Sunday, May 29, 2016

The Nice Guys

Year: 2016
Director: Shane Black
Cast: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, Kim Basinger


Plot: Two private detectives team up to find a girl before she gets killed by people who are after a potentially damaging film she made.


Review: Shane Black, director of Iron Man 3 and writer of Lethal Weapon, has come up with a film that could spawn a sequel if done right.

Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling star as Jackson Healy and Holland March respectively, two private eyes who run into each other when March is hired to find a girl called Amelia as Healy is hired by the same girl to keep people off her trail. When Healy gets roughed up by two thugs looking for her, he decides to team up with March and find her before the thugs do. In doing so, they uncover a plot that involves pornography and the car industry.

By setting the film in the 70's, Black pretty much fits the story in the right time, as pornography was a huge thing during that era. Props should be given to the production design team for successfully making the film look authentic, from cars to fashion to TV shows etc. But the real appeal of The Nice Guys is the script, which is filled with loads of humor, and Crowe and Gosling nail nearly every scene with the sharp-witted dialogue.

Speaking of Crowe and Gosling, they might be the funniest action comedy duo since Riggs and Murtaugh. Crowe's Healy is the serious one, who has no problems knocking or punching people if he has to, and poor Gosling is one of them. Gosling on the other hand, plays March as a bumbling P.I. with less than honorable values, but isn't a scumbag at all. Together, the duo make the perfect team as they chase one lead after another, getting into fisticuffs and shootouts along the way. Kudos to Black for brilliantly finding a way to insert humor between the duo even during moments when you least expect it, and also knowing when to pull back when he attempts a dramatic scene.

Special mention goes out to young actress Angourie Rice who plays Gosling's daughter Holly. Holly is interesting indeed, being a 13 year old that drives her dad around in their car and is smart enough to get herself out of trouble as easily as she steps into it. Rice is phenomenal in the role, she will be awesome someday. Kim Basinger has a minor role as Amelia's mother who is involved with their case, while Matt Bomer gets to play a hitman that trades bullets with our heroes.

Despite the great script and story, it does feel at times that Black is over-complicating the film by throwing in twists and elements that don't work that well. And the cops always arrive after everything is over, which is strange. Even stranger is how Healy and March don't end up in jail with all the things they get involved in here.

But hey, good action comedies don't come around very often. The Nice Guys is a solid watch if you're looking for an R rated comedy that doesn't involve raunchy humor. (7/10)   

Sunday, May 22, 2016

X-Men: Apocalypse

Year: 2016
Director: Bryan Singer
Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Rose Byrne, Evan Peters


Plot: It's been ten years since the events of Days Of Future Past. Charles Xavier has reopened his school, Magneto lives a civilian life with his family and Raven still fights for mutant liberation. En Sabah Nur, the world's first mutant, buried alive for thousands of years, awakens and begins recruiting his Four Horsemen to assist him in cleansing the world so that he may rebuild it in his own image. When Charles is captured, Raven and his students team up to stop En Sabah Nur and his horsemen, one of whom is Magneto himself.


Review: Unlike the Marvel cinematic universe, Fox's X-Men universe has had a problem with continuity and quality, one that Bryan Singer had hoped to fix with Days Of Future Past, which reset the timeline, so to speak. So does this new instalment keep the momentum going?

I'll start with what I liked about it. The opening sequence and opening credits were awesome. The introductions of Cyclops, Jean Grey and Nightcrawler were pretty good too, though of the three, Tye Sheridan's performance is the weakest. Sophie Turner and Kodi Smit-McPhee fare slightly better as Jean and Nightcrawler respectively. The final battle sequence where all the mutants fight one another is rather exciting. My favorite scene though is the inclusion of a certain clawed mutant that has become synonymous with the X-Men films. In fact, you'll notice that Singer has borrowed a number of things from the previous films to utilize here, like the inclusion of Moira MacTaggert, Alkali Lake, scenes from First Class and even a brief sighting of the Phoenix. Some work, some not so much. And lastly, the appearance of Quicksilver this time was slightly better than in DOFP, as it feels less shoehorned.

Now for what I don't like. En Sabah Nur aka Apocalypse is pretty much the worst head villain in the series so far. I wouldn't blame Oscar Isaac on that, he did his best. But Singer and writer Simon Kinberg gave him lousy lines to work with, and constantly change his voice throughout the film (Singer has explained his reason for the voice thing but I'm not buying it). Then there's the Four Horsemen. Other than Magneto, the other three are given zero character development and next to nothing to work with. Other than enhancing their powers, what possible reason would Storm, Psylocke and Angel have to work with a guy they hardly know? To make things worse, Alexandra Shipp, Olivia Munn and Ben Hardy all give poor performances, Munn being the worst. Speaking of poor performances, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence look like they're phoning it in half the time, especially Lawrence. 

If you're looking for great action sequences here, you'll have to wait till the second half before things start to kick into high gear. The final 30 minutes is undoubtedly cool and more or less makes up for its shortcomings.

As a movie fan, I was quite entertained by X-Men: Apocalypse, and because of that I'd still give it a solid rating. But the fanboy in me is getting weary of these retro X-Men films. Please just reboot the whole thing, guys. 

