Review: Gone Girl (Blu-Ray)

Having missed the initial theatrical release of Gone Girl I was excited to check out the movie on Blu-ray. Luckily, Fox helped me out with that by sending me a copy of the Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Download combo. Yes the holy trinity of home movie ownership. Before I get into the movie let’s actually talk about that because the craze of owning every movie is a passing phase or really it’s passed. People no longer want to own every film possible on DVD or Blu-Ray. Formats change and really digital is the future. But the collector, the person that brandishes their selves with particular gems still looks for films to add to that collection. Digital is nice, but it’s a lot like DVD ownership at its prime, “Why wouldn’t I want to own all the seasons to Everyone Loves Raymond? It’s not like it won’t be in syndication forever!” I imagine that was the thought process behind the boxset craze and much of the DVD craze. I’ll admit that my digital movie collection has a lot of crap. Crap that I will likely never watch again, but there it is… forever stuck in my collection.

My Blu-ray and DVD collection is different. No longer is it filled with every movie I can get, but rather only the movies I want. If you buy me some random film thinking I’ll like it and I don’t… it doesn’t make the shelf. If I’m sent a freebie that turns out to be awful… it doesn’t make the shelf. I’m pointing this out because Gone Girl made my shelf for more than one reason. The second reason (the first I’ll go into after this) is the packaging. Yes if you want to make it on my shelf you need to do something with your packaging. Retooling the movie poster and adding a slipcase is the simplest thing to do and it’s also the lamest.

Gone Girl’s packaging was striking and caught my attention instantly. It doesn’t have the name blasted across the front, rather it’s subtle. At first glance I can picture someone saying, “What’s that?” It also comes with an Amazing Amy book. Since I hadn’t watched the movie yet I had no idea what this was for. After the film was a different story and I came to appreciate this item more even if it was something that I would only visit once.

As for the film… well it’s pretty damn impressive. Is it David Fincher’s greatest work? No, but it showed his versatility as a director. Many of his films are recognizable by their look, but Gone Girl gets away from that. Here Fincher focuses on the story, building it and executing it in a way that works from beginning to end and very importantly… more than once. If you haven’t seen or heard about the book or the film that’s all I’ll say because just saying one word will put you in a different mindset while watching and this is a movie that should be enjoyed without that. The point is, Fincher has grown, but he hasn’t lost the core of what makes him a film maker. Instead he shows that he doesn’t need to bombard you with beautiful images that are often distractions from the story. It’s not his prettiest film, but I think it’s one of his most mature.

Fincher also brings out some incredible performances. In particular, and no I’m not going to pick who you think, Carrie Coon as Margo Dunne. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of the performances are pretty damn impressive. Everyone from Ben Affleck, Tyler Perry, Neil Patrick Harris and the Oscar nominated Rosamund Pike. Even more than that the supporting cast elevates the film with every side conversation.

Carrie Coon on the other hand was in this weird area of being a main supporting character. Her role is just a strange hybrid and yet she adds an incredible amount to the character Nick’s story. What I really like about her character was the design. She looked the most natural and it was an important difference because the two most important women in Nick’s life were represented differently. Coon’s character was down to earth, not quite blue collar because fuck a nine to five, but she most importantly represented Nick’s heart and soul.

Pike’s character is really the bad seed and in a way the big city getting a hold of Nick and changing the very thing that made him desirable and different in the first place. By the end of the film he’s a hybrid of the two, but only in the fact that he can pretend to be both convincingly. Nick’s character is influenced by the women in his life.

Is it a film worth watching? Absolutely, in fact the next day I wanted to watch it again. Is it worth owning? Well that’s really up to you, but I would say so. I’m happy to have it on my shelf.

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Score: 5/5

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Director: David Fincher Writer: Gillian Flynn Distributor: Fox Price: $39.99 Release Date: 1/13/15

Review: Alien Outpost

Usually I like to lead the reader on with a review saving my end all be all thoughts about the material being reviewed, until the very end. I’m not going to do that with Alien Outpost; the reason is so that you can finish the review and understand why when I say, “it’s pretty good”, it doesn’t come off as overly simplistic or me shying away from a seemingly hard review. It’s pretty good.

The premise is that this is a post invasion world. The entire earth was previously invaded by aliens referred to as “Heavy” or “Heavies” if you will, but we were able to push them back… but not completely. There are still cells of Heavies spread throughout the globe, but for the most part life has returned to normal for the general populace. The war is over for most people with the exception of soldiers still apart of the global army that is manning different outposts set up all over the planet. These outposts are neglected, underfunded and understaffed. And that is where the film picks up at Outpost 37 as three new soldiers are sent to join their ranks and a documentary crew follows them.

With that said can you guess that this is a found footage style of film? In fact it’s hard to call it a found footage film since no one is finding the footage per say and the camera men/reporter are the least believable aspect of the entire film. They only talk when it’s convenient to remind you that they’re there and they are so fearless that they stay with the action and fighting every step of the way getting all the right shots.

It’s the part of the film that doesn’t work and honestly gets a little distracting because the rest of the time you forget they are there. The camera doesn’t shake constantly in fact it’s pretty steady. There’s no awkward shots of “hey we’re not supposed to film this, but we’re going to do it subtly.” In fact there’s only one shot in which the camera falls, but it lands perfectly allowing for the scene to go on… just don’t ask how they recovered the footage. Don’t ask how they kept the batteries charged and dodged all the gun fire. The soldiers may be tough, but these guys eat nails for breakfast and never drop the shot.

The part that does work incredibly well is the sci-fi element. Sure they use the documentary style text screens to lay everything out, but you know what… it works. Normal sci-fi movies do the same thing, but there it feels lazy and unjustified. Here it actually made it believable that we were watching a documentary. The aliens are interesting and the fact that they move at a slow and methodical pace makes them extremely menacing when an entire squadron of soldiers retreat at the sight of just one Heavy. The aliens and the sci-fi elements are a shining light.

As for the story it’s nothing new, but the commentary on war and in particular the wars in the Middle East are interesting. Neglected, underfunded and understaffed… sound like anything in real life? The entire battle is social commentary and its good commentary because it doesn’t blame anyone it just comments. It is, what it is. The only character I had a problem with was the Captain because he was conveniently missing whenever the story called for it and out on missions he stood out which is something that would be a no-no since you don’t want your commanding officer to be a target.

Personally this movie would have been a lot better if the found footage angle had been taken off. If it had instead been incorporated into the film and the two journalist characters were given the same minor role it would have worked about the same. Instead it comes across as a first person shooter, but you never get a gun. The documentary part works, but the found footage part doesn’t.

Lastly I want to cover the acting because it is a movie about soldiers which are a cinema favorite. Sadly there’s nothing new brought to the table and for the most part everyone is playing an archetype and nothing more. There are still some solid performances with the exception of one soldier whose title escapes me, but basically he was the medical officer. Everything he did was over the top and felt like acting… which is the last thing you want in a found footage film. Hell it’s really the last thing you want in a movie period because it’s supposed to be natural. Everyone else may be archetypes, but they were good archetypes. This dude was just a bit too “on” for the movie.

Again I say it’s pretty good. I liked it. I may even watch it again because I really did like the sci-fi world that they created. The mystery around what the remaining aliens were up to was interesting. Interesting enough that I would follow another story set in this world.

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Score: 3/5

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Director: Jabbar Raisani Writers: Blake Clifton, Jabbar Raisani Genre: Action/Sci-Fi Distributor: IFC Midnight

Review: Justice League: Throne of Atlantis

Whenever I am asked who makes the best movies Marvel or DC? I have always replied that Marvel has the live action down while DC seems to have the animation locked in solid.  This has been my opinion for several years and I believe that this has been the norm for awhile.  But, I believe that I have been taking that opinion for granted, assuming that anything animated released by DC was just great.  It appears recently that this is not always the case. I have seen some crummy ones as of late dropped down. But with each new release, comes a new opportunity to wow me and make my opinion stick true. When I saw of the intent to release an animated Justice League movie based on writer Geoff Johns’ work on Aquaman, well I was actually pretty excited.  There has been no doubt of Johns’ excellent work regarding Arthur Curry and his reigniting a title that had been a punch line for a long time before its New 52 renewal. The work was admirable and the stories were good. His Throne of Atlantis arc was solid. Making a movie on it seemed a perfect idea to me.

That is, until I watched it. For as good as the comic arc was, the animated movie version felt choppy, rushed, and was real limited on explanation of certain things.  It never seems to find itself and remains that way for three fourths of the entire movie.  Only toward the ending do things seem to fall into element and become entertaining.  It just takes way too long to get there however.

I would summarize the first part of the story as the “establishment phase”. Director Ethan Spaulding working off of Heath Corson’s script takes an extended part of time establishing the many characters and their personalities which drag things down considerably.  We see Arthur Curry himself as being a mean drunk with some pretty heavy unresolved grief regarding the death of his father.  We see Cyborg really struggling with wanting to be fully human instead of the mechanized machine that he mostly is.  We see Superman and Wonder Woman hanging out in Greece in their super forms, then hanging out at a Greek restaurant as their alter egos showing some weird duality of their nature.  We see Green Lantern Hal Jordan, being a player and having some issues with Batman who can best be described as a real moody asshole during this whole movie.  But it doesn’t end there.  We see the workings of Atlantis and their characters getting established too.  There’s Prince Orm (Ocean Master) having some serious anger issues with the surface dwellers (though he hangs with surface dweller Blank Manta for whatever reason) as well as some “mommy issues” as the Queen Atlanna will not allow him to go send Atlantis to war even though there is some provocation (that may be orchestrated).  Queen Atlanna and Mera are stern, fierce, and wholly dertermined to maintain Atlantis as a place of peace, the establishment parts are way too busy and not very entertaining.  Eventually though, things start to work their way out and we get a murdered queen opening the door for war, Arthur discovering his destiny and the Justice League working to try to nip the newly empowered Ocean Master from waging his destruction on the land populace.

