Kong: Skull Island

Kong: Skull Island  - 118min - PG13

This was a promising start to a shared monster universe, and John C Reilly  Stole the show. Seeing my childhood monsters on the screen again in some spectacular effects. The Monsterverse seems to be chugging along, looking forward to Godzilla in 2019 and then Godzilla vs. Kong later.

Read my review here on Blackflix. 

The Legend of Tarzan

The Legend of Tarzan  - 110 min - PG13

This is a reintroduction of this classic tale to the modern age. Does it hold up to the dramatic change in tone and a more modern sensibility? For the most part, it does. Some of the less savory views of the original material have been brought up to date. 

Margo Robbie is a force to be reconded with, Jane is no wilting flower in this retelling.  Read my review here on Balckflix

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Kingsman: The Secret Service - 129min - R

I enjoy the spy genre of films. James Bond films are an institution in Hollywood. I have enjoyed the new gritty realistic standpoint that those movies have taken. Kingsman takes the spy movie to new heights and/or depths depending on how you look at it. I am not fazed by graphic scenes in films and I almost never flinch when someone breaks a bone in a fight scene. This film has found my breaking point for violent images. I liked the film even with the sour feelings it left me. I did want to go home and dust off my Disney collection and watch something wholesome to repair my soul.

Harry Hart, code name Galahad (Colin Firth) takes young Eggsy (Taron Eggerton) under his wing because Eggsy's father sacrificed himself for his team, saving Harry. Harry offers to give Eggsy a chance to try out for the Kingsman. During his training a criminal mastermind known as Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) starts to develop a plan that will have devastating effect across the world.

The film was put together well. It has a nice balance between action-adventure and campy spy gadgets. The performers were all top notch, there didn't seem to be a person out of place or out of their depths with the performance. The touches of humor fit in nicely with the story and weren't overdone. I don't know if they were enough to lighten up the level of violence that really starts off the film and doesn't end until the film is over.

I'm going to talk about the more bloody scenes here so if you are not wanting spoilers please look away, I'm sure you would have in the movie as well.

I think I was past my comfort level about a quarter of the way through the test of Valentine's weapon at the church. You would think that a church based on hate and bigotry would not make me flinch to see them all die horribly, but it did affect me, I was over my violence quotient for a movie. It was completely horrific, the ways that people killed one another in that church. It kept escalating to a darker and more brutal place.

I found it interesting that the movie set the stage for me to not feel bad for the victims as they were intolerant jackwagons, but as the scene continued on I was feeling bad that even intolerant jackwagons didn't need to die that way.

To offset that level of killing there is a scene further in that has a lot of heads exploding. Instead of showing us all of the heads they covered over them with a CGI firework display that took the place of all of the heads. That really softened the blow of the event that took the heads of hundreds of people.

I think that what this movie has going for it is the like able characters. I felt a solid connection with everyone. The fight scenes were outstanding and well-choreographed and the car chase was one of the better ones I have seen.

At its heart it's a really good spy film that has potential. I do hope they will make a sequel. But I also hope that the violence experiment is over and we never ever have to watch a scene like that one in the church again.

Where is your violence tolerance level?

Django Unchained

Django Unchained – 165min – R

The 70’s pulp or exploitation films Quentin Tarantino has based his career on were not really focused on making well made movies as much as just banging out movies to get them out there. What was once just an excuse to make a quick and dirty movie he has worked to make a legitimate art form. This is one of his better films. I am not a fan of this style or his gratuitous nature in his films, but he is an excellent wordsmith when it comes to dialog. This movie is still dripping in blood but he is refining his filmmaking skills to include a good story. I enjoyed the ride even if I was uncomfortable with the subject matter. This one gets a green light from me.

Django (Jamie Fox) starts the movie as a slave in a chain gang being marched across the land from a slave market. He is abruptly “bought” by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz), a bounty hunter who needs Django to identify three fugitives. After Django identifies the three people he is set free, but the two have developed a friendship. Django is going to go and try and free his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), from slavery. The two go to the plantation that owns his wife and try and trick the plantation owner into selling her. Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) owns Candie Land *RIMSHOT* a plantation he uses to train slaves to fight to the death. He is brutal and ignorant -- a deplorable person. His house slave is Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), he plays the weak and subservient slave but he is the one who is really in charge. After copious buckets of blood and swearing there is a resolution that ends as a revenge picture.

Christoph Waltz is wonderful in this movie. He has a wonderful presence on the screen and it is very nice to see him as a good guy for a change, I think it fits him better. Jamie Fox is great as two types of characters the naive slave and the then the refined world wise bounty hunter. Leonardo DiCaprio does a great job of wearing the vile skin of the completely appalling character. I wonder if he had to use mental floss to get Calvin out of his head. Samuel L. Jackson can do no wrong, but the thing about him is even of he is in a bad movie he is going to play it to the hilt and own it. It’s great to watch him get his.

