10 Cloverfield Lane Review

4.0 Stars

10 Cloverfield Lane is exactly why I love doing these previews and reviews.  The movie begins, just as the preview suggests, with Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) getting into a pretty bad car accident.  When she awakens, she is handcuffed to a wall in a bunker.  Her captor, or savior, Howard (John Goodman) informs her that it's not safe outside of the bunker.  Emmett (John Gallagher Jr) is also in the bunker and appears to be Howard's friend, or co-captor.  It takes a little while to reveal this, but Emmett helped Howard build the bunker and begged to be let in when whatever happened outside the bunker happened.  Michelle attempts to escape despite Howard's fervent pleas that he is doing this for her own good. 

The movie was directed by Dan Trachtenberg who really hasn't done much before this release.  I love me some John Goodman.  Mary Elizabeth Winstead has been around, but isn't a big name actress.  She was in A Good Day to Die Hard as John McClane's daughter Lucy and was in a cute film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World as Romona Flowers, Scott's love interest.  There's actually a scene in the movie that Die Hard fans will be waiting for Michelle to say, "Come out to the coast, have a few laughs."  If you don't know what I mean, you aren't a true Die Hard fan.  Spoiler alert, she doesn't say it.

My point is, you know you're going to get something great from John Goodman and JJ Abrams, but the rest of the cast and crew, along with the preview, leave you wondering what exactly that something is.  It's wonderful.  It looks like a great thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat and also guessing as to the true motives of Howard and Emmett in the bunker.  I had no idea what I was about to get into, but I was excited to see 10 Cloverfield Lane.  Just like the ambiguous trailer, the movie itself keeps you guessing as to Howard's true intentions and what, if anything, really happened outside the bunker.  It has twists and turns and the last half hour had me saying, "Wait, what?"  "No way" and "What the what?" at least 5 times.  I anticipated 4.0 stars for a well-written, well-acted, twisting scary movie that I might just want to buy and watch again, and I'm sticking with that.  Well worth it and might just add this one to my collected, but definitely want to see again.   So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

10 Cloverfield Lane Preview

10 Cloverfield Lane is exactly why I love doing these previews and reviews.  The brief and mysterious preview begins with Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) getting into a pretty bad car accident.  When she awakens, she is handcuffed to a wall in a bunker.  Her captor, or savior, Howard (John Goodman) informs her that it's not safe outside of the bunker.  Emmett (John Gallagher Jr) is also in the bunker and appears to be Howard's friend, or co-captor.  Michelle attempts to escape despite Howard's fervent pleas that he is doing this for her own good.  We do get a brief glimpse of Michelle outside of a large house that in emitting a bright white light with some terrifying music playing to imply that the light isn't a good sign.

10 Cloverfield Lane was produced by JJ Abrams who is responsible for the successful recent Star Wars installment, the last few Star Trek features, and several of the Mission: Impossible films; but this seems like a movie we wouldn't necessarily expect from Abrams.

The movie was directed by Dan Trachtenberg who really hasn't done much before this release.  I love me some John Goodman.  Mary Elizabeth Winstead has been around, but isn't a big name actress.  She was in A Good Day to Die Hard as John McClane's daughter Lucy and was in a cute film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World as Romona Flowers, Scott's love interest.

My point is, you know you're going to get something great from John Goodman and JJ Abrams, but the rest of the cast and crew, along with the preview, leave you wondering what exactly that something is.  It's wonderful.  It looks like a great thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat and also guessing as to the true motives of Howard and Emmett in the bunker.  I love it, I'm excited to watch 10 Cloverfield Lane, and I have no idea what I'm about to get into.  I'm anticipating 4.0 stars for a well-written, well-acted, twisting scary movie that I might just want to buy and watch again.  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.

