Matt Reviews Things

‘The Cabin in the Woods’ is a horror/comedy hybrid from the minds of Joss Whedon, the revered creator of shows like ‘Firefly’, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, and ‘Dollhouse’, and Drew Goddard, the first-time director and previous writer of ‘Cloverfield’ and some episodes of ‘Lost’. I believe, like many movies, ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ is at it’s best knowing little to nothing about what the movie actually is about going into it. Since I think that is especially the case here, my review might come off slightly vague and brief, but just trust me when I tell you it’s better for you than getting spoiled.

The film follows a group of 5 friends that go out for a fun weekend to a cousin’s cabin, located in the middle of nowhere in the mountains and stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth(‘Thor’), and Fran Kranz(‘Dollhouse’). Things are obviously not what they seem initially, and ‘Cabin’ does a nice job of making it’s mark on stereotypes in the horror genre. It is paced very well and throws you quickly into it’s slightly peculiar world and trusts that you will hang with it for a little bit to figure out the secrets that are hiding beneath the generic premise.

I’ve seen the movie twice now already, and really enjoyed it both times. I will say that it wasn’t quite as enjoyable the second time, since I knew what was happening and all of the upcoming surprises. It was still a fun though, and definitely benefits from the theater experience and being in a large group where everyone is reacting to the twists as you are. I would highly recommend ‘The Cabin In The Woods’ to anyone who has a remote interest in the horror genre.

I give ‘The Cabin In The Woods’ a 4 out of 5.

‘The Adventures of Tintin’ is the other Steven Spielberg directed feature that came out in the days around Christmas of 2011, and although ‘War Horse’ received more critical acclaim, I prefer ‘Tintin’. ‘Tintin’ is based on a comic that is not well known in America, but is much more popular in Europe and the movie has done much better there then here. The film follows the story of Tintin, a young reporter that stumbles across a puzzle with clues to an ancient hidden treasure. Unlike ‘War Horse’, ‘Tintin’ moves along at a nice pace and some of the actors feel more believable and less stilted, even though it’s all motion capture.

I wasn’t sure about the motion capture going in, as I haven’t been the biggest fan of it in the past, but ‘Tintin’ is beautiful to look at. The facial expressions were able to emit genuine emotion into the characters which felt very natural and far less animated than I expected. Since it was animated, some of the shots they are able to do and transitions between scenes are really well thought out and look quite stunning. The 3D didn’t seem to add enough to justify itself. The movie is beautiful to look at, but will keep it’s positive qualities in 2D as well, so don’t feel like you need to go the 3D route.

The teaming of Spielberg and Peter Jackson as the producer seems like it payed off well, along with having great writers in Edgar Wright(‘Hot Fuzz’), Joe Cornish(‘Attack the Block’), and Steven Moffat(‘Doctor Who’).  The voice cast is great too, and full of British stars like Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and motion capture superstar Andy Serkis. Ultimately, ‘Tintin’ is a fun, Indiana Jones-esque adventure story that is humorous, compelling, and visually interesting. 

I give ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ a 4 out of 5.

‘A Better Life’ is an enjoyable character drama about a Hispanic single father who is trying to give his son all the opportunities he never had by doing whatever it takes to get by. Demian Bichir plays the illegal immigrant, and portrays a strong emotional performance about a father’s love. I’m not alone in thinking he did an outstanding job though, as he received an Oscar nomination for Best Lead Actor. The rest of the cast isn’t nearly as strong, but Bichir is luckily most of the focus in the film

It was interesting to see the story of an illegal immigrant who gets taken advantage of, but will do whatever it takes to give his son a good life. Director Chris Weitz(‘About a Boy’, ‘New Moon’) does a good job of laying out the drama, although at times some of the actors around Bichir feel a little cheesy and stereotyped. While nothing revolutionary, ‘A Better Life’ is a better character drama than most, and an interesting story to think about afterwards.

I give ‘A Better Life’ a 3 out of 5.

‘War Horse’ is one of two movies(‘The Adventures of Tintin’) from legendary Steven Spielberg that came out over Christmas weekend in 2011. As the name implies, the film follows the life of a particular horse as he is sold to the cavalry unit and put in the middle of battle during World War 1. After some time, Albert (Jeremy Irvine), the farm boy that raises the horse, enlists in the war to try and meet up again with his beloved steed.