The final act involves the big battle and brings things full circle allowing the action to be played out with solid choreography and excitement.  Now this part, I enjoyed.  But it was just a little bit too little done too late. Unfortunately, the damage had been done early and even with a spectacular battle, things never quite popped as they could have.

But I wouldn’t put all of the blame leveled on just the story alone.  I think some of the voices involved were lacking as well.  There was some star power here with the likes of Jerry O’Connell, Rosario Dawson, Shemar Moore, and Sean Astin working some of the Justice League “heavies”.  But much of their work felt kind of bland.  Moore as Cyborg did fairly admirable, but with O’Donnell, Dawson, and Astin, really anybody could have played the rolls.  With the others, Matt Lanter does ok with Arthur and some of the others get by with no real dazzle to them.  The only real impressive voice in the entire movie belonged to Sam Witwer as Ocean Master.  He gave a performance worthy of great respect and made Ocean Master the one truly compelling character in this whole thing.

Regarding the others, I just couldn’t get into Jason O’Mara’s portrayal as Batman or Harry Lennix as Black Manta. Their voices just didn’t feel like the animation and felt kind of detached, like much of this movie.

Now not everything was completely terrible.  As I said, Ocean Master rocked in portrayal and action.  The ending battle was good and keeps you there and Arthur’s ascension to the Atlantian throne and subsequent invite to join the Justice League was kind of touching too.

But for every good, there was the bad that comes out and rears its ugly head. Why in the hell is Black Manta even in this? He doesn’t really perpetuate the story at all and there is still no logical explanation as to why he and Ocean Master are such pals here.  Do we need to have a Steel cameo? Why wouldn’t Ocean Master drop some serious tidal waves on Metropolis before assaulting the city?  The list goes on and on.

As for the entire film, it can be watched to pass the time and it will provide some minor entertainment.  But I don’t think that this is the one that helps me continue my thoughts that DC rocks on their animated offerings.  If anything, I found myself quite disappointed with the overall project.  Here is hoping that a trend is not starting here.

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Score: 2/5

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Director: Ethan Spaulding Writer: Heath Corson (based off of Geoff Johns’ Throne of Atlantis arc) Starring: Matt Lanter, Sam Witwer, Jason O Mara, Shemar Moore, Jerry O’Connell, Christopher Gorham, Rosario Dawson, Nathan Fillion, Sean Astin, Harry Lenix et. al. Distributor:  Warner Home Video Rating: PG13 (For Sci-Fi Violence and Action Violence Throughout) Release Date: 1/27/15 Format: DVD/Blu Ray/Digital

Be sure to check out the #SaveItForThePodcast (our movie podcast) episode as well!

Review: The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

Written by guest contributor Brian Roe

Charles B. Pierce was an ambitious man. Not content to merely help in the making of films as a set director Pierce also wanted to produce and direct. And although his films were sometimes successful they also suffered from many of the constant curses of local independent films: bad acting, lack of direction, and random voice overs. All of these curses are in evidence in Pierce’s 1977 drive-in back ground noise The Town That Dreaded Sundown.

The movie is based on several real killings and attacks that occurred in Texarkana in 1946. The attacker had all of the gimmicks that would become standard tropes for slasher movie killers: he was never caught, he wore a mask, and he had cool names stuck to him. The Phantom Killer, The Texarkana Phantom or simply The Phantom, The Phantom Slayer and The Moonlight Murderer. I mean come on. Who wouldn’t want to be The Moonlight Murderer? The actual attacks were cruel and brutal with a blatant sexual element that implied a person incapable of getting off who wanted to hurt people as a form of release.

So what a great idea for a light hearted cop comedy! There’s a severely flawed concept behind TTTDS that every time the audience sees something nasty happen give them a little Keystone Kops and they’ll feel better. And the worst offender as an actor is the ambitious man himself, Charles B. Pierce.

The movie begins well enough with several slice of life set up scenes describing Texarkana immediately after World War 2. These play almost like documentary footage or home movies from a time when people still threw actual rice at weddings. Fuck the birds. Texarkana is described as a decent town where a lot of returning soldiers were going to college on the GI Bill, people were wanting spiffy new cars, and lots of homes were being built. All in all a pretty snug little burg.

Then a really cute 1940s style girl and her Crypt Keeper looking boyfriend are attacked in a hidden lover’s rendezvous. The actual attack in this scene is pretty blunt and straight forward. The killer is totally in control of things and his glaring eyes from beneath his gunny-sack mask are intimidating and iconic. The Phantom’s mask becomes another character in this movie, swelling like an attacking fish as the killer breathes heavily and contracting to form the shape of his skull as he breathes in.

Two brief scenes stand out during this sequence. After the boyfriend has been dispatched the killer crawls into the car with the still screaming girl. Then the car begins to rock. The implication that something foul is happening here is pretty awful. There’s something vulgar about the rocking of the car as the girl’s screams fade. And this is followed up by some very unkind images of the beaten and mud spattered girl crawling along the side of road begging for help from passing motorists.

But what about the comedy Roe?! I needs me some chuckles if I’m going to get through this whole thing.

Which leads me to fucking Sparkplug. Fuck you Sparkplug. Director/Producer Pierce loves putting himself in his movies. He thinks he’s an action hero, college professor, policeman, and comedy fucking genius. In TTTDS he plays Patrolman A.C. Benson AKA Sparkplug, a pissy little good for nothing dickhead who can’t drive and threatens to shoot some old broad’s dog when he comes over to kick the shit out of her son. Sparkplug has two facial expressions both apparently designed to make me want to destroy him. One is angry and slightly unhinged. The other is disbelieving and slightly unhinged. Several times in the movie he fucks up some simple task and then gives this odd glare to whoever rails on him about it. The guy just seems unpleasant, stupid, and violent. Great choice for a cop Texarkana! Actually my main candidate for who the killer was is Sparkplug. Except he’d fuck that up too.

Wait a minute, back to the killing and assaulting and such. Another couple goes out and gets all attacked while Deputy Norman Ramsey tries to find them on a lonely, rain deluged road. Again this sequence plays out well even though it is shot day for night and has some of the most awkward and unnecessary Foley work in any movie. While Ramsey is trying to cross a pond in pursuit of the killer his footsteps in the water are matched with sounds that are obviously someone splashing in a tub. And then just to reinforce that this is a pond a very out of place bullfrog croaks loudly. I’m surprised that this wasn’t followed up by the sound of a cartoon frog tongue zapping a fly out of the air.

The deputy is played by Andrew Prine (one of two actual actors in this film) with a reserve and decency that makes the character likeable and trustworthy. Upon witnessing the aftermath of the first attack Deputy Ramsey seems truly shaken and pissed off, not in a Walking Tall way but in the way that actual cops must feel sometimes. There was nothing he could do about the first attack but during this second assault he might have a chance to stop the killer. But the rain slows his running and he finally get close enough to the suspect to see him drive away. Justice will not be served on this sad, tragic day.

Oh wait! More comedy says you? So Sparkplug dresses up like a woman and his balloon tits are different sizes and Jimmy Clem, yes THE Jimmy Clem, tries to feel him up during a sting operation. and then one totally pops! High-Larious!

Okay I’m tired of this bullshit back and forth routine so I’ll just talk about Ben Johnson and be done with it. Ben Johnson is one of those dudes who was born in the real American West and carries it in his voice like iron thunder. The guy just walks into the movie and it starts to swirl around him. Even the simple act of buying cigars just seems powerful somehow. If you haven’t seen The Wild Bunch (which includes so many other powerfully grizzled fucking actors that it should have a monument for it made from hand carved oak and cast iron) check it out. Or Cherry 2000 is good too. So yeah, Ben Johnson, the other real actor in this movie.

What else? Jimmy Clem comes off really bear-gay here. There’s a really sad but stupid killing with a trombone. The guy who wrote the movie tries to act. All the black people in the movie are either servants or are getting called “darkie”. Oh and Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island is in it. (How I pine for Ginger).

The Town That Dreaded Sundown shares a lot of similarities with the David Fincher film Zodiac. Except that Zodiac had a clear purpose and story to tell. Pierce had the basic tools to make a film that for its time could have been somewhat as powerful as Zodiac. There are glimpses here that show something pretty creative at work. But you can’t make two kinds of film simultaneously and expect them to work. Especially the oil and water mix of brutal assault and murder and goofy cop humor. Perhaps Pierce was just trying to add some treacle to the brimstone. Instead he made something oddly indigestible and empty.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown is currently on Netflix.

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Score: 3/5

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Charles B. Pierce a Brief Appreciation

For all the foulness that I sling at Charles Pierce I actually respect him greatly. I respect anyone who can get a single film made let alone a dozen. When I first started writing this piece I found out that Charles Pierce had died. Suddenly I didn’t feel like mocking him anymore. The guy had done his time on Earth, had made some stuff, given me some entertainment (even if this was indirectly his doing sometimes), and often worked locally giving his friends and neighbors parts in the great Hollywood machine that they never would have been a part of otherwise. Besides he was born in Indiana so I feel for him.

Although Pierce worked primarily as a Hollywood set decorator he still pushed himself to produce and direct his own films locally. With the success of the original Boggy Creek he helped to create an independent film style that used the grit and dirt of real life to heighten the experience of certain types of films. The horror movie genre would look very different today without the involvement of Charles Pierce.

Seeing many of the same actors in The Town That Dreaded Sundown that were in Boggy Creek 2 made me realize that Pierce, much like the often but unfairly maligned Ed Wood, had built a group of people around him that liked him enough to be in his movies.  Try getting a group of your friends to make a movie in Summer in Arkansas and you’ll see what I mean. Dedication to filmmaking is laudable even if the end results are uneven or could have been improved by a little more care, craft, or money. Pierce said “Damn it! I want to make movies in Arkansas.” And he did.

