The whole theatre burst into spontaneous cheers several times, and the whole theatre completely went silent - people literally stopped chewing their popcorn - on numerous occasions.
Like you've probably already heard, the movie REALLY is a phenomenal throwback to the original trilogy, with an extra oomph and insane amounts of creativity and new found inspiration that will take the franchise to a whole new level.
The characters are three-dimensional, it's nowhere near as strictly black and white, good vs. evil like in most of the previous movies, and Adam Driver as Kylo Ren is the best example of that. Hands down, the best villian to appear in the Star Wars franchise other than Darth Vader.
Daisy Ridley & John Boyega are thrilling to watch, the old cast members, popping in during the movie were just as fun to watch.
J.J. Abrams and the writers somehow managed to create a plot that was very confined in space and time, yet they effortlessly captured the grand universe that is Star Wars with some pretty great throwbacks to the old trilogy plot-wise. Some might argue that it's lack of creativity and unnecessary repetition, but I thought it was a wonderful homage. It flowed naturally and there really was no dull moment.
Absolutely phenomenal. :)
7.5/10. Dan Harmon, creator of Community is known for several things -- his trademark bottle of vodka, his tendency to spill his guts to audiences full of strangers, but also his story circle. The story circle is a device that Harmon uses as a blueprint for nearly any story he writes or supervises. It offers a series of steps to telling a story: 1. A character is in a zone of comfort; 2. But they want something; 3. They enter an unfamiliar situation; 4. Adapt to it; 5. Get what they wanted; 6. Pay a heavy price for it; 7. Then return to their familiar situation; 8. Having changed.
Brooklyn is basically Story Circle: The Movie. Eilis may not have the best life in Ireland, but she is comfortable there. But she hopes and wants for a better life than she can expect to have in the Emerald Isle. So she moves to Brooklyn, a situation whose unfamiliarity is hammered home from the first Irish immigrant she meets on the boat, to her fellow boarders who snip at her a bit, but also guide her through her new surroundings. She slowly but surely grows accustomed to her new home, with its different social mores and customs. She eventually has a good job, a future in accounting, a boyfriend, and the good life her sister wanted for her when she helped send Eilis to America. But just as she grows comfortable in that new life, she pays the price not being able to be home for her sister's funeral or to comfort her mother in person. Eventually, she's able to return home, but as the film makes clear in its third act, she is much different person now then when she left it.
That's not meant to be a criticism of the film. That type of adherence to story structure does lead to a film that feels conventional, and in truth Brooklyn is a feel-good story that is as interested in a film experience that feels like slipping into a warm bath as it is in proceeding through its simple-but-sweet coming of age tale. The notes are familiar, but the melody is beautiful, and the audience goes home happy.
At one point, Eilis offers her beau, Tony, an adjective to describe herself -- amenable. And it's the perfect way to describe Brooklyn It's a very amenable film, happy to lean into the soft hues of the past to tell a love story, and immigrant story, and a bildungsroman, in gentle tones that provoke smiles and sighs as Eilis finds happiness, love, and fulfillment despite her initial reservations and homesickness.
If I have a criticism, its that Eilis's journey is almost too successful. For all the accusations of unrealistic perfection leveled at Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Eilis is a paragon of good fortune throughout Brooklyn. Nearly everyone she meets in Ireland and in Brooklyn short of the prickly Miss Kelly likes her and helps her to feel more comfortable in whatever her current surroundings are. To boot, she becomes successful at nearly whatever she sets her mind to, from working at the department story, to courting, to her burgeoning skills as a bookkeeper.
But that's not to say Eilis does not face challenges in the film. Hers are challenges of conscience rather than the standard plot obstacles we expect our cinematic protagonists to leap over. The crux of the film is Eilis returning to the land that she thought had nothing there for her, and finding that she was wrong, that there is good work, and friendship, and family, and a nice boy with a good future. Suddenly, the life she forged across the pond, the one with her husband, and her studies, and seems distant, something that unexpectedly has to compete with the renewed comforts of home. The choice the film stakes out -- whether to take the stronger, more confident persona Eilis has built back to Ireland and start a life there better than any she hoped to be able to enjoy, or return to the place that made her into that stronger person with the man she pledged her love to.
The problem is that as well as the film sets up that choice, and lays out compelling elements on both sides of the equation, it glosses over the conclusion in a somewhat unsatisfying fashion. While the touch of Miss Kelly's would-be blackmail is nice, it seems abrupt that after all the time the film spends setting up Eilis's hometown as somewhere that Eilis has a place and could be happy, one harsh woman is enough to send her back to New York. There's subtext about an iron fist hiding beneath the velvet glove that's been offered to Eilis since she returned to Enniscorthy, but it's hard to see it anyone besides Miss Kelly, with everyone else in the town seeming a bit pushy and presumptive, but also genuinely enamored with the young Ms. Lacey. Her confession to her mother is a quietly powerful scene, and the breakup letter she gives to her Irish beau feels like too easy way to resolve that relationship, but more than anything, it just feels odd that one mean old crow is all it takes to convince Eilis that she could never have a life in a place that, despite the vows she's tried so hard to put out of her mind, seemed to welcome her with open arms.
