Tag Archives: Matt Damon

1980's, Drama, Movie Reviews, Movies, Sports

REVIEW “Air” (2023) AMAZON STUDIOS

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I’m not sure how Ben Affleck does it – he takes these stories which are based on real life scenarios like “Argo”, and now here again with “AIR”, and makes them magical. Even though we know the end line, somehow once again, he was able to put his finger on just the right pulse in how to tell this story with excitement and great character work, to keep us thoroughly engaged and immersed in the story for every single minute of the film. Or maybe he just has good luck with films that start with the letter “A”. Which ever it is I hope he never stops as ‘Air’ brings on another one of these fantastic real life stories with this one taking on Michael Jordan’s ‘Air Jordan’ journey.

Air – is first and foremost, a sports drama that brings us back to the 1980’s and recounts the events that saw Nike, then just a scrappy upstart in the major sneakers – sports shoe market, make a huge historical stride in the world of what we now know as one of the most lucrative markets on the planet, the basketball shoe market. It was a huge gamble at the time, and one that would see them put everything on the line, to gain on rivals Converse and Adidas. And thanks to a risky, all-or-nothing pursuit of up-and-coming college basketball – going NBA star Michael Jordan (Damian Delano Young), history is made. But it’s all in the story-telling, and boy, is there some great interwoven story-telling happening here.

Matt Damon is front and centre as Sonny Vaccaro, an Nike representative in the much-lacking basketball division at Nike with a brilliant eye for new talent, who decides to take matters into his own hands and approach the Jordan family directly at their home. But he will have to woo Jordan’s mother Deloris (Viola Davis), who plays this role with a calmness and authority that denotes how in the South, the mother is the matriarch and her son’s biggest decision in life, will probably be very influenced by her. Rumour has it that this was Michael Jordan’s only special request for that film, that Queen Viola Davis play his mother.

And although the outcome is already known, that doesn’t stop “Air” from being an intriguing story and ultimately, an uplifting experience from beginning to end. There is something that Affleck, as a director, has his finger on with these kind of stories, and that is the element of a suspense like, edge of your seat feeling, that while you know the outcome, it’s yet still instilled in the film and hence entices the audience throughout.
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And yes, you can say the film is sure to just be a crowd-pleaser as it’s about one of the greatest basketball players of all time and it’s a given, but that’s not always the case. As someone who has never probably watched an entire NBA game from start to finish, the film possesses great energy with punchy, charismatic dialogue, and that dynamic direction from Affleck pays off. but what wraps this one up with a bow and makes it stand out here as well, are the performances. The ensemble cast do an ample job of making us care about Nike’s plight and their unorthodox plan to sign basketball’s future star – and of course, there’s plenty of humour throughout, and much of it is thanks to the larger-than-life performances. So let’s delve in and talk a bit about said performances.

With Matt Damon pulling our lead role here, he is doing what he does best, playing a hero that is not flawless, more realistic, and constantly knows he is a human being. Sure we have seen this kind of work from Damon before, but it’s been a while since he’s been this good, looking so relaxed as he probably pulls out one of the best performances of his career, and definitely the best in some years. Ben Affleck’s does a bit of double duty giving himself a plumb supporting role as Phil Knight, Nike’s creator and CEO. He is funny, sarcastic and realistic stealing a few scenes. One thing can be said here as well, Affleck completely knows how to cast himself. Throwing in Jason Bateman‘s comedic touch as Rob Strasser, is superb. No one plays the ordinary company man better and this maybe the best example how to use Jason Bateman in a movie. Chris Tucker may not have a big role in this movie, but every scene he is in, you’ll feel his magic. It’s like he was given a creative zone where he could do some “Chris Tucker” stuff without ruining the reality of the movie. Chris Messina as Jordan’s sport agent David Falk gives big “Arliss” vibes and perfectly so, as it’s a perfect portrayl of exactly what a sports agent does. His rants are profound and so full of humour. And lastly, you would be remiss not to mention Matthew Maher as Nike shoe designer extraordinaire Peter Moore, who gives the understated performance of his career – while having a almost perfect scene where he ‘names’ the Air Jordan.
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To sum it up, “Air” is a sports movie without being a “sports” movie. it’s an emotional journey about chances of life & belief in greatness. With a bangin’ soundtrack that embodies the movie almost as a character, make this the feel good film of the year. Ben Affleck, you’ve done it again.

Grade: A

Follow me on twitter: @pegsatthemovies or Instagram: Peggyatthemovies

Review Screening: Thursday, March 30, 2023 ~ Courtesy of Ginsberg/Libby PR

“AIR” FROM AMAZON STUDIOS IS OUT IN THEATER WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2023

Action, Drama, History, Movie Reviews, Movies

REVIEW: “THE LAST DUEL” (2021) 20th Century/Disney Films

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The film that finally reunites Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as writers the first time since Good Will Hunting, and just as in Good Will Hunting they also share the screen acting wise, but with Damon picking up the more prominent of roles, though Affleck having a stand-out as well. This medieval times storytelling in “THE LAST DUEL” is done on a grand scale by none other than the grand scale director himself, Ridley Scott.

