Category: Movie Reviews

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is a beast

· Leave a comment ·

Thank you, J.J. Abrams.

LucasFilm/Bad Robot Productions

Star Wars: The Force Awakens can be appreciated and beloved by movie fans, young, middle aged and old.

The renegade director who just can’t fail(seriously, he hasn’t made a bad flick) has successfully rejuvenated another lost franchise. After throwing a fresh coat of cool hipster paint on Star Trek by carving out an origin tale, Abrams has rebooted the Star Wars saga with a fresh exciting dose of old fashioned cinematic entertainment.

Look at Harrison Ford, throwing on the leather coat and slipping easily back into the role that helped put him on the map(sorry Indiana Jones but no thanks). Han Solo is back and better than ever, giving the 70+ year old fresh sea legs on the big screen and delivering nostalgic goosebumps to older fans like myself who grew up watching him make a ship travel at 12 parsecs. It’s invigorating watching the actor revisit one of his finest roles.

Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill make shorter yet still potent returns to Princess(now General) Leia and the missing in action Luke Skywalker. While sprinkling small tributes to the original three films, Abrams also introduces a new fleet of players to the universe.

Rey(Daisy Ridley) is the new Luke, a young scavenger looking for life, money and a purpose on her desolate home planet before a BB8(think younger brother type of R2D2) finds her and throws her into an adventure that eventually links her up with jaded former Storm tropper Finn(John Boyega). They join forces with Leia’s new hotshot pilot Poe(Oscar Isaac, having a ton of fun and injecting some finely timed humor into a hero role) to take on Kylo Ren(Adam Driver, cutting a menacing Vader like figure) and the new First Order, basically Death Star 2.0. Rey and company side with the Resistance(keeping names simple here) to battle Ren and the bad guys. Pretty simply good, bad and funny cool going on here.

I didn’t know much about Ridley and Boyega but they cut memorable impressions here as young heroes thrust into a life changing situation. A scene near the end with Ren in a forest will raise the blood pressure and bring it back down before jacking it up again. This movie does that over and over again. For new fans, it will be a cool action flick with weird creatures and humans clashing. For older fans, it’s a fully realized return to the 80’s when Star Wars was the freshest thing on the cinematic street.

Force Awakens cuts a more serious tone throughout the film, with legendary characters falling and others rising. There are as many chilling moments as the ones that will wrap a smile around your face. Abrams is building a new trilogy after all and this the official kickoff. John Williams’ score couldn’t have been remastered any better, the sound of the opening credits hitting your senses like a bolt of lightning.

The standout player here is Driver, bringing back harsh and sinister memories of Darth Vader and his cold blooded dealings. When he enters the first scene in the film and unleashes that voice, the fear is instant. The man has been good before, in lighter fare like HBO’s Girls and This is Where I Leave You, but here he truly creates something that will stick with you. When the mask comes off later in the film, Driver’s performance kicks up a notch and lands on a whole new level of great. A scene with Ren and Solo will undoubtedly make fans clinch their seats in anticipation.

In the end, Abrams doesn’t just acquit himself. He makes the story and franchise his own, the same way he did a few years ago with Star Trek. The moment the sequel got put in his hands, a sigh of relief entered my mind. Star Wars fanatic or not, you could appreciate what Abrams was going to bring to the flick. He may not win an Oscar, but he gets an “Atta boy” from millions of people across the world.

SWTFA will easily smash box office records and for good reason. A film hyped as the second coming of greatness comes pretty close to matching that anticipation by having some real fun. Without overdoing the drama or forgetting about the well timed humor(Ford and Boyega have some great moments), Abrams(which he co-wrote with Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt) has made an old classic cool and hip again, good enough for any crowd during the holidays.

If you find the time, go see Star Wars VII. Fanatic or not, it’s a true cinematic experience.

Heat: Sizzling 20 years later

· Leave a comment ·

20 years after it came out guns blazing in theaters, I can still spot Michael Mann’s Heat around the corner. It’s my favorite movie of all time and let me tell you why.

December 15th, 1995. My dad and I attended the film on a chilly night at Esquire on Clayton Rd. They didn’t put Heat in the big auditorium. Something less was. I couldn’t wait for the film. Al Pacino. Robert DeNiro. Trading cinematic punches over a nearly three hour crime drama about cops and robbers. You couldn’t draw it up better.

My dad and I were cinephiles. We were addicts who always needed an escape from the real world. Every week, we’d see at least two films. Maybe three. I’ve learned some of the greatest lessons in life from the thousands of questions I have asked my dad after a show. Heat was no different.

