Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas

So, I've tried to write this review for a few days now and have been avoiding it like the plague for the symple reason that it is very difficult to compress this much information into one post that people will want to read and that I will want to write but here goes.

So the movie is about a group of souls that are tied together by the red strings of fate and their interactions in each of their lifetimes. The trailers for this movie do a decent job of showing the main times they explore. (Anywhere from the 1700s to the 70's on up to uber high tech future times and even further than that.) All in all you get 7 (maybe 8?) separate stories to enjoy. The film is almost 3 hours long but because of the way the movie flashes forward and back between time it doesn't seem like all that long. I would akin this very close to The Fountain but with more humor and action. But while there is good humor and some cool action scenes there is a lot of darkness.

I don't know if many have heard his name before but a large part of this movie was influenced by co-director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, The International, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer). *Personal Film Geek Note: If you like dark, atmospheric, creepy but not scary movies you should check out Perfume. It will level you up in awesome points!* You can really see the dark tones he puts into the movies that the Wachowski's just don't do as well.

Perfume was good  'n creepy. Right here he's trying to harness the smell of beauty.

 Overall the movie was rather charming in it's own right. Being about reincarnation the movie has the unique opportunity to let these actors play very different kinds of roles throughout the feature. My favorite part about watching this movie was trying to spot how everyone turned up in each lifetime. The makeup department for this movie was amazing. They age actors in some lives and even change their gender and skin color. I think Hally Berry had the most diversity at one point playing an old white guy and another time a white lady. Wait scratch that- I almost forgot about Hugo Weaving who while he is all over this film in many different forms can always be spotted rather easily because he is the tallest person around.

Some of the different faces of Hugo Weaving

 I overheard one hipster kid saying the film was 'contrived' when I was leaving which I don't think is fair. Sure the film ties itself together with an idea that is illustrated multiple times throughout the movie and is made to seems a great revelation to the film but is already common knowledge to most people who enjoy the use of their brain. But I almost feel like it is a requirement for films like these (The Fountain, Tree of Life maybe even 21 Grams) and without that convention the film may seem incomplete.


I give this movie a 7 out of 10
2 points Awesome make up
2 points An engaging story
1 point Great visuals
1 point Hugo weaving as an evil nurse
1 point Tom Hanks going black and not being able to go bac

The Avengers

Summer movie season is upon us!!!

First things first.

I saw three great trailers last night:
First, Spider man, Looks awesome, the new trailer shows some intriguing fight scenes and the 3D looks like it's going to be good. This is going to be a great year for super hero movies because... Second the new Batman trailer was shown! If you are looking for a happy conclusion to this trilogy it does not look good for you. The tone of these trailers is forecasting Dark Knight Rises to be the most brutal of the series. And third the Prometheus trailer. For those that don't know Prometheus is a prequel of sorts to the first Alien movie as it takes place in the same universe as the franchise but it is going to be it's own entity. And then maybe they will do a sequel to the kinda prequel that will become a real prequel to Alien. Kinda meta if you think about it.

Honorable mention preview goes to the Hatfield & McCoy miniseries that History channel is doing starring Bill Paxton and Kevin Costner. Bill Paxton is the man. That is all.

NOW THE AVENGERS REVIEW!!!!!!


How to best say that this movie was awesome?

The Avengers is one of the most fun superhero movies I have seen in a long time. If there is one thing you can count on the creator of Firefly to do well is take a bunch of misfits and clashing personalities and make them work as a team.There is a great blend of action and comedy here that is hard to beat. I guarantee this movie will have you laughing as well as any comedy that comes out this year.  And the cast does a really good job bringing all the franchises together. But why do the Avengers even assemble in the first place?

The movie sets up with Loki still sulking from his defeat at the hands of Thor creating a pact with some terrible alien race to give himself an army so that he could enslave the earth. His first step is to steal the energy cube that the Nazi's were trying to weaponize in the Captain America movie. Once this happens it is up to Nick Fury to begin 'The Avengers Initiative' which he created for the purpose of defending the earth when conventional weapons can't.The movie then goes about showing us where all the heroes currently are and what they are up to.

My favorite part of the movie is the way all the characters mesh together. When you get that many alpha personalities in the same room they are bound to clash, and clash they do. Every avenger has a fight scene with at least one of their own by the movie's end. And the movie does a great job showing the building camaraderie and respect they gain for each other.  Mark Ruffalo does a good job as the third incarnation of the Hulk. He plays the geeky, brooding scientist well. Once he and Tony Stark get together you see Tony get happy because he finally has someone on his level of intellect to converse with and they begin to play off each other nicely.Chris Evans does a great job of showing just how isolated and out of place Captain America feels while Chris Hemsworth plays an amusing Thor.
 ...
OH YEAH! There are two other avengers! One of the most amusing things about all the press for this movie to me is that they pretty much ignored two members of the crew to focus on the big four of the team (Iron man, Cap, Thor and Hulk) But really didn't show much of anything of Black Widow, previously in Iron Man 2, and Hawkeye, Getting his first showing on the big screen. Both Scarlett Johansson  and Jeremy Renner did a great job on their characters; Even if for the first half of the movie everyone was laughing at Hawkeye because his power is... less that spectacular. For those with no background Hawkeye he has the ability to hit anything with an arrow. That's pretty much it. He has different arrow heads... some blow up...

