The second-best action movie heading into the final month of the year has got to be Mad Max: Fury Road, which also happens to be one of the best remakes of a movie ever. I’ll be honest in saying that I did not like the 1979 original movie that started Mel Gibson. I waited until maybe five years ago to watch the film, preferring to keep it as one of those classics to watch on a rainy day. Not so much. It was more disappointing to me than both Blade Runner and Total Recall. That is saying something, as both of those movies I felt were overrated. Blade Runner gets some slack because it was so far ahead of its time. However, I still thought it was overrated. A few things about Mad Max: Fury Road before I get into the review. I mention that it is the second-best movie going into the final month. No action movie will beat the incredible Sicario, which will compete until the end for the best film of 2015. Also, December is when both Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Revenant were released, and I felt both were guarantees to be better than Mad Max: Fury Road. Also, this movie isn’t my type of movie anywhere. So while I will recognize it as a fine film, its score will be slightly better than how I felt when I watched it.
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Category Archives: Action
Sicario (2015)
With three months left to go in 2015, we have a new contender for the best movie of the year, and the name of that movie is Sicario. This movie is a fantastic ride that will keep you thoroughly engrossed and guessing the entire time. Like many great movies over the last couple of years, the less you know about the movie going in, the more I think you’ll like this movie. For me, this has been the case recently with films like Ex-Machina, The Drop, The Gift, and Chef. All of these were surprises, and each is a movie that I plan on watching again in the future. The same can be said about Sicario. Once you know how the movie ends, you’ll want to watch it again to try and see it again through a new set of lenses. It’s intense. It’s filled with drama. It will leave you with your mouth hung ajar. That is if you let it. This is a movie where you need to pay attention. If you doze off for even a couple of minutes, you might miss something important. If you miss something important, you might feel lost. If you feel lost, you might get frustrated. But if you are willing to work as hard as the movie does, you’ll be rewarded with one of the most exciting, well-crafted, and original movies that you are likely to find this year (or any year for that matter).
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Insurgent (2015)
As I mentioned near the end of my review on Divergent, what is Kate Winslet (The Reader, Little Children) doing in a movie franchise like this? Anybody could have played the role of this minor character. There isn’t any depth to her character. The movie isn’t going to win any awards. And Winslet could be spending her time in movies that bring out her acting prowess. I understand it from the film’s standpoint. Why not get another big name? Even if it costs 10+ times as much money as getting an unknown actor, it makes sense. The movie, more or less, covers its costs in the first week or two anyway. I’ve always come back to that appearing in movies such as Insurgent allows her to sustain her way of life to take on more roles in independent films that can’t afford to pay her as much because they won’t make as much at the box office. And if this is the reason, then I am cool with it. I am willing to give Naomi Watts (The Ring, The Impossible), who also appears in this movie, the same leeway. It does bother me that these talented actresses are merely supporting less talented actors and actresses in a film that relies on young adult fantasy and adventure scenes rather than the performances of its leads. Nonetheless, I’m willing to accept this with the hope that Winslet and Watts will continue to put out Oscar-contending performances in future films.
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No Escape (2015)
No Escape is a combination of Behind Enemy Lines meets Argo meets World War Z. Unfortunately, it is not nearly as good as any of these movies. In fact, it wasn’t good at all. It certainly was not the worst movie I had seen in 2015, but thus far, it has been the most disappointing. The previews for this movie make it looks great. If you’ve seen any movie this summer, you’ve undoubtedly seen the extended clip of Owen Wilson, in a last-ditch effort to save his family, hurling his young daughter from the roof of one building to another. It makes the movie look like the most intense movie of the year. Unfortunately, this scene is easily the best of the film, and the movie ultimately falls apart after that. Unfortunately, there is no escape from me giving this movie a poor review. It’s so bad that it’s not even the best movie named No Escape. The 1994 Ray Liotta effort was much better and more deserving of your time.
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Ant-Man (2015)
I’ll preface this review by saying that I enjoyed Ant-Man, but that I know that if I do end up seeing Ant-Man 2, I will not enjoy it. I say that because traditionally I like superhero origin stories (except for when that same character gets retold over and over and over again like Superman, which…on a side note, I have yet to see a Superman movie that I’ve even remotely enjoyed, but that I am expecting HUGE things from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice). However, as with over 90% of movies that have sequels, superhero movies generally get worse (usually much worse) with each subsequent release. Of course, there are exceptions. Batman Begins was fantastic, but The Dark Knight is possibly the greatest superhero movie ever made. Iron Man and Spider-Man are both amazing movies, but there wasn’t much drop-off to Iron Man 2 or Spider-Man 2. Now Iron Man 3 and Spider-Man 3 were both much worse. But when you think about it, when is the 5th, 4th, or 3rd movie of a franchise ever really the best one? Hardly ever. 90% of the time, it’s the first franchise movie that is the best. I wish viewer franchises would make movies. I wish even fewer movies would be remade. But that is a different topic for another day. Regarding Ant-Man, the best thing that it had going for it was its originality. I cannot think of a scenario where Ant-Man 2 would have any originality that this first movie had. But, of course, we know Ant-Man 2 is coming. And then Ant-Man will probably end up in The Avengers movies, and I’ll look back on this first movie less positively.
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