DeNiro’s Neal McCauley was the world’s greatest bank robber. He had an impeccable crew of imperfect men. Val Kilmer, in one of his past truly great roles, as Chris Shiherlis, the gambling junkie who could crack a safe and fire a semi automatic gun like no other. Tom Sizemore, before the crazy fallout and direct to DVD redundancy, as Michael Cheritto(I pronounce it just like Tone Loc does). Danny Trejo as the driver. Dennis Haysbert, known to many as the All State guy or Pedro Cerrano, as the second getaway and doomed driver.

Pacino’s up all night bloodhound detective Vincent Hanna and his team of badge carrying jackals go after McCauley and his crew. Among them, Wes Studi’s Casals, Mykelti Williamson(aka Bubba from Forrest Gump) as Drucker and the unforgettable voice of Ted Levine as Bosko. Four suits chasing four thieves in the night.

Each crew had internal imperfections. DeNiro chases the simple life with Amy Brenneman’s artist and pays for it. Kilmer’s Chris can’t stop gambling away everything, including his wife(Ashley Judd). All of them have either wives or kids attached to their madness. Housewives who don’t know any better.

Pacino is on his third wife(Diane Venora) who has a troublesome kid(Natalie Portman) and their relationship is rocky at best. Bosko, Casals and Drucker all have wives. Everybody carries a certain amount of juice with them on the job but as Pacino deftly points out, he keeps it all at an arms distance.

“I told you, when we hooked up, baby, that you were gonna have to share me with all the bad people and all the ugly events on this planet.”-Hanna

Hanna’s life is that way because he spends all of his time chasing McCauley around. His drug is chasing these bad men around the city. Going home is a breather. A letdown. Something that doesn’t equal the thrill of the hunt.

Mann’s film is a classic and sets itself apart from the other hundred cops and robbers films because it’s authentic and feels real at every moment. There are zero special effects. All the guns are real and sometimes, the bullets are even real. For a gunfight that still thrills during every viewing, Mann unleashed over 2,000 squibs on downtown Los Angeles.

Filming a scene where Hanna’s crew ambushes McCauley’s crew’s escape, hell is truly unleashed. M-4 assault rifles, shotguns and various handguns are fired. Several cars are destroyed. It’s a riveting scene and stands out among action scenes from the past 20 years. Maybe 50 years. Watch it and everything sounds brutally realistic. The guns seem to ring off the corner of the room you are sitting in. Guns are actually reloaded and jam too, making the scene even more real. The damage they do stops men and doesn’t just hinder their movement. Everything is real and done honestly.

Mann’s Heat influenced other filmmakers like Christopher Nolan’s opening bank scene in The Dark Knight(fun fact, William Fichtner is in both films). His action scenes are always mentioned in other commentaries because if how visceral they are filmed and are portrayed on any television set across the world. Mann expertise in crime films goes all the way back to Manhunter, but Heat is his masterpiece.

The film holds up so well over the years due to the well thought out story lines in between the action. The plot had muscle on it. For all the acclaim it gathers(and for good reason), the action only takes up about 25-30 minutes of the film. Everything else details the messy and honest lives of cops and high level criminals. How marriages fall due to overly dedicated detectives staring into the abyss of tragedy and violence. How hopeless a criminal’s engagement with a woman or his kids can be with jail or death right around the corner. No one in the film is evil. Well, everyone except for Kevin Gage’s Waingro, a despicable killer who helps bring Neal’s crew down.

The Hall of Fame coffee shop scene between Pacino and DeNiro, which represented the first time the two titans of film shared the big screen, is so well played and scripted. The actors don’t try to chew the scenery. They just let the dialogue dance right off their tongue and allow their eyes and gestures to do the rest.

Vincent telling Neal, “You do what you do, and I do what I gotta do. If I’m there and I gotta put you away, I won’t like it. But I tell you, if it’s between you and some poor (guy) whose wife you’re gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down.”

And Neal responding with, “There is a flip side to that coin. What if you do got me boxed in and I gotta put you down? Cause no matter what, you will not get in my way. We’ve been face to face, yeah. But I will not hesitate. Not for a second.”

Hearing those words make the hair on my neck stand up to attention and applaud. They still dazzle with conviction after all these years.

In the end, Heat taught me that good and bad people can have respect for each other, even when they are forced to face off. They may have chosen a different walk in life, but they can understand what makes the other tick and decide how to fight it or avoid it. All the while, these two men also fought themselves in a way. How your decisions in life mold your future or destroy it, like a rock going through a window.

