Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Steven Spielberg)
This is my first time of watching the Indiana Jones films and of course I should start with the first installment of the franchise. This is possibly the first time that I've actually felt that I'm in an adventure and that I am experiencing the events that the lead characters are facing. The inclusion of Nazis as the villain was a great touch because it helps set the overall tone of the film and helps the division of the timetable it sets up in the film. This movie was pure fun and entertaining with top-notch soundtrack, a gripping but simple plot, a charismatic performance for Harrison Ford and the rest of its cast and lastly a brilliant VFX that is ahead of it's time.
Grade:
Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (1984, Steven Spielberg)
The second installment is a step down from the success of the first one but it still felt like a great adventure that overall can still give one the enjoyment of the Indy franchise. Firstly, the downside of this film is the supporting female character which is played by Kate Capshaw, she was just a nuisance throughout the film even though you can actually understand why the character is like this. The second downside for me is the stereotype present throughout the film, I mean sure it is really just based on cultures of different people but it just made me feel that it is restricting the film in that aspect. But like I said, the film is still highly entertaining despite it being weaker than the predecessor.
Grade:
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989, Steven Spielberg)
This is the third installment in the franchise but this time they brought on the most well known "James Bond" Sean Connery as Indy's father and it was just perfection. The chemistry between these characters and between these actors is so great that dynamic between them as father and son is authentic and the relationship between them is 100% believable. The other thing that I liked from this movie is the fact that the usage of Nazis as the villain again is gold but this time around the Nazis are a bit more of a tongue-in-cheek but it works really well with the movie. I would gladly say that this is probably my favorite Indy film from the series.
Grade:
Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008, Steven Spielberg)
The latest (and probably a really late) sequel has Harrison Ford returning as the titular character together with Shia LaBeouf as Indy Jr. and Karen Allen returning as Indy's old flame. Sounds gold right? WRONG! In my opinion this Indy film is just a disgrace to the franchise, why? Because it just spits on everything that the Indy franchise is about and just tried to hard to be a "modern" take on the character. Another thing that was wrong with this movie is the over usage of CGI, it just took me out of the realistic experience that I felt in the past Indy films. Having said those though, the film still had SOME redeemable qualities but in the end, the negatives outweighs the positives.
Grade:
300 (2007, Zack Snyder)
Based on the graphic novel Frank Miller of the same name, 300 is all about fictitious account of the Battle of Thermopylae but more stylized and with a lot more pizzazz and flash. This is (at the time) Snyder's second film, following the remake of Dawn of the Dead (which in my opinion is one of the best zombie flicks in recent times). 300 is like the one of the ultimate guy film, why? Because it's highly entertaining infused with LOTS of great action and violence that can get you hyped up and cheer for the Spartans and great visual effects and cinematography that makes it look like it just pops out of the comic book. Now, despite this being all that the execution of the plot is not all that great and the pacing of it is not even that at times it feels a bit slow but on a positive note it does ramp up. Other than the action and the VFX, the other thing that I felt that I was invested in was the characters, the chemistry between them is so in synch that they really do feel like they work as a unit. All in all, thanks to the action, and other aspects of the film, it overshadows the somehow weak plot of the film and I must admit I'm highly entertained and I really love this film (despite its flaws).
Grade:
Ender's Game (2013, Gavin Hood)
Coming off the hils of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (not actually a good word of mouth as that film sucked), Gavin Hood is taking another crack at adaptations, but this time coming from a sci-fi novel written by Scott Orson Card with the book of the same name. The plot is actually quite interesting and helped me be on board on the film all throughout. So the whole film revolves around this kid, Ender who is believed to be the "chosen one" to help defeat the aliens and eradicate its whole race. The role of Ender was played by Asa Butterfield and in my opinion he played it pretty good despite lacking some charisma (but maybe that's how the character was written), as for the rest of the cast, they were good too but the just lack the development they need to make you actually care about the characters. Overall, this film is a good sci-fi film and I'll be on board if they decided to actually make this a franchise and follow the rest of Ender's adventure.
Grade:
All Is Lost (2013/14, J.C. Chandor)
All Is Lost is a quiet, beautiful and a poignant film. As you may know, the film stars Robert Redford...... and he's the only character present throughout the film and in my opinion it's a great stroke of brilliance because firstly, it makes you feel invested a whole lot to the character and just to see the character struggle can also make the view feel like it's also happening to them and that you can't help but cheer for "Our Man" to actually make it out alive. Secondly is the fact that this helped Redford brings out what is probably one of his best performance (if not the best) of his career, you can definitely see his frustration to his situation and his eagerness to live and tell one hell of a story. This film is surely an underrated one and it is quite possibly be included in my favorite films of these year.
