Green Room

Directed and Written by :  Jeremy Saulnier  
Starring :  Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart, Macon Blair  
Release Date :  April 15, 2016  

For many struggling touring rock bands out there, "Green Room" will probably be seen as a sort of horror movie. The rock group of this story unfortunately have to literally fight for their lives in a show set in a neo-nazi punk club.  For the rest of us, this is a fantastic suspense action thriller, that once the premise kicks in, it'll immediately grab your attention and won't let go. Filled with bursts of violence and gore, this movie rarely holds back on how bad things can go in this wrong-place-wrong-time tale. 

Since the movie is primarily set in one location, most of the action revolves around the titular green room where our protagonists are faced with a very difficult and impossible dillema. Due to this type of setting and situation, there is a strong sense of tension because of the feeling of inescapability and hopelessness. Part of the fun is also seeing how they are going to survive this gig from hell, and also the thoughts that will undoubtedly come to your head on what you yourself would do in their shoes. 

One of the highlights of seeing this movie is that Patrick Stewart plays the head bad guy here, and considering we're more familiar with the actor playing a good guy, he does an absolute great job in this villain role. Our main heroes of this movie like Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat, Imogen Poots, and several others more, are also good in their roles. However everybody's character development isn't exactly that deep, and you only get what you really need to know, in order for you to actually care about what happens to these people. 

The story for "Green Room" will take you places you may not have even seen coming and that's what's fun about it. It does have it's share of plot conveniences and moments when I lose my suspension of disbelief, but it's a very entertaining nail-biter nonetheless. 

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The Jungle Book (2016)

Directed by :  Jon Favreau  
Written by :  Justin Marks  
Starring :  Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong'o, Christopher Walken 
Release Date :  April 7, 2016  

I feel like I have to be upfront about this, but I don't think I liked this 2016 version of "The Jungle Book" as much as the animated version from 1967. This newer adaptation is not a bad movie per se, but I couldn't find myself emotionally invested in the story as I thought I should have. The general plot is already rather predictably familiar as it is, and felt like it was just going through the motions of just needing to hit certain story beats. There are several exciting action chase sequences throughout, and there are some enjoyable lighthearted scenes (mostly involving Baloo), but this movie was also surprisingly more earnest and darker in tone. 

While the fact that the story was more straightforward than I would have preferred, the characters managed to successfully keep me invested in this movie anyway. In part it's because of the strong voice cast. Bill Murray seems perfect providing the majority of the comedic relief as the sloth bear Baloo, although the way they integrated "The Bear Necessities" song felt halfhearted to me. Christopher Walken was fantastic as the gigantophitecus orangutan, but the way they segue into having him sing "I Wanna Be Like You" felt surprisingly unnecessary. Idris Elba as Shere Khan is perfectly scary and menacing, and gave us a very strong cinematic villain for this story. Neel Sethi as Mowgli is good enough for the role I suppose, considering he was predominantly acting in front of green screens and imaginary animals. 

The main attraction to this movie is undoubtedly the special effects. Shot predominantly in a Los Angeles warehouse, the whole beautiful jungle that you see in this movie was pulled off via CGI; which can be hard to believe because it looks so good. This visual marvel is simply arresting to your eyes, from the rain slicked jungle to the realistic looking animals. Speaking of which, there is an uncanny valley of seeing the animals in the movie talk in a language we understand, with some facial reactions that can look a little off at times. Despite a few issues, the visuals is pretty much the real reason to see this movie. 

Although I'm not giving "The Jungle Book" a high praise of recommendation, there are a lot of things to like about it. The thematic story arc for Mowgli may have been a little too on the nose, but the movie's take on the character is really not bad at all. 

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Hardcore Henry

Directed by :  Ilya Naishuller  
Written by :  Ilya Naishuller, Will Stewart  
Starring :  Sharlto Copley, Danila Kozlovsky, Haley Bennett  
Release Date :  April 6, 2016  

Just from looking at the trailer and clips of "Hardcore Henry," it should be obvious that this movie is not for everybody. It's all done in a first person perspective, which invokes video games like "Call Of Duty" (although it's a lot more like "Breakdown" or "Mirrors Edge"). That camera style might cause people to get motion sickness and be vomit inducing, so there's that chunk of movie goers that can't see this. We are also looking through the eyes of a protagonist that cannot speak and has the case of memory loss, which doesn't really help establish a strong character background to relate with. It can be bloody violent, and there are people who doesn't like that kind of material. Now, if you're like me and do not see any of these as negatives, then I think you'll have fun watching this movie. 

