The Uprising Review

 

So Paul Greengrass famous for the Bourne films is out with a new movie. The biggest question is, is it any good?

The Uprising is an action period drama that's produced by Thank You Pictures and Supernix with Focus Features acting as the distributor. The movie is written and directed by Paul Greengrass.

The story is, it's 1381 and England has yet to recover from the Black Death that killed half the population. To make matters worse King Richard II is only 14 years old making him far too young to rule and he's also far too disturbed because he has nightmares of mobs of demons. When he levies a harsh new poll tax, a young grieving farmer known as the "Ploughman" rallies his fellow exhausted commoners to rebel against their tyrannical ruler.

Initial Reaction

Originally I had no plans to see this movie. But once I saw Greengrass was not only directing but Andrew Garfield (who might I add should have that third Amazing Spider-Man movie) was starring, I decided to give it a watch then give my thoughts.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

One gray area is Greengrass' directing. Now Paul Greengrass is a very good director. He's made some truly good movies such as the previously mentioned Bourne films, United 93, Captain Phillips (which I absolutely loved by the way), and last year's The Lost Bus. Having said that this is one the few times when I wasn't fully feeling his style. I think this is one of those instances where he should've toned down the shaky-cam. Usually I don't mind it too much as long as it's used well, but here it can get a little tiring. There was also the pacing in the middle section of the movie. Pacing during the beginning and ending not too bad. The middle however felt very stretched out. Lastly there's character. Characters such as John Ball and Wat Tyler are pretty good. With Ball we have a preacher with an energy pushing egalitarian ideas. With Tyler we have former soldier bringing a battle-hardened presence. So both have something interesting even though they're pushed to the side most of the time. Then we have King Richard II. He goes from a weak young teen to a more ruthless man with a colder personality. But what about Ploughman you might be asking? Well, he's just more straightforward. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I felt like if Ploughman wasn't mute for most of the time and actually spoke more than we could've gone deeper into his character and motivations.

Pros

Now there's quite a few good things about The Uprising. One of them is the tone. I've heard people complain about the "bleak tone" which is stupid. For crying out loud people the film takes place after a plague nearly wiped out humanity. Nobody's gonna be singing Kumbaya. But I digress. The tone is great because it doesn't romanticize the Peasants' Revolt. Greengrass made the right decision showing us just how brutal and intense this revolt was or supposedly was. I also want to quickly praise Pål Ulvik Rokseth's cinematography. His gloomy style also helped sell just how harsh this atmosphere is. The last thing I'll praise is Andrew Garfield's performance. Despite his character needing more work done, Garfield does a tremendous job with the limited material he had to work. Even though he had to be wordless for a lot of the movie, you can still see and feel the trauma and fury Garfield displays through facial expressions and body language.

Originally I went into this with high expectations and I left not disappointed but more of a feeling of "that was alright."

My final rating is, Okay.

That's gonna wrap things up. Come back on Monday, Sept 14th, for a brand new Fan Film Mondays! For that one I'll be reviewing a Wolverine fan film. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Road to Ice Age: Boiling Point - Ice Age: The Meltdown Review

 

Tuesday I returned to the Road to Avengers: Doomsday. Today I return to this road.

Ice Age: The Meltdown is an animated adventures comedy that's produced by 20th Century Animation and Blue Sky Studios while 20th Century Fox is the distributor. The movie is the sequel to Ice Age thus making this the second entry to the film series. Carlos Saldanha directed while Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow, and Jim Hecht wrote the story.

Speaking of story, sometime after the events of the first film our unlikely trio of Manny, Diego, and Sid are living in a valley along with other mammals. But this peaceful time comes to an end when what the mammals thought was a high ice wall is actually dam and it's barely holding a reservoir. Everyone has three days to get to the other end of the valley and hop on a boat before the flood comes in. During this journey, Manny starts to believe he's the last of his kind until his meets a female mammoth named Ellie and there could possibly be love in the air.

• Negatives

The biggest letdown is our villains of Cretaceous and Maelstrom. Their lack of screen time really hurt them. First they get a very strong introduction, then they attack "The Herd", but then they're gone for a majority of the film and don't show up again until the climax. Because of this structure it's almost easy to forget they're in the movie. Yes, our heroes avoided water as much as they could to avoid them, but the filmmakers still could've given us more. Just so us smaller scenes of them prowling the rising waters or even taking out more background characters. Doing that would've made them even more threatening than feeling like an afterthought.