Still, the scene where Tony finds Eilis waiting for him and the pair embrace is a sweet moment, even if it doesn't feel totally earned given what motivated Eilis to come to that point. But it's a lovely image in a film full of them. Brooklyn is awash in muted pastels and primary colors, that give the past a gauzy hue that catches the eye and conveys the sense of a sweeter, simpler time. It's also a supremely well-shot film, that shoots Eilis and Jim Farrell at the beach having a conversation with their romantic companions framed in between them in the distance, conveying the subtext of the exchange. It's also a film keen to use subtle touches to show changes in Eilis's mood or perspective, from the simple act of wearing her bathing suit under her clothes that impresses her friends back home, to the letters she shoves in a drawer to signify the way in which she's putting Brooklyn out of her mind. None of these techniques is so subtle that the viewer will miss them, but the film takes the old admonition "show don't tell" to heart, and succeeds well with that principle in mind.
In the end, Brooklyn is a fairly simple story. Girl leaves home. Girl makes a new life with success and romance. Girl returns home, seeing the beauty of what she left behind and has to choose her new life or her old one. But the film's pleasures come from the sweet stillness of the moments in between, of the temping worlds the film creates on either side of Eilis, in the recognizable steps of maturation, of change, that Eilis goes through as she moves past her homesickness, past her reticence, and eventually, past the girl she used to be. Brooklyn is an aggressively amiable film, that breaks little new ground, but covers the familiar territory with such a pleasant, charming air, that it can be forgiven for making few new steps.
Shockingly awful. There was no reason for this to be as bad as it was. This is another one of those films, like The Banana Splits Movie that uses one of the unused/scrapped scripts thrown out by Scott Cawthon as he works on his Five Nights At Freddy's movie. Studios see some potential in the scripts and just change around the aesthetic to adapt it. Nicolas Cage has a producing credit on this and I don't know why. What a shithead move to not have him speak the entire movie. If they were going for a Man With No Name approach, he should have a couple lines, really killer ones. The idea he says nothing is a comically ridiculous waste. There's no reason for him to be there then. Go Doomslayer if you want the silent killer. Give him a scarf over his mug and cowboy hat, it would complete his look, and then Cage wouldn't require a big check. None of the characters are memorable, recognizable, have any attachment to the story, or warrant the screen time they're given. Characters don't play to any specific strengths or weaknesses. Their names are spoken one or two times, none of them add to the world building or have connections to this restaurant. Any characters that have a chance of redemption are killed on the spot without a second glance, making their place in the script meaningless. Even the sympathetic sheriff groomed by the head sheriff doesn't get his moment to shine, he's unceremoniously killed in a lame, unrealistic situation where somehow an animatronic stowed away in the cop car. The levels of turning your brain off you have to do to even tolerate what's going on are to many to permit. Only one, named Liv, cares about doing the right thing. Neat. She cares about this old, creepy birthday palace why? I don't know. The lore is taken right from FNAF's pages, people possess animatronics to cause havoc, only here, it's serial killers. For what purpose? I have no clue. They only get fed every time the town's folks tricks a passerby to become a night janitor. How often does that happen? It's all just thrown in to one horrible exposition dump as Cage stands there with the same expression he has the whole movie. There's even a second exposition free for all that repeats all the points from the first one, only from the perspective of the townsfolk, and it comes right in the middle of an interesting scene between one of the kids and a suit. When we cut back, the kid is immediately killed. Why does the dude drink that brand of soda and on every break conveniently timed and looped throughout the picture? The only way this story would've been enjoyable is if it was an actual video game, Duke Nukem style. This is the cinematic equivalent of watching someone play Doom, but you don't get to experience the gameplay yourself, it's terrible. It's not even good exploitation. The blood effects are below the grade of a YouTube video, very obvious Kool-Aid mixtures for blood effects that come out of people's mouths. An excuse for violence is a staple of exploitation flicks for sure, but come on, we're far above the lowest tier trash that comes out of the genre. Most others in the medium are far better than this. To call this a slasher movie is insulting to other gore fests. Every scene is a loop. Janitor guy beats the shit out of a suit, he cleans up, takes his break with a soda, stares at the creepy guys on stage, and loop. This happens six times in the runtime; abysmal. It's a joke in itself, shots repeat like the tossing of a soda can in the garbage, like this shit thinks it's clever. If you want that, have some progression. Maybe that pinball game he cleans up, he gets better at and scores a higher score after each time he defeats a suit. No thought put in to anything, no