The Gentlemen Review

Guy Ritchie must have felt he needed an escape coming off Aladdin with Disney because this is as far away from that kind of movie as you can get. Welcome to the United Kingdom where there are many different accents, lots of people cursing and lots of c*!#s. Yes if that word offends you then definitely don’t even think of seeing The Gentlemen. I will be wholly honest with you that I spent a good majority of this film lost as to what was happening, I was entertained, I wasn’t bored and I laughed quite a bit. It was not towards the end that I was able to start putting two and two together. I’ll try my best to give you a brief idea of what you will be getting into if you chose to see this one. The first thing is the acting is all great everyone is having a grand old time in this, the first person you should know about is Matthew McConaughey, he owns and operates a fair amount of marijuana farms and has decided he’s ready to exit the business and looking to sell to Jeremy strong. Next up are a Charlie Hunnam and Hugh Grant, Hunnam works for McConaughey, Grant is a journalist who has been following the events of everything that has happened and is trying to extort money out of Hunnam. Then you have Henry Golding and Colin Farrell who are mob like characters doing dirty deeds for others. This is a film that enjoys double backing in on itself and jumping around from this character to that character while audience members are trying to create a string chart of events in their heads.  Not having seen many of Guy Ritchie’s other films, I cannot attest to how similar it is with those, from those that I have read or heard reviews from most of them say if you know Snatch you know what your getting into with this one. I will say though the performances from the cast are entertaining which kept me watching, I may not have always known what exactly was happening though I was entertained by what I was seeing. Definitely one that I want to circle back for a second watch if the time presents itself, feels like one that will benefit from a second viewing where knowing what’s going to happen, connecting the pieces of the puzzle together while watching and get more out of it. B.

Bad Boys For Life Review

Seventeen years have passed since Will Smith and Martin Lawrence teamed up to become Bad Boys. Going with the trend of Independence Day and Rambo for just a couple examples of the new way Hollywood has decided to try to change up the game from reboots and remakes. Instead of redoing something the concept now is lets take a movie that did well over a decade ago, get the band back together (Yes, I am aware a Bill & Ted sequel is on the way) and try to recapture that audience then if it doesn’t connect with test audiences let’s reshoot and throw some more nostalgia in to win over the audiences. Happily, this does not appear to be one of those, yes, it is a sequel from a movie long ago, though I enjoyed this one. Did I enjoy it as much as fans of the franchise, is it a franchise if its only two? maybe a little more. You see I grew up in the 90’s when the first two came out and I honestly cannot remember the first two, I vaguely remember in the second one a scene with a pool collapsing. I did not go back and re-watch the first two, just did not have enough time with work and family to get to that while jumping back in my movie watching saddle. So, I went in with the mentality that this is pretty much standalone movie in my head.

We start with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence reprising their roles of Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett (respectfully) racing through the streets of Miami for the birth of Marcus’ grand baby. While that is happening, Kate del Castillo is breaking out of prison and connecting with her own son, together seeking control of their cartel, I guess that’s what you would call it and plotting to kill “Bulletproof” Mike. In Miami high ranking officials start getting off’d one by one including a near fatal blow to Mike which starts a hunt for the man who shot Mike with the help of AMMO a group comprised of Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig and Charles Melton to name a couple that really has no reason for existing in the movie as the leader of the techie police squad, Rita (Paola Nunez) being the only one that seems to have a purpose to the story because of a history with Will Smith’s character. Together the buddy cop comedy team of Smith and Lawrence track down, Jacob Scipio who plays the assassin if you will of Miami which leads them back to Kate del Castillo’s character which brings in a deeper back story to Mike’s character. That’s the plot, it’s not much of one, but coming to see this were you expecting a killer storyline or to have some laughs and watch stuff blow up. If you are not aware the first two movies were directed by Michael Bay, you know what that means…Baymargeddon. For this outing the Bad Boys are directed by Adil Arbi and Bilall Fallah who for the most part try to wrangle down the expected over-the-top action and gives us some satisfying action sequences while keeping the shaky cam to a minimal. What works for this movie is it does not ignore that time has passed since the last movie and these two detectives are old, showing wear and tear. Will Smith gives the comedic action performance you would expect from him as he has kind of kept up in shape better than Martin Lawrence who pulls off the comedic moments better than the action ones.

The long distance sequels category has a pretty hit or miss record with the misses having the higher count (Dumb & Dumber 2 anyone), I enjoyed this one though, I was not bored and laughed quite a bit especially when Lawrence interacts with a certain bad guys injury. What I don’t like though is it does what movies now a days like to do and that is setup for a possible sequel, did we really need that end credits scene? Can’t we just have an enjoyable buddy cop movie without having to think, gee I wonder if Vanessa Hudgen’s character is going to be in the next one. You don’t necessarily have to of seen the first two to enjoy this one, though I think there are some nods to events in the first ones that went over my head, but I didn’t feel lost by any means. It’s am enjoyable popcorn munching ride that if you have the time and a friend or two that grew up with Bad Boys and the comedy of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, you’ll probably have a good time together. B.

Uncut Gems Review

Adam Sandler is Howard Ratner who runs a high-end jewelry story in the jewelry district of New York. He has acquired through a source a rock that contains black uncut opals that could be worth quite the bit of money which is why is he putting this precious stone up for auction? Because he owes quite a bit of money to some very not nice people because aside from running a jewelry store, balancing seeing his family and having an affair, Howard has a serious gambling problem. When a high-profile basketball player, Kevin Garnett, is brought into the shop by LaKeith Stanfield. Garnett feels a connection with the rock, Howard agrees to let Garnett borrow the rock for a game then the problem comes trying to get it back in time for the auctions as he is running out of time trying to hold off the money collectors. As collateral from Kevin Garnett to hold the rock he takes one of his player rings, instead of you know just  putting ring in the safe for safe keeping Howard has to take it and pawn so he can use the money to place another high value bet. Now to get the Opals back he will have to remember to go get Kevin Garnett’s ring back from pawn on top of everything else he has going on in life. There is not a lot of real substance to the plot when you actually delve deep into it except following around the MacGuffin (Opals) and watching the downward spiral of Howard and how he feels nothing is going right for him even though most of the problems stem from bad decisions. While it’s a simplistic story, it is a well-done glimpse into an addiction that is not alcoholic or drug based, as so many movies are, showing the repercussions of it affects many things from family life to his own business. The star of the show is hands down by far Adam Sandler who gives a career high performance, it is clear the Safdie brothers, the directors of this film, pushed him to his limits to get this performance out of Sandler. If you follow my blog, you will know I am a huge fan of independent films especially those produced by A24 because they make movies that toe over that line that studios will not tread. It is a dark movie and will not be for everyone, though I highly recommend watching it even if nothing else for Sandler’s performance. A. 

Noelle

Santa Claus has passed away, I know right, should have gave a spoiler alert on that one. Leaving behind his two kids Nick (Bill Hader) who will take over as the new Santa in his father’s footsteps. Noelle (Anna Kendrick) on the other hand likes to talk to a CGI rendered fly baby white reindeer. Noelle is a Disney+ original movie that lets you know right away as they walk over Mickey ear shaped tiles in their North Pole home that this movie is going to be just as cheesy as Mickey’s favorite treat. When the training of Nick does not go well, he goes away for a weekend of R&R and does not come back. It will be up to Noelle and Elf Polly (Shirley MacLaine) to travel to Phoenix, Arizona team up with a Private Investigator for a Christmas pun filled fish out of water story to bring Nick back to the pole. Meanwhile Noelle and Nick’s cousin, Gabriel (Billy Eichner), has been named Santa until if when Nick returns, the problem is, Gabriel has his own agenda of digitizing and modernizing all the and entire Santa processes. Can Noelle find Santa and get him to believe in himself in time for Christmas. But… What if neither Nick nor Gabriel are meant to be the next Santa, is the world ready to change a tradition?

