Ant Man Review

So I went to see Ant Man over the weekend, and if you are wondering where it ranks (at least to me) on the Marvel list of movies, well you have stumbled upon the right blog post.

I will say that I didn’t get the full movie experience of this movie because the theater I saw it at was having a few technical glitches before the movie started, and while it did eventually get rolling, it never really was at 100%. What I mean by that is that the computer running the movie decided to crash and so we awkwardly sat waiting for the movie to start. The wait isn’t so bad, but when you sit in a theater and everything is awkward, it is a breeding ground for people to yell out comments trying to be comedians. This isn’t even so bad, but it continued after the movie actually started and it really tends to take you out of the movie for someone to go “NICE LANDING BRO.” Seriously, if you are one of those people, do that shit at home. People paid good money for those seats. Also, the screen was slightly fuzzy the whole time, and I felt like I needed to keep cleaning my glasses but it was definitely just the screen.

Let’s get to the nitty gritty of this bi-atch. Okay, if you are just a casual fan like myself, I think whether you will like this movie will come down to how much of a fan of Paul Rudd you are. I personally love Paul Rudd, so I was stoked going into the movie that he was going to be a super hero. Especially since my favorite Marvel movie is Guardians of the Galaxy and I figured his performance would be on par with Chris Pratt’s. Don’t get me wrong, I like super heros and the avenger films do have their silly moments, but its so surrounded by non-stop action that its lost a little bit. I think Paul Rudd and his group of buddies (T.I., Michael Pena, and David Dastmalchian)

I’m not so sure on the whole lore of ant-man, so I can’t comment too much on it. If you haven’t picked up from the trailers, you have Michael Douglas playing Dr. Pym who made the ant-man suit. (Side-bar real quick: there is a flashback at the beginning of the movie with a young looking Michael Douglas, and it is freaky to see him young. Idk if it was CGI or what, but when it shows him present day its jarring)

Action-wise, this movie is pretty stacked. Because of how small ant-man is, the bugs that he is around are almost like giant beasts in his army. Also, when he is dodging bullets, its almost like dodging cannon fire. What really sets this movie apart, however, is a fight scene that occurs on a train set later on in the movie. With all these movies recently where the final battle is like New York or Chicago where you have a billion aliens flying around destroying the city and the universe opening up, its amazing to see a fresh new set. Even just watching the commercial and seeing the dramatic scene where the bad guy is hit by Thomas the Train, it made me have that feeling of being a kid again, and very few movies have done that. Seriously, for that scene alone, it is worth seeing the movie.

The thing about movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant Man is that casual movie goers like myself who have never really read the comics can go and enjoy the movie without worrying about if it fits accurately within the universe. I understand (as a transformers fan) that sometimes not following the original story can be a little aggravating to fans. If you have read Ant Man and it disappoints you as a comic fan, I am sincerely sorry. However, if you haven’t read the comics, I say stop what you’re doing and go see the movie right meow.

In terms of where I rank this movie in the marvel universe, I can’t put it above Guardians of the Galaxy right now. If I re-watch the movie without hecklers behind me yelling like idiots it might be a better experience. I will say I liked this movie more than Avengers 2, so it comes in at a solid 2nd place. If I had to give this movie a number I’d say a strong 8/10. I hope if you go see it, none of the problems I ran into get in the way of the experience.

Pentagon Wars

One of my good friends challenged me to watch this 1998 dark comedy called The Pentagon Wars.   When I started this film, I didn’t realize it was based on a true story and book of the same name, but that realization is, quite frankly, terrifying.

I do realize that the movie as a whole is not entirely true.  Artistic license was definitely taken. But the underlying message of this 1950s – 1980s period when production was more important than human lives is quite disturbing.   Sadly, it doesn’t surprise me.  When you make war a business, it is only good for weapons manufactures.  It’s the troops that suffer.  It makes me wonder just how much of that is still going on today: total disregard for human life for the sake of a paycheck or promotion.  It probably happens a lot more than we can even imagine.

The movie itself is great.  Kelsey Grammar, Cary Elwes, John C. McGinley, Richard Schiff, Clifton Powell and Tom Wright all give really great performances.  I wanted to punch Kelsey Grammar’s character in the face most of the movie, but he was great at playing that role.  The Pentagon Wars is morbidly funny, smart and shows the ridiculousness of high ranking military officials deciding what to add to this M2 Bradley vehicle like little 12 year olds trying to design a dream tank.  It would be truly hilarious if it weren’t based on a sad, sick reality.

