Hello there gang. It’s
been awhile…
Apologies for no new content in nearly two months. I’ve had a lot going on in my personal life
that really has separated me from my computer time. Whether it be picking up overtime at work
every week, dealing with work around the house since my outside has been
ravaged by the late winter storms, or even just other small tidbits here and
there going on. I mentioned over a year
ago after relaunching this blog that my posts were going to be sporadic this
time around in comparison to how it use to be over five years ago. But this has been the longest gap in content
since relaunching. I do have other
projects in the works for this blog that are on the way like that Best Films of
2020 list as well as another year end retrospective; so I do promise that
content is coming. It’s just taking
longer than normal.
So with that said, I don’t want to keep you all waiting any
longer for more content. I do have a
little something here for you all today to catch y’all up on. Consider this a newer series for my film
reviews. I’m calling it BMR: Brief Film
Reviews. This is a series for movies that
I have watched but I don’t feel like I have enough content to give it the full
review treatment. The movies that will
be in this post are ones that aren’t going to be appearing on my Best Films of
2020 list and films that I have seen so far in 2021. Y’all ready for this? Let’s start this off with:
Mank
Streaming now on Netflix.
This film is about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and his development
of the screenplay for one of the most prestigious movies of all-time, 1941’s Citizen
Kane. It’s been nominated for multiple
major awards this season including Best Actor for Gary Oldman, Best Supporting
Actress for Amanda Seyfried, Best Picture, and is from one of my favorite
directors working today in David Fincher…and I find this to be perfectly okay.
Yeah this is only okay in my eyes. I mean don’t get me wrong. I can absolutely see why it’s getting so much
consideration for so many awards. Oldman
and Seyfried both put on great performances.
David Fincher only further proves why he is one of my favorite directors
working today with some of his direction choices he makes including filming in
all black and white like the films of yesteryear were filmed in. As well as using red digital cinema cameras
to give this classic style of direction a more modern feel. Fincher does great.
What holds it back from me truly loving it is the story
itself. This has become a huge trend as
of late that doesn’t really interest me as a viewer. Sure every now and then you get a movie like The
Disaster Artist that 100% does it right because Tommy Wiseau is just a bizarre
alien of a person that completely compels you into wondering what inspired him
to make cult classic The Room. But more
often than not, we are getting films like Saving Mr. Banks. Just uninteresting an unnecessary looks into
the lives of not really interesting people.
Not saying that film is a bad movie either. Just unnecessary.
Mank is slightly more interesting than most of the others in
this mold as I do love the nostalgia behind this era of filmmaking as well as
me learning a few things that I previously did not know from my multiple film
appreciation courses I took in college; where Citizen Kane did appear in these
classes more than once. But a lot of the
content really doesn’t interest me as much as a lot of this feels more like an
overlonged autobiography than anything else.
Not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination as it is executed very
well. But not interesting enough to hold
my attention a second time.
Oh and Hollywood sure does love prestige filmmaking like
this where they pay homage to the films of yesteryear. That’s why it received more nominations than
anything else. Just the Academy circle
jerking old time Hollywood once more.
Final Grade: B-
Tom & Jerry
This one almost got the full review treatment. Very very close. Because Tom & Jerry is just that amazing
of a cartoon classic. Sure we had the
Looney Tunes and Mickey Mouse as the pallbearers of this nostalgic era. But Tom & Jerry as well as other
Hanna-Barbera classics just hold that much more weight and gravitas to me. I love this franchise. Not enough to sit through some of the bizarre
trends this property has taken over the last fifteen years or so (Tom &
Jerry & Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? Really?), but enough to give a shitty live-action
animation hybrid a chance.
Yeah this movie is bad.
Surprise! That’s why it didn’t
get the full review treatment. Not
because it is bad. But because it is a
familiar sort of bad that I thought movie studios put behind them for like five
years now. And what sort of bad am I
referring to? Turning nostalgic
properties from yesteryear into shitty family films like Garfield, The Smurfs,
Yogi Bear, and Alvin and the Chipmunks before it. Tom & Jerry is just as bad as all of the
ones before them.
But what I don’t get is the amount of credible actors and
actresses Warner Brothers got to be in this.
Chloe Grace Moretz? Michael
Pena? Even the director Tim Story has
made a couple decent films here and there like Barbershop and Think Like a Man
(along with the mid 2000’s Fantastic Four films but let’s not get carried away
with the notion that this guy is a good director). Even the animation isn’t all that bad. How did so many people get attached to a
project that didn’t deserve these levels of bad writing?
I’m just going to keep the analysis short because most of
what I have to say is just questioning the production process. When it tries to be a family film, it’s
really really bad at it. But when it
pays homage to Tom & Jerry, it’s okay.
