After Earth

After Earth - 89min – PG-13

This is the latest film from M. Night Shyamalan. I know, I know, many of you groan when you hear he is making more movies. I am a fan and I have not been quiet about my appreciation for him as a filmmaker. I truly enjoy the stories that he tells and his eye for shot composure is wonderful. I even like his signature movie of filming a character in reflection. He has a reputation of providing a hook with the movies but I have learned to not look for the hook just watch and enjoy the ride. It’s a bit like when you watching a magic trick and trying to figure out how the trick was done, you miss out on the show. He has seemed to be out of the hook phase and is now focusing on just telling straight forward stories. This movie is a green light from me, and no, not just because it was from Mr. Shyamalan…ok, maybe a little bit.

Cypher Raige (Will Smith) and his son, Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith), crash land on planet Earth, but the Earth has been evacuated for a millennium. The planet has become a very hostile place. Kitai has to traverse the landscape and get to a distress beacon located a few days journey through this harsh environment alone to save himself and his injured father.

This was a good adventure story with an undercurrent of relationship dynamics that play well in the development of the characters. The father and son are not close as Cypher is a typical military father who is distant and shows almost no emotion. I think this was a good stretch for Will Smith as he usually plays very passionate and animated characters. I like it when an actor breaks out of type and takes risks with different characters.

Jaden is growing as an actor, this role has a lot more emotional baggage to deal with than his previous roles but I think he did well. A friend of mine once said he has talent but needs more craft. This was primarily Jaden’s movie. His father was an important role but all eyes are on Jaden to carry this film.

As I understand it Will Smith wanted to do a movie about a father and son stranded in the forest and brought it to Gary Whitta and they transformed it into a stranded on Earth in the far future. Gary Whitta has my attention because I have enjoyed almost all of his work. He also wrote the Book of Eli and an episode of the video game version of The Walking Dead. I am going to have to look at Prey -- the other game he worked on.

Warning Spoilers !!!!! Only Rangers beyond this point!!!!!

Kitai’s internal conflict stems from his attempts at impressing his father. He tries to become a ranger but has personal emotional demons that hold him back. His sister, Senshi (Zoe Kravitz), was a ranger and died saving his life from the hostile alien life form known as Ursa who can smell fear. Her performance was short but very well done. Her connection to her father was very present in the few scenes she was in.

I thought the movie was a bit heavy-handed in its environmental message. You can set the same stage by saying something as simple as The Earth was used up and unable to support human life. I know this is a rip off of Firefly but it is an excellent example of how you can express something without being preachy.

As preachy as the message was, they did follow through on the making that fact a big part of how the technology was made, it seems very organic and it blended well between the leather look of the uniform and the how technology blended in with it. I liked how it changed colors to fit the need of the wearer, white for illness of physical problem, and black when danger was near. Ooh wait! It was peril sensitive overalls.


Do you think the movie was overly complicated in its concept or were you ok with how it was presented?

-By the by
I am back to regular writing I might catch up on the ones I missed but I am going to focus on movies I see going forward.

Oblivion - Guest Review

Oblivion – 126 Min – PG-13
by C. L. Cadwallader

Tom Cruise gets a bad rap with a lot of people. “Tom Cruise Crazy” anyone? Is it the Scientology? The couch-hopping? Breaking Nicole Kidman’s heart? (She seems to have come out on the top side of that deal.)I don’t know. What I do know is that he seriously brought his ‘A Game’ to this movie. Oblivion is beautifully shot, well-acted and exciting. It gets a green light from me.

The movie opens on a near-future Earth ravaged by an alien invasion. Jack Harper (Cruise) is a drone repairman, one of the last humans remaining on the planet. He lives with his partner/lover, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) on a kind of floating station. Together they keep the machines harvesting the last of Earth’s resources while they wait to join the rest of humanity on Saturn’s moon Titan.