The film is told in three chapters each from the point of view of one of the three protagonists, the two duelists – Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), and Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), and the third by Marguerite (Jodie Comer), of why in this duel is taking place in 13th century aristocratic France. It is supposedly for truth and honour, yet this can not only be confusing at times, but when you have people telling the same incident from three people’s different point of views…. it can start to get tedious, and it does with a runtime of two hours and 32 minutes.

The action is here is brutal, the hardcore Medieval type brutal and though it is filmed well, you have to have a taste for these types of films and they are just not truly in my wheelhouse, yet Gladiator holds a place in my heart that will never be taken away. The story itself leans on Marguerite’s accusation against Jacques of rape. It is met with anger and hostility from both Jean, their friends, and pretty much the rest of France, as rape is not considered a crime against a woman, but a property matter. These kinds of things, while I know existed, just irk me in subject matter. Yet I guess my true excruciating anger came from the rape scene which is is played not once, but twice. As an audience of both male and female, it left a lot of mixed feelings amongst both as it’s incredibly hard to watch. My question would honestly be did Ridley Scott need to amplify the excruciating horror of the act by showing it to us twice? Would it have made a difference to the outcome had we not seen it so graphically performed in front of us on both accounts. I think not. Oddly you also realize what the outcome of the duel will most likely be during these points.

The set decoration, costuming and all seem quite fit for the time and not being an expert in French history of the 1300’s, I will say I was never entirely sure what accent Damon and the cast were employing with their characters as none were French, but it never distracted from the characters either. Comer was probably the best as I can’t imagine the subject matter at hand was an easy one for any actress to deal with. The highlight for me though was Affleck’s somewhat comedic portrayl of d’Alençon as it borders at times on camp, but seems as like it was likely intentional and oh so much fun. It lightened up the hardness of this film to at give it some ‘bon viveur’ as the French would say.

All in all, this film will be a sheer delight for those loving Medieval dramas and Ridley Scott fans. I’m somewhere in the middle of understanding it, being confused by it, angered by it. All in all a fine movie with fine writing, acting and cinematography. It is just not something special and we have seen it all be done better before. There is sort of gravitas missing along the lines and all in all, just did not sit right with me completely.

Grade: C

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Review Screening ~ Courtesy of Rosa Parra @RosasReviews who invited me along as her guest

“THE LAST DUEL” – is playing in theaters now

Bentonville Film Festival, Campy, Comedy, Female Director, Independent Feature, Mockumentary, Movie Reviews, Movies

August Round-up of Reviews

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Apologies for the absence as one again the post-Covid long haul recovery put my the use of my hands out for a bit again. But with some injections and hand/wrist braces on, I’m typing while I can and catching up on some late film festival and screening reviews. September will hopefully be much better!

And with that out of the way, my August Round Up Reviews on the following films:

“THE DAPHNE PROJECT”

Every so often you find a film at a festival that you just fall in love with, well that was me with “THE DAPHNE PROJECT” shown (virtually for me) at the Bentonville Film Festival. This little indie gem is written and directed by Zora Iman Crews and Alex Tibaldi, giving us a die-hard mockumentary in it’s truest form that had me laughing from moment one. Zora Iman Crews also plays Daphne Wilco, a wanna-be NYC ‘theater’ actress who inserts herself from being an extra into the “lead” role of Dionysus, in a super off-Broadway production of “The Bacchae”. The role, which is intended to be played by a male, but Daphne expounds on the fact that maybe a woman should play the role. Crews is hysterical as an over-the-top act that takes her self obsession and self-promoting to a whole new level of mock-ness, but can flip like a coin to show a more delicate emotional side as well…or does she? That’s the best part of the whole mockumentary is you never really know if it’s all just a smart act Daphne puts on for the cameras or not.  The ending is a surprise and also quite fun. The film maintains its solid state of comedic affairs thanks to star-in-the-making Crews, as it’s only lacking quality that I could see is the sheer fact it’s had to be clearly done as such a low budget, as it is noticeable in the supporting cast who hold it up somewhat at times, while struggling to keep up with Crews pacing. But honestly, if that is the worst thing I can come up with for this wonderful kooky 67-minute indie that kept me fully entertained the entire time, well then I’d just go with it and hope this gets all the accolades it so highly deserves and doesn’t get overlooked because of that one reason.

