‘Texas Chainsaw 3D’ Tears Through The Floors And Hits Rock Bottom (Movie Review)
Starting this year out on the right foot, the latest entry in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise manages to put Hollywood in a position to go nowhere but up. I do enjoy my share of horror films and was happy to enter into this film with an open mind, but man is it terrible. Given my love for the original film and my general fondness for the second, the idea of a film billed as a direct continuation of the original entry written and directed by Tobe Hooper was slightly intriguing. Even in a post-Cabin in the Woods world, where horror movies can be boiled down to words on a dry erase board, I went for it. The results were not good. Texas Chainsaw 3D is not just a bad film, it is an idiotic one that literally cannot do basic math. Read on to find out why. Continue reading ‘‘Texas Chainsaw 3D’ Tears Through The Floors And Hits Rock Bottom (Movie Review)’
Right off the bat, I should say that between the novel by Victor Hugo, the stage play, and previous film adaptations, I am quite familiar with the story of Les Miserables. The idea of a big-budget film musical, with an A-list set of actors, and an Oscar-winning director certainly sounds like a success story in the making, and I think in a lot of ways this film works and is sure to get a lot of support from audiences. At least two performances are absolutely wonderful, the music is of course great, and from a production standpoint, there is a lot of ambition to be seen. Still, it is very clear that director Tom Hooper very much wanted to direct the hell out of this film and goes pretty overboard with his visual touch on this film. As a result, the film is hindered by its overall presentation, especially as it attempts to rush through so many events during much of its runtime. It will end up being dependent on the viewer as to whether or not this version of Les Mis does right by them, as it still does have stirring musical numbers.
In a year that has given us the French comedy hit, The Intouchables (which I kind of liked) and David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook (which I liked a lot), we have also been given the French/Belgian drama Rust and Bone, which is a fitting sum of each of those films’ parts. It is certainly not a comedy, but instead a film about an unconventional romance formed by tragedy, which manages to subvert convention and contrived scenarios by becoming more complex in what is presented. The bonus is that the two lead performances are fantastic, which is matched by some incredible special effects, which are sure to be overlooked, due to the lack of spectacle. That is no matter though, because Rust and Bone will still stand as one of the year’s best for me, in a year that seems to keep trying to outdo itself.
Sorry to reiterate the title, but Zero Dark Thirty is in fact a thrilling work of journalism come to life. This is not a film that relies on sensational action sequences to depict the hunt for Osama bin Laden, nor is it a film that eventually finds the wonderful Jessica Chastain eventually strapping on night goggles, picking up a gun, and joining S.E.A.L. Team Six to raid his compound. Zero Dark Thirty is an excellent procedural film about methods and process, as it depicts the hunt for Bin Laden in obsessive detail. This entire film is based on research, but that also does not mean it is the exact version of what happened. This is a film about a fierce woman’s pursuit to solve a problem and the people involved in the procedural tactics of getting that work done. It just happens to be that this work is based on the story of the world’s greatest manhunt.
I am not sure how concerned with my own age I should be when thinking about This Is 40, but I can say that I have doubts that Judd Apatow’s new film about a couple with two kids living in a mansion in LA, facing financial issues, because Paul Rudd’s record label is not doing too good is going to relate to too many other people either. It is a purposefully biting opening remark, but it is the biggest flaw of the movie. Its other flaw is how there seems to be so much material here, which could almost be spread out into a one season-long TV series, but instead the film just has many lingering plot threads. Putting all of that upfront, I will say that I did laugh quite a bit too, which puts the film in a weird middle-ground for me. It has likable qualities, but this is supposed to be a mainstream comedy and Apatow’s free form approach to plot structure really is not helping this time around.
Here’s the thing about Jack Reacher – You have to accept a few things in order to get into the film. For fans of the book series, you will have to accept the physical stature of Tom Cruise. For people who are iffy on Tom Cruise in general, you will have to believe that he is playing a fairly handsome, charismatic man who can pass through life as a drifter and possess top notch fighting skills. And for people hoping for an action fest that matches up with the Mission Impossible films, you will have to accept that this is more of a procedural with bursts of fun moments throughout. Now, I don’t think these are necessarily burdensome qualifiers to enjoy the movie, because I actually do think Jack Reacher is quite good. It may not be the best movie for the holiday season and it runs bit too long, but it is an entertaining procedural that I wish embraced more of its pulpy elements.
And so it begins; another tale of perilous, fantastical traveling. I think it is funny that I went into The Hobbit knowing incredibly little about the actual plot, only to find that there was not a whole lot to learn. I have not read any of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books and have only seen trailers for the film, which seemed very light on story. Apparently it was because there is really not much there, at least for this first film, in a brand new Middle-Earth-based trilogy. ‘An Unexpected Journey’ re-introduces us to this world that director Peter Jackson brought to life in his highly acclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy, with the first part of a new trilogy based on The Hobbit, which proceeds those ‘Rings’ films. In terms of making things grand, I was once again impressed by the scope of the production, but I was only just happy to have seen a good portion of this story, as opposed to being enthralled all the way through the film’s epic runtime. There is a lot there, but I am not sure how much was needed. 
Did the world really need this? Is the world even ready for this? Wasn’t 10+ hours of theatrical cuts enough to sit through back in the day and again on Blu-ray? Are we ready for three more consecutive years of a tale that’s mainly self-contained in one book and a few appendices? Of course we are! We’re talking J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings after all. It’s like Star Wars and crack mixed together for fantasy nerds and geeks alike, including myself (not that I have ever partaken in the use of the said recreational drug). So prepare to usher in three butt numbing sessions in 2012, 2013 and 2014…there’s a new adventure hitting the silver screen…an unexpected journey…in an unexpected frame rate. Of course I’m talking about Peter Jackson’s new, three-part, life consuming project, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Surely you heard of it. 
Admittedly, this review may be more straightforward than others, because Django Unchained has been my most anticipated film of the year and it managed to deliver in every respect. Much like Bond films, a new film by Quentin Tarantino is very much an event for me. I get really excited, rewatch his past work, and wait in eager anticipation for what is coming very soon. Django Unchained is the kind of film that Tarantino has been building to, based on many of his previous films, which incorporate many western elements. This is a film that is rooted to the atmosphere of spaghetti westerns, but true to Tarantino form, feels like a genre film unto itself. It is just as much a Blaxploitation film as it is a western and it just as much a comedy as it is an action-thriller. The dialogue and colorful characters are of course a highlight, but there is certainly plenty going on in this lively western opus from the mind of Tarantino.