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Director: Charles B. Pierce Studio: American International Pictures, Charles B. Pierce Film Productions Runtime: 86 minutes

Review: DayBlack (Short Film)

If you’ve stopped by the site previously then you’ve probably seen my review coverage for the comic book DayBlack by Keef Cross. Well this is in fact a review for the short film based on that comic. The film is written by Cross which is apparent in its structure and tone, but directed by Justin Jordan. Hold on comic fans this isn’t the Justin Jordan that’s given us titles like Spread and the Luthor Strode series, but rather an independent filmmaker with the same name. Hold on comic fans this isn’t the Justin Jordan that’s given us titles like Spread and the Luthor Strode series, but rather an independent filmmaker with the same name. The film follows the comic book for the most part, but adds in a bevy of new characters and spices things up by adding an assistant For Merce in a supporting role. Much like in the comic Merce narrates the story and walks us through the world of being a vampire. There is a rather large twist to the story that the comic doesn’t have. I think that the comic will eventually get to this point, but for now the film has beaten it to the punch. There are more slight deviations, but it works and keeps the comic book on its own path.

The acting is decent. There are definitely some characters that stand out more than others. In the lead is Eugene Russell IV as Merce and he delivers a decent performance. His narration and on screen presence is great, but his on screen acting is a little stiff at times. His assistant Miya played by Sharisa Whatley, has an overall strong presence, but her delivery fluctuates between natural sounding and obvious acting. Neal Ghant’s character is a scene stealer. He comes across natural and dynamic with his delivery and even though some of his written dialogue was awkward he still managed to make it impactful. He was honestly at an entirely different level than the rest of the cast.

Unfortunately the secondary characters are pretty pointless and do little to move the story and most can’t deliver a believable line. There were at least two scenes that involved secondary characters that could be removed all together and the film would be better off.

There a few things that stood out to me while watching the film, the setting for the tattoo parlor changes a lot. It ends up looking like three, maybe even four locations were used and it’s honestly distracting because for the first moment of each of these scenes you’re left wondering where you’re supposed to be within the world.

The other thing was wardrobe and practical effects. Part of the story takes place during the time of slavery and as such two of the characters were there during that time. We end up seeing them in modern looking clothing; while it’s an independent short and doesn’t have all the money in the world, there needed to be more attention to detail for these scenes so that things like shoes with laces and overalls with brand names showing weren’t as noticeable. Really a stronger commitment from the actors to go barefoot would have been more convincing. In the modern era the wardrobe is much better and actually makes the world standout.

On the practical effects side when Merce is burying a body it’s pretty clear that he’s just throwing dirt on the woman while she lays stiff as a board. Honestly just a small hole and a different angle could have sold this scene better. It’s not that any of this is a deal breaker, but it does show the inexperience of the filmmaker, but again it’s an independent short film so that’s okay.

Overall I still enjoyed the film. I think parts could be taken out or tightened up to produce a better overall product, but for the most part I still enjoyed it. What saves the film is the same thing that makes the comic book interesting: this is the most original take on the vampire genre that I have read in years.

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Score: 3/5

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Director: Justin Jordan Writer: Keef Cross Run Time: 18:30

Review: Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie

Written by guest contributor Brian Roe

“I’ve always wanted to meddle with powers I can’t possibly understand.” - AVGN

This quote seems to encapsulate not only Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie but its creator’s career path so far. James Rolfe, who created The Nerd in a 2004 video-review of Castlevania II, has always seemed eager to jump into filmmaking feet first and has never let his lack of budget, time, or craft keep him from cranking out whatever the hell he feels compelled to create. This obsessive drive, combined with his ability to recognize his own creative failings, goes a long way towards forgiving any obvious glitches in his projects.

Rolfe began making short films and videos at a young age and unlike most kids with the same hobby, he dug in and kept cranking them out. His most succesful character, the Angry Video Game Nerd gained his impressive following by reviewing out of date video games on platforms such as Atari 2600, Nintendo, Super NES, etc. His foul mouthed tirades against flaws in the game could sometimes reach the level of free-form poetry but he also carefully deconstructed the game itself in an attempt at understanding it instead of just blowing off the whole thing with a “This sucks!” mentality.  Sure, he pointed out that a lot of these games really did suck but he at least took the time to determine why. Many of the videos contained costumed characters, special effects, and even continuing story-lines and it seems like these were an overall training run for AVGN:TM.

The story starts with the titular Nerd living life as a pseudo-celebrity and working at Game Cop, a doppleganger of video game store Game Stop. Although he is loved and appreciated by his gamer fans he also feels great pressure to review Eee Tee, a legendarily awful game that was apparently the cause of the Video Game Collapse of 1983. But deep emotional scarring caused by his childhood playing of Eee Tee has left the Nerd with the deep seated belief that the game is horrible and should be completely forgotten instead of being “rediscovered” by a generation of ironic gamers.

Eventually pushed by his sidekick/apprentice Cooper (Jeremy Suarez) and funded by a game company set on releasing Eee Tee 2, The Nerd embarks on a pilgrimage of sorts to find the mythological dumping ground full of Eee Tee game cartridges and prove to the world that no such place exists and that the games are gone forever. They are joined by super-spunky gamer girl Mandi (Sarah Glendening), who is working for the company producing the new version of the game.

Rolfe raised the budget for his first feature film of $325,000 via internet crowdfunding and spent eight years developing, filming, and finalizing the movie. But the film doesn’t feel disjointed due to the time taken and remains at least visually coherent for the whole film. The visuals are fun and consist of a mix of low budget practical effects and digital effects. Fans of the AVGN videos will appreciate the explosions and other digital effects and they work well with the practical effects since neither are taken too seriously.

To say that there are flaws in AVGN:TM is an understatement but it’s also entirely missing the point of the film and the intent of the filmmaker. There is little about the movie that feels egotistical or self-important. Not that it’s lazy, it rarely is, it’s just that it feels exactly like what it is, the product of someone with a huge imagination, the spirit to try anything, and a vast legion of generous fans who were willing to pony up some dough so that someone that they enjoy watching could try something far more ambitious than he could do on his own. And it manages to be funny far more than it’s not while keeping a viewer’s attention with one clever visual gag after another.

It’s a great movie for AVGN fans, a good movie for anyone wanting to make their own movies, and possibly an impenetrable one for anyone wanting something slick and flawless. But those people would never get the jokes in the first place.

Available on Vimeo.

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Score: 4/5

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Director: Kevin Finn, James D. Rolfe Studio: Cinnemassacre Productions Runtime: 115 minutes

Review: A Haunted House 2

Written by guest contributor Brian Roe

This is a profoundly stupid movie. It is racist, misogynistic, misanthropic, but also incredibly obvious. There apparently was another movie called A Haunted House. This is the second one. Yay.

Marlon Wayans tries so damned hard. He is constantly active both physically and facially, like a man who has made a sad bet with himself to out Jim Carrey Jim Carrey. His desire to sell a scene is admirable. What is not admirable is the constant reaffirmation that women need to be hit and that life is nothing but sex broken up by other things. Wayans’s sex scenes with an antique doll that his wife finds are unsettling in that they start to feel unscripted, like he has somehow made the connection with an ancient piece of wood in a way that brings him to carnal fulfillment on a level that his wife never will. Wayans is either an amazing actor or someone who likes to get rimjobs from children’s toys.

And speaking of children there is an unsettling amount of sleazy sexuality laid on our hero’s high school age step daughter played by Ashley Rickards. For a character who is portrayed as being under eighteen there is an inordinate amount of talk of anal sex, oral sex, fisting, you know, the normal high school sexcapades that all kids go through. But the character is spoken of as a “whore” so who really cares. When you can’t even bother to call someone a “ho” they have to know that they don’t have your attention.

So in case you care the overall story is that Wayans’s character Malcolm Johnson was once run out of a house due to the demonic possession of his girlfriend. So in the tradition of Paranormal Activity he’s taken to covering his new house in security cameras including cameras in toilets and the mouths and asses of the children’s stuffed animals because you know, ANUS! So the idea is that someone is always filming the goings on and whatever. There’s some attempt to mark certain shots with a time code but they have no effect overall and seem like an afterthought. Nobody cares that this is not really found footage. And if you’re going to use that trope then USE IT! So fucking lazy...

Gabriel Iglesias is great overall. He delivers his lines with a rapid fire sincerity that sells his character while also confirming everything you’ve ever heard about Mexicans is totally true. It’s great to see Rick Overton in a role that will surprise you. And Missi Pyle and Hayes MacArthur are great as Ned And Norene Swanson, a thinly veiled swipe at Ed and Lorraine Warren that is some of the funniest stuff in the movie. And Cedric the Entertainer doesn’t. His demonically possessed rant about how Chris Brown was justified in beating Rhianna is just fucking vile.

And that leads me to my biggest issue with this movie. It’s not humorous. It is cruel, hyperactive, boisterous, loud, and screechy but it’s very rarely funny. It’s like someone has recorded a bully making fun of the disabled kid in school and weaponized it. It plays to the bullies and the hateful and honestly who cares to laugh along with them?

While Wayans works his ass off to sell this badly written crap he also comes across as desperate and over eager. He brings to mind Jerry Lewis in his later film career when he would work tirelessly to sell a joke that everyone had already guessed and nobody wanted to see played out. So that’s the worse that I can say about Marlon Wayans. He’s his generation’s Jerry Lewis.

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Score: 1/5

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Director: Michael Tiddes Studio: Universal Studios Runtime: 86 minutes

Review: Dark Dungeons

Written by guest contributor Brian Roe

In 1984 tract-master Jack Chick used his oddly proportioned little comic books to preach against the then pop-cultural Goliath, Dungeons and Dragons. His tract, Dark Dungeons, is an oversimplified version of role-playing games that is rich with Chick’s own peculiar theology.

The new film version of Dark Dungeons, while obviously played for laughs, is also a pretty straight forward adaptation of the original. Writer/producer JR Ralls and director L. Gabriel Gonda avoid the temptation to stray too far from the source and instead use the oddities of Chick’s own tract to draw laughs. Although there is plenty of gamer fan service, it never gets in the way of the overall message of the original Dark Dungeons.