themes. That ties in to the editing. You're not Edgar Wright. Quick cuts and neon lighting is overused now, you aren't interesting and it doesn't even fit the aesthetic of the time or location. Some of the reaction shots are laughable; like Cage will be punching the shit out of a dude, the camera is all wobbling and up close to be intense, then it cuts to a wide static shot of Liv standing there with a dumbfounded reaction on her face, which completely breaks the engagement of the fight, and then it cuts back to that shaking extreme close up of Cage fighting. It's distractedly awkward. The care to environments and visual effects are of a student film. Balloon lights, lighting equipment, and other junk can be seen in a few shots. The camera work is either over produced or television sitcom, most of the time switching in between shots. The setting of Willy's is small and pathetic, like a little store they rented out for the film. One ballpit, a side room for a birthday table, a kitchen where one pinball machine is located, and a very tiny arcade. As for the animatronics, you have to make me believe these were intended to be cute and friendly. The Banana Splits Movie understood this, considering they used actual Hanna Barbera characters so that was their original purpose, but these monstrosities are freaky even in the upbeat commercial. At least try to be subtle with your costume design, or have it so they flick a switch and change appearance to something demonic. It could tie in to the story's core element of Satanism being at the heart of this dandy play place. About the only satisfying scenes are Cage's final music video dancing to the pinball machine and the head sheriff's death by Willy. The score is also decent. Two points for this dreck.
A very good example of what Bollywood can do outside of its usual norms. A mix of folklore, horror, thriller and historical movie.
Vinayak grows up in a manor where a fabled treasure is hidden, though nobody found it. Coming back as an adult he finds it. However he seems to go back and forth between the city and the manor and only brings back a few gold coins at a time. The main story and mystery part focuses on how he's getting his gold coins. And the reveal of the whole ritual is amazing.
Get at the bottom of the well in the manor's courtyard. There's a corridor with another fortified well at the end. There you enter the goddess' womb. Get down there, draw a protective salt circle. Bring a doll made of flour. As soon as the doll is revealed, Hastar appears. He can't get into the circle, which is great because a simple touch will change you into an undead. Give him the doll, and while he's eating it, quickly spill some coins from his satch and pick them up, but remember, no touching. Then get the hell out of here before he's finished.
The whole movie looks really good. The light work and almost constant rain creates a great gloomy mood. But the womb part... just amazing. It's just the right mix of creepy, disgusting, fantastic and realistic. It fits perfectly. Not only the decor but also Hastar himself.
The rest of the story, with his wife, his kid, his mistress, the opium dealer trying to find the secret are basically fillers here, but it's short and diverse enough to make it an interesting complement to the story and not be annoying. This actualy creates a different focus on the womb sequeces, it's a great choice. The relationship with his kid is weird though. You're not really sure if he's useless and Vinayak is going to sacrifice him, or if the kid will try to take his father's place or whether he will just fuck it up.
The final part, when the kids suggests to steal the satchel instead of a few coins, feels a lot like it's going a goose that laid golden eggs way and ends up totally different where every doll they bring generates an instance of Hastar. That's one of the best twist I've seen in a while. Not only is it surprising and interesting but it doesn't disrupt what we already know, it doesn't come out of nowhere and actually feels quite logical. After all, Hastar only appears when you show a doll, and there's nothng telling that it's the same Hastar every time you get in the womb. After all the satchel is not limitless, maybe it would have emptied by then..
That's also a strength of the movie. Despite being obviously fantastic, the whole thing is actually coherent and makes sense. Every thing that is done to get the gold has its explanation, as well as the weird monster grandmother, up until the final twist.
This is a great, original, masterfully directed and shot story. Incredible for a first film. I'm eagerly waiting for his next ones.
The saga continues. After a false fresh start, it’s Roger Moore’s turn to step into Bond’s shoes with Live and Let Die.
007 is tasked with solving the mystery of three murders across the globe, all MI6 agents. As ever this takes him all over the world and he meets bad guys, women, shoots guns etc etc. This is the eighth film in the series and we’ve learned by now that it’s not about what he does, it’s about how he does it.
Despite being superficially the same as the others, this is a genuine change of direction for the franchise. The camp tone that was so irritating in Diamonds are Forever actually works in Moore’s hands.
He’s the definition of nonchalant. While Connery was always ready, clenched fist and hand on gun, Moore gets out of danger with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. It sounds silly but he’s so good at it one can’t help but be charmed.
