The Oscar Project Reviews
Thor is back and I wish I could say better than ever, but unfortunately Love and Thunder leaves a bit to be desired.
Much was made of the return of Natalie Portman to the Thor franchise, and it was great to see her back on screen, and even better to see her don the Thor armor and wield Thor’s legendary hammer Mjolnir. But the truth of this film is that it feels like an awkward follow-up to what was an excellent previous installment in Thor: Ragnarok. The film picks up with Thor as he tries to figure out what to do with his life after Avengers: Endgame where he left with the remaining Guardians of the Galaxy and while they figured prominently in the trailers promoting the film, I’ll disappoint any Guardians fans by letting you know they disappear about 15 minutes into the film. Don’t worry, they will be back with their holiday special on Disney+ and another theatrical film in the works, but Chris Pratt has been busy with Amazon lately, so the Guardians scenes in this film are pretty limited. The other high point of the film is Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher. The film actually opens with his backstory and I wish we’d gotten more about his character. We quickly understand his motivations from the opening scenes of the film, but there was so much more they could have done with the character. His lines are sparse and Bale delivers them with his typical dedication to the material, but I couldn’t help hearing Bruce Wayne/Batman in some of his scenes.
Thor: Love and Thunder is still a fun film. There are plenty of new characters introduced and we may look back in five years’ time with a different lens after seeing what else has transpired in the MCU, but for now this film didn’t quite reach its full potential.
6 out of 10
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Kingsman: The Golden Circle falls into some of the same traps as 2014's Kingsman: The Secret Service, but manages to salvage the story in much the same way as the original.
Picking up the story of british secret agent Galahad, aka Eggsy (Taron Egerton), Golden Circle introduces a number of new characters starting with the new villain/drug lord Poppy (Julianne Moore). After the Kingsman organization is attacked, Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) seek help from a related organization called Statesmen, based in Kentucky. Here they meet American agents Tequila (Channing Tatum), Whiskey (Pedro Pascal), Champagne "Champ" (Jeff Bridges), and Ginger Ale (Halle Berry). The two agencies combine forces to find and fight against Poppy's evil plan to hold a enormous swath of the human population hostage through the drugs she distributes around the world. As with any good spy flick, there are plenty of misdirections and some double crosses before finally figuring out where all the allegiances lie. Two things work against this film. First, the lengthy cast list. I already mentioned a number of them above and it feels like some of these roles were put in just for the sake of developing a part for the actors that inhabit them. Don't get me wrong, they are all great in these roles, just not all entirely necessary. Secondly, it's a bit long for a popcorn flick like this. There are moments when it feels like it's trying to take itself seriously like a Bond film, but then other moments when it knows full well that it's a campy romp. If it was serious throughout, it may have justified the longer run time, but as something fun, it would have worked better by losing 25-30 minutes. That said, the campiness ends up working in the end. Most of the action scenes are so over the top that you just have to sit back and enjoy the insanity of what's happening on screen. Realizing that these stories are based on comics makes it a little easier to swallow. The action is very reminiscent of comic books and that makes it feel OK in the end. While Golden Circle is not a great film, it is a fun adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat. 6 out of 10 While the film is now nearly a decade old, some of the annoyances remain, but the film as a whole remains a solid adaptation of excellent source material. Why The Hobbit novel was distributed across three films is still a mystery to me, but watching this for a second (or maybe third) time, I appreciate the level of detail Jackson includes. It makes more sense to watch this trilogy AFTER the Lord of the Rings trilogy of a decade prior even though the events happen many years before The Lord of the Rings. There are many callbacks to the earlier films, and a few subtle hints to the events that follow in the timeline of Middle Earth, even while the story of Bilbo and the Dwarves is unfolding near Laketown and The Lonely Mountain. The cast in the film is outstanding, particularly Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular dragon, Smaug. Cast in this role prior to his success in the Marvel films as Dr. Steven Strange, Cumberbatch brings a true menace to the character which can't be understated. Martin Freeman's reprisal of Bilbo from the first film holds the piece together and it is always welcome to see Sir Ian McKellan gracing the screen as Gandalf. A fitting cameo from Cate Blanchett as Lady Galadriel and a strong performance from Luke Evans as Bard of Laketown help bolster this roster. The dwarves themselves tend to blend together as they did in the first film, but Richard Armitage stays strong as their leader Thorin. The Desolation of Smaug is a stunningly beautiful film, as are all Peter Jackson's films set in Middle Earth. It