True Grit (2010)

In the Coen Brothers’ 2010 remake of “True Grit,” Jeff Bridges is not playing the John Wayne role. He’s playing the Jeff Bridges role – or, more appropriately, the role made in the lasting novel by Charles Portis, many of the original dialogue can be heard in this film. Bridges doesn’t have the typical physique of the Duke. Few have had it though. Roger Ebert said in his review, “But he has here, I believe, an equal screen presence.” We always knew we were looking at John Wayne in the original “True Grit.” When we see Rooster Cogburn in this remake, we’re not thinking about Jeff Bridges.

Ebert noted this in his review, “Wayne wanted his tombstone to read, Feo, Fuerte y Formal (Ugly, Strong and Dignified). He was a handsome, weathered man when I met him in the 1960s and '70s, but not above a certain understandable vanity. Roo­ster might be an ornery gunslinger with an eye patch, but Wayne played him wearing a hairpiece and a corset. Jeff Bridges occupies the character like a homeless squatter. I found myself wondering how young Mattie Ross could endure his body odor.”

Bridges’ interpretation is hands down closer to the actuality of a lawman in the years of the West. How pleasant can a man be when he lives in saloons and on horseback? Not all riders on the range carried a change of clothes. Obviously he’s a lawman with an office and room someplace in town, but for a lot of the movie, he is traveling through discouraging land to find the man who murdered Mattie’s father.

As said in the book, Mattie, played by Hailee Stienfeld, is a brave young teen with a look as level as her hat brim. She sires Marshal Cogburn to hung the villain Tom Chancey, played by Josh Brolin. She wants to kill him for “what he done.” If Bridges comfortably wears the Duke’s shoes, Hailee Steinfeld is more powerful than Kim Darby in the original, and she was really darn good. Steinfeld was 13 when she played in the film, close to the right age. Darby was a little over 20. Ebert said, “The story hinges on the steely resolve of a girl who has been raised in the eye-for-an eye Old West, seen some bad sights and picked up her values from the kind of old man who can go and get hisself shot.”

Ebert continues, “What strikes me is that I'm describing the story and the film as if it were simply, if admirably, a good Western. That's a surprise to me, because this is a film by the Coen Brothers, and this is the first straight genre exercise in their career. It's a loving one. Their craftsmanship is a wonder.”Their casting is always inspired and correct. The cinematography by Roger Deakins reminds us of the mastery that was, and can still be, the Western.

However, this isn’t a Coen Brothers film in the way that we usually put it this way. It’s not weird, odd, cynical or blistering. It’s like these two men, who have made some of the original films of our time, made it to a point where they decided to sail on the absolute freedom of good old straightforward mastery. Ebert noted, “This is like Iggy Pop singing “My Funny Valentine,” which he does very well. So let me praise it for what it is, a splendid Western. The Coens having demonstrated their mastery of many notes, including many not heard before, now show they can play in tune.”

Besides, isn’t Rooster Cogburn where Jeff Bridges started out 40 years prior? Ebert said, “The first time I was aware of him was in “The Last Picture Show” (1971), where he and his friends went the local movie theater to see “Red River,” starring John Wayne. Since then, that clean-faced young man has lived and rowdied and worked his way into being able to play Rooster with a savory nastiness that Wayne could not have equaled.”

All the same, the hero of this film is Hailee Steinfeld, and that’s right. This is her story, set in the pacing by her, narrated by her. This is Steinfeld’s first huge role, and she nails it. She walks around the chance to make Mattie beautiful. Mattie doesn’t live in a beautiful world. Ebert admitted, “Seeing the first “True Grit,” I got a little crush on Kim Darby.” Seeing this one, few people would fall in love with Hailee Steinfeld. Maybe in another movie, but the way she plays it with the Coens, she’s more the type of person you’d want defending you.

Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper have weight and quality in supporting roles. Damon is LaBoeuf, the Texas Ranger who joins the team to hunt Tom Chaney. Glen Campbell had the role before, and was right for the tone of the original. Damon plays it on a more worrying way. His LaBoeuf isn’t a sidekick. He and Cogburn have problems that go back years. We also find out that LaBoeuf is not a man of simple loyalty.

As Tom Chaney, Brolin is a complete and untouched villain, a rattlesnake who would quickly shoot Mattie as Rooster. In the Western genre, evil can be less shaded than in your modern film with every psychological insight. Ebert said, “Barry Pepper plays Lucky Ned Pepper, leader of a gang Chaney ends up with, and part of the four-man charge across the meadow into Rooster's gunfire, a charge as lucky for them as the Charge of the Light Brigade.”

The 1969 film, directed by Hollywood great Henry Hathaway, had beautiful landscapes. The meadow and several other scenes took place in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, near Telluride. Ebert noted, “This film's landscapes are all in Texas, and although some are beautiful, many are as harsh and threatening as the badlands described by Cormac McCarthy or Larry McMurtry.”

Ebert continued, “I expect Bridges and Steinfeld have good chances of winning Oscar nominations for this film.” Steinfeld is good the entire runtime, but the scene audiences love is the one where she negotiates with a horse trader, played by Dakin Matthews, for the money she feels is owed her. Here the main part is the dialogue by the Coens, which never tires, actually stays flat and commen sense, as Mattie reasons the thief out of his money by looking to say his own logic.

Ebert ended his review by saying, “I'm surprised the Coens made this film, so unlike their other work, except in quality. Instead of saying that now I hope they get back to making “Coen Brothers films,” I'm inclined to speculate on what other genres they might approach in this spirit. What about the musical? “Oklahoma!” is ready to be remade.”

Like how the Nostalgia Critic stated when he did his Old vs. New on the “True Grit” movies, I actually prefer the remake because of how realistic the ending turned out. I won’t say what happened, but I felt that ended off on a more powerful note rather than the typical happy ending in the Westerns in the past. I would say this is another one of my favorite Westerns. Do check it out if you haven’t, I highly think everyone will have a great time watching it.

