Bridge of Spies– A solid ‘based on true events ‘ Steven Speilberg movie. Tom Hanks plays insurance company lawyer James Donovan in the late 50’s during the Cold War. He’s recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court. The government wants to put on a respectable show to the world that the U.S. following the judicial system while behind the scenes fast tracking the court to a guilty verdict. Donovan stands up for his client as best as he can and due to this, he’s asked to be a negotiator with the Soviets (and Germany sneaks in there) to make a trade for a U.S. U2 spy plane pilot. The man Donovan kept out of the electric chair is the only bargaining chip they have. A testament to Tom Hanks acting chops, the movie rides on his shoulders and it works so well because of him (have to mention Mark Rylance as the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel as well). Visually, I think the lighting design is far and away the most striking element. Not since The Hateful Eight have I admired the careful, sumptuous and subtle storytelling placement of  such a specific and largely underappreciated skill in film production. Also very apparent in this movie is Speilberg’s love of the tracking shot. An enjoyable movie if a little long in runtime.

Paper Towns– Caught this one from a trailer with Me, Earl and the Dying Girl. I like Me more (they’re kinda similar, being about making it through life during high school), but this is a solid movie. Quentin’s life is stirred up by his neighbor Margo and when she skips town and leaves clues behind to find her, Q and his best friends go on a quest to find her. Interesting story with a solid message at the end. I dug the cast too, not a bad way to spend an hour forty.

Kung Fu Panda 3– The Dragon Warrior returns, this time, to fight back an ancient foe that’s found a way out of his spirit realm banishment. I think the KFP movies are a lot of fun and this third sequel checks all the boxes. It’s funny and touching but doesn’t push any story boundaries. You can see the markers of each act and my biggest disappoint is that Po’s brothers (and sisters) in arms are pushed aside almost entirely for this movie. They barely get any dialog let alone screen time. Po’s father, Li takes up much more of that space (thankfully he’s very good). That complaint aside, I found this to be a good movie. DreamWorks Animation has really stepped up their game in recent years, The fight choreography and animation for this franchise has also been great, but the lighting and other special effects like particles, environment destruction/cloth simulation are phenomenal.

Sicario– The drug war has reached a new level on the New Mexico/Mexico border. The violence has pushed farther into the US and a special government task force looks to push back. FBI agents Kate Macer and her partner Reggie Wayne are on the front lines of a drug operation that goes south and reveals some awful new evidence that all the work they’ve been putting in isn’t doing anything. The special task force finds out about these two and brings them in (more Kate than Reggie) to help out. The task force isn’t exactly forthcoming about what they’re doing when they first come calling and oh what a ride it is. Dug this movie a lot. Seems like I don’t see much of Benicio Del Toro these days so it was great to see him strut his stuff in this. Emily Blunt holds it down as Kate and I’m all for watching Josh Brolin act too. This movie gets pretty intense and if you enjoy spec ops/drug war movies, you’re sure to like this.

The Revenant is a hell of a survival movie. Hugh Glass is leading a fur trapping expedition in 1820. It’s the dead of winter and their expedition get’s attacked by Indians (Pawnee I think). Another group of white men (French) attacked their village and kidnapped a woman. Glass and company were in the wrong place at the wrong time as these dudes come crashing through, hell bent on their rescue mission. Glass gets some of his men away and routes them off the river to trek back to base camp by land. This plan doesn’t sit well with John Fitzgerald.  As the group tries to stay ahead of their pursuers, Glass gets mauled by a bear. He’s clinging to life as his group decides to leave him behind. Fitzgerald makes some poor decisions from there and Glass survives the frontier fueled on revenge.

Sitting on a couch, after dinner, in July, in an air conditioned home really puts Glass’ journey into stark contrast. The amount of abuse and horror this guy endures is off the chart. I’m not going to detail the levels of hell he goes through because that’s really the driving force of the film. You need to witness it firsthand to get the full experience. With that in mind, I didn’t have socks on so my feet got really cold. Glass almost freezes to death a dozen times so it made me feel like I was there with him. Almost.

Production wise, this picture is the stuff of legend. It took forever to shoot, the conditions were real and they used all natural light in 99% of the scenes. That’s insane. No one in their right mind would even think of doing that. It did pay off. The Revenant is a stunning production. These amazing landscapes, the phenomenal cast, everything looks so real which adds to the brutality. Director Alejandro Inarritu has a masterful eye. He knows when and where to cut and how far away he needs the camera to be at every moment.  He loves long takes. He puts you right next to Glass in the most intense moments to shove your psyche into Glass’ head to share the experience. Masterful handheld camera work that only adds, it never distracts or confuses. Props to Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki for a large portion of how this film looks. He had probably the most difficult job with this production and its flawless stuff. His resume was already in the stratosphere but this puts him well into legendary filmmaker status.

