Movies I Think are Boring

May 25, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Since I started doing this blog I have noticed a lot of my favorite movies others will claim are boring and yet movies they love I will find boring. In fact, I have moved away from using the word boring in my reviews (I call it the B word) because I find it doesn’t tell you that much. It’s kind of like calling something nice, a bland adjective.

So what do I mean by boring? Well, basically a movie that puts me to sleep, that I found tedious and slow. A movie like Boyhood which others found to be boring to me was extremely compelling because its about real life. I could have watched that for days. Boyhood knows what it is trying to be so it is very compelling.

A lot of people find Fantasia to be boring but I do not because it is so different and it continually surprises me with music and visual delight. I think if the sequences were longer I might have more of an issue but each one is just enough to dazzle me.

Some also find Tale of Princess Kaguya to be boring but it is kind of like Boyhood in the sense that it was trying to be the story of young girl growing up and it executes that world and story so well I was engrossed.

Tree of Life, Where the Wild Things Are, Bambi, are all movies others find boring but for me they have a heart that drew me in, visuals that surprised me and enough happens to keep me engaged. They all know what they are trying to be and execute it well.

Unfortunately some movies fail to achieve their vision. Recently Woman in Gold was boring because it was trying to be a drama but everything was so predictable and flat that I fell asleep in the theater. If I nod off in your movie it is probably a bad sign…

Another example is Treasure Planet. It’s not a bad movie and in many ways it is very ambitious; however, despite a unique visual style it fails to create new or compelling characters. The world building is beautiful but because it is so new a lot of the scenes that should be tense weren’t. I know what is going to happen to a ship in a storm with water. I do not know in an air storm; therefore, it becomes boring when it should be exciting. It also doesn’t help that Treasure Island is one of the most famous and thereby predictable stories in all of literature. Made me fall asleep.

There are a lot of bad movies I find boring. Again because they fail to do what they want to do so it becomes a slog to sit through. On the surface you would think a movie like Transformers 4 would be exciting with all the action but because I don’t care about any of the characters or where the action is taking place it becomes very repetitive and boring.

The Last Airbender definitely lands on my boring list. It fails so spectacularly at being what it is trying to be which is a mythical action adventure. Instead we get long passages of exposition and terrible special effects that are good only for insomnia.

The Star Wars prequels have the same problem. We want to see an exciting adventure and instead we get lots of discussion about trade and land rights mixed in with terrible special effects and bad acting. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I know many like Man of Steel but I thought it was awful. It takes it self far too seriously with reverential and annoying music. It has a confused lead character that is bland and uninteresting and supporting characters I didn’t care about. The flashback structure doesn’t work, the special effects I’ve seen before and the romance has no chemistry. I found the product placement obnoxious and the ending gratuitous. Another good one for my insomnia.

Lone Ranger another movie that should have been good but instead is a tedious series of action pieces with unlikable characters I didn’t care about. It’s handsomely mounted but that’s about all you can say for it. Rarely have I been so restless in my seat in a theater .

I know a lot of people love it but I found Life of Pi to be very boring. We know what is going to happen because the boy on the raft is narrating the story to a newsman. This takes away tension and left me on a boat with a tiger for 2 hours. I watched Cast Away about a man on an island and was riveted. Life of Pi just didn’t do it for me.

Romances can be incredibly dull too. The drama The Lucky One with the chemistry-free couple of Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling is a good example. The dialogue is terrible. The story is ridiculous and full of tropes (like you know the liar reveal is coming a mile away…). The filming looks like a million other dewy filled romance movies. It all becomes very tedious and slow.

A movie that is on my Movies I Hate list is Contact. It’s so preachy about the foolishness of religion and the grandeur of science. All of the religious characters are nefarious and suspect in some way. But even put that aside it’s so slow moving in its story and I remember seeing it in the theater and praying someone would pull the fire alarm so I could leave. It’s the first movie I had that response too.

Whenever they try to split a book into multiple movies it always makes for at least one boring movie. In the case of the Hobbit movies it made 2. In the second movie it takes 2 hours to get to Smaug!! 2 hours of filler. Ugh. The third is a bunch of battles with a few fun moments for fans thrown in. They are watchable but definitely on the boring side because the story is stretched out.

I know some people love it but I find the 7th pt 1 Harry Potter movie to be very tedious. It’s basically our threesome going around getting clues that will all become exciting for the great final movie. I remember looking at my watch again and again at the theater. Not a good sign for a girl that loves the Harry Potter movies.

You could put almost any M Night Shyamalan movie on this list but The Village certainly belongs. It fails to give us one compelling character. Instead we get a tedious fairytale with an obnoxious twist. It’s a slogfest.

Magnolia is an extremely polarizing movie but at over 3 hours I lose patience with its pretentiousness. The acting is good but Paul Thomas Anderson forgets to give all these great actors a compelling story. Instead its a lot of dramatic speeches that don’t mean anything which makes it very hard to sit through. It’s on a lot of people’s best ever list but I found it insufferable and very hard to sit through.