I enjoyed the movie greatly and I highly recommend it to anyone.  If you have HBO (or are “borrowing” your friend’s HBO GO account) check it out.  It’s on there right now.  It’s an older movie, but I think the themes and the humor withstand the test of time.  If you’ve seen this movie before, what did you think of it?  Did you view it as just a dark comedy? Or were you also bothered by the more true aspects of the story?

American Psycho

Okay, after being on hiatus a few days, let’s get back into the swing of things.

If you have never heard of American Psycho, you are missing out. The cult classic starring BATMAN (okay, just Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman) is an artistic take on the 1991 novel of the same name. I haven’t read the book yet, but I will say after some of the more obscure events that happened, I feel like a read might clear a few things up.

I guess you could call this movie a horror movie, though its also a black comedy. It’s full of gore, violent images, and psychological thrills. I want to take this time to go ahead and point out that you shouldn’t watch this movie with someone you would feel uncomfortable seeing pornographic images around as well, because sometimes he just has porn on in the background. Not to mention, Bateman has a few run-ins with some hookers and strippers. With that being said, I still find the movie very tasteful.

Bateman is one of those characters that you can’t really relate to, as he’s the perfect example of a psychopath. If you are wondering if he connects with basic human emotions, don’t worry, he will tell you time after time that he is apathetic. It’s really interesting to see how he struggles with fitting in at some parts of the movie, but then represents the guy who everyone knows and likes. I guess that is a true testament to his quest of fitting in.

Before I get to the ending and how it affects the overall score I will give this movie, I want to make mention of the build up of this story. Without giving too much of the movie away, I will say that Bateman on multiple times will put on music and talk deeply about the meanings of songs, as well as their history. This is part of what makes this movie brilliant, because as he commits some of the most atrocious acts, there are familiar songs that are extremely upbeat. It feels like the one thing in the world that Bateman can actually connect to is music (other than, by his own admission, feelings of greed and disgust) and it creates a contrast with his otherwise cold nature. Don’t worry though, you won’t mistake him for a good guy.

Okay ladies and gentleman, let’s get into the ending. Without ruining too much, I will say the movie at the end really gives you a great look at just how far Bateman has gone in his psychopathic endeavors. The line between reality and his blood lust begins to blur and he hallucinates a few times, making you wonder if what has been going on has been real or fake. He also is downing medication at a high rate, making that question even more prevalent. Unlike my feelings where Oculus’ ending ruined that movie for me, I will say the ending of this movie solidifies it as a brilliant piece of film.

I’ll give this movie a solid 8 of 10. It’s a great horror/black comedy film, but certainly not my favorite. It is interesting to see some of the more ridiculous scenes in the movie, like Bateman running through the halls naked wielding a chainsaw (I would have said spoiler alert, but all psychos need a chainsaw scene, right?). If you are into artsy films that play with you mind (think Fight Club) and don’t mind a little bit of violence, I’d say jump right in. It is on Netflix, so check it out people!

Leatherface enjoys chainsaw scenes.

Oh, and Jared Leto is in the film too, so its Dark Knight Batman and Suicide Squad Joker in a film together (coincidence? definitely). You can take that as a selling point or not.

Birth Control and—wait—Wut? (The Babadook Movie Challenge)

For the first round of movie challenges, I was made to watch The Babadook, an Austrailian-Canadian psychological horror film.

In the horror movie tradition, Amelia (Essie Davis) is a single mother raising her son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), who has lots of behavioral issues. He is scared of monsters, clings to his mother like a leech, builds weapons and is constantly seeking attention. Because of this, Sam doesn’t fit in at school and doesn’t have any friends. His behavioral issues eventually escalate to the point where he is taken out of school.

Sam’s issues are somewhat explained by the fact that Sam’s father died in a car accident while driving Amelia to the hospital to deliver Sam. Amelia doesn’t seem to have recovered well from the death of her husband, even after seven years, and seems to secretly resent her son for taking her husband away from her. Despite the resentment, Amelia loves her son, but is frustrated and exhausted, as you would expect.

As the title suggests, I found this movie (particularly the first 30 minutes) to be a great advertisement for never having children.   Sam is a whiny child and often very annoying. I could sympathize with Amelia just wanting a little bit of time to herself and some much needed sleep.

One night, while trying to settle Sam down for bed with a story, a book called Mister Babadook is plucked from the shelf. The disturbing contents of this book scare both Sam and Amelia, albeit in different ways.  I won’t spoil too much, but in the formula of horror films strange things start happening around this book and around Amelia. The movie reminds me of The Exorcist and The Omen, sort of. I think the spirit is similar.