Marcie (Anastasia Higham) and Debbie (Alyssa Kay) are sugar-sweet Christian girls who can’t wait to start saving souls at their new college. But instead of joining a healthy extra-curricular group like Computer Club they make a fatal decision and fall in with the RPGers! This dark group of hard partying, hard gaming bad kids push the girls into even deeper levels of debauchery in the game Dark Dungeons even as their RPG character levels climb higher. Almost to 8th level! Lead by the beautiful but deadly Mistress Frost (Tracy Hyland), the RPGers game to the death both in the fantasy world and in the real one. After all if something happens in your imagination isn’t it still really happening?

The lead actors in DD are all spot on and pitch perfect for the tone of the movie. Marcie and Debbie are almost impossibly naive and pure and Mistress Frost is commanding and controlling. Overall the entire cast is made up of solid actors and there are never any cringe-worthy moments that take the viewer out of the movie. Everyone plays it competently and straight and that’s why it works so well.

I saw the premier of Dark Dungeons at this year’s Gen Con and it was quite simply the best possible audience to see it with. Every reference was picked up and appreciated, every odd Chickism was belted with roars of laughter. It’s a funny movie but seeing it with a crowd of gamers made it a great movie. Dark Dungeons is worth getting your friends together and having a party for.

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Score: 4/5

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Director: L. Gabriel Gonda Studio: Rallsfilm, Zombie Orpheus Entertainment Runtime: 42 minutes Website

Dual Review: Batman: Assault on Arkham

At one point the WB animations based on DC Comics titles were a special treat with its quality production and classic stories. Now it’s a bit of a hit-or-miss as it tackles new stories and in this case spun-off of the popular Arkham video game series; how will this one score? Well you’ll have to read Dustin and Kevin’s opinions about the film after the synopsis: When the government teams up a group of supervillains with the code name Suicide Squad and forces them to break into Arkham Asylum to bring back top-secret information the Riddler has stolen, Batman soon becomes involved. But things go from bad to worse when one of the Squad (Harley Quinn) frees the Joker, who has the means to not only blow up the asylum, but most of Gotham City as well.

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Kevin: 5/5

Batman: Assault on Arkham single handily breaks the string of mediocre to bad DC comic book inspired movies. It take the dynamic and beauty of The Suicide Squad, and knowing  that brand may not be enough; adds the strength of the Batman Arkham series in a paring that works very well together.

Even though the feature is based on existing properties it does a great job in meshing the two together, all the while making use of its PG-13 rating. That extra leeway really lets the content that would come with a bunch of crazy villains forwarding the narrative. Plus without the shackles of a comic book arc that is trying to be recreated for the screen there is a lot more freedom. From side-boob, sassy dialog to heads popping off, this isn’t your father’s Suicide Squad. Each character is given enough time to shine as they all jock for position and also letting the audience experience some lower rung DC alumni that they may never have known existed. Granted the movie pushes main stays like Harley Quinn and Deadshot, but something tells me that old King Shark will be walking away with some new fans.

From the animation to the voice acting, the experience is top-notch. The action looks great, epically the confrontations with Batman. They’re fast, smooth, and awesomely violent. But most importantly they are a blast to watch. The voice acting works well due to the fact you have fan favorite Kevin Conroy as Batman and Troy Baker, who does a great Mark Hamill-ish Joker. But the one who takes the cake is CCH Pounder’s performance as Amanda Waller. She is so good in setting precedence in her delivery and sets such a high bar for quality that she almost seals the show… almost.

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Dustin: 5/5

At first I was worried about this film. The opening wasn’t the strongest, but then once you got past the annoying club mix song and the real story began, well it was one hell of a movie. I hope that they do more PG-13 animations because this one was able to have a level of maturity that some of the previous animations are attempting and failing to reach.

Now that doesn’t mean that all of their animations should be mature; after all even I was a bit shocked to see Harley Quinn wrap her legs around Deadshot, naked in bed and yell “Yahtzee.” In fact there did seem to be mature scenes for the sake of being mature, but it wasn’t terribly distracting and was actually a welcomed change from the previous WB film Son of Batman.

What helped with the characters was the voice acting. The voice actors actually tried to embody the characters rather than putting stars of other WB shows in the lead roles and telling them to talk normal. This cast though, delivers some of the best performances in animation and really brought each and every character to life no matter how small the role may have been. They were the Suicide Squad.

The action played a key role in the success of the film as well. The fights felt real as each character played to their strengths and some fight choreography was borrowed from live action movies which worked out quite well. With the action came the danger; they are the Suicide Squad so they can die at any moment and the film does just that. Don’t get too comfortable or your favorite character could bite the big one.

Overall this is by far the most successful WB animation since just before they announced the final line up for the Premiere line. The voice acting was top-notch, the animation was spectacular and the overall story was enjoyable and entertaining. Hopefully they take some notes from this one and deliver more like this.

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Directors: Jay Oliva, Ethan Spaulding Voice Director: Andrea Romano Writer: Heath Corson Studio: WB Price: $24.98 Release Date: 8/12/14

Dual Review: Oculus

Well two Bastards had a chance to sit down with the Relativity, WWE and Fox’s latest home release Oculus. Their thoughts are below, but first he’s what the film is about: Seeing is deceiving in this disturbingly original horror flick that reflects heart-stopping terror as you’ve never imagined! It’s been ten years since the lives of siblings Tim (Brenton Thwaites; Maleficent) and Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan; “Doctor Who”) were shattered and Tim was convicted of murdering their parents. Now released from a mental institution, Tim wants to move on, but his sister has other plans. Kaylie blames their childhood nightmare on the Lasser Glass—an antique mirror with a grisly history—which she intends to destroy by any means possible, even as the mysterious entity continues to cast sinister spells on anyone who gazes into it.

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Kevin: 4/5

There were two things that drew me to Oculus. First I love horror movies and second was Katee Sackhoff. I’m a fan of her look and work and to see her in a horror movie was all I needed, even though she was all “momed-up”.

As for the horror/thriller aspects Oculus knows exactly what it is and what it is trying do. It’s a simple narrative about a haunted mirror that has wrecked generations of families. Now a brother and sister form a tag team to get revenge and destroy the mirror due to their family being victimized. It’s a simple tale that for 90% of the movies stays in one location, the house. The sister has a contingency plan that’s believable and all they have to do is keep their wits about them and destroy the mirror.

It’s a difficult task for a writer to keep the narrative in one location and keeping it interesting. If done poorly it can be hard for the audience to endure and hurt the experience. Oculus keeps that in mind by using the siblings’ past experiences as a point to jump to keep things fresh. Which works as builds the relationship of the protagonists. If you want to see the one location narrative done well, check out one of my favorite movies 2DLK. They did one location perfectly.

The other intricate piece to have in this kind of narrative is the performances. All of which were very well done. Karen Gillan steals the show as she cuts a monologue about the mirror and gives exposition the whole time. It was fast and seamless but most of all it worked to catch the audience up on things while it showed her passion for the defeating the mirror.  The other stand out performances where from the children played by Garrett Ryan as young Tim and Annalise Basso as young Kaylie. The reason I give them a nod for doing a good job is because they are kid actors and everyone knows that kid actors suck. These children did not…too much.

Oculus has some very interesting moments and controls its pace very well. It uses a gimmick of a haunted mirror in satisfying way and keeps things fun as the two siblings’ battle to figure out what’s real as they attempt to outlast the horror. At the end of the day Oculus is worth a viewing.

Oh and hit me up if you want to hear me pitch a sequel!

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Dustin: 4/5

I had a similar reason for wanting to check out this movie, but while Kevin was all about Sackhoff, I was all about the former Doctor Who companion Karen Gillan making what I believe is her American film debut. One thing I’ll say is that you could hear her fighting back her Scottish accent and really I wanted to hear her let it rip.

What I really enjoyed about this film was that it was a visual delight. The camera angles not only brought a sense of terror, but at times they just presented a beautifully laid out scene. The great thing about the mirror was that it allowed the story to do a ton of creepy things that were all within the realm of possibility. All-in-all it looked like director Mike Flanagan wanted the mirror to come across as a living thing and he succeeded in doing just that.

The monologue in the house is definitely one of the best parts of the film. It gives you hope for the characters, but the movie doesn’t stumble here. It wastes no time destroying that plan and doesn’t use it as safety net like other horror movies tend to do. What's even better is that the plan is sound, which goes to show just how dangerous the mirror is.

I really enjoyed this movie. The ending was a bit of a “fuck you”, but it worked and they earned the right to do that. If there was a sequel I would definitely check it out, but it would need as powerful of a cast of actors as this film had. As great as it was visually, the actors carry the film tremendously.

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Director: Mike Flanagan Writers: Mike Flanagan, Jeff Howard Studio: Relativity, WWE, Fox Run Tim: 105 Mins Release Date: 8/5/14

Group Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

Well they remade the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. By now you probably know what it’s about and all the crap with it so we’ll spare telling you what the film is about. If you want to hear our scene for scene (practically) breakdown then check out this week’s CBMFP/Save It For The Podcast.

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Samantha: 0/5

As for the movie, I agree with what every sane person is saying. Megan Fox had to carry this movie, and she couldn’t. The plot doesn’t even make sense because why does Sack’s need the ooze in the first place? Couldn’t he have just released some other type of disease that he had the antidote for instead of betting on his 15-year-old project that went up in flames to have survived and magically be brought the Turtles by his dead partner’s daughter who he has never had contact with? Dumb. Then when it came to the characters it all was bad too. The Turtles sucked, not a surprise. Will Arnett sucked, not a surprise. And why did the audience have to be reminded about Fox’s looks every three seconds? Didn’t she leave Transformers because of Bay over sexuallizing her? Arnett’s attempts were nothing short of pedophilia and Mikey’s attempts were nothing short of rapey (stolen from Dustin). Everything went wrong with this movie.

