody talking. The scene between a large brown bear and Glass that sets the tone for the rest of the film. You will leave yourself asking if that was a real bear or not, or half CGI or full CGI because it’s so horrifying and realistically done. DiCaprio is thrust into trees, stomped on, pierced by the bear’s claws and generally kicked around like a doll. If it wasn’t an actor, it was one heck of a beast inside that costume. Right when you think it’s over, the fight continues. It’s like a 12 round boxing match inside a movie and the actor’s commitment makes you buy all the way in.

That is how it works with the film. DiCaprio’s 100 % full throttle commitment to the story hold your attachment for the running time. A lesser actor would have been overpowered by it. Other capable actors may have done too much with it. DiCaprio does just enough to break your heart watching this emotionally and physically wounded soul find a way to live again.

When it does come time for the final battle between Fitzgerald and Glass, the actors and Inarritu don’t disappoint. An extended battle that starts in one snowy patch of land and escalates down a hill next to a river is wonderfully shot and intense. Fight scenes don’t get this messy and realistic in 95 percent of mainstream films. You may be rooting for Glass but you’ll understand why Fitzgerald is so mad. Nothing is spared and the end is sublimely optimistic yet bittersweet as well.

The Revenant/20th Century Fox

The Academy can go ahead and hand the cinematography award to Inarritu’s go to guy, Emmanuel Lubezki. They did Birdman together and elevate the craft even higher here, redefining beauty. There isn’t an endless tracking shot like the one in Birdman, but The Revenant presents many moments of sustained beauty and reward for the eyes. A getaway scene in particular involving DiCaprio on a horse trying to put distance between himself and about 30 other horses is taunt and aggressive enough to make you gasp when it suddenly ends. Lubezki knows exactly how to frame a shot and hold onto it, making it more realistic. He has worked on Oscar films before, such as Gravity, Children of Men, Tree of Life and the aforementioned Birdman. Combined with DiCaprio’s acting and Alejandro’s directing, the cinematography will make you feel cold even if you watch this film at a drive in movie theater in Florida.

If you think you have seen something like The Revenant, you are very wrong. It’s part Last of The Mohicans, part Castaway and a slice of Braveheart. It’s not just a great movie. It’s an experience.

“Burnt”: Medium well Bradley Cooper

· Leave a comment ·
Burnt/The Weinstein Company

Burnt isn’t an Oscar worthy film. Let’s dismiss that right away. That doesn’t mean the film isn’t worthwhile or will steal your time and money. John Wells’ savory dish is a crowd pleaser with a ultra confident Bradley Cooper in the driver seat operating a familiar engine.

The gifted yet troubled culinary genius who tries to revitalize his career by re-calibrating a Long restaurant ran by an old friend(Daniel Bruhl, who has an accent I wish I could adopt). He wants the three star Michelin rating. The Cy Young award. The World Series ring. The legacy that follows around every great chef the rest of his life. There’s zero, one, two or there’s the coveted three. Go big or go home is Adam Jones’ motto.

He had a chance in Paris and snorted, shot, or injected every last ounce of opportunity until most thought he was dead. That’s the way it is with high class chefs. They are their own worst enemies. Guilty by success and failure, and the cat walk that dangles between each plateau. Jones’ rival(Matthew Rhys, in between seasons of The Americans) needs him to stay sharp. Others need him for a job. Some want revenge. Some want money. Everybody wants a piece of Jones except himself. He wants the third star.

Wells populates this film with a talented cast. Sienna Miller(her second go around with Cooper after American Sniper), Omar Sy, Uma Thurman, and Emma Thompson are just a few that get to slice and dice up the dialogue from Steven Knight(Locke, Eastern Promises, upcoming World War Z 2). The story is just unpredictable enough to stay interesting. It’s all good work but the film hinges on the ability of Cooper to convince us to follow Jones along on this ride of redemption.

He isn’t a nice guy or a normal protagonist. He’s a pompous jerk who needs an extra kitchen for his ego but his brilliance at “the pass”(where the food makes its final stop before table distribution) is what separates him from the nice guys. Cooper is marvelous again in a role that needs confidence and swagger to work with a side of demons. Ten years ago, Cooper tried to play this character(on Fox’s short lived series Kitchen Confidential) and failed. A decade and a career revival later, he fits perfectly into this tormented skin. Cooper needed to take a few licks in Hollywood before he could properly set his feet and take a full swing. These days, he can’t miss.

