Sign-in or register to see your friends reviews!

• Glass (PG-13, 2019)

  - by fb770380186

  Little did I suspect that my first official 2019 release would be a strong contender for worst film ... read moreof the year. What the hell, M. Night?
  
  I very rarely give half-star reviews, so for the sake of civil discourse I'm going to try (and probably fail) to avoid:
  - ad hominem
  - excessive superlatives
  - curse words
  - condescension
  - unbridled hatred
  
  Please be warned, this is a *spoiler alert*, though I can't foresee any plot give-aways spoiling an already turgid film that I can't recommend to anyone under any circumstance. So, here we are at the (hopefully) final chapter of the Eastrail 177 Trilogy. After a long spell of movies that ranged from critically derided to painful and hilarious, Shyamalan made the commercially viable decision to return to the well of his Unbreakable IP. Both it and its side-quel Split were anchored by strong performances from James MacAvoy, Samuel L. Jackson, and Bruce Willis whose presences more than doubled the budget and whose absences would have doubtlessly rendered the films unwatchable.
  
  Thrown together in a compulsive, back-engineered attempt at hopping on the Hollywood franchise trend, these celebrated celebrities certainly...um...fill the running time by saying their lines. Jackson is passable because half of the movie he is comatose, Willis is phoning it in so hard they have to lift footage from two decades ago to animate him, and MacAvoy is impressively insufferable with his multiple-personality performance, one that is equal parts morbidly fascinating and obnoxious. "I'm Hedwig", "I'm Patricia", "I'm Kevin", "I'm Dennis" - I'm nonplussed as his role is annotated line by line in order that no audience members get too perplexed by his crazy-man schtick, gagging, laughable accents, and body tics as the plot meanders off to the next scene.
  
  Willis and MacAvoy get in a fight, get captured by the anti-superhero Illuminati, then get put in the same psychiatric institution as Jackson so that Sarah Paulson can "convince them they're normal". And then the Illuminati goes ahead and kills them anyway in order that nobody will know they exist (except the secondary characters and the staff at the institution) thus keeping anyone from assuming they could climb up walls, flip a car, or punch metal really hard (which, believe it or not, some people can do). Ok, why? When the paramount question about the plot is "why is this happening?", the answer should never be "because: the movie". I have to assume that this was all another truncated, garbled metaphor for the director's relationship with the critical community and the film industry as a whole.
  
  Take for instance that the characters mention several dozen times that Mister Glass, The Overseer, and The Horde are "like comic books". Yes, these humans with extreme abilities are just like thin stapled bunches of colored paper containing stories about superheroes. Shyamalan is plainly attempting some sort of metatextual deconstruction of superhero movie tropes while posturing himself as an inspired auteur, a misunderstood genius whose positivity and creativity have been suppressed time and again by the powers that be. THEY just couldn't understand the depth and nuance of his taut screenplays and his hawkish eye behind the camera. Glass is a revolution, a renaissance in not just his career but Hollywood from this day forth.
  
  Of course, "the critics got it all wrong". "I thought it was okay except the end". "Good cinematography". "It subverted my expectations".
  
  No. No. No. No. NO. It's an ugly, dim, pretentious movie, and it's only saving graces are Sam Jackson's purple blazer and the ten minute nap I got halfway through the screening.

• Happy Death Day 2U (PG-13, 2019)

  - by fb100002362637954

  This sequel was interesting and a fun misdirection of the first, but the overall twisty narrative wa... read moresn't as fun as expected. The mid credits stinger felt like Independence Day 2's ending and I'm not sure if number 3 will be worth the investment. The film captures the essence of the first film, and the death homages are the best part, much like Groundhog Day. The slasher angle is dialled down and the genre swap is interesting, but robs the film from being truly different. I feel this landed in the same quality as the first, not a horrible sequel or a home run by any means. It is a fun franchise, but lacking high quality to maintain cult status. Time will tell if this is deserving of another sequel. 17/02/2019

• Green Book (PG-13, 2018)

  - by fb584658586

  Sadly, didn't end racism, but still very cute.

