Don't Look Up Review

4.0 Stars

A comet the size of Mt. Everest has been discovered by a pair of astronomers and it's what they call a planet killer.  It will impact in just over six months.  Grad student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) found the comet and her Professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) charted its ominous, destructive course.  Now comes the challenge of alerting those who can do something about it.

With the help of NASA's Dr. Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan), they first attempt to warn US President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and her incompetent son, who also happens to be her Chief of Staff, Jason (Jonah Hill).  They are more concerned with political optics than the pending doom hurling their way.  The trio are forced to seek alternative methods for spreading the word.

They start with a morning talk show with cheery, sunshine hosts Brie (Cate Blanchett) and Jack (Tyler Perry) who try to give a positive spin to the whole gloomy tale of apocalyptic proportions.  Some believe that the future of the planet is in danger.  Others have decided to politicize the whole event to save face and encourage the population to just "Don't Look Up".   Because if you can't see it, it isn't real.

Don't Look Up is a dark but silly satire written and directed by Adam McKay and is nominated for the Best Picture Oscar category.  McKay is no stranger to absurd comedies having directed the Anchorman movies, Step Brothers, and The Other Guys.  He's also quite familiar with the political dramedy genre with The Big Short and Vice under his belt.  

Social media influencers begin to share their own thoughts on the matter and their followers regurgitate their opinions and create opposing hashtag wars between #dontlookup and #justlookup.  And, of course, as an added plot twist, billionaire tech mogul Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance) and his team believe there to be trillions of dollars worth of important tech material.

Half a dozen years ago, this would have just been a smart, nonsensical satire like Mars Attacks meets Armageddon.  Instead of aliens coming to a planet of nitwit, incompetent leaders, it's a comet.  But considering recent political and global events, this one hits a little close to home.  Things that were once absurdly blown out of proportion for comedic effect are now seen as, "Oh yeah, that's actually how our government works."  

Don't Look Up is a smart, funny, poignant mirror of our own society that's almost difficult to watch because of how just on the nose it hits.  If you remove current political talking points like "the election was stolen" or "the Covid vaccines are not safe" or especially "Covid isn't real" and you replace them with a planet-killing comet, you have this movie.  President Orlean, who is more concerned about upcoming mid-term elections, encourages her base to just "don't look up."  It's very reminiscent of former President Trump saying that if you just don't test for Covid, there would be less cases.  For those in the future reading this, yes, that really happened.  

Without giving away the ending, everyone in the film ultimately has to make a decision on how they will spend their final hours on earth should the inevitable actually happen.  What I will say is the end is beautifully done; however, stick around as the credits start to roll for the official ending.  

I was excited to see this movie and gave it a 4.0 Star Prediction.  I was dead on with my prediction and I'm going to stick with my 4.0 Stars.  I thoroughly enjoy Don't Look Up.  The performances were spot on.  And it was original.  Yes, there have been political satires, there have been apocalyptic films.  But this was so well done.  I'll definitely want to watch it again and it has a good chance of owning it in my personal collection.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Don't Look Up Preview

A comet the size of Mt. Everest has been discovered by a pair of astronomers and it's what they call a planet killer.  It will impact in just over six months.  Grad student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) found the comet and her Professor Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio) charted its ominous, destructive course.  Now comes the challenge of alerting those who can do something about it.

With the help of NASA's Dr. Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan), they first attempt to warn US President Orlean (Meryl Streep) and her incompetent son, who also happens to be her Chief of Staff, Jason (Jonah Hill).  They are more concerned with political optics than the pending doom hurling their way.  The trio are forced to seek alternative methods for spreading the word.

They start with a morning talk show with cheery, sunshine hosts Brie (Cate Blanchett) and Jack (Tyler Perry) who try to give a positive spin to the whole gloomy tale of apocalyptic proportions.  Some believe that the future of the planet is in danger.  Others have decided to politicize the whole event to save face and encourage the population to just "Don't Look Up".   Because if you can't see it, it isn't real.

Don't Look Up is a dark but silly satire written and directed by Adam McKay and is nominated for the Best Picture Oscar category.  McKay is no stranger to absurd comedies having directed the Anchorman movies, Step Brothers, and The Other Guys.  He's also quite familiar with the political dramedy genre with The Big Short and Vice under his belt.  