Alright everyone, that ends “Coen Brothers Month.” I hope everyone enjoyed it, and I hope everyone was given some good recommendations for movies to check out. Stay tuned next month to see what I have in store for everyone.

Incredibles 2

Fourteen years ago, Pixar came out with the superhero “The Incredibles,” an animated film about a family that has superpowers when the government forbids them for being different, hides in a suburban environment. The movie won an Oscar, which means the long-awaited most-wanted sequel, released in theaters ten days ago, had a lot to live up to. Even though the trailer looked to irritatingly accept the fact of commercialized feminism (and the strange case of stay-at-home dads), “Incredibles 2” is as fun and colorful as the first.

Showing Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) as a dad who’s playing Mr. Mom while Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) gets asked to do a superhero case, is the kind of permission theme that could easily be overdone. Maria Sherman said in her review, “But fortunately, this familiar work-home role reversal adds to the narrative instead of overwhelming it, while illustrating that being an attentive parent is just as hard, if not more challenging, than saving the city you call home.”

It’s 2018 and superheroes are illegal, but that doesn’t stop Bob and Helen Parr and their lifelong friend Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) from being selfless heroes who try to stop the Underminer (John Ratzenberger) from robbing the bank and trashing their town. They are successful, everyone is safe, but the police harp on how much demolition was made, so the government shows no hope for vetoing the Superhero Relocation program. Meanwhile, the news shows our superheroes as criminal, destructive bad people, so they feel like one parent should go get a job to earn money. Mr. Incredible says he’ll do that because (obviously) he’s scared to stay at home with his children.

A billionaire brother-sister duo, Winston and Evelyn (Bob Odenkirk and Catherine Keener), then give the notion to solve the Superhero Relocation program because, according to their research, Helen is not as destructive as Bob. Obviously, she ends up fighting crime while performing a few of her motherly duties at the same time.

If Elastigirl wasn’t a successful Super and super mom, nothing would be successful. Sherman noted, “But the “doing it all” aspect of her newfound work life isn’t shoved into the face of viewers; the movie rather successfully avoids superficial “yay women!” cheerleading.” Instead, “Incredibles 2” is surprisingly delicate in its delivery. Elastigirl is allowed to complete her duties she’s assigned, and it doesn’t matter so much if she can have everything. I agree with Sherman when she says, “But for all the jokes about Mr. Incredible’s inability to conquer domesticity—and secondary characters in the movie whose insistence that “it’s a man’s world” borders on obnoxious—Elastigirl’s double-duty role isn’t the conflict here.” When she’s given center-stage and things go bad, she gets things done without expecting a huge crowd. (In fact, she once mistakes a group of her supporters for a protest.)

Any victory is combined through family love, which is the true source of the movie. The children, Violet (Sarah Vowell) and Dash (Huck Milner), who’ve been taught the skill to fight for what’s right and defend the family/city/non-superheroes in every way, fight evil through the life lessons Helen has taught them. Even baby Jack Jack (Eli Fucile), who has so many insane powers that we all know about but most of the characters in the film do not, is part of the action.

Sherman noted, “Just like there’s a superhero role reversal, there’s a noteworthy script-flipping for the villain, too.” The already mentioned evil sister Evelyn not only plays a more evil role than expected, but also causes more of the chaos by manipulating the everyday technology where everyone is defenseless. (Sherman said, “For the viewer, this is particularly frightening—Incredibles 2 doesn’t seem too far removed from our current Cambridge Analytica reality.”)

Because the trouble Mr. Incredible makes is so nicely tied to tech, it may be Pixar trying to further another empowerment message – that with a woman succeeding (despite the evil of her actions) as a result of her STEM knowledge. Sherman ended her review by saying, “The movie doesn’t force the role-reversal point, nor does it treat it as bewildering, although the creators will likely enjoy the benefit of viewers applauding them for writing powerful (animated) women.”

My brother and I saw this movie this morning and we both absolutely loved it. It’s probably just as good as the first one, but I believe my brother said the first one is better. If anyone else thinks that, that’s understandable. However, after a long wait for this sequel that everyone was demanding, I think it was a job well done. Definitely go to the theaters to see this, you will love it, I promise you. For a sequel that everyone was demanding for and it took them 14 years to make, we can now all be happy. This is another one of my favorite Pixar movies. I wouldn’t be surprised if they come out with a third movie, seeing how well this had done at the box office and with critics.

Thanks for joining in on today’s review, stay tuned Friday for the finale of “Coen Brothers Month.”

No Country for Old Men

The movie opens with the even, confiding voice of Tommy Lee Jones. He describes a teenage murder he once sentenced to the chair. They boy had killed his 14-year-old girlfriend. The papers described it as a crime of passion, “but he tolt me there weren’t nothin’ passionate about it. Said he’d been fixin’ to kill someone for as long as he could remember. Said if I let him out of there, he’d kill somebody again. Said he was goin’ to Satan’s home. Reckoned he’d be there in about 15 minutes.”

Roger Ebert said in his review, “These words sounded verbatim to me from No Country for Old Men, the novel by Cormac McCarthy, but I find they are not quite. And their impact has been improved upon in the delivery. When I get the DVD of this film, I will listen to that stretch of narration several times; Jones delivers it with a vocal precision and contained emotion that is extraordinary, and it sets up the entire film, which regards a completely evil man with wonderment, as if astonished that that such a merciless creature could exist.”

The man is named Anton Chigurh. Ebert said, “No, I don't know how his last name is pronounced. Like many of the words McCarthy uses, particularly in his masterpiece Suttree, I think it is employed like an architectural detail: The point is not how it sounds or what it means, but the brushstroke it adds to the sentence.” Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem, is a tall, slumping man with thin, black hair and a scary smile, who walks through Texas carrying a tank of compressed air and murdering everyone with a cattle stungun. It forces a cylinder into their heads and brings it back again.