• Glass (PG-13, 2019)

  - by fb100002362637954

  Glass had the unfortunate task of pleasing Unbreakable and Split fans, while servicing newcomers. Th... read moree film is good, but not a great conclusion for the series, and that ending is a real bummer. I'm still trying to understand the reason for the films storyline, and I will say it might grow on me over time. Glass might not be the action packed thriller the trailer had us primed for, but at least it plays everything out. This is the ending to Unbreakable, after a delayed gap, here we are. The film delivers a lot of answers, but with that conclusion, a fourth film could develop. The secret society angle could lead to the next chapter, this is like another origin that could be explored with Sarah Paulson in the lead. I have given this film a 4, but this could grow or drop when I watch it again at home. 17/01/2019.

• Green Book (PG-13, 2018)

  - by fb7817787

  While Green Book may appear to be simple Oscar bait aimed at older demographics, I can assure you th... read moreat this is not the case. The plot gets started when an Italian Mob-adjacent, low-level bouncer finds himself out of work when the Copacabana club he works at closes down for a couple of months. (Yes, the same Copacabana from that famous tracking shot in Goodfellas.) Not wanting to become a mob soldier, he takes a job for distinguished African-American concert pianist, Don Shirley. He is to drive Shirley across the Deep South in a Cadillac DeVille, make sure that he stays in "Colored" friendly establishments, and to act as his bodyguard. This road trip goes about as well as you'd expect. Tony's coarse and boorish demeanor irritate Shirley, and Tony asserts that Shirley is detached from his "own people." Over time, Don's erudite language and writing acumen rubs off on his driver, while Tony get his employer to lighten up and stand up for himself.
  
  Green Book could be described as Driving Miss Daisy for Men, but it's a bit more than that, with a fair amount of punch and tense moments. It's also pretty fuckin funny. Yeah, no shit I was laughing my ass off the entire time, as was the rest of the audience. Most of which comes from the ridiculous conversations between our low-level mobster and his sophisticated, but out of place companion, while trying not to get murdered in Hickville. And this comes down to performances. Mahershala Ali is on fire these days, and his work here is no exception. While it would seem that he is relegated to the "straight man" of the story, it's more that he's the anchor that holds it together. He has plenty of moments of levity and it was interesting to watch his emotional progress through the film. Viggo Mortensen is a riot and while his character does border on tri-state area Italian stereotypes, it works. Mortensen has amazing comedic timing and I enjoyed every minute of it. Peter Farrelly does a competent job telling this story, which is surprising as he mostly did low brow comedies before this. As for the controversy surrounding Green Book, no I don't feel that this classifies as a "white savior" film. They save each other, as saccharine as that sounds. It's more of an arthouse road trip picture than anything else. I don't know if it handles race in the best manner, but it doesn't make too many missteps. One scene did annoy me, in which both characters are screaming at each other in the rain. (It's almost a parody of Oscar clip nonsense.) Both main characters are based on real people, as Tony Lip would later have small roles in The Godfather, Goodfellas, and The Sopranos. Don Shirley really was a world renowned classical and jazz pianist, though it has been disputed how close these two really were. In either case Green Book is an enjoyable watch for just about anybody, and while it's not perfect, it's pretty damn good.

• Alita: Battle Angel (PG-13, 2019)

  - by fb535316333

  BAA is a solid Scifi action filled bonanza with a strong narrative. condensing an exuberant amount o... read moref content from the source material but often feeling like it's just trying to do too much all at once.
  
  Some characters and ideas needed a little fleshing out before playing their larger roles in the story, whereas others probably should not have been introduced altogether but an obligation to the original works would've made it criminal not to.
  
  There's a lot of exciting ideas in BAA and as any good Scifi goes it's the core human themes that tie it together and make it relatable. Unfortunately I still stand by the idea that Alita's CGI-face is just too distracting in a lot of solemn moments that would have been great.
  
