Monday 27 January 2020

Movie review of Bad Boys For Life

Bad Boys For Life - 5.5/10

Directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah

The third installment of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence's Bad Boys. This is surprisingly way much better than the second one. I recently watched the second on Netflix to recap and it was terribly painful to watch. That is if you do not like Michael Bay movies. Bay did not direct nor produce the third one and perhaps that's why it isn't that bad though he does appear in a cameo in this.

To be honest, the first Bad Boys is still the best. The action, the humor and the chemistry was really good and I don;t mind watching it on reruns. Bad Boys for life at first was going towards that direction at the start. It even had a good villain as well. Sadly the plot started to suck ass towards the end. The plot twist was just awful. The moment I saw the plot twist, I was groaning. Why did the writers had to complicate shit like that? Just keep it simple lah. Martin Lawrence's character is even more whiny than the second movie till it got to a point it was not even funny anymore. I hope if they do make a fourth Bad Boys, please stop Martin Lawrence from being a whiny bitch. Make his character like the first movie.

Action sequences were fun and the new cast weren't that bad. Alexander Ludwig aka Bjorn from Vikings was not bad. Paola Nunez was good and pretty. Even Vanessa Hudgens was decent. Some of the old characters came back as well. One of my favorite among them was Joe Pantoliano as Captain Howard. He was hilarious. Even the kid who was gonna date Marcus's daughter was in as well.
Direction was decent but there are obvious traces of Bay's style. I would like to see Adil and Bilall stamp their own style in the fourth one if that was confirmed.

All in all, Bad Boys For Life is still a fun movie to watch even with a silly plot twist. It's the "leave your brain at home" kind of movie. Worth watching on a weekday.

Saturday 18 January 2020

Movie review of 1917

1917 - 8.5/10
Directed by Sam Mendes

When the Golden Globes results came on, and 1917 won for Best Picture and Director, A lot of people were upset that Todd Phillips, the director of Joker did not win Best Director and nor did Joker win for Best Picture. Even though I did not watch 1917 at that point( haven't release) and I loved Joker a lot, I knew Sam Mendes had done something special with 1917. True enough, I was blown away.

I have always been a sucker for one takes. I remember watching that infamous scene at the restaurant in Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese) and I was awed by it. I always appreciated the work put in by everyone for a one take and it truly is a team effort. The movie, Atonement had one such mesmerizing take as well. Birdman directed by Alejandro Innaritu took one take sequences to a whole new level,by making the whole movie look like a one take with clever editing. This time round Sam Mendes raised the bar by doing a movie about World War 1, in one take with sublime editing.

The amount of work put in this movie is phenomenal. Everyone must have practiced the one takes numerous times before actual filming. It really isn't as easy as how it looks. I have to give credit to Same Mendes for his direction. The plot maybe simple but the way it was filmed is why 1917 deserves to win as many awards. I will not be surprised at all, if it won Best Picture, Best Director and definitely Best Editing.

Editing one takes and making it seamless like as though it was one continuous take is not easy. Lee Smith, the editor for Nolan's movies like Dunkirk, Inception an Dark Knight was the prefect man for it. It is really hard to tell the cuts at times. Mad respect for that.

If cinematography is at its finest, then you know it is done by none other than Roger Deakins. Some of the shots are so beautiful, that I forget that it is a one take. Simply Solid.

Casting was good as well, it really took me a while to recognize Dean Charles Chapman though, aka Tommen Baratheon of Game Of Thrones and a barely recognizable Colin Firth. I knew it was him cause of his distinctive voice.

All in all, 1917 is a really good movie. Even more so if you know a thing or two about filming and editing. Worth the watch even on a weekend.

Thursday 16 January 2020

Movie review of Dolittle

Dolittle - 3.5/10
Directed by Stephen Gaghan

Robert Downey Jr's first movie after Ironman. It really has been a while since we saw RDJ doing other movies. His last movie outside Ironman was The Judge which was a feel good family movie. I enjoyed watching that. Dolittle however, I did not. Even though, it is a kids/family movie, it was badly done.

At first Dolittle was supposed to be released around the same time as Star Wars: Rise of the Skywalker, however fearing competition, the studio decided to release at a later date. Then it was released in January. Whenever studios release a movie in January, it sometimes mean they know the movie is shit and doomed to fail. Now Dolittle going through expensive reshoots and rewrites due to poor test screenings does not help the film one bit. Sadly it was quite evident as well.

Casting was good. There was an array of top notch actors and actresses doing VOs for the animals. I don't doubt RDJ's acting but his accent is fucking annoying. This was worse than his Sherlock Holmes accent. He sounds like he has asthma and doesn't know when to breath. Despite so many good actors as VOs, the script was just simply too dull. I won't be surprised if kids find this movie boring af.

As I painfully continue to listen to RDJ's asthmatic English accent, the plot for Dolittle just went downhill. Towards the end scene, where he has to "help" a dragon by pulling out a bagpipe out of its arse, was pretty much the lowest point of the movie and quite possibly RDJ's acting career.

All in all, Dolittle might have started like The Golden Compass in the beginning and ended like an unfunny slapstick movie. Don't bother watching this even with kids. Go watch the original Dr Dolittle or even Eddie Murphy's Dr Dolittle. At least they were funny.

Monday 6 January 2020

Movie review of Knives Out

Knives Out - 6.5/10

After his much maligned direction of The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson is back with a new movie and it is also written by him. Knives Out has a strong cast and if you like classic whodunits? like the old school TV series, Murder she wrote, Poirot, Sherlock Holmes( not the Guy Ritchie one) or even enjoy playing the classic board game, Cluedo. You have to give this movie a try.

Like I mentioned earlier, the cast is strong. You have the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Chris Evans and Daniel Craig in a movie and everyone had enough screen time to show what they have got. I liked the pace of the movie and the script was well written. I couldn't stop laughing when Frank Oz appears as a cameo. Christopher Plummer looked great and in shape.In fact the actress who is playing his mother is younger than him. You might remember him as Von Trapp in Sound of Music. Something a little unusual but Daniel Craig's accent in this movie is hilarious. I do hope to see another Daniel Craig's character, Benoit Blanc in yet another whodunit cos he was entertaining to watch.

Not much for anything but you have to focus on the lines and acting for Knives Out. I have to give credit to Rian Johnson for this. It is also best to watch the movie with subtitles so you can pay close attention.

All in all, Knives out movie was fun to watch and I think as long as Rian Johnson continue to do movies that are not Star Wars related, he would do just fine.

Movie review of The Two Popes

The Two Popes - 5/10

I've always looked forward to Fernando Meirelles' movies. His direction of movies like City of God, Blindness and the Constant Gardner were brilliant. So when I found out Two Popes was directed by him, I had to watch it even though I'm not at all into the content of the movie. But it is a movie after all and watching two very good established actors such as Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce was great.

The rest of the casting were good but the movie is pretty much focused on Hopkins and Pryce. And it was really nice to see them going back and forth at each other through acting. If you have no knowledge of Catholicism, you might find it a little hard to understand what is going on so best to read up a bit if you wish to watch it.

Editing was not too bad. I did like some of the transitional shots of the movie. Sadly the cinematography was really inconsistent and leaning towards bad quite a bit. The close ups were horrible. Shaky and out of focus. Some shots it felt really too close. I could see Jonathan Pryce's nose hair, that's how close it was. For all those bad close ups, there was a really good shot, when Pryce's character walks into a room and the shot just shone out beautifully.

All in all, Two Popes is decent to watch, only if you have nothing else to watch. Just bear with the horrible close ups. Watch it for the acting.