Finally, Leonardo DiCaprio won the Oscar for Lead Actor for a reason and I’ll leave it at that. My man Tom Hardy puts another worthy notch on his belt as John Fitzgerald. Not sure if anyone could have played him better.

A riveting film that’s not for the faint of heart.

It Follows rode a hype wave when it first hit the film fest scene in 2014. Check out that poster. How ominous looking is that? The movie maintains that tension through almost it’s entire run time.

It Follows is about a young woman who is stalked by a supernatural force after sleeping with a guy.

With that setup, you have the obvious societal implications. It’s a parallel to reality that grounds a social message that some of the best horror movies accomplish.

I loved almost everything on display here. A great opening scene to establish the threat that makes you question what’s going on. The pacing is dead on from there with some gorgeous cinematography and direction. The movie never stops being creepy. Annie is on a normal date with Hugh at the movies, but there’s something a little off about him. Things go well until the sinister switch is flicked on and the horror stays with you as well as Annie.

The visual language of the movie is expertly crafted. One of my favorite things is that the movie is relatively nebulous in its era. Aside from an e-reader like device that one of the girls has, it looks like this takes place anywhere in the 70’s to the early 00’s. You can also practically taste the paranoia through the camera. The Follower (what I named it) can only be seen by the person it’s after so there’s that immediate doubt from those around her that she’s just broken from her experience with Hugh (and he can’t be found by the police because he used a fake name and took off). When the Follower shows up it’s always in really cool and menacing entrances. It comes off not as a physical object, but a force that can’t be stopped, like waves on a beach. Director David Robert Mitchell had the great idea to occasionally plant the camera and slowly turn it to scope out the outdoor surroundings.  It reinforces Annie’s unease and trains you to keep an eye out on the background for the threat in every scene. One of the best cinematic presentations of paranoia I can remember.

The soundtrack is also a killer throwback to 70’s-80’s synth that helps make the movie seem like it’s from a different age of film. It’s the perfect marriage to the visuals.

My only problem is the end, I’m not too sold on it. It’s a “that’s your idea to handle this?” that seems half-baked. I think that’s kind of the point through, I’m not too sure what these kids could have done (and respect to the dude for putting his neck out there). I would have liked to see them do some more research, to maybe figure out where this thing came (some culture or whatever) to come up with a concrete plan of attack. The idea come up with to help Annie is one of those plans that seems good when you think of it, but is so flawed it’s stupid. They find that out the hard way (Annie should have told them that Hugh said the Follower wasn’t ‘stupid’). There’s also a low body count and low gore content, but more of either probably wouldn’t have added much.

It Follows is one of the best horror movies I’ve seen recently, I’d put it right behind The Babadook which is high praise. Check it out.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl– This one will hit you right in the tender parts. Greg (Me in the title) is a high school senior who’s spent his time floating around every click. He struggles to socialize, has the self-confidence of a trout, and has no friends, even though he has one (Earl) who he refers to as his “co-worker.” They’ve known each other since kindergarten and make spoof movies that they share with no one except Greg’s dad. When Rachael, a classmate he’s an “acquaintance” with is diagnosed with cancer, his mother pushes him to hang out with her. Greg has a hard time getting out of his own way, stuck in the perpetual motion of being a self-doubting loner. Through his time with Rachael and Earl, his life is changed. Well written in all regards (deft jumps from comedy to tragedy) with a great cast (RJ Cyler as Earl rules) a ton of movie references and some really striking direction. I like the narration angle they used, smart way to move things along and hold the audience’s hand when necessary. Great movie.

Tomorrowland– Directed by Brad Bird (he’s made some great stuff), this movie got completely crapped on by critics. It did alright in theaters, just making a profit in worldwide total. As a whole, I liked it but it does have it’s problems in the final act (mostly). Essentially it’s a story about hope, the future, and the pushback from pessimism. Frank Walker and Casey Newton are a generation (or two) apart but they both have a brilliant and creative mind that gets them into trouble. Their personality traits put them on a collision course to help a far off land in ways that stretch the imagination. I thought George Clooney was great in this and Britt Robertson made for the perfect partner. This movie is stuffed with special effects that make for some really wild scenes. The whole segment at Frank’s house is a blast. There’s a ton of cool future tech like androids, laser blasters, rocket packs, and vehicles. The movie starts a little slow, picks up for the middle and then gets real rocky for the third act. The movie stumbles over itself with convoluted ideas and explanations (Nix is a crap character) that make it hard to follow. I thought the end was satisfying with a good message so that saved it for me.

Focus– An interesting movie that’s got a really long set up. Nicky is a con-man on the professional level. He meets Jess when she tries to con him, not knowing his expertise. They hook up, she becoming his protege. They work New Orleans during the Super Bowl and then when Nicky gets cold feet about them having a lasting relationship, he cuts her loose. Then, three years later he runs into her while doing another job. Is she still in the game and running a con or did she leave the game? A lot is on the line…can they trust each other? If you’re a fan of Will Smith, I think you’d like this for sure. He’s got his charm cranked to the max as Nicky. I love Margot Robbie and she’s got great chemistry with Smith so they make this work. Not an incredible movie but I think it’s a fun movie worth watching. Great for a rainy day.

