True Detective Review

I really hate television.  Which is weird, because I watch a lot of it.  So, somewhere between work, 'pr0n' and the occasional video game, I to try to watch several shows, and I am open minded enough to check out new things.  Sometimes I'm impressed (i.e. Sleepy Hollow, Sherlock on BBC, Almost Human and Bates Motel), but most times I'm disappointed.

Normally, I won't watch non sci-fi/horror/supernatural types of shows because I'm easily bored.  But after the Clockwork Orangian urgings of my friend Regis Jack (check him out painfully and regret it later here), I started watching True Detective on HBO.

Created by Nic Pizzolatto, the plot has Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson playing detectives over the course of 17 years searching for a killer.  But are they really true detectives??  They do some very shady things within those 17 years... dare I say illegal things?  And after 17 years looking for someone, are they good detectives?  I call shenanigans at the show title.  Maybe Questionable Detective would be better.  Dangerous Detective.  Flaky Detective.... just throwing it out there.

First, I love me some Woody (and who doesn't??).  Woody Harrelson ('Detective' Marty Hart) does his usual great job being pretty much the same guy he usually is, only more intense (if you can believe that).  But Matthew McConaughey ('Detective' Rust Cohle) gets the wow..!  What an interesting character.  He kept my attention between his performance and the overall way this character was written.  But was it enough?

At first, I wondered if it would be a more serious and less freaky version of Twin Peaks (which I LOVED!).  But every time we got away from the mystery, and started to focus on Marty's family drama, I got bored.  And they spend a LOT of time focusing on his personal life.  Don't get me wrong, because the women that Marty is with are all pretty freakin' hot!  But, it all felt a bit weird because he spends a lot of the time recalling personal events with other detectives.   

Overall, I kept waiting for something to happen.  Each episode felt like it was building up to something, but delivered nothing.  I found myself saying, "That's it??" often.  I went from leaning forward to leaning back too many times (figuratively).  Otherwise, each episode is well put together, often very dark and sometimes very disturbing, and the acting is top notch.  The directing is also well done  Extra kudos going to episode 4 (Who Goes There) when Cohle hooks up with his old biker gang.  The entire ending sequence was shot very well (no pun intended).

Maybe you'll like this kind of thing, but it isn't for me.  There are only 8 episodes total, so it doesn't take too much time out of your busy schedule.  But if I'm going to watch something non sci-fi/horror/supernatural, I need it to really push me over the edge... like Breaking Bad *sniff*

Deeesher

Hunger Games The Movie Review

Have any of you ever seen the movie Battle Royale? This was a Japanese movie filmed in 2000 by director Kinji Fukasaku based on a very popular novel. To summarize, in the near future, the Japanese government takes the lowest rated school of ninth-graders (i.e. having the most delinquents), ships them to an island and lets them fight... to the death!  It was amazing!  It was epic and intense and kept you guessing at every turn. The characters were interesting and it was just a good overall film.

Check out the trailer here:

On a side note, I wasn't as impressed with the sequel (Battle Royale 2).

But, I live in America, where we can't seem to come up with anything original or unique. So we rip off other peoples ideas and call it our own. And it seems most Americans are so desperate for entertainment, moviegoers will support anything Hollywood shoves down our throats hard enough.

Today's case in point: Hunger Games.

Hunger Games is based on a novel, where people in the future select children from ages 12 to 18 from each of the twelve districts to fight in the annual Hunger Games competition... to the death! Does any of this sound familiar?

Check out the trailer here and tell me which version of bloodthirsty children killing each other do you prefer, Japanese or American?

I had so many problems with this movie, I don't even know where to begin. But because I feel writing is so important to a movie, let's start there.

Call me silly, but I sort of like to be surprised or maybe kept guessing when I watch a movie. “What will happen next???” “Will they be okay???” “How will they get out of this???” After seeing this movie, I'm thinking about playing the lottery, because it really made me feel psychic! Somehow, (perhaps magically), I was able to predict nearly every twist and turn, even though the writing makes no sense!

Now in defense of Hunger Games, I have never read the original novel. Generally, American movies based on novels tend to be very loosely based, so there might be something with a bit more substance on the written page that never got conveyed. For example, why doesn't every town riot when their children are taken away to be killed? And this has been happening peacefully for seventy-four years? Or how can any 12 year old little girl expect to defeat an 18 year old boy in a death match? Or how can you realistically train children to become brutal killers in the space of three days? And beyond that, there is an endless stream of horrible cliche moments.

But let's just say for a moment, I can somehow ignore the aneurism the bad writing gave me, and let's examine the characters. Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen, and while she is not as horrendous to watch as Kristen Stewart (from Twilight), she is still extremely bland. Speaking of Twilight, of course there is a love interest! Josh Hutcherson plays Peeta. In terms of a love story, this one drifts somewhere between meh and forced. It's a half tic above Twilight. In other words, I don't hate the characters that much.

The rest of the cast got a paycheck. And for the record, I'm really starting to think Woody Harrelson is stalking me.

Then finally, we have director Gary Ross, putting the shaky cam icing on the top of a very bland cake.

Rotten Tomatoes gave this movie an 84%, and there are a few sequels in the works. Did I see a different movie than the rest of the country??? Can someone please tell me why this is so popular??? I'm not saying it's the worst movie I've ever seen, (that award is still held by Twilight and the George Clooney Batman and Robin), but this filled me with lots of WTF's.

So please, stop promoting movies with this kind of blah, and start supporting good writing, like Limitless, or Avengers, or Doctor Who, or Looper, or Zombieland,...

Or even Sharknado!

Deeesher

2012 - The Movie - The Review!

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel... exhausted. Because when the world finally ends, it will consist of lots of last minute pulse pounding escapes. Of course I'm talking about the DVD release of 2012.



Sure, I could have seen it in the theater but sometimes you just can't justify the expense for a movie that you're pretty sure is going to suck. And sometimes, seeing it in the comfort of your home makes a so-so movie, just a bit better.

Roland Emmerich loves destroying the world. He did it in Independence Day, and again in The Day After Tomorrow. This time we can blame earths destruction on ancient Mayan geologists who predicted the world would end on December 21, 2012. Apparently their computers were better than ours, cause we didn't figure it out until 2009 when this movie begins. I'd like to think ancient Mayans used a Mac.

Overall, 2012 looked very impressive, (maybe they should have tried the 3-D release? Although I am still cringing at the thought of 3-D nerd glasses!). It is important to shut off your brain while watching this movie because Mythbusters has easily disproved many of the action sequences... but its still fun to watch a Winnebago leap over a ten foot chasm etc. And don't get me wrong, not every scene is a fantastic escape! A few people unexpectedly die in this movie... give or take a few billion.

One of the people trying to survive is John Cusak, who finally makes an appearance after a much needed break from staring in every movie released from 1985 to 1992. And surprisingly, he acts exactly like John Cusak through the entire film. It was awesome to see Woody Harrelson as survivalist/conspiracy theorist, even if he didn't have to kill any zombies this time.

The biggest drawback of 2012, is that its long, (158 minutes!). Seriously?! It takes that long to destroy the earth?!? And when you're not balancing on the edge of your seat, we have intense moments of sap. I completely understand why those moments are needed but, they often just felt forced, uncomfortable and overly drawn out between the action.

None of that made it a bad movie though. There was however, one other glaring flaw. At one point, they are trying to save all the worlds great treasures. But I did not see anyone packing up my blogs! Oh where is the justice?!