John Wick Review, Grade: A-

Release date: 10/24/14
Rating: R
Directed by: David Leitch, Chad Stahelski
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alfie Allen, Michael Nyqvist, Willem Dafoe, John Leguizamo, Dean Winters, Adrianne Palicki, Bridget Moynahan
Synopsis: "An ex-hitman comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that took everything from him."---IMDb.com

Overall: John Wick is not a complicated movie: notorious hit man receives puppy as a final gift from his recently deceased wife. Group of gangsters kill notorious hit man's puppy and steal his car. Notorious hit man gets mad and digs up his old guns. Notorious hit man gets revenge. Lots of people die.


Don't let its simplicity fool you; John Wick is one hell of an entertaining 'revenge' flick. It's clever (there's a hotel for vacationing hit men with a strict "no business on the premises" rule). It has heart (a puppy! a dead wife!) and witty little pockets of humor but it doesn't shy away from the genre's love of mindless assassin-ing. The film is directed by a former stunt man and it shows. The fight scenes are crisp. They're fluid. They're even kind of beautiful. But despite all of its 'coolness', John Wick embraces a more realistic approach to its action than most movies do nowadays. There's no doubt that Wick is a skilled fighter but he's not perfect. He engages in multiple fights where he's evenly matched or struggles a lot to get the upper hand. He repeatedly gets hit, shot and stabbed. He runs out of bullets and even has to do the unthinkable: reload his gun! Wick leaves a extensive path of destruction in his wake but its rarely gory (there is one especially painful looking knife fight early on though). There's no Sin City style splatter or pizazz; just quick, no nonsense deaths. 

John Wick never tries to be something its not. It respects the genre and embraces it with style and grace. With the help of some gorgeous nightclub sets, sweeping views of New York City and a cool, thumping score, John Wick entertains to the fullest extent.

The acting: There is an exquisite ensemble cast here: a smarmy, charismatic crime boss (Michael Nyqvist), a mysterious old partner (Willem Defoe), a delightfully pathetic antagonist (Alfie Allen), a tough as nails rival (Adrianne Palicki) and a wide range of slimy, formidable thugs (and an excellent Dean Winters). But the best part of the film (aside from the puppy) is Keanu Reeves. He's good...Matrix level good. For years, Reeves has (unfairly) been a kind of punching bag for "bad actor" jokes. While his calm, dead pan delivery isn't appropriate for every role, it works wonderfully in John Wick. For the most part, Reeves is effortlessly cool throughout but he gets a chance to show off occasional moments of humor and emotion. The scene where Wick receives the puppy really pulls at the heart strings and Reeves plays it with a surprising amount of depth. Its nice to see Keanu Reeves in top form again. 




See it or don't see it: see it!


Grade: A-

Recap & Review: The Walking Dead s04 e09--"After"

60 second recap: 

Carl and a badly injured Rick are left limping away from the overrun prison. The relationship between the two is strained as they fight over what to do next. Rick collapses out of exhaustion and Carl explores the neighborhood in search of food. Elsewhere, Michonne goes back to her old habit of survival in solitude. After coming across an eerie walker doppleganger, she decides she doesn't want to do things on her own anymore and goes out in search of Rick and Carl. 

Overall:

If you've ever wondered what the Walking Dead comics are like, this week's episode was a pretty good adaptation. Not surprisingly, it was penned by comic book creator Robert Kirkman. There was a narrowed focus on Rick and Carl, limited dialogue and several scenes that were lifted almost exactly from the comics. Even the way the camera framed Carl and Michonne at the forefront of the screen was very reminiscent of the original medium:

Lawless- Grade: A

Starring: Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises, Inception), Shia LaBeouf (Transformers), Guy Pearce (Memento), Jason Clarke (Public Enemies), Jessica Chastain (The Help)
Directed By: John Hillcoat (The Proposition, The Road)
Release Date: August 29, 2012
Opening Weekend: $9,700,000
Rating: R
Run Time: 1Hr 55Min
Synopsis: Resilient and loyal group of Bondurant brothers make a profit selling illegal Moonshine during the Prohibition Era. When corrupt new deputy rolls into town and threatens their business, the brothers must decide how to fight back.

The Bondurant Brothers.

So How Was It?: Violent, suspenseful and slow burning; Lawless is a powerful film about family, power and how far you're willing to go to protect them. With a strong cast and screenplay, it becomes one of those rare films that you wish was just a few scenes longer.

The film works so well because it takes its time setting up the Bondurant Brothers. We see their moments of weakness and stupidity, resilience and strength and most passionately, their love and their loyalty. We can see ourselves in them and the choices they make, no matter how dumb or stubborn they seem. The Bondurant brothers differ from your average "good guys" because they're allowed to be human and consequently more accessible. Without this, Lawless would run the risk of being just another easily forgettable big guy vs. the little guy story.