As for me personally, I saw this movie for the pure fact that non-comic fans would ask me all about it knowing that I am obsessed with TMNT. I didn’t want to let them down by saying I hadn’t it seen it, but now I am left in a bigger conundrum. Now I feel ashamed. Most of the audience for this movie were kids, and how do you gently knock down these kids from wanting to be TMNT fans? I feel like all my Turtle merchandise should say “I love TMNT, but not the new movie” because I feel that much shame being a fan right now.  In the larger scheme of things, I know this movie and the next movie and probably the trilogy will long be forgotten and the Turtles will be remembered for the pure happiness they have brought through the comics, TV, and action figures, but for right now, it stings in my inner core.

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Kevin: 1/5

TMNT is the perfect example of “too many hands in the cookie jar” or “just not giving a fuck”. Its story is so stupid and its antagonist so poorly handled its mind-blowing that it made it to screen. This film feels like tons of random scenes were shot and some unlucky asshole was forced to piece them together and make a coherent story. If you can make it through that then you can try to find and experience the Turtles in all their CG greatness and one ugly ass rat in Master Splinter.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a few things to enjoy in this movie. Megan Fox keeps her tradition in looking amazing and Mikey does have a few lines that did make me laugh out loud. There are also a few moments in the action were my head nodded in approval. But alas the moments are few and far between and none of it really constitutes paying full price to for a movie that comes off like a Turtle fart joke. 

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Dustin: -1,000,000/5 (That's negative one million over five)

I will never watch Into The Storm, in fact I’ve never watched Twister nor the majority of natural disaster movies. I rank natural disaster movies right beside the submarine genre and anything with monkeys. They’re three genres that I absolutely hate. Why am I bringing up Into The Storm? Because that’s the movie I bought a ticket for instead of giving TMNT my money, but I snuck into TMNT. 

To say I hated this movie is an understatement. It’s a bad film and definitely one of the worst I’ve ever seen in my life. The thought of talking about it makes me cringe and the thought of seeing it ever again makes me want to remove both my ears and eyes. Seeing it was one of the worst experiences of my life. The Turtles have had a long legacy, but now they may have reached that Star Wars point in which I walk away.

Since I’ve covered a lot of my hated for how the Turtles look already on the site I’m instead going to focus on April and Shredder.

When Megan Fox was cast as April I think collectively everyone thought “well I guess April O’Neil is just going to be some sexed up damsel” and then they released photos of her jumping on a trampoline. It seems that in spite of what everyone thought they decided to make sure that they gave Fox ample screen time and a bigger role than what was needed for the story. She’s included in everything and very much is the only force that moves the plot forward. It is April O’Neil and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because she has a starring role, not a supporting role as everyone thought. Good for Fox, but bad for audiences as she doesn’t deliver a believable line of dialogue and is constantly out of breath, possibly so that her chest is constantly moving and her lips are always pouty.

The worst part of Megan Fox’s casting is that she’s completely blinded most Turtles fans with her looks. That’s all they care about and so seeing her in any way, shape or form makes for a “good movie” in their minds. Even worse, she attracts the same crowds that like Transformers and we all know that anyone that sees those movies don’t actually like cinema since they continue to give money to a man who hates them.

As for The Shredder… well they heard you internet and they decided “We won’t make the white guy Shredder” but they totally already had. The problem with Shredder is that originally it was a white guy, but after they had already finished they went back and shot three or four scenes in an attempt to make a second Shredder. Of course they didn’t say that they did this because then they’d have to admit that they were wrong and Michael Bay is never wrong right when he battles the nerds that give him money.

The biggest evidence I have of this is when white Shredder finds out that the Turtles are alive and goes to Japanese Shredder and tells him. Japanese Shredder then tells him, “I’ll have my victory and you’ll have your money” or something similar to that. Victory might be the wrong word, but the idea is the same. Tell me… why is Japanese Shredder’s only plan to poison the city? That’s his plan. He’s not going to reveal himself as the man with the cure or anything, he just wants to kill a lot of people and remain unknown… that doesn’t make any sense no matter how delusional the villain. James Bond villains have more of a reason than that. No what I think was the original plan was that white Shredder was going to do everything because that makes sense for his plan. Poison the city and get a lot of money. That’s logical, but when you divide it, it’s not logical.

Don’t even get me started on his super suit that did everything for him and ended up looking nothing like the promo stuff they released. I guess they had to go with a big fucking suit because the Turtles are all nine feet tall practically.

I think Samantha covered my thoughts on Michelangelo being rapey, but my god I fear for the next generation of boys that grow up imitating that.

Also they looked like creepy slug children as kids… I’ll leave you on that and just ask that you stop giving it money.

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Director: Jonathan Liebesman Writers: Josh Appelbaum, Evan Daugherty, Andre Nemec Studio: Paramount, Nickelodeon Films and Platinum Dunes Run Time: 101 Mins Release Date: 8/8/14

Group Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

Welcome, welcome to the Comic Bastards group review for Guardians of the Galaxy. A small handful of us wanted to share our opinions and scores with you for Marvel’s first film outside of the realm of the Avenger’s, but before that here’s what the movie is about:

Light years from Earth, 26 years after being abducted Peter Quill finds himself the prime target of a manhunt after discovering an orb wanted by Ronan the Accuser.

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Samantha: 5/5

Everything worked for this movie. I thought maybe I couldn’t put into words what worked but then I realized everything did. I think James Gunn put it all together for Marvel when it needed to be put together. I may have never picked that cast, but man they were awesome. Each character was highlighted perfectly. I still can’t pick a favorite which sucks because all I want our some GOTG toys, but not knowing favorite makes it so I have to buy them all! Everyone was funny too. I thought maybe the movie would take on only two characters being funny, while one is stupid, one is smart, and one is reasonable, but no. They all had their moments of kicking some ass then making some comment that left the audience laughing. And with each character having a background story that was relatable and made you feel for them kept even a better hold on us. We all were hoping our team would win.

Even the post-credit scenes were just as fun. I don’t know if anyone will get as excited as my fiancé and I did when Baby Groot graced the screen. I screamed when no one else did. He was adorable and needs to be marketed right now. I would totally buy a Baby Groot plant for my office.

I would recommend this movie to anyone and think that the lightheartedness that came with GOTG will outshine any other Marvel movie. It was pure entertainment.

Nick: 5/5

Guardians of the Galaxy is the most fun I’ve had at a Marvel movie since being pleasantly surprised by the first Iron Man six years back. This is the kind of thing Marvel does really well; fun, swashbuckling, offbeat heroes.

Most of the movie is driven by “the orb,” a MacGuffin if you’ve ever seen one. Everybody wants it, nobody knows exactly what it is, they just know it’s important. The discovery of its import sets up a lot of the quest for what Marvel Phase 2 is building towards, but the downside is we spend very little time with the villains. Lee Pace and Josh Brolin are intimidating, but rarely used, and Karen Gillan is rarely given more than a line here or there. I hope to see some of them come back around for the rest of the Marvel Cosmic phase and continue to kick ass.

Action Hero Chris Pratt on the other hand, is one of the great discoveries of the century. He’s an old school hero in the Indiana Jones mold, quick to take a punch and get beat up, but also crack a joke while he’s down and get everyone to rally behind him. He’s inspiring and hilarious and the movie would be worth the price of admission just for him. Luckily, everyone else was rad, too. Drax cuts a hell of a promo, Zoe Saldana kicks a hell of a lot of ass, Groot is a magical woodland Vin Diesel fairy creature, and Rocket was 10000% better than I expected.

Go see this movie, right now.

Dustin: 5/5

Yeah I bet this is unexpected right? Well here’s a little known fact about me, I love me some space movies. In fact I was a big fan of Marvel’s cosmic line before they crapped it up because Joe Q didn’t like space shit. Yeah it was really good for five years or so and since this team of Guardians spawned from that era in the Marvel U. well color me interested.

What I’ll say about this movie is kind of what I said on the podcast about this movie. It talked like me and my friends. Yeah the jokes come pretty consistently when there isn’t action going on, but isn’t that life? Goofy until you need to be serious? Hell isn’t that growing up!?!

The one thing I will say about it is that the big showdown seemed a bit quick and that’s only after having a few days to think about it. I’m sure when the home release comes out or people have seen it one too many times or they’re just sick of hearing about it… then people will notice that and complain. It could have been tighter there, but it wasn’t weaker because of it.

People of course love Rocket and Groot and they should, but Drax actually won me over in a big way. Really the entire ensemble did a great job. It’s rare that you like the entire cast; can’t say the same about Avengers… which has its work cut out for it.

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Director: James Gunn Writers: James Gunn, Nicole Perlman Studio: Marvel Stuidos Run Time: 121 Mins Release Date: 8/1/14

Review: Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons

Written by guest contributor Brian Roe

Stephen Chow’s previous films, Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, are both over the top cartoons that happen to be set in the real world. They use a multitude of pop culture references both from Chow’s native China and from sources all over the world. But even with so many disparate elements Chow keeps them focused and tight, never sacrificing story for effects or comedy.

This is not quite the case with his 2013 film Journey to the West: Conquering The Demons which is now on Netflix. Perhaps because it is based on a true classic of Chinese literature, Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West, there doesn’t seem to be as much exposition or explanation that might guide non-Chinese viewers along. This is not a deal breaker however, and those who are willing to play along until things sort themselves out will be rewarded by a film that is at once ridiculous, touching, and awesome in the truest sense.

The film begins in a Chinese fishing village that seems to be having problems with a “Fish Demon”. Two rival demon hunters show up and are immediately at odds about what the real threat is. Over the top stunts and ambitious use of CGI abound in this sequence but child safety seems to not be as much of an issue. There are several occurrences in this segment that would probably have been changed if the film had been made in The U.S., namely the killing of children and bereaved parents alongside wacky hi-jinks. Maybe the Chinese are able to reconcile these two moods at the same time but it creates a strange tonal flip flopping that takes some getting used to.

One of the demon hunters, which seems to be a fairly common occupation in this world,   is the young Buddhist monk Xuan Zang (Zhang Wen). He manages to beach the fish-demon who then reverts to being a scrawny, somewhat cowed young man. Zang’s methods differ greatly from the traditional demon hunting methods of “Shock and Awe” and instead rely on calm attempts to bring the good out of the demons by peaceful means such as new age flute music and children’s nursery rhymes. Unused to these more huggy-feely methods the fish-demon again begins to attack young Zang.

