Film Geek 101

Stout vs Struzan. Who’s going to win the Mondo 2011 bracket? Vote HERE!

No, this actually wasn’t as bad as ‘The Last Airbender’, but it wasn’t far off either. Will Smith needs to quit trying to force feed the public his son and instead focus on his own career for a while. Jaden’s performance was pretty awful, and it just goes to show that it’s who you know, and not necessarily how talented you are in Hollywood. M. Night just needs to hurry up and make that long awaited sequel to ‘Unbreakable’ (easily the best film of his downward trajectory positioned career). Seriously though, how he keeps getting work is beyond me, especially when he is the director behind the worst Will Smith opening in the past 20 years.

 GRADE

I was really looking forward to this movie as it is not a sequel or a remake, and it appeared that it required a bit of thinking to sort things out as the movie progresses. It was definitely a good time, although I was surprised at how easily I was able to predict certain things happening before they did. The cast is one of the stronger casts you are going to get in a film this summer, although I don’t believe that will necessarily translate to big box office dollars. For everything wrong ‘The Incredible Burt Wonderstone’ did in portraying magic on the big screen, this film more than makes up for. It’s a really entertaining movie filled with humor, twists, and if another strong script was ever written, it’s certainly a universe filled with characters that I wouldn’t mind revisiting again in the future.

GRADE

A grim and straightforward look at the life of serial killer Richard Kuklinski. The main reason to see this film is because of the awesome performance given by Michael Shannon, and actor who I consider to be simply one of the best in Hollywood right now. Winona Ryder was slightly distracting to me playing his wife, but that’s not to say she was bad by any means. Everything else about this film was just OK, including the screen play, the direction, the score, etc… If you are in to mafia films however, while this film doesn’t do anything to break new ground, it’s good enough to burn a couple of hours watching on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Grade

This series continues to defy the norm as it proceeds to get better and more ambitious with each new entry into the series. I’m not saying this was better than Fast Five (the jury is still out on that), but it’s pretty damn close if nothing else. Marvel should take note from this series on the correct way to execute a post credits sequence that truly gets the audience fired up and doesn’t make them feel like they wasted their time sitting around for ten minutes for a throw away joke. I worry about the next film as the director (Justin Lin) is stepping aside as he feels they are rushing the production to have a new film in theaters by next summer. With that being said, this was possibly my most anticipated big action film of the summer and it did not disappoint in the least!

GRADE

Loved the first one, and was disappointed somewhat in the second film. With that being said, you can imagine my utter disappointment as the credits started to role last nigh and the sad realization began to creep over me that ‘The Hangover 2’ was actually a far more entertaining and humorous film than from what I just had sat through. Even though the second film copped out by basically repeating the exact same formula from the first film, at least with that formula, the characters never lacked that sense of manic bewilderment that fueled their hilarious and insane actions from the previous two films. The first Hangover will always be a classic, but sadly the sequels have done nothing but tarnish the series overall. (MINOR SPOILER)… And seriously, how do you NOT find a way to get Mike Tyson back for just one more laugh?!?!

 

GRADE

EDIT

In reply to Brundlefly’s note….

“Tyson didn’t rape Desiree Washington. Read up on it in some Tyson books, especially the one by Peter Heller. She had a history of claiming rape, even as a teenager when she was ashamed of herself and afraid of her father’s judgement of her having sex. Not to mention the only evidence she had of rape were to abrasions on her vagina (which happens when a 220 pound man has sex with a 90 pound girl, especially Mike Tyson, as he was known to like rough sex), and her half-assed story of rape (which changed multiple times and was full of holes). You mean to tell me a woman is going to get raped at 2 AM in a hotel room and not a peep is going to be heard?

While in prison, Tyson wrote a letter to his friend who happened to be an ESPN boxing commentator/interviewer. It went roughly “I’ll never admit to raping that woman, even if it lessens my time in here, because I just didn’t do it. However, there are about 5-7 other things I’ve done in my life which are far worse than that for which I am in prison for, so I feel I’m in the right place.”

The real story is that Mike treated her like he treated every other woman- wham, bam, thank you mam. In Desiree’s mind, the final straw was when he didn’t walk her back to the limo (the limo driver testified that Disiree was in a pissy mood and quoted her as saying “Who does he think he is?”). On top of that, Don King believed that Tyson needed to become a “martyr for the blacks” or something rather, and assigned his tax attorney to defend Mike in the rape trial, because behind closed doors, Don King thought the black community would see Tyson as a martyr of some sort.

So that sums up that crock of BS.”

http://www.blacknla.com/news/Articles/DJTyson.asp

I knew going in that this film was not my cup of tea, and I was even impressed with the trailers. The film can be summed up in three simple words… style over substance. I think Tobey Maguire is one of the biggest douchebag’s in Hollywood, so that was an immediate strike against the film in my eyes. I think most of the music released today is soulless and completely sucks ass, so the soundtrack didn’t do any favors in swaying my opinion. This film at the end of the day was just pretty much boring and a complete waste of time.

GRADE

Better than its predecessor with all credit going to Benedict Cumberbatch as the film’s primary villain. Star Trek continues to best put to use the time travel loop hole it introduced in the first film that gives the writers the freedom to tweak key events in Star Trek’s history without disrupting the series original continuity. I am in no way a Trekkie, and have never been a fan of the show or the original films, but JJ’s Star Trek is a series I can just completely get behind. I can just imagine how disappointed Trek fans must be at his decision to leave the franchise to direct the next Star Wars film, as I felt exactly the same way when Bryan Singer abandoned the X-Men franchise to go over and ruin Superman for DC. The only real surprise to me with this film is that it didn’t do better business than the original as it is as least as good, if not better.

GRADE

Too soon

Oooouch

Check out which Mondo print was picked as the Fan Favorite of 2012!

This was the perfect film to bookend against Iron Man 3 on a crowded weekend at the cinema. Mathew McConaughey just continues to impress me with his recent run of great performances. I initially was disappointed to find out this wasn’t an ‘R’ rated film as I felt it might suffer from it, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Tye Sheridan gives one of the best childhood performances I have seen in many, many years. Just a superb little film that excels in pretty much every key area that is essential to making a great film.

Grade

Not ready to make a call on where it ranks, but my gut reaction is that I still like the original Iron Man the best. With that being said, it’s loads better than Iron Man II!! The best thing Shane Black brings to the film is his great sense of humor. It really has a ‘Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang’ vibe going on. I would love to see an ‘R’ rated directors cut of this film and see shit really go bananas!

Grade