The Hateful Eight: Directed by Quentin Tarantino, Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, and Kurt Russell.12/29/2015 Give it time. If there is one thing that can be said about Quentin Tarantino's new epic Western it is give it time. That's for two reasons: 1. The film is 3 hours long. Not that this matters because the movie is pretty great, and 2. The tone here is a little bit harder to swallow than other Tarantino films. This is probably because there's no real good guys or bad guys in The Hateful Eight-just varying degrees of bad people. That means the proceedings aren’t exactly as fun as they should be. There’s no Mr. Orange of Dr. King Schultz who you can attach yourself too as the one sane, good man in the middle of the madness. The madness is everywhere, and may sour the tone of the film for some. Aside from that though every staple of Tarantino is here and firing on all cylinders: Samuel L. Jackson navigates Tarantino’s dialogue with ease, the violence when it comes is gory, and the dialogue is beneficially slow and subtle as the archetypes of the main cast clash. This less flashy approach does lead the film to drag a bit, but the film seems to want that to happen. Tarantino is certainly tricking his audience just as much as all the characters are tricking each other, and as soon as he lets one tone get comfortable he tosses in some madcap violence or REALLY, REALLY blunt social commentary. The Hateful Eight is operating on a spectrum of offensive to “Oh my god you can get away with that in a movie,” the result is a wonderful and sick mix even if it seems a little bit scattershot. That brings us back to tone. The scattershot nature of the script leads the film to be shocking, but not particularly positive or solid. What’s written is fantastic (Samuel L. Jackson gets great monologues) and the performances hold up (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jackson, and Walter Goggins absolutely steal the movie), but at times it just doesn’t feel right. As much as I would like to say that the uneven tone is created because of the gruesome violence, it’s more of a baked in problem. The film is simply trying too hard to play the audience, and sometimes in it’s small scale nature can’t pull it off. That said most of the time it does. Even with all of that The Hateful Eight is entertaining at all times. Tarantino has never lost his edge and it’s incredible to watch how the film twists and turns. Every second of The Hateful Eight is spectacularly looking especially in 70mm film. The image is highly detailed, and the roadshow edition benefits from a 10 minute intermission that really allows you to perfectly digest the hilarious event that happened just before. It’s definitely the best way to view the movie. The Hateful Eight is all over the place just like it’s characters, but it’s also a beautiful movie. The madness, and the writing is wonderfully unhinged and the actors sell the material- problems with it aside. 3 hours goes by really fast when you’re in the hands of master filmmaker. The Hateful Eight gets a 9 out to 10.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Directed by J.J. Abrams, Starring: John Boyega, and Daisey Ridley12/20/2015 Today before going to see The Force Awakens I rewatched what little of Attack of the Clones I could get through. It was only about a good 45 minutes before I gave up, and just turned it off. The prequels were not good movies, but they had good moments and lots of potential. It’s time to close the book on them. The reason I watched Attack of the Clones, though, was to familiarize myself with what didn’t work well about those films—what made them the atrocities they are considered by most today. I wanted to know what makes the worst Star Wars film, the worst Star Wars film. I did it so if I saw these problems in the new one I wouldn’t be fooled by the hype, and judge it for what it was. I didn’t, though. Not one bit. No wooden performances, no overly green screened environments, and genuinely good action. Star Wars: The Force Awakens feels like a science fiction/fantasy film lacking of the cynicism or bloat that other fantasy revisits (The Hobbit) contain. In fact it’s the opposite. It may be too thin. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is about a group of people known as the Resistance, and another group called the First Order fighting for power over the galaxy. A young Stormtrooper named Fin (John Boyega) , and girl named Rey (Daisey Ridley) get caught up in the battle leading them to discover things that they never knew about each other. They eventually meet up with series favorite Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and must fight off the evil Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). This film is the main event and I was hooked from frame one. The Star Wars screen crawl is a powerful tool, and the use here is great immediately setting up the story. J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan are having a good time drawing a mostly “show don’t tell game” out of Star Wars here, and they certainly bring enough emotional weight to the screenplay to make it work-even if I kept thinking that some of my attachment could be attributed to the other films. But the relationships are well drawn even if some of them are