Warring Spoilers!!!! Only Grindhouse fans beyond this point!!!!!

I am going to use this section for talking through something that’s bugging me, excuse me for not talking about anything more than this, but as it is my blog I can use it. Forgive me for the self indulgence.

I am completely uncomfortable with the word nigger and they use it in almost every scene. At the beginning of the movie, I flinched at every instance but I got more used to it as the movie went on. I did not like it but it was a very common word in the time the movie was set. I can see using it in this context but as a person in the modern time it’s hard for me to see past the ugliness of the word to enjoy the story the movie makers are trying to tell. I recently watched Blazing Saddles and it was not on Network TV. They used that word over and over again and I was just as uncomfortable. Lenny Bruce said “the suppression of the word that gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness.” I have to look at myself and examine why I was uncomfortable. It is because I have given that word power over me. I am not going to start using it but I am going to look at how I am affected by it. I would like to think that Tarantino was trying to desensitize the viewer to it but I really think he is just using it as set dressing and a way to shock people. Regardless at least as a viewer, it made me think.

Do you think that he will ever make the movies of his youth a true and respected art form, or is he just looking back with nostalgia that will never really have a place of honor?

The Avengers

The Avengers – 142min – PG13

I am glad I was alive when they final got an epic superhero movie franchise right. I am not a fan boy of the comics. I was aware of them but I never followed them. I can say that these movies have made me a fan. We have spent a long time waiting for this film and I was nervous that they would follow the path of previous hero series. I saw this movie twice on Saturday. I like to see movies twice so once I can get lost in the story and the second time I can really examine the film. Honestly I would like to see it again because the second time I was just as involved with the story as the first viewing. Needles to say I am giving this marvelous movie a green light.

I usually talk about the plot in high level but I am going to forgo that and say this movie is about 130 min of high action. I can’t really talk about the plot without giving anything away so I will save most of the conversation for my spoiler section. I will say that the Avengers are composed of Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). They are under the guidance of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). All of them did an outstanding job, I have absolutely no negative comments about the cast in any way, and they personified the characters in every aspect.
Hero films in the past have been victims of the studio machine. Once they have a story idea they mold and stretch it into something to fit everyone’s palate and thereby ensuring that no one likes it. Perhaps they try and write the story to get as much as they can get out of the toys and games that go along with a big budget picture. These theories have failed in the past and I am glad to see that this is an example of a movie franchise that can keep focus on the source material.

I am also pleased with the fact they balanced its humor and action well. They had a great feel for smart and witty without going to low brow levels. In the past I think that people who make comic book films feel that it’s going to pander to kids so they write for what they feel the 12 to 14 year old demographic will like. The writing in this film brings the humor level higher and is still understandable to that age range without talking down to them.

The second time around I did see some specific camera shots that seemed out of place for the pace of the surrounding scenes and there was a use of reflections in this film that was prevalent throughout the movie. I am really going to have to go again to catch more and to focus in on more of the setting than the action.

The big question is where do they go from here? How do they top this film? Joss Whedon is an exceptional storyteller and filmmaker. I know that he can do a long story arc well but even I don’t see how they can continue at this level. I will enjoy watching him try.

Spoiler Warning!!! Only Members of S.H.I.E.L.D are authorized to Click her to see spoilers!!!

Ok first off The Hulk smack down is Hi-larious. I laughed so hard at that scene that I missed Hulk's line: “Puny God”. A second viewing was needed and I almost did not hear it because of the roars of laughter. I think that having the Hulk retain some of the facial structure of Mark Ruffalo was excellently done to bring a sense of connection in the conversion.

Agent Coulson dies and it was for a very good reason. There needed to be the one event that brings everyone together, they needed that catalyst moment and Phil’s death was what was needed.
I know that Joss gets hell from fans because he seems to kill of the people we come to know and love, but as a writer you have to be able to raise the stakes and the best way to do that is to kill off the ones we have made a connection to. We can’t kill off the heroes because that ends the story (unless you are a DC character) but we have to know that the dangerous battle is dangerous and the only way to do that is to have a death of one of the supporting cast. Besides this one was Kevin Feige’s Idea. (See the I09 article for more details.)

The movie starts off with high action and does not stop until they are eating Shawarma. If you left before the very end of the movie shame on you, they always seem to have a tidbit at the end. They also introduced a glimpse of the next bad guy, Thanos. Good bad guy .I see epic battles coming.
What do you think DC needs to do to compete with the new standard Marvel has set?