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Reviews
Oblivion (2013)
Mediocrity is fate worse than failure.
Mediocrity is a fate worse than failure when it comes to entertainment. An audience remembers a truly awful movie as much as they do a great one, if for completely different reasons. But nobody remembers a mediocre movie, it's just.....there. Nothing stands out about it or separates it from the hundreds of others in mediocre hell.Well, make room for one more mediocre, forgettable movie.
Oblivion is the newest sci-fi/action flick starring Tom Cruise & directed by Joseph Kosinski (TRON:Legacy). In the year 2070 Earth has basically been destroyed due to a war with aliens (Scavs), the moon was blown up which caused numerous natural disasters and prompted Earth to go to war with the Scavs. The humans won, but the Earth lost, the entire population of Earth was moved to Saturns' moon, Titan. Earth is patrolled by drones that eliminate any remaining Scavs and those drones are monitored by two people; Jack Harper (Cruise) & his assigned partner Victoria. Jack soon finds out there's more living on Earth than just the Scavs & everything he thought was true is questioned. Oblivion is an original story & a great premise but it just doesn't do anything special. It starts of great & is a ton of fun for the first 30 minutes but quickly comes to a screeching bore. It's fantastic to look at though, Kosinski makes some beautiful movies I'll give him that. Like TRON:Legacy, it's a joy to look at, has some good action but is ultimately boring, overly long & too ambitious for it's own good. It's about 30 minutes too long & suffers through some pacing issues in the second half. This movie took longer to end than Return of the King. I had recently turned the corner with Tom Cruise; loved Jack Reacher & discovered the incredible Collateral. I was really excited for this one due to this; I have to give Cruise a pass for this one. He doesn't get to do "his thing", kinda cocky/totally confident hero that you will always root for. He starts off this way but somewhere in there he loses his charm & the movie suffers for it. I don't blame Cruise for this, you're only as good as the materials you're working with. Morgan Freeman has an extended cameo & he plays Morgan Freeman as usual.
Oblivion is yet another case of the trailers deceiving the audience; instead of a sci-fi flick with a ton of action, great visuals, original story & a fun hero I got an overly long, too ambitious, boring, great looking, original story with a boring hero. Oblivion was one of my anticipated movies for 2013, it will be ultimately forgotten & looked at as a missed opportunity & replacement for Ambien for me.
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Antiviral (2012)
The Future of Horror
Antiviral is a sci-fi/horror film from the mind of Brandon Cronenberg, David Cronenberg's son. This is a beautifully shot film, with a great premise but it just didn't click with me totally. The film follows Syd March, a man who works for a company that harvests diseases from celebrities and then injects them into paying clients. Sounds pretty messed up right? To put it in real world context, you'd go to this company and willfully get injected with Britney Spears cold sore. It gets even weirder when they get into celebrity cell regeneration that is made into steaks. Yeah, you read that right. There's a "butcher shop" that specializes in growing celebrities cells and selling them to you so you can eat them. This is an incredibly original story that plays on societies star obsessed culture and turns it on its ear. I love the idea of this movie but it moves at too slow of a pace. There's a few minor twists and basically no action, which makes a slow film feel even slower. Antiviral is not a fun film (no humor,no action, no scares) and is definitely not for everyone. It is a beautifully shot film, even though it is meandering, it is always great to look at. Every shot is framed well and done with purpose. The use of white gives it a very clean and sanitary look that is extremely effective. Cronenberg gets an A+ for the look of this film, it really is that nice to look at. The limited amount of gore is also expertly done, I just wish there had been more of it.
Caleb Landry Jones (Banshee in X-Men First Class) is the star, this is basically a restrictive narrative, and he is in pretty much every scene. He does a good job and has a bright future. Malcolm McDowell also has an extended cameo and he's as good as always. He seems to have settled into this role as a name actor, lending that name to help a small picture.
Antiviral is an incredibly original story, and beautiful to watch but it is just a tad dull. Instead of an A its a solid B, just because of the story and visuals. I repeat it is not for everyone, it reminds of Excision a bit (just without the snappy humor), so if you liked that movie then check out Antiviral. Brandon Cronenberg is the future of horror, and as a horror fan, I couldn't be happier.