The movie starts off very slow as we watch the life at the farm for ‘Joey’, the horse. It picks up a bit when the war is introduced and I thought may salvage a little of the pacing, but succumbs to the dragging 2 hour and 40 minute time-frame and stalls for a while. While there are some interesting events taking place here and there, it is all wrapped in such a cliched and stereotyped fashion that nothing will really catch you off guard as the story progresses. I know I have a moderate amount of patience, but I’m really nervous that I am constantly thinking that films are stretching their stories too thin and dragging out their run-times.

As far as the look of the film, ‘War Horse’ is very classicaly cinematic with it’s war scenes. The visuals are bothersome at times though, as they look extrememly over-produced. The bright, evenly lit faces stand out as feeling like a cheaper film, and I could swear that shots looked green screened or on a set, especially at the farm. It still pulls off the look and feel of a very classic, sweeping epic overall.

There are a lot of little known, but high quality actors populating the world of ‘War Horse’. Albert, the brooding farm boy, is played by Jeremy Irvine in his debut feature film in a performance that I would say is overall good yet occasionally sappy, but I think the writing and directing are to blame more for that. He is surrounded by rising stars Benedict Cumberbatch(Sherlock) and Tom Hiddleston(Thor), supporting actors David Thewlis(Harry Potter series) and Niels Arestrup(A Prophet), and an actresses I really enjoy, Emily Watson(Equilibrium, Punch Drunk Love). Those 5 supporting roles all seemed to mostly rise above the cheesiness of the script, much more so than most of the other unknown actors filling out some of the other roles. That wasn’t helped from an odd film-making choice by Spielberg to have everyone in the film speak basically fluent English. Traveling through war-torn Europe and following bands of British, French, and German soldiers, and all of them sounding similar was very strange and off-putting.

All that said, ‘War Horse’ is not an inheritly bad movie. There is a level of entertainment value and spectacle to relish in to justify a ‘popcorn flick’ rating. The problem for me comes from the fact that this is being hailed as one of the best movies of 2011 with it’s Oscar nominations and overall high critical marks. I could easily have enjoyed this movie more by sitting back with a couple of friends and cracking jokes about it as it played ‘Mystery Science Theater’ style.

I give ‘War Horse’ a 2.5 out of 5.

‘The Iron Lady’ is a biopic of sorts about Margaret Thatcher, the legendary British Prime Minister during the end of the Cold War. In an odd choice, the movie chooses to tell Thatcher’s life story by having her relive memories of her life as she struggles to figure out what was and is real. Thatcher comes across as a depressing, senile old woman who has trouble coping with life after her husband’s death, and still seems to believe she is the Prime Minister at times.

The only redeemable part of the movie is the performance of Meryl Streep. As it seems she tends to do, Streep masterfully embodies the character of the British Prime Minister and is a commanding presence on the screen. Jim Broadbent also has a nice role as Thatcher’s dead husband that gets to live on in her confused mind. While the acting is solid, ‘The Iron Lady’ does little to say anything about the polarizing public figure, and ultimately ended with me wondering why I spent my hour and half watching a sad and depressing old lady who seemed like at one point, had some good ideas and stood up for her thoughts no matter the political consequence. Too bad the movie couldn’t capitalize on the strengths of it’s performers more.

I give ‘The Iron Lady’ a 2.5 out of 5.

Oscar front-runner ‘The Artist’ follows the story of George Valentin(Jean Dujardin), a silent film era actor who is on top of the world. However, with the invention of ‘talkies’ and a new wave of stars, George struggles to make the transition to the modern style of filming. Personal complications arise as well, when he meets Peppy Miller(Bernice Bejo), an eager young actress trying to catch a break and make it in Hollywood.

While not necessarily ‘original’, you have to give ‘The Artist’ a lot of credit for taking a unique approach to film that we rarely see anymore. The silent film style is very appealing, with an instant nostalgic and happy feeling washing over you as you watch the miming actors. Writer/director Michel Hazanavicius does a great job of making not only the costumes and locations look authentic to the time period, but the shooting style and general look of the film too.