I’m going to stop there with the summary and talk instead about the trailers for Oblivion. For months leading up to this movie, I watched the trailers, growing increasingly intrigued. Cruise’s voiceover tells us that humanity won the war, but lost the planet. He pretends to play a little football in a ruined stadium. Morgan Freeman’s voice says everything we believe is a lie. Flash! Bang! Action! Something kills some humans and Tom Cruise doesn’t like it. What do we know from this trailer? We know Tom Cruise is some kind of hot shot pilot who like sports and might be a bit of a goof-off, probably not too concerned with the rules. Morgan Freeman is a mysterious stranger who may or may not be on his side. We suspect there’s something going on beneath the surface.
What is it? Who are the good guys really? What’s the deal with Jack and Victoria?

We don’t know. That’s the key here. Now, I will admit, I do like a good Tom Cruise movie (Top Gun, MI:Ghost Protocal, The Last Samurai, Jerry Maguire, etc.). I’m also a sucker for flashy sci-fi movies, so I would probably have seen this movie anyway, but the trailers sealed it for me. The premise was intriguing; it had Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman, and I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT. The trailers gave me just enough information without giving away ANY of the secrets. I enjoyed following along with Jack Harper as he learned the things that had been hidden from him. At each step, I was asking questions, and eagerly awaiting the answers. I felt satisfied at every point through the film. I wasn’t left hanging with questions for too long, nor were the answers too easily provided. The trailer did exactly what a trailer is supposed to do. It made me want to see the movie.

I think this is important to point out because so many trailers have turned into a mini summary of the movie. The recent RomZomCom Warm Bodies comes to mind. The trailers for that movie told me at least 80% of the entire plot. Sure, the details are what makes the film, but if I want a recap, I’ll read Wikipedia. The trailer should raise questions, but never answer them. The trailers for Oblivion do that, and even if the movie hadn’t lived up to expectations, I would applaud the producers for their good work getting me there based on the trailer.

Argo

Argo - 120min – R

This is the second historical movie I have seen recently and I have to say it was masterfully done. I was so drawn into the movie that I was scared for characters I knew were going to be ok. It was very intense and built to make you unsure. Ben Affleck reaffirms that he is a marvelous storyteller with this spectacular story based on a real life event. Some events were altered for dramatic effect, but because it so well executed you can forgive its inaccuracies. I give this movie a well deserved Green Light and a mighty Argo #@&* yourself.

In 1980, the US Embassy in Iran was taken over and Americans were taken hostage by rebel forces. There were six people who saw the imminent takeover and fled, seeking shelter with Ken Taylor (Victor Garber) the Canadian Ambassador. Ken keeps them at his house at great risk to himself and his family. The CIA extraction expert, Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), starts working possibilities to get six Americans safely out of Iran at a time when being an American is a capital offence. The mostly likely plan is a long shot but a long shot is better than no shot. They start working on a cover story of a Canadian film crew looking for locations to shoot a science fiction movie: ARGO. With the help of makeup artist John Chambers (John Goodman) and movie producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) they set up everything to give the cover story legitimacy

The attention to detail of the time and of the people who were living these events is remarkably done. It’s almost a must when you are doing a film like this that you mirror the people who lived this event as much as you can. I was young when this happened but I remember this being all over the news. It was interesting to see this unfold from the people point of view even it was fictionalized. Some may criticize that this movie did not stick to the facts, that type of movie is called a documentary. This was a political spy drama. This story clearly states this is based on the events.

This movie received an Oscar for best picture and it was well deserved. Ben Affleck made a comment that when he was up there before he thought it was a onetime event a random chance of luck. This work should serve as proof that luck had nothing to do with his Oscar wins. He is a skilled storyteller and has a practiced hand when it comes to movie making. Was he slighted for not getting the best director award? I would say no, it was tough competition he was definitely a very close second.

This is one that I am strongly considering putting into my collection. I have thought of making a Fat Samurai Collection of movies, this is one that should go in because of its great storytelling and its powerful performances.

Warning Spoilers!!!!! Please Show your CIA Badge to see what’s behind this link!!!!!

