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REVIEW: “THE ACCOUNTANT” (2016) Warner Bros.

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Having not seen a film in over a month and a half or written a review for that matter, I was truly not knowing what to expect walking into the “THE ACCOUNTANT”. What I walked out with is still to be decided.

What I did like is how far ‘out of the box’ this film is. I mean it’s leaps and bounds out of the norm of any film I’ve seen yet this year, and as we all know, 2016 has not been a good year by any means for film.
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In this paint by numbers, crazy potboiler of a film, you’ve got Ben Affleck as Christian Wolff, who seems to be just another small-town number-cruncher, doing taxes for local farmers out of a non-descript strip-mall office called ZZZ Acounting. Reality is a much different place in this one though as Wolff is actually the man whom drug kingpins and the worst of the worst in the world turn to when they find a discrepancies in their books.

Wolff’s dealings with such men of notorious nature, captures the attention of Treasury director Raymond King (J.K. Simmons), who in turn blackmails his underling-with-a-past, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) into tracking Wolff down. In an attempt to stay out of trouble, Wolff takes a seemingly innocent little gig trying to find a financial leak in the books of Lamar Black (John Lithgow) who runs a state of the art robotics firm, only to attract the attention of hired killer Braxton (Jon Bernthal). Add in the films truly only awkward ‘friendship’ with whistleblower Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick), whom he unseemly decides he needs to protect and a mystery phone-voiced woman who changes Wolff’s identities on the drop of a dime – and yes, each identity does have a meaning behind them to be revealed.
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To try to explain this whole plot and all it’s flashbacks, would not only suck the fun out of your viewing, but would be almost impossible since so much is going on. Yes, there is loads of violence, most of it you didn’t see coming, along with a plot twist most don’t see coming. To sum it up clearly, there are no ‘brilliant’ performances, but all of them make do and seem to be having a good time doing so. The whole thing shouldn’t add up, but yet somehow it does and while not a ‘great’ movie by any means, it is entertaining as end all.

Grade: B-
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Media Review Screening: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 ~ Courtesy of Warner Bros.
Nationwide Release: Friday, October 14, 2016

Action, Action Adventure, Adventure, Drama, History, Movie Reviews, Movies, Religious, Uncategorized

REVIEW: “BEN-HUR” (2016) Paramount Pictures

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Let’s start by stating the obvious. If you go into this version Ben-Hur with visions of the original classic film, you will be disappointed. It is a very conservative, safe, tale re-told for current audiences. Remember this is being done by none other than Roma Downey & Mark Burnett, sponsors of some of the most cheesy TV shows ever done. And while it’s the ‘cool’ thing to just trash this film because it is a remake blah blah blah.. give it a rest people.
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Opening up on this remake/adaptation of the classic epic of Ben-Hur it has mostly the same plot-line as the original. We move on through the tale of the two brothers, Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), is falsely accused of an assassination attempt by his childhood friend and adoptive brother Messala Severus (Toby Kebbell). He survives years of slavery under the Romans and rises from the ranks hoping to one day get his revenge. The storyline is the same predictable one as the 1959 version though some of the dialogue was very modern day, which was a bit distracting, as it took me out of the time-frame of the story on occasion. One of the things that really struck me and stood out, is when they flash the time period it’s set in, you realize just how long people have been killing each other in the name of religion.
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The main positive point is the acting as Jack Huston and Toby Kebbell both do a decent job, again, if you’re expecting Charlton Heston, Don’t. Let it go and just roll with it. Morgan Freeman as Ilderim, does voice over and basically phones in his acting performance also. At one point, it’s so completely ridiculous that he’s yelling instructions that would’ve been impossible to be heard over the noise of the race! Add in one other notable cheesy scene for me, is where Judah Ben-Hur is washed up ashore as the only survivor after the ship he is a slave on is destroyed, and I felt like Wilson the volleyball should just make a quick cameo. But to give credit where credit is due, I must say that I did enjoy the spectacle that was the ending chariot race.
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The women in the film Ester (Nazanin Boniadi), Naomi Ben-Hur (Ayelet Zurer) and Tirzah Ben-Hur (Sofia Black-D’Elia) all felt really muted. Esther didn’t really feel like a full character for her being the female lead. Add in Rodrigo Santoro as Jesus with the muted group as he’s barely featured until the end. And while I’m not a fan of religious films, they did need to give the character a little more explanation here.

So continuing on with quite the dismal film year of 2016, I can’t say I hated this film as so many of the people who are trashing it just because they can. I will say that the venture might have fit far more comfortably perhaps on a home screen level. Lastly, though I believe a great movie might be in here somewhere, sadly, only a mediocre one found its way to the screen.

