There is not a lot more that I can say about Cabin in the Woods that hasn't been said already. The movie has been praised by critics as being one of the best horror movies ever made and one of the best movies of the year. I love a good horror movie but the problem is the horror genre has fell flat in the last...20 years! I was incredibly excited for Cabin in the Woods to say the least. Cabin in the Woods is inventive, funny, scary, exciting, and a movie that seems tp draw from the horror genre while redefining it simultaneously. The trailer gives absolutely nothing away which seems to be its curse and its edge. Many people think this looks like just another mindless horror movie with teenagers getting slashed but wait! There's a twist...a force field is keeping them in. Stupid. I admit I felt the same way until the buzz around this movie was incredibly positive. The trailer doesn't let us see just how unreal this movie is because it is so different if it showed anything more we wouldn't be surprised and it wouldn't be as fun. That is so refreshing and I hope this movie finds large success from word of mouth because its so damn entertaining. Cabin in the Woods has the basic premise of a group of college students going on a vacation to, where else, the Cabin in the Woods of course. Without ruining anything like the trailer didn't, Ill just say they run into trouble unlike anything you have ever seen in a movie before. Cabin in the woods is fast paced with no drawn out sections like many scary movies. The movie has just as many scares as it has laughs from beginning to end. It feels like a sattire because the movie is funny and you can see many different movies in Cabin in the Woods but it is not. It just feels like a sattire because it is so different in such a great way. This movie isn't the scariest movie by any means but this is a game changer type of movie (I hope). Filmmakers of the past horror movies should feel ashamed and future ones should take note. There is no need to rely on blood and gore for scares, but suspense and a care for the character in the scene. Many horror movies must take themselves less seriously and learn to let the audience laugh a little bit and have fun. Unless of course another Rosemary's Baby or The Exorcist comes along again, and the horror movies Hollywood has been putting out lately gives no indication of that. I have been praising this entire time with no real description of the movie because I want you all to just go and see it. Trust me. I watched the first showing played in the city and I am going again tomorrow morning. Do not read anything about the movie and if a commercial coms on about it change the channel. This is a public service announcement. This is one of the most entertaining movies I have ever seen and I cant remember a time I had more fun in a theatre.
Reviews
5 Reviews
Haywire
(2011)
Haywire Hits Home
20 January 2012
Many directors attack each screenplay with there own style, actors, score, or other certain signatures. You can tell who is the director just by watching the movie, not the credits. Tarantino, the Coen Brothers, Nolan, Fincher, Eastwood and a select few others have this gift. There are other directors who simply see a great script and know how to adapt it to film better than anyone else can. Spielberg, Jackson and Hooper come to mind. One director comes to mind for myself when it comes to adapting each screenplay as it was written while having a style that is unmistakable. Steven Soderberg. Soderberg has made his mark with very stylistic camera-work, non linear storytelling, and a great score. He has directed straight forward movies telling a story like Erin Brokavich. He has made great time lapsing and non linear movies like Out of Sight starring George Clooney. He has made movies with an elaborate cast and elaborate story telling in the heist Oceans trilogy. He has made his mark receiving multiple Academy Awards for his vast character point of view style movie Traffic. Soderberg really showed the audience his great ear when he directed the underrated Sci-Fi/Drama/Romance? movie Solaris that has a deeply rooted score that becomes almost another character. Contagion is a great realistic disaster with virus movie that combines a vast character base with multiple view points and stylistic camerwork with an unbelievable original score (sure to be ignored by the Academy come award time). All of those movies with different styles resulting from him staying true to the script and still his individuality shines through in such a beautiful way. It seems after all of his achievements he is taking his film making to another level. His most recent movie, Haywire, achieves all of those things that has served him so well and more. A great central character. Just like he had introduced Jennifer Lopez to cinema in 1998 in the fantastic Out of Sight, he introduces a new female lead. MMA star Gina Carano, playing Mallory. Soderberg wraps his stylistic fimmaking and great script around this new star and she is perfect. Without giving away any important details, twists, or turns(and there are plenty) the storyline is fairly basic in essence. A classic agent that has been double crossed and trying to prove her innocence and maybe get a little revenge while she is at it,told through the eyes of Steven Soderberg making the movie clearly unique from the normal model. The movie begins and the story is told from Mallory's point of view telling a young man named Scott (Michael Angarano) whose car she has taken with him still in it. Through this way of storytelling we see her past, her present, and then we catch up to her in the car and see how the rest plays out. Like I said, Soderberg likes his use of non linear time. Carano hold