told to us at times. The plot matters in this one, and it’s exciting to see these new characters build to the spectacular third act. Boyega is especially fun as Fin, and the dialogue that he’s given leans more toward a joking nature. Daisey Ridley isn’t really given too much to say as a character, but Ridley’s a good enough actress that I actually did care about her, and her backstory. Oscar Isaac is going to be amazing in these movies when he’s actually given something to do, and the older cast members feel more like supporting players letting the new ones shine. However, the world, and the effects used were always just as important...in the original trilogy, it was all about the effects in the prequels. Here J.J Abrams has directed and crafted a sleek and colorful film. Everything sounds like it should, and looks like it should. There are no oddities, or Jar Jars; it’s all necessary. There’s not just sitting around and discussing politics like there was in the prequel’s either. The direction here moves at a good clip, and character is revealed through what they do for the most part. Rey’s pilot skills are revealed in one of the most exciting fight scenes I’ve ever seen on screen, and Boyega’s heroic sensibilities are relatable but become immediately abundant when he pulls out the lightsaber we see in the trailers. Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren seems to act childish, but in a super dangerous and intimidating way that really builds on his character. Abram’s visual craftsmanship is excellent here, and I’ll commend Abrams for that. The raw intensity of lightsaber battles are back, and I can only thank him. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the film I wanted it to be, even if it lacked in some aspects. It’s an entertaining sci-fi space opera, and even though it’s stretched too thin at times, it really works pulling out multitudes of emotions. If the last trilogy left a horrible aftertaste for everyone that encountered it, then this one has given us exactly what we wanted to wash that away. There’s nothing from those film’s here tainting the fun. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the most fun I’ve had at the movies this year, and I can’t wait for the fun to come. I give Star Wars: The Force Awakens an 8.5 out of 10. Oh am I totally ready to see this movie. Some stories require surrealism and gruesome violence not to work as stories, but to work as movies. The story of the Essex is fascinating. The men were searching for whale oil, and were attacked by a large white whale that destroyed the ship and left them stranded for 97 days causing them to do everything they could to survive. That’s a story that’s just calling for an epic, surreal, and blisteringly intense film experience. That’s not what In the Heart of the Sea is though. The film only reveals as much as the summary above, and that’s unfortunate. In the Heart of the Sea is a mediocre, but powerful film that could have been a powerful and great film. It’s well directed, and at times you glimpse the intense nature of the way these men worked and what they went through. The “PG-13” rating, and two hour run time has crippled the storytelling. Ron Howard and Chris Hemsworth, the film’s saving graces, can’t do much to save what’s here. This is an ambitious screenplay, but it falls short. What’s there is well made, what’s not is what ruins it. Every time the film gets close to doing something that is hard-hitting, it cuts away to Brendan Gleeson, the only survivor, narrating the events of the story instead of allowing the story to play out. The men of the Essex committed terrible deeds to survive, but it’s never shown to the audience: it’s always told to us. The visual storytelling itself, however, isn’t all that bad. Ron Howard is still an earnest and interesting director. He knows how to frame an epic shot, and he seems to be employing the techniques that Spielberg used in the making of Jaws. In the Heart of the Sea seems to be taking a lot from that masterpiece with the white whale getting it’s fair share of POV and close shots. It also has a very dynamic camera style with the camera cutting quickly around the boat. I don’t know if that was the best choice to get a full idea of the space, but you can certainly tell he was trying. Hemsworth, who plays the film’s protagonist, is a commanding presence, but too much of an archetype to work without the lengthy runtime that the film needs. He’s got the deep voice and imposing figure to work as a protagonist, but we don’t get enough of him acting. He’s simply narrated. The other characters don’t work at all because they have absolutely nothing to do. There is an attempt at suspense between Hemsworth and another captain, but that’s narrated to us as well. Ben Whishaw and Brendan Gleeson are given things to do, but their story is part of the problem because they provide the narration. This is a great looking film, and the story it tells is undeniably powerful but that’s all it is – a story. It’s still a competent film, and not a total waste of time, but it offers nothing in the way of exciting or cathartic. It’s just washed out. I give In the Heart of the Sea a 5.5 out of 10. |
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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. |