I have said time and time again how I'm done with my various hiatuses and how I'm going to be more consistent and commited. None of those claims have panned out the way I wanted to. So I'll say this, I won't be consistent with the reviews. Despite popular belief, I don't watch movies every day (mild sarcasm) and what's more surprising is I don't see movies in theaters a lot until the summer movie season rolls around. I've actually only seen 6 2014 theatrical releases so far, and 5 freakin months have passed. So today, I am going to do some shortened reviews for 5 of those 6 films.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Marvel returns to form with this sequel to the fun, if lackluster, Captain America: The First Avenger. After the highly entertaining yet dissapoiting Iron Man 3, and the insanely mediocre Thor: The Dark World, Marvel Studios and Disney have presented us with a meticulously well shot, impressively acted, and carefully scripted 1970s esque political thriller, masquerading, of course, as a superhero action film. That's not to say the film is lacking in the action department. Quite the contrary. Winter Soldier delivers some of the finest action sequences in a Marvel film thus far thanks to stylish, tasteful direction from Joe and Anthony Russo, who, with their first time directing a big scale action picture, have found a way to make shaky cam comprehensible and effective which is very commendable. Chris Evans continues to prove how perfect he is in the role of Cap, performing with charisma, emotion, and just enough self awareness. The well though out script fleshes Evans' character out perfectly, and helps elevates his stellar work. The script is extremely gutsy, dealing with issues like artificial patriotism, security in modern America, and the dangers of government/corporate control. These issues are suprisingly, all front and center, in a film called CAPTAIN AMERICA nonetheless. Back to the performances, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson kill it in their returning roles as Black Widow and Nick Fury and the extremely underrated Anthony Mackie shines as The Falcon, a welcome, wonderful new addition addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film takes risks, and is by and large the darkest Marvel film to date, which mostly works in its favor. The films final extended action sequences greatly contradicts with the realistic, serious tone that was so perfectly establish beforehand, and the film has a few too many ideas for its own good which don't always balance in a satisfying way. However, this is definitley one of the best Marvel films, and feels like a real, standalone picture, and not just filler time before The Avengers 2.
Cap 2 gets a solid B
Noah
Darren Aronofsky's Noah is the not the traditional story your can see taught for a group of small children at Sunday school. What would you expect from the director of such dark, harrowing films such as Black Swan, The Wrestler, and Requiem for a Dream? When I found out this daring, artistic auteur was taking on the challenge of adapting arguably the most famous story of all time into an epic, grandiose, non-religious take on the source material, I was very intrigued. I myself am not religious, so was open to seeing a translation of the work with no christian bias. Now, if you've seen the reviews for Noah you will know that critics have been incredibly mixed on the film. Some have praised it as a daring, ambitious work that asks some big, big questions about the universe and our fate, while others have bashed it as a messy, tonally inept, boring, mess that lacks any kind of focus whatsoever. I would associate myself more with the former group as I, personally, really enjoyed Noah, despite its numerous flaws and missteps. Arronfosky is one hell of a visual director and does a magnificent job magnifying the size and scope that this story possesses. With some of the most beautiful cinematography in recent memory, as well as some impressive visual effects from the CGI wizards over at Industrial Light and Magic, Arronofsky participates in some wonderful visual storytelling. Watching the different species of animals boarding the arc is a true sight to behold, and some of these scenes take your breath away. With the exception of the first half hour, Arronofsky has a steady hand on the pace of the film, keeping the audience invested for the majority of the run time. He also does a great job at creating a dark, dreary atmosphere where clearly all hope is lost. He and fellow screenwriter Ari Handel do a competent job at asking intelligent, socially relevant questions to the audience, by allowing the characters to converse with some pretty interesting dialogue. However, the script is flawed as some of the dialogue does not feel particularly natural and at times the film becomes to overdramatic and self-serious for its own good. Also, some story elements that were added to the classic story of Noah seem a bit unnecessary, and only serve to lengthen the running time, casuing the film to drag here and there. But, there were sections of the film that I absolutley loved particularly when Noah and his family were building the Ark and the conflict between them and the tribe of Tubal-Cain was forming. It had the most interesting dialogue, best character moments, and truly epic, "biblical" moments. So while Noah is not a perfect film by any means, it is a fascinating, sometimes thrilling, and provocative piece, turning the classic old testament story into a psychological drama about a man who begins to go insane in order to please someone he's not sure even believes in him. When Darren Aronofsky centers on Noah (played by an intense, ferocious, and nuanced Russell Crowe) and the psychological trauma he begins to encounter due to the intense pressure of his situation, Noah triumphs. Arronofsky may, in some respects, bitten off more than he can chew, but he has crafted an ambitious, grandiose film that is really a simple character study of an obscenely obsessed man.
Noah gets a B+
The Grand Budapest Hotel
(On an unrelated note, how awesome is this poster?!)
