Author: coolpapae
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The Lazarus Effect (*) is deadening
The Lazarus Effect – 2015 Director David Gelb Starring Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, Evan Peters, Sarah Bolger Screenplay Luke Dawson, Jeremy Slater The Lazarus Effect is an amazing accomplishment. It’s a miracle that a film that is this bad could get even a relatively small budget of 3.3 million, and then somehow translate that investment into over 10 times that…
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Mad Max: Fury Road (****): Same glorious road, different driver
Of the films, this is the one I enjoyed more than any, outside of Thunderdome. For a series that is such complete and all out high octane, they keep going down the same road over and over. Unlike George Romero’s zombie films, or Scorsese’s real crime repeats, the craft is getting more refined with each…
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Chappie (***) So the guy that invents A.I. lives in track housing…
Chappie – 2015 Director Neill Blomkamp Starring Sharlto Copley (voice and stop motion), Dev Patel, Watkin Tudor Jones, Yolandi Visser, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Sigourney Weaver, Hugh Jackman Screenplay by Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell It’s beginning to feel like Neill Blomkamp may be the next M, Night Shyamalan. He has several distinctive qualities that are unlike other filmmakers. He also has the emotional and political range…
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Project Almanac (**1/2) back to Darko’s future
Of the actors in this film, I have never noticed any of them in other movies that I have seen and even liked. In this way, it is like Cloverfield. Just as that film did not make any stars, I am pretty sure this one won’t either.
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Ex Machina (***) – Where there’s a will…
Ex Machina – 2015 Written and Directed by Alex Garland Starring Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno Ex Machina scratched an itch I’ve had since seeing that Gleeson and Isaac were added to the ever-expanding list of new actors entering the Star Wars universe. There has been a pretty good track record of actors added to the burgeoning…
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It Follows (*****): A tribute but not a ripoff
The work is a tribute but it manages to transcend. See this film if you want to know fear that opens the mind.
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The Hustler (****) / The Color Of Money (*****): Who owns this place?
The Hustler – 1961 Director Robert Rossen Starring Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Myron McCormick, Murray Hamilton, Jake LaMotta, Michael Constantine Screenplay Sidney Carroll & Rossen based on The Hustler by Walter Tevis In an era where film was often an extension of the stage, The Hustler plays as exactly that. It is an exceptional meditation of…
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Cobain: Montage of Heck (***1/2): The long short of it
Cobain: Montage of Heck – 2015 Written and Directed by Brett Morgen Starring Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, Frances Bean Cobain, Kurt Novoselic Animation by Stefan Nadelman and Hisko Hulsing In the history of musicians given too much importance after an untimely death, Kurt Cobain ranks somewhere between John Lennon and Jim Morrison. His disaffected youth angle added…
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Kingsman: The Secret Service (****) – Kicking ass when appropriate
God save the Queen and long live the Kingsmen.
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Avengers: Age of Ultron (****1/2) too much good to be bad
Avengers: Age of Ultron – 2015 Written and Directed by Joss Whedon Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Cobie Smulders, Anthony Mackie, Hayley Atwell, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård, James Spader, Samuel L. Jackson Tony Stark / Iron Man (facing fire of the enemy) Guys, wait. We gotta talk this through. (after incapacitating all of them with leg shots) It…
Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews 