Category Archives: Charlie Hunnam

2019, Charlie Hunnam, Drama, Jack O'Connell, Jessica Barden, John Cullum, Jonathan Majors, Jungleland, Max Winkler

Jungleland (2019)

Leave a comment

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” – Murphy’s Law.

This quote could be the tagline for Max Winkler’s (Flower, Ceremony) third featured film, the intense and gritty Jungleland. Set across the backdrop of the heartland of present-day America, Bostonian brothers Stanley (Charlie Hunnam – The Lost City of Z, Papillon) and Lion (Jack O’Connell – Unbroken, Money Monster) travel from their Massachusetts home to San Francisco, where they will participate in Jungleland. Jungleland is a $100,000 bare-knuckles prize fight tournament in which a local gangster named Pepper (Jonathan Majors – Creed III, White Boy Rick) can secure a spot for Lion. Lion is a skilled lightweight boxer who is banned from traditional boxing matches after Stan, who also serves as his manager, is caught trying to bribe a referee. It is before the start of the film that this incident takes place, but it establishes Stan as a shady dealer who will do anything to make a quick buck. The main problem is that he makes terrible deals, becoming heavily in debt. The brothers work at a sewing factory, but this isn’t enough to get Stan out of the hole he dug himself. And while Lion is one of the best fighters, the back alley clubs that hold these unsanctioned fights can only pay its winners up to two hundred dollars per fight. It’s simply not enough to pay back what he owes and keep food on the table for the duo.

Continue reading Jungleland (2019) →

2019, Action, Adria Arjona, Adventure, Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam, Drama, Garrett Hedlund, J.C. Chandor, Oscar Isaac, Pedro Pascal, Triple Frontier

Triple Frontier (2019)

Leave a comment

One of the early tragedies to the Netflix distribution line has to be the J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year, All Is Lost) Triple Frontier, a movie that which you can decide after watching and/or reading this review whether you like it or not. And this is not a review that is going to talk about the merits and faults of Netflix (by one sentence 2019 stand is Netflix is amazing with their shows, but I wish they would stay away from movies…done and done), but rather whether this movie should have been kept from being seen on the big screen…where it was meant to be seen…where it was designed to flourish. I’ve probably seen over 1500 movies in a movie theatre in my life at the time of this post. I’ve probably seen 1500 other movies for the first time on my television screen as well. For each movie that I’ve seen and loved on my television, I can’t help but wonder what the movie must have been like in the atmosphere in which it was designed to be view. I can’t make the same claim the other way around. Sure I’ve said, “Man, I wish I would have saved my cash and watched this at home…or not watched this at all” when I see a terrible movie in the theatre, but that is a different conversation and, hopefully, one I don’t have to have on a different day. Beasts of No Nation was the first of the original Netflix films that draw the public’s interest. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said then that for a movie to be considered for Oscar nominations, the film must have at least a limited theatrical run. I don’t know all of the details about how long a movie needs to be in the theatres, locations, etc., but Beasts of No Nation was a film that had to adhere to those standards as it was thought that it might get some Oscar recognition. This movie ultimately got shut out from nominations this year, but it set a precedent for sure. Netflix has continued to produce some AMAZING television shows as well as movies, its crowning achieving being 2018’s Roma, a movie that not only earned but won multiple Academy Awards, nearly winning Best Picture. It was not my favorite movie by any means, and for each person I met who liked it, I’ve met five who disliked it. I will say that it was a difficult watch at home. Roma was black and white with subtitles and much more difficult to see on my 42″ television than on a massive theatre. Roma was a not-so-great movie for me that suffered even more on the small screen. Triple Frontier was a better-than-average movie that suffered the same fate. I mean, come on. A big-budget heist movie with three of the top leading men out there, and you’re reducing it to a tiny rectangle into the corner of my family room apartment. Convenient. Sure? Worth it? Nope.

Continue reading Triple Frontier (2019) →

2003, Academy Award Nominees, Anthony Minghella, Brendan Gleeson, Charlie Hunnam, Cold Mountain, Donald Sutherland, Drama, Ethan Suplee, Giovanni Ribisi, James Gammon, Jena Malone, Jude Law, Kathy Baker, Melora Walters, Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ray Winstone, Renée Zellweger, Romance, Top 10 Movie of 2003, War

Cold Mountain (2003)

Leave a comment

The year was 2003, and a quiet little movie named The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took home the Academy Awards biggest prize that year, winning Best Picture. Some will argue that this reflected on the culmination of a pretty darn good trilogy and that will ensure that the Peter Jackson franchise was worthy of its share of accolades that maybe Best Picture of the Year wasn’t one of them. I can’t give my personal opinion on that one because I have yet to see the film as of the time of this writing (February 2019). I liked the first two enough and don’t really have a reason for not seeing the third yet other than length and the thought that I should probably watch The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers again beforehand. There was a slightly quieter movie that year that seemed to be the Academy sweetheart heading into Oscar night, a film that reestablished Clint Eastwood as a major force to reckon with as, perhaps, THE best director in Hollywood for the foreseeable future (2004’s Million Dollar Baby being his crowning achievement). Mystic River was nominated for six Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood) and earned both Sean Penn and Tim Robbins their long-awaited trophies. 2003 was also the year for the excellent Seabiscuit, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Monster, and Lost in Translation. But there was one movie that was better than all of these. It too was a major name at Oscar night, earning seven nominations and landing Renée Zellweger her first win after receiving nominations for 2001’s Chicago and 2000’s Bridget Jones’s Diaries at the previous two events. That movie was Anthony Minghella’s (The Talented Mr. Ripley) sweeping Civil War piece Cold Mountain.

Continue reading Cold Mountain (2003) →

2018, Based on a True Story, Charlie Hunnam, Drama, Eve Hewson, Michael Noer, Papillon, Prison, Rami Malek, Remake, Roland Møller, Yorick van Wageningen

Papillon (2018)

Leave a comment

Had I have known what the 1973 original had truly been about, I don’t think there is any way I would have gone my entire adult life without seeing Franklin J. Schaffner’s cult classic Papillon. With that information stated, I am actually glad I never saw the original before watching Michael Noer’s (Nordvest (Northwest)) remake of the film of the same title. I went into the film fresh, with no expectations. Nor did I know a single thing about the story other than it was a prison movie. But after watching just 30 seconds of the trailer and understanding my own self that prison backdrops are often the set of some of my favorite movies, I knew I would see the film and that I would see it in the theatres. The only problem was that the critics and the lack of moviegoers were shortening my timetable. While this movie has a 76% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it has only a 54% critic rating, and its gross after two weeks is less than $2 million. Long story short, when I went to look at the possible times and theatres for when and where I could see this movie, my choices were few and far between. If I had waited even a week longer, I’m not sure that this movie would have still been in the theatres. And I have no idea why. This movie was absolutely riveting and had me engaged throughout its 133-minute runtime.
Continue reading Papillon (2018) →

2017, Adventure, Angus Macfadyen, Based on a True Story, Charlie Hunnam, Drama, James Gray, Robert Pattinson, Sienna MIller, The Lost City of Z, Tom Holland

The Lost City of Z (2017)

Leave a comment

The Lost City of Z was a movie that had all of the makings of a movie I should love. I love a good adventure movie, and the idea of floating down a wooden raft in the Amazon River sounds like something I’d enjoy. I’m a big fan of John Grisham novels, but most of us law thrillers (with the exception of ones like A Time to Kill or The Firm, which were adapted into films) often tend to blend. That is, with the exception of The Testament, a novel that was equal parts big city courtroom as it was Amazon Jungle adventure. I find something about the Amazon intriguing, almost like I can’t get enough of it, especially when it’s displayed onscreen as a true adventure story. This is exactly what James Gray’s (Two Lovers, The Yards) is. Despite not knowing anything else about this movie, I was intrigued by this one-sentence plotline and the fact that it had an 87% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of its release. Unfortunately, this movie did not live up to my lofty expectations. At 140 minutes, it was often too slow and meandering. But at the same time, it was not long enough to tell the entire story. There was too much to tell and the cuts between the various events happening. There were so many moving parts of this movie that it needed to be longer. Yet, at the same time, the movie felt like it was way too long to begin with. It was one of those “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenarios. I don’t know if it ultimately failed. But it certainly did not succeed.
Continue reading The Lost City of Z (2017) →