The Amazing Spider-man 2 will begin filming next month
Evil Dead will no longer be NC-17. It has been cut down to an R
The 3-D re releases of the star wars movies will be postponed due to the creation of the new trilogy.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Mama
So we go from an Oscar nominated work of glory to a horror film based off a shorter horror film. What do they have in common? Same actress playing our main character.
Mama is a feature length horror movie adapted from a short film by the same name. Andres Muschietti who directed the short is back to direct it's big budget twin and big name Guillermo del Toro is executive producer.
Mama is the tale of two little girls who after their father goes mad from a bad business deal, takes them out to a cabin in the woods (of course) and dies through ghosty means, are left all alone in said cabin for several years. They are found by the father's brother and are taken to a mental hospital for safety. How did two little girls survive on their own for five years? Well when the father and his girlfriend Annabel decide to raise them as their own, we get our answer. It's on the poster above this paragraph. The father is subsequently hospitalized leaving punk rocker Annabel to take care of the kids on her own and unfortunately for her, Mama has other ideas.
On the technical end of things this movie is kind of awesome. You rarely can say this in a horror movie but the cinematography was awesome! Shot's like the above one are haunting on their own, perspectives are played with and whoever did the lighting is brilliant. The acting is oddly great to. Jessica Chastain as Annabel is an above average lead for these kind of things and huge props go to the two little girls for playing their roles convincingly and not, horribly like most child actors. I particularly like Chastain's role as she starts off as a punk "I don't wanna watch no kids" character but then actually develops in a character arch. Trust me that's rare in horror movies.
Now this movie hasn't been out long but already I've read other reviewers bad talk the CG ghost. Now believe me, I am the first to hate on CG, but I will defend this movie's choice as the CG was better than most and to do the effect for this ghost practically would have been nigh on impossible. So overall, A+ on the artistry. My problems lay with the script.
So for the all important question, is this horror movie scary? Meh? It had it's moments where there was some good tension which was well paid off. The best scene is the one from the short film which sadly worked better in the short. There are jump scares and fake outs, but never any sheer moments of terror. This movies greatest strength is it's atmosphere, which is unsettling throughout. For the first 2/3ds of this movie, I was hooked. Then the climax happened. Without giving anything away, the atmosphere goes from creepy to oddly whimsical as the climax get's a little too... Tim Burtony for my tastes. I don't want to say it clashes with the rest of the movie but it is a little off. It leaves you kind of dissapointed, since the first hour of the movie is so good. It leaves you with a bad taste. However the goods are above average and the bads are basically the last ten minutes so all in all it's worth it.
This really is a good movie and it's a better horror movie than anything that came out last year for sure, and with us horror fans we have to take what we get.
Go see it if your a horror junkie.
Rent it if your not a junkie but still enjoy some good scares.
Skip if your a wuss and can't take a little terror.
Next time things are gonna get miserable.
Mama is a feature length horror movie adapted from a short film by the same name. Andres Muschietti who directed the short is back to direct it's big budget twin and big name Guillermo del Toro is executive producer.
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| Mama that mean man is gonna review us. |
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| Damn you cinematographer. Why is this such a good shot? |
Now this movie hasn't been out long but already I've read other reviewers bad talk the CG ghost. Now believe me, I am the first to hate on CG, but I will defend this movie's choice as the CG was better than most and to do the effect for this ghost practically would have been nigh on impossible. So overall, A+ on the artistry. My problems lay with the script.
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| Run. Kid run. Why aren't you running! |
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| This is why you do background checks before you adopt. |
Go see it if your a horror junkie.
Rent it if your not a junkie but still enjoy some good scares.
Skip if your a wuss and can't take a little terror.
Next time things are gonna get miserable.
Zero Dark Thirty
The first review I'll do is the last movie I saw. This will also be the format for the reviews. Intro-Spoiler Free Synopsis-Technical-Personal Impression-Who Should, Might, and Not See it. PS, all of these reviews will slant towards the comedic side of things, but because of the nature of the history of this film, I'm going to keep that to a minimum on this one.
Zero Dark Thirty has had an interesting history. It's production started several years ago. The film's intent was to be a take no prisoners depiction of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. All the hardship and all the bureaucratic derailings. It was originally going to end on a neutral, even downbeat note. Then May 2nd 2011 happened. Since the project had not yet entirely been wrapped up, it now got to have an ending to the story.
