Dear Pure Flix Entertainment: A Review of “Hacksaw Ridge” Plus a Rant About a Studio

Dear Pure Flix,

After seeing “Hacksaw Ridge,” it has come to my attention that we need to talk. Consider this an one person intervention, you seem addicted to producing propaganda for the idiots. After hearing about your newest “film” “I’m Not Ashamed,” you seemed to have hit a whole new demented level with your films. And I’m including the abomination against humanity know as the franchise “God’s Not Dead” (And, yes, it’s a franchise, there are two movies in it’s name) (also, God is dead, we have this year’s election and #Brexit to prove it) to it.

To my readers, if you haven’t heard about “I’m Not Ashamed,” consider yourself lucky, as it’s about a devout Christian, who during The Columbine Massacre, tries to spread the message of Jesus to the killers. The killers responded accordingly. This is offensive to the parents of the victims who might not have even healed from the trauma of having their beloved child shot by sociopaths. And in case you haven’t figure it out yet, Pure Flix is an independent studio who makes films targeted to the faith based community. But if you heard about one of them movies, you will think it’s targeted to the paranoids who thinks that the government is trying to ban religion. Now back to talking to Pure Flix.

The reason why I’m talking to you is that I’ve just saw a movie that for the first time in my lifetime, does the theme of faith right. That movie is called “Hacksaw Ridge” and it’s as incredible as the Hulk.

The reason that “Hacksaw Ridge” does faith successfully is that the movie portrays it as the characteristic of why Desmond  T. Doss does what he does. When he served in WWII in the Battle of Okinawa, he didn’t hold a gun. In fact, he didn’t even kill a single person. What he did was saved between 50-100 (most people think 75) fellow soldiers from certain death. Not only that is inspirational, but can convert people to pacifism. The message is pacifism, not religion.

But wait, there’s more.

While your movies look like it’s made below the made for television line in terms of quality. “Hacksaw Ridge” has tons of quality. In fact, the main reason why I’m not giving it my highest rating is that they portrayed the Japanese kind of racist in a way (I’m certain that I saw some yellowface), and I have no idea if it was intentional to portrayed America as racist or intentional because Mel Gibson is a Super Racist #4 (the ultimate form of jackass). Let me give you some examples.

• Acting: Terrific all around, especially Andrew Garfield and Hugo Weaving. But also for the unexpected like Vince Vaughn and Sam Worthington (it’s nice to see those two actors not suck for a change). Your movies tend to have actors acting like they are on “Days of Our Lives” at best.
• Direction: I hate Mel Gibson as a person, but I can’t argue that he is a good director. The battle sequences are so realistic, so disturbing, so graphic, that I personally think that it’s up there with D-Day in Saving Private Ryan. Your movies are directed like a soap opera. And if your movie does have an action sequence, it’s not done well to say the least.
• Message: All movies, even “Sausage Party,” tends to preach to the choir. Your movies tend to make your messages, well, let’s say you can kill a person by smothering their faces with your messages. While “Hacksaw Ridge” does preach about pacifism. It keeps the religious part almost completely subtle.

I can go on about cinematography, music, and screenwriting, but that will be repetition. The reason why I’m writing this is that my eyes have opened today. I saw a faith-based movie that is mainstream. Hell froze over as the heavens found the perfect equilibrium. Pure Flix, if you want to be taken seriously, stop making movies for people who are a Riddle and are completely Ass-Jacks, can be found in the triple K, or can be religiously sociopathic who thrives on the blood of manipulating people with lies. Like a certain someone in my dorm. That was not subtle, but it made a point. I’m giving you my own special rating for you.

So Pure Flix Entertainment, go fuck yourself!

Rating for “Hacksaw Ridge”: I’ll See it Again.

Rating for Pure Flix Entertainment: “Abandon all Hope Ye Who Enter’s Here” (The Ninth Gate of Hell)

“Swiss Army Man:” Is The Farting Corpse Movie That Polarizing?

