Reviews

A low-budget comedy/horror with minimal sets, costumes, actors, and locations, and yet "The VelociPastor" makes use of every element to it's fullest extent. Solid comedic writing with even a better understanding of cinematic techniques for laughs that even professional productions don't do really highlight the surprising amount of quality in the film. The film is a breezy 75-minutes long, blurring the lines between scenes that appear stretched out to reach a running time for a joke (which always works well) versus being there to justify the running time.

The editing and writing are used to great effect, especially for the limitations of the production. Special shout-out to one particular editing sequence that was downright gorgeous, and surprisingly experimental with colors and editing. The actors completely nail the comedic-then-serious tone with fantastic results. Alyssa Kempinski, Daniel Steere, Jiechang Yang and Fernando Pacheco De Castro are delightful in the story nailing their comedic beats. And Greg Cohan really sells the role of a Pastor conflicted with the desire to commit violence against evil while also suffering from loss and also being a dinosaur sometimes.

This one absolutely ludicrous movie made for, according to what I could find, $35,000 with a running time that barely squeaks in at 75 minutes has given me more laughs in creative ways than entire swaths of overly-produced big-budget comedy shows and films. The scene of the group of Ninjas fighting Doug as a dinosaur in broad daylight is one of most hilarious things I've ever seen.

I want to see Brendan Steere get a decent budget for another project, as I think he could really show the world that he has a the comedic film master of Scott Sanders, Sam Raimi, and Edgar Wright.

Not really worth going out of your way for, but not particularly bad either.

Besides the ever awesome multiplayer, Halo 4's the first entry in the series in which the campaign is written with terrific character arcs, layered thematic content, and an absolutely hard-hitting emotional core. 343 has not only taken up the mantle of Halo after Bungie, but even improved upon the storytelling and characters to a greater degree that belong among the best explorations of speculative fiction in video games.

This game is haunting reflective study of the nature of humanity, death, meaning, obsolescence and inevitability. Cortana and Chief have never been as well realized as people until this game with an ending that ranks among the very best stories I've ever experienced. Chief is faced with confronting whether he's a man or machine for the military with Cortana coming face to face with her own mortality in a manner she's never understood before until facing her own "rampancy" (a stage of AI deterioration) where she, quite literally, thinks herself to death. Alongside all of these plot threads, the duo have to contend with the Didact - an ancient enemy with a grudge against humanity and with no qualms of using destructive means for what he sees as "the greater good". It's an engaging yarn from start to finish that manages to let the story breath and develop naturally while never forgetting the humanity behind all of the explosive action.

Well done, 343. Well done.

I love time traveling stories. I love time traveling narratives that actually work with the genre for tension building, expectations, mystery, wonder, and character development. Quantum Break has that by the boat load. The actual question of whether or not time traveling itself could ever be free of a 'closed-loop' is something I found intoxicating in the minute discussions of predestination and free will.

This game is all about focusing on using the mechanics, presentation, and even the audio design for the sake of the narrative. A great cast of characters with damn good writing and motivations only cement the painful contemplations of what time travel and "the end of time" mean for each and every single one of them.

The very fact that you can influence the story arc in particularly meaningful ways for the world and characters is something absolutely fantastic and MUST be commended for the hard working people at Remedy. The cast is a wonderfully diverse and strongly acted group of characters who really make the ensemble dynamic work. Shawn Ashmore, Courtney Hope, Aidan Gillen, Dominic Monaghan, Lance Reddick, and everyone in the production is fantastic and memorable. There are so many pieces of character, lore, and world building alongside such attention to detail that I can't help but be impressed and amazed by the developers work.

As a narrative guy, I applaud Remedy for making a game that really pushes great narrative storytelling in video games, and wanted to express that feeling.

Avengers: Age of Ultron already assumes that the audience is familiar with superheroes, who they are, and what they can do. After all, a film with a genetic beast, spies, a billionaire vigilante, a God, and a super soldier kinda already demands you assume this is a universe of the fantastic.

After raiding the last of the evil Hydra's headquarters, the Avengers stumble on the last remnants of secret technology that Stark uses to create artificial intelligence, Ultron, in order to protect the world from future conflicts that the Avengers could not face alone. Unfortunately, after gaining sentience in Stark's rush to exploit the tech before being whisked away to Thor's home world of Asgard (land of Norse Gods), Ultron commences an attack on the Avengers, which slowly starts looking more like an attack on mankind after he starts gaining more perspective on life, though his real motivations remain mysterious for the majority of the film. Tagging along are Pietro and Wanda Maximoff - experimented twins who team with Ultron who have a personal vendetta against the Avengers. It's up to the Avengers in a globe sprawling adventure to stop Ultron before his plans come to fruition.

First, I have to say that the first Avengers is a mad feat of complexity as an ensemble film - giving enough time and personal arcs for each character to make a cohesive whole from everyone's story. With Age of Ultron, things are ratcheted up to 11 as character stories seamlessly flow in-and-out of a labyrinth of a narrative. I feel like this movie will become even better with repeat showings as character beats and story revelations will become more enriched with hindsight of where they lead to.

Characters who got the short end of the stick in the last film in terms of screen-time, like Romanov and Barton, are given particularly more story to enjoy as most of the other characters deal with one form or another of the choices they've made and where they choose to proceed in terms of the world they want to leave behind. Never in my life would I think that a superhero film would more ponderous about the impermanence of life, the concept of immortality, and moral pragmatism than Age of Ultron. In a film that could have been so easily tempted to streamline story elements, writer/director Joss Whedon crafts a story that demands an attentive mind to examine every piece of dialog, story beat, and (yes) even joke to bring a holistic view of a grand superhero story. It's mature without falling into being lethargically dour, grandiose without being just an empty light-show, and uplifting without being simple-minded about it. Great acting, snappy dialog, deep thematic content, and terrific action scenes make Age of Ultron the gold to which not only every superhero film will be judged by, but every film that identifies itself as a blockbuster. It's not merely a stopping point for a dull viewer to enjoy as they wait for the sequel, but a fascinating perspective on humanity as a whole.

