Archive for February, 2020

Movie Mayhem – The Call of the Wild

Posted by Bryan Caron in Entertainment, Film, Movies, Reviews on February 23, 2020

The Call of the Wild — 2020; Directed by Chris Sanders; Starring Harrison Ford, Omar Sy, Cara Gee, and Dan Stevens

As a big proponent for the use of practical effects over computer-generated effects, I was highly disenchanted by the trailer for The Call of the Wild. When filmmakers use CGI as a crutch, it tends to make the viewer numb to the emotional stakes of the film. There is a place for CGI, no doubt. When used to enhance what physically cannot be created or to perform tasks that may be too dangerous otherwise, it can be quite effective; when used for no other reason than because it’s there, even though something real or practical could do the job just as well (and sometimes even better), it becomes unnecessary imitation.

Read Full Review

, , , , ,

1 Comment

Movie Mayhem – Sonic the Hedgehog

Posted by Bryan Caron in Entertainment, Film, Movies, Reviews on February 16, 2020

Sonic the Hedgehog — 2020; Directed by Jeff Fowler; Starring James Marsden, Jim Carrey, Tika Sumpter, Lee Majdoub and Ben Schwartz

Movies based on video games have gotten a bad reputation… and for good reason. When you try to translate a video game to a film, you inherently strip away the ability to tell the same expansive story that a video game can encompass as well as what makes the game so much fun — interactivity. For Sonic the Hedgehog, the latest video game adaptation to hit the big screen, it didn’t help that early trailers for the film got massive push back because of Sonic’s less-than-stellar character design. Paramount listened, though, and made the necessary changes to give fans what they demanded. So how does Sonic the Hedgehog hold up against its small-screen counterpart?

Read Full Review

, , , ,

1 Comment

Chaos Movie Awards 2020

Posted by Bryan Caron in Best of, Commentary, Entertainment, Film, Movies, Reviews on February 9, 2020

The 92nd Academy Awards are mere hours away, and the biggest news coming out of this year’s awards nominations is Netflix’s instant emergence as a heavy hitter among the major studios. Between The Irishman, Marriage Story and a handful of other prestige pics, Netflix garnered 24 nominations in their first major run at Oscar, beating all other studios (Sony came in with 20, and Disney rounded out the top three with 17). And from what I’m guessing, the Academy is going to show Netflix some big love tonight.

But enough with the numbers. Below are my picks for who will and should win at this year’s Academy Awards, as well as a few of my own awards just for the fun of it.

My Picks

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Leave a comment

Movie Mayhem – The Rhythm Section

Posted by Bryan Caron in Entertainment, Film, Movies, Reviews on February 2, 2020

The Rhythm Section — 2020; Directed by Reed Morano; Starring Blake Lively, Jude Law, Sterling K. Brown, and Raza Jaffrey

The Rhythm Section is a bit of an enigma. If the title doesn’t immediately throw you as having nothing in particular to do with the actual film, the movie will. The whole way through, I couldn’t figure out if I liked the film or was somehow utterly disappointed by it. There are moments that are enticing and drive the narrative quite well, but everything else about the film — the editing, the direction, the writing and the atmosphere — all seem to contradict themselves, essentially putting up a wall to keep you from fully engaging in the exploits of this casual revenge thriller.

Read Full Review

, , , , ,

1 Comment