“Swiss Army Man”  is a movie that is hard to describe, so I’m just going to give you the Wikipedia version of it’s plot.

Hank (Dano), a man marooned on an island and at the verge of suicide, sees a corpse (Radcliffe) wash up on the beach and engages in a surreal friendship with it. Hank soon finds that his new friend, whom he names Manny, has the ability to talk and possesses many unusual supernatural powers.

Now, you may expect me to hate this. After all, I did a previous post reacting to the trailer which was just me being shocked in awe. My showing had at least two people walking out in frustration. You are waiting for me to just say that “Swiss Army Man” is the worst movie that I’ve seen in my 18 years of existence. What I’m about to say is something that I have thought deeply about for the past hour and 47 minutes since I started this writing.

“Swiss Army Man” is one of (if not) the most fascinating piece of cinema that I have seen in my 18 years of existence!!!!!!

Didn’t see that coming did you.

Like the trailer post when I was shocked in awe, for ninety-five minutes my mouth was wide open just by the fact that the writers and directors (named Daniels) got away with this. You see, “Swiss Army Man” is not what you think it is. It’s not a ninety-five minute fart joke done in the style of “Weekend at Bernies,” nor is it as juvenile as a Happy Madison production.

“Swiss Army Man” is about life, what we do with it, and how we as a society is using it.

During most of the film’s run-time, Hank is reteaching Manny about life. Whether is love, fear, sex, women, public transportation, or even religion, it’s all something that nearly every person, rich or poor, will witness for him/herself. Hank is telling Manny all about life through his [Hank’s] eyes. And it’s Hank description of his personal life that you’ll realized why he ran away from home. “Swiss Army Man’s” commentary of life is the main star of the show.

But the main human star of the show belongs to Daniel Radcliffe as Manny (in case you forgot, Manny is the corpse). In what has to be his best performance in his career (or at least since “Harry Potter”), he brings this childlike awe to the world, so much so that you will think that he is a child in a grown man’s body. But when you conquer your fear to see this movie, you will find that Radcliffe’s delivery is so anquished, like a victim of severe neurological trauma, that you actually fear sorry for him as well (I’ll like to give a special shout out to Matt Zoller Seitz from RogerEbert.com for pointing this out before I saw the movie, he deserves points for pointing it out).

And the Daniels that I spoke of before, they have delivered a showcase of their talents as directors that you can see why this won Best Direction at Sundance (this is their directorial debuts in film, they previously won an MTV Music Video Award for their direction for the music video of “Turn Down For What”). They bring this trailer cut editing and gorgeous cinematography (the best that I’ve seen all year), and this surrealism throughout the movie. They kind of remind me of Spike Jonze or Michel Gondy. They are to me, a promising trio of directors.

Even with all the praise that I’m giving this movie, this is not flawless. A lot of people will be turn off from this or find it boring. And the movie has about four or five endings too many. But those are pretty minor complaints.

I’m going to end this review by saying this. “Swiss Army Man” is technically an art film’s “Weekend at Bernies”, but I’ll personally will compare it to a surrealist painting that you will find at MOMA. It doesn’t really make sense, but at the center of all of the “What The Fuck-ism’s” is commentary on something. And that commentary will get interpreted in a lot of different ways. “Swiss Army Man” is that painting, even if you hate this movie, you will not get it out of your head. It’s not for everyone, but I’m recommending this just to see other people’s interpretation of the film. It’s not the best movie I’ve seen, but it’s the most fascinating.

Rating: Somewhere between “I’ll See it Again” to “It Works Bitches”.

P.S. Hollywood, do the easily scared a favor and stop putting the trailers to horror movies before non horror movies. I saw the trailer for “Lights Out” with this movie and now I might have insomnia do to me jumping out of my seat 10 times. Horror movie trailers show just be shown with horror movies. But keep up your work James Wan because your trailers keep scaring the shit outta me.

