Reviews

Good Time Max (James Franco) reminds me a lot of myself; we both play the boisterous younger brother, thirsty for reckless living, wasting honest resources on temporal thrills and instant pleasure, easily distracted. Life is, of course, just one great big party! Right? However, Max and I also relate to the difficulty of coping with the folly of excessive living. We know hard times, family drama, and often times are out of money. We deal with the guilt and awkwardness of the lesson(s) learned and many times vow never again to be such a childish adult. We both know addiction and sobriety, which means that we also know how it feels to relapse and follow through with the entire cycle, the drama and so forth, once again.

My oldest brother, now a doctor of microbiology, once thought that I was smarter than him because he never saw me do homework or study as a kid.

Making personal choices today will inevitably, inadvertently and incidentally affect ones immediate future, yet many times yielding unfavourable results. In other words: choose wisely.

Great low-budget, independent project, indeed! Viewing the practical next-door characters in an authentic & emotionally moving script is considered good time spent for this dramedy gem.

Baz Lurhman is terrible. His art is annoying. This music video only resurfaced in my life since the promo for the new Elvis Presley movie came out and I was curious. To my disappointment, I discovered that the making of the Hollywood biography of one of the world's most revolutionary figures unfortunately wound up in the hands of one of the least impressive artists of our time. Baz Lurhman makes entertainment for kids, but a lot of grownups take his work too seriously.

This is one of the coolest movies I've seen lately! I haven't read the book(s), but I like the David Lynch version, granted it was a failure. So I'm merely judging the new version against the old.

Audio-visually stimulating effects and settings combined with ample A-list actors make DUNC worth the experience. If you thought that the creators of The Phantom Menace drew inspiration from various human cultures and races, then you'll probably think the same about this one. I love how the Sardaukar talk!

Props to Lynch for all of his effort. But modern Hollywood technology and Denis Villanueve have made a much newer, much better rendition. We'll finally get the complete cinematic series!

Here is a story that begins to portray real-life scenarios and creates a deep history with the main couple, but gradually declines into an unrealistic ending.

Brawl in Cell Block 99 immediately calls upon the audience to connect with the central character, Bradley Thomas (played by Vince Vaughn), as he experiences significant losses early in the plot, at which time we also learn of his almost superhuman strength. Fast forward 1.5 years and Thomas & family are well-to-do. But reality begins to blur when a careless business deal turns into disaster during a shootout with the cops. It's also in this scene where the incompetence of law enforcement is exposed which allows Thomas to carry out his very unrealistic string of brutality until the very end.

I became detached during the scene in which Thomas makes his first assault against a prison guard. This point in the timeline confirmed that the rest of the film was just another piece of Hollywood garbage showing the morbidly demented creativity of movie producers in glamorizing bloody (and rather crunchy) savagery. Besides there's no way that law enforcement would allow one prisoner to carry on with violence for as long as Thomas did.

Additionally, I was quite unconvinced with the lack of emotion in Vaughn's character. It seems like he didn't mind being in prison considering he would be missing the first years of his yet-to-be daughter's life. Vince Vaughn is much better suited, and more appreciated, for comical roles. Sure, he's a big fellow, but this does not make him an ideal candidate for the tough and menacing parts.

Brawl in Cell Block 99 is entertainment for fans of gratuitous violence, but concludes in a very disconnected reality.

After spending almost thirty years in the Hollywood circuit, Sam Rockwell finally won his first Academy Award in acting at the 90th installment. Reaching that pinnacle had to begin somewhere. This pathetic piece of cinematic rubbish known as "Clownhouse" served as Rockwell's first stepping stone on his way to an Oscar win. Granted, I have not seen all of Rockwell's performances. But I have seen enough to know that he's an ideal candidate for the role of a cocky alpha bully, revealed here in his earliest cinematic effort.

However, despite Rockwell's competence, Clownhouse is a sad failure. Everyone else onscreen seemed like they were at a casting audition which led me to think that the producers must have chosen the performers on a first-come, first-cast basis. Director Victor Salva failed in coaching the performers to be more natural, less robotic and overall complementary to the film's best actor. The music was well composed, but needed to be performed by an arrangement of instruments and not on a synthesizer. Also, I was let down by the clowns themselves as the idea of coulrophobia, or the fear of clowns, was built up so much. Furthermore, the jump scenes were not surprising. The violence content was rather mild and lacked much blood for a horror title. I guess that the R-rating was awarded for the generous amount of profanity, spewed mostly from Rockwell's mouth. Otherwise this would have garnered a PG-13 or softer rating.