The final scene, supported perfectly by Moby’s earth shattering score, still brings a tear to my eye because it follows through on everything the rest of the film taught you and led you to. It doesn’t make these men perfect or immovable. In the end, they were simply humans making choices. Sometimes, deadly ones.

You’ll never see another cast like this either. Pacino, DeNiro, Kilmer, Sizemore, Judd, Venora, Portman, Studi, Williamson, Levine, Trejo, and Brenneman. Jon Voight as McCauley’s partner in crime, the man who set him up with guys like Tom Noonan’s Kelso. Fichtner and Henry Rollins. Jeremy Piven as the doctor who helps out McCauley by giving him the shirt his daughter bought him. Hank Azaria as Judd’s lover and the man who created one of Pacino’s greatest funny moments. Haysbert as the ex-con who put his life in McCauley’s hands.  A hitter’s list of actors who were at the top of their game and brought it. Everybody brought something unique to their performance.

Watch Heat. Do it for me and yourself. Show some self respect. Movie addict or not, you will find something in it you love or cherish. You will respect it or be blown away by it.

Robert Loggia: A classy face of cinema

· Leave a comment ·

A gangster named Frank Lopez in Scarface. A toy company CEO in Big. A priest. A wise man. A dozen cops. Two dozen other gangster roles. For over 64 years and 230 different movies and television roles, Robert Loggia was a face of cinema you couldn’t forget. General Grey in Independence Day! Loggia played three different characters on the 1970’s series, The Rockford Files. Charlie’s Angels. Starsky and Hutch.You name it and Loggia played it.

He was FBI agent Nick Mancuso for over 20 episodes. He was Coach Wally Rig in the Scott Bakula football cult classic, Necessary Roughness. Loggia, after five hard years of battling Alzheimer’s Disease, passed away Friday at the age of 85 years young. He earned every one of them and his work in the land of make believe to live on for decades. You can watch his movies on Netflix tonight if you wanted. He wasn’t in it for the fame and glitz. Loggia was a true actor. A worker. Hard edged and passionate.

Born and raised in New York City, Loggia broke into acting at the age of 21 years old and did more than four projects per year. Like Christopher Walken, he didn’t care what the role was. He just did it and did it well. In a way you would remember. No one will ever forget Loggia’s raspy laugh and street wide smile and cackle. It was a signature part of every role he played.

He never stopped working. In 2015, he had four releases planned and has three incomplete films slated for post production as this is typed. The only thing that could have kept Loggia off a set was his lovely wife Audrey, whom he was married to since 1982. What St. Louis and Missouri film fans may not know is that Loggia graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a journalism degree in 1951, the year he started acting. He served in the army and spent time on Broadway.

Nothing scared Loggia when it came to life or film. He was a month shy of his 86th birthday when he passed. The film world owes a debt to him. How many actors can you think of have acted in over 200 films or TV shows? How many have played in so many and elevated every single one they were in?

Loggia was a classic face of film, someone you see and smile knowing that the part he is playing will be played with fierce attention to detail and the authenticity that a film fan covets.

Stop by Netflix tonight and watch these Loggia aided films. Wide Awake, Over the Top, or the holiday film, An Evergreen Christmas.

Batman v Superman trailer teases greatness

· Leave a comment ·

“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.

Spotlight is a potent slice of cinema

· Leave a comment ·

Certain movies knock you down so hard that upon leaving the theater, you can’t properly describe them. Instead, you are full of emotion, vigor and a need to tell as many people about what you just saw in a dark room with a few others. Spotlight, Tom McCarthy’s renegade tour de force, is one of those experiences. A film so powerful, important and straight on the dose that it will remove you from a comfortable position and place you down in an nostalgic zone that viewers must have felt in 1976 upon leaving Sidney Lumet’s Network in Alan J. Pakula’s All The Presidents Men. As if something was brought to your attention.

Spotlight is a film about hardcore relentless journalism and the pursuit of a truth few saw worth finding. An incredible true story that needs to be told and appreciated. I often think about the lack of knowledge we as a nation would have without journalists digging deep into the dark crevices where they aren’t allowed or told not to look. Like detectives without guns and only armed with their badge of honor, reporters have to chase down injustice and truth with all their will and place their name on top of all of it like a flag in land conquered by no one.