 

 

“10 Cloverfield Lane” NON SPOILER Review

Before I start, I will like to say two things. First: I know that some of you were disappointed with my “Zootopia” review. I liked “Zootopia,” but I didn’t gave it a good grade due the message being muddled in my opinion. Second: This is a non spoiler review. I’m not going to give away any plot details. Heck, I’m not going to give away the character’s names. I’m just going to give away the premise and my thoughts. The reason why I’m doing this is that you need to see this movie knowing nothing at all. If you want spoilers, I will post a spoiler talk on Sunday.  Now on to the review.

“10 Cloverfield Lane” is a movie that didn’t even exist until six weeks ago when it’s trailer was released out  of nowhere. And I went crazy over it. Mostly due to the first “Cloverfield” scaring the shit out of me. I was curious with this film, so I saw it.

The basic premise is that Mary Elizabeth Winstead  wakes up from a car crash in John Goodman’s bunker who said that there was an attack of some kind and that it’s dangerous to go out. Also in this bunker is the neighbor John Gallagher, Jr. And so begins this psychological film that will keep you guessing. So you may be thinking that it’s a generic psychological thriller that I have seen on “Criminal Minds” all of the time. I know what I’m in for –

BZZZZZZZZT

You don’t know what you’re in for. Believe me when I say that there’s more to this premise that the marketing has been smart enough to hide from you.  Why? Because this is a sequel that is superior to the original in every way from it’s performances (John Goodman will keep you up at night), to it’s cinematography that gives this claustrophobic vibe to it, and even the camerawork (the departure from “found footage” to traditional camera work), everything is 5 times better. This is one of the most intense films I’ve seen since “Whiplash.” From the first frame I was uncomfortable and at times it’s freakin terrifying. The monster from the first film still makes me jump out of my seat every time I see it on a screen and it always will. But, if I have to choose between John Goodman or an 100 foot kaiju that sheds mini creatures that if bitten by it and you will die by having your inwards explode,  I will take that monster over John Goodman any day.

I know that this is a vague review but like I said in the beginning, you need to see it knowing little as possible. But this is one of the best films of the year, and this is coming for someone who is seeing “Midnight Special” next.  Come back on Sunday for some spoilers.

Rating: #NeverSleepAgain

The “Zootopia” Paradox

(Disclaimer: This piece contains spoilers, but not heavy spoilers, just mild ones. Also, this may get political.)

Ever been in a situation when your friends are in love with something, let’s say “Heroes,” and you saw one episode of the show on Netflex just to see how good it is and you didn’t find it to be as good as your friends thought it was. Well, I just saw “Zootopia,” a film with a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, an A on Cinemascore, and universal praise for it’s message on racism, discrimination, and prejudice. Well, to quote River Tam from “Firefly,” “My food is problematic.”

And before you attack me for suspected trolling, I didn’t hate this movie. There are things that I liked. The screenplay was clever (mostly, more on that on the next paragraph), the jokes landed, the animation was gorgeous (Disney has come a long way with fox animation since “Robin Hood”), and it’s heart was in the right place. So why am I calling “Zootopia” a paradox? Because the handling of it’s message was, well, River Tam said it the best, problematic. Let me explain.

The premise of “Zootopia” is that in this universe, animals live in harmony in a Manhattan inspired city that the movie gets its title from. The Zootopia demographic is 90% prey (bunnies, pigs, sheep, etc), and 10% predator (lions, tigers, otters, the bear from “Revenant”). The 10% hold most of the power and they are seen as police officers and politicians just to name a few. And someone is turning the 10% into savages (their behavior before they evolved into furries). This is causing the 90% to discriminate from the 10%. So what’s the problem? The movie is implying that the discrimination is due to the animals’ behavior from the past, therefore, the discrimination has a historical purpose. This is a prime example of what I call bullshit. It’s like saying that the reason African Americans are being targeted by the police is due to their violent and gang like behavior from the past. News Flash: The past is the past and we should focus on the present.