Comedies can certainly be boring and one of the worst I’ve seen is How Do You Know. This movie had huge potential with James L Brooks directing and a great cast but man is it a tough sit-through. A bad comedy will have jokes that don’t work but this doesn’t even tell any jokes. It is like they just made it up every day at set. The story is non-existent, characters just talk a lot without anything behind it and it isn’t remotely funny. It’s very boring. I honestly think watching these 4 actors eating lunch would be more interesting.

I love the Wizard of Oz. I think it is one of the best examples of storytelling ever put to film. I love the music, cinematography, story, villain everything. That said I’ve hated any time we’ve gone back to Oz. Return to Oz was one of the worst experiences I had at the cinema as a little girl and recent Legends of Oz was dreadful. However, they at least tried to do something visually interesting. Disney’s Oz the Great and Powerful is so bland it barely resembles the Oz I know and love . James Franco is completely flat as Oz, all the female actors are shrill and annoying (such a waste of great actresses) and the land of Oz looks like a CGI world we’ve seen a million times. Boring!

Everyone knows how much I love period pieces. Howard’s End is one of my favorite movies of all time and I love anything with Dickens, Austen or Downton Abbey in the title. Brideshead Revisited, however, I was not a fan of. Great actors can not save the melodrama of Charles and Sebastian’s bromance. I didn’t like any of the people so I didn’t really care what happened to them, making the life-long back and forth a tough watch. Even Emma Thompson can’t make this movie interesting for me…

I know there are a bunch of other boring movies I could list off but I think this gives you some idea. Basically a movie is boring when it fails to execute its vision. It might try to be a great action adventure and instead it is just a series of stunts without any character or story to go along with it and that will bore me. If the story doesn’t work and it doesn’t keep moving in interesting ways it is going to bore me. It can be slow and leisurely paced but it has to have something to engage me- a character I like, a message I respond too, an artistry that is new and different. And the artistry can only carry you so long. After about 15 minutes if you don’t have other layers (like Fantasia has the music and the segments are short) then you could still lose me.

In the end it is all subjective and what I like you might not and vice versa. So don’t get offended if I said your movie is boring. If you like it that is awesome.

Now that I have this out I will continue try to not use the B word in my reviews and give you more context as to why a movie felt boring.

Disneynature 4: Oceans

May 24, 2015May 24, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Everyone knows how much I love the ocean and being in the water. In fact, I just got home from my first open water swim of the season. Burr! It was cold! I wish I was close to ocean but I have to satisfy myself with lakes, reservoirs and rivers. But I dream of the ocean. I live for the ocean and miss it when I am far away. So naturally I enjoyed Disneynature’s film Oceans.

Oceans is similar to their Earth film and more of a traditional nature documentary. Unlike Monkey Kingdom there is no attempt to tell a story or give characters names. It isn’t even like the Crimson Wing which doesn’t have characters with names but refers to the flamingos and their hunters in fairytale terms (princess, witches, wizards etc). Oceans doesn’t do any of that. It is a pretty straight forward nature documentary that tries to teach children the value of nature and what we can do to care for the earth better.

The strength of Oceans is its amazing images. The beauty of nature is breathtaking and it has enough animals from different parts of the world that I never got bored.
We get to learn about”

Dolphins-

Whales-

Sea Otters-

Adorable Penguins (seriously who doesn’t find penguins cute and if you are out there- what’s wrong with you!).

Turtles-

Seals-

Jellyfish-

Other Fish

If those images don’t excite you than Oceans is probably not the movie for you. The gorgeous cinematography is most of the appeal and I enjoyed learning about all of these amazing creatures and the environmentalist message isn’t too heavy handed. Jaques Perrin and Jacquez Cluzaud direct and it covers 5 oceans beautifully in 50 different locations!.

Pierce Brosnan narrates but like I said it is minimal and he does a fine job. The music by Bruno Coulais is excellent. He scored the music for The Secret of the Kells which makes sense. Both scores have great drama and impact. Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas have a duet at the end which is about as good as you can imagine a duet by them would be.

The trailer will give you a feel for the movie.

There isn’t much else to say about Oceans. It is a standard style of nature documentary with gorgeous cinematography, music and a good message. Lovers of the ocean like myself will especially love it.

Overall Grade- B+ I need to get to the ocean!

Pixar Review 9: Toy Story 2

May 22, 2015May 22, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

After the drama with Bug’s Life Pixar’s next release couldn’t have been more eagerly anticipated. A sequel to one of the most iconic animated movies ever released. How could it possibly measure up?

Then everyone saw it and Toy Story 1 and 2 are the only original and sequel I’m aware of that both have 100% on rottentomatoes- a rating that is near impossible to get. Toy Story 3 has an embarrassing 99% ;).