The other changes they make are more hit and miss. There’s no crazy villain trying to take over the world, just a gangster running a drug business. However, even with the apparent simplicity of the story it still manages to be overly convoluted.
Trying to ‘get real’ hurts the film too. The villains simply aren’t that threatening. Not that everyone should be Dr. No but it’s hard to imagine why they send Bond on a errand that frankly should be a matter for the local police.
The producers also clearly attempted a shameless cash grab by imitating the then popular Blaxploitation theme. Bondsploitation. It can be fun to watch at times for the fish-out-of-water value but mostly it makes the film feel too much of its time. No one really wants to see Bond tackling the ‘issues’.
There’s a lot of good though. Jane Seymour stands out as the ‘Bond girl’. She’s only 20 years old here and it really shows. She manages to lend a genuine vulnerable air to the role without hamming it up. However, it is slightly unsettling to watch Bond shamelessly try to screw a teenager using some rigged tarot cards. He’s only one step away from slipping a pill into her drink…
Also good is the theme tune. It’s the first break from a big band style song and it’s a true classic. McCartney still plays it live on stage.
There are some very slick action sequences in Live and Let Die. It’s a shame they are often swamped by really boring ones or just wind up being overly long and losing our interest.
The boat chase is the best example of this. It feels like it’s never going to end, we don’t really know why there even is a boat chase, never mind where it’s actually supposed to be happening (the Bayou I presume?). A shame, because it is punctuated by moments of true greatness. One of the boat jumps broke a Guinness world record. It’s ambitious footage spoiled by a very poor edit.
Live and Let Die has not aged well. It’s confusing and keeps trying to bring race into the plot for no reason. However, one can’t help but enjoy Moore’s performance and if this film does anything, it makes us want to see where he goes with the character.
http://benoliver999.com/film/2015/06/05/liveandletdie/
Creepy. Thrilling. Suspenseful. Conjuring.
My friends and I have been planning on seeing The Conjuring for a while now. There was quite a hype going around about how freaked this left a bunch of our friends, so I guess there was some level of expectation. I wasn't expecting much, though. This is the first "horror" movie I've watched in months (I never really saw the appeal in them, except when watching with friends), and it definitely did not disappoint for me.
At the end of the film though, my friends kept saying how it wasn't scary (which contradicted their screams from a few minutes before that lol) and how it does not compare to Insidious, a film which we all watched together two years before.
What my friends did not appreciate was what I liked about it: there actually was a story. It was developed and did not just focus on trying to scare the crap out of you with shocking music and sudden appearances by creepy-faced hags. I have to admit, I still found some scenes definitely cliched and corny.. It's not perfect, but it wasn't bad either, which is saying something because I've hated horror movies growing up.
This film is more than just a horror, if it doesn't scare you that doesn't make it a bad film. Insidious is just as much about the story as it is the scares. It does a fantastic job of setting up a solid atmosphere, trying out new scare techniques while still dabbling in the tried-and-true methods of your typical jump scare.
This "sequel" is more of a natural continuation of the story. It picks up right where the first film left off and does the story real justice. It expands the mythology behind "The Further" while dealing with Josh's new-found possession. If you don't feel you can watch it for the scares then watch it for the story because it's a bloody good one.
One of my favourite things about this film is it's not only a sequel but also works it's way as a prequel too. It takes us right back to when Josh was a kid and how he first came into contact with the woman in black. Not only that but this film does a beautiful job of linking back to the unexplained scenes in the first film which, when experiencing that for the first time, is an absolute treat.
Don't listen to reviews saying it wasn't scary enough or it was worse than the first film. This is just the second chapter of the same story. It doesn't care for rehashing the first film but instead does something different. You don't discriminate between chapters of a book complaining one wasn't as scary as the other, one wasn't as good as the other. They're all chapters of the same story and work together to create this fantastic, whole story.
Insidious is just that. With the 3rd film confirmed it's clear that Insidious is one big story not just about the scares, not just about the Lambert family but instead the bigger picture is about "The Further" and the story behind it. The entities involved, whether they're parasites or demons.
If you liked the first film you'll love the second. It's still got the familiar atmosphere, the comic relief from Specs and Tucker, and even features a music score that takes inspiration from the first film's soundtrack while offering something to keep things feeling fresh.
I'm a sucker for a well-written story and the Insidious franchise is no exception. Leigh Whannell (who funnily enough, also plays the character Specs) does a great job in penning the screenplays. The story is fresh, exciting an after Insidious: Chapter 2 I feel fully confident in the Insidious series/franchise and am very much looking forward to full trilogy.
Whether this film scares you, makes you laugh or doesn't let you sleep.. you can't deny it's a solid, original story. Forget the labels and just enjoy the film for what it is. Really. Fucking. Good.