her own acting alongside the likes of Micheal Fassbender, Ewan Macgreggor, Antonio Banderas, Micheal Douglas, Bill Paxton,and more. Pursuing an acting career and having to begin with the likes of these legends and shining through is an impressive feat for Carano to say the least. There are movies with strong female leads but there is an afterthought that they were trying so hard to make the female believably tough. They were making an incredibly sexy and tough lead. Haywire creates Mallory and we see her as a person. We can tell when out of her element she is very nice. When she must fight or kill she is doing it to stay alive, and she isn't killing senselessly like many movies. She doesn't enjoy killing and you can tell thanks to the creation of such a deep character and great performance. Carano is vulnerable and tough and it is makes her incredibly sexy, not simply because she is beautiful. Carano keeps her cool in the viscously tense scenes where someone is simply walking after her. There are follow scenes, chase scenes, escape scenes, and car chases all bringing the audience to the edge of their seat. Each scene made more possible with the highly capable now proved acting chops of Gina Carano as Mallory. This movie does not feel like a movie made for a strong female lead. It feels like an action movie that happens to have a woman for a lead character. The action scenes usually come out of nowhere. They are not jumpy, but unexpected and done beautifully. The scenes are fast paced, long, and most importantly, believable. They are perfectly choreographed which I am sure was easier to do with an MMA star as your tool but still. This gave the film makers a chance to go over the top with it and they made the fighting intense, brutal, and creative while keeping it in reason. Her fighting style was obviously flawless but the audience never gets a sense that there watching a UFC fight. It's also the first movie I have seen where getting knocked out in a tightly gripped leglock seems like a great way to end a night. Haywire has a great cast, a great script, a great breakout lead and a great director doing some of his finest work. I myself am excited to see more Gina Carano in the future even if the movie is the Percy Jackson sequel. To see more reviews rollginreviews@blogspot.com
Shame
(2011)
Raw, Real, Really Great
28 November 2011
Shame is a movie about a New York man, Brandon, (the amazing and underrated Michael Fassbender) trying to live a normal life while keeping his sex life in control. Things become more difficult when Brandon's sister (the great, busy, and beautiful Carey Mulligan) shows up and he is not sure how to fit her in and deal with her in his life during this problem. Shame talks about sex and addiction and how it affects us and the one's we love. Sex addiction is a new subject and a timely one. It is a disorder that is only now being recognized and talked about and this film will only fuel the conversation. Is it really an addiction or the way of man? Is it really a quest for sex or is it the need for need itself? Is sex an emotional weapon, anchor, saviour, or can it be used for all. Are multiple sexual partners completely void of all love or is it the search for it? All of these questions asked and all themes in Shame.
Sex is always a tricky subject even in conversation because it is so subjective. What is something to one person may not be to another, or right and wrong. Shame knows exactly what it is hits the mark beautifully. Mcqueen and Fassbender again make a perfect team, one knowing what he wants to make and the other having the means to transfer that vision. The sex is full frontal, in your face, sometimes passionate and sometimes void of love but it is never gratuitous. It is real.
I believe this movie is so great because of the team and cast putting it together. Any subject can be attempted and I am happy this particular movie and subject matter has the crew that it does. Shame is raw and beautifully artistic without being pretentious. Steve McQueen is the director of Shame and he has only ever had one other directing gig. That movie was Hunger from 2008. Michael Fassbender was also the star in this movie. It was an incredibly powerful movie and an incredible power performance. Steve Mcqueen was a first time director who instantly found his voice in Hunger. The movie shows the IRA in the famous Maze prison and the horrific mistreatment of its prisoners. The movie is elegant, beautiful, touching, sad, and draws you in completely while it is simultaneously gruesome, disgusting, filthy, and horrific. The movie shows the awful things done to them and the disgusting ways they protested until the final half of the film which results in a hunger strike. The movie is completely character driven, yet at the same time has such a artful and passionate voice it becomes more than the characters themselves. Michael Fassbender had one of the best performances of his career, the year, and all time. He had to lose unhealthy amounts of weight for the film. Fass had to show the pain and belief in what he was doing for long scenes without talking, and also had to know enormously lengthy scenes in a different accent. There is a scene with Fass and a priest where they talk as friends about the planned hunger strike. It is about twelve minutes long. A 12 minute long scene with no cut ( if they made a mistake you would have to restart the entire scene) and constant dialogue full of wit and difficult prose. It is the most impressive scenes I have ever seen in a movie. The Academy Awards left Hunger, Mcqueen, and Fassbender unfairly out of the Oscar race. There has been Oscar buzz humming around Shame and I am hoping the Academy doesn't drop the golden statue on this one.