The Avengers show the world (and the audience) that at the end of the day, their job (or responsibility depending on who you ask) is to protect people, and while there will always be disagreements as to how to accomplish it, there's no question that these people with the ability to change the world will always answer the call.

Iron Man 3 is the seemingly 'finale' to the Iron Man trilogy with this particular tale focused on Tony Stark's most personal battle yet. A sequel to both Iron Man 2 and The Avengers simultaneously, the movie deals with Tony Stark, developing a crippling case of an anxiety disorder who obsesses over creating more and more Iron Man suits to be prepared for any possible attack. After dealing with Gods, aliens, and living legends, Tony has realized that he and his loved ones are more vulnerable to attack than he originally thought. This couldn't come at a worse time as a new terrorist bogeyman, The Mandarin, has begun a campaign of fear with an almost mythical sense of anonymity. After one particular attack that hits close to home, Stark publicly challenges The Mandarin, leading to a retaliation where Stark is on the run relying on his wits, rather than his armor, to save the day.

What gets me boiled is that people get the wrong impression about this film. There is one particular revelation which is a big "gotcha" moment that was absolutely brilliant. The film's thematic content lies in the idea of identity, status, and keeping up an image - something that Tony Stark and nearly every character in the film deals with, including the humble Happy Hogan who finally gets more of an opportunity to shine than in the previous iterations of the franchise. The narrative gives way to a political-espionage/detective story of Tony piecing together the mystery of The Mandarin, the source of his attacks, and how he fits in the puzzle. A great mystery yarn is peppered with terrific action scenes (including an air-rescue scene and a big-finale fight that will go down as some of the best in the superhero genre) alongside a fairly damning portrayal of the current military industrial complex and the rather absurd concept of the American government's idea of "keeping the peace." Robert Downey Jr. is awesome as Tony Stark, but that almost doesn't require mentioning. Gweneyth Paltrow is really able to come out into her own in this film as Pepper, who was usually treated as the stability anchor for Tony, gets to be the voice of reason and gets plenty bad-ass moments of her own. Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian is an absolute treat; a charismatic industrial leader who's spurn by Tony gives him unforeseen motivations. Rebecca Hall plays Maya Hansen, and while she's fine in the role, there isn't terribly too much for her to do outside of provide some key plot elements and give some pretty good banter coming back as one of Tony's old flames.

Ben Kingsley plays The Mandarin, and he turns it up to 11. I won't reveal too much of his character, as discovering who he is remains one of the highlights of the movie, but let me just say that Kingsley's Mandarin had me thinking about his performances weeks after the movie was over. Although some fans might not like his interpretation of The Mandarin (but given that the original source material essentially had him as the "fu-manchu" Asian stereotype that is as offensive to the Chinese as "Uncle Tom" is to black-Americans), it's a terrific turn in terms of storytelling that not only connects deeply with the themes portrayed in the film, but offers a terrific surprise that I guarantee you no one will be able to guess. To paraphrase The Mandarin, "you'll never see him coming."

Give this film a chance, embrace the story, and I PROMISE you, you'll walk away from Iron Man 3 with a burning desire to turn right around and see it again!

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I was thoroughly intrigued by "Enter the Void" when I watched the trailer. The idea of seeing a man's life detached from his earthly bonds gave me hope that it would be an introspective view on his life akin to the writing of Charles Dickens. Oh, how horribly wrong I was.

Not to write off the director completely, Gaspar Noé, attempts to push the medium of film in terms of style, however, he fails spectacularly on various different levels. The dialogue feels tired and cliché, and the actors have no emotion when giving their lines making one feel like Mr. Noé plucked these individuals off of the set of a commercial for a local hardware store and placed them in front of the camera. Not since "2001: A Space Odyssey" have I seen such a blatant attempt to ignore character development or story in favor of psychedelic images. I'm absolutely shocked at how much content in this film appears to be depressing, shocking, or disturbing for the sake of itself rather than serving the story. I was never entrenched in the story thinking, "What will happen next?". Instead, I wondered, "When the Hell will this be over?" This 'film' has so many places where the movie could end that it could have been the climax that if it ended 45-60 minutes early, no one would be able to tell if anything was missing from the plot. Sex in the film seems to be thrown whenever the director gets bored with his own film and can't think of anything else to do. And when sex can't satiate his interests, Noé decides to focus on more neon-lights to the point of inducing vomit. Camera shots that attempt to be sweeping come out as unnecessarily disorienting and annoying. Also, minus several points for using cheap "jump-scares".

Unless you want to be depressed or angered about over how incredibly terrible a film can be handled, avoid "Enter the Void" at all costs and save your money for a movie that actually tries.

As you watch the film from the beginning, there is a chance for a deep film that goes inside the mind of the narrator (Edward Norton) and his counter-part Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), and mostly the film succeeds for showing the slow transformation of the narrator into Tyler through the creation of an underground fight club. The premise works, however, there are too many times where the movie switches from the surreal to the utmost impossible. Though the film builds up in the first 2/3 the last is disappointing with just an idiotic ending plot along with an incoherent story. Though the narrator goes into a mode of "self-discovery" and the idea of man vs. himself in the end, which works, it isn't enough to save the film from keeling over from the abomination known as the human thirst for quick sell-outs for which the book version tries to state to all. A sad and pathetic form of a movie which could have been so much more.