Grade: B+

“AMERICANISH”

This romcom follows the lives of three women navigating the different meanings and expectations of love as they try to stay true to their own identity. This is an upbeat film and while formulaic, one still looks forward to how things will play out for each in the end.

American-ish focuses on two sisters and their cousin: Sam (Aizzah Fatima), Maryam (Salena Qureshi), and Ameera (Shenaz Treasury) as they navigate romance, family life, tradition, and relationships with their own cultural identity while living in Jackson Heights, NY. American-Ish is directed by an American Muslim woman (Iman Zawahry and co-written by her and Fatima) making it the first Muslim romantic comedy, and what a hoot it is. Since all three characters are in different stages of their lives (between high school and early 30’s), and have different relationships with Muslim traditions, the comedy always feels fresh, making it funnier. While predictable and nice, it also crafts its own unique identity to help it stand out among similar rom-rom type films with it being not too heavy, as well as not too light, it’s just a fun movie based around likable characters we don’t get to see as often as we should.

Grade: B+

“ANNETTE”

It’s rare that I am left speechless by a film, not the “oh it was so amazing” type speechless, but the kind where I truly have no idea how to describe what I just saw. This was me after watching “Annette” and sad to say, it still is. As much as I love Sparks music, and I think this was supposed to essentially a modern opera of sorts there is still the fact that part of the entertainment is watching said performers actually singing, which means the storytelling is at a somewhat slower pace than most films. That means that you really need to be interested in the story and to put it bluntly, I simply wasn’t. Giving the benefit of the doubt to the fact that much of it I just didn’t understand as well so maybe not all the blame can be put on the film itself, and I’m completely willing to accept that fact. It could also be that I was setting myself up to fail when it comes to appreciating the picture, because I did almost no research on it before we saw it, but I rarely do as I don’t want to spoil the film by ‘knowing’ too much. Though to be fair, it might have helped me here though again, even after viewing and trying to do so didn’t work for me.

But I also just didn’t find and wasn’t really intrigued by the contrast between Henry McHenry (Adam Driver), abrasive stand-up comedian, and Ann Defrasnoux (Marion Cotillard), soprano. The relationship between the two I understood completely – what their lives entailed, how he tailspins as his career falters and hers reaches new heights – but then there was the ‘child’. The cross between a Chucky doll and Annie. I am completely and truly lost there. And ya know what? I’m okay with that.

Grade: D

This weeks movies start off with “Jungle Cruise”  and fun fact: when I was very little my parents took me on this ride and I started crying as I thought it was real and lions, tigers & hippos were coming after me. Thankfully that is not this movie and I’m happy to say there was no crying..but some good laughs as the chemistry between #emilyblunt & #dwaynejohnson is electric and they make this adventure pretty fun. Full review here: https://peggyatthemovies.com/2021/07/30/review-jungle-cruise-2021-disney-studios/
Grade: B-

Next is “Val” and it’s all about the wonderful Val Kilmer telling us his story..the good, the bad, and the Batman. Does this deserve a full review, yes, yes it does – as it was everything and so much more. Sadly, again, I just couldn’t type and oddly I feel like Val would understand this somehow. But it did break me and give me every emotion of not just empathy for what he is going through, but there was joy, grief, fangirling, understanding, hope – again, all the emotions. Being a fan, this was hard to watch sometimes and I shed some tears, but not all just for sadness, because what you see in his eyes is he is still here and still Val.
Grade: A

“PLAYING WITH SHARKS: THE VALERIE TAYLOR STORY”

Anyone who knows me knows my absolute and complete fascination and love of all things ocean, but most especially sharks. Yep, those ‘predators’ of the sea are my thing thanks to @e_w_wilder who loaned me ‘JAWS’ which I read in one schpiel. So Playing With Sharks: The Valerie Taylor Story was everything for me. Valerie started as the 1st woman spear fisher in the 60’s and ended up being one of the first people with her husband Ron, to film sharks underwater. Almost every shark conservationist has started off a hunter, until they realize how beautiful these majestically amazing creature are that are literally less dangerous than dogs. But instead we kill millions of them and sadly have wiped out entire area of population not realizing that without them the oceans will literally die..and so will we.
Grade: A

“Stillwater” 

“Stillwater” received a 5 minute standing ovation at #Cannes and I have to be honest and say I just didn’t get that from it. I did get a somewhat okay story about what a out of his element dad Bill Baker (Matt Damon) might do to help his daughter Allison Baker (Abigail Breslin) and some articulated performances. And we can just leave it at that.
Grade: C-

“FREE GUY”