There’s also the issue of stereotyping. “Zootopia” want’s you to believe that you can erase the stereotype of your race and be anything you want to be (in this case, a rabbit being a police officer instead of a carrot farmer).  However throughout the movie, you see animals being their stereotype. In this movie, sloth’s are slow and they work in the DMV, wolves howl every time they hear someone else (a wolf or not) howl, weasels are crooks, and rabbits are farmers. But the worst thing that this movie has going for it, is that one of the two main characters, Nick Wilde, didn’t wanted to be a con artist, but because he was a fox, he was bullied and called untrustworthy. So what did he do? He became a con artist, because if no one wanted a good fox, then everyone wanted a stereotypical fox. HOLY SHIT.

Look, what I’m saying is that “Zootopia’ wants to be a movie that parents show their kids to teach them that discrimination and prejudice is wrong. But I saw a movie that can make a Donald Trump supporter and a Hillary Clinton supporter in under 2 hours. Therefore, I can’t give this movie a good grade because it failed it’s message. And in a desperate election year with civil rights on the line, it needed to be the wake up call that we need, and it wasn’t.

But maybe I’m going too deep on this movie. Maybe it’s impossible to create a straight political message in a family film. Maybe I’m a fool that will be punished by the tyranny of Murphy’s Law for my hubris. But I just can’t shake the feeling that something was off with the movie.

Rating: Fail

“The Mermaid:” The Most Batshit Film You Will Never See

Some days, a film comes by and it’s just as you expect it to be. But sometimes a film comes out that is so crazy, you have to see it to believe it. That’s what happened to me when Birth Movies Death showed a trailer for this Chinese comedy called, “The Mermaid,” a film about a mermaid who in order to save her species, plans to seduce and then murder the guy responsible, but falls in love with him in the process. Then, the reviews came along, and it was all positive. So a couple of hours ago, I saw it in the nearest theater possible, Times Square.

And let me tell you this. It doesn’t matter if you like subtitles or not, if you like the film’s environmental message or not, or if you have even heard that this movie exists. You will laugh out loud and be entertained, guaranteed. I am personally not a fan of foreign films (most of them I fall asleep watching, with the exception of, “Run Lola Run”), but this film had me invested. It’s quick paced and the sight gags reminded me of an old Looney Toons cartoon. So if you do want to see it, here are three things you should know.

The first thing you will need to know is that this movie is nuts. How nuts? We are talking about a film that has sea urchins as weapons, poison that in order to be saved from the poison, you’ll need to drink alcohol. There’s a scene when an octopus-man pretends that the bottom of him is an actual octopus and chefs then cut off his tentacles one by one until he throws up ink and flies out of the restaurant like a pebble from a slingshot . The bizarreness here makes “Fury Road” look like “Mario Kart” (damn you blue shells).

The second thing you will need to know is that if you expect first class CGI (for those who don’t know, CGI stands for Computer Generated Imagery), you will be disappointed. The CGI in “Mermaid” is one part Ang Lee’s “Hulk” and three parts Sega Saturn video game. China may be the second richest country, economy wise, but they still have a long way to go to catch up with CGI technology.

The third thing you will need to know is the third act basically threatened to crash the movie. I’m not going to spoil it, but I’m just going to say, is that it unexpectedly became a really bad action film. Some might not see it as a flaw, and while I didn’t find it to be “The Wolverine” bad, but to me I felt like I was watching another movie.
In any case, you should go see this movie. It will be the most entertaining foreign film you will see. Even if it doesn’t come to a theater near you, you should rent it, either on iTunes or on Amazon. I won’t be forgetting it anytime soon.

Did I mention that it’s batshit crazy?

Rating: 

  🙂

Deadpool review

Before I start with this review, I will like to tell you a story. Since I was introduced to comics, I was in love with Deadpool. From the style of the comic to the gags, he has been my second favorite comic book character (after She Hulk, who is the most underrated as well). Even with my love for Deadpool, I did not see “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” mostly due to me having better stuff to do and that I heard that the Deadpool in “Origins” was not Deadpool (JeremyJahns said it the best when he called him “Baraka-pool”). Also, I was getting sick of superhero movies when I realized that I wasn’t enjoying “Winter Soldier” (that’s a blog for another time). But the Deadpool movie I was hugely interested since it was announced after the test footage got leaked. So I saw it.

HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m keeping this brief because as I’m writing this review I can’t put what I experienced into words, such is the magnitude of what I had witnessed. “Deadpool” is a dream that has come true and the only thing that is preventing it from me placing it up with “Anomalisa”  and “Mad Max; Fury Road,” is that at times it becomes the thing that it’s making fun of. But it then redeems itself by either the next scene or the next dialogue that is spoken. This is the best comic book based movie I’ve seen since “Scott Pilgrim,” and one of the funniest movies that I’ve seen.

Rating: “This Amps Up to 11”

 

 

Hail, Caesar! Review (Updated)

Update: After sleeping and thinking more on “Hail, Caesar!.” It turned out to be not as bad as I first thought when I walked out. It’s still in my head surprisingly. So I rewrote this review to reflect some new thoughts.

Pros: “Hail Caesar!” is extremely entertaining. Throughout the entire run time I was grinning. There is a song and dance number with Channing Tatum that I loved. The cinematography (once again by Roger Deakins) is extraordinary. The score by Carter Burwell is fantastic and sets the mood perfectly. In fact this is a well made movie full of great performances and great dialouge. As a love letter to the golden age of Hollywood, it’s great. So what are the cons?

Cons: According to Wikipedia and IMDB, “Hail, Caesar!” is a comedy. Last time I checked a comedy is supposed to make you laugh. In my showing, there were 13 people, in the theater and they didn’t laugh once. I did laugh but only out loud 5 times. The rest were chuckles. It’s sort of like a dramedy, only it’s not. Speaking of genre, “Caesar!” goes from funny to serious to semi serious to WTF then back to funny. It’s like The Coen Brothers made an entirely new type of film genre (The Hybrid Film). I wouldn’t say “Hail, Caesar!” is a story driven film. Sure the plot is that Josh Brolin must save George Clooney from communists, but the story is all over the place. “Transformers 2” has a more comprehensive story (that’s saying something).

Look, as I’m updating this review, “Hail, Caesar!” currently has a C- on Cinemascore (this is the same score that they gave “Fant4stic”). People are hating this movie. While I first thought it was slightly disappointing, I do like the movie now. I might be the only one now, but the truth is, 5 years from now, more people will. Why?  Let me tell you a story. 18 years ago a film called “The Big Lebowski” appeared in theaters. Today, people loved that movie but most people probably forgot that people had problems with “Lebowski.” Some of these problems “Hail, Caesar!” and “Lebowski” actually share. It was strange, the humor often fell flat, the story didn’t made sense. But a couple of years later, “The Big Lebowski” became accepted as a classic. A film that someone might had quoted to you without you knowing it (I have a grandparent who calls me The Dude). A film that today, when people see it (or when someone sees it a second time), they will laugh hard.

“Hail, Caesar!” is that movie. In the future we will all be looking back at this film and realize how much of the humor we missed. But the problem with the future is that it’s not here yet. As of right now most people will be frustrated with this movie. But when that future comes, I will be ready. So hurry up future.

Rating: A Fine Wine (gets better with age, just don’t drink it yet)

 