The Peanuts Movie– a.k.a. Charlie Brown gets a crush. Really simple movie where Charlie Brown tries to talk to the new girl in town and Snoopy writes a story/hallucinates saving his crush from the Red Baron  (weird way to put action into a Charlie Brown movie and it totally pads the movie to get it to  feature length runtime). The highlight is the animation. They found the perfect way to update Peanuts with modern CG animation technology while keeping the classic aesthetic. The texture is understated but beautiful that adds a lot of depth to the characters and sets. I was surprised at how much of a bummer this was until the very end. Charlie Brown is straight up cursed. The entire world is against him to the point where the laws of physics change to screw him over. The kid is a nervous mess and can’t catch a break. Congrats on not being on any meds for depression Charlie Brown.

Fantastic Four (2015)- The behind the scenes chaos is probably more well known than the actual movie. The studio was so unhappy with the movie they basically took it away from director Josh Trank during editing (lots of rumors about him being difficult while shooting). There’s nothing terribly redeeming about what I saw (good cast). The story is bizarrely simple, to the point where you can tell a ton of stuff must have been taken out and the bare essentials stitched together to make something cohesive. It’s a (boring) superhero origin movie for a series that doesn’t need another origin story and it’s shot really dark for some reason. There’s very little action. The villain, Dr. Doom, is barely in it and he shows up at the very end simply to be evil. Right around release, Trank said that there’s an edit of a very good FF movie (his), but no one is going to see it (because of the studio). I’d love to see it because I want to see what the studio was so unhappy with that they went ahead and released it the way they did. Was it just too weird or controversial? Bad acting? Too many poorly shot scenes? I hope someone digs up the truth in a few years. This has essentially killed FF movies, it’ll take Marvel to get them back and integrate the family into the ongoing MCU.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is my favorite Marvel movie and Civil War looked to be the one to unseat it. While I think it’ll take some more time and a few more viewings to make that definitive decision, it’s hard to come out of this movie without a smile on your face.

A lot of smart choices were made for Civil War. They tweaked the set up from the comic book to fit what’s been happening in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and made all the right character moves to make the split amongst the Avengers understandable. Much of what didn’t work in Batman v Superman works in this (there are a lot of similar themes in both films).

There are a ton of characters in this movie and they all get their moment to shine. That’s probably the most impressive part of the movie. We get every on screen Avenger aside from Thor and Hulk along with a few new comers. Black Panther, a character that I think very few people knew before this, gets an amazing introduction and story arc. Chadwick Boseman is perfect and this is going to send his career into the stratosphere. He’s my favorite addition (and it sounds like that’s a constant remark from others I’ve heard/read) to the franchise and the stage is set for him to take off in his own movie in a few years. Ant-Man and Spiderman get fun extended cameos and I even liked seeing Hawkeye! They found a great use for him!

There are so many great moments it’s hard to think of them all. While the crux of the movie is very serious, they also bring funny character bits and interactions to ease up on the gas peddle from time to time. It’s all held together by a terrific cast who showed up to give this movie their all. RDJ and Chris Evans lead this movie and their work in every scene (especially with each other) is commendable. Really well written, there is some fantastic dialog that elevates many scenes to greatness (Stark at the Parker apartment is a great example).

Along with the great acting, we get some of the best action sequences in the entire Marvel catalog. There are many of them, all with different settings, varied match-ups, and ridiculous destruction. The big fight at the airport will be talked about for years to come.

The complaints I do have are more or less nitpicks. Vision disappears for most of the airport fight to the point where it’s almost like the writers forgot they had him there at the start.

The villain of the movie, Zemo, isn’t much of one (in terms of evil doing anyway). He has little on-screen presence and is more or less just a guy that pops up. He’s another boring MCU villain (one of the biggest knocks against Marvel since they started this in 2008). He concocts a convoluted plan to tear apart the Avengers from the inside that requires a lot of coincidences to make his plan work. They smartly rationalize his plan as he does say he knows he’d never be able to exact his revenge on these guys head on (he’s got a fantastic scene with Black Panther that brings everything to a really satisfying conclusion). His motivation makes sense and they do enough legwork to make it believable. The divine intervention angle is easier to accept (for me anyway) considering that Joker’s plan(s) in The Dark Knight requires just as much sheer luck (if not more) to work as well and that movie rules. It’s also a nice change of pace that Zemo’s plan wasn’t an end of the world doomsday scenario. Making it smaller in scope (while still maintaining the action) and personal was really smart. It’s a great counter step to the events of Avengers 2 (I really liked how they say the floating island rescue was far from successful. The general consensus was that the scene was a direct response to the destruction in Man of Steel. The admission that the Avengers aren’t perfect is humanizing and more believable).

