It is like a lot of Liman movies. It trades sense often for flash but it isn’t bad at doing it. When I think of dumb-but-fun-flicks, this is what I want. It beats sorting past 100 action hero flicks at a Redbox. Wow, Redbox. Are those still around?
Categories: Movie and Series Reviews, 3.5/5
BlacKkKlansman (2018) 3.5/5
I’m torn because I really loved some aspects but some liberties felt out of place. Starting there, I think the romance plot and the mustache twirling officer felt a bit hamfisted. To not go into spoilers, I will just say this reaches a peak at the end of the film.
That being said, the cast did wonderful and there was some really good writing. I also felt mixing in direct-life clips was handled well and that is not easy to do.
I ended up peaking the wiki page for this one after and I found a lot of the parts I had trouble with were the parts adjusted to fit a Hollywood movie. Kinda a shame because the movie is fantastic in so many ways. Obviously there was a way to do these things but as is I think they felt too from-the-script-to-the-screen. It didn’t feel natural.
Don’t let what I am saying deter you though. I feel I am being a bit picky and I will probably wish I had given another half-star later.
3:10 to Yuma (2007) 3.5/5
A good movie but a little too cleanly puzzled together. The scripts cleanliness takes front stage to character motivations. This makes for some admittedly fun one liners and impressive scenes, but it feels very Hollywood by the end. Even the wrapping up feels like everyone says the right thing in unnatural ways to get it to the overall cool idea. This leaves Dallas Roberts, as the money man, to just be super agreeable at every step.
This also may be the cleanest R rated film. I am not advocating for going Bone Tomahawk, but it detracts how every death is so visually polite. Especially when quite a lot of characters are motivated by dealing and avoiding death out.
If that seems tough on the film, it is only because I really like certain parts. Ben Foster is fantastic and chews what he can with his dialogue. Peter Fonda really nailed his holyer-than-thou role. Bale is awesome and lets scenes breath around him. It is always fun to see Alan Tudyk, even if his character felt very cut down in editing here or in need of some actual doctoring scenes along the journey.
End of Watch (2012) 3.5/5
End of Watch dances all over the line of over-the-top and plausible reality. Its characters are immensely watchable, even down to the supporting cast like Frank Grillo and David Harbour.
The character-perspective camera work captures the chaos in a unique way and furthers character development. However, it is also a distraction as the film explains in unbelievable ways why various characters are recording things. Ultimately though it feels unnecessary as the film mixes this documentary style with regular camera work.
Some of the script is really good, genuinely eliciting laughs, and some feels written with a hammer. The hammer can be said for a lot of things though, even outside of dialogue, with a movie that starts off with its lead cops immediately breaking their cover to walk up in a shoot out for the cool guys factor.
A really rough spot is the curbside gangsters, a constant villainous element throughout. These characters were comically mustache twirly. That could have worked fine, but they got too much screen time and it only greatly detracted.
It would be hard to have a bad time with End of Watch, just be ready to suspend some disbelief.