“Elevator” (2011) started strong and then just flzzled. It had a few strong moments, but the ending lacked much punch or surprise, and it finally had the feel of a made-fpr-tv movie. I’d give it a 4 out of 10.
This movie also suffers from the inevitable comparison with surprisingly fantastic “Devil” (2010) an elevator-themed thriller that was ten times better than its synopsis makes it sound.
… his reading of John Keats’ “Ode To A Nightingale” is goddam phenomenal.
Seriously. Listen to it. It’s the first piece featured in the below BBC America article, “10 British Actors Read 10 British Poems,” which was sent along to me by a close friend. (October 2nd was National Poetry Day in England.)
If you became a fan of Cumberbatch, as I did, because of his role as the (ostensibly) detached “Sherlock,” it can seem strange hearing him do such an emotional reading here.
I was surprised indeed by “The Divide” (2012) – a flawed post-apocalyptic horror film that nevertheless has a hell of a lot going for it. It’s a horrifying, brutal look at seven apartment building residents who survive a nuclear holocaust by sheltering together in the building’s basement.
Does that sound dark? Because it’s a hell of a lot darker than you think it is. This film is brutal and disturbing – even by the standards of the survival-horror sub-genre.
The script is flawed, but this movie still surprised me and held me in suspense. You know it’s a worthwhile movie if you can’t stop watching it, even if the screenwriting isn’t perfect. That’s partly due to a great cast – with terrific performances by Michael Biehn, Courtney Vance, Lauren German, Milo Ventimiglia, Ashton Holmes, Rosanna Arquette and Ivan Gonzalez.
Despite the good acting all around, the runaway performance was Michael Eklund as Bobby. This guy is an incredibly talented actor. He nailed the role of a survivor who descends quickly into madness and depravity, and was probably the best thing about this movie. His performance actually reminded me a hell of a lot of Buffalo Bill in “Silence of the Lambs.” That kid was amazing and terrifying. (I don’t think what I’m writing here is a spoiler; everyone knows the premise of the movie, and Bobby is recognized almost immediately as an erratic personality.)
This movie reminded me just a little of the superb BBC docudrama, “Threads” (1984), which was an equally brutal look at the aftermath of a nuclear war – far more so than the inferior American “The Day After,” which made headlines a year earlier. (And doesn’t everyone in my age bracket remember that?)
The special effects budget is limited. But the final shot of the movie is fantastic.
Again … this is not a feel-good film, even when compared with other movies like this. This movie was written by people who have absolutely no faith in human nature. The final choice by one character is pretty sad evidence of that. What the character does seems inexplicable at first, but then makes perfect sense when you think about it. And it’s pretty depressing.
I’d give this movie an 8 out of 10.
Me: “Are you excited that Episode VII is being made?!?!”
Amanda: “What?”
Me: “I GUESS NOT.”
Then she comments that she can’t really get into Star Wars because she hasn’t read the original books upon which they are based.
GIRLS.
Blogging some of my past movie reviews — this is my take on “The Dark Knight Rises.” Warning — fanboy bubbling ahead.
*****
Dear Lord, “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012) was fantastic. This third and final installment to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, at several times, wanted to make me stand up and cheer.
This film deserves a perfect 10. All of the magic of “Batman Begins” (2005) and “The Dark Knight” (2008) return – especially with respect to an excellent script with a layered, detailed plot and great, three-dimensional characters. I found myself seeing parallels between this movie and another current popular comic book adaptation, AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” Both seem to have expertly taken the best elements from the comics, but then also changed or updated the source material to enhance it and surprise longtime fans. And there’s a great continuity with the preceding films in terms of characters, themes, motif and story.
The dialogue was wonderful; this is a quotable movie. And the basic story is perfect, especially in the way this film was challenged to follow up the amazing “Dark Knight.” They made some wise choices. Instead of trying to match Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker, Nolan simply presents us with a new kind of “Bat-villain” — Bane, a supremely logical and ordered personality whose background seems very similar to Bruce Wayne’s. I was a Batman comic book fan in the early 1990’s, when Bane was created. He remains one of my all-time favorite villains, along with Randall Flagg, Two-Face, (Matt Wagner’s) Grendel, and Hannibal Lecter. Nolan seized the compelling original character (created, I believe, by writer Chuck Dixon), and truly capitalized on it.
So too, did Nolan capitalize on the great character of Selina Kyle as Catwoman (again best characterized in the original comic by Dixon). She was wonderfully played by a runaway performance by Anne Hathaway, and she really does deserve her own movie.
The acting was wonderful all around (even though Tom Hardy doubtlessly was challenged as an actor by a mask that obscured his face). Hathaway, was a terrific surprise, and Gary Oldman and Michael Caine were awesome as always. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard did just great in their supporting roles, especially with some character aspects and choices that viewers might not have expected. I’ve criticized Christian Bale’s acting in the past … but here I thought he was at his best in the trilogy.