P.S.: Stay for the end credits scene. (7/10)   

Sunday, May 15, 2016

The Angry Birds Movie

Year: 2016
Directors: Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly
Voice cast: Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Peter Dinklage, Maya Rudolph


Plot: Red is an outcast bird with anger issues, trying to live a normal life among the other birds on an island. When mysterious green pigs arrive on the island, Red immediately suspects them to be up to no good, but no one will listen to him. Red has to stop the pigs, who are on the island to steal the birds' eggs.


Review: Who hasn't played the Angry Birds game before? It's one of the most famous computer games in the world, though admittedly it's not as hot as it once was, but still hugely popular. Now we have an animated film based on it.

It's a storyline we are most familiar with. There's a hero, who isn't a hero yet, who will become a hero by the film's end and discover his calling/purpose, and in this case, he rallies the non believers into being what the game says they are: angry. I can easily relate to Red, an outcast with anger problems who can't seem to get along with anyone, and thus he finds it impossible to convince his flock that something bad is afoot when green pigs arrive, looking cool and talking sweet. The birds realize too late that the pigs are after their eggs, and fail to stop them. Red and his friends, Chuck (who moves at rocket speed like in the game) and Bomb (who blows up literally, like in the game), rally the birds to get their eggs back.

Seeing that Rovio, the company that created the game, did the animation here themselves, it certainly is an impressive feat in my opinion. It uses lots of colors that brighten the entire film while ensuring the key characters all look just like their game counterparts.

The script is quite funny too as it takes plenty of jabs at pop culture, and a wide selection of famous songs can be heard throughout the film, from Never Gonna Give You Up to Behind Blue Eyes to Rock You Like A Hurricane etc. There's even a spontaneous like rendition of a Mighty Eagle song that will have you in stitches.

The film does start to lose its momentum a little towards the end, and a lot of the film's tone is rather juvenile. And as much fun as the film was as a whole, it does have a strong by-the-numbers feel about it. You can easily predict how the film will end.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed it a lot, and you can do a lot worse at the cinema if you're not planning on watching Civil War again. A decent way to kill 90 minutes. (7/10)

Sunday, May 01, 2016

Captain America: Civil War

Year: 2016
Directors: Joe Russo & Anthony Russo
Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Chadwick Boseman, Elizabeth Olsen, Don Cheadle, Anthony Mackie, Paul Bettany, Tom Holland, Paul Rudd, Daniel Bruhl, Jeremy Renner, William Hurt


Plot: Collateral damage caused by the Avengers in their past attempts to save the world has been massive, resulting in the UN compelling them to sign an accord which will effectively have their activities policed and monitored. While Tony Stark is supportive of this idea, Steve Rogers is not, and a rift builds within the team. Things get worse when Bucky Barnes is set up for a terrorist attack on the UN, forcing Rogers to break the law to save his friend.


Review: 2016 is the year of the comicbook movies, and though the year is far from over, it's hard to argue the probability that the third Captain America film is the best of all of them.

The story is as follows: despite saving the world successfully from aliens, gods and robots, the Avengers have caused too much collateral damage for the UN to ignore. The world body plans to pass the Sokovia Accords, which will allow them to monitor and police the Avengers' activities. After being held accountable by a grieving parent of a victim, Tony Stark is on board with the idea. But Steve Rogers refuses, unwilling to let someone else dictate when to save lives and when not to. Then matters get more complicated when Bucky Barnes, Steve's old friend is accused of a terrorist attack on the UN, which results in the death of the ruler of Wakanda, prompting his son T'Challa aka Black Panther to seek revenge. Steve has to assemble a team to save Bucky as Stark assembles one of his own to bring them both in.

The Russo brothers, who previously directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, have done splendidly again. Working on a script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the Russos combine great action sequences with a plausible plot on what it would be like if heroes fought each other and why. I like how they present neither side as being totally right, though as a comic fan myself, I can't help but choose one (not telling, though). Unlike Zack Snyder's recent superhero showdown film that took too much time to get to the action, the Russos waste little time and throw in a solid battle between four Avengers and Frank Grillo's Crossbones to start things off. There are a handful more of well choreographed action sequences, but the airport fight between Rogers and Stark's respective teams is superb to behold. It manages to be thrilling and funny at the same time, which is hard to do.

Every cast member puts in an excellent performance without a doubt, the main ones being Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. Evans continues being the stand up hero he's always been, only this time it's more of a personal reason than a general one, with Downey Jr contrasting him well as the guy trying to keep his friends out of trouble without being biased. Another impressive cast member is Chadwick Boseman as the Black Panther, whose judgment is clouded by revenge, but not necessarily a reckless man filled with rage. I can't wait to see how he will fare in future Marvel films to come. The other newcomer to the Marvel universe, Tom Holland, impresses as Spider-Man, though to me, he isn't as endearing as previous incarnations have been, but it's not totally his fault.

The filmmakers ought to be commended for the incredible world building that they have done. Four years ago, The Avengers was successful because of all the Marvel films that have built towards it. Now Civil War is the result of all the films that have come before it (save Guardians Of the Galaxy), and it truly feels like their story has come full circle.

The only thing I can complain about is the limited screen time of Paul Rudd's Ant-Man and Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye, both showing up only at the half mark of the film. But the Russos give everyone else mostly equal time to shine, even allowing time for Paul Bettany's Vision and Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch to build something towards a relationship, like they did in the books.

Captain America: Civil War is truly a remarkable feat by Marvel Studios. For me, it's right up there with X2, The Avengers and The Dark Knight as the best comicbook films ever made. Highly recommended. (9/10)  

P.S.: As usual, stay for the end credits scene.

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