The movie is also a little bit long. Spiderman and Ant-Man aren’t necessary to the movie. You could take them out of the fight and the movie would still work. Plus, Tony Stark bringing in a (literal) kid to fight with him makes his argument for the Sokovia Accords hypocritical. Considering Tony Stark causes just about every problem, that’s not too shocking. But the way Spiderman and Ant-Man are used (and introduced) is fantastic. They are both really entertaining so it’s hard to make this a valid complaint. The movie is otherwise really well paced, there’s no wasted time.

While I hoped they’d take the damage to the team further, the ending does indicate big changes for the future which I think is needed to keep things interesting. Everything that doesn’t “work” on the surface is followed through so well that it diminishes those complaints to little more than a shoulder shrug. Years of planning converged in Civil War and it’s an impressive feat. Congrats to everyone involved in making this come to life.

Deadpool– In development and then shelved for years by Fox, Deadpool is vindication for Ryan Reynolds. He’s been in a string of underperforming movies and Deadpool was the pet project he couldn’t get made. So the tide turns and this goes on to make an  insane amount of money. Deadpool is a largely unknown Marvel character, but his fan base loves him to death. A smartly made movie because they keep it very simple. Who is Deadpool? He’s a wise-ass named Wade Wilson who got screwed over by a jerk named Axel. They mixed a love story with a tale of revenge and glued it all together with cursing, comedy, and violence. Turns the superhero genre on its ear and the people have rejoiced. Bonus points for getting Colossus done perfectly on screen after all of these years.

The Big Short– This is a huge transition for writer/director Adam McKay and it’s great. He’s known exclusively for comedies, so taking a crack at the credit and housing bubble crisis of 2008 is surprising. It’s framed really well and explains everything in a breaking the fourth wall manner that’s funny and appreciated. Really creative way to present the subject of four individuals figuring out how to play in the house of cards before everything came crashing down. Ultimately a sad and aggravating story, it’s a movie to watch, especially if you don’t know how the banks punched the entire world in the brown eye and skipped away laughing.

The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Part 2– Pretty good ending to this series, liked it more than I thought I would. It’s a gnarly war movie when all is said and done. Wraps everything up well and is a definitive end for Katniss Everdeen. There’s some great set pieces that use the Hunger Game traps in new ways and they don’t pull punches, this movie is dark right up to the end. Smart pacing with breaks from the action that give you great character moments and messages. The only movie I didn’t like from this series was the second one as it just a retelling of the first.

The 5th Wave– You got a problem on your hands when your movie is unintentionally funny. It’s a rote young adult novel with a “twist” that is dead serious in tone but had me cracking up. About as cliche as you can get, skip this one for sure.

Zootopia– What a great animated movie! This thing is gorgeous and I didn’t hear about it until it came out so it was a total surprise for me. Set in a city of anthropomorphic animals, Judy Hopps (rookie cop rabbit) and Nick Wilde (con artist fox) stumble upon a massive conspiracy and the two unlikely animals to pair up have to work together to figure it out. The Disney crew that made Big Hero 6 made this and it’s a major triumph. Great for kids and adults.

Legend– I wanted to see this solely because Tom Hardy plays the lead brothers of the movie. He’s fantastic (as usual) but I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would and I’m not sure why.  In London in the 1960’s, identical twin gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray were a brutal force to be reckoned with. They messed up and paid off a ton of people to build their empire. Maybe I didn’t like it because it’s so effective at being such a downer.  While both brothers are dangerous, Ronnie comes off as really unsettling right from the beginning, he’s a certified nutter. Reggie is a thug, but he’s much more likeable and easier to relate to. Then the movie goes along and you see the monster in him. He’s no better than Reggie. Props to Tom Hardy for playing these two so convincingly different that I forgot they were the same actor (and congrats on the SFX on making it look so convincing). I think Frances’ story got to me in the end. It is so sad and she narrates the movie so it feels as much her story as it does the twins. The last 20 minutes or so are brutal. The more I think about it, the more I realize I liked it. Really effective filmmaking.

Creed turned out better than I think everyone on the outside of production thought it would. It’s got the three staples of a great film present and accounted for.

A great script. Brilliant concept and writing to further the best Rocky films. Adonis Johnson is the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed, one-time foe and eternal friend of Rocky. Apollo cheated on his wife with Adonis’ mother and after his death, at the hands of Drago in Rocky IV, Apollo’s wife finds Adonis in foster care and adopts him. Adonis grows up with guidance but only knows his father through his legacy. Now in his mid-twenties, we see that boxing is in his blood. He explores the sport by teaching himself,  but  he still feels aimless and incomplete. Looking to fill the void he feels, he moves cross-country to find Rocky, to learn from the only other person who truly knew his father. Creed is the story of Rocky coming full circle in his boxing career, to help the boy of his friend come out of the shadows and be his own man. The setup works and the execution does too. Each beat of Adonis’ journey is an important one and brings back the feelings that made everyone fall in love with Rocky almost 40 years ago.