Directors who write and direct their movies have a certain style. You can always know their work because they write in their own way and direct whatever they imagine. Directors like Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), the Coen Brothers (Fargo), and Ritchie (RocknRolla) have a noticeable fashion to their movies. A person could identify one of their movies by watching it without seeing the credits or knowing beforehand. There are certain directors who are amazing and can find a style when they don't write the screenplay, something I myself find just as impressive as writing themselves. Spielberg (Munich), Fincher (The Social Network), Mann (Collateral, and Scorsese (Taxi Driver) are all directors in my mind that have their own recognizable style in all movies. They are able to find a voice regardless of who wrote it and when. Steve Mcqueen I believe is a director who does both. He has co written both Hunger and Shame with different writing partners. Mcqueen has scripts written and he helps to work on it with them to find the best way to get his voice across. Stevey wants a hand in the screenplay and the other writers trust him even with a lack of proved experience.
For other reviews and thoughts visit rollginreviews.blogspot.com
Sex is always a tricky subject even in conversation because it is so subjective. What is something to one person may not be to another, or right and wrong. Shame knows exactly what it is hits the mark beautifully. Mcqueen and Fassbender again make a perfect team, one knowing what he wants to make and the other having the means to transfer that vision. The sex is full frontal, in your face, sometimes passionate and sometimes void of love but it is never gratuitous. It is real.
I believe this movie is so great because of the team and cast putting it together. Any subject can be attempted and I am happy this particular movie and subject matter has the crew that it does. Shame is raw and beautifully artistic without being pretentious. Steve McQueen is the director of Shame and he has only ever had one other directing gig. That movie was Hunger from 2008. Michael Fassbender was also the star in this movie. It was an incredibly powerful movie and an incredible power performance. Steve Mcqueen was a first time director who instantly found his voice in Hunger. The movie shows the IRA in the famous Maze prison and the horrific mistreatment of its prisoners. The movie is elegant, beautiful, touching, sad, and draws you in completely while it is simultaneously gruesome, disgusting, filthy, and horrific. The movie shows the awful things done to them and the disgusting ways they protested until the final half of the film which results in a hunger strike. The movie is completely character driven, yet at the same time has such a artful and passionate voice it becomes more than the characters themselves. Michael Fassbender had one of the best performances of his career, the year, and all time. He had to lose unhealthy amounts of weight for the film. Fass had to show the pain and belief in what he was doing for long scenes without talking, and also had to know enormously lengthy scenes in a different accent. There is a scene with Fass and a priest where they talk as friends about the planned hunger strike. It is about twelve minutes long. A 12 minute long scene with no cut ( if they made a mistake you would have to restart the entire scene) and constant dialogue full of wit and difficult prose. It is the most impressive scenes I have ever seen in a movie. The Academy Awards left Hunger, Mcqueen, and Fassbender unfairly out of the Oscar race. There has been Oscar buzz humming around Shame and I am hoping the Academy doesn't drop the golden statue on this one.
Directors who write and direct their movies have a certain style. You can always know their work because they write in their own way and direct whatever they imagine. Directors like Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), the Coen Brothers (Fargo), and Ritchie (RocknRolla) have a noticeable fashion to their movies. A person could identify one of their movies by watching it without seeing the credits or knowing beforehand. There are certain directors who are amazing and can find a style when they don't write the screenplay, something I myself find just as impressive as writing themselves. Spielberg (Munich), Fincher (The Social Network), Mann (Collateral, and Scorsese (Taxi Driver) are all directors in my mind that have their own recognizable style in all movies. They are able to find a voice regardless of who wrote it and when. Steve Mcqueen I believe is a director who does both. He has co written both Hunger and Shame with different writing partners. Mcqueen has scripts written and he helps to work on it with them to find the best way to get his voice across. Stevey wants a hand in the screenplay and the other writers trust him even with a lack of proved experience.