It may not be Oscar worthy work but Burnt is easy on the mind and the eyes(the food is a fine supporting player). Cooper doesn’t deserve a spot next to Michael Fassbender or Leonardo DiCaprio in February, but he is very good here and carries the film like a seasoned pro(or a freshly minted 41 year old, happy birthday Coop).

Burnt may not be a perfect medium rare filet, but it’s a brilliantly cooked medium well strip. Perfect for a night of modest expectations.

Let’s put it this way. I had a choice to take my wife to see this or Spectre back in November. I wish I had chose Burnt.

The end.

Christmas Vacation: The perfect holiday flick

· Leave a comment ·

Every patriarch knows the pain of Clark Griswold around the holidays. Trust me. The collision of family, responsibility of family, and the undeniable tension that comes with Christmas. One of John Hughes’ best scripts was Christmas Vacation and over 25 years later, it still has bite left in it. Some heat on its fastball. The movie still plays extremely well, all the jokes zinging like they were written yesterday and the actors buying in with great comic relief.

Warner Brothers Pictures

Most of the actors aren’t working much anymore. Chevy Chase was a movie star back then, but he has the occasional cameo or TV show these days. Randy Quaid’s Cousin Eddie still draws the best moments of the film, but the actor has gone cucko the past decade. Beverly D’Angelo, Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecko(Big Bang Theory) aren’t exactly sleeping on the job, but they aren’t household names. That’s the jewel of some films. The movie undoubtedly outlasts the cast when it comes to value.

While The Christmas Story and It’s A Wonderful Life carry a certain special place in many movie fans hearts(and for good reason), Christmas Vacation is my gem and go to holiday film. I remember watching it with my dad many times as a kid, reveling in the awkward yet hilarious scenes between Quaid and Chase that draw the true laughs. As I have grown older and started a family of my own, the film has gained reverence and stature. Some things you just don’t understand when you are a kid. Meeting your parents’ expectations. Being a hero to your kids. Having the best house on the block. I see parts of Clark in myself and a lot of him in my dad. At their best, movies are mirror images of real life, especially when you watch them a few times.

The best part about Christmas Vacation was the honesty it depicted in family gatherings. The people you don’t look forward to seeing and the ones that cause your blood pressure to rise. Hughes didn’t sidestep the messy aspects of holiday dinners. It didn’t overdo the sap in the end either, involving cutthroat corporate policies with the strains it puts on certain families and the employees who hang their year end happiness on a bonus and not a jelly of the month membership. Without intention, Hughes created a classic that my son will be able to enjoy.

While Cousin Eddie’s raucous behavior will garner the most laughs, it’s the quiet moments with Clark and his family looking for trees, his comments to his co-workers at the end of a work day and an old man lighting a match next to a large tree with a squirrel in it that resonate. Every time I watch it, I pick up something different and unique.

This weekend, gather the family around and watch Christmas Vacation. Sure, your grandmother will talk about Chase’s roles in other films. Your uncle will register with Eddie’s thought process while he pops open his 15th beer. Your mother won’t understand why a man has to wear a hockey mask to trim a tree trunk. Your son will tell Clark to watch his language. Your dad won’t be able to take his eyes off the supermodel lingerie clerk and guess what, Julie Louise-Dreyfus gets attacked by a squirrel and a dog.

In the end, people will laugh and be glad they took it in. That’s Christmas. Flawed happiness that’s wholesome. That’s this movie. It’s perfect. It has bite, an edge and just enough warmth to keep your eyes from rolling.

One more thing. Don’t watch it on ABC Family. Get the unedited version. Spend the ten bucks at Target. The jokes land hard and right without a blanket attached for landing.

 

The Hateful Eight: QT’s best?

· Leave a comment ·

Quentin Tarantino was born to make movies. His latest, The Hateful Eight, is another example of how great he truly is and how he was born to make flicks. Sometimes, it happens like that in the make believe business. A master storyteller’s own life is a great story. Tarantino worked at a video rental shop while watching tons of movies and talking up Kung Fu flicks with anybody who would listen. He was a freak of film. Someone who needed it and craved it. Unlike millions of other, Tarantino had a vision. He wanted to make these things. Write and direct. Or nothing else.

Weinstein Company

Later on, he made a couple of groundbreaking films. Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. Movies with stunning violence, iconic characters, lots of profanity and extended unbroken takes of dialogue. Lots of talking. Philosophical. Direct. Poignant at times. Tarantino hasn’t shown the ability to hit the bullseye every time(Jackie Brown) but he’s never made a bad movie.