By the end of the movie, the two quibbles I had were extremely minor. One, we see various supporting characters use high-tech military vehicles that would seem to require at least some training. (You and I cannot simply hop into a tank and know how to use it.)
Two, by the end of the movie, Bane is not quite the iconic character I remember from the comics. He seemed upstaged by certain other characters. But I’m a nerd, and Bane is a favorite, so … really? There’s probably no pleasing me, anyway.
Seriously, though, THANK YOU CHRISTOPHER NOLAN.
Oh, Dear God.
Bad Lip Reading made a full song and music video out of “Carl Poppa,” and it is brilliant.
“WORDSMITH. RHYMES.”
I’m honored to have another poem, “Girl On A Film Screen,” published over at Dead Snakes.
Dead Snakes remains a terrific place for newer authors to find an audience. It is quite easy to submit, and Editor Stephen Jarrell Williams always seems to have an encouraging word for contributing writers.
Here is the poem:
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2014/10/eric-robert-nolan-poem.html
“You’ve got to at least TRY IT.”
That’s what my friends kept telling me about putting peanut butter on Saltines, with all of the ardor and persistence of a meth dealer.
And it was goddam amazing. Look at this expression. You can’t fake that — even with training as an actor. (Why does everyone laugh whenever I tell them I once studied acting?)
Anyway, the best things in life are free. Or … y’know, the price of Saltines.
I’m blogging some of my past movie reviews from Facebook — this is a (relatively rare) positive review of 2011’s “Conan” remake.
*****
I’m not sure why so many people panned “Conan the Barbarian” (2011); I was pretty happy with it. I’d give it and 8 out 0f 10.
Of course it cannot match the original. “Conan the Barbarian” (1982) is a camp classic. But I really doubt the filmmakers were trying to upstage Arnold and Co. They were simply trying to resurrect a profitable fantasy franchise, after Peter Jackson’s success with “The Lord of the Rings.”
I was bracing myself for disappointment after all the bad advance press, then kept seeing various things that I really enjoyed. For starters, the kid who played young Conan, Leo Howard, is off the hook. He’s a great child actor who was well cast; it’s great seeing him alongside the always-awesome Ron Perlman.
This is also a movie that is “played straight.” There is absolutely no attempt to add cheese or humor in order to amp up the nostalgia factor, as so many other 80’s remakes have done in recent years. This movie gives a fan of the original films (and the comics and novels) exactly what they want – a violent adolescent escapist fantasy. It’s like “The Lord of the Rings” if it were an angry 13-year-old on steroids.
There was very good fight choreography for the swordplay. Scenes are staged, blocked and shot so that you can actually follow the fights (a great ingredient in a “guy movie.”) Yes, it’s bloody and gory and gratuitous – but, again, that’s what true Conan fans are expecting.
Feminists and Joss Whedon fans will be pleased by some nice use of strong female characters, both good and evil. And we have a fun (but too small) supporting role by the incredibly under-recognized Said Taghmaoui, of whom I’ve been a fan ever since his brilliant turn as an Iraqi interrogator in the classic “Three Kings.”
It isn’t perfect. Some of the dialogue is just plain bad, for example. There are pacing problems. Conan here is much less interesting than the Schwarzenegger incarnation – the original Conan was a thief and a brute; sometimes he was only a great anti-hero because he was LESS of a jerk than so many people around him. Here, Conan is an altruist, freeing slaves from passing caravans on a whim. That’s fine. But it does feel as though we’re watching Sir Lancelot and not Conan the Barbarian.
Also, for a film that seems loyal to its source material, there a surprising dearth of visible sorcery and few monsters. The Conan of the comics fought everything from zombie ninjas to coyote demons to giant scorpions. There was also another weird departure from the books and comics. Conan and his clan are … secularists? Huh? Did I hear that right? Any comics reader worth his salt knows that CONAN, LIKE ANY GOOD CIMMERIAN, WORSHIPS CROM. We know this because every time three-headed snake men surprise him from the shadows, he screams, “CROM!” as an expletive.
Personal note: I was obviously a fan of the (rather subversive) comic books when I was a kid. When I was between the ages of 7 and 12, I would beg my parents to buy them for me when we stopped at the pharmacy after church in Wading River, NY. Then I carefully hid their contents. Hooboy. These books were violent; Conan eviscerated or beheaded at least half a dozen bad guys every issue. I can’t remember if this was Marvel title or if it was produced independently. In retrospect, I get the sense that maybe a lot of this stuff wasn’t approved by the Comics Code Authority (CCA). At any rate, the writing was fantastic, and the artwork was simply incredible, even though many of these books were in black and white. Great memories.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 