The plot is admittedly very very simple, and honestly shouldn't be the focus of what to look for in this film. It has some interesting plot turns that do happen and there's a mystery to uncover. However it still has your typical plot holes, action movie tropes, or plot conveniences, but all of those story elements really isn't the point. This is all about being immersed in an action movie, that is quite the unique experience that you don't normally get in your typical action flicks. It is pretty much a series of action set pieces after action set pieces, with the expected parkour stuntwork, close combat physical action, and many gunfight sequences. Since these are all done through the first person perspective, this really feels like a huge amusement park thrill ride, or something very close to a movie specifically made for virtual reality. 

Is the whole movie a big giant gimmick though? Honestly, it really is. Depending on your tolerance, the first person perspective gimmick might easily get annoying and boring really fast. There were a couple of times that it did feel a little repetitive and just going through the motions. Thankfully this movie has Sharlto Copley doing an entertaining job playing different character roles, that helps move the story along and also adds the necessary levity to prevent the movie from getting too stale. Danila Kozlovsky is good enough as an underwritten but effective enough antagonist, while Haley Bennett was just too distracting to watch on screen because she looks so much like Jennifer Lawrence. 

The action sequences are what makes or breaks "Hardcore Henry," and should hopefully overshadow the flawed narrative and weak character developments of the movie. I myself fit in that target audience of people that are likely to enjoy this movie, so it wasn't too hard for me to ignore it's problems and just enjoy the ride. 

P.S. Also check out the music videos by Biting Elbows that spawned Hardcore Henry. 

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Eye In The Sky

Directed by :  Gavin Hood  
Written by :  Guy Hibbert  
Starring :  Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman, Aaron Paul, Aisha Takow, Barkhad Abdi  
Release Date :  March 10, 2016  

"Eye In The Sky" opens up with some seemingly tedious scenes that are just focusing on the character introductions that are spread throughout six different set locations in Kenya, the UK, and in the USA, which made me think that this movie was going to be a mess. However, once the main premise kicks in, it turned out to be a very compelling story about the moral, legal, and political questions surrounding modern drone warfare. It's a movie that mostly just revolves around people talking around a table, text messaging, phone calls, teleconferencing, and videos of satellite feeds, yet I was on the edge of my seat for a good chunk of the film. 

The main drive of this story is that it focuses on multiple perspectives across people who are in different chains of commands. From the innocent little girl who just happens to be near a residence housing a targeted terrorist, the high-ranking military officers, the drone pilots, the lawyers, the bureaucrats, to the data analysts. The question on whether a drone strike should happen or not, has to apparently first go through a series of red tape. It almost becomes like a comedy when somebody can't commit to a final decision, and then refers to needing to hear first from another person of authority, who then also needs to confer with somebody else, and so on, and so forth. It's at least a good method of showing us the different cast, that includes Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, and the last live film performance of the late great Alan Rickman. 

Intentionally, the narrative here is designed to make us wonder what we would do if we were in their situation. There are multiple plot turns that happens in the story that can feel predictable, contrived, and manipulative, into forcing us to think one way, and then something else happens that is then telling us to think another way. This can be called a propaganda film, but the story really tries to play it on both sides of the argument. So which angle is it propagandizing? It's really a debate movie, as well as a political one, with that thriller element of it being constrained within a time frame of us witnessing a drone mission in pseudo real time, that has a looming deadline for an immediate resolution. This movie gives you plenty of reasons to go through different emotions that will make you either cheer or jeer at the screen. 

Director Gavin Hood does a great job in juggling the different facets of Guy Hibbert's script for "Eye In The Sky." The movie itself is more complicated than what the promotional trailer might make you believe, and it will probably make you want to go and immediately have a conversation with someone about what you just saw. 