I’ve made it a point at this time in my film reviewing career (eight years of working hard at it btw) to not review movies that they couldn’t be bothered to invite me to view a screening or send a link. It’s frustrating for me and yeah, it kinda hurts at times. Let me make it clear, I don’t think I’m ‘entitled’ to get screening invites, but I’ve worked so hard at what I do, and I love love love it, am most of always thankful to be getting the media invites and I show that appreciation by stopping at See’s or a cookie place to give a little gift when I attend some media screenings. Look I get it, I’m not in the ‘big time’ but I keep trying, and reviewing as much as I humanly can and will continue to do so. But sometimes, more so lately, I feel like it’s a job within a job, within another job to try and get them, when at one point, pre-pandemic, I was consistently invited. I don’t know how I fell off the invites list, but Rosa from @Rosa’sReviews was nice enough to have me as her plus one to this screening as yes, she is in the big time of the listings being both RT & HCA approved. She also probably wrote a great review on it so go check out her page as well. I am most grateful to her for inviting me and truly minus about 25-30 minutes of ‘gamer talk’ this film was a lot of fun and quite entertaining.

That’s all I will say on it as here is to hoping I somehow get back in to more screenings again. I will not give up!

And that’s it for now – as always I will get out the reviews as I can and you can always check out: Peggyatthemovies.com or The Cherry Picks.com for some great full reviews.

1960's, Action, Biography, Drama, Movie Reviews, Movies

REVIEW: “FORD v. FERRARI (2019) 20th Century Fox

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Biopics can be a hard sell at times. “FORD v FERRARI” is one of the latest true stories out of Hollywood that will be hitting the big screen, and here’s why this one deserves to be seen whether you are a racing fan or not, it absolutely deserves your attention.

In the mid-’60s, Ford and Ferrari fought it out for real at most brutal of all car races, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a road race that lasts almost as long as this film. At a whopping 152 minutes, director James Mangold’s biopic is no quick win, but buckle up and sit back for the duration and you will be rewarded with a film that delivers great performances, a gripping tale of determination and courage, and some truly spectacular racing scenes (real or CGI? I couldn’t tell).

This could’ve simply been just a car movie. Instead, “Ford v Ferrari” delves into taking us in glorious detail, thru the true story rivalry between Enzo Ferrari (Remo Girone) and Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts), which sparked after the former refused to include his iconic racing team, Scuderia Ferrari, in a buyout of the Italian car company to Ford. Angered not only by this, but by a stinging comment Enzo makes to the effect that Ford is not credible with enough to be any part of a legendary firm like Ferrari with Henry Ford II at the helm because the real legend is Henry Ford himself, not his son.  Ford II then calls on legendary car maker Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) to design a car that can beat Ferrari at Le Mans, leading Shelby to create the iconic GT40 with the help of championship driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale), even though he is deemed by Ford’s second in command, Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) as a ‘loose cannon’.

Herein lies the classic underdog story, as the film follows the team as they design and test the new race-car, experiencing various setbacks along the way (some of which are orchestrated by Beebe, who wants to see Mills fail), before finally making it to France. Following all these multiple characters throughout, Ford v Ferrari focuses on the fact that Henry Ford II was given a challenge to create the fastest race car in the world and thereby improve the company’s image in the eyes of young Americans and putting the Italians in their place at the same time.

If you’re a fan of racing or cars in general, this movie will have you over the moon as it takes you thru the paces of the racing sequences, all which take up a good chunk of the film. Luckily, they are intense, well shot, with a fantastic score to back it up and sound effects to get your heart pumping. Everything about the exciting aspects of this film was top notch. But even if you aren’t a racing enthusiast, this movie doesn’t bore you with minutia, but instead gives you the necessary overview of the needed context so that every viewer understands what’s on the line here.  But secondary to the racing we have backstory about Miles and his family including what it’s like for his wife Mollie (Caitronia Balfe), and his son Peter (Noah Jupe), as they watch in trepidation as Ken goes about not only his racing with a few terrifying crashes that they are witness to, but also the fact that Ken puts racing above just about everything in his life, including his family business of an auto repair garage i.e., food on the table.  While Shelby’s character doesn’t have the struggle of a family life, he has the struggle with the Ford executives over every single aspect of how to build the car that can win Le Mans with Miles at the driving helm.  Until one wonderful moment when he takes Ford II himself out for a spin on the track and thereby ensures himself a blank check much to the angst of Beebe.

Christian Bale and Matt Damon give stellar performances here as the two leading men in the film and you totally buy their rigid friendship that slowly develops based on a mutual respect. Bale seems to disappear into his character especially noting he can ‘speak’ as himself here – accent and all. Damon as well, has the opportunity here to show quite a range from confident showman to a vulnerability we rarely get to see. The supporting cast is flawlessly put together as a well-oiled pit crew with notables such as Jon Berenthal playing Lee Iacocca (yes, THAT Lee Iacocca – who not only developed the Mustang itself, but the Pinto as well and went on to revive the Chrysler Corp.). Tracy Letts layers his performance here with strength and flair as Ford II, Ray McKinnon does top-notch mechanic Phil Remington true to form, and Josh Lucas is the perfect fodder of ‘bad guy executive’ of the bunch.