So I think folks liked Toy Story 2! And with good cause. It is a great movie!

There are so many things that are smart about Toy Story 2. First of all, they didn’t try and redo the first movie. It would have been so easy for them to introduce another new toy into the room and rehash the same story over again. But instead they go in an entirely new direction and make an adventure!

Toy Story 1 introduced us to the characters and followed Woody as his leadership is threatened. He feels jealous, frustrated, frightened, and deals with insecurities he didn’t even know he had. That’s why people related so much to it. Haven’t we all been there where a rival threatened to displace us? Where we worried we would be forgotten or passed over? Where we felt jealous and envious of another who seemingly has it better? Toy Story 1 crafts a narrative around all those very human emotions.

Toy Story 2 has that emotional core but it is mainly an adventure story. It starts out with Woody getting stolen by a greedy toy collector voiced by Seinfeld’s Wayne Knight. (When you see that character don’t you expect him to sound like Newman?).

It turns out that Woody is a valuable collectible Al has been hunting for to complete his Woody’s Roundup collection to sell to a museum in Tokyo. The rest of the set includes Stinky Pete (Kelsey Grammar), Cowgirl Jesse (Joan Cusack) and Bullseye the horse.

They are thrilled to see Woody because it will mean they can get out of storage and be on display at the museum. Woody at first is dazzled by all the collectibles and can’t believe he is the star of a show. The Prospector is also very manipulative in the way he describes the museum leaving out the details that Woody will no longer be played with by children.

Meanwhile Buzz, Slinky, Ham, Potato Head, and Rex all head out to find Woody and bring him back to Andy’s Room. This includes an amazing sequence with them trying to cross the road in cones and a series of adventures in a large toy store.

All the scenes in the toy store are so funny. We get our first appearance of Barbie who moves in the stiff way a barbie moves and is bright and happy. I loved it.

There is also an entire row of Buzz Lightyear action figures and a Delusional Buzz that still thinks he’s a Space Ranger gets mixed up with the real Buzz. This gives so many great laughs and is very nostalgic to the original movie. Tim Allen is great as both versions of Buzz.

At first Woody is set on going back to Andy’s Room but Jesse and Prospector beg him not to go. They don’t want to go into storage and Jesse warns Woody what will happen when Andy is done being a kid. I defy you not to cry during this song (if you don’t then I don’t understand you!). A fabulous job by Randy Newman and Sarah McLachlan.

This puts Woody in a difficult spot, which is our new, different emotional core than we had in Toy Story 1. The original is all about overcoming personal demons where this film is about how much of our own dreams and life we are willing to sacrifice for others. Woody has to decide whether he is willing to give up his life with Andy in order to keep his new friends from a dark life in storage. It’s a very tough question.

But I don’t want to make it sound morose because it’s absolutely hilarious. The writing is so funny with superb vocal performances from the entire cast especially Don Rickles and Estelle Harris (another Seinfeld alum) as Mr and Mrs Potato Head.

And like I said everything with Delusional Buzz and the Barbies is funny. I also love Wallace Shawn as Rex who is preoccupied for most of the movie with defeating Evil Emperor Zurg who we get to meet in this movie (so funny).

The ending at an airport is stunning where the characters get mixed up in the various belts and mechanisms that deliver luggage around the airport. When you think of where they were in Toy Story 1 it is an especially amazing visual.

There is even a tense horse ride down the tarmac. It really has the feel of an old Western chase scene and I always get those butterflies wondering how they are going to get out of this mess (again like a good action adventure should do).

In the end, Woody realizes things may change but it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the moment while it is here. His purpose is to be played with not looked at under glass. It’s a sweet lesson for all of us. We all need to find our purpose and not let anyone manipulate us into giving that up.

Toy Story 2 is a total and complete delight. As I always do with these reviews I watched it 3 times over the last 2 weeks and it never felt old or tired. I smiled, laughed and was completely engrossed in the tense sections. Mostly I just love spending time with these characters.

Everything new they tried worked while still holding on to the emotional core and likability of the original characters. The addition of Jesse is the cherry on the sundae. Her journey from being a nervous, depressed character to full of life is wonderful. Her song is gorgeous and I love her spunk!

I would definitely recommend adding Toy Story 2 to your blu-ray library as it is enjoyable for the entire family. I love it!

(Also the audio commentary on Toy Story 2 is hilarious and very interesting. I highly recommend giving it a listen).

Overall Grade- A+

Big Disney News and Response at Cannes

May 21, 2015May 21, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Disney should be speaking in French from now on because they just had an amazing response at the Cannes Film Festival. For us Disney fangirls (and boys) we got a lot to be excited about!

This is going to be a very nerdy post with tons of little details that might not interest the average movie fan but for us Disney geeks you’ll love every last little crumb!