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Midnight Special

Directed and Written by :  Jeff Nichols  
Starring :  Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Jaeden Lieberher, Adam Driver, Kirsten Dunst  
Release Date :  February 18, 2016  

When watching "Midnight Special," it feels like it's the kind of movie that's evoking such sci-fi films like "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Starman," or "Firestarter." Like those movies, this one also touches on people fearing the unpredictability of something very unfamiliar, and the people who are able to embrace that. Along with the boy that has glowing eyes (that's just one part of it), also toss in a protective Father, a cult-like group, being chased by the government, the road trip aspect of the story, a mysterious goal, and with all that we have here is a premise that's sure to pique your interest. 

This movie is in the style of being a very subdued story that has a very specific pace, without the need to over emphasize the special effects. That's just the superficial feel of the movie though, because it's really just a series of scenes that just loves to tease you with how inexplicable things are. Writer / Director Jeff Nichols wanted to play with the narrative of the story telling, and bought into being completely mysterious and cryptic, to the point that it can get frustrating putting up with it. There are some reveals and answers to all those mysteries, but unfortunately they aren't always satisfying. 

The cast is overall good in this, and while it seems like each of their characters have a rich background history to them, they somehow still feel underwhelmingly underwritten. Michael Shannon is sure acting like a very concerned but caring Father, and Joel Edgerton seems devotedly loyal to helping out his friend, but that's as far as they can really take their roles. It doesn't help that the story has plot points that seem annoyingly baffling to see play out, all for the sake of the fact that the story has to go from point A to point B. It's all very interesting, until it does something that kills that interest. 

Without spoiling too much, "Midnight Special" really rides on the themes of the story, which are having blind faith in a belief, and the sacrifices parents have to go through just for the welfare of their children. That aspect is what I enjoyed the most about this movie. Now whether you like the conclusions to those themes and the many mysteries in the movie is completely up to you. 

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Hello, My Name Is Doris

Directed by :  Michael Showalter  
Written by :  Laura Terruso, Michael Showalter  
Starring :  Sally Field, Max Greenfield, Tyne Daly  
Release Date :  March 11, 2016  

Tell me if you've seen this premise before. An older eccentric woman has a major turning point in her life, and suddenly rediscovers her lost youth of possibilities, when she finds herself attracted to a much younger co-worker. "Hello, My Name Is Doris" doesn't exactly have the most original plot around, and it's not the kind of movie that would work for every movie goer.  However I found it to be an undeniably charming and entertaining film. It's enjoyably silly at all the right spots and emotionally dramatic when it needs to be. 

This film is pretty much a showcase for the comedic and dramatic talents of Academy Award winning actress Sally Field. As Doris Miller, Sally Field's comic-timing and facial reactions are key to what makes her character very likable and fascinating to watch. From embarrassing missteps, her daydreaming, to her innate innocence, Doris goes through a journey in this movie that isn't unlike a coming-of-age story.  Coupled with the also very likable Max Greenfield; the object of her desires, and Tyne Daly; her cantankerous best friend, Sally Field's got good company in the cast. 

The most obvious theme for this movie is the culture shock that Doris faces, when she suddenly has to deal with modern things like Facebook, Electro-Pop concerts, and the social life of 20-30 years old adults. That element is also one of the main source of the movie's comedy. Then there are the other themes that aren't as lighthearted, like that feeling of loneliness, or the yearning of getting back lost time and opportunities. Some of the more dramatic scenes in this movie can be emotionally heartbreaking to watch, and it provides that good well rounded counterpoint to the more sillier scenes. 

If you're a fan of Sally Field, then you have to watch "Hello, My Name Is Doris." If you are not familiar with Sally Field, then this is not a bad first film to see her in. It's a delightful movie, that doesn't try to be more than it is. 