Grade: C-
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Review Screening: Tuesday, August 16, 2016 ~ Courtesy of LAFTV meetup
Nationwide Release: Friday, August 19, 2016

Action, Action Adventure, Adventure, bad movie, CGI, Comedy, DC Comics, DC ComicsC, Movie Reviews, Movies, Uncategorized

REVIEW: “SUICIDE SQUAD” (2016) Warner Bros.

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Writer/Director David Ayer’s “Suicide Squad” starts off strong. With a booming, kick-ass soundtrack taking us through the introductions of characters and giving us a bit of the backstory on each so we know at least who they are. Unless you’re a major DC Comics fan, you probably don’t recognize every single character of the Squad. The new action movie teams up a bunch of bad guys as a last resort to take down an even more evil force. For those of us that don’t read the comic books, I found this not only helpful, but gave us some fun sides of the characters to boot.
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We’ve got Deadshot (Will Smith) the assassin who never misses, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) the aslyum doctor who fell in love with her patient who then gave her shock treatment to make her crazy, Boomerang (Jai Courtney) the Aussie who’s boomerangs are like drones and really doesn’t give a rats ass about anyone but himself, Diablo (Jay Hernandez) in essence a firestarter, Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) is self-explanatory and lives in the underground sewers, Slipnot (Adam Beach) an escape artist of the highest caliber and whilst not really a ‘Squad’ member, we have Katana (Karen Fukuhara) and Archaeologist/Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) and of course our Joker (Jared Leto). You’ve also got the ‘soldier’ side to it all with Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman), Lt. GQ Edwards (Scott Eastwood) and our head honcho who proposes and is responsible for putting the ‘Squad’ together, Amanda Walker (Viola Davis). And yes, along with our bit part from The Batman himself, Ben Affleck, we understand why they are, who they are and where they are.
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Sadly, no one here can save the convuluted mess of a storyline and bad dialague. The characters are so off-balance and poorly acted, most especially I’m looking at you Will Smith & Cara Delevingne. Robbie’s character would have fit much better in a re-make of the 1970’s classic The Warriors (one of my fav. movies btw) and she probably could have made something with it. Here she limps along trying to be funny but falls completely flat. Only the Joker and Boomerang really pull out the stops and make it work for their characters and you know it’s really bad when even Viola Davis strains to pull off her dialogue as even somewhat believable.
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The first 1/3 of this film is definitely worth the watch. Anything after that I can’t guarantee, except of course the ending because it leads us into Suicide Squad Part Deux. I would try to describe the plot, but don’t want to give away how just plain ridiculous it is and really, everyone should just see and judge for themselves anyways as it’s all just CGI.

And just in case you’re really itching to get out of the theatre, you only have to wait until the first set of basic credits is done to get your ending Bat-fix in..not the whole long credit roll. Somewhere in this series is a good movie, so stay, and let’s just hope Part Deux has more to it than this one did.

Grade: C-
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Media Review Screening: Tuesday, August 2, 2016 ~ Courtesy of Warner Bros.
Nationwide Release: Friday, August 5, 2016

Action, Action Adventure, Adventure, Movie Reviews, Movies, Spy Thriller, Thriller, Uncategorized

REVIEW: “JASON BOURNE” (2016) Universal Pictures

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Jason Bourne is back and so is Mr. Matt Damon in the title role. This time he’s well aware of who he is and he is determined to expose the government’s secrets, As the intelligence agencies from Interpol to the CIA are in pursuit, Director Greengrass delivers a movie that is both intelligent and intense. Which sadly is what seems to be lacking in recent movies. Adding depth to the story and instead of investing his money on CGI, there are ACTUAL stunt scenes! Can I say, it’s so refreshing to see plain old school action and its pretty damn flawless. In an age where action films rely so heavily on CGI, it is enlightening to see real stunts and real car chases instead of the usual 3D CGI malarkey that we’ve just been saturated with this year so far. As I watched the ‘REAL THING’ actually happen though, I did have a giggle as “wow, this budget must have been pretty damn big” and worth every penny.
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I will not go into details about this year’s film since I don’t want to spoil your fun. But basically the question of this film is from CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) “Why would he come back now?”