Grade:
American Hustle (2013/14, David O. Russell)
A con film that stars four of these generations great actors. "Hustle" has a well rounded plot that tells the story of a con man who was forcibly worked with the FBI to take down some of the most corrupt politicians in the state. Like I said, the plot was well rounded, it tackled what it needs to tackle except there was one aspect where I think it's missing, and it is the thrill. Sure there are thrilling undertones in the movie but it got overshadowed by the overall comedic tone of the whole movie and kind of made me be taken out of the great experience. I will say this though, the film definitely showed great performance from the cast and the actors definitely deserved their nomination, except for one actress and that is Jennifer Lawrence. Now don't hate me, I thought she was great in the film, the problem is she lacked the screen time and lacked a more rounded character development to actually make you relate for the character and make actually care for the character. Thanks to her performance, she was able to achieve the latter a bit.
Grade:
Fruitvale Station (2013, Ryan Coogler)
Coogler's full length feature debut centers on the last 24 hours of Oscar Grant's life. The strongest suite of this movie is it took its time to fully develop the character and make you to actually be invested with the character but I what I liked more about their way of developing Oscar is that they showed you the positive and the negative sides of the character and really showed that this character is a real life person and not just some real life character that only does good deeds. This is probably the film the will put Michael B. Jordan on the map thanks to his captivating performance as Oscar Grant.
Grade:
Goddess (2013, Mark Lamprell)
An all-around fun film that is filled with bright colors, good performances, great song numbers and........ a weak plot. The film stars Laura Michelle Kelly (who some of you might know plays the wife of Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd) who completely just stole the show because of her great performance and her perfect voice. In addition, I think she is one actress that has a lot of charisma that mirrors her husband in the movie who is played by Ronan Keating (yes the singer), he was okay in the movie but the chemistry between him and the Kelly's character is good enough. Lastly, my problem is with the plot, it's just too simple and in the end became this generic rom-com film as the story progresses.
Grade:
Nebraska (2013, Alexander Payne)
A dramatic and heartfelt film that is highly realistic even though it is followed by its extremely slow pacing but it all comes to a great payoff. I'll be honest, I just loved this film from start to finish, the performance of Bruce Dern is so natural you can almost tell that he's just being filmed and he's very well deserved of his nomination. As for Will Forte, I never took him as a serious actor before but this film changed that, his performance in this movie is highly underrated and in my opinion he deserves an Academy award nom for this film, too bad that didn't happen. Another performance that I loved in this film is June Squibb's because she was charmng and funny and just made the character her own. What made me love this film though is that the situation that these characters are facing because these type of experiences can actually happen in real life and the way they dealt with it made a lot of sense and can actually look like how people will confront these type of situations. In addition, the usage of black and white cinematography helped the film have a bit more gravitas than it already has, but maybe that's just me.
Grade:
Out of the Furnace (2013, Scott Cooper)
Cooper's follow up to Crazy Heart is a much more dark and gritty film that is gripping from the plot to the characters. This movie in my opinion is Bale's superior performance than in American Hustle because in this movie his performance is much more raw and meaty in this one that you can feel the emotions that this character is going through the whole time in the movie. Another performance that I loved is Woody Harrelson's, this is by far my favorite performance of his, just think of his performance in Rampart and make it much more sinister and much more evil, the result would be his character in this movie. The rest of the cast also did a great job but they just lacked the necessary development they need to make them actually feel vital to the movie's core. Not better than Crazy Heart but definitely as good as that film.
Grade:
Lone Survivor (2013/14, Peter Berg)
Following the failure of Battleship, Berg stirs up with another war film but this time it follows the true story of the Navy SEALs who got trapped in the middle of an operation. This is certainly a much better film than Berg's last outing, and the performances and chemistry of the actors and characters were just rock-solid and made it feel like this was an actual event happening in front of us. However, the highlight of the film for me is the amazing sound mixing because every bone crushing you will definitely wince once you've heard it and that just added to the superb experience to this movie, and that is just a cherry on the top of the gripping story that this movie gave.
Grade:
No comments:
Post a Comment