The Dark Knight Rises

I think I was one the few movie fans out there who thought the first two Batman films by Christopher Nolan film were just okay and nothing special. For the most part, I feel then same way about The Dark Knight Rises, the third installment by Nolan. This movie is very dry at times, has a very crowded and busy plot and is one the longest films I've ever sat through. It is also a film that brings a fitting conclusion to this trilogy of films. This movie does have some highlights but it's really nothing special in my opinion.

The film takes place eight years after the Harvey Dent murder and now Bruce Wayne is crippled and a hermit. For eight years, Gotham City has been rather quiet until a new villain named Bane shows up  to take over Gotham City. This brings Bruce Wayne out of hiding to fight Bane and show the city that he's not a murderer but is instead somebody that wants to help. That is the main plot but there are many other subplots involving new characters in Catwoman (Ann Hathaway) Miranda (Marion Cotillard) and characters John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Lovitt) and Fox (Morgan Freeman).

Usually I am fine with a busy plot like this but the 2 hour and 45 minute running time of this film is ridiculous. The movie could have easily been cut down by an hour and you could take out some unnecessary scenes inducing a sex scene and also scenes that are just too long. The film also takes quite a long time to develop it's conclusion which just adds to the length of the movie.

I am also not real impressed with Christian Bale who plays Batman. Along with the other films, he is a very dry lead and he doesn't even put on the Batman suit until about forty minutes into the film. You could make the case that there is not enough Bruce Wayne in this film and they don't seem to give Bale a whole lot to do here. Luckily, there is a nice supporting cast here led by Anne Hathaway who plays Catwoman and brings a sexy charm to the film. The character Miranda also has a cool backstory and Morgan Freeman and Joseph Gordon-Lovitt are brought back to play their characters from the prior movies.

I really did like the villain Bane. He brings a cool tension to the film with his creepy headgear and mouth-guard that he talks through. Like the Miranda character, he also brings an interesting backstory. He moves the film along by taking over Gotham City and even taking over a crowded stadium in the middle of a  football game. I think the character Bane is definitely a highlight of this movie.

Also another cool idea is the underground prison. It brings an interesting layer to the plot but it is never explained just where it is and it is not the most realistic prison you will ever see. It is however a cool-looking setting where you have to fight your way out of it or climb a wall to the surface that only one prisoner has ever done before.

The action scenes are all well done but there are some flaws including having way too many police officers in many scenes. The story will also randomly turn from day into night and often the pacing seem off. The film will also go through over forty minutes of straight action and then a long period of no action and then repeat it.

The Dark Knight Rises is not a terrible film and it does have some original ideas, a good villain and some newer characters, but it also has some very unrealistic parts, poor pacing and many unexplained parts of the story. I think is an okay film but I also think this Christopher Nolan trilogy is one the most overrated series of all time and both The Amazing Spider-Man and The Avengers beat this film by a wide margin.

3/5

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The Next Three Days

The Next Three Days is one those films I was thinking of seeing back in 2010 when it came out but I didn't. After seeing it now, I really don't know what I  was thinking as I should have seen this film much earlier as I really liked it for many reasons. It is a film that I liked more than thought I would.

The film is a remake of  a French film called Anything for Her. The film is about a man named Josh Brennan (Russell Crowe). One day his wife gets arrested and he believes she is innocent of what she is accused of. Along with their child, Brennan plans for her escape from prison so they can run away as family and start a new life.

One reason this film works is Russell Crowe. He moves the film along and there is a great deal of development in his character. At the start of Act 1, he is a smart and likable guy but by the end of Act 3, he has turned into a daring, rough and determined person and in many ways he feels like a very different man but in a good way.

The plot is good, well thought out, constructed well and practically flawless. The characters are good all the way around and even Daniel Stern shows up in a scene. That said, there are a couple of scenes with riding around in helicopters that are unrealistic and some other silly moments but overall this a good story and plot.

The ending is also really well done. On the down side, the movie is a little long and some parts could have been taken out but there is some good action and the ending is a very original way to conclude a film.