The response from Cannes surprised me because it is known for its tough crowds. This year two films, Michael Caine’s Youth and Matthew McConaughey’s Sea of Trees, were both booed by festival goers. So for Disney to get such a strong response says a lot.

The good things started with the premiere of Pixar’s new film Inside Out. It was greeted with a standing ovation and one critic said it was “probably double the loudest applause of any other film at the festival. It went down like gangbusters”

Needless to say such sentiments have heightened my own excitement to the tilts! I can’t wait! Even hoity-toity NPR critic Kenneth Turan said:

“It’s very funny. It’s very inventive. And really moving, kind of in the way Up was”

Sold! I’m so jealous of everyone at Cannes who got to see it!

But the good news didn’t stop there…

Disney had a 25 minute showcase of their upcoming slate starting with more details about Thanksgiving release of Good Dinosaur. We have heard so little about this movie that I was so curious for these details.

Here is the new synopsis from Deadline article.
“The Good Dinosaur follows teenager Arlo, who is separated from his family when he falls into a raging river and is swept hundreds of miles away. He comes across Spot, a human cave-boy orphan with whom he forms a bond as he attempts to get home.

Lasseter said, “Our films ask ‘What if?’ questions. What if monsters really did live in your closet? What if a rat wanted to be the finest chef in the most beautiful city in the world? I think our next movie asks the biggest ‘What if?’ of all. What if the asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs actually missed Earth?”

I think that sounds pretty amazing! People have been saying for a long time Pixar needs to get back to original storytelling and the way I see it is Pixar has two types of storytelling- the what if stories (Toy’s come to life, Monsters in the closet, rats cooking etc) and more traditional journey narratives (father finding his son, nostalgic cars teaching new lesson, bugs facing their captors, last robot finding love, a family of superheroes, a man and his flying house pays homage to his wife).

With Inside Out I feel they are giving us a What if story- what if inside our head there is an entire world going on. And with Good Dinosaur there is a what if but it seems like it is mostly going to be a journey of Arlo and Spot. It sounds a lot like Finding Nemo to me and that is great!!

Deadline says the Good Dinosaur footage “captivated international audience members…Two french women sitting near me alternately gasped and whispered “extraordinaire” and “incroyable” when amazingly lifelike closeups of CGI foiage were shown. The environment, Lasseter said, is a “living breathing character” in the film”.

Again that sounds very Finding Nemoish to me where the environment of the ocean played such a role in the story (think the jellyfish sequence, the turtles in the EAC etc). This sounds great!!

But the good news didn’t stop there…

Next they talked about Finding Dory the sequel to Finding Nemo. I didn’t know if they needed a sequel but Andrew Stanton is directing which is awesome and the synopsis sounds neat:

“Dory’s memory of her childhood is triggered while she’s at school on the Coral Reef one day with Nemo. She makes her way to an institute that cares for undersea creatures and teams up there with Hank The Octopus who becomes her guide.

Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy will play Dory’s parents and “folks were treated to some of their banter and there was also footage of a kelp forest on California’s northern coastline (“a new look for us” said Lasseter) and a glimpse of the Loons, to whom Lasseter referred as “the Seagulls of the new movie. They’re so startlingly dumb it’s hilarious.”

That sounds amazing!! I can’t wait!

But the good news didn’t stop there…

We got some new details on Toy Story 4. Lasseter said “brand new chapter that’s very personal”. Evidently it is going to be a love story and not be a continuation of the events of Toy Story 3 or involve human characters. It is entirely within the toy world which sounds pretty great to me! Lasseter said “”We’re in the early stages of the film, but it’s shaping up nicely. It’s funny. The story is not as much a continuation of the past films, but a brand new chapter in the ‘Toy Story’ world.”

But the good news didn’t stop there…

Next they moved on to the Walt Disney Animated Studio WDAS which has marked 10 years since the Lasseter/Ed Catmull take over. What a great 10 years it has been! (I know 2D fans might disagree but I’ve loved it). Lasseter said

“Walt Disney Animation Studios is back. Ed and I always believed what would heal this studio- because it was quite broken when we came in, the morale was really low- what would really heal it is if we can make a movie to be a really big hit. These guys are on fire now”.

They certainly are!

Next up for WDAS is Zootopia which looks really cool. Lasseter said it will be ‘classically Disney” and the images look very 2D although it is CG. I wonder if it will have the feel of their Paperman short which blended 2D and CG techniques?

Either way it is an anthropomorphized fox in a ‘modern civilized world’ of animals. ” Jason Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin star as a kind of buddy cop duo. Again from Deadline article

” Eliciting huge laughs was a scene in which the unlikely partners are rushing to get a run on a license plate, only to find the DMV is fully staffed by sloths.”

That sounds really great!