Luckily he is rescued by the tough but beautiful demon hunter Duan (Shu Qi). Duan makes very short work of the fish-demon and quickly takes a shine to Zang. She flirts with him openly but the poor dumb bastard is devoted to Buddha and considers romance to be a lower form of love than the absolute goal of reaching nirvana. Dimwit.

Shu Qi is excellent in this. One minute tough and arrogant, the next adorably smitten, she goes back and forth without ever losing her sense of humor or seeming out of control of the situation. Her repeated attempts to woo Zang eventually climb to absurd levels and his inability to feel anything for her makes him seem more like a robot than a devout follower of Buddha.

Although the pacing and tone seem sometimes to be at odds with the overall story everything is wrapped up in a pretty perfect package that manages to combine gravitas, loss, and a use of CGI that seems to be a dare to other filmmakers. Seriously, I can’t think of another film that has brought such a massive scale to a single palm slap. Anyone working on a movie featuring Galactus should really consider the final quarter of this movie to be required viewing.

One of the only things missing is Chow himself who is such a screen presence that it seems odd that he’s not playing a role. Maybe he’ll show up in the sequel.

There is a lot to love about Journey to the West. From its completely ballsy use of digital effects, solid wire-work fight scenes, and bonkers shenanigans, it keeps the viewer interested by throwing bucket loads of stuff on screen and seeing what sticks. Giant enraged pig demons, super sexy demon hunters, and even a clockwork battle-tank fill the movie with enough explosive imagery to keep even the most jaded video game junky sated. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

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Score: 4/5

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Director: Stephen Chow, Derek Kwok (co-Director) Run Time: 110 mins

Review: Mood Indigo

To say that I’ve been looking forward to watching this film is an understatement. I instantly fell in love with the trailer and all of its quirkiness, its lead characters and the idea of a love story taking place in this strange and magical setting. Therein lays the problem with Mood Indigo as it presents itself as a romantic comedy that takes a serious twist, but how serious… you don’t know until you watch it. With it being a Michel Gondry film I didn’t expect it to be a traditional romantic comedy by any means, especially with Audrey Tautou in a lead role and the incredible amount of work she’s done so that she wouldn’t be known as “the girl who played Amelie” for her entire career. All of these things that sound great on paper just seem to fight against themselves for the entire film.

The film begins by showing us the eccentric life of Colin, played by Romain Duris. He is an inventor though not by trade and his wealth is never explained. It’s just there. His apartment can only be described as magical as his chef/lawyer/friend Nicolas, played by Omar Sy, receives help cooking from a chef in a TV that at one point reaches through to take care of preparation. We’re introduced to Colin’s friend Chick, played by Gad Elmaleh, and learn that he’s obsessed with a writer/speaker and at his last outing meet a woman. The woman turns out to be Nicolas’ niece. Eventually we get to the point where the man who has everything, Colin, doesn’t have love. He sets out to find love with the help of his friends, but attending a fancy party that a girl Nicolas is dating, is hosting.

There he meets Chloe, played by Audrey Tautou, and they continue from there. Really that’s how I would describe their relationship, they continue from there. There isn’t really a moment in which you see the spark of love, rather the story just continues with them being “in love” and smiling and giggling. Eventually they wed and due to a series of events that they cause themselves, Chloe becomes sick.

A doctor is fetched and like the rest of the movie he’s not what you would think of when calling for a doctor. He tells the couple that Chloe has a water-lily growing in her lung. She’s put on bed rest and can only drink two spoonfuls of water a day and must surround herself with flowers to scare the water-lily off. The once wealthy Colin must now get a job because he’s spent his fortune on the wedding and friends and now there isn’t enough for the treatment and their life after.

This is where the film takes a dark turn and stays there. There is never an upside, think of a bad day where things just continue to get worse and worse and you wonder when it will stop? When is enough, enough? That’s the rest of the movie in a nutshell.

It ends abruptly and without closure, just like life. I can’t assume to know what message Gondry was going for, but my take on it is pretty cut and dry: love can cause you to die alone and poor. Now Gondry does in a way capture the realistic journey of some romantic endeavors, there’s no denying that. Some relationships are going to see one of the couple get sick and the other spend and sacrifice to get them better. Mood Indigo just takes that journey and speeds up the process jumping from happy to sad in no time flat. It suffers because of that though. It suffers from its message because in trying to capture a side of love that has never been shown on film before it forgot the most important element… love.

When Chloe gets sick her relationship with Colin changes and since we only saw them at the beginning stages of their puppy dog relationship, there’s nothing to build upon from there. Its puppy love to sad instantly, but the film never shows that spark. Colin comes across as trying to save Chloe because he’s invested time and money into being with her and not so much because he loves her. Chloe does show some resentment towards Colin for all that he’s doing for her, but his actions feel forced so her response feels unwarranted and uncharacteristic.

There is no love in this love story. Hell, I don’t even know if it’s supposed to be a love story anymore. It sure seems like it given the nature of the story and the constant mention of romantic relationships and the word “love.” At the end of the day it suffers from its own art. There’s too much focus on the world and making it strange yet cute, that the story and characters get lost somewhere along the way.

The strange thing is that by knowing what the film is and isn’t and changing your expectations, it’s possibly that someone else could have a much better first experience with this film than I did. Perhaps if I had read Boris Vian’s novel in which the film is adapted from I would have had a different idea going into the film, but hopefully my experience will help give someone else a better experience when they watch it. Just keep in mind that the title is really trying to describe the film the best it can, you just can't know what it means until you've seen it for yourself.

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Score: 3/5

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Director: Michel Gondry Writers: Michel Gondry & Luc Bossi Stuido: Drafthouse Films Run Time: 94 Mins Release Date: 7/18/14

Review: Snowpiercer

Written by Guest Contributor: Jefferey Pinkos If somehow I could psychically convey some demands to the emperors and caliphates, and if — suggesting an even more unrealistic hypothetical situation than psychic communication — they cared and listened and understood, I would propose the two following decrees.

1. To cast Tilda Swinton in everything they could, and
2. To never recreate The Wizard of Oz, especially through the use of a grim/gritty lens.

Fortunately, Ms. Tilda is at work again but at the cost of the second decree.  Snowpiercer — not a Hollywood picture in the slightest, except in distribution — is at its core Oz writ dark, desolate, and dystopian.  But it’s leagues better than any latter-day Tim Burton production could ever offer.  (Baseless swipes across the board here.  If I was something a pittance more redeemable than an online critic, I might worry about making enemies.  But since I’m not, I swipe away!)

Director Joon-ho Bong is a gift to mankind.  Once I heard someone laughing at the CGI monster in The Host and got really fucking mad.  It’s a little silly, of course.  The monster does look a little laughable, almost like the killer beast Gojira does.  The Host and Gojira both do something profound with their potentially laughable seeming creatures.  They are transformative creatures by their destruction.  Gojira gives us a city devastated.  The Host gives us a family devastated.  We deeply understand humanity with how it reacts to loss and fear.  It rises and fights back and protects its loved ones.

Snowpiercer is not like The Host.  Where The Host begins with a comfortable family, who becomes destabilized by an event, Snowpiercer arrives after the event.  A manmade ice age has lain waste to the world, and everything that’s left of us sit on a train circumnavigating the globe indefinitely.  The tail passengers — a long oppressed faction of underlings, with a wildly diverse cast of throwaways, Octavia Spencer, John Hurt, Ewen Bremner, lead by Chris Evans — lead a revolt to take over the train and question the man himself, the great engineer who pioneered the Snowpiercer train, Wilford.

It’s messy and mean and nasty stuff, revolution.  Armed with a drug addicted security expert, Kang-ho Song, and his daughter, Ah-sung Ko, they quickly unravel more and more terrors about their life and the lives of the other residents.  If anything, go see the meat train scene.  It is the most frightening and surreal scene I have seen in some time.

I don’t have anything to say more about it.  It is seething.  It is its scariest at its funniest.  Look at the school train scene (ran by the excellent Allison Pill) and the ecstatic Wilford song.  To the train passengers who stumbled into this Roald Dahl book by way of the early days of Rapture, it is a grim hero-worship a few degrees away from a cult religious experience.  It is not a stretch to go back to our elementary school days and find that history being taught is so much hero-worship, so much like indoctrination, it’s insane to find we love and idolize men who sought terror and reaped war.

If I were to complain about anything, is that its pacing gets wonky in the second act.  That cars fly by without comment.  Some like the opium den/orgy car — something not offered by the TRE — might do with some acknowledgement.  But I see its purpose.  To the people from the tail, the front end’s life is all triviality without consequence.  We see a lot of broad characterization in its cast — see for instance Wilford’s lieutenant Mason (the great and powerful Tilda).  But it’s so much less biting in passing.

It should be a huge hit.  If it’s in theaters still, see it with as many people as possible.  If it’s on VOD, invite friends over.

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Score: 5/5

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Director: Joon-ho Bong Writers: Joon-ho Bong and Kelly Masterson Studio: The Weinstein Company Run Time: 126 Min Release Date: 6/25/14

Review: Murderdrome

Written by guest contributor Brian Roe

Murderdrome, from director Daniel Armstrong, feels like going to a really kick-ass punk rock show with a bunch of close friends. It moves along quickly without getting reckless and keeps its fun and positive attitude even as the body count starts to get out of hand. It’s one of those really rare movies that blows the impacted cynicism straight out the back of your head and leaves you wanting more.

Derby jammer Cherry Skye (Amber Sajben) has a bit of a problem. Her new boyfriend Brad (Jake Brown) has given her a sweetheart pendant that he scored online. Unfortunately the pendant is also  connected to a demonic roller-lich called Momma Skate (Be-On The-Rocks) who wants to drag sweet little Skye right on down to “H-E-double hockey sticks”. Making Skye’s dilemma even more of a hassle is Brad’s ex-girlfriend Hell Grazer (Rachael Blackwood) who dumped Brad but then gets all evil once he starts making loveably dorky small talk with Skye. So our perky, snack obsessed rollergirl Skye is truly stuck between two Hells.