I have heard some people say that this film is hard to watch due to the fact that it involves a family running away from authorities and trying to get out of the country and I kind of agree with this. On the other hand, the plot is daring and makes the film more powerful.

The Next Three Days could considered a drama or a thriller but either way, it is a smart film with a good plot and good acting and is a film that works real well with what it is trying to do. I think it is a film that most anybody would like.

4/5

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Death Proof

I was really excited to see this film because I like B-movies and also like some of the other Grindhouse films like Planet Terror, Hobo with a Shotgun and especially Machete. I was also excited to see Kurt Russell. I can tell you that the plot is very cool and the film does have a lot going for it but it really should have been better than it is.

Death Proof is about Mike McKay (Russell) who hunts victims and kills them with his car. In many ways it is a silly idea and has been used before in films like Christine but it I think it works here.

The main reason this silly plot works is due to the lead, Kurt Russell. He is a fun guy to watch here and is cool but he is not as scary or intimidating as he should be. His character feels more like a guy off the street than a really scary character.

One problem with this film is that many of the scenes are overdone and go on too long. The scenes involving the killings are put together pretty well but again many scenes are just too long without adding much to the story and it definitely makes the highlights in the scenes less special.

The killings and the action scenes are well done. They are fun, put together well,  have good gore and they feel very real. Also, even though I am not a big fan of cars, the film does have a lot of cool cars.

Death Proof does have some highlights and it is watchable but it does have flaws that include some overdone scenes, Kurt Russell could be a more convincing character and it needs more action films. It is not a bad film in any way but probably the weakest film to date of the Grindhouse films.

3/5

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Thoughts on The Dark Knight Rises and the Aurora, Colorado shooting

As the new Batman movie comes out this weekend, I feel kind of neutral about it. It is a series that I don't watch very often as I have not been a big Batman fan like I am of the Spiderman movies but still it is a series I enjoy.

The only Batman movie that I did not see was the very first one which came out in 1966. It is a forgotten film mostly because of the more recent films and also the television series and it is a film I don't know much about. I probably should have seen it years ago, and it does appear to have a good cast, so it is definitely on my watch-list.

The first two Tim Burton film of Batman are called Batman and Batman Returns and these ares my favorites. Burton brought his Gothic style to this series and included crazy villains like the Joker and the Penguin. These were not amazing or award-winning films but both have a cool style and you get quality actors including Danny Devito, Jack Nicholson, Micheal Keaton and Kim Basinger doing good work in their prime.

I really lost interest in the series after the Burton films. Joel Schumacher put together the two films called Batman Forever and Batman and Robin that I thought were just bad and you could tell Schumacher really didn't know what he was doing with the films. They were both films with promise but I think they were executed poorly and both had some bad casting.

When the series got rebooted, I just lost all interest. I finally got around to seeing the new Christopher Nolan films about two years ago. For me, "The Dark Knight" was better than "Batman Begins" by a long shot but they were both films that brought a new style that I wasn't much into and I thought they were very dull and dry in many ways. Neither are terrible films but at the same time, they are not amazing in any way and I do think Christopher Bale is not a great Batman.

When the new film hits theaters this Friday, I am really looking forward to seeing it because even though I was not a big fan of the first Nolan films, I do want to see the new characters, a new villain and also to see how they are going to end the series.

This post has been a work in progress and sadly while I was working on this, a gunman named James Holmes who allegedly claimed to be the Joker burst into a midnight showing of the movie in Aurora, Colorado on opening night and shot and killed 12 people and injured almost 60 others. Sadly, The Dark Night Rises is going to be remembered because of this terrible tragedy. In many ways, the shooting really was not about Batman but just one disturbed person but in some ways maybe it was about Batman because Holmes was saying he was a Batman character. Anyway, this does bring up questions as to whether there should be anything that should be done to improve safety in movie theaters.