For other reviews and thoughts visit rollginreviews.blogspot.com
Roldy and Kumar and Great 3D!
16 November 2011
To put it simply, Harold and Kumar was incredibly funny. The movie is set six years after they escape from G bay (you must ignore the fact they haven't aged). For me to say this was just another Harold and Kumar movie would be unfair. I loved the first one. Simple premise with many jokes and characters along the way. Half of what made it funny was the fact Roldy and Kumar were going through this hell just to have some fast food. Escape from G bay had funny moments but them escaping a maximum security prison holding war criminals to reach America and regain their innocence? It was a little much. Don't get me wrong I still liked it but it felt like that magic was gone with the simplicity of the first. So when I saw the third was about to come out and it was a "christmas special" I felt hopeful for a good one but not confident.
The third instalment had that simplicity again. Yes, there was new characters and the 3D was new but they all worked so perfectly. Yes certain things were dumb and even weird like the fake baby Jesus winking at me or a coked up baby running around on the ceiling but its that kind of movie! They were going through hell once again to simply find a Christmas tree. The new characters were very funny and the old jokes and characters were seen and told in a new way (unlike Hangover 2). Another new character was the use of 3D in this instalment. It was incredible, and not just the smoke and coke flying at me but characters acknowledging it and poking fun. Bottom line is its OK to be apprehensive because the second one was just alright and a comedy like this in 3D could be thought of as being corny and trying to hard but they pulled it off perfectly. Harold and Kumar is dumb fun and for what it is this is a great comedy. Just make sure you catch it in 3D! Read my other reviews at rollginreviews.blogspot.com
The third instalment had that simplicity again. Yes, there was new characters and the 3D was new but they all worked so perfectly. Yes certain things were dumb and even weird like the fake baby Jesus winking at me or a coked up baby running around on the ceiling but its that kind of movie! They were going through hell once again to simply find a Christmas tree. The new characters were very funny and the old jokes and characters were seen and told in a new way (unlike Hangover 2). Another new character was the use of 3D in this instalment. It was incredible, and not just the smoke and coke flying at me but characters acknowledging it and poking fun. Bottom line is its OK to be apprehensive because the second one was just alright and a comedy like this in 3D could be thought of as being corny and trying to hard but they pulled it off perfectly. Harold and Kumar is dumb fun and for what it is this is a great comedy. Just make sure you catch it in 3D! Read my other reviews at rollginreviews.blogspot.com
The Devil's Double
(2011)
The unknown story
15 November 2011
The Devil's Double is a movie I was not really looking forward to when I heard it was coming out. Lee Tamahori has never made a great film, in fact I find his movies usually quite poor like Die Another Day or Along Came a Spider. I thought giving Tamahori a movie about the middle east and Uday Hussein's life and even more so the life of his double an impossible undertaking for such a heavy subject based on factual information. This movie follows Latif Yahia and his road in becoming, living, and leaving the life as a double for Uday Hussein, the son of Saddam Hussein. I watched the movie and was pleasantly surprised. The movie captures the believable insanity of Hussein perfectly and shows us the feeling in such a terrifying time in Baghdad. Not just for the citizens, but everyone around Uday who seems to be just a tyrannical figurehead. The movie becomes a little slow towards the end and I found that The Devil's Double falls apart due to a story that didn't know where to go, but the entire movie is worth seeing just to watch Dominic Cooper's Oscar worthy performance. I actually had to look up who played each part while I was watching because I couldn't quite believe it was played by the same man. Dominic Cooper is perfect as an innocent family man with strong morals fighting so hard mentally and physically with being thrown into such an impossibly terrifying situation against his will. He is also superb as the insane Uday Hussein, a much higher voice and ratlike facial expressions with no regard for anything but his own desires. Playing two characters like this so perfectly is necessary for this movie to work. The Devils Double is a fine movie that becomes a must see if only for the work of Dominic Cooper. See more of my thoughts on other movies on rollginreviews.blogspot.com
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