Archive for October, 2018

Movie Mayhem – Hunter Killer

Hunter Killer

Hunter Killer — 2018; Directed by Donovan Marsh; Starring Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Common, Linda Cardellini, Alexander Diachenko and Michael Nyqvist

Like a lot of mainstream genres, action can be defined in several different sub-genres. A couple of examples include hardcore action, which usually includes heavy violence and gore; action-comedy, in which the action can be the product of the comedy or the reason for it; and military action, where the action is set primarily in war scenarios. Hunter Killer, the new submarine film, falls under the last example, mixed heavily with one of the hardest action sub-genres to get right, the action-thriller. There are a lot of elements that need to fit perfectly together in order to keep the tension tight throughout the entirety of the film. Director Donovan Marsh follows in the footsteps of Tony Scott, who utilized his incredible cast (including Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman) to create one the best military action-thrillers in Crimson Tide. With the exception of Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman (who only has a few minutes of screen time), there isn’t anyone in Killer that even comes close to that level of notoriety, however, Marsh is able to pull together a cast of relative unknowns that emulates the same taut atmosphere to keep your heart pounding even when there isn’t any action happening on screen. Read Full Review

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Movie Mayhem – The Sisters Brothers & The Old Man and the Gun

Sisters Brothers Old Man

The Sisters Brothers — 2018; Directed by Jacques Audiard; Starring Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly, Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed; The Old Man and the Gun — 2018; Directed by David Lowery; Starring Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Casey Affleck, Danny Glover and Tom Waits

For a long time, especially throughout the sixties and seventies, westerns ruled the roost in the cineplexes. But as the blockbuster slowly took over and science fiction finally found a strong footing in people’s wallets, the western eroded into a forgotten medium that occasionally rears its head to peek in on what’s happening around them, sometimes to great critical acclaim (Tombstone, Unforgiven, Open Range), other times in blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fashion (The Quick and the Dead, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Cowboys and Aliens) and tepid remakes (3:10 To Yuma, True Grit, The Magnificent Seven).

In that time, the western also evolved; it was no longer just your typical men on horseback in the dusty old west anymore. We now had what’s known as the modern western, which took the style and themes of the old and paired them in an era full of cars and modern technology (Hell or High Water). Two films went wide this week that convey both sides of the western coin: The Sisters Brothers, reveling in the harsh realities of a time when uncivilized gunslingers are starting to fade into the civility of the modern world; and The Old Man and the Gun, meditating on a modern bank robber who reminisces of days gone by, but is just as happy with the respect he provides his victims. Read Full Review

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Movie Mayhem – Bad Times at the El Royale

Bad Times at the El Rayale

Bad Times at the El Raoyale — 2018; Directed by Drew Goddard; Starring Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Lweis Pullman, Cailee Spaeny and Chris Hemsworth

Earlier this year, Hotel Artemis, a film with a big name cast gathering inside a hotel for various reasons, was released. It didn’t last long in theaters, and it’s not hard to understand why: the film couldn’t figure out what it wanted to be as the majority of the cast sailed through their usual schtick without much passion behind it. None of the characters were all that likable, mostly because, aside from the Doctor (Jodie Foster), we never really got to know any of them outside of their overt personalities, so their choices didn’t give us anything to identify with or hold onto. Fast forward a few months to Bad Times at the El Royale, another film with an all-star cast about a group of strangers coming together at a hotel for their own nefarious purposes. The similarities end there, as El Royale turns out to be what Hotel Artemis was hoping to be. Read Full Review

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Movie Mayhem – A Star Is Born

A Star Is Born

A Star Is Born — 2018; Directed by Bradley Cooper; Starring Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Andrew Dice Clay, Rafi Gavron and Anthony Ramos

For a long time, I never thought of Lady Gaga as anything but an act. By this I mean, she was all gimmick, no substance, more focused on the persona she presented than with the music she performed. Although her music was fine, her shtick so far overwhelmed it, I always felt she was covering for a lack of vocal talent. Then in 2015, she appeared completely stripped down (no weird outfits or heavy makeup) at the Oscars to sing a beautiful rendition of “The Sound of Music.” It was clear she was an extremely talented vocalist, and it made me wonder why she’d spent so much time hiding behind a mask. A Star Is Born, the newest remake of the film made famous by Barbara Streisand (which itself was a remake), in some ways mirror’s Lady Gaga’s rise to fame and how she may have felt when she herself was coming up in an industry obsessed with appearance. Read Full Review

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