As a movie fan who attends close to twenty films a year in theaters, I do recognize that there is a lack of security there. On more than one occasion I have seen many people sneak in, bring in their own food and sometimes behave badly in theaters. Sometimes, you can walk though the front door at some of the theaters and they don't even have anybody to check your ticket stub. You could just walk in any theater there. I don't know how security can be improved  but now it appears that maybe something more should be done.

I also heard many people say that midnight screenings should be banned. I disagree with this but feel that maybe there should be more rules in place for these opening screenings. I do think there may be too many people milling around these midnight screenings which might create a tense and rowdy environment. Maybe midnight screenings should just be for teenagers and let this be their thing. In the Aurora shooting, one 6 year girl was killed and there was also a 3 month old there. Should kids of this age be out so late at a midnight showing and is this a safe and proper environment for these children?

I plan on seeing The Dark Knight Rises next weekend and no doubt people will still be talking about the terrible Aurora tragedy. Whether I like the movie or not, my thoughts and prayers will of course always go out to the Batman fans who were killed or injured in this horrible incident. I just wish this did not happen and especially to people who were kind of like me.

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We Need to Talk about Kevin

To begin with, I should say that parenting is not something that I think about very often. As an easy going and nerdish kind of teenage guy, I don't how I will handle being a parent. I can see some aspects that I would like but right now the patience and commitment needed to be a parent is not there for me yet. We Need to Talk about Kevin is a horror film about how rough parenting can be. Watching this, I felt kind of lost because I really don't much about this subject. I did like the film somewhat but the main thing I liked was how real the film is and that it can turn people like me away from having kids because it shows how hard parenting can be. This also shows how just good the film is and why it is one of the better horror films of this year.

We Need to Talk about Kevin is the story about a child named Kevin who has temper and doesn't get along with his mother (Tilda Swanton) and seems to start trouble just about every minute. Kevin's mother and  father (John C. Reilly) try to reign him in and bring him back to earth and be normal but nothing seems to work.

The acting here is pretty good all the way around. and that is saying something because these are challenging roles. Tilda Swanton acts in a way I am not usually a fan of but helps the film by making it seem more realistic. John C. Reilly also gives a good performance and he and Tilda Swanton make a good team here.

The one thing I was worried about was how the character Kevin was going to be portrayed in this movie. This was going to be a hard character to make work because the character is told from birth and that means younger actors would play the role and this might not be so good  but surprisingly it works out pretty well. The actors during the toddler years do well and the older ones are good too.

Along with a lot of good characters and actors, the film is a success as there are many original ideas from the beginning to the end. Along with the original ideas and stories, it has a lot of  good David Lynch moments and scenes where we don't what going is on in the film and also there are a lot of cool and awkward silent scenes.

Even though I like the story of the film, I don't really like the set-up of it. It is told though flashbacks and I really do think it would better it was just progressed normally and chronologically. With it being set-up through the flashbacks, it makes the film confusing and sometimes I became lost as to what was happening.

Even though I am not a parent, it really made me think in that way. It makes you think you what could have done better and the film made me think in ways I have never thought before which most films do not do.

I think I might have liked this movie more if I was parent. With no parenting experience, the film feels like a typical horror film and something I see regularly whereas if I was parent, it would daring and scary in a different way.

Asides from a bad set-up and some very minor flaws, We Need to Talk About Kevin  is a well acted film that is original and a daring look at something that people around my age could be facing in 15 or 20 years. If I do have kids, the film might always be in the back of mind and something to look back on which shows why its is so powerful and a must-see.

4/5

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The Amazing Spider-Man

I've said it many times before, and I don't think it will ever change, that the Sam Rami films will always be my favorite of the Spider-Man movies. Aside from just being great films, they bring back really good memories of my childhood and also a time when my baby brother, Louis was born. With the new Spider-Man, I have been opposed it for a lot of reasons but decided to watch it anyway. After seeing this movie, I must admit that this new film does bring some new things to the series and shows why Andy Garfield and Emma Stone are becoming great actors. This one does not follow the films before it and and it is kind of a redo of the first movie and it would have been more fun if wasn't so unnecessary.