Also, there are two stingers on this movie. One after some initial credits and then one final extra scene all the way after the credits so be sure to sit through them for the extra credit.


So if you are a fan of the superhero genre don't miss this one or you'll regret it.




******Minor Spoiler but personal observation.





If S.H.I.E.L.D. is supposed to be such a top secret spy organization, why did their computer systems get hacked TWICE in this movie???  Just Saying...

Hunger Games

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing the midnight premiere of the Hunger Games. If you are looking for a good fast paced action adventure movie then this is something you wont want to miss. Actually, with as many people who are already seeing it it's not something you'll want to miss period.

The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian future where all that is left of North America is a handful of districts, 12 in all each responsible for manufacturing or cultivating various necessities (Coal, fishing, technology, etc.) that are controlled by the capitol. As usually happens in these things the Capitol takes all their goods and redistributes them as rashions back to the people but keeping the best and most for themselves. After an uprising and war which the Capitol won a treaty was signed which stated that every year each of the 12 districts would have to select 2 tributes, a boy and a girl  between the ages of 12 and 18, to fight in the Hunger Games to the death. The last tribute standing wins extra rations for their district in the upcoming year.

The Story begins at the culling for the 74th Hunger Games. The protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, sees her little sister get called to the Hunger Games and knowing she wouldn't make it steps up and takes her place. Katniss does have special skills however, her father before dying taught her how to hunt, how to forage, and how to stay alive.

For those of you who haven't read the book series this will be a great action movie that will have you rooting for the underdog up to the last minute. For those of you who  have read the series I must say this is one of the truest book to film adaptations I have seen in quite a while. They may have missed a few fine detail things, the most predominant of which would be how Katniss receives her Mockingjay pin but nothing that is crucial to the story has been left out.

A quick word of warning before I proceed if you are not a fan of the way the Bourne Ultimatum was shot, ie. having up close jerky camera movements during high action then beware because this movie has a lot of that. I didn't think it was that bad but one of the people I went with got motion sickness from it about halfway though. They do this, however, to intensify the chaos that the characters are experiencing and to cut down on the violence a little because these kids get brutal on one another.

Now, as I have talked to people about this movie one of the biggest questions is: What is the purpose of this film? Is it just to show kids killing kids? Is there any moral? Any redeeming values? Yes. For one the overall theme of the series is an exploration on how war effects children and the repercussions of the actions of our past generations. The kids going out don't really understand why they are being forced to kill each other aside from "It's the way it always has been". Also, it the character of Katniss, we find a strong female lead who can defend herself and others but is also kind and values the lives of her enemies. This movie may be about violence but it doesn't condone it. Other values in this series are class warfare, forgiveness and self reliance but there will be two more movies to talk about that.

On a personal note, as I mentioned earlier, I saw this show at midnight and had a blast. I have been to a few other midnight releases this year and was getting discouraged that no one was having fun at the movies anymore. There was a time not so long ago where if you went to a midnight premiere, the crowd would be loud and fun and clap at the awesome parts. The atmosphere would be different there than on any other night. I hadn't been feeling that electricity lately. I went to see Star Wars and a few others that I thought would have good buzz about them but I was let feeling disappointed. This premiere however I got that feeling again. The audience was so into the movie you could hear gasps and laughs from the audience as good parts of the story would happen. Anyway that's one of the things I love about the movies and was happy to see it hasn't died completely yet.

Welcome to NHK

Are you depressed? Do you have trouble going outside? Do you believe a shadow organization is secretly trying to thwart your life and ruin everything you are trying to become? Then Welcome to NHK is for you!