But the good news doesn’t stop there (only 1 more)…

We learned more about the new princess movie Moana. Directed by Disney legends Ron Clements and John Musker it is a musical set in the South Pacific and was “inspired by the group’s own experience on a research trip to Oceana”

“The story follows a talented young navigator whose father forbids her to sail beyond their island reef. When she sets out anyway and ends up stranded on another island, she meets the fallen demi-god Maui and they set off on an adventure” .

Deadline says “a song montage was shown to Cannes attendees who showered it with applause” (what I would have given to be at that meeting!).

Anyone who knows me knows I love Hawaii, musicals and the ocean. Moana seems like it was designed just for me so of course I am so excited!

—————————-

So I know that was a lot of info but each and every part makes me so giddy I just had to share it with all of you!

What excites you? Did any of this information and the Cannes response assuage any concerns or give you a new enthusiasm for the projects? Which of the upcoming films are you looking forward too most? Or are you like me and excited for all of them!

Mad Max Fury Road Review

May 19, 2015May 19, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

When I saw the trailer for Mad Max Fury Road I was positive it would be one I couldn’t see. I don’t like violent films and it looked like a gory, violent mess. However, I always go through my process I describe for evaluating movie content in How to Be Mormon and Like Movies. I look at reviews, the detailed content summaries on screenit.com and I ask friends who have seen the movie. To my surprise I found it to have virtually no profanity and to not be as violent as I anticipated. It is an R but most of that is more battle like violence, some nudity and vehicular battles. Convinced it was within my comfort level I decided to go check it out .

It’s a very tricky movie to review because it does what it is trying to do masterfully well. I don’t know how that can be debated. Whether such a master work is your cup of tea is another question. It’s certainly not a movie I will be frequently rewatching but I did think it was good and engaged me more than I would have guessed. All in all it is a success and I can see why many people love it.

I have not seen the original Mad Max movies because I always figured they were too violent so perhaps I will give them a watch. This Mad Max doesn’t have much of plot. It’s one action sequence after another. It does not try to have symbolism or a puzzle like a Nolan film might have. It doesn’t have a strong lead character like a Bond film. The title is perhaps a misnomer because Mad Max has only a few lines of dialogue and is an ensemble player with Charlize Theron and others.

Basically the plot that does exist starts out with setting. It is a desert post-apocalyptic world that is ruled by a man named the Immortan Joe. Max has been arrested and is forced to be a blood bag for a War Boy played by Nicholas Hoult. Charlize Theron is Furiosa who abducts 5 of Joe’s wives called the breeders.

The rest of the movie is Max, Furiosa and crew getting chased by Joe and having intense battles with each other. Each of the cars is so imaginative with one even being a giant speaker system with a guy playing an electric guitar. There are cars that have long poles for people to swing onto other cars. There are rigs with gasoline and others covered in spikes. It keeps the action exciting because you don’t know how the cars work and how the fight will play out.

For not speaking much Tom Hardy is good as Mad Max. But the movie doesn’t give you a lot of time to contemplate his character. I can’t even imagine how awful it must be to shoot a movie like this with all the dust and dirt but he is convincing as the stoic anti-hero.

The CG is kept to a minimum and it at least appears to have a lot of practical effects. The stunt work is flawless. I wonder how much Hardy and others did of their own stunts? Whatever the percentage is by professionals you definitely can’t tell. It feels earthy and real which we haven’t seen in an action film in a long time.

I loved how Mad Max handled its female characters. It reminds me a little bit of Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow. These are not cliched warrior women or damsels in distress. Even the breeder women are relatively complex especially for this kind of movie. Charlize Theron is amazing! She is tough but has heart and there is a moment that is completely devastating for her and she sells it.

There are different kind of women- old women, young women, pregnant women and they all defy female tropes. The last thing I expected in a movie like this is an awesome group of women and it definitely helped sell me on the film.
Hugh Keays-Byrne is good as the villain Immortan Joe but most of that credit has to go to his costume and mask.

There is such attention to detail. The amount of time that must have been spent to get teeth right, skin layered and dry, lips cracked, everything covered in dust is mind blowing. The makeup on the war boys including Nicholas Hoult is very convincing. They are brainwashed to believe if they are obedient servants to Joe they will achieve immortality at the gates of heaven.

Mad Max Fury Road is not a movie that gives the audience much time to breathe. There is very little dialogue and I did feel kind of exhausted by the end of it. But then again I feel like it was trying to do something completely different and new and from a comic book guy like George Miller it makes sense it is primarily a visual spectacle. Still, it pushed me to my limit of apocalyptic car battle sequences (who knew I had such a limit? 😉 ). I’m a little surprised it is so universally loved because I would think a few people might be bothered by the thin plot and lack of character development?

I guess they just accept it for what it is- a new dazzling creative vision of what a war movie looks like. After all do we complain that the villains in a WW2 movie aren’t fleshed out enough? Do we want more dialogue in our John Wayne war movie? No. Same with this. It is visually incredible and the action is immersive enough to carry the day.