Chigurh is one thread in the sadistic plot. Ed Tom Bell, the sheriff played by Jones, is another. The third person is Llewelyn Moss, played by Josh Brolin, a poor man who lives with his wife in a house trailer, and one day, whole hunting, comes across a drug deal getting worse in the desert. Cars drive in a circle like an old wagon train. Almost everyone present gets killed. They even shot the dog. In the back of one pickup are piled bags of drugs. Llewelyn sees one thing is missing: the money. He finds it in a briefcase next to a man who made it up to a shade tree before dying.

The story is about Moss trying to make this $2 million his own, Chigurh trying to take it away from him and Sheriff Bell trying to stop Chigurh’s evil murder path. We also meet Moss’ young wife, Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald), an overconfident bounty hunter named Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson), the businessman (Stephen Root) who hires Carson to find the money after investing in the drug deal, and so many hotel and store clerks who are sad to meet Chigurh.

Ebert credited, “"No Country for Old Men" is as good a film as the Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, have ever made, and they made "Fargo."” It has elements of the thriller and the chase but is mainly a character study, seeing how its people meet and deal with a man so evil, heartless and cold that there is just no understanding him. Chigurh is so evil, he is sometimes almost funny. “He has his principles,” says the bounty hunter, who knows nothing about him.

Look at another part where the dialogue is as good as any from 2007, the year “No Country for Old Men” was released. Chigurh enters a shabby gas station in the middle of nowhere and starts a word game with the old man, played by Gene Jones, behind the cash register, who becomes really scared. It looks like they are talking about whether Chigurh will kill him. Chigurh undeniably has decided on what he’s going to do. Without explaining why, he asks the man to call the flip on his coin. Listen to what they say, how they say it, how they involve the chances. Listen to their timing. Ebert said, “You want to applaud the writing, which comes from the Coen brothers, out of McCarthy.”

The $2 million is actually easier to get than to keep. Moss tries hiding in vague hotels. Scenes are carefully made where each man knows the other is near. Moss can run but he can’t hide. Chigurh always finds him. He shadows him like his fate, never rushing, always moving as the same leisure pace, like a chaser in a nightmare.

Ebert credited, “This movie is a masterful evocation of time, place, character, moral choices, immoral certainties, human nature and fate. It is also, in the photography by Roger Deakins, the editing by the Coens and the music by Carter Burwell, startlingly beautiful, stark and lonely. As McCarthy does with the Judge, the hairless exterminator in his "Blood Meridian" (Ridley Scott's next film), and as in his "Suttree," especially in the scene where the riverbank caves in, the movie demonstrates how pitiful ordinary human feelings are in the face of implacable injustice.” The movie also loves some of its character, and feels bad for them, and always looks at the dialogue never as spoken but as thought.

Many of the scenes in “No Country for Old Men” are so perfectly made that you want them to just go one, and yet they make an emotional moment carrying you to the next scene. Ebert admitted, “Another movie that made me feel that way was "Fargo."” To make amazing film is a miracle, and this is the one.

As with the other Coen Brothers movies that I have reviewed this month, this is another one that should not be skipped. I loved the mystery that this one sucks you into as to what is going to happen. If I am not mistaken, I think this movie leaves off on a vague ending that makes you decide how you think the movie will end off. Just see it for yourself and decide. Like I said before, this one is not to be missed, so do check this one out, it’s a must. 

I know that I am posting this review late, but I lost track of time of when I was supposed to post this, so I apologize.

Stay tuned next week for the finale of “Coen Brothers Month,” where I end off with a great film.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Today marks the 30^th Anniversary of the release of the classic “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” which came out in 1988. In celebration of its anniversary, I will be looking at the movie and let you know what I thought about it.

Robert Zemeckis directs this really innovative visual effects movie that flawlessly combines live action and animation. It’s based on the novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? By Gary K. Wolf and is written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. Dennis Schwartz said in his review, “In this zany production, cartoon characters become involved in a Dashiel Hammett-like film noir whodunnit. Even if the improbable story rolls along as childishly as a 1940's cartoon, the dialogue is snappy, the sight gags are terrific,the action is hilarious and the entire venture is very entertaining.” Also, the technical work is brilliant. It has become, rightfully titled, as a classic film.

Depressed down-on-his-luck detective Eddie Valiant (the late Bob Hoskins), now an alcoholic after his brother was recently killed when an unknown Toon (an insult used by humans to call the underpaid and categorized cartoon characters) dropped a piano on his head, is hired by the human studio entrepreneur R.K. Maroon (Alan Tilvern), the boss of Maroon Cartoons, to get some information on Jessica Rabbit (Kathleen Turner, but Amy Irving does her singing voice) because he’s concerned that her husband, the studio’s Toon star, Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer, who also played Dr. King in “The Nightmare on Elm Street”), who has the color of the American flag, is having trouble concentrating on his work. Schwartz noted, “Jessica is a beautiful nightclub torch singer, who is so hot she even turns Eddie on.” Eddie accepts the case simply because he needs the money and tries to overcome his prejudice for Toons by being professional. Eddie brings back photos of Jessica playing Patty Cake in the back room of the nightclub with the comedian human toy manufacturer Marvin Acme, played by Stubby Kaye, the supplier to the studios of suppress gadgets. The next day Acme is found dead and Roger Rabbit has to hide himself because he’s the main suspect.

In Hollywood in the year of 1947, the cartoon characters live in segregation in the L.A. suburb called “Toontown” where their movements are tracked by the evil Toon-hating human Judge Doom, voiced by Christopher Lloyd, and his Toon policeman pawns (Charles Fleischer, David Lander, Fred Newman and June Foray). Since Eddie hates the evil and scary Judge Doom, he accepts Roger Rabbit’s job offer to find out who framed him and hesitantly gives him safety while he investigates. His investigation takes him to a “Chinatown” system for the real murderer to take control of the perfect Toontown because he sees a soon to be built Freeway will pass through the area and that will mean a business increase for Toontown.

