Land of Bad
Land of Bad may look and sound like your average combat action flick, but it’s actually much more thrilling and intricate than that surface assumption.
Russell Crowe
Unhinged
Russell Crowe gives an absolutely terrifying performance in Unhinged. The film is a high-octane, single day thriller, but there are times when Derrick Borte’s movie is a straight-up horror because of Crowe. As the story’s antagonist Tom Cooper, Crowe ditches his inhibitions. He’s purposely underdeveloped to build an aura of mystery and terror. The audience is given minor clues of who Tom could be, but he still resembles a stranger; someone who could break under…
Winter’s Tale
By: Addison Wylie There should be entertainment in watching something as expensive and clueless as Winter’s Tale foul up as bad as it does. To do so, there has to be peculiar performances or unusual story elements to keep us guiltily hooked. Winter’s Tale has these, but it’s empty core covers any unintentional laughs. It’s a film serviced by a writer/director who can’t fully comprehend the source material he’s adapting. Akiva Goldsman has been a producer on…
Noah
By: Addison Wylie I wasn’t going to see Noah to look for religious inaccuracies and become very picky about its epic portrayal of Noah’s Ark. I left my biblical checklist at home. I went into Noah wanting to see how a creative filmmaker like Darren Aronofsky could handle a big budget blockbuster, and wanting to observe how well his integrity would float in mainstream waters. This would be a first for the Oscar-nominated director who…
Red Obsession
By: Addison Wylie It’s neat to watch a subject take on an evolution people didn’t see coming. In Red Obsession’s case, that subject is wine – and it’s progression isn’t pleasing everybody. Documentary filmmakers David Roach and Warwick Ross capture a timeline that shows how wine went from something that was considered an art, to a product that is more of a business decision than anything. The price of wine keeps on climbing to a…
Les Misérables
By: Addison Wylie Tom Hooper wowed audiences with The King’s Speech. Well, most audiences – I thought it was inspirational but ordinary, with stylistic cinematography that overshadowed many elements of the story. Nonetheless, his film won multiple Oscars; including Best Picture. He may follow suit with his adaptation of Les Misérables; in both the award garnering sense and the cinematography sense. Hooper has brought his shooting style to his latest feature following Jean Valjean (played…