Steve Jobs Review

3.5 Stars

 

In 1965, Jim Sutherland believed a computer could be small enough and practical enough to be in an average American home.  Steve Jobs would have been 10 years old at the time.  In 1969, the Honeywell Kitchen Computer was set to be the pioneer in home computing, except for one problem: they didn't sell a single one.  It wasn't until the late 1970s with the mass production of the microprocessor that the first home computers were made available to the general public and they became popular in the 1980s for video gaming and writing documents.  By 1982, it was estimated that 621,000 computers were in America's homes costing an average $530.  Many credit Apple co-founder Steve Jobs as a pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s.  

Jobs and his co-founder Steve Wozniak fought over control and Jobs was eventually forced out of Apple.  He took a few of his employees and started NeXT, a computer platform development company that catered to the higher-education and business markets.  He funded a visual effects company Pixar that released the first ever fully computer animated feature film, Toy Story.  Apple purchased NeXT in 1997 and Jobs returned as CEO, saving Apple from the brink of bankruptcy.  He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003 and died of respiratory arrest related to the tumor in October of 2011.  

His power struggle with co-founder Wozniak (Seth Rogen) wasn't his only battle.  Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) fathered a daughter with his girlfriend Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston) that he denied publicly for years.  His marriage, his family, his business relationships and his health all suffered as the genius struggled to make the ideas in his head become a reality.  Fassbender was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Steve Jobs.  The preview alone would warrant that nomination not only for his acting portrayal of Jobs, but also the physical transformation that took place through the film as Jobs aged and also ailed.

The movie starts in 1984 with the release of the Macintosh.  Jobs is a control freak and berates his entire team and alienates those who have helped him get to where he is.  He has a confrontation with his ex girlfriend Chrisann and his daughter Lisa who he denies is his daughter.  The movie ends in 1998 at the triumphant launch of the iMac that started the Mac revolution in America.  In 1998, Jobs would have been married to Laurene Powell for 7 years, something that is never brought up in the movie.  And, according to several sources I've read, the movie takes several things out of context and pulls things from different times to fit snugly in a 2 hour movie over 3 major events in Jobs' career.  So, like so many other "based on actual events" movies, the point of this is not going to be accuracy, but effectiveness as an entertaining movie with bits and hints of facts thrown in throughout.  To that end, Steve Jobs was a success.

 

Steve Jobs is one of those movies that makes my rating scale a little tough.  I feel the need to remind you that my scale is based on two things: first, how accurately the preview represented the final product; and second, the likelihood of a movie making it to my home collection.  A film could have received bad reviews and been nominated for no awards, but if I loved it and know I will own it, I will give it between 4 and 5 stars.  On the flip side, I can watch a film and appreciate the talent both on and off screen and I can agree in the slew of nominations that a movie might receive; however, if it's one that I know I will not own, it will still only receive 2 or 3 stars on my scale.  I originally went in with very low expectations giving an anticipatory 2.5 star rating.  However, like Moneyball or The Social Network, regardless of the accuracy of the events or timelines, it was a fascinating story based on things that actually happened.  It was entertaining and extremely well acted.  So, I'm raising my rated to 3.5 stars.  It was worth it to watch and I'll surely catch it again when it's on TV.   So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.

Steve Jobs Preview

In 1965, Jim Sutherland believed a computer could be small enough and practical enough to be in an average American home.  Steve Jobs would have been 10 years old at the time.  In 1969, the Honeywell Kitchen Computer was set to be the pioneer in home computing, except for one problem: they didn't sell a single one.  It wasn't until the late 1970s with the mass production of the microprocessor that the first home computers were made available to the general public and they became popular in the 1980s for video gaming and writing documents.  By 1982, it was estimated that 621,000 computers were in America's homes costing an average $530.  Many credit Apple co-founder Steve Jobs as a pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s.  

Jobs and his co-founder Steve Wozniak fought over control and Jobs was eventually forced out of Apple.  He took a few of his employees and started NeXT, a computer platform development company that catered to the higher-education and business markets.  He funded a visual effects company Pixar that released the first ever fully computer animated feature film, Toy Story.  Apple purchased NeXT in 1997 and Jobs returned as CEO, saving Apple from the brink of bankruptcy.  He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2003 and died of respiratory arrest related to the tumor in October of 2011.  

