A Monter Calls

This is one of those times where an advertising campaign grossly misadvertises the movie. Remember when everyone thought "Lady in the Water" was going to be a horror film but it ended up being a fantasy? Same thing here. I thought this was going to be a fun fantasy "Boy and his creature" movie in the same vein as "E.T." or "Pete's Dragon," but this was actually a very serious drama. It was well acted, the CGI on the monster is some of the best I've ever seen (between this and the Beast in the "Beauty and the Beast" remake, I'm getting more and more amazed and impressed at how CGI/motion capture is getting more realistic, without being creepy like with "Polar Express") and even the story, though it was depressing was still very well told. My one issue with the casting is that Hollywood for some reason loves to cast Sigourney Weaver in mean roles. Every movie I've seen her in, her character is the meanest in the film. It's been that way for 30 years, to the point where it's almost a trope like "Sean Bean must die in everything he's in". She is very good in this, but it's the same character as every other movie she's been in. Personally, I didn't like this movie. I wanted to, but it was just too depressing. There is no hope to this film, and it just leaves you sad. Personally I blame that on the marketing advertising it as something it wasn't. Now that being said, the film is done very well. It's hard to get a huge range of emotion from child actors, and the actor who plays the boy absolultely rocks it. His sadness and anger feel genuine. When he has to come to terms with the bad hand life has dealt him, you understand why he does what he does. Sometimes the film was a bit hard to understand (is the monster real? Is he a metaphor?) and the story didn't flow very well at times. But I get it. The film is based off a book (which I haven't read) so things need to be taken out for time reasons. It was a well-made movie but it was super depressing.

Grade: C    7/10    3.5/5 stars

La La Land

I can see why this won Best Picture, even if it was only for 30 seconds. This film was fantastic! I'm not usually a fan of live-action musicals, which is why I waited to rent this one, but this was a great movie! Although, it is a little pretentious and narcissitic, but hey, it's an Oscar-nominated film. That's the very definiton. Given that this is the only movie that I've seen Ryan Gosling in, I can't really compare his role in this film to previous works, so for what I got it was great. His singing is pretty good. And now we move to Emma Stone. As far as acting goes, she was fantastic, but her singing ability is average, and at times a bit off key. I've heard better, but I've definietely heard worse. This movie goes into date-night movie territory, but never chick flick territory, thank goodness. (Hey, I'm a guy. I'm not the target audience for those). Overall this was a fun romp, and it deserved every award it was nominated for and won with the exception of Best Costume Design. (What costumes? It's just regular clothes.) The story was pretty good, the chemistry between Gosling and Stone was believable, although sometimes the drama and arguments were a bit overacted, and the choreography and songs were awesome! I am going to be listening to the soundtrack on repeat for a long time. I cannot get these songs out of my head. It's a mix of jazz, pop, funk, a little bit of everything. There's something for everyone to love in this fun musical romp.

Grade: B  8/10  3.5/5 stars

Assassin's Creed

I was really skeptical about this one, because it's a video game movie, and those are hit-or-miss. (Mostly miss.) I also knew very little about the source material going in, but that gave me an advantage because I was able to judge it purely on its own merit as a film and not based on whether or not it was a "faithful adaptation." I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. The plot was a little silly at points, and some times it felt like it was hitting me over the head by constantly reiterating "This is the hero's goal. This is the artifact we're looking for. Don't forget it. You won't foreget it because we're going to drill it into your head 20 more times in the next 10 minutes," and that got annoying really fast, but overall I enjoyed this movie. It had a sort of futurisitc "Indiana Jones'' feel. The acting from Michael Fassbender was fantastic. His performance was by far the best one in the movie. The action sequences were well choreographed, and this film was super fun! Unfortunately, since this is a video game movie which did terribly with critics, this probably won't get a sequel, which is a shame, really, considering that the film ends on a mild cliffhanger. (Why couldn't this have just stood alone?) Seems like the filmmakers put the cart before the horse by planning on making this a franchise before seeing how well it actually did. I really want a sequel to this, but even if we don't get one, I still enjoyed myself. It was a lot more fun than I expected, and surprisingly well-done, especially for a video game movie.
Grade: B. 8/10 4/5 stars

Lion

Congrats to me! This is my 150th post!

This movie was amazing! I'm still overwhelmed by how fantastic and beautifully done this was! It's one of the few non R-rated Best Picture nominees of 2016, so I decided to give this rare oppurtunity a shot. I'm so glad I did. This is an absolute must see. The first half of the film is in different dialects of Indian with English sutitles, and that can be kind of hard to get through, but about 45 minutes or so into the movie when the dialouge is mostly in English for the remainder of the film. Dev Patel and costar Rooney Mara have something in common. They've both starred in terrible films, but have redeemed themselves with Oscar nominated films. (Patel was in that garbage "Last Airbender" movie, and Mara was in the most recent "Fantastic Four" remake and "Pan", but has starred in "The Martian which I liked.) This deserves the Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay awards it won. I agree with some critics that some parts of the film moved at a slow pace, but in my opinion the emotion portrayed in those scenes far outweighs the slow pace. The film is emotional and nearly made me cry. It's an absolutely fantastic and brilliant piece of cinema. 

Grade; A+  10/10  5/5 stars