This synopsis will not contain spoilers, that being said I'm pretty sure everyone knows how this movie ends. Zero Dark Thirty follows the ongoing hunt for Osama Bin Laden. The movie starts with the the American Military and intelligence organizations bogged down in the efforts of the war on terror. We follow the men and women whose primary goal is the finding of Bin Laden. Primarily, we follow code name Maya as her real name is obviously not given. We see beat for beat in extremely high detail all the fact gathering, politics and false leads that finally led to the final piece of information that led to the discovery of Bin Laden's whereabouts, and the subsequent raid that ensued.
On the technical end of things, this film comes to us by award winning director of The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow. There is very little wrong with this movie in terms of cinematography. For the most part, it's flat out brilliant, only stumbling once or twice to needless shaky cam. The setting is flawless and the acting is some of the best seen in this new decade, especially from Jessica Chastain's Maya. This woman needs an Oscar. for this role. The sound work is flawless, the effects are perfect and this movie finally shows us that realistic military tactics can be just as heart stopping to watch as any overblown action movie.
I have nothing bad to say about this one. Everything about it is nigh perfect. I mean of course there was going to be a movie about this event but who would have guessed it would have turned out so well? What should be boring scenes are enticing to watch. What should be a long sit feels like a breeze. Now this movie is subject to some controversy as it depicts intelligence vital to the operation as gathered from torture. The problem is that according to several, that info was not garnered that way, and that depicting it as such sends a "torture is okay" message. My personal opinion is that the film shows it's view of what happened and it does so in a very neutral way. As if to say "here's what happened, now go talk among yourselves." A movie pulling off that feeling is incredibly hard to do and here it worked. To me, it did not detract from the movie as a whole. Even with those scenes, this thing is still brilliant.
All in all, I will defend this movie from the naysayers. Whatever really did happen, a movie should be judged as a movie and this won deserves whatever Oscar gold it gets.
Go see it if your interested in the subject or appreciate well made movies.
Rent it if your curious but don't really have any strong feelings on the subject.
Skip it if you think the controversy is something that would detract from the movie for you.
Next time will be funnier i promise, and hey we can even do another Jessica Chastain movie.
Zero Dark Thirty has had an interesting history. It's production started several years ago. The film's intent was to be a take no prisoners depiction of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. All the hardship and all the bureaucratic derailings. It was originally going to end on a neutral, even downbeat note. Then May 2nd 2011 happened. Since the project had not yet entirely been wrapped up, it now got to have an ending to the story.
This synopsis will not contain spoilers, that being said I'm pretty sure everyone knows how this movie ends. Zero Dark Thirty follows the ongoing hunt for Osama Bin Laden. The movie starts with the the American Military and intelligence organizations bogged down in the efforts of the war on terror. We follow the men and women whose primary goal is the finding of Bin Laden. Primarily, we follow code name Maya as her real name is obviously not given. We see beat for beat in extremely high detail all the fact gathering, politics and false leads that finally led to the final piece of information that led to the discovery of Bin Laden's whereabouts, and the subsequent raid that ensued.
On the technical end of things, this film comes to us by award winning director of The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow. There is very little wrong with this movie in terms of cinematography. For the most part, it's flat out brilliant, only stumbling once or twice to needless shaky cam. The setting is flawless and the acting is some of the best seen in this new decade, especially from Jessica Chastain's Maya. This woman needs an Oscar. for this role. The sound work is flawless, the effects are perfect and this movie finally shows us that realistic military tactics can be just as heart stopping to watch as any overblown action movie.
I have nothing bad to say about this one. Everything about it is nigh perfect. I mean of course there was going to be a movie about this event but who would have guessed it would have turned out so well? What should be boring scenes are enticing to watch. What should be a long sit feels like a breeze. Now this movie is subject to some controversy as it depicts intelligence vital to the operation as gathered from torture. The problem is that according to several, that info was not garnered that way, and that depicting it as such sends a "torture is okay" message. My personal opinion is that the film shows it's view of what happened and it does so in a very neutral way. As if to say "here's what happened, now go talk among yourselves." A movie pulling off that feeling is incredibly hard to do and here it worked. To me, it did not detract from the movie as a whole. Even with those scenes, this thing is still brilliant.
All in all, I will defend this movie from the naysayers. Whatever really did happen, a movie should be judged as a movie and this won deserves whatever Oscar gold it gets.
Go see it if your interested in the subject or appreciate well made movies.
Rent it if your curious but don't really have any strong feelings on the subject.
Skip it if you think the controversy is something that would detract from the movie for you.
Next time will be funnier i promise, and hey we can even do another Jessica Chastain movie.
Le Cinema
This is a blog about movies. All kinds of movies. Reviewing movies. Movie News. Lists. Everything movies.
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