What I really enjoyed was the beautiful performance of Essie Davis. She did a fantastic job and it was truly one the best acting jobs I’ve seen in recent horror films. I also kind of liked how they treated this monster. There was always a bit of mystery about what exactly the titled Babadook actually looked like.  However, because of the noise he makes, I like to think he looks like this:

The ending however, I’m still not sure how I feel about it. It was weird, as if the writers didn’t really know how to close the story so they just tacked on “and they all lived happily ever after?” The last 10 or so minutes of the movie really had me saying, “wait—what? Wait….. wut? Wut?”

Otherwise, I give The Babadook a 7 out of 10. The ending was really odd, it was a bit predictable in some places and hard to follow in others.   But, overall, I enjoyed the experience. If you are a fan of horror movies, and are open to a more indie film experience, then definitely check this out. Also, there aren’t any jump scares in this… so that’s pretty awesome.

If you have a movie you’d like one or both of us to watch and review, please leave a comment! We might just give it a go on the next Movie Monday Challenge.

-Gretchen

Let’s get real. Or not. I don’t really know (Oculus Movie Challenge)

Okay, for our movie challenge, me and Gretchen chose to give each other horror movies to review that we had never seen. Before we get into the depths of this review, on rotten tomatoes the movie comes in at a fairly decent 73%. Does that mean anything? not really, but I think it’s worth noting and I will at the end of this review compare my number with that.

Build Up

With most modern horror movies, what really sets the scene is build-up. For example, what caused Jason to become a crazy psycho killer?  This movie goes about setting up backstory throughout really the entire movie by a series of flashbacks that the two siblings Kaylie (played by Karen Gillan) and Tim (Brenton Thwaites) remember. I should also preface that the first time we see Tim, he is explaining a dream to his therapist before going for a psychiatric evaluation to be released from the hospital.

So, I’ll be honest when I say I hate the way the movie started. The two siblings keep referencing promises they made when they were ten and refer to what we already know is the mirror that is causing the problem, as “it.” I’m not sure if this was written into the script in order to build a bit of anticipation, but if the trailer shows the mirror causing weird shit to happen, we already know going into this that its the mirror. Not to mention, one of the first scenes is Kaylie watching the mirror get sold at an auction while awkwardly zoning out.

#Wifey

What I will say was great about build up, however, is that the character of Tim makes the movie from a monster film into a psychological thriller. What I mean by this is that, since he was just released from a mental hospital, he rationalizes every event by what he learned in therapy while Kaylie is more out to prove the events that happened in their past were caused by a supernatural being. Before I move to the next segment, I’m going to take a quick second to express my disappointment that all the evidence of past events that were presented in this movie were all recited into a camera like a thought out speech. It shows that Kaylie has been obsessing about the mirror, which is great for plot, but I feel it seems more forced that anything.

Scare Factor

Like I said before, what really makes this movie scary is that Tim makes it into a psychological thriller. Is what the two are seeing real, or is it the mirror making them delusional? The flashbacks also provide some truly scary moments as you never know when the two worlds will collide and someone will open the door to see what scarred the two in the first place. It’s unexpected, hardly ever over the top, and there are enough breaks in between for you to think about if you believe what is happening or not.

“Hey how you doing lil’ mama, lemme whisper in yo ear”

HOWEVER, I think the people that represent the mirror’s victims aren’t necessarily as effective. I won’t say they aren’t scary, because their eyes freak me right the hell out. I just think they take away from the psychological elements. They also are used so inconsistently that it gets a bit confusing at times. The woman who was in their dad’s office, yea, I get that one. The rest of the victims that randomly start showing up toward the end just feel cheap. That’s just my opinion though.

Ending (SPOILER ALERT: TURN BACK NOW)

Fuck this ending.

No, seriously, the movie was a fun ride until this. If there was ever an example of lack of payoff, it would be this ending. You wait the entire movie for the two to figure out how to kill the mirror, and instead you get an ending that brings the emotional roller-coaster to a screeching halt.

I get it, no, I really get it. The writer’s wanted to end the movie in a way that makes you wonder “well what now?” but I think this could have been done in a way that was more interesting than following through with what we thought would happen maybe 10 minutes in. Seriously, this ending was alluded to so many times that I though maybe, JUST MAYBE, they would pull something original out of the hats. Nope.