  Instead I'm constantly getting this out-of-water video-game character vibe from her that just doesn't mesh into this very real, gritty, dystopian world that the film is trying to sell me. This feeling of disconnect clashes with the core themes, what is real? What is it to be human? Sci fi staples that get undermined.
  
  The story could've been written neater with less throwaway elements that reference the source material but all-in-all BAA delivers a riveting tale of a cybernetic girl's coming-of-age in a rough unforgivable world in a time when strong female leads is exactly what we need.

• Glass (PG-13, 2019)

  - by blacksheepboy

  James McAvoy is just as amazing as in Split, but even if there is a lot to commend here in terms of ... read morenarrative, you don't need that much to realize that this apparently smooth surface has cracks, holes and a bunch of Shyamalan twists that pile up in a desperate attempt to surprise us.

• Green Book (PG-13, 2018)

  - by fb733768972

  Usually, when a film is made and has very little depth in terms of storytelling, it would be forgott... read moreen about, but if you have a unique take on a specific story and the point of the movie is to keep it simple and explore only one facet of history. Personally, I prefer when stories are a little more fleshed out, but I also believe this simple story in Green Book is one of the best films of 2018. This is a movie that cares about its characters first and foremost and we donâ(TM)t see many of those films hitting the big screen very often, so this was a pleasant surprise. Although thereâ(TM)s not much meat to the story (which may bore some viewers), I found Green Book to be a fantastic piece of filmmaking.
  
  Fired from the downtown club and forced to take any job he can in order to support his family, Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) decides to take on the role of driving pianist Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) across the South, as he and his band perform for audiences. With the inclusion of the fact that Don is an African-American man in the 1960s and Tony being an Italian-American, many racial occurrences arise for these two. Being an unlikely pairing for that particular decade, these characters needed to be like-able and completely fleshed out in order for this film to work and those two aspects were absolutely astoundingly well-done in my opinion. This also stems from a particularly great turn by director Peter Farrelly.
  
  Although his earlier work on films like Dumb and Dumber and Thereâ(TM)s Something About Mary are very commendable outings, his recent comedies havenâ(TM)t exactly struck gold. Having his last few films being Dumb and Dumber To, Hall Pass, and The Heartbreak Kid, I was very worried about him taking on a more dramatic film. After watching this film, I felt ridiculous even thinking that, because not only has he shown maturity as a director this time around, but also completely understood how to blend his sense of humour with a more meaningful premise. If he sticks with this _b_style of filmmaking, I can definitely see his name in the public eye more often in the coming years. The way he handles his performers here was truly something special.
  
  As I said, it truly is the character arcs that carry this film and without amazing performances, this movie wouldâ(TM)ve been forgotten. Mortensen and Ali both give their all in these roles and it shows. There wasnâ(TM)t a single moment where I found myself scratching my head or not believing a decision they made or line of dialogue they spoke. In the vein of films like Driving Miss Daisy or even Before Sunrise, the conversations are the reason this film doesnâ(TM)t feel slow. Thereâ(TM)s hardly a single exciting scene and the movie clocks in at nearly 140 minutes. Thatâ(TM)s when you know the dialogue has been written very well by the trio in Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, and Peter Farrelly.
  
  In the end, I canâ(TM)t see everyone loving this film, due to the slow pace it has, but itâ(TM)s a breezy crowd-pleaser nonetheless. This movie has been generating major awards consideration and I think it deserves every bit of it and then some. I loved my experience watching this movie and I canâ(TM)t wait to revisit it and take this journey with these characters again. Funny, sad, and heartwarming, Green Book easily earns the title of being one of the best feel-good movies in recent memory (at least to me). I loved this movie and I canâ(TM)t recommend it enough.

• Alita: Battle Angel (PG-13, 2019)

  - by fb733768972

  Not being a huge fan of novels known as Manga, I've always appreciated the stories they&... read more;#x27;ve created in the form of movies of television. Not knowing anything about Alita: Battle Angel prior to watching this film, I was eagerly awaiting this look at a futuristic world and with the talent in front of and behind the camera, I feel a lot of people should have been feeling the same way. While this movies groundbreaking in many ways, I would say the story itself, as well as the side plots, are not. There's a lot to like about Alita: Battle Angel, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Let's dive into one of Hollywood's latest releases.
  