• Mix

It comes down to the tone. This one is more comedic and action oriented compared to the more quieter first film. Now being both more comedic and action-packed isn't a bad thing it could even help the movie and I did enjoy some of those elements. However I also felt like those elements were more focused on then character development.

• Positives

One positive was the humor. I know I said I was mixed on the tone but there were some comedic moments I found funny. One of my favorites is when "The Lone Gunslinger Vulture" was talking about the good news of the flood. The good news being the more of them die they better he eats, then all of the mammals are just shocked and appalled by what he said and his response is "I didn't say it was good news for you". That was just a great & dark bait and switch moment. 😆

Another good element is the voice acting. Ray Romano, Denis Leary, and John Leguizamo once again provide some fun chemistry both in a serious and comedic sense. And Queen Latifah (plays Ellie) along with the other newest cast members of Seann William Scott (playing Crash) and Josh Peck (playing Eddie) were actually fun additions to the cast as suppose to annoyances like some sequel characters can fall into.

The last thing I'll praise is the animation. The first film's animation was good and things move took some of those aspects and improved them. Characters look sharper and have more movement to them. Meanwhile melting landscapes and flood sequences have great momentum to them.

Ice Age: The Meltdown has its flaws but it's definitely the strongest out of the many sequels.

My final rating is, Okay.

That's gonna do it for me. Come back on Saturday, Sept 12th, for my review of the newest Andrew Garfield movie, The Uprising. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Road to Avengers: Doomsday - Books of Doom Review

Alright folks before we get started, let me explain something. For any of you who read my Mayday post let me just say I'm doing much better than when I uploaded that. So without any further ado, can you believe we're almost at the end of this Road to Avengers: Doomsday? It felt like I only started doing this a couple of weeks ago then months ago.

Books of Doom is a 2005-2006 six issues miniseries published by Marvel Comics. It was written by one of my many favorite writers Ed Brubaker and every issue was drawn by Pablo Raimondi.

The story is, Doctor Doom is recounting his life story to a journalist. About how he rose up from childhood tragedy to the great ruler of Latveria the world sees today. But, the true story might not be exactly as how Doom is telling it.

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

Got nothing here either.

• Positives

One positive is the pacing. Not only are these quick reads, but if you ever read the collected edition that flow is even better because it's far more continuous. What also helped with the pacing is each issue pretty much a self-contained story. So if you finish issue one it won't feel like you absolutely need to read issue two because the story felt like it's on pause for the next part.

My next praise goes to Raimondi's art. I wasn't aware of Raimondi's work until I read this and I l liked what he did. His figure work is strong, his expressions on the faces are really good, and his details from settings to time periods to Doom's armor all get a thumbs up.

The last thing I'll praise is Ed Brubaker's writing. Firstly, we've seen Doctor Doom's origin explored before in comics one being Fantastic Four (1961) Annual #2, but you don't have to read that to understand this story. If you're a new reader you can just jump right into this with no prior knowledge to other Doctor Doom stories. But what I especially loved was how Brubaker framed this story. Because Doom has either the biggest or top five biggest egos in the Marvel Universe, Doom is an unreliable narrator. This was a smart because much while stories like Interlude gave us a glimpse, this comic goes even deeper into Doom's arrogance, self-justification, convince of his own superiority, and just how much he views himself as the hero. He quite literally twists events to make sure his image isn't destroyed. One example was in the first issue where during a funeral for a family member he lost at a young age, there's people not saying the nicest things about the deceased and Doom says he gave a speech that brought them back to their senses, back to the light. When in actuality he threatened them. And that's only one example of his grandiose delusions.

I strongly recommend you read this before seeing Avengers: Doomsday. It's not only a great dive into Doom's origin but a great dive into Doom's mind.

My final rating is, A Must Read!

So that's all for now. Sorry for posting this pretty late but...I really wanted to watch the newest episode of Dark Side of the Cage 😅. But anyhow, come back on Thursday, Sept 10th, for when I do part two of the Road to Ice Age: Boiling Point. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Mayday Review is Canceled

 

Hey guys, so as the title says I've canceled my review for Mayday.

Why? Well truth be told I haven't been feeling good, I'm sick. I've tried to watch the movie and all I wind up doing is falling asleep. Sure it's on streaming and I go always rewind, but there's also the fact I've been coughing, blowing my nose, sore throat and etc.

