Movie Reviews

The Disaster Artist

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  • Title: The Disaster Artist
  • IMDb: link

The Disaster Artist movie reviewDo you know the phrase “so bad, it’s good?” James Franco does double duty directing and starring in this behind-the-scenes look at the making of writer, producer, and star Tommy Wiseau‘s (played here by James Franco) The Room which some have dubbed one of the best bad movies ever made akin to the films of Ed Wood.

Dave Franco stars as Tommy’s best-friend Greg who goes with him to Los Angeles to pursue their dreams of becoming Hollywood actors. After struggling to find work, the pair decide to shoot their own film (despite having no expertise on any part of the process). The result is a disaster that became a cult favorite which is still shown in theaters to this day.

The Disaster Artist is basically a one-joke film about untalented people making a movie that people enjoy despite its numerous flaws. Franco’s film doesn’t attempt to explain Tommy Wiseau or the plot of a movie cast members themselves didn’t understand, instead it earnestly looks at the friendship that birthed such a beloved abomination onto the unprepared movie-going public.

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The Post

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  • Title: The Post
  • IMDb: link

The Post movie reviewThe Post is unquestionably lesser Spielberg and is more comparable to 1994’s The Paper than Spotlight or All the President’s Men in examining a newspaper room chasing down a story. While there’s nothing wrong with that (lesser Spielberg is still Spielberg), and cast and crew still deliver an entertaining and informative film, it never reaches the the heights to which it aspires.

Based on real events, the film focuses on The Washington Post and their decision to follow the lead of The New York Times and publish the results of a leaked government study that would come to be known as the Pentagon Papers and predicted the U.S. failure in Vietnam years before troops were recalled.

Director Steven Spielberg assembles an impressive all-star cast headlined by a terrific performance by Meryl Streep as the paper’s owner Katherine Graham who is faced with tough choices between balancing corporate concerns and her editor Ben Bradlee‘s (Tom Hanks) desire to print despite the U.S. Government’s legal efforts to stop the leaked documents from making it to the front page.

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Blade of the Immortal

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  • Title: Blade of the Immortal
  • IMDb: link

Blade of the Immortal movie reviewBased on the Japanese manga of the same name, Blade of the Immortal is bloody affair from director Takashi Miike. The story centers around the cursed samurai Manji (Takuya Kimura) who cannot die. Approached by a young girl (Hana Sugisaki) who reminds the samurai of his lost sister, our hero reluctantly agrees to help her get vengeance on the swordsmen who killed her father and their leader Anotsu Kagehisa (Sôta Fukushi).

In terms of action and body count, the movie doesn’t disappoint. However, adapting two books from the series into a single film proves to be a bit awkward at times. There’s a completely unnecessary subplot of a group of mercenaries killing off the same samurai as our hero which only bloats the film’s already considerable running time. Also troubling is the script’s inability to decide how great a swordsman our protagonist truly is. In the opening and closing scenes our hero is unstoppable, taking down an insane number of enemies. However, in pretty much every scene in-between, in one-on-one combat with Anotsu’s lieutenants, his skill is highly questionable. The result is an interesting, if uneven, action film.

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The Florida Project

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  • Title: The Florida Project
  • IMDb: link

The Florida Project movie reviewIn a rundown hotel walking distance from Disney World live 6 year-old Mooney (Brooklynn Prince) and her mother Halley (Bria Vinaite). Set during a single summer, the film focuses on Mooney’s friendships with Jancey (Valeria Cotto) and Scooty (Christopher Rivera) and her mother’s struggles, scams, and cons to come up with rent every week while a fall-out with her best friend (Mela Murder) causes trouble for her both herself and her daughter.

The Florida Project is amazing, but it isn’t a fun movie. There are no cute twists, easy answers, or tacked on happy endings for Halley or her daughter. Left largely to their own devices the kids get into trouble beyond regular childhood mischief, and the compromises Halley makes to feed and house her daughter lead to a heartbreaking finale. There’s not much plot as settings and circumstances are fleshed out by showcasing the average days in which the characters live. I’m not sure how much of the children’s scenes were scripted, and how much was improvised by letting them run wild, but young Miss Prince proves more than up to the challenge when the story gets serious in the film’s final act.

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Last Flag Flying

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  • Title: Last Flag Flying
  • IMDb: link

Last Flag Flying movie reviewLast Flag Flying is a by-the-numbers road trip movie featuring three talented actors (Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne) and an experienced director (Richard Linklater), all of whom have done more memorable work. The film centers around Carell’s character seeking out two Vietnam War buddies when he learns his son’s body is being shipped back from Afghanistan. Having not seen each other in decades, and tied together by an irresponsible act that left another member of their unit dead, the odd couple of Fishburne and Cranston begin the long journey to help their old friend bury his son.

There’s nothing really wrong with the film, other than being Linklater’s least-ambitious project in recent memory. This is the man who spent more than a decade putting Boyhood together and crafted the most accurate version of a Philip K. Dick story we’ve ever seen on film. The solid, if predictable, script offers plenty of moments for each of the three actors to shine. It has its heart in the right place and should play well to both military and civilian families alike, although I didn’t find the film’s emotional moments as affecting as the film’s premise suggests.

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