  Cyborg pieces are found in a scrapyard by Dr. Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) and assembled to form Alita (Rosa Salazar). Now revived and not sure where she came from or what secrets her past hold, she sets out on a mission to find herself, becoming a warrior in the process. The story of someone not knowing who they are, only to become a noble hero, has been told many times throughout many mediums, but it always feels special when it's accompanied by great a great lead performance and visuals that are truly out of this world.
  
  Not only are the visuals the standout of this film, but the real sets feel lived-in as if they found an actual place in the world that looked like this and started filming. Putting the set pieces aside for a moment, this truly is a film to see on the big screen for the visuals alone. From the impeccable look of Alita herself to the broad scope of this world and what else may be out there, this movie is epic in every way. Sadly, the epic scale, brilliant visuals, and engaging action sequences are slightly bogged down by exposition.
  
  Written by James Cameron, Late Kalogridis, and Robert Rodriguez (who also directed the film), I would be remised if I didn't comment on the fact that there are a few scenes that feature some fairly cheesy dialogue and some on-the-nose explanations, which felt a little out of touch, given the talent on board. To add to that, I was able to buy into the romantic arc throughout the film, involving Alita and Hugo (Keean Johnson), but where their story ended up kind of annoyed me. That being said, I thought the positive aspects of this film far outweighed the negatives and I would actually see another instalment.
  
  In the end, yes, Alita: Battle Angel does feel like a set-up for future instalments in more ways than one, but this is a self-contained story. The visuals are some of the best I've ever seen and the performance capture is absolutely a step towards perfection. The score itself actually stood out to me, which is rare these days and I found myself engaged, simply due to the music. On a technical level, this movie is a near masterpiece, but there are a few too many issues in the overall story to really call it a brilliant movie. Alita: Battle Angel is a fun time at the movies and I feel that a recommendation is warranted here.

• Glass (PG-13, 2019)

  - by fb1025970122

  Nineteen years after writer/director M. Night Shyamalan's sophomore effort, Unbreakable, and two yea... read morers after he confirmed his return to form with Split, the unique auteur has concocted what is the third film in an unlikely, but not so unlikely trilogy given the twist in Unbreakable was that all-along viewers were watching the origin story of a new hero and his arch nemesis yet were unaware of it. Like Unbreakable, Split was marketed under the guise of a different genre than what its true intentions held and when that original, James Newton Howard score re-emerged in those final moments of Split almost two years ago to the weekend it was one of the greatest "twists" I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing in a theater. This inadvertently created an issue for Shyamalan though, as with this trilogy-capper, Glass, there is no disguising what genre this film belongs to: this is a super hero movie through and through. And so, for a director who has made a name and a career off of the misdirect and/or "twist ending" the challenge in penning his first, unabashed sequel would be that of how might he might continue building these characters organically while integrating them into one another's respective worlds as well as framing the continuation of their story through a device that would satisfy the intrigue and sustain the investment. The idea that James McAvoy's "Beast" or Kevin Wendall Crumb as we know he truly exists is in the same world as Bruce Willis' David Dunn and Samuel L. Jackson's Elijah Price made for some exciting prospects, but where would Shyamalan actually go with things? How would these three individuals find their way across one another's paths and even if they happened to meet-what might it ultimately amount to? These are big questions that require much ambition and follow-through and while Shyamalan has been saying since Unbreakable opened in 2000 that he's had ideas or plans for a follow-up the time has finally come to put up or shut-up and for the most part, it's a good thing Shyamalan doesn't shut-up. With Glass, the filmmaker certainly has much to communicate and much he wants to say, but one will be hard pressed to figure out how all of these (broken) pieces are meant to fit together.
  
  read the whole review at www.reviewsfromabed.com