Lucky me I got a summer cold! So instead of constantly fighting this illness and trying to review movies I'm just gonna focus on getting better.

I just wanted to keep you updated and also apologize. I'm so sorry I couldn't get you a review it's a real bummer for me cause I said I deliver and sadly I didn't. So once again I'm sorry.

Once again I apologize. But come back on Tuesday, yes, Tuesday, Sept 8th, for my return to the Road to Avengers: Doomsday. But why Tuesday? Cause sick or not I'm gonna enjoy Labor Day. Until then, enjoy the rest of day and Happy Labor Day tomorrow.

A Look Back at The Social Network

 

Now it's a bit earlier to be doing this review. Because this movie's sequel (The Social Reckoning) is coming in October but since I mostly do horror films during that month, it'd be best to review this now. So enough of the BS let's get to it.

The Social Network is a biographical drama based on the 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich. Production was done by Columbia Pictures, Relativity Media, Scott Rudin Productions, Michael De Luca Productions and Trigger Street Productions with Sony Pictures Releasing acting as distributor. David Fincher directed while Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay.

The story is, back in 2003, Mark Zuckerberg gets dumped by his girlfriend. He then gets drunk and angrily insults her on LiveJournal. He continues his drunken antics by making a website that ranks female college students by attractiveness but he had to hack into the college's website to get the photos. At first this is just a stupid idea that gets him in loads of trouble, but soon it'll be Zuckerberg's first step into creating Facebook. However this journey will cost Zuckerberg many relationships and friends.

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

I continue to have nothing. So just move to the next part.

• Positives

One positive is the pacing. The movie is two hours long and despite the heavy driven dialogue and lawsuit drama the movie didn't feel like two hours at all. This was pretty much a breeze to get through.

Speaking of dialogue I gotta give props to Aaron Sorkin. All of the dialogue is very engaging. It doesn't matter if the characters are talking about computer coding, building a website, intellectual property disputes, or maybe just personal drama, Sorkin made it fun. And there's also some pretty funny quotes to. Like there was this one scene where Divya and the Winklevoss twins are talking about Zuckerberg and the conversation goes...

Cameron Winklevoss: What, do you want to hire an IP lawyer and sue him?

Divya Narendra: No, I want to hire the Sopranos to beat the shit out of him with a hammer!

Tyler Winklevoss: We don't even have to do that.

Cameron Winklevoss: That's right.

Tyler Winklevoss: We can do that ourselves. I'm 6'5", 220, and there's two of me.

Then we have the story itself. This isn't treated as a big humongous success story filled with happiness and cheers. Instead this is a story about ambition, friendship, loyalty, jealousy, a desire for recognition, and the cost of building one's own empire. While the origin of Facebook is still there and driving the story, this is primarily about how Mark Zuckerberg stepped over people to get to be the guy who's solely credited as being the creator of Facebook. Because of that we see how his actions hurt people and how they didn't take it lightly. Hell, Zuckerberg's story doesn't by any means get a happy ending. So even though we all love a success story, it's also good to watch stories like this because they can serve as a cautionary tale.

Now it's time for me to praise the performances. Starting with Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg. I remember when this came out back in 2010 and I remember folks praising his performance as being slightly ruthless. And admittedly I joked about it like "Really? The dorky guy from Adventureland & Zombieland is ruthless? Yeah right." But now I'd like to criticize 2010 me for being so ignorant. Because Eisenberg is incredible. It was fascinating to watch him play someone who's more socially tone-deaf and ruthlessly career focused than what he's usually type casted as. Then we have a pre-Spider-Man/known named Andrew Garfield also kill it. He was great at playing a loyal friend but he was incredible when his character [Eduardo Saverin] felt betrayed and wants everything returned to him. Even Justin Timberlake is great in this. He was just as charismatic and fun to watch perform as Eisenberg & Garfield were.

The last thing I'll is David Fincher's directing. I've loved Fincher work since I watched a TV airing of Fight Club many years ago and since then I just can't get enough of the guy's work. Fincher is phenomenal and his work on this film is no different. The guy took a movie about website coding and made it a gripping drama. Not to mention but Fincher does an amazing job showing Zuckerberg's disconnect from others by using dim lighting, distant framing, and muted color palette. Even college dorms are treated more like calculated labs than something cozy. Which works because Fincher understood this is as I said before a cautionary tale about ambition and not a feel good story.