The Fall- Grade A

Starring: Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies), Catinca Untaru
Directed By: Tarsem Singh (The Cell)
Release Date: May 30, 2008
Opening Weekend: $79,611
Rating: R
Run Time: 1Hr 57 Min
Synopsis: Young Romanian girl and paralyzed stuntman meet while both are patients at hospital in Los Angeles circa 1920. Young girl and stuntman form unusual friendship. Stuntman begins telling young girl fantastical story of 5 characters on journey for revenge. Young girl brings story to life with her wild imagination. Fact and fiction begin to blur as stunt man's ulterior motives for telling the story slowly emerge.



So How Was It?: Set in an era where movies were still silent and color film was just a dream, The Fall plays like a declaration of love to a medium of storytelling very dear to director Tarsem's heart. Tarsem is less concerned with the details of a well thought out story than he is with the magic behind telling a story. Nearly every plot hole, unnecessary scene or underdeveloped character can be disputed by the argument that it's all being invented by a depressed, paralyzed drug addict and interpreted by a 6 year old immigrant with a limited understanding of English. Quite frankly, things don't have to make sense for the two creators of the story. What they're looking for is an escape from the grim reality of their lives.

The visuals Tarsem is able to create in this film are so strikingly beautiful that the viewer will have a hard time remembering any of the film's faults by the time the credits start rolling.

Hanna- Grade A-

Starring: Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, The Lovely Bones), Eric Bana (The Time Traveler's Wife, Munich), Cate Blanchett (Lord of the Rings, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Directed By: Joe Wright (Atonement)
Release Date: April 8, 2011
Opening Weekend: $12,370,549
Rating: PG-13
Run Time: 1 Hour 51 Min
Synopsis: Girl is raised by her ex- CIA agent father in middle of woods in Finland with no other human contact. Father teaches girl to be perfect assassin. Girl turns 16, father sends her out to kill mysterious, deadly CIA agent responsible for girl's mother's death. Girl experiences outside world for first time while tracking agent down and discovers life changing secret her father has been keeping about her.





So How Was It?: Start with your favorite creepy fairy tale (think Red Riding Hood meets Hanzel and Gretel) and a feisty female assassin (think Kick Ass). Mix the two. Stir in some some epic fight scenes, a cup of revenge, a pinch of dry humor and a generous sprinkling of mystery. (Don't forget to coat the pan with a nice thick layer of emotionless killing.) Bake for two hours and voila! you've got Hanna.

The film is successful with many things: its gorgeous cinematic look, believable actors, original concept (i.e. the reason why Hanna has been trained as an assassin) and its less-is-more attitude with back stories on the main characters as a method to build suspense. If you're someone who needs to have fully fleshed out and humanized characters to enjoy a film, be ready to be annoyed. But if you're more like the average movie goer whose just there to have a good time, you'll be able to forgive the film's often head scratching plot points (i.e. Bana's character's strange ability to cross land and sea at super human speeds) and minimal character development. Even after spending almost two hours rooting for and traveling with Hanna, we don't really have any idea of who she is. Although this adds to the mystery and tension of the film, after a while it begins to feel like more of a downside than a strength.


The film ends rather abruptly. As fun as the ride was, where did it really take us? It's like we got buckled in, slowly chugged up the hill, made it to the top, started to go down and suddenly swerved onto a different track only to find it was already time to get off. Unless its a setup for a sequel, the film needed to be a good 10 or 15 minutes longer to really feel finished.

Jane Eyre - Grade: A

Starring:Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland), Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds), Judi Dench (Casino Royale, everything else), Jamie Bell (Billy Elliott)
Directed By:Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre)
Release Date: March 11, 2011
Opening Weekend:(Limited Release) $182,885
Rating:PG-13
Run Time: 2 Hours
Synopsis: (Based on Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre) Girl is orphaned, has horrible loveless childhood. Grows up to be free spirited, independent and mature person, challenging the standard for women of her time. Girl gets job as governess at mysterious old manor. Manor's owner is moody, volatile and bored with women around him. Girl and owner form a strange friendship. Owner and girl start to fall in love. Girl thinks her life is finally going to change for the better but soon discovers dark sinister secret about her fairytale romance.




DISCLAIMER: It's been a good 8 years since I read Jane Eyre back in freshman year of high school and my memory of the storyline was pretty vague going into watching this film. I saw it twice in the theaters.



So How Was It?: Apparently less is more, a lot more. In an era of film obsessed with pushing the envelope and showing skin, its refreshing to watch a movie that builds a powerful underlying sexual passion without showing more than a glimpse of a bare knees and a handful of short kisses. Call it old fashioned, but Bronte's classic tale of 19th century love is more alive than ever.

A novel the length of Jane Eyre is almost impossible to ever fully and faithfully adapt because of one simple thing: books tell and movies show. The two mediums are so different that things will inevitably get lost in translation. Are the film's flashbacks of Jane's cruel childhood a bit over dramatic and underdeveloped? Yes. Do her and Rochester's deeply passionate love happen way too quickly? Yes. Is it possible to squeeze all the details of a 480 page 19th century novel into a 2 hour film that can withstand the infamously short attention span of the modern day audience member? No. Does Fukunaga create a painfully beautiful and touching film about the importance of love and staying true to yourself? A hundred times yes.