I got a brief chuckle at the classic skits with a more modern
twist. Otherwise, this is a familiar
level of bad that I thought Hollywood was clearly past. Guess I was wrong.
Final Grade: D
Judas and the Black Messiah
This is weird. I don’t
think this should be considered as a 2020 film at all. Hence why it’s not in contention for my Best
of 2020 list. It wasn’t even released in
any sort of theater, reopening/limited release or not. Just a bizarre classification to me. That said, expect this to be in contention for
my 2021 best list. Because it’s pretty
damn great. Better than a lot of the movies
that were nominated for best picture this year.
Except for one, which I’ll get to when we get to that list.
The acting in this is terrific with Daniel Kaluuya and
Lakeith Stanfield being the two major standouts. Both absolutely deserving of best supporting
actor. The story is powerfully told. Ironically not the first time that Fred
Hampton was portrayed in a film this past year.
But unlike The Trial of the Chicago 7, Fred Hampton gets the full
narrative telling that the portrayal deserves.
And relative unknown Shaka King does a great job with his direction as
his direction style is brash, fresh, and full of wit. Very similar to one of the films producer’s
Ryan Coogler; who is also one of my favorite directors working today. Coogler’s involvement in this is perfect as I
can definitely tell some of his direction style has been rubbed off onto King.
One minor complaint is that I’m not the biggest fan of the
score. It definitely took away from the movie
at times to the point that it was distracting.
But if that was the only real complaint that I had, then this is a
pretty damn good movie.
Final Grade: A
The Croods: A New Age
And now we get to the multi-week box office champion of the
modern theatrical era. A film that has
dominated its competitors and has become one of the most successful family
films in recent memory when it comes to box office performance….oh man I can’t
even act like the box office matters anymore if this is what is the modern
times box office success story.
Seriously though, was anyone dying for a Croods sequel? Was this the DreamWorks film that many were
clamoring a sequel for? The original was
just so….unmemorable. I seriously don’t
remember a damn thing about the original except for Emma Stone and Ryan
Reynolds being attached to it with both stars clearly deserving better
material. And here I thought that this
still getting dumped into theaters during a global pandemic when so many other
tentpoles and other sequels were getting pushed back forever and ever, was a
sign that nobody was asking for this.
Yet I was wrong with how well this has been doing not just domestically
but worldwide.
So I might as well share my thoughts. It was just as uneventful as the first. Not bad enough for me to hate it, but not
good enough for me to remember it. I
actually had to rewatch the first Croods film on Netflix the other day just to
have something to compare this to so I can get enough material for some sort of
analysis. I guess the sequel was funnier
than the first. A lot of the jokes in
this are ridiculous enough to get a slight smirk here and there. This film was definitely not meant for me as
honestly it reminded me a lot of the Trolls sequel from the same year. Kid focused with lots of vibrant colors and
silly enough jokes that will have kids laughing and adults getting a laugh or
two every now and then.
What worked better for me in the original was the story and
how it was told. Sure it may have been
done to death when it comes to family growth and coming of age for Emma Stone’s
character Eep’s case, but I thought it was effective enough that it did a good
job telling said story. The sequel tries
to do something similar when it comes to Ryan Reynolds’ character Guy trying to
find his tomorrow and it is so obvious from the very beginning what his
tomorrow is that I can’t believe it pushes that story for nearly the whole movie. And also the main story about “can’t we all
just get along” is just so on the nose that you all can figure out where this
is going immediately too. I mean sure, I
would love to live in an America where we can all just get along too, but I
sure as hell think there are more effective ways to convey this message across
than from a damn Croods film. My point
of all this being that this sequel’s storytelling is so predictable and its
messages are so obvious that there is no subtlety, which I would have
appreciated more as a filmgoer. But
alas, this is a kids film made for kids.
And if it takes the Croods to bring unity to this world, I hope it does
so.
Final Grade: C as in Croods
Music
There is a time and place for me to absolutely give this
film the thrashing it so rightfully deserves.
Give me a year and I’ll tell you all what I really think about
this. But all I’m going to say for now
is not only does this film fail at portraying autism accurately. It also fails at nearly every single aspect
when it comes to filmmaking. Period. This is quite possibly one of the worst
movies I’ve ever seen.
Final Grade: F
That’s all that I have for this round. Might do another one of these in the near
future if you all like this enough as I’ve seen more than just these five. Trust me, not every film that I see gets a
full length review and I can definitely do much more than just that. Just let me know in the comments below or
through messaging and what not if you’d like to see more of these.
But until next time, thank you all for reading. I’m sorry again for the delay in
content. More will be coming soon. So until then, stay safe and thanks!
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