In the preview of this Netflix original movie, the trio of astronomers drop the bomb of the comet to end the world in the Oval Office to President Orlean.  Her inept decision is to "sit tight and assess".   The astronomers repeat the phrase, astounded by what she just said.  Chief of Staff Jason clarifies what she means.  "The sit tight part comes first.  And then you have to digest it.  That's the assessment period."

Social media influencers share their own thoughts on the matter and their followers regurgitate their opinions and create opposing hashtag wars between #dontlookup and #justlookup.  And, of course, as an added plot twist, billionaire tech mogul Peter Isherwell (Mark Rylance) and his team believe there to be trillions of dollars worth of important tech material.

Half a dozen years ago, this would have just been a smart, nonsensical satire like Mars Attacks meets Armageddon.  Instead of aliens coming to a planet of nitwit, incompetent leaders, it's a comet.  But considering recent political and global events, this one hits a little close to home.  Things that were once absurdly blown out of proportion for comedic effect are now seen as, "Oh yeah, that's actually how our government works."  

Don't Look Up looks to be a clever, poignant,  dark satire with a wonderful cast that delivers a smart and funny performance in this film that would be ridiculously silly if it wasn't so plausible.  I'll be honest, I'm not the biggest Leo fan.  I didn't really care for him in any of his earlier works until The Departed, Inception and Django.  Again, didn't care for him in Gatsby or Wolf of Wall Street or even Revenant.  Here's the thing: I couldn't even really tell you why.  I don't have anything against him, I just never really got the hype.  But I really can't wait to watch Don't Look Up.  And not in spite of Leo being in it, because of his performance in the previews.  The story sounds smart and fun, the performances look spot on.  I'm excited to see this movie and giving it a 4.0 Star Prediction.  I think I'll thoroughly enjoy it and want to watch it again with a good chance of owning it in my personal collection.  Am I right?  We shall see.

The Revenant Review

2.5 Stars

 

Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) was a frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s.  It was a particularly dangerous and desperate time as the nearly 300 year old tradition of fur trading was in its waning years.  Europeans came to America hoping for gold and silver in the early 1500s.  They were disappointed, but found their riches in fur, particularly beavers.  By the 1800s, beavers were scarce as they were over-hunted, and they weren't fetching the prices they used to and many turned to logging and working in lumber mills.  This particular expedition proved especially treacherous for Glass as he was mauled by a bear and left for dead by his team.  Glass made his way home, fueled by anger and his thirst for revenge against John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), the man who left him for dead. 

The Revenant was nominated for 12 Oscars and took home 3.  Alejandro G. Iñárritu took home the Best Director award while the film also won for Best Cinematography.  And, of course, DiCaprio finally got his Oscar for Best Actor that many felt was long overdue.  It was his fifth nomination for acting as he was previously recognized for his performances in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Aviator, Blood Diamond, and The Wolf of Wallstreet.

At first, John Fitzgerald is just a business man.  He wants to stay the course and get as many pelts to take home to get as much money as they can.  His decision to abandon Glass after the bear mauling was initially just a logical one taking into account Glass' chances of survival versus how much it would hinder their trek home trying to save him.  That logic quickly turned vicious as Fitzgerald's greed and desperation turned murderous.  

I thought there were some great cinematic scenes, but most of them were shown in the brief preview.  Of course the big scene is Glass being mauled by a bear which looked mostly realistic.  As for the Oscar for Best Actor, I feel this was done out of the same sentiment that kept Tom Hanks from being nominated for Saving Mr. Banks or Captain Philips.  Most speculated he was omitted because he's already won and he'll probably win again, so let someone else have a shot.  This was the opposite.  DiCaprio has been nominated and many feel he should have won already, so they gave it to him.  I don't doubt he would have won an Oscar some day, but I don't think this should have been the one that got him there.  Hardy was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and, had Mark Rylance not been nominated for his performance in Bridge of Spies (rightly nominated and won as I speculated immediately after seeing the movie), he surely would have won for his performance in The Revenant.

