The Grand Budapest Hotel

If you follow the film industry as much as I have, you must surely know about director Wes Anderson. Anderson is a very quirky filmmaker who came into the public eye in the late 90's and then developed a following. His is a type of filmmaking that you either love or hate but either way, it is definitely different compared to what usually comes out of the film.

Anderson's newest film is The Grand Budapest Hotel and the most misleading thing about this film is that its not all about this hotel. Sure, the plot centers around the hotel but the story is about an art heist in the 1930's involving characters Monsieur Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) and Zero (Tony Revolori) in the fictional town of the Republic of Zubrowka. The heist leads to deaths, a friendship, a family's fortune and of course the Grand Budapest Hotel.

I can't say that I've seen many art heist films because there aren't many of them. The art heist story is quite convoluted and can be on the dull side but it is very smart with depth and the story involves  much more than a typical heist. The story contains many elements ranging from black comedy to action/thriller scenes. The movie has a type of depth that can't really be described in full to someone who hasn't seen it.

What makes this an even more interesting art heist story is how Anderson's filmmaking style fits into it. He makes this story very quirky and strange; so much so that is a borderline "art house" film. It is a type of style that is again hard to describe and frankly it is best when watching this to just go with it. Anderson brings many characters to the story including big name actors like Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson. Yes, it's too many characters to keep track of at times but only Anderson could have gotten together a cast like this and it is very inspiring to see a cast like this in an "indie type" film.

I don't see The Grand Budapest Hotel as a film that I will be watching very often nor is it close to the type of films I'm normally into but Wes Anderson really makes this film worthwhile. He does so much here to tell the story and make it unfold into something really good and something we could not imagine being so good. The Grand Budapest Hotel is very grand and heartwarming and one of the first different types of films of 2014.

4/5

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The Tall Man

 
In the poor town of Cold Rock, Washington, children disappear daily because of a man the town calls the Tall Man and the town that comes together to solve this mystery. Julia (Jessica Biel) is the local nurse who is just trying to survive in this tough town with her son but he too disappears at the hands of the Tall Man.

There are many reasons why this film could have been good. Director Pascal Laugier made the famous film Martyrs which some consider one of the most grisly horror films of all-time which also included some brutal scenes involving women. The Tall Man features the plot of lost children which is not the most original thing in horror movies but it is scary in it's own right. In the end though, The Tall Man is perfectly fine for what it is but could have been so much more.

The film relies solely on a twist near the end. It is a twist that shows the film has some creative bones in it's story but you can see it coming miles away. It also gives no back-story putting us in a position where it is hard to follow and we become lost. Once we get to know this villain, we see that it is a character that is not given much to do. We also have no idea how the Tall Man is able to take the kids, his motive for doing this and also the third act is full of well....nothing.

The Tall Man is a film with a few good ideas with a creative atmosphere but it is simply way too simple and plain. It is cool to see Jessica Biel in a horror film which is not a common thing but I also wouldn't be surprised if she was casted because of her sex appeal. The Tall Man makes fine watching for a dull day but there is nothing here that makes this more than a matinee film.

2.5/5

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Captain America: The Winter Soldier

It might have not came as a shock to others but the first Captain America movie of 2011 came out of nowhere for me. I found that the Captain American origin story in that movie to be one of the more interesting origin stories around and very much original. Steve Rogers was the slightly built soldier in World War Two who makes his way to the present day through a block of frozen ice. Captain America was a superhero that eventually brought the war, the Nazis, a cool villain and different time period to the Marvel universe in Captain's first ever film.

Now in 2014, Captain America is back with the sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier directed by new directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo. After Nick Fury (Samuel J. Jackson) is gunned down by a villain named White Soldier, Steve Rogers is now is a fugitive on the run and who must get down to business and solve the S.H.I.E.L.D vs HYDRA espionage battle in the Nation's capital.

Like the first movie, this sequel has a nice cast. Nick Fury is given more to do in this movie and even though the character goes some predictable ways, he still should be the character you most look forward to in upcoming Marvel films. As he was in the first movie, Chris Evans is flawless as Captain America. He plays the character as a very likable Captain America and adds depth and chemistry to the role. Scarlett Johansson is back as the Black Widow who again brings sexuality through her tight outfits. The newest member of the cast, and a very impressive character indeed, is Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce. Redford's character can be described as unlikable and it is very impressive for an actor like Redford at the age of 77 to be doing high levels action scenes as he does here. The only character that is lacking is Falcon (Anthony Mackie) who really does nothing noteworthy or interesting but a character that maybe I could see some change or development for the next film. Last by not least is our great villain, the White Soldier who does come off as creepy and pretty cool twist comes to him yet again.