QT’s movies take place in the present day, the 90’s, during World War II or in latest case, after the American Civil War in the late 1800’s. No matter where they happen, it’s a QT joint. His signature touch exists in all of his films. You ask me the goal should be for every director in Hollywood and it’s the recognition an audience has when they see your film. They sit down and immediately know this is a Tarantino film.

The Hateful Eight carries that stamp early on, with the Ennio Morricone score, the Panavision powered opening, and the heavy hitting cast.

Every QT joint has three things:

*Lots of F-Bombs.

*Samuel L. Jackson in a great role that people will quote afterwards.

*Unusual kill scenes.

What’s it about? A group of bounty hunters, prisoners, killers, former soldiers and some of the most overall untrustworthy folks in the world meet in a cabin during a terribly brutal blizzard. Kurt Russell’s bounty hunter is transporting a prisoner, Daisy(Jennifer Jason Leigh) to be hanged. He picks up a fellow bounty hunter/ex-soldier(Jackson) and appointed sheriff(Walter Goggins) along the way. When they get to the cabin, something seems off. Mysterious men(Tim Roth, Demian Bichir, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern) are stuck in this same cabin. There are eight people total. Some people know others. Some do not.

Russell, nicknamed Hangman because he doesn’t kill people that are wanted dead or alive but takes them to hang because “other people have to make money too”, thinks they are there to stop Daisy from hanging. Jackson’s drifter is the opposite. He kills(a lot) but is civilized about it. It’s a treat to see the actor have another good time in a QT film. Jackson works a lot, too much if you ask me, and three of every four films he makes end up sucking. However, in Tarantino’s hands speaking a hypnotic brand of dialogue, Jackson shines like a brand new penny. The Jackson-Tarantino film relationship may not be as potent as Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese, but five films in there hasn’t been a less than stellar performance.

Russell had one of his best roles in the last decade with Tarantino, playing Stunt Man Mike in Death Proof. Here, his ruthlessly violent John Ruth is a fair measure of good, bad and ugly. He isn’t the most evil but when he slugs Leigh’s Daisy a few times too many, it’s hard to stay sided with him. Goggins, a celebrated TV performer, also makes himself at home in Tarantino’s world here. He always plays men who are hard to trust yet impossible to take your eyes off him as he works. These three easily fare the best of the celebrated cast, and viewers won’t soon forget another legendary Jackson speech right around the 90 minute mark that sets off the furious action.

That’s right, folks, H8 is talky. Very talky. All Tarantino films involve extended dialogue scenes, verbal foreplay before the subplots and main plot are submerged together and people die. Full of characters who are either despicable or extra deadly or capable of the wrong things, it doesn’t take long before bad things happen. Oh, and Channing Tatum shows up and makes a brilliant entrance.

For my money, Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained had great moments but were both uneven films. They weren’t complete pleasures. They weren’t the usual QT masterpiece(Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill 2 setting that table). Far from average but a half mile short of greatness, those two films didn’t come close to the high mark that Hateful Eight achieves in one setting, eight main characters and a simple story line. No World War II villains needed. No slavery aided push. Just a group of gunslingers.

If you are a QT fan, you will love this film. It has all the trimmings one would expect in a Tarantino turkey. No one writes dialogue like this man. It’s realistic while carrying a graphic novel flair for the dramatic. The actors, handpicked gems like Madsen, all eat up the material like pros. Madsen is a unique breed of actor. He’s made over 245 films in his career but every time he hooks up with Quentin, a great character is formed. His Joe Cage is no different. Don’t trust him!

If you are not a QT fan, then this will shock you and ultimately, seduce you. If you appreciate original stories with no superheroes involved and crave an unsettling feel to a movie, Hateful Eight is your best dish available. I had a lot of fun with it and would watch the two hour and 47 minute film again. Once again, it’s a different kind of film and not for everybody. If QT made films for everybody, they’d be called The Hunger Games(come to think of it, I’d love to see him direct the prequels).

Is The Hateful Eight Tarantino’s best? Right now, it is not. Pulp Fiction is still his most assured, shocking, most funny and hypnotic slice of pie. This latest wild affair does come pretty close. Make a pot of coffee and bring it to the movie theater.

