The Girl on the Train will often be confused with and frequently compared to Gone Girl, 2014’s box office success that also registered well with the critics. Both were highly anticipated adaptations of successful novels by two more popular present-day writers. Both movies revolve around complex female characters who may not be mentally stable. It’s easy to see how some people might say that The Girl on the Train could be considered a rip-off of Gone Girl, but it’s not. The book had already been written, and the movie had already been in the works. The movies are actually quite different from one another. And, with that said, it’s easy for me to see how The Girl on the Train might achieve the same financial success, but how its 43% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes is slightly less than half that of Gone Girl‘s 88%. In addition, the movie was far less captivating and much less memorable. Nonetheless, The Girl on the Train is an okay movie. It is much better than the book. And while it doesn’t offer the same intriguing storyline as Gone Girl, it’s worth checking out.
All posts by bryanbuser
The Birth of a Nation (2016)
Nate Parker (Beyond the Lights, Non-Stop) made his big-screen debut in 2006, but a decade later, many moviegoers might need help picking him out of a lineup. However, that’s all about to change. The incredible The Birth of a Nation will launch Parker into the next tier of actors, directors, and screenwriters. I’ll be the first to say that I didn’t know who Parker was, but it might be time for me to go back and watch some of the movies on his filmography. Not only did Parker give an Oscar-worthy leading actor performance, but he also directed and wrote this film that, somehow, is flying under the radar. Parker knocked this movie out of the park. The 79% rating it receives on Rotten Tomatoes is quite respectable (especially for a film based on an actual event, but one that even Parker described as reality-based fiction). Still, I have yet to see any promotional materials for this movie. It opened the same weekend as Girl on the Train, which may have received as much publicity as any other movie released in 2016 so far.
Deepwater Horizon (2016)
If you make a big-budget disaster movie, it might as well be based on a true story. I’m over the huge blockbuster disaster movies like The Day After Tomorrow, Poseidon, Independence Day, The Core, Volcano, Into the Storm, Armageddon (which I really like), San Andreas (which I also kind of liked), Dante’s Peak…the list goes on and on. The point of these movies, and so many others, is to make a big buck. Forget about the plausibility; most of these movies are utterly ridiculous. The hero(es) always overcomes the most extreme circumstances and, often, ends up saving the world. Now, while the 2010 disaster caused the worst offshore oil spill in United States history and made British Petroleum (BP) the most villainous company on the face of the planet at the time, the story of Deepwater Horizon does take some liberties along the way. While the unfortunate events on that night of April 10th certainly did happen, the events on that rig felt very much like James Cameron’s Titanic after the ship hit the iceberg.
The Magnificent Seven (2016)
I’m starting to think Hollywood is either entirely out of original ideas or knows they are guaranteed a minimum of a hundred million dollars at the box office if it remakes a movie and has a starting cast of Hollywood A-listers. There is no reason why The Magnificent Seven needed a remake. I have not seen the first one, but I imagine it was probably a pretty good movie when it was made…56 years ago. Not many great Westerns have been produced in this century; while they were good, most have been remakes (3:10 to Yuma, True Grit). There have been others. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and The Homesman come to mind. Still, there are few in the genre. I wouldn’t necessarily call The Magnificent Seven a poor movie. I definitely would call it an unneeded one. Unless you love westerns, there’s no need to see this movie. The Magnificent Seven is a movie you don’t need to see on the big screen.
Snowden (2016)
I did not see 2015’s Citzenfour documentary about Edward Snowden. Had I, I might not have appreciated Oliver Stone’s (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July) biopic as much as I did. Part of the reason I was such a big fan of Snowden was that I knew very little about it before my viewing. I knew of Wikileaks and learned much from the news but didn’t pay. Snowden went from your everyday no-name to one of the most controversial figures of this century. If you think this movie will be completely neutral, you don’t know Oliver Stone very well. Heck, this was the same man who directed JFK.