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Knight Of Cups

Directed and Written by :  Terrence Malick  
Starring : Christian Bale, Imogen Poots, Wes Bentley, Brian Dennehy, Antonio Banderas, Cate Blanchett, Freida Pinto, Teresa Palmer, Natalie Portman, Isabel Lucas  
Release Date :  September 10, 2015  

After seeing "Knight Of Cups" at a movie theater, a common statement that I heard from audience members was "I seriously don't know what I just watched." Welcome to the world of Writer / Director Terrence Malick! Artsy. Pretentious. Experimental. Thought-provoking. This movie does not hold your hand on what it's about. In order to make complete sense of the film, you need to have some knowledge on Tarot Cards. Hence the title of the film, which can represent unreliability and recklessness. There are also other Tarot Cards that act as title cards and indicates a new chapter of the story. If you need more info, you could always just go to the wikipedia page, but that would be cheating.

The movie itself seems to just be a series of random scenes with minimal dialogue and voice over narrations, that are all stitched together to form more scenes of randomness that contain a lack of dialogue and cryptic voice over narrations. Lying in bed. Los Angeles skyline. Driving on the freeway. Standing in a deserted land, contemplating. Walking through a neighborhood. Lying in another bed. Earthquake. Universal Studios backlot. Hollywood party with tons of celebrity cameos. Driving around the city. Walking through the city. Lying in yet another bed. Naked woman. Homeless people. Standing in another deserted land, contemplating some more. Jumping in a body of water with clothes on. People frolicking. People drinking. People crawling. People acting angry. People yelling. Standing in yet another deserted land, contemplating even more. 

Shot with what appears to be a handheld steady cam, there are tons of extreme close ups of people's faces, with angled shots constantly facing upwards, and often times there's a panning or zooming shot. Some sequences are edited in spurts of 2-5 second scenes of seemingly random orders. Watching the movie can get hypnotizing because it's like watching a dream, and for some people it might be enough to put them to sleep. At least it's all visually beautiful to look at, and that's thanks to Emmanuel Lubezki; the guy who won three straight years at the Academy Awards for best cinematography. If you live in the greater Los Angeles area, you'll get a kick out of seeing a lot of familiar locations. 

Needless to say, "Knight Of Cups" is a hard sell for most movie goers. After all, this is a movie that hardly had a script, and the actors were told to heavily improvise their scenes. It shows. 

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Batman v Superman : Dawn Of Justice

Directed by :  Zack Snyder  
Written by :  Chris Terrio, David S. Goyer  
Starring :  Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg  
Release Date :  March 23, 2016  

It's important to remind yourself that "Batman v Superman : Dawn Of Justice" is not a Marvel comic book movie. I say that because while Marvel goes for that adventurous and fun tone in their movies, Warner Bros / DC Comics is going for a more serious and more epic angle here. Many will criticize the movie for being too serious, and others will say it's not epic enough. I myself can halfheartedly agree with those sentiments, but I don't think it was an absolutely horrible movie. When it does have problems though, they are pretty glaring and disappointing. On the flip-side, the movie does do some good things, and when they're really good, they're amazing. 

My biggest complaint about the movie is the writing. It's too contrived, and hamfisted at times. I also have my own geek-related issues as well, and it's mostly in how they wrote the character of Batman / Bruce Wayne, with him being very one-dimensional. There are also plot conveniences that bugged me, and it didn't help that the pacing was all over the place. Some people might find the movie's attempt at world building the connected continuity to the other DC heroes to be too distracting, and only adds to the many elements of the story that might be confusing to some. With that said, I did actually like the overall plot and really appreciated the themes of the story, and those positive factors helped prevent this from being a complete disaster of a movie. 

While I have my issues with Batman as a character in this, I did like Ben Affleck in the role, and his fight sequences are pretty cool. Henry Cavill steps it up as Superman / Clark Kent, and it's a huge improvement over how his character was on "Man Of Steel." The same goes to Amy Adams in her role as Lois Lane, with her getting more significant things to do here. The MVPs of the movie however has to be the supporting casts of Jeremy Irons as Alfred, and Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, who both adds some snappy levity to an otherwise dour and earnest script. Speaking of which, I really really liked Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of a very energetic and fast talking mad genius that is Lex Luthor, and really justifies himself as the main villain of this story. Oh and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman was just fine. 

The main conceit and the reason most people will want to watch "Batman v Superman : Dawn Of Justice" is to see Batman duke it out with Superman. I have to honestly say that the fight sequence itself didn't fully live up to the hype and build up to it. It wasn't a horrible fight, but it was just okay. Just like this movie. 