“Concussion”reconfigured my view of football

· Leave a comment ·
Concussion/Columbia Pictures

The tale of the new film Concussion is simple. Dr. Bennet Omalu(Will Smith) didn’t want to destroy America’s game, football. He simply wanted to protect the players who take the field and absorb the thousands of hits. He wanted players to know what they were getting into. Peter Landesman’s new film isn’t fancy or covered in Oscar worthy ways from head to toe but its message will live on beyond our lifetimes. Football isn’t just a dangerous sport. It’s a deadly one.

The worst thing people will do when seeing this movie is wave it off as nonsense. They will go to their Sunday games, cheer on the big hit, and make short vines of football players getting rocked so hard that they are carried off the field afterwards. People will watch these over and over again. On Youtube, Sportscenter and NFL Network. Violence on any level fascinates the human brain. People hate to admit it, but it does. They will say the graceful aspect of the game pulls them in. Same for boxing fans who say the sweet science is the main allure, when in actuality it’s the hard knockouts they love. That’s why Mike Tyson was a stud and he couldn’t even box. People love violence so they will overlook this important film.

Omalu was a forensic neuropathologist. He’d cut open dead bodies and root out the cause of death, even talking to them before hand, like a corpse whisperer. He came upon an ex-NFL football legend, Mike Webster and found brain bleeds and swelling that would suggest Alzheimer’s but that wasn’t it. It was what he would later call Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy(CTE). If it sounds like a handful, imagine being an former pro football player under 50 years old who pulled his teeth out and used super glue to put them back. As Omalu tells a room full of skeptics towards the end of the film, “A football player should know he may break a bone or two. He shouldn’t know he would lose his mind.”

The doctor pulled a rug out from under people’s normal thought process. Millions of people figured football players knew or were at least informed about the long term effects of concussions. They weren’t. Players had no idea their brain was being slammed, dislodged and slowly releasing protein on every big hit like a racquetball being juggled inside a small jar.

Smith is amazing as Omalu, adapting the accent, mannerisms and imbuing the part with strength. This may be his finest work yet, and he has been nominated for Oscars before. I had my doubts going into the film, but Smith did the role great justice. Without his conviction, the story wouldn’t resonate.

Omalu was threatened by the NFL. The government came down on his boss’ practice and tried to derail him. As a fellow doctor tells him, he gave the league’s biggest Boogeyman a name. America dedicated a day of the week to football and here was this doctor, who wasn’t even a citizen of the United States, trying to tell them football is bad for the brain like smoking is on the lungs. No one wanted to believe it until former players started dropping like flies to suicide and their brains had no other answers. How do you define madness if you don’t register or appreciate the science behind it?

You will be shocked at this film. It will reconfigure your thought process on football. I may not stop watching the game, but I will never look at it the same again. You can’t unsee what is shown to you in this film. If Landesman’s film doesn’t come off as Oscar worthy, it’s only because it plays for the most part like a documentary, albeit with great performances. Its effect won’t fully land for years. There are rumblings though.

Chris Borland, San Francisco 49ers running back, retired this year after one season in the NFL, giving up three million. Patrick Willis gave up 7.8 million dollars at the age of 30. Jake Locker retired as a free agent at 26 after making 12.6 million. Jason Worilds retired even though every team wanted him. He was 27 years old. They are getting out early, due to the effects of CTE. Maybe they all won’t admit that, but it’s true. You can read more about that here.

The NFL won’t do a thing. They will keep trying to read a book with the lights turned off. They want nothing to do with the 16 million being donated to CTE research. Recently, former player Eric Winston pledged to donate his brain to research. Everybody is taking action except for the NFL. High School coaches are teaching new methods of tackling, but the hits are still hard and the effects are excessive. At least now players know what can happen. That is all Dr. Omalu wanted to do. Raise awareness for football players about the dangers of entering into this game.

Sorry if this review started off as a “should you see this or not” practice and devolved into an expose, but sometimes the morals and meanings of particular films take a hold of you in unexpected ways. While it isn’t memorable in how it was made or feature brilliant direction, Concussion hits hard enough as it is delivered. It doesn’t need the extra cute trimmings. It’s got the truth and an Oscar worthy Will Smith.

Imagine walking up to a door. The person outside the door says, “Go in, participate, you may get hurt initially but there are no long term effects, oh and do this for 8-10 years.” So you walk in and absorb more punishment than ever thought. You are paid handsomely but were unaware of the cost of the game. Welcome to the NFL.