It’s hard to judge the actors, as it is a very different skill to get across emotion without words. I felt like at times the actors in ‘The Artist’ just come across as overacting mimes, but I enjoyed them overall. I think Jean Dujardin in particular is very warm and welcoming when he is happy and emotes his despair and frustration well too. I agree with him being Oscar nominated for Best Lead Actor and would not be surprised at all to see him win. Bernice Bejo does a great job to help carry the film, and the supporting cast fills in the rest of the background nicely with names like James Cromwell, Malcolm McDowell, and John Goodman. Oh, and of course, Uggie, the little Jack Russell terrier does a phenomenal job too.

The downside for me was in the general story. It is very basic, so much so that I think the movie feels like it is stretched thin. I was very surprised that the film was an hour and a half as it felt like it could use some tightening. I understand that it would be a very hard task to get across a lot of plot points without being able to speak, but that was the choice of the filmmakers to deploy that style. They have to justify shooting a feature length film, and I think that they barely get by with it. I could have easily lost a few of the skulking scenes and loved to see the movie right at an hour, but I think it still works well enough in the end.

Overall, ‘The Artist’ is a very good film and it’s very understandable that it is the favorite to win Best Picture. It’s hard not to compare with ‘Singin’ In the Rain’, since the time period, characters, and storyline are all very similar. They are very different though, as ‘The Artist’ sticks to it’s guns being a silent film throughout. But at the end of the day, this has just urged me to watch ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ again.

I give ‘The Artist’ a 4 out of 5.

Oh ‘The Walking Dead’, I respect you so much for bringing zombies to a weekly cable tv series but we sure have had some tough times along the way. I loved the ideas behind the show in the beginning, when every episode was a new zombie adventure of the week. Up until the latest episode (#9 ‘Triggerfinger’) I had really grown disinterested in the series in general, forgetting entirely that it was on for a few weeks. There were some good moments in the first half of the season, but they sure were spaced out and surrounded by monotony.

There was far too much time spent searching for Sophia, and far too many soap opera-esque dialouge scenes sitting around the house. Luckily, episode #9 has really raised the stakes, causing the show to resemble the first few episodes of the series and bringing the original excitment back to the audience. With the windshield zombie scene, the new captive, and the eerie suggestion being made at the end of the episode, ‘The Walking Dead’ seems to have found it’s creative juices again. I just hope that the final four episodes of this 2nd season can carry on with the intensity, or I may be reserved to return to the show immediately in the Fall.

Like ‘The Ides of March’, but British, ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ is an acting showcase. Unlike George Clooney’s movie however, ‘Tinker’ pays off it’s set up much cleaner and leaves you with a complete story, not a cliffhanger. Set during the Cold War, the head of MI6 believes that the Russians have flipped one of his top cabinet members as a spy. Power changes hands and George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is brought in to track down the mole. Each man is given a codename, ‘Tinker’, ‘Tailor’, ‘Soldier’, and ‘Poorman’. One of these men is suspected of being the ‘Spy’ and the movie sets it so that the spy really could be any of the men that are shown as options from the beginning.You really aren’t sure who the mole is until the end. 

This is a bleak, almost depressing look at what it would be like to be a spy. It’s a far more realistic look at the Cold War era espionage front than any James Bond film will ever be. With the light amount of action, comes quick dialouge scenes that get shuffled through rapidly. ‘Tinker’ is definitely not very forgiving to the viewer, and if you don’t stay alert, it would be easy to get lost in the story. There are a lot of characters names thrown around, several major events, and a timeline that hops around a bit with flashbacks. Rarely, if ever, does ‘Tinker’ slow down and spell out what is going on and who to watch for like most ‘mainstream’ spy films.

Gary Oldman has deservedly been nominated for Best Lead Actor, as he heads up a great ensemble of recognizable British actors. Oldman’s character Smiley is calm and calculated, the wise retired agent who is brought in to meticulously analyze the potential double agents. So much emotion is shown from Oldman even though he is so subtle and muted. Character actors Toby Jones(Infamous, Frost/Nixon), Ciaran Hines(Munich, Road to Perdition), and David Dencik(The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) are joined by last year’s Best Lead Actor winner, Colin Firth(The King’s Speech) as the subjects in question. Filling out the ensemble are British villain staple Mark Strong(Sherlock Holmes, The Guard), Hollywood’s new obsession Tom Hardy(Inception, Warrior), and the legendary John Hurt(Alien, The Elephant Man).

