Wayback Wednesday takes us back to 1994 and a bus that couldn’t drop below 50 MPH or everyone onboard would die. There are action films that are so big they spawn imitators of every stripe for the next several years. An immediate critical and box office success, like Die Hard before it, where every pitch became “Die Hard on a ____,” so too was the case for Speed as countless studios attempted to recreate the formula.
…
Brad Pitt is having fun. I wish I could say the same in watching his latest film. Sure, he’s great, but sadly Bullet Train is neither as smart or fun as needs to be. There’s plenty of talent here starting with Pitt as the unluckiest bad guy ever, and the setting allows for all kinds of crazy antics, but somehow it just never quite clicks. Rather than the film oozing cool, like Ocean’s Eleven, you can feel the desperation of wanting to be cool from nearly every frame of the uneven story of a bunch of killers trapped together on a bullet train in Japan.
…
There’s a scene in The Lost City where romance cover model Alan (Channing Tatum), his hired mercenary (Brad Pitt), and captured romance novelist Loretta (Sandra Bullock), who is tied to a chair inside a wheelbarrow, are all racing from the background explosions of the jungle encampment of a rich madman (Daniel Radcliffe) while pop music plays. That scene perfectly incapsulates the kind of dumb fun The Lost City provides.
The setup involves archeologist turned romance novelist whose novels are all based somewhat on historical locations and treasures. She’s kidnapped by a rich billionaire from a book signing (wearing a ridiculous costume she’ll be forced to keep for nearly the entire film) who believes she may hold the key to finding the real treasure she has written about in her schlocky romance series for years.
…
I love heist films, and I love the Ocean’s 11 franchise. Admitting this, I may be willing to cut the latest film more slack than the average viewer. Without a doubt, Ocean’s 8 is the weakest of any of the four films. It lacks the style and pace of director Steven Soderbergh‘s 2001 film as Gary Ross drags out scenes far more than necessary. It also doesn’t help that the script lacks the wit of the original, often struggling to put its charismatic stars in the best situations.
Borrowing quite a bit from the 2001 film, Ocean’s 8 begins with Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) getting out of prison and immediately putting together a crew of old friends (Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson, and Mindy Kaling) and some new acquaintances (Awkwafina, Rihanna, and Helena Bonham Carter) for a score she’s been planning for years. The cast is great, and they work well together. However, the script struggles early in offering much of interest for them to do together on-screen. The fact that the heist is far more straightforward, and lacks the last-second surprises of the previous films, also is a bit of a disappointment. That said, once the set-up is complete and the heist planning begins, things pick up.
…
The highlight of this three-disc set is Alfonso Cuarón‘s Gravity. While similar to Avatar in the movie experience isn’t quite complete outside of an IMAX 3D theater, the compelling look at an astronaut’s (Sandra Bullock) struggle for survival following tragedy high above Earth was compelling enough to earn the #2 spot on my best of 2013 list.
The rest of the collection certainly isn’t up to that standard. However, Midnight Special is a solid film about a father (Michael Shannon) attempting to look out for his son (Jaeden Lieberher) who a cult wants for the boy’s mysterious gifts.
…
5 Film Collection: Sci-Fi Read More »