Wes Anderson is truly one of the great directors of the 21st century, someone who, in an 18 year career, has managed to create an entire genre all his own. His dialogue is deadpan, artificial with overtones of honesty, and hilarious, and his visual style is wonderfully symmetrical, vibrant, and still. "Budapest" was my 2nd my most anticipated film of 2014 and I'm happy to report that Anderson's colorful, charming, beautiful, poignant new piece is another fantastic addition to the Anderson collection. Anderson's direction is nothing short of spectacular, capturing beautiful shot after beautiful shot, (with the help of DP Robert Yeoman, who's been shooting for Anderson since his first film back in '96) each one as good as any painting you would strongly consider hanging on your living room wall. Anderson creates arthouse films that also serve as extraordinary entertainment thanks to fast paced direction, interesting characters, perfect editing, and a signature tone that speaks to the kind of unique artist Anderson is. "Grand Budapest" is a sweet, delectable confection, as tasty as one of the "Courtesan de Chocolat" treats that Ralph Fiennes' Gustave H. enjoys from time to time in the film. That's because Anderson constantly smothers you with witty, hilarious dialogue, breathtaking visuals, meticulously crafted "action" scenes (I put action quotations because I am talking about a wes anderson action scene, which bears no resemblance to an action scene you'd see in any other film). Speaking of Fiennes' character, Fiennes does an absolutley oustanding job playing the delightful, flamboyant, snobbish, and unabashedly high maintenacne concierge, M. Gustave H. who's relationship with middle eastern lobby boy Zero (played by the wonderful Tony Revelori) is humorous, endearing, and heartfelt. Anderson is known for his stunning casts and he has put together his best one yet, including Jeff Goldblum as the unassuming, confused lawyer Deputy Kovacs, Adrien Brody as the cunning and heartless Demetri, Willem Dafoe (a scene stealer here) as Demetri's ruthless assiatant Jopling, Saorise Ronan as Zero's love interest Agatha, Tilda Swinton as one of Gustave's very old lovers Madame D, Edward Norton as the persistent, yet reluctant persuer Inspector Henckles, Jude Law as an ambitious young writer, and a wonderfully charismatic F. Murray Abraham as an older version of Zero. And those are just the primary players with Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Owen Wilson, Tom Wilkinson, Harvey Keitel, and Jason Schwartzman all appearing in small, cameo roles. The entire cast is outstanding and on point throughout the entire film. If I had any qualms with the film, I'd say that's not quite as solid as his 2012 masterpiece, Moonrise Kingdom, and the characters here aren't quite as strong as in the a film either. However, do yourself a favor people and pay a visit to Anderson's delightful, entertaining, and lovely Grand Budapest Hotel. A truly wonderful treat from start to finish.
Grand Budapest gets an A-
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The first Amazing Spider-Man was a perfectly serviceable, if dissapointing, superhero flick, featuring a simply structured origin story, a cheesy, pointless villain, tonal issues, and a significant lack of scope or scale. What it did possess though were some effective emotional beats, thanks to the crackling chemistry of Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, who give truly fantastic performances and nearly saved that flick from being, basically, forgotten all together. Despite my somewhat cynical attitude toward that first film, I was holding out a good amount of hope for the spidey reboot's second adventure. It seemed like they were going to drop the dark tone attempts altogether, improve on the action sequences, have a much stronger villain in Jamie Foxx's Electro, and focus more on Spidey's hilarious, wise cracking attitutde towards criminals, which was only teased in the first film. I walked out of Amazing Spider-Man 2 with almost the same exact feeling I had walking out of the first movie. Solid performances, effective emotion, fun action sequences, but convoluted plot elements, underdeveloped characters, overuse of CGI, lack of tonal balance, and trailers that show THE ENTIRE GODDAMN MOVIE. This is not a bad film by any means. In fact I would say that it's kinda good. There are some excellent elements here. For one Andrew Garfield cements himself as one of the great lead actors in Supehero film history, giving a self-aware, funny, relatable, and gripping performance as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. He is easily the best part about these films and brings the overall quality up a couple notches. Emma Stone is also wonderful here, and the chemistry the two actors share is truly remarkable, and the relationship feels suitably organic. Dane Dehaan (who broke out with his tremendous work in the highly underrated found-footage flick "Chronicle") steals many scenes as Harry Osborn. I wish the script had given him some better dialogue, but Dehaan is consistenly compelling, and makes you sympathize and dislike him at the same time. Jamie Foxx is very good as Electro/Max Dillon, but the character is underwritten and the writers end up practically wasting the iconic comic book villain by the end. Marc Webb also does a nice job directing here, shooting some of spidey's swinging sequences with a wonderful sense of freedom and reckless abandon. He also nails many of the emotional scenes perfectly, making us feel for the characters more than than the script would on it's own. The script by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (who seem to write the majority of the big summer action movies these days, such as Transformers 1 and 2, the new Star Trek films, Cowboys and Aliens and Mission Impossible 3) is incredibly standard, one that feels like its practically "going through the motions" throughout. There are some nice character moments and well crafted action, but the majority of the dialogue and situations are a bit uninteresting. That being said the final 15 minutes of the film are fantastic, and set up nicely for the next installment. In fact, the first 15 minutes or so are quite impressive as well. It's just, despite some good scenes sprinkled throughout, the film isn't quite as strong as you know it could be. There are great elements in play: Solid acting, sure-handed directionand fun action. However, you still leave the theater wanting more, and not in a good way.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 gets a C+
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