Like I said, the women put it over the hump for me to a strong recommendation. It was such a pleasant surprise and I bet you could see the movie and not even notice most of the women. They are just characters in the movie like anybody else. It looks gorgeous. The action sequences are stunning and I was entertained.

As far as content it has some nudity from a distance and women are milked like cows in one brief shot. Characters are stabbed, impaled, tortured and shot in the battle scenes. Another you see briefly has his face ripped off from a mask. A lot of crashes, explosions and sand storms that are intense. A woman has a c-section mostly off screen and an IV is seen being inserted. I know it sounds crazy but its actually more tame than you might think. No language. Mostly it is a lot of cars and broad fighting like a battle than one on one violence like you might get in a horror movie.

A grade is tough because I did feel a little bit weary by the end but it looks so great, the action is so well done and I loved the female characters so I grade it an…

Overall Grade- A- Content Grade- C

Also the music by a guy named Junkie XL was outstanding with a great combination of electric guitar, medal sounds and a traditional sweeping score.

Far From the Madding Crowd Review

May 18, 2015August 19, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

It feels like a long time since a real period piece came out. I guess you could count 12 Years a Slave but I have to go back to 2011’s Jane Eyre to find a literary classic period piece. This month we get Far From the Madding Crowd based on the Thomas Hardy novel.

I must own I have not read the novel but I have it on my audible list and am going to listen to it right away! That says something for the movie that it made me want to read the book, flaws and all.

The story of Far from the Madding Crowd is about a woman named Bathsheba Everdene that I’m guessing was 1830ish (not sure on exact time frame). She is an independent spirit and I can see why Suzanne Collins picked Everdene for Katniss’ last name.

She inherits a farm from her uncle and faces the challenges of running the farm in an era where women didn’t do that kind of thing. The movie does a great job getting the dirty, lived in feel that you don’t always see in the period pieces.

She then has three different suitors. The first is Gabriel played by Matthias Schoenaerts who I loved and thought he and Carey Mulligan who played Bathsheba had great chemistry. They were both such good people and you wanted them to be happy which is absolutely key in a romance.

The second suitor is named Sergeant Troy and I’m sorry but I thought Tom Sturridge was terrible in the part. It was too campy, too gaudy, didn’t fit the style of the movie and it just felt like a bad performance. There is no chemistry between him and Mulligan and I couldn’t wait for him to get off screen. It was extremely predictable because he was such a one note character.

The final suitor is Mr Boldwood played by Michael Sheen. He is good but I felt like his scenes were cut because his character growth felt choppy and disjointed. We never got any idea of his real motivation or why he liked Bethsheba. He ended up kind of being a blank face and especially with his ending it didn’t quite make sense he would behave that way. Just not a passionate enough character.

I think the story would have worked better as a miniseries instead of a movie. There were a lot of characters I wanted to get to know better and storylines I wanted fleshed out. It could have been 2.5 hours instead of just 2 and I wouldn’t have complained.

But the movie looks gorgeous! The cinematography from Charlotte Bruus Christensen is earthy and beautiful. The costumes are perfect and all the sets are lovely. It is an easy movie to watch although a scene with sheep is very sad.

I am sure some people will hate the melodrama of all the men in love with Bethesheba but I didn’t mind it. A lot of that probably goes back to Mulligan who is warm and relatable. She feels like a person who could actually exist and like I said we want to see her happy.

I also liked that none of the men are all bad. Even Troy has his moments of humanity which makes them interesting; although, I could have had them all fleshed out more. It’s a shame Hardy never wrote a sequel because I would be curious to see what happens next.

There is one kissing scene where the director decides to zoom up so close it was very strange. It was a very badly filmed kissing scene and I’m not sure what the director was trying to get with that. It certainly wasn’t romantic.

In the end I was entertained by Far From the Madding Crowd. It looks great. All the production values are top rate. I loved Gabriel and Bathsheba’s story and thought the 2 leads were excellent. That’s enough to get a mild recommendation from me.

As far as content there is one brief sex scene after 2 characters are married. You do see a corpse, a man is shot, and a lot of sheep die but that’s about it.

Any of you seen this one or read the book? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Overall Grade- B+ Content Grade- B

Pitch Perfect 2 Review

May 17, 2015May 17, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

I rank comedies on a very simple scale- did it make me laugh? If it did then it did its job. Pitch Perfect 2 made me laugh. Throw in some good music and you’ve got a fan!

In Utah and particularly my alma mater, BYU, acapella is a huge deal. I went to many competitions to cheer on my favorite groups and we even had a team on the Sing Off a few years ago. Acapella is just part of campus life in my book so the first Pitch Perfect had huge nostalgia points for me.

It also did the rare feet of being funny without being too vulgar. I still will frequently put it on and laugh my head off while listening to great music.