The Social Network definitely earns its praise as one of our modern masterpieces. Who would've thought a story about Facebook could be so compelling. Hopefully The Social Reckoning will be too when it comes out next month.

My final rating is, A Must Watch!

That's gonna do it for me. Come back on Saturday, Sept 5th, for my review of the newest Ryan Reynolds' movie, Mayday. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

The Dog Stars & Buddy Review

 

That's right folks. I'm challenging myself and review two recently released movies at once. Why? Well truth be told I wanted to see them both and I thought of making two separate reviews for but by the time I did one of them wouldn't have been recent. So I decided to do this instead. Now let's get started with The Dog Stars.

The Dog Stars is a sci-fi action thriller based on Peter Heller's 2012 novel of the same name that's produced by 20th Century Studios and Scott Free Productions with the former also being the distributor. Mark L. Smith wrote the screenplay while Ridley Scott directed.

The story is, in 2035 it's been many years since a devastating pandemic almost wiped out humanity. Two who survived the pandemic are Hig and Bangley who share a pragmatic alliance. One night after a tragedy Hig hears a faint, hopeful voice on the airplane radio and is now driven by the possibility that a safe haven exist. During this journey he'll encounter many new faces and dangerous scavengers all of which he will make him decide if human connection is worth the risk.

Initial Reaction

I've got a very simple reason as to why I wanted to see this, I'm a Ridley Scott fan. The guy's made numerous hits and films that can be best described as decent. But no matter where the quality pendulum swings Ridley Scott makes sure everyone of his films look amazing.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

It all comes from the story. Now I did enjoy the themes of grief, connection, and how it told a tale of choosing to be something more human than just purely being a survivalist. However while those themes added a needed lair the story doesn't really offer anything new to the post-apocalyptic genre. You get familiar tropes like the isolated home, marauders, and so on and so forth. Which I didn't hate, it's just the execution was just decent.

Pros

First thing I'll touch on is Jacob Elordi's performance. Last time I saw this guy act was in Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein movie from last year. He killed it in that and here's it's no different. Now of course he's playing a different character that being Hig, but Elordi's performance was great. He brought both grieving and a quiet soul to the role. So after watching him in this and the previously mentioned del Toro film, can we please get him in more stuff? Seriously Hollywood, you always looking for new stars so here's one right now right in front of your face. Now I want to give cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt credit for his work. I don't recall ever seeing his previous work but if it's as great as this then I need to check out more of his stuff. Because despite the environment in this movie's world not looking the best because, you know, humanity going near extinction, Messerschmidt delivers strong aerial work during flight scenes, a good sense of empty landscapes, and a lot of times beautiful imagery. The last thing I'll praise is Ridley Scott's directing. Scott's veteran experience gave the movie a polished yet old fashioned moody weight that I imagine will capture audience members attention.

So that was The Dog Stars and it's not too bad. There's plenty to enjoy but don't expect it to be something that sets the post-apocalyptic genre on fire.

My final rating is, a low Good.

Now let's move on to the next movie.

Buddy is a black comedy supernatural horror movie. Low Spark Films & BoulderLight Pictures produced while Roadside Attractions & Saban Films distributed. Casper Kelly directed and wrote the story with Jamie King.

The story is, on the surface the kids' show It's Buddy is gentle and educational program where children play and learn along with a giant talking unicorn named Buddy. But the kids will soon need to find a way to escape this world when Buddy turns into a brutal nightmare.

Initial Reaction

The reason for wanting to see this one is because since reviewing The Banana Splits Movie reviewing horror movies where something is child friendly is turned into a nightmare is pretty much my blogs tradition 😆. So I couldn't skip out on this one.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

It's the structure. For a while you jump between the It's Buddy world and the real world. So because of this back and forth you get this almost stop and start momentum. It didn't damage the movie too much for me so I think this can be forgiven.

Pros

Let's start off with how committed the crew was to this project. Now yes, we've seen the whole wholesome children's show is actually a nightmarish hell many times. However I gotta praise Kelly and co. for going all out. When watching this I couldn't help but get a Barney vibe from the setting. Well, if Barney was actually a murderous control freak who could snap at any moment but I think you get the idea. I also wanna praise the tone. Like I said before this is a black comedy movie and there are plenty of laughs to be had. But then the movie can effortlessly get pretty intense. So intense I actually wanted a talking backpack to survive 😆. The last thing I'll credit is performances especially to the voice cast. Patton Oswalt actually makes you care about Strappy (the talking backpack I mentioned earlier) but more importantly Keegan-Michael Key was great as Buddy. I had no idea that was him. He just gets into this character and does amazing. Which also makes me think I should also give praise to Buddy's suit actor Sergey Zhuravsky. While Key gives Buddy a voice, Zhuravsky gives Buddy a body language that one point can be charming but then within a snap of a finger can also alert you that Buddy's gonna go crazy.