His power struggle with co-founder Wozniak (Seth Rogen) wasn't his only battle.  Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) fathered a daughter with his girlfriend Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston) that he denied publicly for years.  His marriage, his family, his business relationships and his health all suffered as the genius struggled to make the ideas in his head become a reality.  Fassbender was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Steve Jobs.  The preview alone would warrant that nomination not only for his acting portrayal of Jobs, but also the physical transformation that took place through the film as Jobs aged and also ailed.

Steve Jobs is one of those movies that makes my rating scale a little tough.  I feel the need to remind you that my scale is based on two things: first, how accurately the preview represented the final product; and second, the likelihood of a movie making it to my home collection.  A film could have received bad reviews and been nominated for no awards, but if I loved it and know I will own it, I will give it between 4 and 5 stars.  On the flip side, I can watch a film and appreciate the talent both on and off screen and I can agree in the slew of nominations that a movie might receive; however, if it's one that I know I will not own, it will still only receive 2 or 3 stars on my scale.  And I'm afraid that Steve Jobs will fall into the latter category.  I think I'll enjoy it, appreciate the story and the acting talents, agree with the nominations it's received, but have a feeling that seeing it once will be enough.  It's because of that, I'm giving an anticipatory rating of 2.5 stars. However, the film was directed by Danny Boyle who also brought us Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours and was written by Aaron Sorkin who was responsible for Moneyball, The Social Network and A Few Good Men.  So maybe they'll deliver more than I'm anticipating. Am I right?  We shall see.

In the Heart of the Sea Review

3.5 Stars

 

"Call me Ishmael."  It's the opening line of Moby Dick written by Herman Melville in 1851 and is one of the most famous first lines in literary history.  It's right up there with "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" from A Tale of Two Cities.  Melville's account of events that supposedly took place in New England in 1820 is also hailed as "the greatest book of the sea ever written" and "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world".  In the Heart of the Sea is Ron Howard's film that is not an adaptation of the novel by Melville and the infamous Captain Ahab's unhealthy obsession with the great white whale.  It is, instead, a film about the actual events that lead the Melville's story.  It's about Captain George Pollard, Jr. (Benjamin Walker) and his first mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) about the Essex.  The ship was destroyed by a giant sperm whale as chronicled by Chase.

The preview looked absolutely incredible.  It looked like the the kind of action-packed yet character-driven films that Ron Howard has mastered over the years as he's brought us such incredible movies like Backdraft, Apollo 13, and Cinderella Man.  Even his earlier works of Cocoon and Willow are still watched with fondness as stepping stones of ingenuity and story-telling.  However, my hesitation came from knowing they could not have filmed this with an actual giant whale. In the Heart of the Sea could very easily have lost its audience with so much of the movie relying on the whale to sell it.  At least, that's how it looked from the preview.  However, the whale wasn't as much in the story as the preview made it seem.

 

In the early 1800's, it was found that whale oil produced a flame that lasted much longer than other oils previously used.  Whalers were paid good money to be gone on long and dangerous expeditions to kill whales and bring back barrels of their oil.  Author Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) heard a story passed down through the years about a monster whale that had taken down several whaling ships and went in search of a first hand account.  Reluctantly, Tom Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson), a fourteen year old cabin boy aboard the Essex and one of the few survivors, agreed to tell Melville the story some 30 years after the harrowing experience.  The story and the characters were excellent as expected.  95 per cent of the special effects were amazing and flawless.  I did notice during the first scene where whales were spotted, the use of a blue screen, but that might just have been because I was looking for it.  I also was slightly disappointed in how little the whale was in the movie, but that was because of the expectations set up by the preview.  Because of those things, I knocked my original 4.0 star prediction for In the Heart of the Sea down slightly to 3.5 stars.  A great Ron Howard film that has a decent chance of making it to my home collection.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.