The technical accomplishments were just great thanks to British animator Richard Williams (recommended to executive producer Steven Spielberg by Looney Tunes director Chuck Jones. It was co-produced by Disney Studios and Spielberg) and with the help of effects artists, lead by Ken Ralston, at Industrial Light and Magic who worked on the live-action with the animation. Zemeckis and his special effects team made great visual effects, animation and matched it with great camera movement for the live action parts. They also gave the cartoon characters a shiny 3D effect. Schwartz commented, “It was a monumental effort in technology that still doesn't seem dated.”

The innovative movie was a landmark in animation, and despite it being a big-budget film (reportedly making over $70 million) it was a huge hit and ended up a great profit.

Despite the fact that this is a great movie that is considered a classic, I don’t think anyone should show this to their children. There’s drinking, swearing and Jessica Rabbit (even though I know she’s an animated character) does not look appropriate to be shown to children. However, this was made at a time when PG was targeted for older children, so I can see why they did that. Still, you should wait until the children are older to show them this. Although I can’t lie, this is a great film. If you haven’t seen this yet, don’t be reading my review! Go out and see it because it has to be seen to be believed, especially if you’re a fan of Zemeckis, Spielberg and all of these cartoon characters that make appearances in this movie. Just see it to know which ones I’m talking about. Also, this movie is also reflecting on the time of segregation with the cartoons being separated from the humans, which is very effective.

Happy 30^th Anniversary to “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” Stay tuned later today for the continuation of “Coen Brothers Month.”

Deadpool 2

I have finally gone and seen “Deadpool 2,” released last month, and I can safely say that I had an extraordinary time watching it. Now I will let everyone know what I thought about it.

Sequels are tough, which writers, directors and actors know. AJ Caulfield mentioned in his review, “The seasoned critics, rosy-cheeked fanatics, and everyday theatre-goers who witness the fruits — squidgy sun-wrinkled or sparkling superb — of their labor know it. Capturing cracks of lightning in a cinematic bottle is, generally, a One Time Only thing. Pushing a pin in what many (save a few curmudgeonly naysayers who thrive off negativity and will find anything to complain about) consider perfection of the Magneto-looking-at-Mystique variety is, usually, Kind of Impossible.”

Caulfield continues, “Except in the case of Deadpool 2, a sequel that forearm-flicks the figurative stacks of “Follow-Up Films Tend to Be Bad!” research papers off our metaphorical desks and subverts the standard — splitting both our sides and the sentiments of its story, proving that sequels aren’t always befitting of being tossed in the bin, along the way.”

The more intense continuation of the first movie, the sequel of Deadpool is in every way over-the-top and overblown as you would think and more. Caulfield noted, “Ryan Reynolds is back in the role he was essentially born to play; despite his disposition that’s as sweet as the maple syrup for which his homeland is revered, Reynolds lets spill from his mouth lashes of self-referential wit (there’s a fantastic moment where the film takes a stab at its own “lazy writing”), sarcastic winks, and sometimes unsavory rib-nudges with ease.” Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool, obviously, and with “Deadpool 2,” you can’t think how much Ryan Reynolds inserts himself in Deadpool.

“Deadpool 2” shows Wade Wilson going in a downward slope and back up again when he is separated once again from his steaming fiancée Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and starts to seriously think of parenthood, enlists in the X-Men trainee academy and bends the rules to make his own team to punish those of separating his love, friends and becomes a mentor to an angry 14-year-old mutant Russell (Julian Dennison) and finds out that Cable (Josh Brolin), a time-traveling, telekinetic, telepathic jerk of the universe, has made killing Russell his mission.

Out of everyone, Wade take the responsibility to protect Russell from becoming a murdering mutant, and to keep Cable’s futuristic cyborg hands off him.

He won’t be able to do this alone.

Now taking on this responsibility, Deadpool goes to his friend in everything criminal, Weasel, played by T.J. Miller, who is somewhat superfluous in this movie, or pretty much anything at this point, to help him interview people for X-Force, the vigilante group that will help Russell out.

There’s the always lucky, chance-looking Domino (Zazie Beetz, who looks like will be one of this year’s biggest breakout actresses), the rocking cool dad-looking Peter (Rob Delany), the sword-wielding hero, Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), the acid vomiting Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgard), the invisible Vanisher (Brad Pitt), and the electromagnetic field-altering Bedlam (Terry Crews). The gang’s mission isn’t one easily done, even with Colossus (Stefan Kapicic), Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) and her girlfriend Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna) on, as Caulfield says, “tap as their pseudo-B team, but when has a challenge ever kept the Merc with a Mouth and co. away?”

Caulfield said, “Screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick crafted a Matryoshka doll with Deadpool 2: it’s a commentary about the soul-brightening effects of choosing your own family tucked inside a story about misfit mutants finding strength in numbers hidden within a superhero movie inside a raunchy and R-rated superhero movie all encapsulated by a fourth-wall-breaking, meta-humor-heavy, cheeky-cheeky-cheeky outer layer. And director David Leitch capitalizes on this absurdity, using his past experience co-helming the hyper-violent phenomenon John Wick and the Charlize Theron-topper Atomic Blonde to lasso Reese and Wernick’s written words and splatter them across his cinematic canvas.”

Caulfield continued, “Rather than grabbing cash the ever-consuming public would happily dish out (regardless of any promised potential, if we’re honest) to see the Merc with a Mouth swing his katanas, shake his skin-tight-leather-covered bits and bum, and sic his super-duper group on his adversaries in a second turn on the silver screen, Deadpool 2 reaches its imaginative hands in a different direction: it remembers the smutty, sarcastic film it succeeds, grabs what made the masses fall scarred face over booted feet in laugh-out-loud love with it, and runs wild.”