I gave The Revenant a hesitant 3.5 star prediction.  It dragged and didn't have much of a plot and the cinematography was played out in the preview.  I give the movie 2.0 stars but bump it up to 2.5 because of Hardy's performance.  It's a renter at best, but wait to catch it on cable and you'll be fine.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

The Revenant Preview

Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) was a frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s.  It was a particularly dangerous and desperate time as the nearly 300 year old tradition of fur trading was in its waning years.  Europeans came to America hoping for gold and silver in the early 1500s.  They were disappointed, but found their riches in fur, particularly beavers.  By the 1800s, beavers were scarce as they were over-hunted, and they weren't fetching the prices they used to and many turned to logging and working in lumber mills.  This particular expedition proved especially treacherous for Glass as he was mauled by a bear and left for dead by his team.  Glass made his way home, fueled by anger and his thirst for revenge against John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), his former confidant and the man he blamed for his abandonment. 

The Revenant was nominated for 12 Oscars and took home 3.  Alejandro G. Iñárritu took home the Best Director award while the film also won for Best Cinematography.  And, of course, DiCaprio finally got his Oscar for Best Actor that many felt was long overdue.  It was his fifth nomination for acting as he was previously recognized for his performances in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Aviator, Blood Diamond, and The Wolf of Wallstreet.

The Revenant is just over 2 and a half hours long, so already there's concern about a lot of down time and dragging scenes.  Of course, the preview gives no indication of that as each second is filled with action, intensity and some absolutely gorgeous cinematography that already makes me see why it won in that category.  It was passed over for Best Picture along with The Martian, Room, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Mad Max and The Big Short as Spotlight took home the award.  I didn't necessarily agree with Spotlight winning, but it gives me further pause that The Revenant fell short in the eyes of the Academy.  At least it didn't go to Mad Max which swept the Oscars in every other category.  

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not the biggest fan of DiCaprio.  I think he's a really good actor, but I think he gets way more praise than he deserves.  He is a really good actor that gets great roles in great movies and always has.  But it seems people are putting him on the level of Robert DeNiro, Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino.  He may get there someday, but I don't think he's there just yet.  I'm trying to keep an open mind, so I give The Revenant a hesitant 3.5 star prediction.  I think I'll enjoy the movie, especially the breath-taking cinematography; however, I think it will drag and I think it's one of those movies that will be enough to see it once and will not make it to my home collection.  Am I right?  We shall see.

The Wolf of Wall Street Review

4.0 Stars

The Wolf of Wall Street stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, a Long Island stock broker who served 3 years in prison for his part in defrauding investors in a securities scam in the 1990s. The Wolf of Wall Street is nominated for five Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director (Martin Scorsese).  This is DiCaprio's fourth acting Oscar nomination.  This is Scorsese's ninth nomination.  He won the Oscar for his direction of the 2006 movie The Departed, which was another all-star ensemble cast including DiCaprio.  This would be the fifth time Scorsese and DiCaprio have teamed up for a blockbuster hit.

Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio) began working on Wall Street when he was 22 years old.  His first day with a broker's license was tragically October 19, 1987, also known as Black Monday, when the world's stocks plummeted and Belfort lost his job.  Desperate for work, he finds success for a firm called Investor Center.  With his newly acquired wealth and a few of his friends, he leases out an empty garage and starts his own firm, Stratton-Oakmont.  Their continued success gains the attention of the financial world and the FBI.  Forbes magazine dubbed Belfort as the "Wolf of Wall Street". His goal was to make more money than he and his friends knew what to do with.  Throwing lavish parties and spending ridiculous amounts of money, not only were Belfort's trading practices shady and illegal, so were his methods of hiding his money from the federal government.  His world of family, friends, parties and drugs eventually come crashing down around him. 