“He” is of course Jason Bourne, super spy, and Damon comes back to the franchise for at least the chance to do all one more time, As for Bourne, he’s always catching up with himself, be it his faulty memory or finding his father. Jason Bourne is certainly home to many of the thriller genre’s paradoxes, including illogical good luck in gun fights and car chases and the usual surprises, including a quick reprise of Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), and about characters you thought you knew. jason bourne 3
The final fight between good and evil, while it might be a bit de rigueur, is good. And you know me when it’s a good villain, I tend to half-way be rooting for them..Here it’s Asset because yes, Vincent Cassel plays him so menacingly well. A bit of Alicia Vikander’s character Heather Lee was just too easily sewed up at the beginning of the film for me, but she gravited well into the role and is pivotal to the ending, which I loved. All in all, it’s an entertaining enough film to satisfy the action fan in us all.

Grade: B-
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Review Screening: Monday, July 25, 2016 ~ Courtesy of Universal Pictures
Release Date: Nationwide – Friday, July 29, 2016

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REVIEW PREMIERE OF: “I SAW THE LIGHT” (2016) Sony Pictures Classics

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I was happy with the choice of Tom Hiddleston as Hank Williams. He had the physical look to carry it off and I knew he had the talent. I just wish I could say the same with the script. From the shaking camera to the direction & edit of this film, it is literally all over the place. Cutting from one scene to another without really understanding where it is we are going.

This story seems to focus heavily on his first marriage to Audrey Williams (Elizabeth Olsen) and that relationship. But while his band produced hit after hit, there is more time given here to the conflict between Audrey and his controlling mother, Lillie Williams (Cherry Jones) who managed the early part of his music career, than Hank himself. Also Hank’s band has trouble with Audrey, who has musical ambitions and is criticized as a no-talent back-up singer. i saw the 2 It provides Hank with a dilemma of choosing – his wife or his band? It’s frustrating that out of everything Hank Williams did, this is what they focus on. Other than the music, they barely touched on anything that made him such a colorful character and a country music icon. It doesn’t help that there is little chemistry between two lead characters.

Tom Hiddleston did a nice job with his singing here, which are definitely the highlights of the film, but at one point he gets asked how old he is to which he replies ’23’ and sorry..as much as I adore Hiddleston there is just no way he is passing for 23. Even the 29 years of age that William’s is when he dies is a stretch.
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I can’t say I know a lot about Hank Williams besides the fact he came from less fortunate part of Monroe, Alabama and fought his way out with his music and was hoping to learn more. Sadly the only thing I came out knowing more about was his alcohol and marital problems than on his impact on the Country – & – Western scene, of which he was a huge part of.

Towards the end we see Wiliams getting interviewed by reporter James Dolan, (David Krumholaz) to find out what makes him tick…sadly the film leaves us never really knowing what did.

Grade: D+
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Review Premiere Screening: Tuesday, March 22, 2016 ~ Courtesy of Film Independent
Nationwide release: Friday, March 25, 2016

Some photos of Tom Hiddleston at the premiere ~

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awards, Movie Reviews, Movies, Oscar Awards, Uncategorized

Oscars 2016 – Addressing the controversy

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Taking a day out of my “7 Days of Oscars” to address the looming Oscars issue of Diversity. Now I’m not professing to be the know all of what’s right or wrong, but I’m tired of hearing a one-sided argument. So here is what I do know.

There are truly 2 questions that can be asked here. Question 1. Do you/should you nominatate someone soley based on race, creed, or colour Answer: No. Has it been a ‘white’ Oscars the past 2 years? Yes, it has which leads into – Question 2. But where does the fault lie in this?

Because while people can scream & shout & blame the Academy all they want, by the time it gets to that point it’s really too late. It’s not the Oscar themselves as it starts at the beginning of the film process. And this is not a black thing – this is a diversity thing, meaning diversity of all races, has been at a complete failure in film whereas in TV, it’s wide open. Speaking as someone who read the breakdowns and scripts for years while representing the actors, so many miss the fact that they need to start at the beginning, with great stories & great roles for all diversified characters. And the frustrating thing is they know this!!! I’m not telling anyone to watch or not to watch, but for the industry people to boycott is kinda slamming your peers for their work.. like saying they shouldn’t have been nominated, which I just don’t think is cool either.

Is it harder to cast something that you have to list as ‘ALL ETHINCITIES’ – sure maybe it is as you have to see a lot more people and work harder – but I’m not even sure that’s the problem as the casting agents I know work extremely hard – what I do know is it’s time to make it change from the ground up!!!! Support Indie Films and low budget films with diverse characters/actors and you will see things start to change. Might be slow, but if you don’t try, you can’t complain.  And Viola Davis states it all so well in this link below..