The new Spider-Man is about Peter Parker (Andy Garfield) and how he loses his parents due to unknown and mysterious reasons. He then lives with his Aunt May (Sally Field) and his Uncle (Martin Sheen). He does not fit in at the local high school and has a love interest in Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Circumstances at Oscorp Corporation gives him spider powers and turns him into the Spider-Man. He then fights against the Lizard (Rhys Ifans) and learns what it takes to be a hero.


Even though they don't match the Toby Maguire and Kristen Dunst team from the prior movies, Andy Garfield and Emma Stone do make a really good team as the leads and there is a good deal of chemistry between them. It also helps that there is a very good supporting cast including Sheen, Ifans and Field.

Gwen Stacy is a character that was only covered a little in Spider-Man 3 but in this movie, she has a much larger role and I do feel that her character is portrayed much better and more completely. The character is daring, lovable, well-acted and is no doubt a character that I would like to see again.

Along with Gwen Stacy, the Lizard character is also portrayed pretty well. Once again, the character works in part due to good acting. The Lizard is mean in an entertaining way and provides the film with a lot of good action scenes.

With Peter Parker being in high school, a couple of scenes set in the high school felt quite realistic and this included some fight scenes among Peter and classmates, and also some awkward romantic scenes which really capture the high school whole vibe. I found this to be one of the highlights of the film .

The movie does have it's flaws. The one fight scene between Spider-Man and the Lizard in the high school is not bad but the whole set-up is kind of off because no teachers are shown, and the students clear out so quickly and there are very few students shown outside. Also the Lizard builds a laboratory in the sewer with a computer hook-up down there which seems kind of silly. There is also a weird scene at the beginning about  how apparently Peter Parker has a black eye and everybody makes a big deal about it even even though he doesn't really have one. There is also an awkward  crane scene near the end to help Spider-Man get through the city which seems not very realistic considering how the story developed. That said, these are all small flaws but in one way and another, they do bring the film down a little.

The Amazing Spider-Man is a film I would probably like more if I didn't like the original films so much more. It is not a terrible film and does have some highlights including a good cast, some new characters, high school scenes and some okay action scenes. It is a film that is more really worth a rental for me and something I probably wouldn't watch more than once.

3.5/5

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Somewhere

Somewhere is one those films that I've been wanting to see since it came out in 2010 even though I am not much into dramas and this is nowhere close to the type of film that I usually like. The main reason why I wanted to see this is because the directer Sofia Coppola has made a lot of good films before this. Also after watching Super 8 last summer, I could tell that Elle Fanning is a really good actress and I see that her career is really starting to take off so I really looked forward to seeing her again in this one. Somewhere is one of those films that has a lot going for it and I see what they are trying to do with it by trying to make something different but the approach doesn't work for me and this is why I was not pleased with this film and in so many ways it could have been a lot better.

The movie is about John Marco (Stephen Dorff) who is a lonely Hollywood actor and has a broken relationship with his daughter. The entire movie is about them trying to repair their relationship and trying to bring themselves closer together. It is a typical drama with nothing new.

One flaw here is the lack of dialogue. As I mentioned before, I can appreciate that they are trying to do something different  but it doesn't really work here. In my opinion, a film like this needs dialogue to make it feel more realistic and without it, the viewer becomes disinterested and I for one got really bored because of this as it just did not seem very realistic. The film also struggles with pacing and it's direction. In the first hour, the film doesn't really go anywhere. Not much happens and scenes go on too long and with the ending, there are unanswered questions which I didn't care for.


There are some good things here though. The movie does have some original ideas and the two leads are very good. The leads are quite entertaining and their interaction feels somewhat realistic and they do have some chemistry. 

Sofia Collopa is trying to bring something new here which is a pretty cool thing, Unfortunately, Somewhere is  a pretty dry drama that barely makes the cut and a film that didn't really reach it's full potential.

3/5

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