Luckily she has her devoted group of derby-girls to help her out. Trans Em (Kat Anderson) is the parental type, Daisy Duke Nuke ‘Em (Laura Soall) is a sex obsessed rockabilly girl, Thrusty P Elvis (Gerry Mahony) is the good natured one, and personal favorite Psychlone (Cyndi Lawbreaker) is the feisty punk-chick who’s always up for a fight or ready to drop a meandering and vulgar figure of speech. Together they skate on the derby team The Alamos, a name that contains more than a bit of foreshadowing.

One of the first things you notice about The Alamos is that although they don’t always get along, there isn’t the normal amount of backstabbing and pettiness that all Hollywood groups of friends seem to have. For the most part this group seems to like and actually care about each other and never resort to throwing another member under a bus to get what they want. They feel like actual people, even if they spend most of their time hanging out around a skating rink and never seem to remove their skates.

Murderdrome plays out in a nighttime world that seems to belong to Skye and her friends. We never really see anyone who isn’t a part of the skating world and this gives the film the feeling that the characters exist outside of normal reality in a place where skating down the street is routine and having ecstatic sex in a vintage Cadillac is just how things are done. And although the film was shot in Australia that fact isn’t constantly trotted out. Really the only thing that gives it away are the accents of the characters.

There’s a short segment of the film that let’s Cherry Skye just skate through the streets, pirouetting and enjoying the freedom that having wheels on your feet can give you. It’s a nice touch and feels dreamy and peaceful, a literal calm before the storm. Although the rest of the film moves along briskly it never feels rushed and the tone, timing, and intent is consistent and solid.

Special effects are a combination of good old splattery corn-syrup blood and latex and digital effects that are inventive and clever. Most CGI effects feel strange in the “uncanny valley” sort of way and Murderdrome embraces this feeling to show Skye’s surroundings becoming surreal and threatening. There’s a good mix of actual skating, which is impressive, character dialogue, and effects heavy sequences. It’s great to see a low budget film that contains all of the necessary parts of a well made film while also having the freedom independent film allows creators to have.

One of the most interesting elements of Murderdrome is that although it has a primarily female cast it doesn’t devolve into the standard tropes and cliches. This is a Bechdel Test passing movie that doesn’t have to try to hard to impress how feminist it is. Although the women are dressed in the pseudo-fetishistic regalia of roller derby they are not presented as mere objects, They are sexual without being sexist, and they always seem to be agents of their own will. Basically like real world women.

Get some friends together, crack open some beers and enjoy this brilliant little gem. If we’re lucky maybe Armstrong will accept his birthright as an Aussie filmmaker to give us a post-apocalyptic view of the Murderdrome world, Dead End Drive-In style. And of course it would be called Cherry Skye: Beyond Murderdrome.

Murderdrome will be released in The US on Sept 9th, 2014 and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.

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Score: 5/5

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Director: Daniel Armstrong Studio: Camp Motion Pictures Run Time: 71 mins

Review: Hide and Seek

Back in college it took me a while to get into Korean cinema. Unlike Hong Kong and Japanese films my exposure to Korean films was extremely limited. When I started buying and importing a lot of Asian cinema (that still makes up the bulk of my DVD collection) I began to notice more and more of my film selections were coming from Korea. In fact in my opinion their cinema has done something neither Japan nor Hong Kong have been able to do and that’s be its own industry. By that I mean that Korea doesn’t imitate (though there is always going to be some imitation, no country is excluded from that), but rather innovate. It doesn’t attempt to be Hollywood junior, but rather it is Korean cinema and Hide and Seek illustrates that perfectly. Creepy and terrifying are perhaps the only words that can describe Hide and Seek. It is a thriller with light moments of horror, but where it really excels is in its ability to terrify you. It is not a movie you watch by yourself when your significant other is out-of-town or the family is away for the night. And while it terrifies and creeps you out to the tenth fold, it also laces in a subtle amount of social commentary. It’s something you either pick up on or you don’t.

The story follows Sung-soo; he’s OCD to the max and is forced to take medication for it otherwise he can’t function in society. He owns a business, has a lovely wife and two perfect kids and in general has the perfect life in the city. That of course doesn’t last as he’s called by the landlord of his estranged brother. Well estranged isn’t quite right; his brother is part of the reason he’s OCD as he has a skin condition. Due to an event in their past they don’t talk and Sung-soo has intentionally not been in contact; mostly because his brother is in and out of jail for sexual assault. Out of guilt Sung-soo goes to find his brother who the landlord says is missing and behind on rent. This is where things get even stranger.

Upon arriving at the apartment Sung-soo begins looking into his brother’s things and finding women’s clothing that’s just not lining up with the info from the manager. He’s confused by this and wonders what the hell his brother is up to. Meanwhile his wife is winning mother of the year as she lets her kids play out in the street of an unsafe neighborhood. A man who looks a bit mentally handicapped begins waving at the wife and she freaks out about her kids. Lo-and-behold they’re gone. She frantically runs around looking for them and eventually comes back to her car to find them in the back seat and the strange man in the front seat pretending to drive. Another mother comes to her rescue and scares the man off. She lives in the same apartment complex as the brother and offers to host the family that is very rattled and out of their element.

Conversation begins, about the building and it’s likeliness of being torn down. The perfect children want nothing to do with the poor ladies kid and you can’t really blame them as she has her eye patched and lives in the slums, while they’re rich and always have been. Sung-soo yells at his daughter to allow the little girl to play with her doll and the first things she does is rub her patched eye on it. Like what the fuck.  Of course the subject of the brother comes up and the woman freaks out. She kicks them out and tells Sung-soo to tell his brother to stop watching them. He’s confused of course but she says that she can’t sleep at night because she’s up watching her daughter and protecting her from him.

Two major things happen at this moment as Sung-soo notices markings below each doorbell of the apartments. He figures out that it indicates who lives in side. One man, two kids, that kind of thing. He freaks out because it’s below every door bell. During the opening and after this scene we learn that there’s a rumor going around about squatters living inside of people’s homes without them knowing.

Sung-soo sends his wife home without him and stays behind to figure out where his brother is and what he’s up to. The wife is upset, but she heads home. Little does she know that she’s being followed. Eventually Sung-soo ends up back home only to discover the same markings below his doorbell and the doorbells of everyone else in his building.

I haven’t told you anything that’s not in the trailer and the reason being is that final element. To come from the slums of another city to your luxury apartment that has security cameras, 24/7 guards and is essentially a small fortress and yet… here are the markings indicating, with accuracy, who lives inside each apartment.

Creepy, yes. Terrifying, certainly.

Without a doubt the story is scary. The twist and turns of the mystery are rewarding and will leave you guessing about the outcome. The parts I want to talk about, the rewarding stuff at the end… I can’t. I don’t want to ruin the movie for anyone, but man-oh-man does this story get good.

The social commentary comes in to play about security first and foremost. That’s the easy one as it asks “how safe is anyone?” The answer of course is that safety is an illusion as this film demonstrates. Human beings will always find a way. Always. I mean homeless people living inside of your house without you seeing them… you might as well change your pants now.

The other commentary is more subtle and actually something that I doubt a lot of people will pick up on. A lot of the movie is about the “haves” and the “have nots” and with that possessions in general. It’s illustrated perfectly as the son wants the new DS. He needs it. He’s addicted to things. This even saves the kids at one point as they recognize something that belongs to their mother. Again though, possessions. They and their mother know what is theirs and what is not. To go into it more I would have to talk about the ending and so rather than do that I would encourage you to keep this commentary in mind while you watch it and you’ll see what I mean.

The film has been brought over the North America for a home release and if you like or love thrillers then for sure check this film out. It’s one of the best Korean films I’ve watched in a long time, you know what? Slated that it’s one of the best films I’ve watched in a long time.

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Score: 5/5

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Director/Writer: Huh Jung Distributor: Ram Releasing Run Time: 107 Min

Review: Her

Written by Guest Contributor: Jefferey Pinkos I do not like Her.  There.  Now I feel like I’ve kicked a puppy.

Of course there are many things to like about it.  1.  It’s a pretty picture.  Spike Jonze and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema have created a gorgeous cityscape of Future L.A., with its sumptuous pastel/citrus coloring.  2.  ScarJo is so damn charming, it’s insane.  Ms. Johansson has such a natural style and range as OS1/Samantha that Ray Kurzweil just plotzed.

But try as I might, I can’t un-kick that puppy.  I may as well explain my actions.

Theodore Twombly is the quintessential Sensitive Young Man.  Even his name is adorable.  Played with overweening heart by Joaquin Phoenix, he does everything a SYM does.  He bemoans the dissolution of his last relationship, a marriage by his critical ex Catherine (Rooney Mara).  He’s financially successful in a futuristic SYM trade, writing love notes for strangers.  It’s a meaningful career, not just in securing him a middle-class existence, but in becoming an empathetic cypher for his clients, the emotionally unavailable and fetishists of the really-not really homemade.  A commodity of intimacy.  Already, I hate him.  He’s a genius, he’s paid well, and he’s terribly, disastrously lonely.  IF ONLY SOMEONE OR SOMETHING COULD HELP.

In enters Samantha.  Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) is a personality part of the OS1 PA system.  It’s designed to organize your life, but it has feelings and a responsiveness that imitates humanity so well it’s nigh indistinguishable.  Samantha’s lively, flirty, and effective.  Immediately the both of them are smitten.  We get why he’s taken with her.  He’s the SYM, prone to love things that are lovely.  We love her immediately.  But, to paraphrase Joe Jackson here is she really that taken with him?