The actors that make it work. Michael B. Jordan is a hell of an actor. He’s bopped around TV for some time (he’s in The Wire!) and I think he first got the biggest movie attention from his role in Chronicle. The following year he blew people away in Fruitvale Station. You give this guy the material and he’ll do it justice. He’s fantastic as Adonis, he’s a joy to watch transform on screen and completely believable as a boxer. Sylvester Stallone gets to remind everyone again of how great an actor he is. Nearly 70 years old, Rocky stepping into the ring doesn’t make sense. Seeing him come out of retirement (he owns a restaurant), persuaded by Adonis to actually enter a boxing gym and then train him (another smart thing, Rocky sets him up with a team, he doesn’t do it all himself) and share his life is really touching. They go through a lot together and the difference in their age goes beyond the amount of wrinkles on a face; it’s experience, overcoming, and understanding. This story is so much more satisfying than rebooting Rocky with a new guy in the role. There’s only one Rock and that’s Sly Stallone.

The direction. A good looking movie in every regard, director Ryan Coogler knows how to set up a scene and get out of the way when necessary. Then, when the action comes, he brings a deft hand to some phenomenal boxing scenes. It’s thrilling, real (even if it is exaggerated, the final fight shows endurance that isn’t possible) and never confusing. He even pulls off a “spin around the actors” moment that usually makes me mad. It almost always looks bad, forced and pointless, but Coogler does it just right.

I’m all for a direct sequel if the whole team stays together to make it. Coogler’s got a big gig with Marvel next, so if the writers come together in the next year, he’d probably be replaced.

Screened at the Beverly Hills Film Festival on April 9th, 2016

Full disclosure: I’m friends with director/co-writer Jeremy Profe

Personally, I’ve never looked into John Lennon’s death in any detail. I knew the basics that he was shot in NYC in the early 80’s and that he was pronounced dead at the hospital. So it was with great interest that I sat down to watch The Lennon Report. As this is about one of the most beloved people in music, the filmmakers had a delicate line to walk. How would they handle this and what would the message be?

The story told here, is of the men and women who tried to save Lennon’s life. The police who responded to the emergency call discovered who he was and brought him to the hospital in a squad car because the ambulance was taking too long to get to them. At the hospital, no one knew who had been brought in, just that this man was shot multiple times and desperately needed their help. Who was on the table had no effect on their methods and dedication, they did their absolute best to save a life.

The movie is well paced at 90 minutes thanks to smart dialog and careful editing that knows when to hold beats and when to move on. At the beginning it’s all about how two people get to the hospital: Lennon and Alan Weiss. At first, you wonder why the interest in Weiss, who works for ABC Channel 7 Eyewitness News. In what amounts to kismet, Weiss is put into Lennon’s sphere and breaks the news to the world that Lennon was murdered. The film appropriately moves about from Weiss, the doctors, the security of the hospital and the intensely personal tragedy that Yoko Ono went through that night.

I don’t know the budget of this indie movie, but I can tell that all of it ended up on screen. It’s fantastic looking and Jeremy Profe has a terrific eye behind the camera. Really well shot, I was surprised at the amount of single take set ups. Difficult to do but incredibly engaging when done correctly, their hard work paid off. A very small and intimate movie (there are very few locations), I was also impressed by the lighting work that added a great sense of focal depth and realism to each scene.

The cast is full of great up and comers as well as a few more notable highlights (Richard Kind, David Zayas, and Evan Jonigkeit). My main focus was on my two favorites: Walter Vincent as Alan Weiss and Karen Tse Lee as Yoko Ono. Vincent is terrific and believable, going from a funny thorn-in-the-side of his boss to a passionate, if not grating reporter to those working in the hospital. While Vincent’s acting resume may not be extensive right now, his work here indicates that he’s going to make waves from here on out. I’m going to keep my out for him. Lee has quite a few TV credits to her name and she blew me away with this performance. As Yoko Ono, she’s the voice that John no longer had. Away from being a celebrity that the entire world knew, he was a husband and father. Lee brings out an astonishing and a much-needed level of humanity in each of her scenes. Everyone else in this movie knew who John was, and is shocked by the events of the night, but they didn’t know who John is. Her whole night is a steady decline of horror and mourning and Lee nails every part of it. From the hope that her love is going to be OK, to her reaching out to a friend for help and comfort, to the ultimate loss and then concern for her son. I have a hard time describing the masterful work she does, you need to see it. Amazing casting find, these scenes could have ended up much differently with another actress.

