I’m split about J. Edgar

November 15, 2011 3 Comments

J. Edgar

It’s not too often I’ll go see a movie based on the star, but Leonardo DiCaprio is usually a good choice. With J. Edgar, it looked like a great story about the troubled man who made the FBI into the law enforcement power it is today, so off I went to see it.

Acting

As J. Edgar Hoover, DiCaprio conveyed the frailty of the man with his mother, the overcompensating dominance with those in the bureau/politics, and the extreme paranoia against anything foreign, especially communism. I found it hard to feel for Hoover since he rarely let his emotions show, outside of anger.

Armie Hammer, as Hoover’s long-time second in command, had much more of an emotional role to play. As a man who was so clearly devoted to Hoover, he always seemed to have to keep him in check when he got out of line, but he hardly faltered, even though Hoover never really showed the affection he wanted until they were old men.

Makeup

Since the story took place across two different times, when the characters were younger and old, a lot of makeup magic was needed to make sure the characters looked like their real life counterparts. As an older Hoover, they did a tremendous job on DiCaprio. Aside from a few scenes he looked as close to the real man as they could make him. On the complete opposite side of the spectrum was Hammer’s makeup. As an older Tolson, his face looked like it had a blob of plastic thrown on with slits for a mouth and eyes. It unfortunately took away from the movie as I was distracted every time he was on screen.

Plot

My biggest issue with the movie was the story. I’m not sure what they had in mind, but to me it seemed like a 2hr, 17 min dump of everything that happened to hoover from the time he began his rise to his death. The lack of focus along with the sometimes awkward jumps back and forth in time made it hard to stay focused and into the story.

Finally…

In the end I could forgive some of the bad makeup and the acting was brilliant, but the neverending story simply made this movie boring for me. Since I’m so torn, I give J. Edgar a 2.5/5.

If you saw the movie, what did you think?

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The Ides of March and Integrity in Politics

October 23, 2011 Leave a comment

Ryan Gosling

A political movie about integrity? You can see this won’t end well…

The Ides of March doesn’t involve too much politicking, but focuses on the integrity in politics. We’re introduced to Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), a staffer on Governor Mike Morris’ (George Clooney) campaign team, as they Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are running for the Democratic leadership. Morris is (in my view) the ideal candidate who appears to run on a higher moral ground and the same can be said for Meyers, who has some experience, but is generally not as jaded as his campaign brethren. He stands up for his candidate and after one seemingly innocent meeting in a bar with the other candidate’s chief campaign guy, Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti), things begin spiraling out of control.

Both Meyers and Gov. Morris begin the movie with a lot of integrity, but as certain events come to light, we see them descend in to not so moral grounds. Morris, in public, is the same affable guy you’d want to run your country, but behind closed doors he’s the  opposite. With Meyers though, his descent is thrust upon him like a disease as he tries to make things right for the Governor. Fighting for his career, he’s caught between a rock and hard place and you can see him become jaded as things got out of hand. I enjoyed the last scene as the movie leaves the audience with with the question, will he continue down the path he’s on, or will he stand up for what he believed in so strongly at the beginning?

When it came to character development, the movie did a wonderful job, but the pace was incredibly slow at times and some dialogue was tough to get through. Up until the characters started their decline and I understood where the plot was going, I wasn’t all that interested in it. Once it did pick up though, I ended up enjoying it for what it was, even though it wasn’t normally something that I’d watch. I give The Ides of March a 3/5.

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Save your time and avoid 30 Minutes or Less

October 11, 2011 Leave a comment

30 Minutes or Less

You’d think these three starring in a movie made by the same folks who brought us Zombieland would mean you’re getting a funny movie, right? Wrong.

30 Minutes or Less stars Jesse Eisenberg as Nick, a pizza delivery guy with little to no ambitions in life. Parallel to his story, Danny McBride and Nick Swardson‘s characters (Dwayne and Travis) who have to pay off a hit man to kill Dwayne’s father – this is where Nick comes into play. Dwayne and Travis lure Nick to a car impound lot and get eventually strap him with a bomb vest. Nick, with the reluctant help of Aziz Ansari‘s character, Chet, has to rob a bank and get Dwayne and Travis the money or else he’d be blown up.

There’s a lot I could complain about but I’ll just stick to the actors who, to me, mailed it in. McBride, while normally funny and sometimes hilarious, relies way too much on very base humor and to be honest the jokes get borderline if not overtly racist at times. His best friend, played by Swardson was probably the highlight of the movie, but only due to lack of options. Eisenberg’s stock had been rising with me with Zombieland and The Social Network, but it plummets back to Earth with his non-emotional dialogue and seeming lack of effort. Finally, Ansari, who I normally find really funny at times, was flat and there was no way I could see him and Eisenberg as friends in real life.

Like I said in the title, save yourself the time and avoid 30 Minutes or Less. I give it a 1/5.