Is it the most flawless film, even by the frequently more easy limits of superhero genre, to have ever been released in theaters? No, as Caulfield said, “It could have benefitted from smoother delivery, and even restraint, in its bevy of jokes to help buttress all the non-seriousness and alleviate the weight of its jests.” Like the harsh action in “Avengers: Infinity War” left some viewers worn, the quick wisecracks in “Deadpool 2” might have a small amount of fans walking out with a tired feeling. Sure, the movie would have taken off in a springboard first step had the first 15 or so minutes been tighter and more superior. Caulfield said, “And of course, the few quips that sound like they come from the mouth of a shock jock rather than a superhero could have been clipped out.”

Caulfield ended by saying, “But is it a satisfying sequel that solidifies its stance as Not Like Your Average Superhero Movie, inspires jaw drops and genuine laughs, and gives us nearly two hours of Ryan-Reynolds-in-his-magnum-opus-role goodness? Absolutely.”

Spoiler alert: in the mid-credits scene, Deadpool goes back in time and kills off the version of himself from "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and Ryan Reynolds once he gets the script to "Green Lantern." Also, expect cameos from James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Evan Peters, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Reynolds does the voice and motion-capture of Juggernaut.

If you haven’t seen this film yet and loved the first one, see it while it’s still playing in theaters. You will have a laugh-out-loud good time while watching it. To be honest, I thought this film was funnier compared to the first one, although I don’t know if I’m a minority on that or if anyone else agrees. I thought this one gave Deadpool some real legitimate drama in this one, and I think this was better than the first and another one of my favorite comic book movies. Also, what a year for Josh Brolin. To go from playing Thanos to Cable is quite a leap for the man. He's going to be famous for starring in comic book adaptations this year. I give this a solid 9+.

Stay tuned this Friday for the continuation of “Coen Brothers Month.”

Ocean's 8

Tonight I got to see “Ocean’s 8,” released 11 days ago, at work and I will let everyone know what I thought about it.

Recreating the story of Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s” trilogy but lacking their smooth style, “Hunger Games” director Gary Ross creates this all-female remake that is nonetheless enjoyable thanks to the amazing performances from its female cast. Joseph Walsh said in his review, “Ocean’s 8 shows Hollywood’s glass-ceiling is cracking, but begs the question – could this have been better achieved with an original story?”

Danny Ocean has passed. Here comes Danny’s younger, equally sinister sister Debbie, played by Sandra Bullock. After being framed by her evil ex-boyfriend, art dealer Claude Becker, played by Richard Armitage, she’s just been released after a five-year sentence in prison. Not too long after her release, she reunites with her friend Lou, played by Cate Blanchett, and forms a female team of thieves – played by singer Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, rapper Awkwafina, the hot Sarah Paulson and Helena Bonham Carter – to work on a well-planned robbery. The plan is to steal an antique Cartier necklace worth $150 million during New York’s most famous event, the Met Gala, from the beautiful neck of actress Daphne Kluger, played by Anne Hathaway.

The film’s greatest success is on the fourth wall-breaking one-liners evaluating the treatment of women in Hollywood. Walsh said, “Nothing goes unscathed, including celebrity culture and the portrayal of women in the media – journalists get a minor roasting, bloggers worse. This critique crescendos with a scene where Lou suggests a male hustler who could join the team.” Debbie rejects her with: “I don’t want a him. A him gets noticed, a her gets ignored, and, for once, we want to be ignored.” It’s a strong line, cleverly said.

The film’s East Coast setting is also a great decision. Bullock and team take the subway and plan their robbery in an abandoned pool hall. Walsh noted, “This echoes the film's message that unlike their male counterparts that swaggered around the neon lights and up-market hotels of Las Vegas in tuxes, these women’s antics are sidelined to the margins, and they have to hustle twice as hard for what is a given for men (criminal or not).”

Sadly, the formation and scheming of the film proves to be damaging to its moral. Walsh said, “The heist scenes are functional, lacking the pizzazz and slick high-jinks of Soderbergh’s original.” Disappointingly, the film’s pacing shatters when James Corden comes in the film as a clumsy insurance investigator. This then goes even worse because of having a revenge plot involving Claude, discouraging the message of female power.

“Ocean’s 8” does have a strong suit when it comes to Anne Hathaway, who steals the film as the grouchy but annoyingly liking Kluger. Her character is described as having “eyes like Bambi” and “the best neck in the business,” and you can’t help but make the reference to the meta-joke of “Ocean’s Twelve,” where Julia Roberts’ character disguised as Julia Roberts. Walsh said, “Hathaway is clearly having fun alluding to her own career, and there’s even a touch of her Selina Kyle from Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises in here. Hathaway makes her point with grace and elegance: she’s more than a pretty neck.”

However, the film’s message is only as good as the way it’s told. Walsh complained, “The so-so heist and hop-scotch plotting lacks polish. There's also that nagging question – why not give a cast of this calibre a film that allows them to shine without the male baggage?” Maybe that’s just the increase of noticing the industry seeing the misogyny and gender-swap reboots are the best we can see for right now, but more exciting is to think the films this cast will be making next, together or alone.

Now, as much as the complaints are when it comes to telling the message of noticing how strong women are, this film is actually a lot of fun. I found myself enjoying this film when I was watching it, and if you liked the “Ocean’s” trilogy, then you might enjoy this one. However, if you want to wait until this comes out on DVD to rent it, then that’s fine. I think it wouldn’t hurt to go the theater to watch it, but the decision is yours.

Thank you for joining in on my review tonight, stay tuned next Friday for the continuation of “Coen’s Brothers Month.”