With all the positive, I can think of two things that bothered me. The first is the soundtrack which I felt was often too loud in the mix, making it dominate a scene. and too literal. There’s no nuance to the music, it doesn’t guide you but tells you ‘this is how you feel right now’. Second, there is a scene near the end in a locker room with Barbara (Stef Dawson) and Dr. David Halleran (Evan Jonigkeit) that doesn’t work well. It’s a very important moment and the tone of the scene feels off as does the chemistry between the actors (it’s also my least favorite in terms of direction). In a film that’s so well done, it’s an odd moment that comes off as if it was pulled out of a daytime soap opera. In talking with Profe after the movie, he told me it was shot on the second day of filming so his two principle actors had no time working together prior to this very difficult scene (the production was shot in about 3 weeks). That explains why it felt off and hey, that’s the monster of film. You do your absolute best every day and work with what you got.

The Lennon Report is a terrific movie and a very promising launch to many new players in the industry. Careful and thoughtful consideration was given to the subject matter and to all of those involved in the actual event. Really well written, performed, and produced, the end product is one that can be held up proudly to  audiences.

This is a tough one. I’m a mark for Batman and was anxious to see this from the moment it was announced. I don’t agree with the brutal reviews, but it’s undeniable that a lot of weird choices were made to get Batman and Superman to fight. I enjoyed myself, but Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice could have and should have been much better. Spoilers all over the place.

I like Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne and Batman. I wasn’t up in arms when he was cast I think he’s one of the better ones we’ve had on screen. He fits both personas and this Batman is the fighter we’ve always wanted to see on film. The Arkham games come to life and all of his costumes look spot on. Most of his motivations work with Batman lore and follow many established stories (Batman has plans for every Justice League member in case they break bad. He trusts no one, it’s what he does). He kills a bunch of people, though. I can wave away throwing people into walls by saying “He’ll get out of a hospital eventually.” But when he guns down people in the Batplane? He should be firing smoke/gas canisters, not bullets. That car he dragged around and used as a projectile? They’re all dead. Change that so he just disables the cars out of the chase. It’s set up that he’s at wits end for going out as Batman every night for 20 years but it comes off as him being lazy. Batman doesn’t get lazy.

Superman isn’t Superman enough. I understand him at the start. His depression and being upset that his actions cause people to fear him. But he still goes out and helps everyone he can. For some reason, that emotion somehow gets rolled into anger on screen. He glowers a lot. That’s Batman’s thing, not Superman’s. He straight up threatens Batman and that justifies Batman to try and take him down. It’s heavy handed, weird and a shortcut on the writers part. There’s a lot of needless edges to the dialog, where there is any. That’s one of the major problems, there’s too much silent mean mugging going on. This sounds like a section from the D.A.R.E handbook, but Superman needed to take the ultimate high road with Batman and just refuse to fight him and explain what was going on. He clearly manhandles Batman so why not just hold him down and talk to him (I know why, the rest of the movie would have to be basically rewritten)? When he meets Batman at the Batsignal, he opens up to talk Batman down but gets annoyed (reads as angry) when he’s forced to defend himself from Batman’s first wave of offense. It’s a forced fight.

For the most part, I like Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. I’ve never been a hardcore fan of the character, but I like the general ideas and he does some downright devious stuff to get what he wants. As the general theme of this movie, not all of it is handled well. Not enough is given to his ego, jealousy, and motivation. His exposition when he talks to other characters gets into rough, overwritten and clumsy territory. In an effort to make Lex seem smart and witty, the writers came up with many esoteric lines that don’t work and are just confusing. It’s like Dennis Miller got a crack at the script for some reason. When he loses his train of thought and rambles like a nutter should have been taken out, that’s not Lex either.

Wonder Woman, on the other hand, they landed with both feet squarely on the ground. Love Gal Gadot in every scene she’s in, I wish there was more of her. She needs to talk to Batman and Superman way more! She’s amazing in action. Her entrance in battle got cheers from the audience and seeing her smile as she got back up after getting knocked down was perfect. I’m looking forward to her solo movie now.

Doomsday looked a lot better in the final film than the trailers. That whole sequence was a ton of fun. I don’t mind the ending and I really dug seeing the silver S, it’s a nice reference.

The way it stands BvS could use some simplification to bolster the best parts.  The easiest thing to do is to streamline the first act to cut down on the jumping around. We don’t need to see the Wayne’s get killed. It’s done, everyone knows Batman’s motivation. Dump the dreams and premonitions too, they add nothing and are confusing jumps out of the story we should be focusing on.  Tossing those dreams also means that time travel Flash in the Batcave can work better. Timing the appearance right after Bruce wakes up from a nightmare (or does he?) makes it look like another dream and you don’t know what you’re supposed to take away from it.

The moment that bonds Batman and Superman to work together doesn’t work right. The dialog just needs to be reworked (I keep coming back to this motif, don’t I?). Instead of the name “Martha” getting Bruce’s (confused) attention, doesn’t it make more sense for the downed Man of Steel to directly appeal to Bruce with “You are going to let Lex  kill my mother”? I think that’s a more elegant way to get Bruce to stop and listen.