AND THE VERDICT

I see your 73% Rotten Tomatoes, and I counter with a 45%. If the ending was a little better I could probably give it up to a 60%. It’s not something I would necessarily watch again, but seeing it once isn’t too bad of a night. Would I recommend this movie? All but the last 10 minutes. If you have Netflix, go ahead and give it a watch. If you are like me and get bothered by like, teeth things or finger nail things, be warned.

Movie Challenges!

The best drug ever.

Movie Monday is kind of a thing around here.  To spice things up, this coming Monday, Dave and I are challenging each other to watch a movie of the other’s choosing.

The rules are simple: it must be on Netflix and (ideally) it must be something the other has not seen before.  We’ll be posting our reviews on Monday, so make sure to check back to see what we were forced to watch and review!

For future Mondays, you all (a.k.a. the audience) can challenge one or both of us to watch any movie by leaving a comment. It must be on Netflix (instant, not DVD) just so we don’t have to scramble to find and rent movies.  It can be as obscure as you like and in whatever language.  We’ll review it and let you know what we thought.   You can let us enjoy one of your favorites or torture us with some of the worst movies in existence.

I hope you all enjoy the upcoming Movie Monday Challenge!  Please leave a comment letting us know what you think we should review next!

-Gretchen

WHAT-A-BUNCH-OF-BALLS

GRETCHEN’S PERSPECTIVE

I just realized ‘Spaceballs’ isn’t on Netflix anymore.

As someone who loves scifi movies of all kinds, my favorite being Stanley Kubrick’s  ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (just in case… you were wondering), Mel Brooks’ ‘Spaceballs’ was the culmination of all I could have ever wanted from a space parody.

It was funny, it didn’t take itself too seriously, they broke the 4^th wall constantly and they acknowledged the ridiculousness that can sometimes come from the genre.  They made jokes that were way over my head as a child, but that only lends itself to going back and rewatching it as an adult.  It gives you a greater appreciation for the movie even almost 30 years after its release.

If you’ve seen any Mel Brooks film, you probably know the type of over-the-top, not-PC humor you’ll be getting yourself into.  But if you’re one of those unfortunate few to have never seen one of them, I definitely recommend starting with ‘Spaceballs,’ especially for you nerds out there.  It’s got man-child issues, really big ships, a Winnebago and matched luggage! It’s really fun; you won’t regret it.  I promise.

Great phrases – like: “Combing the desert,” “going plaid” and even “asshole” – will have bright, shiny new meanings once you’ve seen this movie.  You’ll be able to understand more old, pop-culture references too.  Then you can be all hipster and pretend you knew about it before it was cool (it was cool along time ago, kid).

The worst part, as I mentioned at the beginning, is that ‘Spaceballs’ unfortunately isn’t on Netflix anymore.   It used to be but it’s not anymore … for some reason.  I’ll trust the Schwartz that it’ll be back on there soon.   If not, it still can be seen on classic movie channels from time-to-time as well as being available for rent on platforms like Amazon video.

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DAVE’S PERSPECTIVE

So unless you’ve been living under a rock, there is no secret that Star Wars VII is coming out. You may have re-watched (or planned to re-watch) the other 6 movies to get yourself hyped up for the movie. Or, if you’re like some people and are just reminding yourself of how good Star Wars once was, just in case the new movie doesn’t live up to expectations.

What you may have missed is there is a movie that is not a part of Star Wars, but still critical to your appreciation. That movie is Mel Brooks’ “Space Balls.” If you have seen the movie, this post will just remind you of how awesome it is. If you haven’t seen the movie, what is wrong with you?! Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh, but the movie has always been one of my favorites and is definitely worth a watch if you have the means of doing so.

That escalated quickly.

You might be asking “Dave, what kind of movie is Space Balls?” Well, this might be hard to do, but imagine one of the Scary Movies (the parody ones by the Wayan’s Brothers) and then make it legitimately funny. Yes, some of the humor is a bit dated, after all the movie was made back in 1987. That being said, it is one of the most quotable movies to this day. To top it all off, this movie has a stacked cast. Mel Brooks, John Candy, Rick Moranis, and Michael Winslow are just some of the familiar faces you will see along the way.

It’s hard for me to give too much of a preview for this movie, because it is absolute madness at some points. It cleverly parodies some of the greatest movies of all time, extending beyond just the Star Wars theme. If I had to give this movie a score out of 100, it’s a solid 90 to me. That might be nostalgia kicking in, but I thought this movie was funny when I was a kid, and now that I understand more of the jokes, I find it funnier.

Pro-tip of the day: Watch this movie with friends, later on you can be nerds and quote this movie back in forth. It’ll keep you off the streets and away from drugs.

Don’t be this guy.