Q: What makes this Santa fish out of water story different from the rest?
A: Anna Kendrick is probably going to be the best answer I can give due to the way she is able to play the clueless character while still coming off as charmingly sweet.

Q: What differentiates this being on Disney+ rather than being on say Netflix?
A: The characters literally walk across Mickey ear shaped tiles.

Q: Is this family friendly?
A: Of course, it is a Disney+ launch title after all. I do think maybe 10 and up will get the most of it the humor as there is a quite a bit based on contemporary technology which younger ones might not get. But hey there is a cute white CGI reindeer named Snowcone to keep those younger ones interested.

I Kissed a Vampire

There are times when I will be sitting around waiting for something and I’ll open my Amazon app and do a search for musical DVDs looking for something I haven’t seen before or a new addition to the collection. There are times I discover a new favorite that I otherwise would not have looked at had I not taken a risk on an unknown musical and there are times I regret it. This is one of the later decisions, on the jacket for the DVD it was described as High School Musical meets Twilight, the concept yes is a mash up of the two, however the actual movie is take the worst things about those two movies and add music.

One of the first noticeable aspects of this movie musical (term loosely used) is that it has a low production value and that is probably because this started out a web series on iTunes which then someone had the idea of let’s turn it into a film. Directed by Chris Nolan (Notice Chris not Christopher) this is the only feature credit he has on IMDB outside of shorts and a couple TV episodes, outside of the set design (I get it they had a low budget) the decision to consistently have the actors directly singing into the camera for me took me out of the movie musical. You have Lucas Grabeel coming off the High School Musical movies and Drew Seeley who was the singing voice for Zac Efron in the first High School Musical, two guys that had been through this sort of thing before, I think just with bad directing decisions and songs that feel like a pop song generator spit them out it just did not work, you can see they are trying which is probably this movies biggest fault is it is trying to take itself serious as a rock musical about vampires, the story is corny and the story by Laurie Nolan makes Twilight look like a Pulitzer prize winning novel, had it embraced the silliness of what it was and had it of taken an approach at satirizing High School Musical and Twilight it might have been better. When this movie came out its riding the wave of those two movies which I do not know having watched this back then when paranormal-romance was all the rage maybe it would have been better perhaps it is a product of that time for teens. F.

Q: When did this movie come out?
A: March 30, 2012

Q: What is the story about?
A: [Spoiler Alert] We first meet Dylan (Lucas Grabeel) at his para-psychologist (Lori Lively) office where she happens to wear a neck brace because of the clientele that she helps. Through his dialogue with her we discover that Dylan was bit by a vampire at school and he is in therapy because he does not know what to do with his girlfriend, Sara (Adrian Slade) who does not know he is a vampire and he does not want to make her a vampire. Trying to come to terms with how to be with the love of his high school life becomes difficult when a rocker vampire named Trey Sylvania (Drew Seeley) starts to make his advances on Sara. It is then a competition for the girl and who will she ultimately choose.

Q: I have never heard of this should I watch it?
A: Nope! I just saved 91 minutes of your life, your welcome.

Q: Who wrote the music?
A: The music is written by Frankie Blue with lyrics by Frankie Blue and Chris Nolan

Q: Did this movie release to movie theaters:
A: Evidently it did, on IMDB the box office opening weekend gross was $1,380 with a world wide cumulative gross of $1,794

Frozen 2

Frozen 2 is of course the sequel to the 2013 Disney feature animated film Frozen. Three years have passed since we last left the Arendelle gang at the end of the first one. We learn now of a bedtime story told to Anna and Elsa when they were little by their parents about an enchanted forest and the events that led up to the forest being exiled behind a magical mist. Now that forest is calling out to Elsa urging her to venture into the unknown, yes the same one from the song you probably listened to before the movie came out, except doing so Elsa awakens elemental spirits that have a grudge against Arendelle. It will be up to Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Sven and of course Olaf to venture through the mist into the enchanted forest where they will have to learn about the past and right a wrong before calming the spirits enough save Arendelle.