There are big logic jumps for characters in the last act, many of which seemed like parts were edited out. Lois does things to help out that she has no way of knowing she would need to do. Lex’s less dialog does a hardcore reference to Darkseid that most people will not get. I only knew the reference because I saw an extended scene of Lex in the spaceship that was cut online. Cutting that earlier stuff could have meant having the time to leave that in. There are a lot of plot details that rely on hardcore DC comic knowledge to understand. That adds to the confusion.

Let’s lighten things up too while we’re at it. Ma Kent’s line, “I thought so. It’s the cape.” That’s great! More of that!

As much as Nolan’s movies lifted from The Dark Knight Returns, BvS went whole hog and it’s worse because of it. It uses the results of that book without the correct set up so those major themes don’t work right. An original idea could have worked much better. This should have been Batman/Superman not BvS.

As messy as it is, I did like quite a bit of this. I liked it more than Dark Knight Rises which had more than a few ponderous decisions in it.  Despite the dark pallet, a lot of this movie looks fantastic. I don’t understand why they put a dark filter over all the day scenes but that’s what they did. There are some striking comic book panels captured to film and Zack Snyder didn’t go overboard with the CG. I dig the main character themes (WW’s is amazing) by Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL too.  Sure there’s wasted potential here, but there’s a lot set up by the end that I’m looking forward to. I liked seeing the introduction of the Justice League members and I’m optimistic they’ll get those solo movies right. Make these characters live and work together like they do on the page and these DC movies will take flight.

The poster above is perfect for this movie. It makes complete sense after you’ve watched it. I consider myself a casual fan of Quentin Tarantino, I can live without most of his material and completely dig a few of his others. The Hateful Eight gets added to the dig pile.

It’s not long after the Civil War and it’s the dead of winter in Wyoming. A bounty hunter, John Ruth, is traveling with a catch, Daisy Domergue, to Red Rocks to claim his reward. En route he picks up two stranded men (another bounty hunter and the new sheriff of Red Rocks) and they have to take shelter in a cabin to make it through a blizzard. When the travelers get there, they meet and must withstand a few suspicious characters.

Because this is a QT picture, you can expect a few things: memorable characters (played by many returning actors that QT loves), a ton of dialog (180-minute runtime), a killer soundtrack, a whole lotta mayhem and even more cursing. This move thrives entirely by its cast.

While the entire cast if fantastic, the showstoppers for me are Jennifer Jason Leigh (Daisy Domergue, love this name!) and Walton Goggins (Chris Mannix). JJL is absolutely amazing, she might be remembered most for this role from here on out. Transformative is the only word I can think of. She’s unrecognizable as this hell raiser. Just her facial expressions during the carriage ride at the beginning should have won her an Acadamy Award. A lot of credit to Kurt Russell (John Ruth) too as they work off each other a lot and have a symbiosis that’s only matched later by Goggins and Sam L. Jackson. Walton Goggins knocked my socks off every week in Justified and it’s clear that QT was too because he’s perfectly cast for this role. The way he delivers lines is just something else. I can’t describe how well he works on screen, you just have to see it.

QT and his DP went nuts on this movie as it’s a real looker. Much was made about filming on 70mm and the biggest takeaway from that is how wide the frame is. As most of the movie takes place in the cabin, QT gets a huge amount of the set in one frame and he works his blocking around it. He fits a lot of important things in the entire frame, but it also remains very spartan looking at the same time (the lighting work in this movie is incredible, it’s like a character itself). There’s usually big spacing between characters and he’ll move the camera a bit to the left or right for reveals and he uses the depth of the set to great effect as well. I can think of two scenes that use some ingenious rack focusing to wordlessly tell a plot and build suspense. The camera may be stationary, but the scene and story move as the focus changes back and forth from someone in the background to someone in the foreground. Brilliant stuff.

I thought the first 20 minutes was a little slow while the last hour flew by. I’m not sure how well this will hold up to repeated viewings, but it’s a hell of a ride. It really took me by surprise. I loved how it went from a travel movie into a claustrophobic whodunnit. I was also not expecting that I was going to laugh like a maniac. The characters and what they do are absolutely nuts. So much caught me off guard that it made me scream in delight. Just about everything Marquis Warren does is epic, the trash talking that Daisy does, Mannix’s reactions and with crack with every single line. I can’t recall a movie I’ve seen recently with such unique, defined and enthralling collection of characters.

Be forewarned! This picture gets intense! There is some intense violence and QT rolls around in the blood once it’s on the ground. I think this is a love it or hate it movie, but I for one loved it.

Johnny Depp really struts his stuff in this one. As notorious mobster. James “Whitey” Bulger, Depp runs with the devil (and a few hours worth of top notch prosthetic make up). Whitey came up as a small-town criminal in South Boston in the 70’s and with the help of the FBI, became one of the most dangerous men in American organized crime well into the 90’s. That line about the FBI is what makes this story so interesting. While the extent of how far up the chain the FBI knew about how John Connelly was handling his “informant,” Whitey paid off a ton of people to let him do his thing. It wasn’t until Whitey’s dealings got too big for him to wrangle that made everything collapse in on him, forcing him to run for almost two decades.