In the end, Ford v Ferrari is engaging, emotional, and downright thrilling when it wants to be. You find yourself invested in these characters and on the edge of your seat during the climactic races. The only small flaw is some missed opportunity in terms of emotion during certain scenes but all is forgiven in that, seeing as the rest of the movie is so impressive. Ford v Ferrari is one of the definitely one of the most exciting movies so far this year and is sure-fire to be crossing the finish line in first place come opening weekend.

Grade: B+

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Media Review Screening: Wednesday, November 6, 2019 ~ Courtesy of 20th Century Fox

“FORD v. FERRARI”  WILL BE OUT IN THEATERS WORLDWIDE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2019

 

 

bad movie, Comedy, Drama, Futuristic, Movie Reviews, Movies, political, Religious, Sci Fi

REVIEW: “DOWNSIZING” (2017) Paramount Pictures

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Welp. we’ve got a strike three for Matt Damon on his 2017 films with “DOWNSIZING”. This movie takes an interesting premise, “What if we could make ourselves smaller to use up fewer resources and save the planet?” and really just does nothing with it. Having heard little about the film aside from its concept, I went into the screening fairly cold. Sadly, the film doesn’t have a whole lot more to offer than its brilliant concept and exceptional first act. I must admit that I left feeling disappointed, thinking they could’ve made this a better movie in many ways. When a film has so much promise and doesn’t exactly deliver on much of it, I feel as though many people would be let down by that.

In this dramedy, which also in part a social satire of its own genre, Downsizing follows a couple Paul (Matt Damon) & Audrey (Kristen Wiig) Safranek, who believe their lives would be better if they were to shrink themselves and be transferred to a new world called Leisureland. This place exists to conserve the Earth and save the environment, as let’s face it, smaller people need much fewer resources. With multiple meanings to the title, this is a concept that sounds incredible on paper but doesn’t exactly translate into that great of a movie. Throughout the first act, I found myself immersed in this world and couldn’t wait to be taken on its journey, but I soon found myself losing interest when political and religious elements began to take over and it started to go very sloooowww. And it’s sad as this is a movie that could’ve done so much more with its premise.

Without giving anything away, there are many characters such as Niecy Nash playing a Leisureworld salesperson, or that of Dusan Mirkovic (Christof Waltz), The Lonowski’s, Jeff (Neil Patrick Harris) & Laura (Laura Dern) or Paul’s good friend Dave (Jason Sudeikis), that come in and out of this film in a heartbeat, pretty much leaving them in the dust, when in reality they were actually interesting and added a layer to the overall story. It felt as though Director Alexander Payne wanted to focus so much on the idea of the Downsizing concept, that he sidelined quite a few characters along the way. His films have always been about characters, and while Paul and Ngoc (Hong Chau) share some great chemistry throughout this film, it’s hard not to wish that all of the characters throughout the first act were present throughout the entire film. This was a very curious issue I had while watching and definitely upon reflection.

As soon as you’re brought into this other world that has been built for those who shrunk themselves over the years, you will find yourself kind of transfixed at how interesting the visuals are and how lackluster the comedy is, but what you don’t expect is for the film to take a dramatic turn and really have you thinking hard about the world we live in and whether or not certain lines of dialogue are true about society in general. This is an eye-opening film in that regard and the third act is incredibly ambitious, but I just don’t think it really sticks the landing that it strives to achieve.

In the end, this is one of the most original ideas I can recall in recent memory, but an idea doesn’t make a film great. It’s the film itself that needs to win you over as a whole, and Downsizing just didn’t do that for me. On many accounts, this is a very impressive movie from a technical standpoint and it takes risks that I didn’t expect it to, but the risks it takes will only work for a few audiences members that can relate to it.

This is a movie that promises a lot and tries to deliver on all of those promises, while also shoving in side plots that make this film too emotionally complex to really be invested in the satirical aspects by the end. I wish this film went through a few more rewrites, because there is a satirical masterpiece of a movie in here somewhere, but it’s just not the product that you’ll be seeing in theatres soon. Downsizing might be worth your time in terms of originality, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up on it being a favorite.

