Theodore Melfi’s St. Vincent, his first full-length feature film, is a movie I should have probably liked a little more than I did. Unfortunately, though it did it better than many of its predecessors, it follows a very familiar been there, done that approach. It’s no wonder that, despite some great performances (especially from its lead), it got lost in the shuffle and ultimately got shut out from any Academy Award nominations. There is only so much you can do with portraying a down-and-out lead character who hits rock bottom and then has to fight to be again. In some flicks, we see these characters have bottomed before the movie begins (Crazy Heart, The Dark Knight Rises), and in others, the characters hit rock bottom throughout the film (The Wrestler, Shame, Leaving Las Vegas). St. Vincent is more like the latter, and while some might like it better, I thought it came nowhere close to any of the five movies I mentioned in the previous sentence. While Bill Murray (Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation) gave his best lead performance in over a decade, the film offered nothing that I hadn’t seen before, and I liked the avenues that each of these five movies mentioned earlier.
Continue reading St. Vincent (2014)
Category Archives: Year of Release
Top Five (2014)
The short. Skip Birdman. See Top Five. It’s the same movie with a couple of exceptions. Top Five has humor, is much more realistic, and you can relate more to it. It also isn’t the most over-hyped movie n the last five years. In fact, despite its 88% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and lots of word of mouth on the street, it still surprisingly didn’t do all that great at the box office (just $23 million domestically). I did not see this movie in the theater, though it tempted me. Perhaps the most significant thing going against the film was its release date. It opened on December 12th, right in the middle of when all of the big-time award movies were in the theaters. As a result, it got lost in the shuffle. If the studio could go back in time, they might have released this movie in August.
Continue reading Top Five (2014)
Transcendence (2014)
After months of hype, Wally Pfister’s directorial debut, Transcendence, was by its 19% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I remember looking forward to this movie when I first heard about it. However, my hopes quickly extinguished when I saw how poorly the critics received it and how poorly it did at the box office. It grossed only $23 million domestically (although it did end up grossing $103 million worldwide, surpassing its $100 million budget barely and making it a slightly profitable movie). I thought that movie was not disappointing at all, but maybe misunderstood. It was slow (one of its significant gripes), but honestly, not any slower than Interstellar (which critics loved, made a ton of movies in the United States, and was released just a few short months earlier). I know I am in the minority when I say that, despite its limitations and shortcomings, which I will discuss, you should give the movie a chance.
Continue reading Transcendence (2014)
The Equalizer (2014)
Man, The Equalizer was going very well through the first half. And then it unraveled. Denzel Washington (Training Day, Flight) was great, but this movie had many holes, most of which couldn’t have been avoided. Based on the television series of the same name. I was unaware that it even existed before the release of the film. This wouldn’t exactly be a show I would be watching when it aired between 1985-1989 (I was too busy watching shows like The Cosby Show, Family Ties, and Alf during that time). And I think I was offered a disservice by knowing nothing about the television show. It was inferred that those watching this movie had seen the television show, which was not the case. More important than the lack of knowledge of its lead character and how he got to be the way that he is would be the movie’s unevenness. How it starts is certainly not how it ends up. It’s an entertaining movie with Denzel taking out bad guys, but then again, so was home Alone with Macaulay Culkin doing the same.
Continue reading The Equalizer (2014)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)
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)