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The Help (movie) does The Help (book) justice

August 22, 2011 1 Comment

The HelpWhen I finished reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett earlier this winter, I couldn’t help but put it down. At the time I wrote my review, I was happy to see a movie was coming out – I just hoped that it could live up to the book.

Starring the amazing Emma Stone as Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan, the story takes place in early 60s Jackson, Mississippi where racist tensions are at their thickest between whites and blacks. ‘Skeeter’ is a recent university graduate who really isn’t fit for the small town living int the south, and is looking to make it as a big city journalist, or writer. After some advice from a New York editor at Harper & Row, she finds an issue she’s passionate about, and that’s giving a voice to “the help” of Jackson.

One of the first maids to help by providing stories for her book was Aibileen, as played by Viola Davis. It’s Davis, along with Octavia Spencer as Minnie, that steal the show. Skeeter is the one that gives them the platform, but they’re the ones that bring the life and personality to the story. They’re also the ones that help gather the rest of the maids to help make the book a reality.

Minnie is such a strong woman and Spencer plays her perfectly – I’d even say it was an Oscar-worthy performance. Every time she was on screen it was hard to pay attention to anyone but her. In an ideal world, I’d say Viola Davis also deserves a nod for her role – it would sure be more deserving than that nod for Doubt.

The evil Hilly Holbrook, as played by Bryce Dallas Howard, has already been added to a list or two of top movie villains, so it goes to show you how disliked she is. What’s unfortunate, and I’m sure I’m not exaggerating, is that there were many Hilly Holbrooks across the States and even Canada. The story played it off as if all the other housewives were just sheep to whatever Hilly had to say, but she was probably closer to the norm for how many thought at the time. That being said, she was a great villain and Howard played her just as I’d imagined when reading the book.

I was worried the movie wouldn’t do the book justice after watching a few of the overly lighthearted previews. In the end, I’d say the movie did a great job of mixing humor with the serious racial tensions of the time and I definitely wasn’t disappointed. If you’re looking for a story that explains the racial tensions of the time, but one that isn’t too heavy for kids to watch, then this is a great place to start the conversation. I highly recommend reading the book first, then checking this one out. I give The Help a 5/5.

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That’s all she wrote for Harry and the gang

August 7, 2011 6 Comments

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2It’s strange to think with the recent release of Deathly Hallows part 2 that it’s all over.

I’ll admit when Harry Potter started becoming popular I wasn’t a fan.Then one day I decided to watch the first movie .. and then the second.. next thing I knew I began reading the books and waiting for the next ones to come out.

While movies can never live up to the imagination of books, for me this series has done a great job of at least getting close. With the final installment, I was originally upset they planned to split it in to two pieces, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it wouldn’t do the book justice by trying to squeeze as much as it could into the movie.

Speaking of the movie, part 2 started off right where the last one left off. Voldemort had Hogwarts to himself with Professor Snape as Headmaster, taking the place of recently killed Dumbledore. He had just retrieved the Elder wand and was making his final preparations to finally do away with Harry Potter once and for all. Harry was also in the midst of finding the final Horcruxes to cripple Voldemort.

My highlights…

It was as if the hunt for the pieces of Voldemort were secondary for me. I was drawn to the much-troubled characters of Malfoy and Snape who, as we’ve seen throughout the last couple films, appear to have been going through struggles with their allegiance to Voldemort. They were characters who I didn’t like at the beginning, but grew to cheer for, even though I kind of knew they’d fail – my favourite kind of character in any story.

As Harry watched Snape’s past unfold, I couldn’t help but feel sad for the guy. It was unfortunate it had to happen when it did, but good that Harry could see where Snape was coming from, and why he did the things he did.

Another character that stood out to me the most was Neville. Over the years, he’d matured a lot, and of course played a big role in the story. He was a wizard you never would’ve thought would amount to anything, but given the adverse times he became everyone’s lifeline and de facto leader without Potter guiding them along.

Visually…

This one was a step above the rest, as they have all improved on the previous ones. It continued the trend of becoming much more darker, which has coincided with Voldemort’s rise to power. The battle scenes were great, and I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to Lord of the Rings, even though it was on a much smaller scale.

My low-light…

My biggest qualm with the movie, and many will probably disagree with me here, was the jump at the end. In theory it was a great idea, but using the same actors didn’t do the idea justice. I felt it took away from the entire story and was a bit disappointed leaving the theatre with that as the ending.

Finally…

While it’s sad to see the franchise end, this is definitely one that’ll be passed down and in thirty years we’ll be buying the <insert format of the day here> Platinum Edition version. That’s the sign of a great series, so for all you Harry Potter haters out there (and I know there are many), you’ll eventually cave and wonder why you never watched when it first aired.

Oh yeah.. as for my rating, I give Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 a 4.5/5.

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