The preview for The Wolf of Wall Street just barely gives you a glimpse into the seedy world of finance that is a breeding ground for complete and utter debauchery and total lack of self-control or inhibition.  On Belfort's first day on Wall Street, he is taken to lunch by senior partner Mark Hannah (Matthew McConaughey) who snorts cocaine, drinks  martinis and talks about sexual gratification openly with Belfort.  Belfort innocently declines the drugs and booze and naively suggests that making money for their clients in the process of making money for themselves would be a good thing.  Hannah quickly shuts down that idea and says it's only about making themselves rich.  Within months, Belfort is in a strip club, doing enough daily drugs to sedate Manhattan, and drinking excessively.  He is making so much money that he snorts a line of cocaine off his desk at work with a hundred dollar bill, crumples the bill and tosses it in a waste basket full of them.  He comments that he made forty-nine million dollars last year and that upset him because he was three million shy of a million a week.  He is constantly with different women, cheating on both of his wives.  He is constantly cheating investors out of their money and training his staff to do the same.  This film is graphic and disturbing.  I laugh briefly but am quickly nauseated to remember that this actually happened, and probably still happens in the world of finance among those who care for nothing than to have more money than they know what to do with.  I don't care to watch it again and it will not be making it into my personal collection.

So why the 4.0 star rating?  Because that's exactly what the movie aimed to do.  It isn't glorifying this behavior.  It's bringing it into the spotlight.  It shows how dark and ugly riches can make people.  And co-star Johah Hill understood that fully when he took on the role of Belfort's co-founder and best friend Donnie Azoff.  "It was understood going in that there was no holding back.  Every day we were doing something crazy, and it's fun and exciting working for Scorsese, and then when I'd be driving home at the end of the day, I'd feel a wave of guilt come over me because I treated people so badly that day."  And Hill was just playing a role.  Playing a character.  Except these aren't just fictional characters in someone's mind like a psychopath in the mind of Stephen King.  These people actually exist and they actually don't have those moments of guilt or remorse for the things they've done or to whom they were done.  While the FBI was investigating Belfort and his company, none of his co-workers ratted on anyone, giving the FBI no information at all that could help with their investigation.  They presented Belfort with enough evidence that suggested he could go to prison for 20 years to life if he refused to cooperate. In exchange, he would only serve 4 years.  He agrees to wear a wire, but slides a note to Azoff alerting him to the fact they were being recorded.  The FBI recovers the note and arrests Belfort with no more deals.  However, once he tells them everything he knows, his sentence is reduced to a mere 3 years in a facility where he is seen playing tennis daily.  Belfort went on to write a best-selling novel about his experience about which this movie was written, he had a guest appearance in the movie, and is currently giving salesmanship seminars.  It's disturbing that our financial and our justice system allow and encourage this type of behavior while the hardest working people can barely get by. 

Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio give amazing performances and effectively portray the slimiest dirt bags you could possibly imagine.  To me, however, it's just sad that even in bringing about such evil to light, the performances and film themselves are rewarded with nominations for the best of the year.  Maybe I'm just getting too old and maybe I'm just a prude, but this seems a bit like showing criminals on the news.  Yes, it gets ratings, but it also gets them what they want: their moment of fame.  In fact, the story of criminality continues for the real Jordan Belfort.  He was paid $1.045 million dollars for the rights to his book.  According to the government, only $21,000 of that went to repay his victims.  In 2003, he was ordered to repay $110.4 million dollars to his victims.  He has only paid back $11.6 million.  Though it doesn't glorify the behaviors, The Wolf of Wall Street does still show that you can cheat people and make yourself filthy rich, if you don't mind the filthy part.  And, even if you get caught, if you have enough money to start with, you'll still end up much better off than most people.  So, I reluctantly give 4.0 stars to this disturbingly graphic look into the world of Wall Street.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

The Wolf of Wall Street Preview

The Wolf of Wall Street stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, a Long Island stock broker who served 3 years in prison for his part in defrauding investors in a securities scam in the 1990s. The Wolf of Wall Street is nominated for five Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director (Martin Scorsese).  This is DiCaprio's fourth acting Oscar nomination.  This is Scorsese's ninth nomination.  He won the Oscar for his direction of the 2006 movie The Departed, which was another all-star ensemble cast including DiCaprio.  This would be the fifth time Scorsese and DiCaprio have teamed up for a blockbuster hit.

Jordan Belfort began working on Wall Street when he was 22 years old.  His first day with a broker's license was tragically October 19, 1987, also known as Black Monday, when the world's stocks plummeted and Belfort lost his job.  Desperate for work, he finds success for a firm called Investor Center.  With his newly acquired wealth and a few of his friends, he leases out an empty garage and starts his own firm, Stratton-Oakmont.  Their continued success gains the attention of the financial world and the FBI.  Forbes magazine dubbed Belfort as the "Wolf of Wall Street". His goal was to make more money than he and his friends knew what to do with.  Throwing lavish parties and spending ridiculous amounts of money, not only were Belfort's trading practices shady and illegal, so were his methods of hiding his money from the federal government.  His world of family, friends, parties and drugs eventually come crashing down around him. 

