Movie Review: God's Not Dead

This movie may be one of the greatest unintentional parodies of all time. If you're looking for a good dose of humor, you'll find it here (if you can bring yourself to appreciate it).

God's Not Dead is a faith-based movie starring nobody you've ever heard or will hear about. The main character is a college student named Josh Wheaton (Joss Whedon!?), who's super evil and maniacal atheistic professor is forces his students to say that God doesn't exist so that they can ignore a religion debate in his philosophy class. There are also some really weird and random subplots that come together in a way that makes it clear that the movie is begging to be seen as "smart".

The performances in this movie are legendary. Never have I seen someone able to deliver lines in a way that made me want to rip my eyeballs out in the way that everyone in God's Not Dead is able to do.

The editing and soundtrack are equally terrible. Characters will go from standing in one shot to sitting down in the next and the soundtrack sounds like it made by compiling a list of the most overused songs in movies of all time.

And the writing. Dear God, the writing. The story is mediocre at best. The dialogue is ludicrous. The characters are just... nothing. There's nothing there. No character has any unique traits in any way other than their religion. That's not to mention the non-nonsensical cameos from the Duck Dynasty guy and some Christian rock group. They don't add anything relevant to the story and serve only to push the filmmaker's agenda.

Overall rating: .5 out of four stars. It's like Crash but even stupider and even more preachy.

Reference scale:
Left Behind < God's Not Dead < Jesus Camp (I don't know if this counts as a faith-based movie... I'm using it anyway because all the other faith based movies really suck)

Movie Review: Hot Fuzz

I'd like to know exactly how many cuts this movie has. It's a lot. A lot.

Hot Fuzz is a movie written and directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), that falls somewhere in the action/comedy/mystery/parody genre. It's... a strange movie, to say the least. But that's not to say that I didn't find it to be incredible enjoyable.

Hot Fuzz is about an English cop named Nicholas Angel who is portrayed as the most hardcore cop that probably ever lived. However, he's so good at being a cop that he's making everyone else look bad, so the heads of the police department decide to send him away to a little English village out in the countryside. There we're introduced to a seemingly endless variety of interesting and humorous characters, and after investigating what seem to be a series of tragic accidents, Nick starts to suspect conspiracy.

The both movie's writing and direction are what make it funny. The quick cutting, in parody of action movies, make the visual style of the movie not only original and unique but also surprisingly humorous. The writing gets its humor not from one-liners, but from lovingly crafted jokes built up to a refreshing climax.

Simon Pegg is great as the hardcore cop, standing out in contrast to all the other, softer characters. Simon's was the only performance that really stuck out, but all of the actors did a pretty good job.

Overall rating: 4 out of four stars.

Reference scale:

Rush Hour < Hot Fuzz < Nothing. I honestly can't think of any other action comedy movies I liked as much as this.

Movie Review: Avengers: Age of Ultron

I feel very lucky to have been able to see this movie a day before it's release. I've been hyped for this movie for around a year now, and I'm happy to say that this is actually a rare case where a movie like this actually lives up to my expectations.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron is a really fun movie. Be warned, it's no art film. The direction is somewhat unoriginal. That's not to say it's bad, it's just not anything I haven't seen before. The plot follows our sextet from the last Avengers movie (and the movies before and since then), as they battle a rouge A.I. force built by Tony Stark/Iron Man that goes by the name of Ultron. I actually found Ultron to be a very interesting character; at points in the movie, the entire theater was laughing at his one-liners.

There are also three new heroes in the movie, two of which you may have seen if you stayed for the end credits of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It is a bit of a spoiler, so I won't elaborate further on that.

The movie has some great action set pieces, with epic battle scenes as well as small, more poingant moments. Joss Whedon's screenplay is witty as ever, and the movie's acute sense of humor added to the experience. However, some of the jokes may not be as funny if you haven't seen the previous movies and I feel like if you haven't watched at least the first Avengers movie you should make an attempt to see it before watching this one.

The performances are serviceable, there aren't any that really stood out to me but there also weren't any that felt particularly bland or forced. One of my favorite elements, however, was the costume design. The costumes look downright epic, and for a superhero movie having great costumes is an incredible important element.

There were two things main things that I didn't care for in the movie: product placement and cliches. The product placement wasn't too in-your-face, but it's definitely noticeable even if you're not looking too hard (like when a character wears a brand-new pair of Beats headphones). Secondly, there were one or two spots in the movie that came off as really cliche. I won't go into detail because it is a bit of a spoiler, but it did take away from the experience a little bit.

Overall rating: 3.5 out of four stars. It's a great time enhanced by a great screenplay, sleek costume design and wowing effects as long as you can get past a few cliches. It's at least on par, if not better, than the first Avengers movie.

Reference scale:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier < Avengers: Age of Ultron < The Dark Knight

Movie Review: The Drop

A shot of whiskey has never been so intimidating as in this movie.

In The Drop, Tom Hardy plays Bob Saganowski, a bartender at a Mob-run Brooklyn pub owned by his cousin Marv (James Gandolfini). Their bar is one of many that occasionally is picked as a "drop bar," where all the dirty money in the city goes for that night. One night, however, they're robbed by two men in masks, leading to all kinds of trouble and his newly adopted puppy.

