2017 has been a year that started as strong as any year in recent memory when it comes to movies. From the January and February box office smashes of Split (which I didn’t like) and Get Out to the successful continuations or reboots of franchise movies such as Kong: Skull Island, Alien: Covenant, War of the Planet of the Apes, and Logan to the captivating Life and Wind River, we had about ten movies heading into September, whereas in a typical year, we might have half that many. Now, if I asked a typical moviegoer to name five non-animated movies released before September, the five could not include any of the ones I have just listed. They may have said Wonder Woman, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Dunkirk, Spider-Man Homecoming, and Transformers: The Last Knight. Wonder Woman was fun and well-made, but it offered nothing that any other superhero-origin movie hadn’t already provided in the last ten years. Spider-Man Homecoming, I didn’t even give it a chance.
Category Archives: Brie Larson
Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Kong: Skull Island was my most anticipated movie in the first quarter 2017. And while it won’t be up for any end-of-year honors and won’t end up on my year’s top ten list, I found Kong: Skull Island to be a very engaging, exciting, and, if possible, original. While it wasn’t perfect, this movie was fantastic. As excited as I was to see it when I initially saw the trailer, I wasn’t feeling it the day of my viewing. Even with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 79%, I still felt like I would be disappointed. Since seeing it in the theater, I haven’t watched the most recent King Kong movie (the 2005 one starring Naomi Watts and Adrien Brody). I remember liking it a lot. But I don’t remember many of the details. I do remember it being extremely long. It honestly felt like it should have been two movies, which is why I haven’t watched it since, even though there has been a copy of the DVD on my bookshelf for the last decade.
Room (2015)
The Road meets Life Is Beautiful meets Panic Room?
Little-known director Lenny Abrahamson (Frank, What Richard Did) may have just quietly crafted the most beautifully disturbing and profoundly affecting movie of 2015. As I was writing my review for Steve Jobs yesterday, I was trying to remember the last time I was moved to the point of tears while watching a movie. Ironically, while Steve Jobs brought out almost no emotion in me, two of director Danny Boyle’s previous films (Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours) had a profound and lasting impact on me and my life. Those two movies were near perfect, in my opinion. While Abrahamson’s Room is by no means perfect, it is rich, intelligent, gut-wrenching, and unfortunately, it is a little too real.
I will provide spoilers for this movie because it is too important a film not to discuss deeply. I will let you know when these spoilers do occur so you can keep reading for now if you haven’t seen this movie. What I will assume is that you’ve watched the trailer. If you have not, watch the trailer now or do what I did and see the movie. But I would do one of these two things before continuing with this review. I didn’t know how much of an impact Room would have on me going in. I knew a little bit about the film going in. I didn’t know how little I knew. This movie will be on many critic end-of-year top 10 lists and will get some severe Academy Award nominations. I hope that more moviegoers will give this movie a chance. Is it slow? Yes, it is not The Avengers. Is it more important than The Avengers? Yes, it’s like 1000 times more important than that money hog. It might be the most important movie of 2015. It might be one of the most important movies of the last decade. When lesser movies would have stopped, Room stepped full-throttle on the pedal. This is a challenging film to digest, and it will feel uncomfortable at times for many moviegoers. While not currently my favorite movie of 2015 (it’s currently #2 for me), this is the best movie that has been made this year.
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Trainwreck (2015)
I’d say that there is a pretty darn good chance that Trainwreck will go down as the funniest movie of 2015. There doesn’t appear to be a ton of comedies this year, and the one that I was most excited for (Vacation) looks like it’s going to be a dud. Usually, the great comedies of the year are released before September 1st. I have no evidence that backs up this claim, but it seems like the good movies reserved for the later portions of the year are the Oscar contenders. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t comedies released in October, November, and December, but it seems like there are average more often than not. I guess what I am implying here is that the funniest movies of the year have probably already been released and that Trainwreck seems to be the most amusing of that group. I often mention in my movie blog of the year 2010, which, I believe, is the best movie year in my lifetime. However, there wasn’t that one hilarious comedy you remember from that year. For me, the funniest movie that year was Get Him to the Greek, but that movie had nothing on Trainwreck. Had it been released in 2010, Trainwreck would have made the year that much better.
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The Gambler (2014)
Rupert Wyatt’s (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Star Trek 3) The Gambler is a movie that should have done better both with critics and at the box office. Accruing just $33 million domestically and a 46% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, this movie deserved a better fate. Sure it has its flaws, but 98% of all movies do. One factor against The Gambler was that it wasn’t striking the right audience. The first preview of this movie was a quick 30-second throwaway commercial during a ball game. I do not recall seeing a more extended trailer for this movie in the theater. When I did see the television commercial, it made it seem like it was a shoot ’em up action flick. That’s not what it was at all. I’ll say that this was one of Mark Wahlberg’s (Lone Survivor, The Perfect Storm) finest performances to date. I know Wahlberg is hit or miss with many people, but the man has talent. He has proven he can successfully do drama (The Fighter, Three Kings, Rock Star), crime (The Departed, Four Brothers), comedy (The Other Guys, Date Night), and action (Shooter, The Italian Job, and a host of others). Wahlberg can play a good guy as well as he can a bad guy. But rarely does he play a vulnerable character or a character that doesn’t look like an all-star for a least a good chunk of the movie. Without revealing too much, I will say that this is one of Wahlberg’s most insecure and vulnerable characters. It’s also a role he doesn’t overplay, which, I think, would have been very easy to do. While I didn’t love everything about this movie, I certainly liked it. I would recommend it to all Wahlberg fans or fans looking for a light drama, light crime movie that you don’t have to overthink or take too seriously to enjoy.
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