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/viola-davis-diversity-separate-opportunity-869171?facebook_20160224

#Oscars2016 #peggyatthemovies

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7 DAYS OF OSCARS: DAY 4 ~ “BEST DIRECTOR”

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Wait.. what day is it??!! Just kidding.. as it’s DAY FOUR of the ‘7 Days of Oscar’ and it’s getting tough as it’s BEST DIRECTOR time..
And yes, I will continue to add in my reminder that I’m giving who I think the winner will be and what would be my pick – because yes, they just might not be the same!! 😀

BEST DIRECTOR

Adam McKay, The Big Short
I really really enjoyed this film as it was dark comedy at it’s best. I didn’t know whether to laugh at the hilarious cameo explanations or cry at the subject matter. Truly a gem.

George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Just truly an incredible film. We were brought back to a Mad Max of old, the kind where you really didn’t even have time to breathe for the first 15 minutes of the film. This film was just epic. It’s such a close one here for me.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Revenant
MY PICK/WINNER
What can I say here.. Did I think ‘Birdman’ could be outdone..no I didn’t think so. But yet here with The Revenant it was. Can Alejandro make it 2 in a row is yet to be seen. But it would be well deserved.

Lenny Abrahamson, Room
I’m sure Lenny is a great guy..having done a Q & A with him after Room screening I can say I found him to be engaging enough, and sometimes I wish I could understand what the people who love this film, see in it. Sorry, but he is not my winner.

Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Good movie, though not a winner for me.

So there ya have it. Tomorrow we move on to the Best Actress category for Day 5 of the “7 Days of Oscar”
Till then.. #Oscars2016 #peggyatthemovies

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7 DAYS OF OSCARS: DAY THREE ~ “BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR”

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Here we are at Day 3 of my “7 Days of Oscar” ~ probably for me at least, the hardest category besides Best Picture to judge. The category is just filled to the brim of fantastic performances and I wish they could all win..well..minus one. ha!
Reminder: I’m giving who I think the winner will be and what would be my pick – because they aren’t always necessarily the same!! 😀

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale, The Big Short
Absolutely Christian Bale in one of his best career performances. While it was a complete ensemble cast, he stood out head and shoulders above the rest.

Tom Hardy, The Revenant
How do you explain Tom Hardy – he’s been full of acting surprises for some years now and while I would’ve thought him to have a nomination before this one (think ‘Locke’ from 2014), he is deservedly here.

Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Ruffalo with his oddly thrown in facial & body tics/expressions that are reminiscent of a bad Jimmy Olsen caricature, annoyed the daylights out of me, to a point for me so I can’t even remotely vote for him here and was the only drawback to an otherwise really good film.

Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Lucky for me, I’ve known about Rylance’s talent for a bit now. For me, there was only one person that truly stood out for me performance-wise in this film and that person was Mark Rylance.

Sylvester Stallone, Creed MY PICK/WINNER
Yep I’m going ‘Old School’ on this one. because Sly, Sly, Sly – I’ve seen all your stuff, whether good or bad. But I remember how no one thought you could act.. I kept telling them you could, and then came ‘Copland’ where you proved them all wrong and me right. Has there been more misses than hits…sure there has, but damn you were so good here. He will pull at everyone’s heartstrings like he did mine and take this.

**Come back tomorrow for Day 4 of the “7 Days of Oscar” and see my picks/winners for Best Director.**

awards, Movie Reviews, Movies, Oscar Awards, Uncategorized

7 DAYS OF OSCARS: DAY TWO ~ BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

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Yep..here we are at Day 2 of my “7 Days of Oscar” just remember.. I’m giving who I think the winner will be and what would be my pick – because they don’t always necessarily coincide with each other!! 😀

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
As I noted with the Golden Globes – there were times I just thought ‘wow, JJL is knocking it out of the park here’ then there were more times when I thought ‘oh, no no she’s not, she’s kinda annoying me’ so this is a give & take for me but definitely not a pick.

Rooney Mara, Carol
While I’m mostly not a fan of Rooney Mara’s, I will say, she impressed me in this film and was the most likable yet in a film role for me.

Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Vanilla, Vanilla, Vanilla. That’s the only thing that truly comes to mind when I think of this performance. Sorry Rachel, you seem sweet, really you do, but you are ‘vanilla’ acting-wise, in your roles, this one included.

Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl ~ MY PICK
Alicia Vikander was fantastic in this role. Why everyone liked her in Ex-Machina I’m not sure, as she was a CGI character. And okay..not everyone..just males under 35 – but here she truly was wonderful and showed she can compete with the best of them.

Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs – WINNER
Another wonderful job by Kate, though I wasn’t particularly fond of her trying on the accent – you could almost overlook it as she was so spot on here.