There’s some discomforting questions Her never resolves, nor intends to resolve.  A famous critic said that discomfort, which I will discuss further, is the discomfort we feel about computers nowadays.  All sci-fi is of-its-time.  With the NSA and Facebook forever altering human relationships and how we view privacy and technology, it’s an interesting if immaterial interpretation.  We never entertain the idea that Samantha has some ulterior motives.  Even as she rifles through your things, she employs discretion and sensitivity.  The movie doesn’t end with her selling off his private messages and credit card numbers.

The discomfort lies with Samantha.  Far be it from me to judge romance, but everything is crazy idealized.  Twombly lives well, and earns constant critical appraisal from everyone (except his ex).  His ego’s bruised and needs diagnostic and repair.  Samantha (created from a few set questions) is made for him, which reads so weird.  Samantha regularly makes choices; she even chooses the name Samantha.  So she chooses Twombly, but her design is fabricated strictly for him.  Is it a choice or a design?  Those questions are for deeper souls than mine.

A curious scene involves their relationship on the mend.  Catherine scolded Twombly on his choice of rebound partner, invoking the irreconcilable differences that landed their relationship in divorce, and now he’s critically reexamining the commodity/sentience he’s chosen to date.  Samantha is still going through a period of developing an identity for herself and in this relationship so she’s chosen a physical cypher to play-act as her.  It’s an uncomfortable scene that Twombly reluctantly agrees to.  It gets intimate.  Samantha tells Twombly to declare his love for her to this stranger, and he balks.  It’s possible to agree with him.  That professing your affection for a third-party is weird.  It is, but it feels like a half-truth.  When you have a woman without a body, it doesn’t eliminate the male gaze.  Her physicality is imagined.  How she acts and behaves and looks is presumed.  She in effect becomes every woman; but with an amenable displaceable personality.  It’s masturbation plus.

It’s possible I read too much into the scene.  “But did it move you?” Jonze will ask.  This isn’t a sci-fi film, rather a modern love story seen through a sci-fi lens.  I can’t say.  I look back at the romance story that did move me, and I felt was a strong and curious and human, and it’s the Before trilogy.  Jesse and Celine.  That could be seen as fantasy too, but both parties have an interplay that challenges and denies the other.  They argue.  They have differing opinions.  They have stories.  None of which you see here.  Here it’s a one-sided relationship.  As human as Samantha is, she has no experiences that shape her.  She has creation and definition.  Arguing isn’t a part of this relationship, and it suffers from that.  It feels too idealized, too perfect.  She does.

Another thing I reminded myself of watching Her.  The sci-fi bent is merely a backdrop.  There’s a brilliant episode of Black Mirror called “Be Right Back” in which something similar happens.  A woman gets an AI to replace her husband.  It works great until she realizes the commodity never replaces the human, then it becomes a heartless reminder.  Perhaps the sci-fi bent feels so trivial here in retrospect.

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Score: 2/5

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Director/Writer: Spike Jonze Studio: Warner Bros. Run Time: 126 Min.

Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel is the culmination of every technique and signature style that director Wes Anderson has ever used. There are elements of everything including Fantastic Mr. Fox which is shown towards the end of the film with a chase down a mountain between Willem Dafoe’s character and Ralph Fiennes. Just before this though we see the classic looking over the lead character’s shoulder that has appeared in several Anderson film’s like The Royal Tenenbaums. I’m pointing this out first because it’s easy to write this film off as just another Wes Anderson film when it’s the furthest thing from it. It’s not that it’s unrecognizable, but Anderson has grown leaps and bounds from where he was when he directed Moonlight Kingdom. The story’s opening is actually full of deep meaning, but I’m sure most people were probably just confused or annoyed by the four scene opening. The film starts off with a young girl heading into a cemetery and placing a key on a statue labelled “The Writer.” The significance of the key is never explained, but as the girl sits down to read a book the film cuts to “The Writer” who is an older gentleman. He’s breaking the fourth wall as he records something, but is quickly interrupted by his child shooting a toy gun at him. He pushes through as he tells us a story that was told to him. At this point the story cuts to a third opening and we find the writer younger and played by Jude Law.

The writer is now staying at the Grand Budapest Hotel circa 1968. The hotel is not grand looking. What you see on the cover is not this hotel. It is the same make and size, but it lacks the color and luxury of what we see there. Here Law’s character meets the owner of the hotel Mr. Zero Moustafa. Moustafa played by F. Murrary Abraham is an older gentleman who is quite famous. Law’s character ends up having an encounter with him in the bathhouse and Moustafa invites him to dinner to tell him his story.

In our fourth opening we go to the truly grand, Grand Budapest Hotel. Here were’ introduced to the hotel concierge M. Gustave played by Ralph Fiennes. After his eccentric opening in which it becomes clear that he’s slept with a very elderly rich woman, played by Tilda Swinton, we’re introduced to young Zero played by Tony Revolori.

To recap we meet a young girl and cut to an old man; from there we meet his younger counter part who meets the older counterpart to the younger main character. That’s not just clever by the way; it’s actually establishing the history of the story. It’s establishing that this story has been passed down from generations through the novel, but even before that it traveled many years between from the people who lived the adventure. It’s a complex opening and I’m sure some people will watch it and think that Anderson is being clever and nothing more when in actuality he’s taking the viewer on a journey through time. Whether they suspect that its happening is on them, but he’s taking you there either way.

This story is really impossible to sum up in a way that does it justice. Part of it is about the war; part of it is about legacy, class, love, friendship and a sense of belonging. It has drama, comedy, dark comedy and an overall presence of humanity to it both good and bad.

Fiennes’ Gustave finds a kinship in Revolori’s Zero because they come from the same cut. Gustave started as a lobby boy the same way Zero did and neither one of them have a family. In the end and as it is in much of the film, they have each other.

What is significantly different about the story for this film compared to Anderson’s previous tales is the lack of a majestic ending. If you’ve seen a previous Anderson film then you know what I’m referring to, it’s that tremendous feeling that you’re left with after the film. It’s almost melancholy, but there’s enough laughter and joy that you just feel good. That’s not the case here. You don’t leave feeling sad per say, but Anderson’s goal is not to give you the majestic ending that several of his films are known for. All of the characters do not come together to do a long walking march and show that they grew and learned together after going through hell and came out stronger in the end. Instead the ending is based in reality, but one that most people should be able to relate to.

The visuals of course are beautiful and full of Anderson’s style. If there are any other visionaries making films today than they’re hiding their presences because Anderson is standing alone. His attention to detail is incredible and you can see that in just the opening as he cuts from four different eras none of them look anywhere near the other. He is a master at his craft and frankly no other filmmakers are near his level.

For the home release there are plenty of special features and ones that you’ll actually want to watch, but then this is another area in which Anderson always delivers.

If you’re a fan of Wes Anderson then you have already seen this movie, but if you’re not, if you haven’t checked his films out because they’re too different from the Hollywood machine then you’re missing out. The Grand Budapest Hotel in particular is the most accessible film that Anderson has made. It’s also his best and as some would say the most “Wes Andersony” of them all. How it manages to be all three things at once, accessible and yet unfamiliar while still being incredible… well that’s just Anderson’s style I guess.

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Score: 5/5

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Director: Wes Anderson Writers: Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness, inspired by Stefan Zweig Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures, Indian Paintbrush Run Time: 100 Min Release Date: 6/17/14

Review: The Jungle

Written by guest contributor Brian Roe

The third film in director Andrew Traucki’s “Trilogy of Terror”, The Jungle is a fast paced ride that at 84 minutes feels trim and to the point.

Rupert Reid plays Larry Black, a conservationist intent on finding evidence of the rare Javan Leopard. He enlists his brother Ben to film his expedition and they both head off to Indonesia, the camera rolling the whole time. There they meet Budi (Agoes Widjaya Soedjarwo) their Indonesian government contact and Adi (Igusti Budianthika) their tracker. There is a fast friction between Larry and Adi and it keeps even the day-to-day scenes tense.

After visiting a local shaman who gives them warnings that Larry willfully ignores the foursome head off into the vast jungle in search of their great cats. But of course they find much more than they bargained for.

Although Larry is a conservationist who really wants to save the leopard he is also a smug white guy who dismisses any native beliefs as nonsense and keeps pushing himself and his companions into situations that a more rational person would avoid. His ego manifests itself often and it’s this trait that threatens to doom him and his party.

I am one of those people who finds shaky-cam/found footage movies hard to watch. Often the camera movement is merely an excuse to cover up bad cinematography. That is not the case with The Jungle. The camera is controlled and is used to hide as much as it reveals. The constant shift between daylight to nighttime to night-vision view is used effectively. Along with some brilliant sound design the Indonesian jungle is made to feel humid, dangerous, and claustrophobic.

Another interesting technique is the use of Budi and Adi’s conversations in Indonesian to both give information and conceal it. Although Larry professes to know some of the language it is obvious that he can’t keep up with the rapid fire dialogue between his two native companions. Adi especially seems to be deliberately trying to turn the party back and seems to be equally warning and pleading with Budi and Larry to make the sane choice. But of course they won’t.

I was initially shocked by the rating of The Jungle being an “R” for Language. Really? I know that every PG-13 gets one “FUCK” only (say that in Connery’s voice) but honestly this movie doesn’t deserve an R even if the Aussie characters toss “fucks” around like sprinkles on a Homer Simpson donut.

It is frightening and tense but the bloodshed is really minimal and limited to the leftovers from various attacks. This is in no way detrimental to the effect of the movie and it’s actually fun to watch a film that isn’t trying to impress you with gore effects. Especially in an era of crappy CGI gore this was welcome. And the one truly creepy scene in this movie is truly worth the price of admission.

A lot of scenes that could have been drawn out to pointless lengths are trimmed to keep things moving and this results in a film that feels like a well executed commando raid. Get in, achieve the mission, and get out. And in a genre of film that can easily take itself way too seriously, The Jungle makes for a refreshing change.

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Score: 4/5

Director: Andrew Traucki Studio: Lightning Entertaiment, Screen NSW, and Mysterious Light Run Time: 84 mins Price: $19.99 Release Date: 6/24/14