They use the shaky camera in some scenes but one of two things are happening, they only used it to help set the tone of the sense and I did not notice it, OR movies have used this so often that I am now immune to noticing it. I think its the first reason.


The phrase Argo fuck yourself is uttered by Alan Arkin’s character when a particularly dogged member of the press is pressuring him on a definition of what the title means. This is now kind of an inside joke. I saw it on a tweet and thought Oh my god how rude, but after seeing the movie I understand. The characters use that phrase in the film almost like saying good luck to each other on the success of this mission. So if you hear that, smile and nod and go see this movie so you will be an insider as well.

Canada needs to be highlighted more in this story, it was primarily through efforts of Ken Taylor and John Sheardown’s(who does not even make an appearance in the movie) that the lives of those six were saved. If you enjoyed the movie as much as I did try and get some back ground on these two heroic figures who are the true heroes of this story.

Newspaper article scanned into Google

What do you think about the movie, have you seen it? Do you think it was not all that? Tell me about it.

A Good Day to Die Hard

A Good Day to Die Hard – 98Min – R

There are times when you are in the mood for just one long car chase, story and plot be dammed, just blow stuff up. BOOM BABY!!! Well you can’t go wrong with choosing this movie to relieve that need. It is just what it says it is. Even if the person I went with fell asleep and missed a third of the film it was not as bad I thought it was going to be. When I compare it to the others it’s much better than Die Hard 2 but not as good as Live Free or Die Hard. I have to look at it from that stand point and give it a yellow light at best.

John McClane (Bruce Willis) is still a rough and tumble New York Cop. He uses his police contacts to keep track of his son Jack (Jai Courtney) who is in Russia. He tracks his son down and finds him hip deep in trouble with the Russian terrorists but that’s what happens when you are a spy. Father and son work on building broken relationships as they are breaking faces. Somewhere there should be an eCard with a father and son saying “The family that commits acts of violence together stays together.” Long story short, the father and son team cause a huge swath of destruction across Russia and get the bad guys in the end.

John Moore was at the helm of this film. He did a decent job, but the bar was not set very high. It is an action flick. If you destroy most of what you are filming, you will do fine. I wonder if this is a handoff from the father to the son in action movies franchises? Jai Courtney certainly has the screen presence to handle an action film, but I also wonder if this should be the last in this franchise. Meh, who am I kidding? As long as there is stuff to blow up they will always make this kind of movie, so why not keep the franchise going?

They really enjoyed the fact that they shot this in Russia, because every chance to use a long shot to show off the setting was used, so much show that at one point I was not sure of what I should be looking at. I was looking at a long overhead shot of a Russian urban setting and two small figures running out of a roof access. This was a bit distracting but if I was using a great setting I would try and get as much out of it as possible too.

The touching father and son reconciliation was put into the film almost as an afterthought to appeal to people who need a bit of substance in their action film, but not a lot. If you are looking to this film for any sort of depth of story or complex characters, keep stepp’n because this movie is not going to satisfy you.

Warning Spoilers!!!! Only people who have been cleared by Russian customs are allowed to look under this link!!!!!!!

I do have to give them the credit for the double, double twist I did not see that coming but I have to admit I was blinded by explosion 46 to see it coming.

When the bad guys you are chasing all take time to don hazmat suits, I think your t-shirt and leather jacket is a wee bit underdressed for the visit to Chernobyl where the bad guys have hidden their plutonium. I was reminded of the game Fallout , my mental Geiger counter was clicking like mad.

It’s true that my brother from another mother fell stone asleep during the first third of the film. The shaky camera and the high speed chase were enough to lull him to a sound sleep. That either says something about this movie or something about my brother. Perhaps it says something about them both. He does not do well with just sheer action for action sake. He does need to have some substance to go along with the action, so that, I think, is the real reason he was unconscious.


What was the last action movie you saw that was nothing but action, and do you think that movies like this are fine or do they need to pepper in some deeper story?