There is no denying that ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ is somewhat slowly paced. But where it doesn’t have flashy action scenes, gadgets, or Bond girls, ‘Tinker’ makes up for it with its overall atmosphere. The director, Tomas Alfredson, brings a unique feel to the spy genre with his shot selection and location choices much like he did to vampire films with ‘Let the Right One In’. The style helps get across the feeling that the movie isn’t really focused on who the spy is, but more the bleak and depressing toll that living in the espionage world of double crossing will take on you.

I give ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ a 4.5 out of 5.

In Pixar’s weakest year in the last decade, Nickelodeon’s ‘Rango’ has slipped in and is looked at as the front runner to take this year’s Best Animated Feature award at the Oscar’s. There are a lot of reasons for that, as the movie plays on classic western genre ideas, has a great voice cast, and is very visually appealing. While I enjoyed the movie, I feel like the story is a little lacking to put it up there against previous winners like Up or Toy Story 3.

‘Rango’ is an animated comedy about an out of place lizard(Johnny Depp) trying to find his way in an old, dusty town called Dirt in the middle of the desert. The lizard takes on the name Rango after accidentally saving the town from a menacnig bird, only to be appointed as the sheriff and looked upon to now save the people from there impending water shortage.

As I said before, there are a lot of well done elements of ‘Rango’. Johnny Depp’s voice fits right in as the oddball lizard, and he’s assited by great talent like Isla Fisher, Stephen Root, Bill Nighy, and Ned Beatty as the town’s mayor, among others. Gore Verbinski takes his experience from directing the ‘Pirates’ trilogy and brings a big-budgeted, live-action feel to the animated film that leads to great results visually. The backgrounds, coloring, and character design are really well done, and set the movie apart by staying in 2-D during the craze to convert everything possible to another dimension.

The downside of ‘Rango’ for me was the overall story. I enjoyed the classic Western tropes that the movie references and plays with, but I felt too often that I was just following along Rango through lightly tied together events that were only there to serve short-term purposes like parodying a Sergio Leone film or a simply one-off joke. For that matter, I felt like the movie tried to play to broadly to both an adult and kid audience. With a PG rating, it’s obvious a lot of the humor is meant for a younger crowd, but the references and some of the subject matter are clearly meant to go over kid’s heads. 

It surprises me too how much violence was used in the movie as well. I know that it is set in the Western genre, but every encounter seemed to end in a gun-blazing shootout, with seemingly every character involved at some point. That was a problem for me as well, as I felt like they were trying to achieve a ‘summer blockbuster’ quota of action scenes, and the climax of the movie gets a crazy just to make things look bigger. Throughout all of action, I never really felt too connected to any of the characters, and ultimately just felt like I was along for the ride.

I give ‘Rango’ a 3 out of 5.

The ‘Ides of March’ follows a democratic primary on the verge of a close and vital Ohio campaign. George Clooney directs the film and stars as Presidential hopeful Gov. Mike Morris, who stands by his straight shooting guns while his campaign managers try to figure out how to keep him in the lead as the politcal game starts getting dirty. The movie portrays the trials and tribulations of politics, and how easy it is to fall into the ‘political’ side of things and not stay true to your values.

Ultimately, the film is an actor’s showcase. George Clooney has a major role but Ryan Gosling as a campaign consultant really leads the film. On top of that powerhouse duo, you have two of my favorite actors of this era in Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti playing rival campaign managers. If that’s not enough, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei, and Jeffrey Wright round out the extremely strong ensemble of characters. The cast is really where the movie shines and is reason enough to catch the film.

The story moved along at a great pace too. An hour and 40 minutes went by really fast and this was one of the few times for a drama that I really thought there could be another half hour and it would have felt fine. The downside is that ‘Ides’ doesn’t really go anywhere or do anything original. The most obvious path is the turn the film takes, and while I enjoyed the ride, I was left wanting it to go deeper. That feeling wasn’t helped by the abruptness of the ending. Not sure where I would have wanted the ending to go, but the abruptness of the choice they take was offputting and ultimately knocks the movie back a peg for me.

I give ‘The Ides of March’ a 3 out of 5.