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Jokey to a point, Joe and Ethan Coen’s “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” released in 2000, tells Homer’s Odyssey and the Bible to no specific point. Peter Canavese said in his review, “The Coen Brothers do weave political and religious satire into their comic tapestry, but mostly they use their kinda-update of The Odyssey (updating only so far as the 1930s, mind you) as a clothesline for hillbilly jokes and roots music. T-Bone Burnett's musical supervision enriches the film immeasurably, elevating it from what the Coens have half-jokingly referred to as their "Ma and Pa Kettle" movie (or "the Lawrence of Arabia of hayseed movies") into something approaching a modern movie musical.”

In a completely hilarious performance that’s aging well, George Clooney plays Ulysses Everett McGill, the de facto “genius” of three escaped prisoners from a 1937 chain gang. With Pete Hogwallop (John Turturro) and Delmar O’Donnell (Tim Blake Nelson) with him, Ulysses must take the long journey home to his wife Penny (Holly Hunter, hilariously the opposite of an understanding wife). The similarity to Homer is right there, despite being wide as the comedy: along the way, the “man of twists and turns” meets supernatural advice, distractions and obstacles including a “Blind Seer” (Lee Weaver), a trio of Sirens (Mia Tate, Musetta Vander and Christy Taylor), a “cyclops” (John Goodman’s giant Bible salesman Daniel “Big Dan” Teague), and a variety of other beasts (politicians and the Klan, not equally limited) on the way to encounter, rather anticlimactically, enemy suitor Vernon T. Waldrip (Ray McKinnon).

Canavese noted, “The film's most memorable setpiece finds the trio of antiheroes lighting upon a surreal Klan rally simultaneously redolent of The Wizard of Oz's "March of the Winkies," a mass-synchronized Busby Berkeley number, and a Nazi rally; it's at once a bit scary and a lot funny, an effect enhanced by the revelation that the apparently progressive gubernatorial candidate—running on an anti-corruption platform—spits away from the head of the racist class. But the picaresque comedy is hit and miss, the horrors and delights of the Coens' random universe having little to no lasting emotional impact on their little-man heroes.”

Canavese continued, “Given that, one wishes the movie were funnier and a bit less discomfiting in its oh-so-smart superiority to dimwitted characters; to be fair, the idiots who have heart do get sympathetic credit for it.” Mostly, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” is a mixture of literary, cinematic, musical and historical references (the title refers to the not-watched movie in Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels), cameos from Coen regulars (Michael Badalucco as George “Babyface” Nelson, Charles Durning as a strongly resourceful, high-climbing politician), and lively musical numbers, like “Man of Constant Sorrow,” a fictional and (fortuitously) actual hit song. Canavese ended his review by saying, “One thing is certain: even with its mock-pretentious parallelism to The Odyssey—calculatedly undercut even further by the Coens' later insistence that they never read Homer's epic—O Brother, Where Art Thou? refuses to take itself seriously, which is both its principal failing and its charm.”

This is another one of those movies that is a must see by everyone. I have only known parts of The Odyssey, and this movie did a great inspiration of the play. As a Classical Mythology minor in College, I thoroughly found myself enjoying this and would say it’s another one of my favorite films. Definitely see it if you haven’t.

Alright everyone, there is a movie that I’m thinking of checking out tonight. If I don’t get to see it, then wait next week for the continuation of “Coen Brothers Month.”

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Alright everyone, I have finally seen “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” released last month, at work tonight. Now I will let everyone know what I thought about it.

Before he returned as the father trying to set his son right in “The Force Awakens,” Han Solo was the suave guy of the “Star Wars” franchise. You knew he had a lot of crazy tales to tell about gamblers, smugglers and other eccentric people he associated with before he joined the Rebellion, but for some reason you never heard all of them. A.O. Scott said in his review, “Maybe that was for the best, but on the other hand, why not set him up with a ghostwriter and a vanity press and let the yarns rip?”

Because you might find out that he wasn’t really interesting as you expected him to be. Young Han, played by a hard-working, a little lost-looking Alden Ehrenreich, is shown as a reckless youth on a dark, rough planet called Corellia, hot-wiring speeders and kissing his girlfriend, Qi’ra, played by Emilia Clarke. Scott noted, “The opening scenes carry a faint whiff of the burning rubber, gasoline and adolescent hormones of “American Graffiti,” the 1973 car-crazy coming-of-age picture directed by George Lucas and starring Mr. Howard (with a young Harrison Ford as well).”

Scott described, “Han is fresh-faced and earnest, a long way from the grizzled, Humphrey Bogart-ish cynicism of “A New Hope.” He and Qi’ra, indentured to a giant centipede with Linda Hunt’s voice, start running like figures in a Springsteen song — we gotta get out while we’re young! — only to find their dreams of escape dashed by the Empire and a criminal syndicate called Crimson Dawn.” Han signs up for Imperial Navy and escapes. Qi’ra gets engaged to a crooked criminal named Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany), and the former lovers reunite in his bar, where Han, now part of a gang of freelance thieves (led by Woody Harrelson’s Beckett) has arrived to make a deal.

Scott said, “That’s enough plot for now, though of course, this being a “Star Wars” movie, there is plenty more where that came from, and enough made-up geography, astrophysics and political science to fill a semester of hard study. I should admit that even though I’ve been enrolled, on and off, for most of my life, I’ve been a pretty consistent C student.”

Scott continued, “However, I will also say that I was surprised when a figure from one of the earlier trilogies showed up, and I argued fiercely with an editor (a bigger nerd than I am, by the way) who said such a thing just wasn’t possible. There followed an intensive seminar in the newsroom of The New York Times, during which issues of timeline integrity and what might or might not be canon were debated with appropriate vigor and solemnity. If I say any more, the spoiler police will come after me. Journalism can be an intense business.”

Scott said, “Unlike “Solo,” which ambles from one set piece to the next in a spirit of genial in-betweenness. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it also holds whatever irreverent, anarchic impulses it might possess in careful check. Some fans may blame Mr. Howard for this, and fantasize about what might have been if Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, the “Lego Movie” auteurs originally hired to direct, had been allowed to see the project through.” However, this galaxy has always been a rule-bound area, and too much difference from franchise traditions would probably have motivated up some type of fan fury.