I do question the film's running time and structure. You have to question as to why this film is as long as there are many obvious places that it could have been cut down. The pacing is all over the place and the action often comes randomly. The action scenes are still very well done and do show off the  big budget of this film but they are all kind of the same. The settings are numerous and kind of all over the place and the movie does drag big time.

Of course, one thing this sequel is doing is setting itself up for another sequel that has already been announced for 2016. This one works fine for what it is but between the other recent Marvel movies including two Thor films, three Iron Man films, the Avengers and the first Captain America film, it really comes up lacking. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a disappointing sequel to say the least.

3.5/5

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Divergent

After the success of the first Harry Potter movie that later that spawned a very successful series of movies or the Twilight movies that made big money off the " teenage vampires and humans in love" theme, it has become more and more common each year for the studios to look for successful teen novels that could spawn a film series. It does come at some risk though as a film like Vampire Academy from this year was a bomb and critically panned followed by a cancelled series. This was a prime example of a film based on a teen novel-based film that didn't quite work and there are other examples.

Being not a reader of the Divergent book series, I was clueless as to what Divergent was all about. Based off the popular teen novel written by Veronica Roth, Divergent is a three part trilogy with two spin-off mini stories on e-books. In total, this series could be possibly five films and by judging from strong box office from it's first week, you wonder what kind of money how much a movie series like this could make or how long it could last.

Based in the future in a dystopian society in Chicago, Divergent's setting is a world where everyone is put into specific factions based on their own virtues. Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) learns that she is a "divergent", an extremely rare condition in which a person can't be assigned due to one faction because she has the attributes of many factions. Divergents are considered threatening by the government because they are free-thinkers who cannot be controlled by the government. Later after Tris puts herself into Dauntless, a faction of people based on courage, it becomes evident that the main faction leader Jeannie Matthews (Kate Winslet) is planning to kill any divergent that they can identify. Tris must find herself, fight her enemies and learn to survive all at the same time.

Like The Hunger Games and other sci-fi films, I am always interested in seeing a dystopian society if done right. Shot in Chicago, this dystopian setting offers real some cool shots of the city including Navy Pier and Michigan Avenue. Most of the film interior sets are placed in what seems to be abandoned warehouses which gives the film a different and hollow atmosphere. This dystopian society of Chicago is enclosed by a big wall and it seems as if this government wants it's people to be held up within the walls forever. The movie gives no hints as to why the city is walled up or what is beyond the walls and you really would hope a sequel will give some type of explanation on this. Still though, the setting here is a strength of the film.

With yet another correlation to Hunger Games, rising star, Shailene Woddley works as the young adult lead who's trying to rise up against this society and who you do root for. Her instructor for Dauntless, Four Eaton (Theo James) is both a mean and likable character and a romantic relationship eventually develops between the two. The chemistry between them is not there at first but it eventually falls into place. Peter (Miles Teller) is the mean member of Dauntless and you can say the only cast member who brings humor to the story. Divergent has a big cast filled with a lot of depth and emotions from the characters.

Where the idea of "training" as Hunger Games was only a small aspect of that movie, one of the main themes of  Divergent is training. The training is often brutal as we see many people trying to get into Dauntless who did not get to a certain level and then were thrown into the streets. Much of the training is people fighting one on one and further you are tested on your fears. For example, to even enter the training building, you have to jump down a big hole in a building where you do not know what is below.

Unlike the Harry Potter movies or The Hunger Games, this is a much more dark film based on a teen novel. The overall tone is quite dark with a suicide and an attempted sexual assault depicted among other things. This might not be some of the most fun things to watch but it does add variety and possibly brings a slightly different audience to Divergent than some of the other teen films mentioned earlier.

Divergent can be very long and also tiresome at points. It also has some lack of originality but there is still a lot to like here. Treat Divergent as another version of The Hunger Games, then it works.  

3.5/5

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