In an Oscar season that hasn’t been so much a run of disappointing movies as much as has been movies that didn’t whet the appetite, Martin McDonagh’s (Seven Psychopaths, In Bruges) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri has a chance to finish in my Top 10 movies of the Year. In contrast, I wouldn’t have had a chance since I began writing this blog in 2010. While I enjoyed its dark theme, its complex characters, and even, to an extent, its quirkiness, this movie was close to perfect. It is a lock for the Best Picture nomination, which shows just how down the year 2017 is for the film.
If you watched season 1 of HBO’s True Detective and you were as much of a fan of the six-minute single-shot shootout scene that ended episode four’s (titled Who Goes There) as I was, you might just very well like John Hillcoat’s (The Road, Lawless) underappreciated Triple 9. Likewise, if you watch Game of Thrones and found the intense battle between the Jon Snow led wildlings and the white walkers at the end of season five, episode eight (titled Hardhome) as the best single scene in the history of the show, you might just very well like the star-studded Triple 9. If I had trusted my instincts and not those of the critics, I would have been able to appreciate this gem of a popcorn flick on the big screen. Instead, I let the movie pass through the theaters, knowing I would see it eventually at home, but convincing myself that, despite the awesome previous, I would be disappointed by this movie. One of my colleagues at work recently asked why I hadn’t told her to see Triple 9, knowing that it was a movie right up my wheelhouse. She was really the first person I actually knew who had seen the movie. So I feel obligated early on in this review to match this movie with an audience that can best appreciate it. If you like the intensity that comes with a bank robbery movie (my two favorite bank robbery movies are The Town, which is my second favorite movie ever, and the original Point Break), I can’t think of a reason that you wouldn’t like Triple 9. There are plenty of underlying storylines, but just like those two movies, Triple 9 refuses to take its foot off the accelerator and doesn’t confuse its audiences by undervaluing the ferocity of its story by wasting even a single scene that isn’t relevant to its story. In 2016, you almost needed a caveat when talking about movies. So while Captain America: Civil War is the best movie to be released in the first five months of the year, the best non-superhero movie is Triple 9. Continue reading Triple 9 (2016)→
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 had a significant knock-on it before it even hit the screen. And that was that the book was split into two movies. I have been having a big problem with this. It’s a three-series book. Make it a three-series movie. That’s what it would have been if the first movie didn’t take off and smash the box office. I understand why the studios want to break the last book into two movies. I would do it too. But as a fan, a moviegoer, and someone who pays lots of money at the movie theaters, I have a problem paying an extra $12 when I don’t feel I have to. I know that I am exactly the reason for this issue. I saw the first two movies in the theater. I contributed to that astronomical gross that each of these first two movies reached. And it’s not The Hunger Games franchise that upsets me. All of the moneymaking franchises have been doing this. Twilight. Harry Potter was seven books but eight movies. The Divergent series is going to split its final movie into two. I think that the film gets watered down in many cases, including Mockingjay Part 1. I understand that some believe that maybe there is too much great material to squeeze into one movie, but, at the same time, there isn’t enough material in this one to make it a killer movie. My solution would be to make the movie for three hours. I would also complain about that, but it would be my preference over two films, each that are not going to be the first two movies in the franchise. Continue reading The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)→
I suspended my beliefs at the door when I stepped into the theater to see Francis Lawrence’s (I Am Legend, Water For Elephants) sequel to The Hunger Games. I couldn’t do this for the first movie and was dissatisfied. I wanted the film to be more of a survival movie and less a fantasy/science fiction movie. When I wasn’t able to do that, I just started to question everything that was happening. I liked The Hunger Games but did not love it. I liked it enough to continue with the franchise, though. Every successful fantasy book franchise is being made into a movie these days. I have never read a word of a book or seen a second of the film in either the Harry Potter or Twilight series. I get the cult-like following to both of these movies, though. I do understand how you can be engrossed in a franchise like this. I have not read, nor will I read, any of The Hunger Game books, but I will continue to see the movies, even though I am upset about the franchise’s finale Mockingjay, split up into two movies. I am also lukewarm about the Insurgent franchise coming to the theaters. They showed a trailer for the first Insurgent movies before Catching Fire, and I was disappointed to see Kate Winslet on the screen. In these movies, you don’t need superstars outside the main character or two. Continue reading The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)→
Finally, a gritty drama for 2013 to win you over with complex characters and excellent acting performances. This movie is, first and foremost, about flawed characters who want to do the right thing but don’t always know how. Well…I say that except for Woody Harrelson’s (The Messenger, Rampart) character. He is as vile, violent, and rotten to the core as he’s ever been. There are no redeeming qualities in Harrelson’s portrayal of Harlan DeGroat, a fight organizer/crystal meth dealer who drinks way too much, dabbles a little too much in his product, and looks to physically hurt anyone and every one every time they do anything to set him off, regardless of what it is. He is a ruthless jerk to the nth degree. Unfortunately, he plays his role perfectly. Without giving anything away, he dominates the movie’s first scene and makes him the person we are to fear for the next two hours. Continue reading Out of the Furnace (2013)→
In an Oscar season that hasn’t been so much a run of disappointing movies as much as has been movies that didn’t whet the appetite, Martin McDonagh’s (Seven Psychopaths, In Bruges) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri has a chance to finish in my Top 10 movies of the Year. In contrast, I wouldn’t have had a chance since I began writing this blog in 2010. While I enjoyed its dark theme, its complex characters, and even, to an extent, its quirkiness, this movie was close to perfect. It is a lock for the Best Picture nomination, which shows just how down the year 2017 is for the film.
I suspended my beliefs at the door when I stepped into the theater to see Francis Lawrence’s (I Am Legend, Water For Elephants) sequel to The Hunger Games. I couldn’t do this for the first movie and was dissatisfied. I wanted the film to be more of a survival movie and less a fantasy/science fiction movie. When I wasn’t able to do that, I just started to question everything that was happening. I liked The Hunger Games but did not love it. I liked it enough to continue with the franchise, though. Every successful fantasy book franchise is being made into a movie these days. I have never read a word of a book or seen a second of the film in either the Harry Potter or Twilight series. I get the cult-like following to both of these movies, though. I do understand how you can be engrossed in a franchise like this. I have not read, nor will I read, any of The Hunger Game books, but I will continue to see the movies, even though I am upset about the franchise’s finale Mockingjay, split up into two movies. I am also lukewarm about the Insurgent franchise coming to the theaters. They showed a trailer for the first Insurgent movies before Catching Fire, and I was disappointed to see Kate Winslet on the screen. In these movies, you don’t need superstars outside the main character or two.
Finally, a gritty drama for 2013 to win you over with complex characters and excellent acting performances. This movie is, first and foremost, about flawed characters who want to do the right thing but don’t always know how. Well…I say that except for Woody Harrelson’s (