So how does Pitch Perfect 2 measure up to the original? Well, it’s a tough question because they are basically the same movie. They totally do the whole Mighty Ducks 2 thing where you do the exact same plot but you have it be the World Championships instead of the Nationals.

That said, it still made me laugh.

You’ve got all the major players from Pitch Perfect 1 back plus the addition of Hailee Steinfeld as a new legacy freshman to the group.

I love these women!

Anna Kendrick is great even though Hailee Steinfeld is kind of playing her part from the first movie. Rebel Wilson steals the movie once again and made me laugh every time she was on screen. Her confidence as Fat Amy is just so likable, lovely and funny.

I kind of wish they had developed a few of the other Bellas a little more, and they do go back to the same joke a bit too many times. For example, a Guatemalan girl named Flo is repeatedly given the immigrant joke and it was naughty the first time but got a little old after a while.

Elizabeth Banks (who directs) and John Michael Higgins return as the announcers and this time podcasters of the acappella world and they are hilarious. Every time they are on screen it reminds of Fred Willard in Best in Show and cracked me up. I would love to know how much of their dialogue is improved like the Christopher Guest movies which Higgins is often in.

David Cross from Arrested Development appears briefly along with a cameo that has mostly been spoiled but I will let what few of you that haven’t heard of a certain new acapella team be surprised (was so funny!)

Keegan-Michael Key is very funny as Becca’s boss for an internship she gets at a record label. He has this hipster employee that drives him crazy which made me laugh.

The plot is completely stupid. Basically a wardrobe malfunction happens and the Bellas are suspended from national competition. However, they can compete at the World Championships (see totally Mighty Ducks 2). The big competition is a German team called Das Sound Machine.

For the most part they are the cliched German bad guys but they are given some funny interactions with the girls and they are pretty good singers. I liked that it at least seemed like a fair fight.

The boys are mostly relegated to a few scenes which is fine with me. We need more female heavy pictures especially with female directors!

Adam DeVine is probably in it the most of the young men and he is very funny as Rebel Wilson’s love interest. His idea of a romantic meal totally cracked me up.

In the end Pitch Perfect 2 isn’t creative or different but I can’t deny that it made me laugh and I loved the music. If you didn’t like the first one and didn’t find it funny than you won’t like this. It’s as simple as that. I did so I liked this. It isn’t as good because first is always best but still I really enjoyed it.

Humor is completely subjective. What makes one laugh may leave another stone faced and cold but I at least appreciate a comedy that isn’t completely raunchy like we were getting for a while. There is nothing in Pitch Perfect 2 that made me want to cringe like in the Judd Apatow movies.

For some reason a lot of people that read this blog don’t like comedies. I don’t really get that. I like to laugh probably more than I like dramas. I also love musicals. In other words, Pitch Perfect 3- sign me up!

As far as content there is a scene at the beginning where a woman is exposed off camera and it is discussed. There’s talk of making out and sex but it is all pretty tame. That’s about it.

Overall Grade- B-, Content Grade A

Any of you see it? Did you think it was funny too?

Cheatin Review

May 14, 2015May 14, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

A few days ago I posted my belief that “whether 2D, 3D, stop motion or live action it all comes down to the story“. I genuinely believe that to be true for 99% of films but like any rule there are exceptions. Some films are obviously an excuse for art and the story takes a back seat. Usually to work these types of films have to give us something new. They have to be over-the-top and challenge us artistically otherwise the movie doesn’t work. Fantasia, for instance, gave us something new. Something that has never been topped artistically to date. Another example, last years Rocks in My Pockets did have a disturbing and profound story but it still took a back seat to the imagery presented.

This years Cheatin’ is another example of such an artistically bold film. It is not a film for everyone. It is challenging and like most new things a little tough to digest but I’m glad I saw it.

Created by animator Bill Plympton, Cheatin’ tells the story of a beautiful woman named Ella who is tired of superficial men. To her chagrin she gets wrangled into attending a carnival when she wants to just read her book.

Eventually she is convinced to ride the bumper cars but there is an accident and she is trapped. Fortunately, she is rescued by a jock type named Jake and they instantly fall in love. None of this is done through any real dialogue but through music, opera, grunts, screams, yells, sighs and other expressions.

The artistry throughout is just beautiful. I mean look at this shot.

So they get married and Jake is completely loyal to Ella. However, a woman who is in love with him stages a photo to make it look like Ella isn’t faithful to him. This breaks Jake’s heart.

With his broken heart he falls prey to temptation and becomes a serial adulterer. These scenes are fairly graphic for an animated movie. But they are so non-realistic that I wasn’t really offended but I can see that others would be. The music is amazing throughout in mixing opera, jazz and the score by Nicole Renaud.

Meanwhile Ella is devastated at her husbands cheatin ways and fantasizes what she wants to do to him.

In her remorse she stumbles upon a magician who has a special machine that will allow her to enter the bodies of the women her husband is seducing.

