X-Men: Days of Future Past - A Film Review

I saw X-Men: Days of Future Past over the summer. I can say it is one of the best movies I've seen all year. The storyline was multi-layered and fascinating, written with intelligence and respect for the characters, and some ingeniously choreographed scenes. Not even just fight scenes, just brilliant character scenes. The standouts in the cast, in my opinion, were James McAvoy, for his emotionally wrought portrayal of young Charles Xavier going through a character arc that needs to be seen. And Evan Peters, who I've been noticing for his versatility in American Horror Story and other small film roles, was fantastic as Quicksilver, so much fun to watch. Bryan Singer did this movie justice, and I highly recommend it.

Edge of Tomorrow - A Film Review

I really liked Edge of Tomorrow. It was an interesting sci-fi action movie with the trope of living the same day over and over again to get it right (like Groundhog Day and Source Code), with a lot of black comedy moments and excellent timing with editing, and solid performances from Tom Cruise (playing a coward and inept soldier in the first quarter of the movie) and Emily Blunt (acting like a total badass throughout the movie). 

Lately I've liked Tom Cruise more in movies, I was never a fan of him before. His performances in Collateral, Tropic Thunder, Ghost Protocol, and Jack Reacher have changed my mind about him. And I've been a fan of Emily Blunt since My Summer of Love, she's just such a cool and complex actress. I enjoyed following the plot and the way it affected the re-living of each day for Cruise's character, and thought Bill Paxton was ridiculously funny as the jerky sergeant. Someone on io9.com said he seemed to be revisiting his character of Chet from Weird Science, and that's a good assessment. I wish the movie had stayed with its original book title (All You Need is Kill), but it ended up being a really good movie.

Albino Alligator - A Film Review

I watched Albino Alligator on TV, and really liked it a lot. I enjoy gritty crime dramas with a fantastic cast of character actors, and this was right up my alley. It was directed by Kevin Spacey, and is about three thieves who take a bar hostage when cornered by the police. I got into the dramatic tension quickly, and I liked how the movie felt more like a play, especially with the movie mostly being set in one place with a lot of anger, fear, and frustrations rising. The movie had an awesome cast: Matt Dillon, Gary Sinise, William Finchter, Faye Dunaway, Joe Mantegna, John Spencer, Viggo Mortensen, and M. Emmet Walsh. The movie could have been better in its third act with some re-writing and explanation for a few characters, but for the first two-thirds, I thought it was really good.

A Walk Among the Tombstones - A Film Review

I saw A Walk Among The Tombstones, and found it really interesting. It is a murder mystery where Liam Neeson plays an unlicensed alcoholic private detective finding criminals who kidnap drug dealers' wives for ransom money. It is set in 1990s New York City, and really had this gritty, dark vibe to it that I liked. It reminded me of Michael Mann's movies from the 80's, or Maniac Cop, or any 1980s/1990s movie that showed New York City as being dangerous and grim. For most of the movie, it was quiet and took its time, as Neeson as Matthew Scudder tracks criminals through the underbelly of NYC, encountering shady business and getting leads from a homeless teenager and a drug addicted war veteran. 

I appreciated that the movie didn't linger too long on the women who were kidnapped, avoiding any kind of torture porn voyeurism. However, this isn't a movie to see if you don't want to see women being tortured and mutilated. 

It also had a cast of unknowns aside from Neeson, which was interesting to see less-familiar faces rounding out the characters. I was really impressed by Boyd Holbrook as the druggie veteran, DanStevens as the drug dealer who hires Scudder for revenge, and Brian Bradley,who shone with a lot of charisma as the homeless teen. 

I have noticed that Liam Neeson has been doing more gritty action/thriller movies over the past five years or so (though when checking his filmography I saw that he has done lighter movies like The A-Team and The Lego Movie). It is an interesting turn in his career that now he's becoming Charles Bronson in his movies instead of a romantic hero like when he was younger. He fits into these movies well, it's just an interesting stage in his career.

Good Men, Good Women - A Film Review

I saw Good Men, Good Women at the Moving Image museum , and really enjoyed it a lot. It's from the Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien, who the museum is paying tribute to. I saw one of his movies a couple of years ago, Three Times, about a love story told in three historical time periods with the same actors as different people. His movies have this touch of humanity that I really like, where scenes are slow, are about small details with people and their lives, and the storytelling has a very artsy, unlinear way of being presented. 

