A great weekend is coming! Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ex Machina reviews are coming,and expect maybe a Dior and I quick review.
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The Age of Adaline: Directed by Lee Toland Krieger, Starring: Blake Lively,and Harrison Ford.4/26/2015 The Age of Adaline is a film consistently undermining itself. The film has a lot of great elements, but doesn't really explore them enough to make a good movie. Blake Lively and Harrison Ford are pretty great in their performances, but they aren't really given the chance to do anything with their characters. The film at times captures the sentimentality that is obligatory in a story about a person living through time without aging, but it never really goes all out with this, ultimately leading the film to feel somewhat cold. The directing, the way the narrative is done — none of it is particularly bad, just clunky. Again, the film has elements about it that are good. It's just consistently fighting itself. These better elements can mainly be found in the actors,and the direction done here. I've seen these two things elevate a project just as much as ideas, and The Age of Adaline benefits from having people who care back it. Blake Lively, who I actually haven't seen in much else, is compelling as Adaline. The script gives her a lived-in feel that just makes her more interesting, and she's just dreamy enough for the audience to believe that this is a person who, after years of living, has just accepted the fact that life is not something to make a big deal out of. These two things allow Lively to show an impressive amount of range, even if these are just the basis for the character. Harrison Ford was also quite good. He's a person who had a relation with Adaline in the 60's and has grown old as she stayed young. When she suddenly reappears in his life, he starts to lose himself a little as he tries to figure out if it's the same girl. With this role, Ford is given a chance to act the way he did in films like Blade Runner, The Fugitive, and Witness, which is simply saying he's good if anything else. As I mentioned before, Lively and Ford really aren't given time to explore their characters, but they are still trying their best to make them compelling. I also can't quite fault Lee Toland Krieger's direction. The way the film looks is very nice, and you can definitely tell that someone who cared about all this was working. This work invokes a sentimentality in the movie, which is one desperately needing emotion (even though as I've explained it doesn't quite go far enough). But frankly that's not all you need to make a good movie, and where The Age of Adaline stumbles is the narrative. There's a narrator in this of film that I feel is somewhat unnecessary. I've always been one for saying "show don't tell",and every time he started talking I was taken out of the experience for a small bit of time. It’s an aspect of the film that could have easily been erased; at the very least it could have been improved with some simple filmmaking techniques. Another problem I've found is the fact that the movie is just shallow. I feel that Adaline should have a history to her, but the film is simply content on making a conventional love story play out. I wanted this to feel like David Fincher's spectacular The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but the film is too shallow to feel like an epic story like that one. It's too content to tell as interesting as a story. And it just doesn't. For all the good work put in this movie, the film the story seems inconsequential, and that's one of the worst things you can find in a film. So as far as it all goes, The Age of Adaline is a good movie, but it feels like a lot of good work put into a story that doesn't fully resonate. I would say a waste of talent if the film weren't actually quite as good as it is, but what's there isn't particularly horrid. I give The Age of Adaline a 6 out of 10 Written by Stephen Tronicek, Edited by Mia Rintoul. If anything can be said for True Story, it's that the film is incredibly engrossing. Every minute of it has you locked into your seat and just staring at the scene in a rush of tension and great acting. It's not perfect (no film is), but it's the kind that makes you just not care about its shortcomings. See, that's surprising because this is a slow-burn movie about a reporter striving to get the truth — but finding something more sinister. I won't reveal too much, but Jonah Hill plays Michael Finkel, a disgraced reporter who goes to meet a man named Christian Longo, played by James Franco. Longo has just murdered his entire family and is in prison. The movie is actually mostly just Finkel and Longo talking, and that's actually why this movie works. Why? Because Hill and Franco are amazing. Hill is the weaker of the two, but he's using the dramatic chops he's gained well. However, the real star of the show is James Franco. He's never been better, and the fact that he so engrossing to watch almost puts you into the mindset of Hill's character. There's just something about him. He has the demeanor of a man that can be trusted, but has you always wondering whether or not he's lying. This sort of character just keeps you pinned to your seat. It's a slow movie, but man do the performances make it. And really I can't say it's the script that is making Franco so good. At best it's all a little undercooked and shallow with only some witty or exceptionally interesting dialogue. Also, some of the actors are a little underutilized (especially Felicity Jones, who plays Finkel's wife), but all of this doesn't end up mattering much. Rather than analyzing the specific elements of the film, the best way to look at it is through its emotional spectrum: the tension that pulls you in, the sadness brought on from the disturbing acts of murder. It's a wild emotional rush, and all this combined with Franco's performance makes True Story an awesomely cathartic movie that makes you think and feel. I think the intensity of all of it can also be attributed to tight direction and cinematography,and it all holds together greatly. Overall, I liked True Story a lot more then I expected I would. It's an intense, crazy, and interesting thriller with great performances, even if it's a little shallow. I have a feeling that most people will not like the ending, but I loved that it revealed a much more disturbing thing than expected. This is one of the first pretty great films of 2015. I give True Story a 9 out of 10. Written by Stephen Tronicek, Edited by Mia Rintoul. This weekend I will either be seeing White God or While We're Young. Also expect a quick review for The Voices. Furious 7 is one of those types of movies that is fun - until it's not. Thankfully, it stopped being fun and became frustrating at the midpoint of the third act, near the end instead of earlier. I think the reason for this, is that the entire thing starts to kind of fall apart because of the craziness, and full fledged improbability of the third act, but it all holds together long enough to be a fun distraction. Furious 7 is about the team from the previous films, taking down a rogue agent...and saving a hacker....while dealing with the prospect of going into a domestic life, after being an action hero...and you get my point. This is a film that has too much going on, and it all gets drawn out too much. The film, as could be expected, is more about finding a way to get from one action scene to the next, so with so many plot elements packed in, they all seem stretched a little thin. This doesn't allow a lot of depth, and the film doesn't exactly try too hard to make the most of it, throwing it up on screen in the form of large action sequences, rather than allowing it to really create tangible characters. In fact, I actually didn't mind that the characters had less character than a shared chemistry. While they are together, they are entertaining to watch for the most part (other than a amnesia story that the film doesn't really follow up on). When the characters try to be their own, they lose themselves. This doesn't happen too often though so it's not as big of a deal. I really can't tell you anyone's name in that movie though... unless your talking about Kurt Russell as Mr. Nobody, an FBI guy that gets mixed up with the group. That guy was a badass. Even better pulled off is the action in this. Whatever else can be said about Furious 7, I'll be the first one to commend it for being an awesome, if improbable, action movie. The prominently shown cars falling out of an airplane, and jumping between the Dubai Towers scenes are just as exciting as the trailer promised. But there's a lot more than just that. There is a slightly annoying quick cut editing style to the hand to hand combat, but it's not as bad as you usually see it. The action is the main selling point of the movie anyway, and the fact that most of it works is great, even if it's improbability is enough to break the movie near the end. But all things considered I liked Furious 7. It's not terribly deep, or smart, but it's fun enough to keep rolling throughout most of its runtime. If you need to waste time in a theatre, you could do with a lot worse. I give Furious 7 an 8 out of 10. Reviewed by Stephen Tronicek. Edited by Mia Rintoul. |
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |