Ray, it is not. Walk the Line, it is not. Straight Out of Compton, it is not. Bohemian Rhapsody it is not. Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis (Moulin Rouge, The Great Gatsby) is slightly better than the disappointing Rocketman. The highly-anticipated Austin Butler-led (Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, The Bling Ring) biopic had lofty expectations, considering that it was the one that the Presley family agreed was the true reckoning of Elvis’s life and legacy. While engaging for its lengthy 159-minute run-time, the film often felt disjointed and needed direction. With its shifting narrative, viewers often wondered if this movie was about Elvis Presley or more about Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks –Captain Phillips, Sully), his deceitful, longtime manager.
Category Archives: Kodi Smit-McPhee
The Power of the Dog (2021)
II listened to Thomas Savage’s The Power of the Dog on a whim earlier this year. I loved the first couple of chapters, but it ultimately went nowhere. I understood the idea and thought it had the potential to drive home an important point. However, despite its setup, it missed its landing entirely. Shortly afterward, I saw that there would be a movie based on the novel. Not only that, but it was set for release later that year. On top of that, there has been some early Oscar buzz surrounding the movie, both for Best Picture, Best Director (Jane Champion), Best Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), Best Actress (Kirsten Dunst), and Best Supporting Actors (Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee). Even in 2021, which has proven to be one of the worst years for movies in my lifetime, The Power of the Dog deserves some of the praise it’s already receiving and will likely continue to receive.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
I’m not the biggest fan of reboots. I often think, “Why?” or “What’s the point?” or, “Can Hollywood not come up with an original idea?”. However, at the same time, I’m a big fan of origin stories. Usually, if the first movie in a franchise is good, I’ll keep watching the sequels until they start to stink. Once you lose me, though, you lose me, and I’m not coming back. So each subsequent movie in a franchise doesn’t necessarily need to be better than the starting movie (in fact, I don’t expect it to be), but it still better be pretty darn good. My favorite movies in the last decade include Batman Begins, Iron Man, and The Hangover. These three movies illustrate my point perfectly. The Dark Knight, unquestionably, and The Dark Knight Rises, probably, were both better than Batman Begins. In the Iron Man franchise, Iron Man was the best, Iron Man 2 was very good, but not great, and Iron Man 3 was still decent. With The Hangover, the first one was brilliant, The Hangover 2 one had me asking, “Why are they doing this again?” and the third one was so terrible that I will not pay another dollar if these franchises continue and has made me much less interested in ever watching the original one again.
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The Road (2009)
John Hillcoat’s (Lawless, The Proposition) The Road is the best film adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel. Yes, I know that this means I preferred The Road over 2007’s Academy Award-winning Best Picture No Country For Old Men. The Road is a good adaptation of McCarthy’s novel, though not a great one. The novel, with the same name, presents a desolate 2929 America where nomadic tribes scour the earth, looking for any signs of life that would allow them to sustain existence. With the animals and vegetation extinct, cannibalism is alive and prevalent, though the number of people inhabiting the earth dwindles yearly.
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