Back in 2002, the Boston Globe went after the Catholic Church for covering up years of sexual molestation from a number of priests. A special reporting team, aka Spotlight, was given the job by new editor in chief Marty Baron(Liev Schreiber, tearing into his best cinematic role in over a decade). The team was led by Walter “Robby” Robinson(Michael Keaton) and comprised of Sasha Pfeiffer(Rachel McAdams), Mike Rezendes(Mark Ruffalo) and Matt Carroll(Brian d’Arcy James). Their boss was Ben Bradbury(John Slattery), a guy who protected them while sheltering them from any potential blowback and showed them how long the leash was for a story.

Baron, a stoic newcomer from Miami at the time, wanted to tackle something that had been swept under the rug years ago by the Metro division. A case about molestation in the church. Taking a swing at the church was like shoving Goliath in the street and challenging him to a fight. It wasn’t about right or wrong with the church. It was about who had the guts to stand up against them and not just turn away when an advisor tells them the problem is only coming from “a few bad apples”. You wouldn’t let the police get away with something terrible if it was just a few bad people, so why the church. Baron’s greatest strength was not caring who he angered or the amount of feathers that he ruffled. He wanted to give something back to the readers. Spotlight, facing a push back everywhere, relentlessly investigates this story and finds a hidden horror that was being covered up to protect people who broke so many rules and violated so many that looking away was advised over standing up.

McCarthy has a dream cast. In addition to Schreiber, Keaton really tears into the role of Robby, a man who dictates where his team looks, reaches or pushes. It’s so gratifying to see this gifted actor tackling roles like Birdman and Spotlight that bring out all his greatest gifts as an actor. He doesn’t overplay the role but like the others here, just gives it the right amount of juice to forget you are watching an actor and believe that you are being transported back to the real event.

McAdams has worked a lot in the past two years, but only here does she find a project worthy of her talents. She may finish her career as a woman who never got the proper role to garner her an Oscar but she is an underrated actress. She gives you the two essential qualities of a journalist here. Strength and speed. She’s very good.

Many moviegoers may not know James, who has done a ton of TV work, both large and small but never received a part that had this much weight. He fits perfectly into the cast of familiar faces, with his 1970’s look and stature as the member of the group who did the digging and made sure the ground beneath Spotlight wouldn’t crumble. I am not sure he needs to work a lot more, but he is excellent here.

The best here may come from Mark Ruffalo, playing the ferocious truth seeking reporter Mike Rezendes. The other actors change their way of speaking a little and adapt a mannerism, but Ruffalo dives headfirst into this guy who didn’t eat much, sleep enough or gave his family the kind of attention that he donated to the lost souls in his columns. He is like Vincent Hanna in Heat, a man who doesn’t know how to do barbecues or ballgames yet only chase down the story. Ruffalo has been on fire lately, dominating Foxcatcher, Begin Again, HBO’s A Normal Heart or a weird indie like Infinitely Polar Bear. Talk about a guy who can’t miss and also mixes in the fun with Bruce Banner in Avengers. Here, playing Rezendes, Ruffalo is a human gas leak for all the people who wish the church was protected. He won’t stop and Ruffalo doesn’t leave anything on the table with his performance.

John Slattery will always remind me of Roger Sterling, but that doesn’t mean he can’t take a full step in a role and push something great across to the audience. Playing the guy who wanted to say No more than Baron, Slattery is a glass case of nerves that slowly shatters. Stanley Tucci also puts in good work as a lawyer who assists Rezendes.

Spotlight, like last year’s Kill The Messenger, deserves your attention. It’s not just about being entertained. It’s about learning a little about a great moment in American journalism while being entertained by actors you know and love yet haven’t seen this particular way yet. It’s about a scandal that was conveniently sleeping under a rug until a team of reporters made it right and went after it. The effect of this investigation elicited a Pulitzer Prize and hundreds of investigations into churches that stretched across the globe. In a modern age where the newspaper is dying, Spotlight is an old school kick of powerful nostalgia and a reminder that nothing is sexier in an office than fearless reporting.

It doesn’t get more timely than this, folks. Every time you go to the movies, it’s like betting on a race horse. Which one will give you the most bang for your buck? Which one is worth staking? Spotlight is a film that doesn’t just deserve your time and money. It deserves your attention after the lights up. It will start a conversation that may shake you a bit but leave knowing that what you just saw was vital to the human spirit.

Man Vs. Woman: Guilty Pleasures

· Leave a comment ·

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.

Man Vs. Woman: Movie Remakes

· Leave a comment ·

(Originally posted on Up All Night News this summer)

Movie remakes? Can’t kill them and can’t avoid them. They are the new plague in Hollywood and their consistency is as absolute as their aggression.