In this film, it is about an actress who is preparing to act in a 1940s-set movie about real-life Taiwanese revolutionaries who came to China to join in the anti-Japanese resistance, only to suffer in China after the war due to political activities of the 1950s. The actress is having flashbacks to her life with her deceased boyfriend, a handsome rogue with criminal connections, while also imagining herself acting in the film yet to be filmed.The film-within-a-film parts are in black-and-white, while the present day(1995) parts are in color. 

The movie doesn't have a huge plot to it, but I found it fascinating, and I really do like the kinds of artsy movies that came out of 1990s East Asia that were experimental and hip and played around with storytelling. I really like Wong Kar-Wai, for example, for Fallen Angels, Chungking Express, 2046, and Happy Together. I will probably checkout more of Hou Hsiao-hsien's movies, since I like his style so much.

The Drop - A Film Review

I enjoyed seeing The Drop, a crime drama starring James Gandolfini, Tom Hardy, and Noomi Rapace. The basic plot of the movie centers on Brooklyn bars that act as an underground "drop" for laundered money in organized crime.The "drop" bar changes frequently, and is known by word of mouth. Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini play cousins Bob and Marv who work at a bar (Bob is a bartender, Marv is the owner) that gets robbed, and the Chechen mob, whose money got stolen, wants their money back. In the meantime, Bob finds an abused pit bull puppy in garbage bin and takes care of it, with the help of his neighbor Nadia (Rapace). The story gets more involved as more details about the robbery come to light,as well as the puppy being an object amongst criminal thugs.

The story was paced well, even if it followed some cliches of the genre ("get me 5K in two days or you're dead"), but I enjoyed it for the solid acting and gritty working-class neighborhood. The movie was adapted from a short story by Dennis Lehane, and I thought Gone, Baby, Gone was a great adaptation of his book, so I was in. I do like these kind of movies, usually about a bunch of old-school Irish or Italian guys who grew up in a working-class part of a city, often New York, Boston, Chicago, apart of New Jersey, or Philadelphia, who talk about knowing their streets and being close with the local mob and avoiding snitching. I find comfort in these movies,I just like the accents and setting. The Drop is good to see for the actors and genre. It is a small movie, not an epic tale, just a story out of the streets amongst old-school folks and the mob. Plus, there is an adorable pit bull puppy in the movie who is a plot device, but is still cute to watch.

Two Lovers - A Film Review

I watched Two Lovers on a Saturday night on PBS. It ran as a double feature with Moonstruck, and both movies are similar in that they are about families in specific ethnic neighborhoods in Brooklyn (Moonstruck - Sicilian in Brooklyn Heights; Two Lovers - Russian-Jewish in Brighton Beach). It is a downbeat movie, about a guy named Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) who suffers from depression and suicide attempts, and lives with his parents. They are trying to set him up for marriage with the daughter of their friends, Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), who is seemingly a "good girl" choice for him, but he is more interested in his neighbor Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is new to the neighborhood and has personal issues of her own regarding her drug problems and married boyfriend. 

Even though the movie is about damaged people, it doesn't feel depressing. I liked how the movie portrayed both female leads. Michelle has issues, but isn't a broken person, and is funny and sweet and nice. Sandra is smart and self-assured and likable. Leonard can be charming, and while he is socially awkward at times or talks too fast at once, doesn't come off as a weirdo because of his issues. I liked the setting of the movie, how it encapsulated the Brighton Beach community of Russian-Jewish people without making anyone into caricatures or playing them for laughs. The autumn setting was nice, and I felt at ease watching it.

 I am generally indifferent to Phoenix and Paltrow, though I think they are decent actors, but they both are very good in this film. And I've always liked Vinessa Shaw, even though she's not a hugely-famous actress. I initially know of her from Ladybugs and Hocus Pocus, but she's done well in various big movies in her career, like Eyes Wide Shut, The Hills Have Eyes remake, Puncture, and 3:10 to Yuma. She comes off as smart and strong in her roles, playing parts with quietness and realism, being more of a character actress than when she was the "hot girl" as a teen. It's just nice to see her continue to be successful in a modest way.