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Where To Invade Next

Directed & Starring :  Michael Moore  
Release Date :  December 23, 2015  

There's usually a lot of baggage that comes with Michael Moore films, and "Where To Invade Next" is no different. It's easy to just call out the fact that Moore leans far to the left as a progressive liberal, which usually sets the tone of his films' messages, and that's true for this movie as well. There is some propaganda in this, and yes it comes off as a bit biased. However, there's a levity in this film's direction that actually makes it entertaining to watch, whether it's a case where we are laughing at Moore's antics, or laughing at one of those "it's funny because it's true" situations. 

The premise of this film is to point out that other countries have some really fantastic ideas that the USA should consider implementing as well. We can criticize that there are half-truths to all of what's presented here, and even Moore says that "he's picking the flowers, not the weeds" of what a country offers for a way of life. He's talking about how Italians get eight weeks of paid vacation a year without a hit in production, the kids of France get four course gourmet meals for their school lunch, Portugal has decriminalized drug use, or how Slovenia has free college university education.

Many of those examples gets a comparison commentary to how it is in contrast to the USA, and often times it's done to shame or put down America for seemingly not doing as good as job as those other countries. In the surface, that seems to be the primary theme of the movie, and it's bound to turn some people off, but there are other worthwhile messages that it has to say as well. There are ongoing threads of concepts and ideas that link all the examples together, and there's even a very poignant message by the end of the movie that really puts it all into stark perspective. 

Despite what you might think about Michael Moore or the premise of "Where To Invade Next," the most important thing this movie does is that it should open up a discussion. If anything else, if you didn't know too much about certain other countries, then there are some reveals here that just might shock you. 

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Creative Control

Directed by :  Benjamin Dickinson  
Written by :  Micah Bloomberg, Benjamin Dickinson  
Starring :  Benjamin Dickinson, Nora Zehetner, Alexia Rasmussen, Dan Gill  
Release Date :  March 11, 2016  

"Creative Control" is set in a near future New York where smartphones and computers are futuristic slabs of translucent glass, and augmented reality glasses can bring a person closer to merging a virtual reality into their own real life. This is yet another movie that deals with commentary about how the integration of technology into our daily modern lives can equally make our lives easier and also harder to communicate with each other. One scene that audiences might find very relatable involves the main character attempting to multi-task a video chat, while modifying a program, while doing an over view of a video project, and at the same time conversing in three different messaging chats. This movie explores some very interesting modern-tech topics like that example, but it does also have many familiar story tropes that keep it from being a truly unique film. 

Although this movie has a strong science-fiction premise, this is also a relationship drama about David; a man who fully embraces modern conveniences and luxuries, and his girlfriend Juliette; a woman who prefers to be more social conscious and does yoga. Their differences eventually strains their relationship, which gives David an excuse to try and pursue the attraction he has towards his co-worker who is also his friend's girlfriend Sophie, while Juliette tries to find comfort by getting lost in spirituality. The juxtaposition between the couple's different outlooks in life may be an interesting topic to explore here, but the most fascinating plot of the story is about how David is affected by his use of augmented reality, especially when it involves Sophie. 

There are several provocative scenes in this movie that can be awkward to watch, like when it involves the combination of augmented reality with sex. Speaking of which, there are several instances of female nudity and sexual content in this, that it can be taken as gratuitously targeted toward men's fantasies. On another note, there's also this hipster vibe that I get from this production, via the overabundance of male characters having beards, the "cool" cameo appearances by comedian/musician Reggie Watts to Vice co-founder Gavin McInnes, it's apparent self-awareness like in a scene where one character actually refers to himself as someone being in a movie, the fact that there's a character named "Wim," plus the film is shot in black and white (that admittedly could be a budget issue). 

Even though there are too many meandering scenes that hits us over the head with how David is going through this downward spiral of succumbing to his reliance on immediate modern conveniences, "Creative Control" still offers some thought provoking subject matters that are worth seeing in this movie. Either way, this is still an admirable effort by Director, Co-Writer, and Actor, Benjamin Dickinson. 

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