In the first of many segments, fellow UAN scribe Kristen Ashly and I will tackle groundbreaking topics and things that men and women usually differ on. The worst thing a man can hear is “well, a woman wouldn’t say or think that”. Well guess what, that goes out the window in this brand new Up All Night edition because here, a man AND a woman get to weigh in on pop culture debates, historical conundrums or shit that basically makes you step back and think about. The DH in baseball. Women roles in Hollywood. If the world ends, who do we want leading us to safety? The stout reliance of Chuck Norris, or the unsure yet passionate bow and arrow carrying, sharp-witted Jennifer Lawrence? Kristen is as sharp as it gets, and we will tackle it all.

First up, movie remakes in Hollywood. Good, bad or plain ugly? With the new trailer for Point Break‘s remake spreading around the net, this seemed like a timely battle to partake in.

Buffa’s Take on Remakes

They suck. 99 percent of the time they don’t work, fail to connect with audiences old and new, and are a general mistake. Remakes are a painful reminder of Hollywood’s inability to create original interesting material. They can’t seem to find writers with good scripts or they look for the almighty dollar. How long before Beverly Hills Cop is remade with Kevin Hart or Indiana Jones is brought back with Chris Pine slapping the whip? Grow up and reach deep, power suits of Make Believe Land. Stop selling out and making tired old drivel. Stop walking into the bank and getting money out of that account. Create a new one. Fans may not get it at first but they will appreciate the new content eventually.

Point Break is a sad reminder of Hollywood’s reluctance to produce original content. The first trailer inspires me to walk out to the theater on opening day, grab one of those cool little one sheets of the poster and whip my ass with it. Why touch a movie made in 1991 by Kathyrn Bigelow that still resonates today as one of the best crime thrillers? Why make Patrick Swayze twist and turn in his grave and tarnish one of Keanu Reeves’ best roles? I feel like sending Gary Busey (so good in the original), who is stuck in a nutcracker haze these days, to the screening just to act weird and make everyone uncomfortable at the premiere. This remake is unneeded. I am not old in saying that. Hollywood’s tactics of making money are getting old. It’s sickening. Also, the guy playing Keanu Reeves’ part couldn’t act his way out of a box. Seriously, it’s nasty bad. Watch for yourself.

Kristen, what do you think? Are you ready for a remake of Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, and Candyman?

Kristen’s Take on Remakes

Alright, I’m going to play devil’s advocate here, a little.

It’s fair to say most film remakes are absolute garbage. You can’t turn on the television, or visit a movie theater, without seeing some classic movie turned into a steaming pile of crap. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, for example. Whole generations, yes, multiple generations, grew up on that film. Gene Wilder was the perfect cast for a creepy candy extraordinaire. Then, Tim Burton crawls out from under his rock, and creates Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He couldn’t even get the name right. I love Johnny Depp, in most roles. This turd nugget was too much, though. Who knew you could make a movie worse than a novel about a man who kills off children one-by-one? Another example: Footloose. If any director in their right mind thought they could do better than an 80’s Kevin Bacon, they were insane. And yet, they decided to make a new version anyways. The actors, the script, the dancing: terrible. I am embarrassed to admit I even watched it.

a28b35f0-bce2-44e2-9c87-0f2efd2d9108_57e19876_image

But, there’s a reason why people grab at remakes. It’s the same reason why studios adapt novels into movies. We have the imagination of children. We want to know what a classic movie or novel would look like if we had full reign. Sometimes, the script and plot is exactly the same, like in the case of True Grit. But studios want to see the movie with newer special effects, with a different cast. I can understand, to an extent, why remakes are so popular.

They don’t always fail. Some are better than the original. Take The Departed, for instance. Most people didn’t even know that movie was a remake. It’s a remake of the trilogy Internal Affairs. Martin Scorsese, the genius that he his, took his best actors, created a stellar script, added some insane music choices, and built a gem. Or even The Manchurian Candidate. The original was okay, and followed the novel closely, but the Denzel Washington version was time relevant, and well scripted.

The truth is, just like movie tastes, remakes should be judged on a case-by-case basis. It wouldn’t be fair to compare The Departed to Footloose.

There you have it folks. Two minds. One Man. One Woman. One Topic.

Find Kristen on Twitter here.

Civil War: Ranking the MCU Movies

· Leave a comment ·

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

· Leave a comment ·

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

· Leave a comment ·

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.