[Updated]

After seeing the movie one time, I was not quite sold on it, after my second time, it has started to grow on me a little more than the first one. Is the music as good? No, there is maybe two catchy songs, though I feel the songs are more impactful than light and fun. Going through the second time I already knew the myths and lore of the expanded world outside of Arendelle which I feel allowed me the second time to focus more on the actual story than trying to connect the new information to the original.

I have now seen Frozen 2, twice in theaters, with one time being in Dolby at AMC. I will always recommend seeing anything musically inclined in the Dolby format with the loudest best sound possible to help draw audiences into the musical sequences. The projection though for me looked just as good in the standard presentation as it did in the Dolby. How you watch a movie is a personal preference, personally I like watching in Dolby firstly, where there are others happy being in a standard theater, there are those that enjoy the Fork & Screen experience of dining while you eay (To me I find that it is distracting) and then there are the ones that enjoy 3D as their first pick. I did not get to see this one in 3D, for animation though I usually say it is a good choice as its already rendered in a 3D digital environment they tend to look sharper than live action movies in my opinion in 3D, also 3D tends to darken the image through the glasses where the bright visuals in animation help counter that darkening

Funny Story

This was a film that I had absolutely never heard of until I got an email in my mail box with a for your consideration email with a screener link from Film Independent that this film was being considered for all voting categories including the John Cassavetes award, which if you are not familiar with is for films that are made for under five-hundred thousand dollars. Reading through the about page on the films website, www.funnystorymovie.com, the synopsis did not stand out as anything special to me and seemed rather openly simple. After watching the film I am glad I took eighty-four minutes out of my evening to watch Funny Story, which is not actually that funny of a story, well I guess it can be depending on how you approach it and your life experiences going into it, rather that it is a movie that about a man who believes he is trying to do the right thing and realizing he in actuality is making things worse. When we meet our main character, Walt played by Matthew Glave, it is at a dinner and he is trying to break ties with a girl that is quite obviously younger than him, while trying to do the right thing he is hemmed in by a confession from the girl. This same girl who we later learn is the reason for his divorce and the separation from his daughter, whom he wants to still get to know and be there for. Walter was the star of a fantasy TV series that has a following and is a guest at a convention that is similar to a Comic Con, this convention is relatively close to where his daughter is spending sometime with friends at Big Sur, deciding to spend a little time with his daughter he heads out to Big Sur before he has to be at the convention. What he was not planning on was picking up a traveler in the form of his daughters friend, Kim (Emily Bett Richards), who’s mother has just passed away and car is broken down with a desperate for a ride to Big Sur, on the way after some drinks and a one bedroom hotel room things go bad for the two until it gets worse when the next day in Big Sur, Walter learns the connection between his daughter, Nic (Jana Winternitz) and Kim. Torn between telling his daughter about the night with Kim and made harder by finding himself staying in Big Sur with all young female friends of his daughter there for a special occasion and some that will test his conscience and will even more. Directed, Produced by Michael J. Gallagher who also co-wrote with Steve Greene, this is a film that I did not expect a lot going in, instantly though I was hooked onto the character of Walter followed by each subsequent characters, there was a real ness and honesty about each one and their chemistry with one another. This was a wonderfully made film for the budget it had that keeps everything simple and lets the dialogue and characters grow on the audience with a feeling that we are watching this man’s life and not a staged movie. When we first meet Walter he has a narcissistic air about himself while the story progresses we experience that shift of even him thinking he has the best interest of everyone that his choices and decisions ripple out to more than just himself and that some choices he makes he will have to take the burden of owning up to even though it will hurt those he is trying to protect. I am very glad I opened the email that was subject lined ‘For Your Consideration: FUNNY STORY’ because its a film that not only entertained me, but, left me after the credits rolling sitting for a minute processing what I experienced which to me are my favorite movies those that have a meaning or message that leave you processing for a minute before you click away or stand up from your seat. B.