One of the best animes I have seen in a while: Welcome to NHK makes anti-social disorder fun again! Welcome to NHK centers around a twenty-something named Tatsuhiro Sato (Sato for short) A self proclaimed Hikikomori. Hikikomori is a Japanese term for basically an agoraphobe. Essentially these people cannot bring themselves to go outside or even in some cases leave their own room. Sato believes the world is one vast conspiracy to set up college students and turn them into hikikomori. Sato is comfortable in his little life except for his next door neighbor. His neighbor plays this ultra-happy anime song over and over again and has  been doing it for a long while. Sato yells, screams, even kicks and punches the wall between the rooms but the music is up so loud that no one ever hears him. Naturally, Sato believes this is also a conspiracy against him. So Sato lives his little life the best he can until one day his mother calls to tell him that they have to cut his allowance in half so he must find a job to help support himself, this sends Sato into a mini breakdown but he eventually musters the courage to venture outside. He goes outside to find a job but the first place he goes he runs into this cute girl who came to his door the day before with her aunt to warn people about the hikikomori lifestyle.(Sato thought that this too was a conspiracy and awkwardly yelled at them that he was not a shut in but a well adjusted member of society.) So Sato panicks and runs home. Later Sato finally can not take the music from next door anymore so he bursts into the apartment next door only to find the resident is one of his classmates from highshool, Misaki. They happily greet each other and catch each other up on old times. Later the cute girl from before shows up and claims that she can cure him of his hikikomori ways. All he would have to do is sign a contract that states that he would meet her in the local park at night for lessons. If he ever failed to show up he would be fined 1,000,000 yen. Eventually Sato begrudgingly signs the paper.

Welcome to NHK is a great series that sets itself apart through its quirkyness but also tells a great story and has an extremely likeable cast. It also has a somber side that deals with issues of depression and loneliness as well friendship and dealing with the future.

Funimation's S.A.V.E. program just released Welcome to NHK at the low price of  $ 25.00 for the whole 26 episode series, which is a pretty sweet deal. 

NBC Thursday Nights

Possibly the best line up of shows on television happens on thursday nights. NBC has brought out its comedic big guns for the new year and it knows it. Hopefully the rest of the world will agree. It already has The Office and 30 Rock, both highly popular shows, and Community, an awesome show that has a growing audience. Now, coming out of the winter break it is bringing back Parks and Recreation, a show I have already felt the need to tell you guys about, and Outsourced, a show I have just recently gotten into in a big way.

Outsourced follows Todd Dempsy, a manager fresh out of training who comes back from a  retreat to find his whole call center has been outsourced to India. Todd is then offered the choice to either go to India and train the new employees there or find a new job. So Todd finds himself in India. The show becomes a fish out of water tale as Todd tries to acclimate himself to his culture and environment. Soon after starting his new job Todd becomes aware that his employees are the second tier hires meaning they know as much about our culture as Todd know about theirs. As the show progresses Todd and his new employees learn about each other and start to mesh. I had mixed feelings about this show when I first started watching it but I decided to give it a chance (plus I had nothing better to do on my lunch breaks) and I found myself really enjoying it. The characters are almost instantly like able and the episodes are not afraid to get ridiculous. I have personally introduced Outsourced to a good number of people and 3 of my friends have enjoyed it more than I have so I am not an isolated incident. I would highly recommend this show to anyone who is a fan of quirky comedies and shows that do not take themselves too seriously.

They have also premiered a new show called Perfect Couples, a show following three different couples through their relationships. All I have seen of this so far is the pilot which I have learned not to trust as an indicator of a shows worth. Especially with a show like this where the personal interaction between the actors is at such a forefront that you have to give the characters time to get comfortable together. There were a few funny moments in the pilot but I do not feel the show is where it should be for me to cast a firm judgement on it. I will have to revisit this again at a later date to fill everyone in.

Tron: Legacy

Reviews seem to be fairly mixed about this one so far, but here is my take on it. If you are awesome enough to have already seen the first Tron then you already know the basics. If not here is a quick rundown. Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is a computer programmer who gets digitized and sucked into a computer mainframe. The mainframe is being run by an evil program bent on full control. Flynn must then team up with a security program named... Tron! Thats where the name is from ZOMG revalations. They destroy the program and save the system and Flynn makes it out alive and takes over the company.

Now TRON: Legacy picks up.

It begins with a quick rundown of all the awesome things Flynn has been doing in the years since his experience in the mainframe. He made a windows-like OS and gave it away for free. He advanced computer technologies and was being an all around awesome CEO. One day after telling his son Sam about his latest adventures in the mainframe he left to work and disapeared for 10 years. Flash forward to present day. Sam is twenty years old and as with any movie lack of a father figure in his life has made him a bad-ass daredevil with a death wish. He drives a fast motocycle, out runs cops, hacks his companies servers and base jumps just because he can. He is content being a reckless youth living off of trust funds... wouldn't we all. One night his dad's old partner comes and tells him that his father had paged him. (Thats right, on a pager!) So Sam goes to his dad's old lab and gets sucked into the mainframe himself. Once there Sam, like his father before him gets thrown into the games and must compete for his life. The mainframe has now changed and is becoming a fascist state run by a tyrannical renegade program, Que, that looks exactly like Flynn... only younger. Sam now has to save himself, find his father and free the mainframe all in eight hours because movies are just better with a timelock.

