Reel Entropy

Everest a waste of time, money

Posted on September 17, 2015 by reelentropy

Despite featuring what has to be some of the worst 3D in the post-Avatar era, Everest is focusing heavily on IMAX 3D formats. All of the 500 plus theaters it’s releasing in this first week are IMAX capable, and most of them are only running a fraction of the standard screenings as they are 3D ones. Photos courtesy Universal Pictures.

I never thought I’d find myself rooting for a blizzard.

Everest tells the story of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which eight people died on the mountain after being caught in such a storm. Not snowed on and blown about — actually caught inside the storm system, because the mountain they were on was higher than the clouds. The film brings in high profile actors Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal and Josh Brolin to play expedition leaders Rob Hall and Scott Fischer and recreational climber Beck Weathers, respectively.

The first 40 minutes of this movie should have been completely chopped off. Everyone who knows the story or has seen even a single trailer knows what’s going to happen — they’re going to get caught in a storm and die. But the film opens with a deluge of exposition about the general dangers of Mount Everest and how it’s cold and how humans need oxygen to live. They make the importance of oxygen a particular point, and that’s particularly annoying because it’s particularly universal knowledge.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #3D, #avatar, #bad accents, #blizzard, #capitalism, #character development, #cut it off, #Everest, #house of cards, #imax, #jake gyllenhaal, #jason Clarke, #josh brolin, #keira knightly, #lecture, #michael kelly, #Mount Everest, #new zealand, #out of focus, #oxygen, #rooting for the bad guy, #taking the fun out of things, #tourism, #weathermen suck | Leave a comment

Black Mass’ fiction less interesting than reality

Posted on September 16, 2015 by reelentropy

Black Mass is one of those frustrating biopic movies that makes a big deal out of how it’s based on a true story but doesn’t really tell the true story on which it is based. It doesn’t tell a story at all, really.

Depp disappears completely into his role, as usual. The mark of a great actor and normally a good thing, it’s bad here, since everyday Johnny Depp is more interesting than this character as he’s portrayed. Photos courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

The movie is based on the 2001 biography of James “Whitey” Bulger, a kingpin who controlled all crime in most of Boston through the late ’70s and early ’80s. He was able to accomplish this because of an alliance with FBI agent John Connolly, whom Bulger used to take out all of his enemies. Connolly, now 75, was convicted in 1999 of corruption charges, for which he served 10 years in federal prison, and is currently serving another 40 years in Florida State Prison after being convicted while he was in federal prison for involvement in one of Bulger’s murders. After 16 years on the run, 12 of them second only to Osama bin Laden on the FBI’s most wanted list, Bulger was caught in 2011. He was found to have been involved in 11 murders out of a suspected 19 among more than 30 charges related to his organized crime career. 86, he is currently serving two consecutive life sentences plus five years in USP Coleman in Florida.

Black Mass stars Johnny Depp as Bulger and Joel Edgerton as Connolly, and focuses on the span from 1975-85, the height of Bulger’s power. The film reenacts some of his more famous murders and explores — well, gently touches on — his relationships with his state senator brother, Billy Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his first common law wife, Lindsey Cyr (Dakota Johnson). Jesse Plemmons and Rory Cochrane appear as Kevin Weeks and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, Bulger’s main associates; David Harbour plays John Morris, Connolly’s partner in crime; and Adam Scott, Corey Stoll and Kevin Bacon play Robert Fitzpatrick, the FBI agent who supposedly blew the whistle on Connolly but was indicted for perjury earlier this year, Fred Wyshak, the prosecutor who did bring Bulger down and was appointed head of the U.S. district attorney’s public corruption unit last year, and Charles McGuire, a fictional amalgamation of Connolly’s supervisors over the years.

Black Mass begs two comparisons, one to Bulger’s real life and another to 2006’s transcendent The Departed, and it doesn’t hold up to either of them.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #adam scott, #alcatraz, #biopic, #black mass, #boston, #Breaking Bad, #corey stoll, #corruption, #dakota johnson, #david harbour, #Daydream Johnny, #family oriented?, #FBI, #fifty shades of grey, #house of cards, #jack nicholson, #jesse plemmons, #joel edgerton, #johnny depp, #kevin bacon, #leonardo dicaprio, #loyalty, #mafia, #martin scorcese, #matt damon, #most wanted, #motive, #mugshot, #Osama, #parks and recreation, #partner in crime, #rory cochrane, #southie, #the departed, #timey wimey, #warner bros., #where's my oscar, #whitey bulger, Benedict Cumberbatch, Billy Bulger, John Connolly, Sherlock | Leave a comment

Anarchy behind camera in Chris Evans’ debut

Posted on September 15, 2015 by reelentropy

If you’re thinking to yourself you’ve heard of this plot summary before, you are correct! Richard Linklater made this exact movie in 1995, it’s called Before Sunrise — even the title is ripped off — and it’s a classic that doesn’t make you wonder whether or not there was a single functional camera on the production. Photo courtesy Columbia Pictures.

Captain America has been saying he’s going to leave acting for a little over a year now. Before We Go represents his first directorial effort, but he clearly spent more time on the side of the camera more familiar to him.