I found this movie to be quite enjoyable - many scenes has intensity and suspense that most recent films lack. These moments were true, edge-of-your-seat thrills. The reason I mentioned a shot of whiskey at the beginning of this review was in reference to such a scene where the protagonist's fate is basically dependent on whether or not a mobster likes the whiskey served to him. The film is complex and delightfully dark, especially the twist end, giving it an element that feels almost like a noir.

Tom Hardy gives a great performance as the innocent guy in a bad place, and James Gandolfini's temperamental performance is also impressive. The movie's acting is definitely one of it's high points.

My biggest problem with the movie is that often the events seem unconnected. One scene does not lead to the next, they more just seem to happen in that order. The dialogue, however, is sharp and witty, and was one of the more enjoyable elements of the film.

Overall: 3.5 out of four stars. It's a good movie, definitely worth your time to see.

Reference scale:
A Walk Among Tombstones < The Drop < Zodiac

Movie Review: Watchmen

As a big fan of the comic book, I've been looking forward to watching this movie for a long time. I have to admit that I was the tiniest bit disappointed that it was not a shot for shot, word for word retelling of the the source material.

Jackie Haley play Rorschach, a vigilante in an alternate 1985 where superheroes exist. When a former colleague of his is murdered under mysterious circumstances, he uncovers a conspiracy that could change the course of world history.

Watchmen features a number of well thought out and interesting characters, however, some of the performances are noticeably lackluster. Malin Akerman's take on the heroine Silk Spectre II is stiff, even painfully dull at some points. However, Jackie Haley is stellar as Rorschach, giving a performance that is at times touching and at others downright terrifying. The other acts by Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson and Matthew Goode are not as good as Haley's but are still impressive in their own right.

One of my favorite parts about this movie is how it portrays it's characters. Their not just masks, their people behind the masks and the movie does a good job showing how each character struggles to live a normal life behind their costumes.

My biggest problem with this movie is the dirction by Zack Snyder (300). Let's be perfectly honest: he's a action director. I don't have any problem with this, but Watchmen is not supposed to be centered around action. It's the mystery, the intrigue, the subtlety that make it such a compelling story.

Overall rating: 3 out of four stars. It's a good movie despite a wooden performance and an inappropriate direction style.

Reference scale:

Captain America < Watchmen < The Dark Knight

Documentry Review: Art and Craft

I think I'm back into doing this blogging thing. I've got enough material to keep me going for a while and time on my hands - not all of which needs to be spent binge-watching Arrow.

Art and Craft follows the story of one of the most infamous art forgers in the U.S.: Mark Landis. But he doesn't do it for profit - he does it for kicks, convincing museums that he has originals, donating them and getting them to put his fake work on display. The documentary also follows the people who were working on stopping him, and how for one man Landis became a sort of obsession.

The documentary isn't purely about forgery, it also touches on the theme of metal illnesses. Mark Landis is schizophrenic among other things, and that's part of the reason he does what he does. The man who was chasing him developed OCD while chasing Landis. The documentary does a good job showing how it effects their lives and what they do.

The feature also does a good job showing what goes into making the forgeries. One of my favorite parts of the film was getting to see Mark "sell" a painting to a library. They believed him and he donated it to them, leaving it hanging on the library wall.

One of my main problems with the documentary is that the crew appears to be intruding on Landis' life. He seems like the kind of guy who just wants to be left alone, and is even reluctant to go to a gallery displaying his work.

My other issue is the editing. It's made clear Landis watches a lot of television, so the filmmakers decided to insert occasional shots of TV shows that were at times random and confusing. Sometimes they made sense but others just threw off the pace of the movie.

Overall rating: 2.5 out of four stars. It is dull at parts, but overall it's pretty good.

Reference scale:
Dogfights of the Future < Art and Craft < The Battered Bastards of Baseball.

Tomorrow:
TV Season Review: Arrow Season One

Movie Review: Lawrence of Arabia

I'm back, and I've got another oldie for you. A classic, in fact.

Lawrence of Arabia stars Peter O'Toole in what, incredibly, is his debut performance. He is stellar in the role of T.E.  Lawrence, a irreverent and somewhat cynical officer in the British Army during World War One. He's sent to Arabia on what seems like an impossible mission to rally the Arab tribes against the Turkish invaders. At more than three and a half hours long, it is a true epic in both scope and story.

Now, I've reviewed some pretty dark movies on this blog. But I think Lawrence of Arabia takes the crown. I like to describe Lawrence's character arc as "In the beginning, he was weird but everyone else thought he was crazy. In the end he was crazy but everyone thought he was weird." He goes from a somewhat lackadaisical soldier to a cold blooded killer with a God complex, and you get to watch his path into darkness.

The acting is fantastic. Peter O'Toole is fantastic as Lawrence, and although he is the star, he steals the show anyway. All around, the acting is great, from Alex Guinness as Prince Fiesal to Jack Hawkins as General Allenby.

The direction is also amazing, with extreme long shots and some incredible action and dramatic sequences. I think it would be cool to be able to see this movie on the big screen, so you could more appreciate the detail, the little dots on the horizon, and all those small details that come together to make a great movie.

The one problem I did have with this movie was that the editing was a bit sloppy in some places, especially the audio. But that was far overshadowed by all the great things this movie has to offer.

Overall rating: 4 out of four stars. One of my top ten favorites of all time.

Reference scale:
Ben-Hur < Lawrence of Arabia < Nothing (in my opinion, this is the greatest historical epic ever)

Tomorrow:
Documentry Review: Art and Craft