The magician knows this is a mistake but she sneaks in and does it anyway.

Eventually Jake realizes the photo was a phony and that he was wrong about Ella but it is too late? We don’t know.

Cheatin has an interesting back story. Bill Plympton raised over 100k on Kickstarter to make the movie and backers received the film in August of last year. This is why it was submitted to the Academy and Annies for 2014. (I guess that means it is out of the running for 2015?).

All the animation was drawn by Plympton himself which is kind of amazing (40,000 drawings all done by him!). What an artist! A staff of 10 people then did the colorization and compositing. It’s hard to believe so few people and such a tiny budget could make a film like this.

If 2D proponents are looking for signs of hope the Cheatin’ Kickstarter success and the quality of this movie should give it to them. Hullabaloo animated project got over 400k in only 1 month of fundraising with a goal of 80k so there’s that as well. Not half bad!

But back to the movie. It is challenging. It is different but I like films like that. The story isn’t much but it is audacious and bold enough in the visuals to not need it.

I think if you watch the trailer and it looks like you’d hate it you probably will. If it looks like the type of art you like and something interesting then give it a shot. You’d be supporting a small animator trying to do something in a big pond. I was more than happy to throw $10 his way to buy it on demand. $4.99 to rent.

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/cheatin

Overall Grade- B+, Content Grade- C

Ex-Machina Review

May 12, 2015May 12, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Like some scifi? Then Ex-Machina is the movie for you! Normally I stay away from movies that look scary but the more I read about Ex-Machina the more I saw it is actually more a movie like Kubrick/Spielberg’s AI than a horror robot movie. In fact, it’s better than AI.

It’s about this guy named Caleb who works for a popular search engine and wins a prize to visit the company’s reclusive founder named Nathan. He has a compound only accessible by helicopter (and not even that. You have to then hike by a river to get to the house).

Evidently Ex-Machina was shot at a hotel in Norway. I want to go to that hotel. It was amazing! The exteriors were lush and green. The interiors were cold concrete with frosted glass but with a lighting that reminded me of those happy sun lights you can buy for depression. It was different than anything I have seen in these types of movies.

Once Caleb gets to the compound he meets Nathan who creeped me out because he looks a lot like my older brother (who is also a CEO of a hipster company with a shaved head and long beard! Even some of his way of speaking reminded me of my brother. Creepy!). Oscar Isaac is great as Nathan who is brilliant, arrogant, drunk, stupid, charming, psychopathic and naive. It makes me excited that both he and Domhall Gleeson, who plays Caleb, are going to be in the new Star Wars movie!

It turns out Nathan has brought Caleb there to test out his robot called Ava to see if she is a viable AI. We then get a series of experiments over Caleb’s 6 day visit. Caleb begins to bond with Ava and we see more into the mind of Nathan.

I don’t want to be accused of spoilers so I will leave the plot at that. The ending for me was a bit of a letdown but overall it is a very satisfying movie. It is shot very well. The characters are complex and it looks gorgeous. The lighting in every shot was as good as I’ve seen in a movie in years.

I know comparison is silly but I couldn’t help but think about another recent Kubrickesque picture Interstellar which also has a robot albeit of a more vintage style. They are very different films but I think I still prefer Interstellar because it had me more emotionally engaged. I really was drawn into Murphy’s journey in a way I never was with Caleb. Interstellar had a wider scope of emotions and I didn’t know what was going to come next. Ex-Machina is pretty predictable.

As a sci-fi movie should, it tries to ask bigger questions about reality of being, sensuality, evil, creation etc and it does that pretty well. I might have pondered those questions more if I was more emotionally invested in the characters but it definitely made me think.

All the performances are good and Alicia Vikander is haunting as Ava. I also liked the design of the robots with the clear fronts and sparkly heads.

That said as a sci-fi thriller it was very well done. It’s creepy, weird without cheap jump scares or unnecessary gore. You might know what is going to happen but it is a very entertaining journey to get there and again it looks so beautiful. The pacing might also be a little bit slow for some less seasoned film-goers but I was engrossed

As far as content there is some cussing but I didn’t find it excessive. Some people will be offended by the nudity but because it is robots and not sensual it felt more like Greek statues to me than actual human nudity. There is a scene where a character slices their arm open which is tough to watch. I’d say it is a strong R and adults only but I wasn’t offended by it. I strongly recommend checking out http://www.screenit.com before seeing it to know if it is the type of content you are comfortable with.

Overall, I think Ex-Machina is a very good movie. It’s cinematography, visual style, set design, and the design of the robots are outstanding. The performances are good especially Oscar Isaac and Alicia Vikander. The story is classic sci-fi even if it is a bit predictable especially the ending. I wish I was a little more invested emotionally in the characters but it is still a movie worth seeing and enjoying.

Overall Grade- B+ Content Grade- C-

Any of you seen it? What did you think?