was true serendipity that Jackson hails from New Zealand, the country probably most analogous to Tolkien's world that we have in our earth. While there are plenty of wonderful vistas, there are also plenty of times when the true beauty of the land is enhanced through technological means. Unfortunately, this often comes at the cost of being compared with The Lord of the Rings, which set the bar so high as to be unreachable by anything else. The only other place where Desolation of Smaug falls a bit short is in the screenplay. It is too long, and spends too much time making big deals out of small passages (or non-existent ones) from the book. I understand that Jackson was given carte blanche in making these films, but this is one instance where less would probably have been more. I've long argued that these films should have been a duology at most, and the padding included in this installment just speaks even more to that theory. In the end, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a passable film with good performances from some excellent actors. The choices that bring it down a notch happened well before filming ever started and the filmmakers involved with the production provided their best with the material at their disposal. 7 out of 10 Angelina Jolie's return to the action/thriller genre leaves quite a bit to be desired and neither the visual effects of blazing forest fires nor the Oscar-winning actress can save a script that begs for some cohesive elements to hold it together. Jolie stars as Hannah Faber, a hard drinking, "one of the guys" smokejumper in the American west who has nightmares of a group of boys she was unable to save in a recent forest fire. She is relegated to a fire tower in the wilderness, responsible for spotting potential fires and approaching storms while dealing with her dreams in isolation. On the other side of the country, Owen Casserly (Jake Weber) and his son Conner (Finn Little) set off on a cross-country trek when Owen learns of the death of his boss because of accounting information Owen himself uncovered. He fears (correctly) that he will be the next target and hits the road in an attempt to save himself and Conner from the pair of assassins (Nicholas Hoult and Aidan Gillen) following them. Conner ends up by himself and finds Hannah who he must decide to trust with his life, or continue running on his own. Add some supplemental characters in the mix including the local Sherriff who is Hannah's ex-boyfriend/Connor's uncle and his pregnant wife who runs a survival school in the backwoods and a random appearance by Tyler Perry (who also produced the film) and it feels like a mishmash of stock characters that have little chemistry together and who change their character make-up too much for the audience to get truly invested in who they are. I had high hopes for this film, but it fails to deliver. Director Taylor Sheridan set the bar high with earlier films including his writing efforts on two Sicario films and Hell of High Water, for which he received a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Even his previous directorial outing Wind River had more intensity to it and a strong story. I can't truly recommend this film, but do elevate it from a 4 to a 5 based on the acting of young Finn Little. While I think the directing lacked a bit, his portrayal of Connor feels real and he pulls it off very well, especially opposite an actor such as Jolie. There are just too many things where I stopped and said "that could never happen" in this film, and it took me out of the story. There is potential here, but unfortunately it is not realized with this outing. 5 out of 10 Those Who Wish Me Dead is playing in theaters and available to stream on HBOMax. Oliver Stone delivers an inside peek into what it may have felt like to experience Vietnam first hand as an infantryman. I have never been in the military, and I most certainly have never been in a war zone like the one portrayed in Platoon, but I can imagine this is pretty much what it would feel like. It's clear that Stone knows what he's talking about, having been in Vietnam himself and he wanted to make sure that reflected on the screen. The cast of the film is what really makes it shine. Between the young and initially naive Chris (Charlie Sheen), the hardened warrior Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger), and the idealistic Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe), you get the full spectrum of people involved in the war. We see young men getting their first taste of the atrocities that exist in war, often on both sides of a conflict. I couldn't help comparing this film to Apocalypse Now, and through that comparison is the only way I can find fault with this film. That is not to say this is a bad film. Quite the contrary. The film is fantastic and allows you to take the journey with Chris throughout the film as he goes from grunt, fresh of the plane in Vietnam, to a man who is willing to take on his superiors when he perceives they are doing wrong, but also aggressively interrogates a perceived enemy after one battle. This is a war film that has stood the test of time. It is told with an eye toward realism and intensity that gives is a feeling of truth. 