And the Daddy of the Year Award goes to…

Posted on December 26, 2015 by reelentropy

Nobody really pays attention to certain kinds of movies, and that’s a problem. Every movie is an entire wold unto itself. Every one has its own reality, its own implicit philosophy and morality. And with millions of people at least seeing each one, that morality matters.

Daddy’s Home tells the story of a broken family recently made whole by new husband and stepfather Brad Taggart (Will Ferrell). An overly enthusiastic adoptive parent, Taggart has trouble getting his young stepchildren, Sarah (Scarlett Estevez) and Dylan (Owen Vaccaro), to accept him. To make matters worse, upon learning his ex-wife Sarah Taggart (Linda Cardellini) has re-married, her intimidating first husband, Dusty Mayron (Mark Wahlberg), unexpectedly returns to mark his territory.

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The Big Short too directly inspired

Posted on December 24, 2015 by reelentropy

Hey, remember 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street? Want to watch a shorter, lower-quality version? Well, have I got a movie for you!

Everybody’s name was changed in this adaptation except Burry’s, and I can’t figure out why. All information on the real-life people these characters are based on is readily available. Images courtesy Paramount Pictures.

The Big Short, based on Michael Lewis’ 2010 non-fiction book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, is about the investors who predicted and profited from the 2007 housing market collapse, hedge fund manager Michael Burry (Christian Bale), money manager Mark Baum (Steve Carell, based on the real life Steve Eisman) and his team, Cornwall Capitol founder Jaime Shipley (Finn Wittrock, based on the real life Jamie Mai) and Deutsche Bank trader Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling, based on the real life Greg Lippman), who narrates. The movie depicts them essentially inventing a new kind of deal so they could short on this market, as banks were so confident in the mortgage bundles they didn’t have a method to invest in their failure.

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Star Wars: The morning after

Posted on December 21, 2015 by reelentropy

Picture related to film’s performance, not really related to its plot. Photo courtesy Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

It was pretty much a given that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was going to take several box office records. This is just to round up the ones it took on opening weekend and give a little context for each one.

Widest December release of all time- 4,134 theaters:  This was the widest December release of all time, breaking the record held by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which opened in 4,045. The overall record holder is The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, which released on 4,468 screens for Independence Day weekend in 2010. It’s important to understand that December is not traditionally a big month for movies, as most Americans are spending time with their families and whatnot. Several of the records The Force Awakens broke were set in May, June and July, the traditional blockbuster hay days.

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STARWARSSTARWARSSTARWARSSTARWARSS TARWARSSTARWARSSTARWARS

Posted on December 18, 2015 by reelentropy

Kylo Ren is so fucking cool. In his first scene, he stops a laser blast in mid-air, paralyzing the man who fired it in the same motion, and holds the streaking projectile trembling in place for the rest of the sequence. It could be the single coolest effect in the entire series. Photos courtesy Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens!!! Oh man, this movie is going to be so great! There’s no way they could mess this up!

The movie is set in motion when Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Finn (John Boyega) set off to escort the impossible droid BB-8 to … gyaaah, I can’t spoil it!

This is the most anticipated movie of the internet era by an absolutely staggering margin. Every movie since the turn of the century, every movie Fandango.com has been around for, this moved more tickets online before its first commercial showing than any of them did their entire runs. They got the guy who directed that great 2009 Star Trek reboot to direct this, they used 100 percent practical effects, nothing can possibly go wrong here.

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Stop what you’re doing and go see Macbeth

Posted on December 17, 2015 by reelentropy

Macbeth is abetted by a great cast, headed by the absolute perfect actors for the lead characters. If you could have picked any performers in the world to play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, Fassbender and Cotillard would have to be head-and-shoulders at the top of the list. Photos courtesy The Weinstein Company.

One would think the movie set primarily on Mars would be the reddest film of the year. Not so.

You know the story. Macbeth (Michael Fassbender), Thane of Glamis, after winning a great victory against the rebellious Macdonwald (Hilton McRae), is greeted by the fates (Seylan Baxter, Lynn Kennedy, Kayla Fallon and Amber Rissmann). They hail him as Thane of Cawdor and then as King of Scotland, but say it will be his brother-in-arms, Banquo (Paddy Considine), who will father a long line of kings. Though initially skeptical, Macbeth is promptly awarded lordship over Cawdor for his valor. When his wife, Lady Macbeth (Marion Cotillard), hears the news, she convinces him to murder King Duncan (David Thewlis). From here, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth assume the throne, but are driven mad by guilt and paranoia, having half their kingdom assassinated by the time they are violently deposed themselves.

Shakespeare is taught to every high school child in America, but they teach it all wrong. Shakespeare didn’t write novels, he wrote plays. The Tragedy of Macbeth isn’t meant to be read, it’s meant to be performed.

And oh, how it is performed here.

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