Grade: C-
@pegsatthemovies

Media Review Screening: Wednesday, December 5, 2017 ~ Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
DOWNSIZING is now playing in theaters nationwide. To be released Worldwide in January 2018

1950's, 1960's, Crime, Dark Comedy, Drama, Home Invasion, Movie Reviews, Movies, Mystery, Uncategorized

REVIEW: “SUBURBICON” (2017) Paramount Pictures

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Oh Georgie and Matty – what have you done here!!! I mean I’m all for unique and different when it comes to filmmaking, but when a ‘unique’ film does absolutely nothing to intrigue its audience, aside from being somewhat tonal with a consistent setting, then it’s not really all that impressive in the end. With “SUBURBICON”, George Clooney’s latest attempt at direction, seems to leave a lot to be desired with trying to be a little too confident in itself when it came to presenting a powerful story. As is, I still don’t really know if this was supposed to be a story of racial history, a murder mystery, or somewhere in there was supposed to be a dark comedy. I found myself completely lost at times, when I don’t think we the audience, were supposed to be.

The quick run through as best I could understand it is 1950’s/60’s suburbia (you can catch that in the courtesy of the name) the first African-American family, The Mayers (Leith M Burke, Karimah Westbrook & Tony Espinosa) move in the all-white suburban town of “Suburbicon’. Then the neighbors from the back The Gardner’s, (Matt Damon, Julianne Moore & Noah Jupe) are tested when a group of men invade his home, killing his wife and leaving only his son and sister-in-law alive (also Julianne Moore). Falling for his wife’s sister and becoming a complete psychotic and uncontrollable man, this film quickly spirals out of control into a farce of random occurrences. Throughout the first act of this film, it seems like it’s going to be a satire that won’t hold anything back in terms of wackiness, but that’s very quickly thrown out the window, compensating with many subplots of murder and conspiracy. I found myself taken out of the film when the tone would shift this often, making for a very off-putting viewing experience.

Throughout the majority of this film, you’re asked to accept the horrible things that the main characters are doing, or just connect with Gardner’s young boy on an emotional level, but he’s not quite present enough in my opinion. Not until the third act do you really find yourself caring about some of the characters, which truly at that point, didn’t matter any more. This movie tries far too hard to be clever, funny, and surprising – so hard in fact that it just comes off as forced more often than not. You will find yourself along for a ride of random events and you won’t really know who to root for, let alone what or why it’s even happening or what the correlation is. Honestly there is zero correlation between the African-American family moving in and Matt Damon’s wife getting murdered. In fact, as you watch the movie you will notice that the African-American family actually plays no significant part in the actual plot of the movie as far as you can understand that plot to be. It is as if they are just there for filler and to maybe politicize the movie in some way – I’m truly not sure as it makes no sense. What is the driving point of the ‘dark comedy/murder mystery’ aspect and taking the viewer to watching how horrible this family is being treated. It wasn’t funny then and it’s not funny now – that this still happens. But that’s a whole different movie so again, why is it even here?

I may seem to be ripping this film apart for being uneven, but for all its flaws, there are actually one or two somewhat fun sequences involving an appearance by Claims Insurance Investigator Bud Cooper (Oscar Isaac). There is a lengthy scene when secrets are revealed and characters begin to evolve and Isaac elevated every moment of this portion of the film, but it almost is like they are grasping at straws by this point. You haven’t laughed yet, so it’s hard to really rustle one up by then. Up until that point, there really weren’t any characters to grasp onto, but the environment around them, along with the sets and the score, always helped to make the film feel more authentic than what its screenplay was presenting. This may sound confusing, but that’s due to the fact that this is a very confusing watch, and I’m thinking many will agree with me on that account.

From being written by Joel and Ethan Coen, to being directed by George Clooney, ‘Suburbicon’ just feels like a huge missed opportunity, due to the talent involved. Matt Damon and Julianne Moore both don’t deliver on performances here and feel about as average as you can get.

Overall, ‘Suburbicon’ is a film that will probably leave your mind as quickly as it came as it’s just a very forgettable film.

Grade: D
@pegsatthemovies

Media Review Screening: October 24, 2017 ~ Courtesy of Paramount Pictures
“SUBURBICON” will be released in theaters on Friday, October 27, 2017

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

awards, Movie Reviews, Movies, Oscar Awards

7 DAYS OF OSCARS: DAY 6 ~ “BEST ACTOR”

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Yes, the end of my “7 Days of Oscars” is nearing it’s close. For some this might be a hard category. For me, it is the simplest one as I knew from the minute the film was over, who was going to be my pick of the year. And yes, deservedly so.

BEST ACTOR

Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Being a fan of Cranston, it’s a notable performance here, but the film went pretty unnoticed by most as it was about the infamous ‘blacklist’ and I think some just thought it had been done before.

Matt Damon, The Martian
This for me, was actually a really good dramady performance by Damon. He was funny, yet serious when he needed to be. But sorry Matt, it’s going to have to be another time. 🙂

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant – MY PICK/WINNER
Please pick up your Golden Man.. FINALLY Mr. DiCaprio. 😀

Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Good, strong job by one of my favourite actors here. Lot’s of dialogue but just didn’t hit it on the mark for me.

Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
Last year’s winner and another good performance by Redmayne, but not of the Oscar caliber of last years so no..I don’t think Eddie’s doing a repeat.

And with that we are approaching Day 7 – The Final Day of “7 Days of Oscars” which will be of course, Best Picture. With that being said, I’m going to the Independent Spirit Awards tomorrow, Sat. the 27th, and instead of posting my BP picks, I’m just going to briefly address the Oscar controversy and save my last for the BIG DAY!! Cheers to you all until then..
#Oscars2016 #peggyatthemovies

**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!! 😀

Action, Action Adventure, Movie Reviews, Movies, Sci Fi

Review: “THE MARTIAN” (2015) 20th Century Fox

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the Martian
I’ve always had mixed feelings about Director Ridley Scott and his films. Some are fantastic and some..are not. Here he is back once again to exploring a familiar territory – space.

“THE MARTIAN” truly strikes cinematic gold here with what could be looked as a quasi-instruction manual on how to survive surefire death on Mars. Though this adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel (which I haven’t yet read) is the best thing Scott has given us in quite some time, he still goes where others have gone before – only this time, with a perky, life-affirming attitude.

The concept is catchy and simple: While on a mission on Mars, a major storm hits the crew of the Ares III facility causing them to abort and head for their escape rocket. As Commander Lewis (Jessica Chastain), cyber-whiz Beth Johanssen (Kate Mara), flight surgeon Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan), pilot Rick Martinez (Michael Pena) and chemist Alex Vogel (Aksel Hennie) head out into the vicious winds of Mars where botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is hit by debris and disappears. The others think he’s dead and leave without him. But guess what?! He’s alive! the_martian_2
And in order to survive he must “science the shit” out of the remaining supplies in a lab that was created to last only 31 days. His wit, scientific know-how and vlogs are what sustain him until the people at NASA – including NASA director Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels), mission director Dr. Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and flight director Mitch Henderson (Sean Bean) – can figure out how to save him. Add in the back ground techies Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis) & Rich Purnell (Donald Glover) who literally come up with the live-saving idea that make it possible to go back and get their man!! All the while they make this trip to Mars almost scenic as you can almost feel the atmosphere while watching.
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There are shifts here between humor, heart and suspense which are all handled quite well. Plus the soundtrack..ohhh the soundtrack… with it’s precise way that it works in the disco from the made-fun-of playlist of Lewis’ – with just a sampling is “Waterloo”
(ABBA) “Don’t Leave Me This Way” (Thelma Houston) and Vicki Sue Robinson’s “Turn The Beat Around” – is not only truly ingenious but yes, fabulous as well. It hits all the notes at just the right moment in Watney’s journey, giving us a look into his in-the-moment feelings in a perfectly stated way.

While this film is almost all Matt Damon, his very adequate supporting cast really gives the film a huge boost..along with the fact that it engages us intellectually, but not over the top as they make it all relatable and with a dose of humour I just loved. So it makes it hard to even list the one small unfortunate thing about THE MARTIAN as it’s good..really good.. it does stop just one step short of being electrifying. And in this case..that’s still not a bad thing.

Grade: B

Screening: Monday, September 21, 2015 ~ Courtesy of 20th Century Fox
Nationwide Release: Friday, October 2, 2015

Action, Action Adventure, Adventure, Movie Reviews, Movies, Sci Fi

Review: “INTERSTELLAR” (2014)

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interstellar
So had a few extra hours on Thanksgiving and yes, I finally saw “Interstellar” and boy was it LOOOOONNGGG really really long. Which would be fine if the first two hours were something special moving at a pace faster than the tortoise and the hare race. Mind you I pretty much love all of Christopher Nolan’s movies starting with the 1st one I really remember, Memento, which I thought was just so damn brilliant. Love the Batman franchise, loved Inception and actually got it (well okay..kinda got it) 🙂 But this one raises a few questions for me..one of the most notable is why does he like Anne Hathaway aka Anne – don’t forget the ‘E’ aka Anne Hackaway, so much?? She was the worst Cat Woman ever, and does no favours in this movie either..so why? ok..well as I will most likely never have that question truly answered..let’s move on.

At the beginning we meet “Cooper” (Matthew McConaughey) who is a widowed farmer/ex-astronaut, his young daughter “Murph” (Mackenzie Foy) who believes her room is haunted by a ghost who is trying to communicate with her; his father-in-law, with whom they live, “Donald” (John Lithgow) and his son, who is almost as an after thought, “Tom” (Timothee Chalamet). I say afterthought because the story heavily focuses on Cooper’s relationship with his daughter throughout the entire movie as they even label it as a sort of interstellar 1‘father/daughter’ story, and I almost felt bad for the son as he isn’t prominently featured at all. But I guess that’s neither here nor there as we move along through their story where there is a school reprimand involved, which leads into a school suspension whereas Cooper & Murph then have the time to be ‘discovering’ that the ghost is actually sending them coded messages that gives them the coordinates to find which takes them on the journey where they find the secret bunker so-to-speak of NASA. See the world is almost at an end and with crops blights left & right, taking away food this planet will never see again, time is running out to figure what to do next and possibly where to go.