Do me a favor and the next time you watch a game and see a big hit, register how you first react. Don’t look around too much. Don’t think. Just react. You know how I will react now when I see a helmet to helmet hit between a helpless ball carrier and another man leaving his feet to take out that other guy…I will be nauseous. Unsettled. I’m not sure how passionately I will follow this game. It won’t be easy. Hypocritical behavior will follow because I am one of those people who claim to love the beautiful pass or methodical movement of an offense downfield. I will struggle at times with this game. There is beauty in it but ridiculous amounts of danger. What if players knew 30-40 years ago what we knew now?

Concussion begs you to consider that question. Is this a great overall movie? That is debatable. Should it get your attention? Absolutely. It will have mine for decades. When my son asks about football, Concussion will be on my mind.  One of those rare instances where movies aren’t just entertainment. They are transcendent.

Concussion/Columbia Pictures

Movie Reviews: 200 words or less

· Leave a comment ·

Let’s try something new. Movie reviews in less than 250 words. When people look for movie reviews, they don’t want to worn down with prose. It’s not a best selling novel on their agenda. Give the goods and do it quick. So let me run over some recent films I have watched in 200 words or less.

Digging For Fire(directed by Joe Swanberg)-On Demand/Redbox/ITunes

Lucky Coffee Productions

Drinking Buddies > Digging for Fire. Swanberg’s last(Olivia Wilde’s best performance) was so much better that this new indie barely registers.

This isn’t a bad movie but so little happens. A group of friends find buried bones and a gun, go digging and search for themselves amidst marriage and relationship issues.  A film where the characters in the movie are so realistic that it’s boring to watch them do ordinary things. How do you make 80 minutes seem so long?

Jake Johnson, Rosemarie DeWitt and the rest of the cast are good actors but they can’t save a script that is bland and ultimately a lackluster attempt at hipster cool. Orlando Bloom shows up and may be the best part of the movie. That’s not a good thing.

The Intern(directed by Nancy Meyers)-Hits DVD on January 19th

This is a sweet film, a Meyers special. She makes sweetly romantic comedies that go down like a fine lager on a fall evening. Anne Hathaway and Robert DeNiro have perfect chemistry as the CEO of a fashion website and a senior intern who changes her life.

You may see what’s coming or you may not, but this comedy is so easy moving and confident that it won’t matter. Great acting tromps original scripts in the right film. You’ll appreciate the change of pace turn from DeNiro and Hathaway’s maturation as an actress comes off like a 20 foot jump shoot here.

The Intern is a perfect film to watch with the relatives gathered into your home so find it in a theater somewhere or look for it in the coming weeks.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens(directed by J.J. Abrams) In Theaters

Whatever you hated about the prequels, you will love about J.J. Abrams kickback to the Return of the Jedi days here. By bringing back old legends like Han Solo(Harrison Ford having a lot of fun) and Leia(Carrie Fisher) and introducing new heroes like Rey and Finn(Daisy Ridley and John Boyega), Abrams is spreading the appeal of the franchise to all ages. Don’t be surprised when it shatters all box office records Monday. When you pick up a popular piece of fiction and do it right with some respect, greatness can happen. The Force Awakens is a nostalgic blast.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation(directed by Christopher McQuarrie) New release on Redbox/DVD/ITunes

The best spy film in 2015 wasn’t Spectre or Kingsman. It was Tom Cruise’s fifth stop as Ethan Hunt, the death defying super agent who won’t quit until everyone in the audience is satisfied.

Just like Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation did what MI flicks do best. Breathtaking action sequences, versatile casts with a few new faces, and Cruise dominating the entire operation by putting his neck and soul into the role. Ask me and this is his best character. A place where he is most at home in. Action and adventure. If Furious 7 had a brain, it would be called Mission Impossible.

The Ref(directed by Ted Demme) ITunes/Amazon for 2.99

Underrated Christmas movie. When the kids go to bed this holiday week, get the grownups together and watch the marvel Denis Leary work a script like a boxer does an overmatched opponent for 12 rounds. The comedy maestro plays a thief who kidnaps a couple and runs into the night of his life when they turn out to be bickering maniacs and their family is even worse.

The late director Ted Demme had a gift with actors and could create a tone that slowly boiled over into laugh out comedy. Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis are perfect foils for Leary’s maniac type hilarity and the film doesn’t need to stop when the credits roll. In the middle of the dark comedy clouds, you get a few well timed sentimental moments that Grandma will appreciate. This is a film to watch during the holidays.

Touchstone Pictures

That’s it. Short to the point movie reviews that can be read in the same amount of time it takes to check an email or have half a cup of coffee. Come back next week for five more movie reviews in 200 words or less.