There’s no reason to get furious. There are some great action scenes, and some that seem mindless. There are so many side characters that come close to overpower the protagonist, including Beckett’s lover, Val (Thandie Newton), an essential droid called L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and Lando Clarissian (Donald Glover), the original owner of the Millennium Falcon, Han’s sometime enemy and secret ego model. We also can’t forget Chewbacca, played by Joonas Suotamo.

Funny enough, he meets Han in a mud pit. If there are any other questions you have lingering, you have to see the film for yourself. However, one thing that stays curiously unanswered is how Han became the cautious, sarcastic man Leia (and everyone else) fell in love with back in the 70s. It’s not Ehrenreich’s fault that he doesn’t remind us of Harrison Ford. (Scott does admit, “Though the idea of Mr. Glover aging into Billy Dee Williams creates a magical loop in the pop-cultural space-time continuum.”) It’s more of the stories not really adjusting. Men like the old Han Solo belong in the past. We’re supposed to be nicer people nowadays.

I would suggest everyone go to the theater and watch this, especially if you’re a Star Wars fan, like me. I personally thought this was a nice film, although I can understand problems people might have with it. However, I don’t think there are too many problems with it. Expect a short cameo of Ray Park returning as Darth Maul.

Stay tuned Friday for the continuation of “Coen Brothers Month.”

The Big Lebowski

The Coen brothers’ “The Big Lebowski” is a friendly, awkward comedy about a human car accident, and needs a forewarning like the one Mark Twain gave to “Huckleberry Finn:” “Persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.” It’s about a man named Jeff Lebowski, who calls himself the Dude, and is said by the narrator to be “the laziest man in Los Angeles County.” He only likes to go bowling, but is confused for a millionaire named the Big Lebowski, with dreadful consequences.

This is the first movie by Joel and Ethan Coen since “Fargo.” Few movies could equal that one, but not this film – but it’s strangely engaging, like its protagonist. The Dude is played by Jeff Bridges with a goatee, a potbelly and a pair of Bermuda shorts so huge they have been borrowed from his best friend and bowling buddy, Walter Sobchak, played by John Goodman. Their other teammate is Donny, played by Steve Buscemi, who may not be smart, but it’s hard to be sure since he never is allowed to finish what he says.

Everyone knows someone like the Dude, and it has been said the Coen brothers do. Roger Ebert noted in his review, “They based the character on a movie producer and distributor named Jeff Dowd, a familiar figure at film festivals, who is tall, large, shaggy and aboil with enthusiasm. Dowd is much more successful than Lebowski (he has played an important role in the Coens' careers as indie filmmakers), but no less a creature of the moment.” Both dudes dpend on inspiration and improvisation more than organization.

Ebert said, “In spirit, "The Big Lebowski'' resembles the Coens' "Raising Arizona,'' with its large cast of peculiar characters and its strangely wonderful dialogue.” Here, in a film set at the time of the Gulf War, are characters that speak in a way of past times: Vietnam (Walter), the flower power years (the Dude) and “Twilight Zone” (Donny). Their very belief of reality may be looked at by the small ways they have seen it. One of the good things about “Fargo” was the way the Coens listened carefully to how their characters talked. Also, notice here when the In & Out Burger shop is said to be a meeting, the Dude gives the address: That’s the type of exact information he would have.

As the film starts, the Dude is visited by two guards for an adult king, played by Ben Gazzara, who is owed a lot of money by the Big Lebowski’s wife. Obviously, the thugs have the wrong Lebowski, but before they figure that out, one already has urinated on the Dude’s rug, giving deep hate: “That rug really tied the room together,” the Dude mourns. Walter, the Vietnam veteran, leads a cause for revenge. Quoting exactly what President Bush says on TV, he declares that “this aggression will not stand” and demands the Dude to “draw a line in the sand.” The Dude visits the other Lebowski, played by David Huddleston, leaves with one of his rugs, and soon finds himself enrolled in the millionaire’s plans. The rich Lebowski, in a wheelchair and looking into a fireplace like, how Ebert said, “Maj. Amberson in "The Magnificent Ambersons,''” tells the Dude that his wife, Bunny, played by the hot Tara Reid, has been kidnapped. He wants the Dude to deliver the ransom money. This plan is conflicting by Maude, played by Julianne Moore, the Big Lebowski’s daughter from an earlier marriage. Moore, who played an adult actress in “Boogie Nights,” here, plays an all around different kind of suggestive artist. She covers her body with paint and throws herself through the air in a leather harness. A major role is played by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, as Brandt, the obedient assistant to the Big Lebowski.

Los Angeles in this film is filled with oddball characters. One of the funniest is a Latino bowler named Jesus, played by John Turturro, who is seen going door to door in his neighborhood on a kind of mission you read about, but never picture anyone really doing. Ebert said, “The Dude tends to have colorful hallucinations when he's socked in the jaw or pounded on the head, which happens often, and one of them involves a musical comedy sequence inspired by Busby Berkeley. (It includes the first point-of-view shot in history from inside a bowling ball.)” Some may complain “The Big Lebowski” goes off in every direction and never ends up anywhere. That isn’t the film’s flaw, but its style. Ebert said, “The Dude, who smokes a lot of pot and guzzles White Russians made with half-and-half, starts every day filled with resolve, but his plans gradually dissolve into a haze of missed opportunities and missed intentions.” Most people lead lives with a third act. The Dude lives days without evenings. The spirit is given right at the start, when the narrator, played by Sam Elliott, starts out well enough, but eventually confesses he lost what he was thinking.

If you haven’t seen this movie, go ahead and see it because you will love it. The Coen brothers’ must have drawn inspiration from Much Ado About Nothing, seeing how this film might have ended that way, but I wouldn’t know, I’m just guessing. Definitely another one of my favorites, though I was told I have to see it twice to understand everything. I think I got it fine when I first saw it. Don’t miss your chance to see this movie.

