Reel Entropy

Sicario best of already stellar 2015

Posted on October 5, 2015 by reelentropy

Sicario establishes its discomforting feel in the first scene not because of the mass grave, but because of the FBI agents’ reaction to it — they all vomit, but they take turns doing it. It’s this bizarre, surreal rhythm in the background of the scene. Photos courtesy Lionsgate.

We’ve talked a few times this year about a film being the best of its genre in decades, but in terms of general movies, Sicario trumps them all.

The film follows Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), an FBI special weapons and tactics agent who leads a team on a cartel-related raid in Arizona looking for hostages, but instead finds a mass grave. After the incident, she is recruited by Department of Defense adviser Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), who is organizing a cross-departmental task force to go after the men responsible. Macer is soon immersed in a world of deceit, off-book police work and indiscriminate violence as she attempts to unravel the truth behind Graver and his menacing partner, Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro).

In a sentence, this is the movie No Country for Old Men wishes it was.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #benicio del toro, #denis villeneuve, #emily blunt, #gaslight, #josh brolin, #lionsgate, #prisoners, #rape, #rape-ish, #sicario, #taylor sheridan, #trigger warning | 3 Comments

The Martian a fantastic third entry for new space horror/survival genre

Posted on October 3, 2015 by reelentropy

At no point in The Martian does the guy discover water on Mars. Isn’t this supposed to be scientifically accurate?

The Martian may be filled to the brim with narration, which is on its face a bad thing, but it’s put to textbook use here. The movie only explains things that aren’t obvious, and there are a ton of little details that help get into Watney’s mindset. In this scene, for example, he’s contemplating the fact that, wherever he goes, no one has ever been there before. Photos courtesy 20th Century Fox.

Based on the hit 2011 novel, the film tells the story of NASA botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon), who is left for dead on Mars after his crew leaves early during an unpredicted storm. With no hope of rescue for several Earth years, Watney is faced with the task of learning to farm on the red planet.

The Martian has brilliant fundamentals and sucks viewers into its story like a funnel. This is the kind of story that hangs completely on whether or not the main character is likeable, and the film knocks that out of the park with good dialogue and a sure-handed performance from Damon.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #, #20th Century Fox, #apollo 13, #cast away, #explosions, #gravity, #interstellar, #jessica chastain, #life on mars, #mars, #matt damon, #NASA, #rocket man, #starvation, #storytelling 101, #stranger in a strange land, #tension, #the martian, #tom hanks | 1 Comment

Only thing they sacrificed was opportunity to tell a great story

Posted on October 1, 2015 by reelentropy

To say nothing else for the movie, the poster was killer. Stills courtesy Bleeker Street.

So when I heard there was going to be a new biopic about chess legend Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire) called Pawn Sacrifice, I thought that was a neat title. They were going to do a thing with it, where he was sacrificing pawns to win games and then it turned out he was himself a pawn that was being sacrificed, and use that metaphor as a way to explore his paranoia and genius. After finally winning the world chess championship title in 1972 from Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber), Fischer disappeared until the early ’90s, and when he came back into the spotlight he was still a weird recluse with some choice things to say about the Jews, so there’s room to interpret that something happened to him in those 20 years.

That’s not the movie they made at all.

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Posted in Entropy | Tagged #bleeker street, #brothers, #chess, #chess nerds, #das jueden, #delusional, #genius, #liev schreiber, #movie magic, #nerds, #paranoid, #pawn sacrifice, #Photoshop, #the details, #the jews, #tobey maguire, #turd polishing, #world chess championships, Spider-Man | Leave a comment

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

Reel Entropy

Sicario best of already stellar 2015

The Martian a fantastic third entry for new space horror/survival genre

Only thing they sacrificed was opportunity to tell a great story

Everest a waste of time, money

Black Mass’ fiction less interesting than reality

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