From the preview, this looks like another huge success for the DiCaprio and Scorsese team.  The Wolf of Wall Street boasts a cast of stars including Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Favreau, and even a cameo from the real Jordan Belfort.  The film looks disturbingly hilarious.  What I mean by that is that the performances, the writing, even the plot will make you laugh, until you pause for a second to realize this actually happened.  For Belfort, it didn't matter if his clients made money, only that he did through any means possible.  Those of you who know me, know I'm not the biggest DiCaprio fan, though I am a fan of nearly all the films he's been a part of.  This looks like it will be no exception.  I looks like an unsettling, sad, and funny look into the dark side of Wall Street with great direction and star-studded contributions from Hollywood's who's who.  I predict a wild entertaining ride, though a long ride as this film is just shy of three hours long.  I'm predicting a 4 star rating which means this should be well worth the money in the theatres, something I'd watch again, and has a decent chance of making it to my home video collection.  Am I right?  We shall see.

Django Unchained Review

4 Stars

Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained is the story of a slave name Django (Jamie Foxx) who's freedom is bought by Dr. King Schultz (Christopher Waltz).  Schultz trains Django to become a bounty hunter.  Django then uses his skills to confront the brutal Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) to rescue his wife. 

Best known for his uncomfortably brutally funny movies like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and From Dusk Til Dawn, Django Unchained is bound to be another over-the-top gory and violent movie that is smart, well-acted, and so cleverly put together that you find yourself laughing and cringing at the same time and wondering how you could possibly be doing both.  The answer is simple: Quentin Tarantino.

And Django Unchained was exactly that.  Perhaps I'm getting a little old for movies like this, or maybe this movie was just particularly violent, but I really did find it to be uncomfortably violent at times and did find myself cringing in my seat.  I know Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs were violent movies, but I don't recall being this disturbed for this long at what I saw in a movie.  As for the laughing, it was more brief moments of well-timed brevity that were a much welcomed and much needed break from the otherwise non-stop bloodshed. 

That being said, it was still done very well.  It was smart, gritty, gruesome, but a touching albeit unconventional love story.  Jamie Foxx was sharp as the slave with a vengeance Django.  Christopher Waltz was perfect and stole the show for me as the dentist turned bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz.  I even enjoyed Leonardo DiCaprio's performance as the business man Calvin Candie.  Django Unchained gets a solid 4 stars for the original script, the well shot movie, the amazing acting performances, the choice in music accompaniment, and even the brutality which was probably more accurate than most movies dare to show about this era in our history.  Well worth the money, highly recommended, though not 100% sure I will add this to my collection, it's something I could see myself watching again . . . when I can stomach it.  So what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Django Unchained Preview

Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained is the story of a slave name Django (Jamie Foxx) who's freedom is bought by Dr. King Schultz (Christopher Waltz).  Schultz trains Django to become a bounty hunter.  Django then uses his skills to confront the brutal Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio) to rescue his wife. 

Best known for his uncomfortably brutally funny movies like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and From Dusk Til Dawn, Django Unchained is bound to be another over-the-top gory and violent movie that is smart, well-acted, and so cleverly put together that you find yourself laughing and cringing at the same time and wondering how you could possibly be doing both.  The answer is simple: Quentin Tarantino.  I'm a big fan of Tarantino's style of directing and Django looks to be right on par with one of his best.  I admit, I'm not a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio and I know that will make me unpopular with most of the world, especially the ladies, but that's even more credit to Tarantino for making me want to see this movie still.

From the previews, Django Unchained looks to be a cross between the bloody, action-packed, uncomfortably brutal scenes of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs and the hilarious irreverence for a very serious topic (slavery) of Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles.  I predict Tarantino will work his insane magic once again and deliver on at least a 4 star movie that will have me waiting anxiously for the Blu Ray release to either watch again, or actually add to my collection.  Am I right?  We shall see.