In steps “Professor Brand” (Michael Caine) and his daughter “Amelia Brand” (Anne Hathaway). Prof. Brand explains to them that a wormhole apparently created by alien intelligence, has given what’s left of Earth’s inhabitants hope for survival and that NASA’s old ‘Lazarus’ missions have noted 3 different planets orbiting the Black Hole ‘Gargantua’ that are potentials for human habitation.

To cut a really long story as short as can be done because I will be honest, not only would it take pages to describe the entire film (as some reviews have done..ZZzzzzz), the first two hours of this movie did not wow me in the slightest and somewhat dragged on. As they mount a mission to find which planet is best. The mission named ‘Endurance’, is where Cooper joins Brand’s daughter, biologist Amelia; scientists “Romilly” (David Gyasi) and “Doyle” (Wes Bentley); and robots TARS (voiced by Bill Irwin) and CASE (voiced by Josh Stewart). The TARS & CASE robots were pretty much my favourite ‘characters’ of the movie btw.. so to sum it up..they enter the wormhole and head to Miller, but discover the planet is so close to Gargantua that it experiences severe gravitational time dilation: each hour on the surface is seven years on Earth. It’s inhospitable to humans as it is covered by a shallow ocean roiled by enormous tidal waves. As Amelia attempts to recover Miller’s data, a wave hits, killing Doyle and delaying the shuttle’s departure. When Cooper and Amelia return to Endurance, 23 years have passed.interstellar 2

On Earth, the now-adult “Murphy” (Jessica Chastain) now a NASA scientist assisting Brand who, on his deathbed, Brand admits he already solved the problem and determined the project is impossible and he covered up his findings and put his faith in a “Plan B” As Murphy tries to warn her also now adult aged brother Tom, (played by Casey Affleck), and his family that it’s almost at the end of time and they must move on she concludes that Brand’s equation could work with additional data from a black hole’s singularity. (yes I had to look up this last sentence :))
Low on fuel, Endurance can only visit one more planet before returning to Earth. After much argument the team votes for Mann’s planet, but they find it to be icy and inhospitable. “Mann” (Matt Damon) reveals that he knew Plan B was the mission’s goal all along, and faked data about his planet so Endurance would rescue him which of course goes awry, and Damon’s odd character turn here as a villianous bad guy fails and he’s gonzo! interstellar 5

As they are nearly out of fuel, and this is truly where I got the most frightened as there is a moment where you think that Hackaway’s character Amelia, is going to be the last person left to live. Frightening truly frightening thought for most of us, and yes I am being completely facetious here..or am I.. ha! It’s also where the movie FINALLY started to pick up some and get to the brilliant part as they emerge in an extra-dimensional “tesseract”, where time appears in different dimension with portals that show glimpses of Murphy’s childhood bedroom at various times. Cooper then realizes that the wormhole and tesseract were created by a future form of humanity transcending time and space, so he was the one and now again, that did and can communicate with Murphy as the “ghost” and try to save humanity. Using the gravitational waves they discovered early on a watch, Cooper transmits TARS’s data to the adult Murphy through Morse code, allowing her to solve Brand’s equation and evacuate Earth.
Years later, Cooper awakens aboard a NASA space habitat and reunites with the now elderly Murphy (Ellen Burstyn), who has led the exodus and Earth is to be saved. Lastly, Cooper does have to go out on one final mission, to find Amelia who is still out there on Edmunds planet. hmmm.. Do I see a sequel here?!! 😀

There are no stand-out performances here. McConaughey, coming off a fantastic 2013 with crazy good performances isn’t going to get any nominations for this role as it’s rather basic. Thankfully Chastain steps up to the plate to relieve us of the agony that is Anne Hathaway (Hackaway) and as the young Murph’s, Foy also does quite well. Visually, as expected, the film can be quite stunning, but mostly only once they get into space. I appreciated Interstellar’s grand ambition and the fact that Nolan took on astrophysics and a major studio gave him $200 million to do it. If anyone could try to tackle relativity and the space-time continuum in a narrative, it’s Nolan and his intellect as a director. But, alas it proved too much to take on and make sense of, even for him. It’s is however an interesting effort worth seeing just for its concept in general, though some may end up feeling merely puzzled, which, as my friend Leif noted, knowing Nolan’s oeurve is probably the whole point.
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Grade: C+

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(See grading scale)