9 out of 10 Films that redefine a genre usually come along once a generation, and I would consider 1917 the defining war film of today, as Saving Private Ryan was over two decades ago. Even though it is told on a grand scale at time, the story here is very personal. British commanders in World War I find out that another battalion is walking into a trap in the attack they are set to carry out the following morning. The brother of one of the men is sent to carry the message of the trap, along with one other soldier. The only path they can take to get there in time goes directly through enemy held territory. Much has been made about 1917 and it's intensity as a film designed to look like one single shot and in that respect it doesn't disappoint. The lengths that the filmmakers went to achieve this effect cannot be understated, and it creates an amazing feeling throughout the film. While there are a few instances where cuts and breaks are clear when characters pass through a doorway or behind a rock, most of the cuts are seamless. Initially I thought this effect would make the entire film feel restless, being in constant motion. But the effect is subtle when it needs to be and frenetic when the action calls for it. About a third of the way into the film, there is an incredibly personal moment between the two soldiers. The camera continues to move around them as the scene plays out, but it does so in a way that is reminiscent of how you would frame a basic two shot, just without the standard cutting you might find in that type of scene. A similar scene appears closer to the end of the film between one of the soldiers and a French woman. Her terror is palpable and again the scene is presented in a constantly moving camera, but at a very slow rate that allows the viewer to take in the entire scene, and understand the depths of her fear beyond just her words and gestures. In short, this film is a masterpiece and deserves every accolade it received, and probably many that it didn't. You can trace a line from All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) through The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Dirty Dozen (1967), Patton (1970), Apocalypse Now (1979), Platoon (1986), and Saving Private Ryan (1998) and all the way to 1917. It's almost fitting that 90 years later, we have cycled through every major conflict of the 20th Century and returned to the war that filled the screen in All Quiet on the Western Front. Even with the benefit of nearly a century of hindsight, that conflict is still just as brutal as it was then, and the haunting images in 1917 capture that brutality in a beautiful and thought provoking way. 1917 is available on Bluray, DVD, and on demand. 10 out of 10 If you're looking for more of what made the first film enjoyable ten years ago, you'll get exactly what you're looking for in this sequel. If, on the other hand, you're looking for great plot and character development, you'll be sorely disappointed. I've made it abundantly clear on this site that I am no real fan of horror films in general. My recent exceptions to this include Get Out and the original Zombieland. (There may be more, but that's the list I can think of right now.) Of course, upon further reflection, I don't really think of Zombieland as a horror film. It's a comedy set in a post-apocalyptic zombie-ridden world where a few people manage to survive, despite sometimes doing really stupid things to attract zombies. In this sequel, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) are all back, having taken up residence in the biggest house they can find...the White House. When Little Rock and Wichita take off, leaving the boys alone at 1600 Pennsylvania avenue, they must set off to find them and save their friends. Along the way, we are introduced to a new cast of zombie survivors including the dim-witted Madison (Zoey Deutch), pot-head Berkeley (Avan Jogia), and bad-ass hotel owner Nevada (Rosario Dawson). We also learn more about the zombies themselves and the different categories they fall into from the bumbling Homer (as in Simpson) to the new breed of super zombies dubbed the T-800s after Arnold Schwarzenegger's original Terminator. One thing that is never fully explained is how the zombies are evolving after all these years, and beyond that, how do they continue to multiply as the world population dwindles through death or becoming zombies themselves. Again, the film isn't big on plot, it IS a zombie movie in the end. The returning gags are funny, and the way the characters play against one another, often coming dangerously close to breaking the 4th wall, is fun and I found myself laughing out loud in several places. I wouldn't be sad to see one of these films released every ten years so we can check in on how the team is surviving in the zombie world. 6 out of 10 Disney manages to make this story fresh and new, while paying homage to the memory of Robin Williams that made the original an instant classic. I was initially very skeptical of this reboot, but i think it's one of my favorites that Disney has done in the last decade. The traditional songs and set pieces are still there, even down to the story being framed around the freed Genie (Will Smith) telling the tale of Aladdin (Mena Massoud). As expected, there is plenty of spectacle, from Smith's version of "Friend Like Me" to Aladdin's entrance into Agrabah to the pomp and circumstance of "Prince Ali." As with many of these Disney live action remakes, there isn't a whole lot new here. Many of the changes are minor. Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) remains a strong female figure in the story, but beyond not wanting to marry the bumbling idiots paraded before her as suitors, she actually yearns to be sultan when her father's time is done. She has a fellow female character in her handmaid Dalia (Nasim Pedrad) who seems more like her friend than servant. There has been some criticism of the changes the film made, but I generally approved. This is not the cartoon version of the story from 30 years ago. Smith's Genie is uniquely his own, paying homage to the original character, but diverging onto his own path and ultimately imbuing the character with a bit more humanity, even though the desire for freedom remains. Overall, this is a good remake. I'm glad it wasn't a shot for shot remake like The Lion King nearly was and allowed development of several characters beyond their arcs in the original. 8 out of 10 In re-watching this film with the benefit of hindsight, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. Our introduction to Captain America (Chris Evans) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings us to WWII and introduces another key element of the battle between good and evil, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s evil counterpart, Hydra. Don't get me wrong, The First Avenger is a fun film that does an adequate job of introducing an additional critical character to the world. It also gives us background on the Tesseract which contains one of the Infinity Stones that we will start to hear so much about in another few films. The film stars with Steve Rogers as a scrawny kid who has tried multiple times to sign up for the army during the war, only to be told no every time due to a number of ailments. He tries once more and catches the attention of a former German scientist (Stanley Tucci) who brings him into a new army program testing the development of super soldiers by injecting them with a special serum. Rogers receives the injection and emerges several inches taller, and many muscles larger, immediately taking off to chase down a Nazi/Hyrda agent who sabotages the experiment. Following his heroics, Rogers joins a traveling revue complete with a chorus line and "Hilter" himself, trying to get the country to pony up for war bonds to fund the fighting. After receiving applause across the country, the show moves to Italy, just miles from the front lines and receives a much different response. Upon hearing that his childhood friend James "Bucky" Barnes (Sebastian Stan) was captured or killed nearby, he takes it on himself to free the prisoners and receives a hero's welcome upon returning to camp. Other than The Incredible Hulk, this film feels the most "comic-booky" in the series so far. You really get the wartime feel, even if this is not a great "war movie." It could have easily been twenty to thirty minutes longer in order to flesh out some of the story better. Trying to pack the entire backstory of America's greatest hero into a little over two hours is really tight, but with The Avengers needing to come together in the next film, it had to be done here. Captain America: The First Avenger did not receive any nominations for Academy Awards. Had I written this review when the film was first released, I probably would have given it a 7 or 8 out of ten. As it is, I can only muster a 6 for the film today. 6 out of 10 Previous: Thor | Next: Marvel's The Avengers Get Ready for Endgame In what might have been another dud along the lines of The Incredible Hulk, the Marvel Cinematic Universe took a turn away from Earth to introduce us to Thor, the Asgardian God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth), along with his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and trickster brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Thor is the introduction to two additional members of The Avengers, Thor himself along with Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) who has a small part in this film but will expand in upcoming films. We also meet a myriad of supporting characters including Thor's friends from Asgard, Heimdall (Idris Elba), the guardian of Asgard, and the Earthbound friends Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård), and Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings). Unlike The Incredible Hulk, Thor introduces these characters with ease by making them relatable and connecting them to familiar characters Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) The story here is simple enough. Thor is the selected heir to the throne of Asgard but is also brash and searches out a fight with the Frost Giants of Jotunheim after a small band of them break into Asgard even though Odin had forbidden such action. As a reward for his insubordination, Thor is stripped of his powers, along with his hammer Mjölnir, and banished to Earth. Odin's health takes a turn for the worse and Loki takes the opportunity to seize the throne of Asgard, sending a powerful machine to Earth to eradicate Thor. Thor must learn to accept his limitations in order to be deemed worthy of his hammer and powers once again. We begin to see the intertwining of the stories between multiple films here with a repeat of the credits scene with Agent Coulson from Iron Man 2. We also find out the full meaning of his being sent to New Mexico and start to see the team of Avengers coming together. Thor did not receive any nominations for Academy Awards. Ultimately, this is a good addition to the MCU and provides a welcome respite from fighting only earthbound foes. The inclusion of more mystical elements helps show that there is way more at stake in the universe than Tony Stark's ego or Bruce Banner's rage. 7 out of 10 Previous: Iron Man 2 | Next: Captain America: The First Avenger Get Ready for Endgame |
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