Freshman director Chris Evans stars as Nick Vaughan, a jazz trumpet player doodling around Grand Central Station. His night gets knocked for a loop when he runs into Brooke Dalton (Alice Eve), who has missed her train, lost her purse and broken her phone. Despite Dalton being a horrible jerk about it all, the duo wanders New York City for a night, questing for Dalton’s lost purse and Vaughan’s lost love and generally running afoul of every romantic cliche imaginable.

I think I’ve found a nice interpretation of this movie’s problem — they only had a $3 million budget, so they couldn’t afford anyone who had ever operated a camera before. Or they could only afford one camera and the aperture was broken. It was something like that.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #alice eve, #aperture, #before midnight, #before sunrise, #before sunset, #before we go, #chris evans, #contempt, #debut, #depth of field, #focus, #grand central station, #new york city, #pixelated, #prada, #richard linklater, #stalker vibes, #uptight bitch, #visual medium, Captain America, Marvel | Leave a comment

Applying Chaos Theory: Krampus looks like Christmas movie we deserve

Posted on September 10, 2015 by reelentropy

The only Christmas-themed movie on the slate this year is Krampus, a horror about the anti-Santa monster of German legend. The trailer dropped a couple of days ago, and this movie looks like everything.

The trailer establishes Krampus as a biting, whimsical satire. There looks to be a strong jump-scare element, but most of the trailer focused on mean-spirited mockery of both the commercialism surrounding Christmas time and the family values we all pretend the season is really about.

Despite it being clear that horror elements will drive the bus here, the trailer maintains a detached, silly tone with its songs, breakneck editing, funny-not-dark family dysfunction and an unusual willingness to let viewers see some of its monsters. Many horror movies won’t give up the ghost until you’re in the theater, but Krampus lets you see the scary clowns and see that they’re not that scary. They’re kind of funny, actually. Look like animatronics out of the ’70s or early ’80s.

What really gives the trailer teeth are its visuals, particularly in the opening 10 seconds. In this space, the trailer establishes not only the setting, but what it thinks of the setting, before zeroing in on the main characters and their house, the actual physical setting. And what does the trailer think of the setting? Not much. In just this montage, we get a little girl bawling with her arms outstretched greedily on the lap of an annoyed mall Santa; a slow motion shot of a credit card sliding, with a red bow on the side of the credit card reader implying that it is the real gift; crumpled up 20 dollar bills; and a savage Black Friday crowd overwhelming a greeter. Later, we’ll see a ginger bread man impaled by a kitchen knife and a burning Christmas tree.

The plot will obviously see the family, in particular the child lead character, re-find its Christmas spirit so the movie can wink at the audience about how it’s all really important and affirming core American values about love and peace and all that other shit, morals so wrote that a plot twist toward them isn’t really a twist at all, but the real wink is these images. “No,” the trailer says, “This isn’t actually OK.”

Krampus hits theaters Dec. 4.

Posted in Applying Chaos Theory | Tagged #christmas, #christmas spirit, #krampus | Leave a comment

The Visit Shyamalan’s masterpiece

Posted on September 9, 2015 by reelentropy

It wouldn’t be surprising to find out the AARP or another such organization is protesting The Visit. It really does make old people look that scary. Photos courtesy Universal Pictures.

After the turn of the century, everyone kind of gave up on M. Night Shyamalan. Though he entered the ’00s on a wave of critical acclaim with Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense, he steadily lost steam with dud after dud until the hotly anticipated Last Airbender broke the spirit of everyone who saw it and ended the public’s patience with the director.

Now, Jason Blum, the man behind the ongoing found footage renaissance, has given him a $5 million soapbox. Shyamalan stood on that soapbox and said nothing, his only communication, a long, throbbing middle finger to everyone, including his new benefactor, and that middle finger is titled The Visit.

The Visit tells the story of Rebecca and Tyler Jamison (Olivia De Jonge and Ed Oxenbould), pre-pubescent siblings who are spending the week with their maternal grandparents, Doris and John Jamison (Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie), whom they have never met because of a falling out they and their mother (Kathryn Hahn) had before they were born. Rebecca brings her cameras along to document the adventure and quickly deputizes her little brother — yeah, it’s found footage. The trip immediately becomes a nightmare when the children discover their hosts are mentally ill, to put it mildly.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #9/11, #AARP, #after earth, #blumhouse, #deanna dunagan, #ed oxenbould, #found footage, #fuck you, #inside job, #kathryn hahn, #katy perry, #m. night shyamalan, #middle finger, #olivia de jonge, #peter mcrobbie, #shooting the bird, #the blair witch project, #the last airbender, #the sixth sense, #the visit, #unbreakable, #universal pictures, Jason Blum, Paranormal activity | 1 Comment

Reel Entropy

Everest a waste of time, money

Black Mass’ fiction less interesting than reality

Anarchy behind camera in Chris Evans’ debut

Applying Chaos Theory: Krampus looks like Christmas movie we deserve

The Visit Shyamalan’s masterpiece

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