American Mary (2012)
God Bless American Mary
My streak of watching awful/mediocre movies is over! Thank you Soska Twins for making American Mary and ending this streak. This is the best horror of the year, so far, and I'm sure will be in my top 5 horror films for 2013. American Mary is the story of Mary Mason, a medical student, that needs some quick cash and discovers the world of body modification. That's all of the plot that I'm going to give away, sorry for being stingy but it's for your own good. American Mary does so many things right, no it's not perfect, but when you've watched as much garbage as I have lately you'll look past some little stuff. It's shot very well, especially the tracking shots. I'm obviously not a film student or film maker but I think it's a good looking movie with some nice, thought out shots. The gore is very well done, which is a must for a horror film. There's nothing that takes me out of a movie quicker than bad CG, especially CG blood, the CG looks to be kept to a minimum and the film is better for it. Like I said, the gore is very well done but this movie does a great job of implying gore as well. It's very easy to just show whats happening but leaving it up to the viewer to determine what's going on leads to a much richer experience. American Mary also has a bit of humor to it, at least I thought so, but maybe I'm a little messed up. The humor is very dark though, kind of like Excision, and it just added to my enjoyment of this movie. The acting isn't the biggest strength of this movie, it's not SyFy movie bad, but the lead (Katharine Isabelle) does a really great job. She's a genre veteran, Ginger Snaps & Freddy vs Jason, and very likable for the most part. Beatress is another character that I liked, she was a ton of fun and her makeup looked great (I hope it was makeup). One complaint though about the Soska Twins, they should never and I mean never act again. It really is that bad, I'm not exaggerating.
American Mary is a fantastic movie, it does so much well and is a must see for horror fans. This will be one of favorites of the year and I think has some re-watchability. This is first movie I've seen from the Soska Twins, but after watching this I'm definitely a fan. These two are part of the future of horror and the future looks pretty good.
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
Olympus Has Fallen aka Die Hard in the White House
Olympus Has Fallen is a mostly formulaic action movie that hit the right spot for me. It's not entirely original but it is entertaining, which is more than I can say for every other action flick that has come out this year. This is the script they should've slapped the Die Hard name to instead of that garbage that was the newest Die Hard. In fact, this is the best Die Hard since the third one. It follows the simple formula; lone hero in a confined space, vastly out-manned and out gunned, ton of kills and the occasional one liner. Olympus has Fallen does all of these things exceedingly better than any action-er I've seen this year.
Before I get too ahead of myself, should probably let you know what this flick is about. Olympus Has Fallen is about disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning who finds himself trapped inside the White House in the wake of a terrorist attack; using his inside knowledge, Banning works with national security to attempt to rescue the President from his North Korean kidnappers. The story is not the most original but moves at a good pace and is not too complicated. What makes this movie stand apart from the others is the hugely talented cast. Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Melissa Leo, Ashley Judd, Dylan McDermott, Cole Hauser, Radha Mitchell & Rick Yune. Told ya the cast was huge. Everyone is very capable in their roles but due to the size it seems a few people are underused (Melissa Leo and Angela Bassett especially). I'm a huge fan of Gerard Butler's when he's in action flicks (QUIT DOING ROMANTIC COMEDIES), he's very likable and physical enough to make the action believable. Aaron Eckhart plays the President, and is awesome as usual but it does feel like he slips into Harvey Dent mode a few times. Morgan Freeman plays Morgan Freeman, you know what to expect with him.
The actions scenes are extremely well done, the CG looks a little video gameish at points but it's OK. A ton of stuff gets blown up, the body count is huge and there are some surprisingly brutal deaths. As far as the action goes, it gets an A+. Antoine Fuqua directed this movie and does a decent job. He creates an incredible sense of tension, which is a rarity for these type of movies. Like I said, the action is well done but it seems like Mr. Fuqua watched a few too many Michael Bay movies. The slow motion is overused, the color schemes are similar, the music is hokey and final scene (which involves an American flag) looks like it was lifted from every Bay film. As you can tell, I'm not a fan of Bay's and these things are about the only negatives I have.
Olympus Has Fallen is the best action movie of 2013, so far. It was a ton of fun to watch, had some very good tension and was simply a really fun watch. If you're a fan of action movies, this is a definite watch.