Black Mass has a lot going for it (great cast) and if you dig mob stories, this one is for you. Pretty rough in the cursing and violence department.

Why does something like Spotlight have to exist? The 2001-2002 story of The Boston Globe doing an expose on the rampant pedophile coverup of the Catholic Archdiocese going back to the 60’s. Over the years, events would come to light about a priest molesting children in their congregation. These “bad apples” were said to be nothing more than anomalies, would be appropriately handled and don’t represent the Catholic Church. The offender would disappear and everyone would move on.

But the offender wouldn’t disappear. They were moved to another church in direct contact with children, free to attack again. When they got found out, the church would settle things with the family privately (i.e. out of court) and the monster would be moved again.

What started out as 1 repeated name quickly turned into 4…then 13…then 87. Through diligent and expert investigative reporting, the men and woman of “The Spotlight” section of The Boston Globe blew the doors off a horrific worldwide epidemic that was known and hidden by a shocking amount of people. Evil was allowed to not only fester, but grow in an institution that is supposed to be sacred and represent the best of humanity. It’s completely nuts how these monsters weren’t reported to the police the moment it was reported. Let this nugget really blow your mind:. a few months after this blew up publicly, Cardinal Bernard Francis Law, the man central to the cover-up of hundreds of ruined lives and the protection of dozens of maniacs, resigned as the Archbishop of Boston in December 2002. Two years later, this man who you can really trust,  was given a promotion by Pope John Paul II to become the Archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in 2004. He retired at the age of 80 in 2011. Ugh.

This is some mindboggling stuff. Everyone agrees that 1) Rape is heinous and 2) so is pedophilia. So how the hell does stuff like this get let go? Stamp it out the second it appears. Everyone wins! Many rational human beings knew this was happening and let it go buy them with a pat on the back. Some jerk in a fancy smock is going to feel awkward about explaining what’s going on so let’s not bring it up? Preach against the devil but you got demons running around your own house and think it’s OK?

Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention, the movie is good.

Full disclosure: I’m a big Guillermo del Toro fan, he’s one of my favorite directors. I’m biased towards whatever he has a hand in, I like his quirks and indulgences.

Crimson Peak is a place that should be swallowed by the ground it was built on to bury all the horrors that it holds. As awful as the place is, it makes a great setting for a fun, gothic horror movie with crazy characters and eye-popping visuals.

Edith Cushing, an inspiring author and only daughter of the wealthy businessman, Carter Cushing, comes to a crossroads after a terrible accident. Seeing little to keep her home, she’s whisked away to England by a charming and mysterious man she barely knows. This quick courtship lands Edith on the doorstep of her new husband’s estate where his sister also lives. Ignoring the warning signs, Edith has been led into a damned relationship.

I’ll start with the good. As with all of GdT’s films, Crimson Peak is a gorgeous movie. A wild color palette that changes from mood to mood, sumptuous costumes, striking production designs in props and sets, and ghastly creature designs with expertly integrated special effects. A great cast brings each character to beautiful and tragic life (I didn’t recognize Jessica Chastain until I saw her name in the credits. Lucille is a Grade A nutter).

The problem, I think, is in the pacing and story structure at the start. A runtime of an hour and 50 minutes, it takes 40 of those minutes to get to the Crimson Peak estate where the movie hits its gothic stride. While Edith is kept in the dark until it’s too late, the audience isn’t so a lot of tension and suspense never materializes.

Crimson Peak is framed as a story told to us by Edith. It starts with her as a child when the ghost of her mother visits her and delivers a cryptic warning. Then, when a man named Thomas Sharpe comes into Edith’s world years later, she’s visited again and given the same warning. These visits, especially the first one, inspire her to write which builds her a backstory and purpose as a character, but as a plot device ends up being easily ignored. I think that set up, as cool and creepy as it comes across on screen, tips off the audience too much (and the first visit is something like a decade from the danger coming. That’s some time to give a warning that no on would ever be able to figure out. Ghost Mom is psychic I guess). Plus, the foreshadowing goes completely overboard when the Sharpe siblings are introduced. It’s clear to anyone watching that they are trouble. Thomas is good at wearing a mask in public but forget Lucille. Sure the crazy details of their secrets are kept close to the chest and make for great scenes in the last act, but it ends up feeling like there is nothing to figure out as you watch.

That said, the beginning is good, I do like a lot of it. It works to complete the narrative, flushes out the characters and there are more than a few beautiful shots (this is a GdT film). It just slows down the movie so much. I think a 5-8 minute cut to the first act could have changed the pacing and the story arc for the better.

I like Crimson Peak but found many early decisions weighed down the movie in disappointing ways. It’s not nearly as spooky or as scary as I thought it would be (and should be) and that’s a shame. While expertly cast (Mia Wasikowska and Tom Hiddleston have great chemistry), I think the editing robbed a lot of power and potential from del Toro’s latest.