Anomalisa and the Fregoli Delusion

“Anomalisa” is one of my top five favorite films that I’ve seen. However, besides it’s 92% grade on Rotten Tomatoes, it will polarize a lot of average filmgoers. This came to my noggin when I saw it a second time with a friend and my said friend found it confusing. This, I believe is due to the writer/director, Charlie Kaufman. What I’m here to do today is to give you my thoughts of the film’s meaning and why I connected with this film. I won’t have all of the answers but I can tell you that after this article, it will make more sense.
Before I start, I’d like to talk more on Charlie Kaufman. Hundreds of film critics and cinephile (including me) have called him one of the greatest filmmakers working today and for good reason. His films often feature some of the most original ideas that have been put on film. Here are some examples: “Being John Malkovich” is about a puppeteer turned office worker who finds a portal in the 7 1/2 floor that if entered, will allow you to be John Malkovich. “Adaptation” is about Kaufman himself struggling to adapt the movie within the movie “The Orchid Thief” for Sony. “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is about an estranged couple who have erased each other from their memories. All of those works were intelligent, surreal, and above all, original. But if you talk to regular filmgoers, they wouldn’t agree. Cinemascore, a market research firm that surveys audiences about their experiences only has three of his films, two of them have a C and the third one has a B-. I won’t be talking about this too much, but it gives you the idea that if you are seeing a Kaufman film for the first time you may leave confused and conflicted.
But what’s “Anomalisa” about? In a sentence, it’s about a guy who wrote a self-help book that became the Bible for customer service representatives, but he has trouble connecting with people because everyone he sees looks and sounds the same (fun fact, all but two people are voiced by veteran actor, Tom Noonan, Lisa is voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Michael Stone is voiced by David Thewlis) (I don’t have any pictures of this mostly because A; few stills have been released, and B; the ones that were released  weren’t relevant to this post). When I first saw this, I made the assumption that he was schizophrenic, but that was too simple of an answer. So when I was doing research for this article, I realize that the main character Michael Stone stays in the Fregoli Hotel, in the movie, and that Kaufman originally wrote it as a play using a pseudonym, Francis Fregoli. What I’ve concluded the film means has to do with the definition of Fregoli, which according to Wikipedia is:
“The Fregoli Delusion, or the delusion of doubles, is a rare disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that different people are in fact a single person who changes appearance or is in disguise. The syndrome may be related to a brain lesion[ and is often of a paranoid nature, with the delusional person believing themselves persecuted by the person they believe is in disguise. A person with the Fregoli delusion can also inaccurately[replicate places, objects, and events. This disorder can be explained by “associative nodes.” The associative nodes serve as a biological link of information about other people with a particular familiar face (to the patient).[This means that for any face that is similar to a recognizable face to the patient, the patient will recall that face as the person they know.”
So my first interpretation, which may be an understatement is that Michael Stone suffers from Fregoli delusion which is subtly referenced throughout the film.
Which brings us to Lisa, the anomaly of the film. She, I believe, was basically a distraction for Michael’s troubles. Here’s a list, in order, of Michael’s stay with her:
-Michael hears a voice that sounds different
-Michael asks Lisa and her longtime friend for drinks.
-Michael invites Lisa to his room.
-Lisa sings “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” to Michael.
-Michael and Lisa have sex (it’s not as bad as you think it is).
-Michael has a nightmare in which the world wanted to bring him and Lisa apart.
-Michael hears Tom Noonan’s voice over Lisa’s until it’s all Tom’s voice.
-Michael has a nervous breakdown during a presentation.
-Lisa writes Michael a letter implying that her night with him increased her self esteem (Tom Noonan’s voice first narrates the letter then it seamlessly switches to Lisa’s voice, therefore, bringing more evidence for the Fregoli Delusion).
These events basically scream distraction to Michael’s problem.
You may be reading this and say, “How did Justin connect to this movie?” Let me tell you a story – I was born on the Autism Spectrum and have a problem connecting with people. I’m usually shy and have a low self esteem. Now, let’s look at the two main characters of “Anomalisa.” Michael suffers from mental illness that makes him struggle to connect with people around him because they are all the same to him. Lisa is a young, shy woman with low self esteem. She seemingly remembers all of the negative things said to her. When I saw “Anomalisa” for the first time I was in utter shock at how much this film relates to me and how it understands me.
“Anomalisa” is about a guy struggling with mental illness who meets a shy girl. Both characters speak to me, their actions speak to me and that’s why this is one of my favorite films. Deep down we all have a Michael or Lisa inside us and this film allows you to identify with them.