Look out next week for more excitement in “The Coen Brothers Month.”

Fargo

June is going to be one heck of a month because I’m dedicating this month to two director brothers and some of their most famous work. I’m of course referring to Joel and Ethan Coen, the Coen brothers. Let’s kick this month off with the 1996 classic, “Fargo,” which happens to be my 700th review since I started blogging.

“Fargo” starts with a completely spot-on look of smalltown life in the cold winter landscape of Minnesota and North Dakota.

Roger Ebert mentioned, “Then it rotates its story through satire, comedy, suspense and violence, until it emerges as one of the best films I've ever seen.”

Ebert continued, “To watch it is to experience steadily mounting delight, as you realize the filmmakers have taken enormous risks, gotten away with them and made a movie that is completely original, and as familiar as an old shoe - or a rubbersoled hunting boot from Land's End, more likely.”

The film is “based on a true story” that took place in Minnesota in 1987. It has been filmed at the spot, there and in North Dakota, by the Coen brothers, who grew up in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, and went on to make good movies like “Blood Simple,” “Miller’s Crossing” and “Barton Fink,” but never before a film as wonderful as “Fargo,” shot in their own hometown.

To tell the story it to give away spoilers, so I will do my best not to do that. A car salesman named Jerry Lundegaard, played by William H. Macy, desperately needs money for a business deal – a parking lot plan that can save him from bankruptcy. He is under fire of his rich father-in-law, played by Harve Presnell, who owns the car agency and treats him like dirt. Jerry hires a couple of lean criminals named Showalter and Grimsrud (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife (Kristin Rudrud) and promises to split an $80,000 payment with them. Easy enough, except that everything goes wrong in completely unplanned ways, as the plot twists and turns and makes a joke of everything Jerry can think best of.

Ebert described, “Showalter is nervous, sweaty, talkative, mousy. Grimsrud is a sullen slug of few words.” During the kidnapping, he suddenly kills some people (“Oh daddy!” says Showalter, scared).

The bodies are found the next morning, frozen beside the highway, in the bleak lands between Minneapolis and Brainerd, Minn., which is, as we are reminded every time we see the giant statue outside town, the home of Paul Bunyan.

Brainerd’s police chief is a pregnant woman named Marge Gunderson, played by the great Frances McDormand. Ebert noted, “She talks like one of the MacKenzie brothers, in a Canadian-American-Scandivanian accent that's strong on cheerful folksiness. Everybody in the movie talks like that, with lines like “you're dern tootin'.”” When she gets to the big city, she starts looking for a place with a good buffet.

Marge Gunderson might need some help to get her patrol car started in the morning, but she is a talented officer. Soon after visiting the murder place, she pieces the crime in the right way. Eyewitnesses put two suspects in a tan Ciera. This brings her to Jerry Lundegaard’s shop. “I’m a police officer from up Brainerd,” she tells him, “investigating some malfeasance.” Jerry, smartly played by Macy, is a man with a lot of mysterious complexities of the trouble he has put himself in. He is so weak at crime that, when the kidnapping becomes unneeded, he can’t tell the kidnappers, because he doesn’t know their phone number. He’s being hammered with constant calls from General Motors, curious about the unreadable serial number on the paperwork for the same missing tan Ciera. He tries sending faxes where the number is dirty. GM isn’t fooled. Macy creates the painful agony of a man who needs to think fast, and whose mind is filled with fear, guild and the crazy thought that he can somehow still do this successfully.

Ebert credited, “Macy, who has played salesmen and con men before (he's a veteran of David Mamet's plays), finds just the right note in his scenes in the auto showroom. It's fascinating to watch him in action, trying to worm out of a lie involving an extra charge for rust-proofing.”

“Fargo” is filled with so many similar moments that make us nod with recognition. When the two low-paying criminals stop for the night at a truck stop, they hire prostitutes. First is them performing bored, mercenary love making and the next with them sitting up in bed, watching “The Tonight Show” on TV.

Small parts look bigger because they’re so well written and looked at. Kristin Rudrud has a few scenes as Jerry’s wife, but makes a character out of them, always chopping or cooking something heatedly in the kitchen. Their teenage son, played by Tony Denman, who excuses himself from the table to go to McDonald’s, helps makes the film’s setting with a bedroom that has a poster on its wall for the Accordion King.

Ebert credited, “Marge, discussing a hypothetical killer who has littered the highway with bodies, observes matter of factly, “I doubt he's from Brainerd.”” Harve Presnell is a typical self-made millionaire in his firmness on giving the release money himself: He earned it, and by goodness, if anyone is going to deliver it, it’ll be him. He wants his money’s worth.

On the way to the violent and unexpected climax, Marge has a drink in her hotel buffet with an old high school love who obviously still loves her (Steve Park), even though she’s married (John Carroll Lynch) and pregnant. He explains, in a sentence filled with the vagueness of the possibly trimmed, “I’m working for Honeywell. If you’re an engineer, you could do a lot worse.” Frances McDormand must have nominated for an Academy Award with the performance, which is true in every little moment, and yet mysteriously, quietly, over the top in its increasing effect. Ebert ended his review by saying, “The screenplay is by Ethan and Joel Coen (Joel directed, Ethan produced), and although I have no doubt that events something like this really did take place in Minnesota in 1987, they have elevated reality into a human comedy - into the kind of movie that makes us hug ourselves with the way it pulls off one improbable scene after another. Films like “Fargo” are why I love the movies.”

Don’t read this review if you haven’t seen the movie. You will love this movie, as it is an absolute must. I would say it’s one of my favorites. Especially since Marge’s most quotable line in the movie is the most famous quotes ever said, “You betcha.”

Check in next week for an even better film in “The Coen Brothers Month.”