Buddy is actually a pretty good time. Sure the structure could've used more of a polish but it's still an entertaining movie.

My final rating is, Good.

Now I don't plan to make this a recurring thing, but if there's two movies that I truly want to see back-to-back then I'll think about reviewing them both. But that's gonna do it for me. Come back on Thursday, Sept 3rd, for my A Look Back at review of The Social Network. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Coyote vs. Acme Review

 

Alright, much like the Snyder Cut fans the fans of this movie fought hard to get this released. Fingers crossed their efforts were worth it.

Coyote vs. Acme is an animated and live-action comedy movie based on the 1990 The New Yorker magazine article Coyote v. Acme by Ian Frazier. Warner Animation Group, Troll Court Entertainment, and Keylight Productions worked on the production while Ketcup Entertainment was the distributor. The writers are Samy Burch, Jeremy Slater, and James Gunn while the director is Dave Green.

The story is, Coyote has been using Acme products to hunt down the Road Runner for years and he's finally had enough of their constantly failing goods. So Coyote is suing Acme Corporation for selling him faulty products. But Acme has other plans in mind to make sure they win no matter what they've gotta do.

Initial Reaction

Originally when I read the news that Warner Bros. shelved this I thought that was the end. Then I saw people fight to get this released and I did root for them, whether they succeed was gonna be a different story. Then to me shock the fans won yet again. Like I said this story was very similar to the Snyder Cut movement. Both fans saw a film being shelved, both thought that wasn't right, both fought with hashtags & protest, and in the end the fans won. So now I was excited and wanted to show support both to the people who made the movie and the fans who helped get it released.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

The mix bag is the human characters. The whole two people are gonna care about is Kevin Avery (played by Will Forte) and Buddy Crane (played by John Cena). Kevin actually has a really good story arc. He's a lawyer who settles with settlements because he's afraid to go after the big risky trails in fear of losing and being labeled a loser. So when Wile E. Coyote a guy who does nothing but lose but keeps pushing enter his life, he's fear is challenged. As for Buddy Crane, I didn't find him the most compelling villain but I did find him entertaining due to John Cena bringing a comedic energy to the role. So even if Buddy isn't the most interesting villain at least he was entertaining. As for the rest of the human characters I didn't really care. They were just...meh.

Pros

One praise I'll give is the humor. I had a really good laugh with this movie. Some jokes might not have worked, but for the most part I really enjoyed some of the jokes, gags, and what I imagine was unintentional satire of a big corporation trying to keep a little guy down. Then their hybrid of live-action and animation. The effects whether both practical or digital were greatly done. The Tunes are very convincing whether they're sitting in chairs, light bounces off of them, shadows fall on them, or they collide with actual sets and props. It also added some fun world building because not only can Tunes interact with real stuff, but humans can also interact with Tunes logical. Kind of like Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The last thing I'll credit is Will Forte, John Cena, and Eric Bauza. Forte really made Kevin Avery a sympathetic character by highlighting how beaten down the character acts and as I said before Cena brings a lot of fun comedic energy for his characters. As for Bauza, man was this guy doing a lot of heavy lifting for the Looney Tunes characters. He was playing Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Porky Pig, Pepé Le Pew (who I'm surprised Warner Bros. allowed to be here despite some bullshit of not having him in Space Jam 2), Marvin the Martin and many others. And he did a really good job with all of them and I hope he gets more credit for his work as the movie hopefully gets more attention.

Guys, Coyote vs. Acme was worth the wait. I say you should go see it either by yourself, with your significant other, or with your family. It's a fun time.

My final rating is, Great.

That's gonna do it for me. Come back on Monday, Aug 31st, for my review of both Ridley Scott's newest film The Dog Stars & the new horror movie Buddy. That's right I'm gonna challenge myself and review two recently released movies back-to-back. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and please go see Coyote vs. Acme. Like I said a lot of people fought to get this released so show them some support.