I think it should go without saying that the movie looks amazing. The special effects are really great looking and I believe worth the ticket to see it on the big screen in 3D. The movie has a great cyber-punk feel to it from the way the characters act to the clothes. The clothes! Why can't we dress like that in real life? Instead of new looks we are recylcling old trends in an infinite loop, I will cite myself here. Seriously, I am not necessarily talking about the ladies in skin tight body suits (Even though that is a plus) Look at the cloak that Flynn wears for most of the movie. I would wear that... That awesome glowing Obi-Wan cloak. I'm just saying we are living in the future... We might as well dress like it. Anyway, seriously, the design of the movie is great.

The story itself is possibly a bit lacking but the movie was billed as an action type effects driven movie and that is what it delivers. The acting is fine and Jeff Bridges is awesome throwing in his old slang here and there. Overall if you want something that is not too cerebral and want to watch light cycles shatter into plasma at rediculuos speeds with the whole family then I would recommend Tron to you.

My Weird Star Rating System:

      ******/**********

6/10
Rating Breakdown:
2 Stars: Great Visual Effects
2 Stars: Awesome Set Design
1 Star: Hot Chick Oggling
1 Star: Jeff Bridges Awesomeness

Black Swan

So I was fortunate enough this weekend to see Black Swan with some friends. Unfortunately the film is not getting a good release so we trekked an hour down to Silver Spring, MD to check it out. I am so happy we did. Black Swan is an awesome film that knows where it is both from a storyteller’s perspective and from an artistic aspect. Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem For A Dream, The Wrestler) helms the film with a style that is all his own.  The movie is shot very fast paced and contains some great visual imagery as well as superb acting.

Natalie Portman stars as Nina Sayers, an up and coming ballerina who gets offered the role of a lifetime as lead in the new reimagining of Swan Lake.  As the movie progresses you find that underneath her perfect exterior Nina has a lot of issues, anorexia, self mutilation, and poor self esteem to name a few. Most of these seem to be a by-product of her overbearing mother who seems to constantly judge her and treats her like she is fifteen. Problems begin to arise when Nina must channel the metamorphoses of both the black and white swans for the ballet. Mila Kunis co-stars as Lily, a new face to the troop that excels in the areas where Nina lacks. Naturally, this instills fear in Nina that her spot in the play is going to be taken. Nina starts down a slippery slope of paranoia and delusion that leads to terrible consequences.

Now that that is out of the way I can talk about the fun stuff. Natalie Portman kills in this movie! Her acting is some of her best to date. Fun fact: She lost 20 pounds and dislocated a rib for this film. Her portrayal is down right method and she really sells the duality of her role in the film. (If you would like to know more check out the spoilers area) The film itself is also a little deceiving but I do not believe it was intentional. Due to it’s small release there weren’t many trailers for it, thus people are going in to this movie believing it will be primarily focusing on the ballet itself, whereas the ballet itself serves more as a backdrop to the main story. 

I would just like to take a minute to note that at the time of one of the changeups the projectionist forgot to changeover our reels (This is what they were talking about in Fight Club during the ‘cigarette burns’ scene) and there was a spin out. It was awesome! That is one of those things I love that happens at a real theater. Most people would find it annoying or downright aggravating and it would be if it happened every time, but the truth is it is soo rare that most people have never even seen it once. I am happy to report that this was my third time that I can remember. (The other two being Spiderman 2 and Total recall) I believe there is at least one other instance that I have encountered this but I cannot make a specific connection. Anyway, I totally nerded out in the theater over that.

The only thing I disliked about the movie, and this isn’t a huge thing but it was jarring none the less, in the beginning when Nina is walking to the theater the camera work is super shaky, you have to feel every step of the damn cameraman. I know people like the shaky camera style but this seemed to be overkill. Luckily it only lasted for a little bit (seemingly abandoned after they looked at the dailies maybe?) and it turns up for a scene toward the middle of the movie. That aside the movie was shot really well. During the final scene of the movie the black swan’s dance was freaking awesome. I am not a ballet fan but I was thinking “Damn, that was cool.”

My Weird Rating System

   *********/**********

 9/10
3 Stars: Superb Acting
2 Stars: Great Story
2 Stars: Amazing Production Design
2 Star: Great Visuals

SPOILER AREA!

The genius of Black Swan is pure elegance in its simplicity. When the director of the ballet, Thomas Leroy (played by Vincent Cassel) proposes his plan to reinvent Swan Lake, by having the white and black swan played by the same person he is not only talking about the ballet. He is also foreshadowing the movie as a whole. Nina starts out as an allegory for the white swan, virginal, proper, and a perfectionist, but as the movie progresses and Nina’s descent into madness takes a more drastic turn we see how the black swan’s, charismatic, enigmatic, and sensual personality comes forth and begins dictating her actions more and more until finally she is able to fully grasp both roles but by that point there is no chance for redemption.  Watching Natalie go back and forth between her two roles was great and she really did an awesome job.