This could have been a much better production and would undoubtedly do good as a remake. As stated above, Sam Rockwell was a solid character in this particular selection which is the only reason I recommend sitting through it.

As an Afghanistan & Iraq veteran, I'm not fond of movies that use Hollywood actors to recreate what they will likely never experience firsthand. Contrarily, having voluntarily watched this picture makes me, I guess, the bigger sucker. Nevertheless, here's my critique for this title with as little spoilers as possible:

The acting falls short of convincing, especially in Garrett Hedlund's robotic demeanor, which, ironically, belittles his portrayal of a supposedly steadfast squad-leader entrusted with keeping the integrity of his unit intact, both in and out of combat. Hedlund could have made this role as a headstrong "tough guy" more believable, much like his performance as Captain Hook in Pan. The men to whom Hedlund's character answer (virtually all fresh faces in the motion picture circuit) can all, and inevitably will, use more camera-time to build their performing skills, particularly Joe Alwyn as the titular character. Their antics remind me of Marine behavior--rambunctious & juvenile. Granted they all pretended to be infantry men, the most basic of all Army occupations which employs mostly simpleminded fellows. However, I have known these stereotypical buffoons to be rather down-to-Earth, everyday men, some with a vast knowledge of many things beyond that of my own.

Steve Martin's work was also disappointing. I could not distinguish his character's poorly-spoken stage dialect, which contained a tinge of Southern twang upon first appearing, but later seemed to fade into neutral American English. Besides, Martin is better suited and much more appreciated for his comedic roles. Ditto for Chris Tucker although his character wasn't as prominent as Martin's.

Adding to the aesthetic displeasure were NFL icons Richard Sherman and J.J. Watt, who apparently found time in their busy schedules to hastily exchange a few lines with Alwyn's character. We all know Watt dropped out of college to play football, not to become a movie star. And I expected better material from Sherman with a degree from Stanford in communication. Additionally, the story could have done without an appearance by Destiny's Child if the actual band members did not commit to making an on screen appearance.

Regarding the content, the story touched on many issues related to war, including brotherhood, politics, spirituality, the value of human life, and the characters' difficulties in adjusting to home and family. Character development was deep and calls on the viewer to make some degree of investment in each respective role.

Overall, this selection seems like it was ill-prepared in various areas of production. I'm sure that the novel on which this film is based is a much more impressive piece of work. I wasn't even planning on watching this one, but I couldn't fit Hacksaw Ridge into my schedule earlier this week. In my humble opinion, Saving Private Ryan tops all movies based on fictitious stories from historical wars.

Similarly and much more earlier was Johnny Knoxville and friends' Bad Grandpa which featured the same toilet humor, yet with creative practicality. Having watched the aforementioned piece, I was rather bored seeing another movie portraying a recently-widowed grandfather pursuing fulfillment of his newly revived sexuality on a haphazard road trip with his ill-fated grandson. Furthermore, Dirty Grandpa was only able to beckon the first audible chuckle from this viewer after 52 minutes of routine cinematic shenanigans with the second one occurring at 1:21.

Also, Zac Efron continues to solidify his on-screen legacy as a foul-mouthed Ken doll college carouser who inevitably winds up shirtless, at best, for the camera. Additionally, this was a blow to Robert De Niro. Sure, he's a living legend, but that credibility does not merit him with invincibility to criticism.

This selection was not a complete bust, however. Props to the producers for featuring music from Handsome Boy Modeling School. But unfortunately good music does little to redeem the quality of horrendous cinematics.

The producers that make movie trailers, or as we more appropriately call them nowadays "previews", almost unanimously score an A plus in drawing audiences in to fill theater seats. However, previews typically reveal too much plot and the viewers' expectations are seldom met once they consume the final product in it's entirety. As stated above, the previews for this title that featured many of our most beloved Hollywood icons grabbed my attention immediately. I was led to believe that this would be a fun-loving laugh-a-thon with clever jokes and convincing gags. Before too long, it was apparent that this was a multi-segmented movie with a different crew behind each sketch and by the end of the second segment, I was already let down. Regardless, I decided not to leave mid-feature for I paid good money at the box office for premium seating.

I endured the remainder of the movie having only bellowed a chuckle or two. I was actually surprised to realize that the majority of the comical content, portrayed by a plethora of well-respected performers, was eighth-grade, toilet bowl humor which I only found amusing during my adolescent years.

One positive note is that my popcorn and Coke were tasty and satisfying, so my experience wasn't a complete waste. Watch it if you'd like. I've given you fair warning.