Anthropoid Review (2016)

Anthropoid

  Honestly, summer of 2016 has been a pretty disappointing year for movies. That's exactly why I was so excited when I saw the trailer for Anthropoid (Featuring one of my favorite actors of all time, Cillian Murphy).

  This film is about the assassination of SS officer Reinhard Heydrich. From what I've heard, the true story is followed pretty accurately, and I really believe that this film did it justice. The acting is top notch, across the board, the cinematography is non-showy and simplistic, and they really take time to flesh out their characters without using exposition. This film shows the true horrors of war on a big and small scale, and really demonstrated the humanity of these soldiers who were put in charge of such a dangerous, controversial mission. I liked how every scene was intentional, even in the romance. Everything just felt necessary. 

  That said, while watching the movie I did feel acutely aware of the whole cinematic experience as a whole. It is grounded in that you can take it very seriously, but it is also very polished, perhaps to a fault.

  In the end, Anthropoid is a gripping, honorable look into the history of a fairly unknown mission. 8 out of 10 stars (I'd Buy It)

Suicide Squad Review (2016)

Suicide Squad

  *sighhhhh* My initial reaction after watching this movie was, "It's flawed, but it's not that bad." Then I thought about it a little more and honestly, it really is that bad. 

  If you are a fan of this film, you might want to leave, because I'm about to rip Suicide Squad to shreds. 

  There are soooo many places I could go with this review and so many things I could bash, but I'm going to start with the biggest problem, and that is plot. Oh wait, there is none. The whole first half of this movie is gathering all of these big bad villains to form a team in case a bad version of Superman ever graces the planet. These introductions to the characters are done with the longest, choppiest montage scene in movie history, filled with expository information, and a theme song for each individual character. Not only is this extremely lazy writing, but it's also extremely lazy writing. Not to mention, non of these people are really that evil. They try to get us to sympathize with the characters so much and humanize them, that they lose that sense of evil in the first place. If anything, they're more like anti-heroes, which kind of defeats the whole point of watching a movie about the baddest bad guys.

  Speaking of which, our main bad guy is Enchantress played by Cara Delevingne. Aka, the worst villain of all time. When I first saw her, I thought she looked pretty dang creepy, and I actually liked where they were going with her character. Then suddenly, they decided to go bigger and I guess badder, by turning her into some sort of CGI, half-naked, goddess. All Enchantress did the whole movie was create more CGI slaves and dance weirdly in place. Yeah, you heard me correctly. She belly dances while she creates these CGI slaves. Keep in mind, when I say CGI slaves, I mean, like 2002 bad CGI slaves. Honestly, some of the worst CGI I've seen in recent years. Absolutely horrendous on all accounts.

   If there is any saving grace to this film, it is definitely Will Smith and Margot Robbie. Both actors are charming and charismatic, but they have nothing at all to work with. Their characters are cartoony and their dialogue is ridiculously stupid. It was like their lines were written just to be put on a gif on tumbler. All of this shouldn't be surprising, considering the script was written in six months and then rushed into production. It is very obvious that the studio has little regard for quality, so long as they're making that green. And that's essentially what this film is. It was created to be marketed. They literally devoted more screen time to Harley Quinn's butt, than they did to developing any of the characters. I mean, come on! And don't even get me started on the awful, lazy costume designing.

  Before I end this rant, I will tell you my thoughts on the Joker. A lot of people wanted to see Suicide Squad just because of him, myself included. If that's the case, you'll be severely disappointed. The Joker is hardly in the movie and what we do see of Jared Leto's seemingly solid performance is tampered with by weird, unnecessary editing.

   I know that there are people who had a good time with this movie. To them I say, good for you. We all want different things out of our films. What disappoints me the most, is that Suicide Squad has everything going for it and still misses the mark by a long shot. They went too big where it wasn't necessary, took no time to develop their characters or story, and never raised the stakes high enough for me to care about the end result. 2 out of 10 stars. (Not Very Good)

The Invitation Review (2016)

The Invitation

 So I just found out about this movie recently. Apparently it came out in April as a limited release and was then sent straight to Netflix afterwards. Anyway, I heard some good things, decided to check it out, and I sure am glad I did.

  The Invitation is one of the best psychological thrillers I've seen since Joel Edgerton's The Gift. The film is about a man named Will (played by Logan Marshall-Green) who is invited to a dinner, reunion party with his ex-wife, her new husband, and some old friends. That's as far as I'll go into the story because I don't want to give away spoilers. The less you know the better.

  What was so great about this film was the way tension and paranoia was built. It's kind of a slow burner, but you always feel like you're on the verge of something horrifying happening.

  The pacing is perfect, the characters are interesting and layered. There wasn't a single second of this film where I felt bored. The Invitation is a skillfully executed film with a simplistic story, that is majorly effective. I give it a 9 out of 10 stars. (I'd Buy It On Blu-ray)

Jason Bourne Review (2016)

Jason Bourne

  Holy crap, I've been waiting for this movie to come out ever since the Bourne Ultimatum ended! I'm not one of those people who hated the Jeremy Renner Bourne movie, but I can't say I wasn't happy to see Matt Damon in the role again.

  So, what did I think? Well, this movie is definitely entertaining, fun, and cool, but it lacks one thing that the original trilogy had. That is cleverness. Nothing here feels new or fresh, and that was part of the big appeal of the other films. 

  I've never been a huge fan of Paul Greengrass's directing stylistically, but it never bothered me so much as it did in this film. The overuse of handheld camera in action scenes made it feel like they didn't have anything that good to shoot and so they went for the whole chaotic feel Gary Ross's Hunger Games had. Another thing, was the extreme closeups. It was unnecessary and took me out of the film instead of bringing me into it.

  I'm gonna talk now about some of the new cast; Alicia Vikander and Riz Ahmed. I've had my eye out for both of them after seeing Nightcrawler and Ex Machina. There is no doubt they can act. However, Alicia's accent was all over the place in this movie and Riz just seemed like his character didn't have much to do. 

  I know it sounds like I've been hating a lot on this movie, but in all honesty it isn't bad at all. There is a really cool car chase and some cool hand-to-hand combat. A lot of what they tried to do with the narrative, worked well and was effective on a small scale, but not so effective when they tried to go bigger. For me, I'd give Jason Bourne a 6 out of 10 stars. (Worth Ticket Price)