Tag Archives: Film

Jul 15 2012
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Movies

Tyler Perry Plays… Not Tyler Perry?

Full disclosure: we are fans of Tyler Perry. He is a prolific entertainer who has built an incredibly successful media empire all out of his own characters and creativity. Even if you don’t personally enjoy his work, there is no denying that he is incredibly popular and a creative force–he has primary creative control on almost all of the movies that he’s involved with. So, when we heard that he was going to be acting in a new movie, we naturally had to check it out – especially since he wasn’t directing/writing/producing it! We went to the trailer link expecting a comedy (he’s a great comedian!) and we saw this. Trailer below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXtRKrcPwKE

So, okay apparently we should have known that it was based off a James Patterson novel. While we do know that James Patterson is a thriller writer…. STILL. Was this what you expected when you think – oh hey, Tyler Perry has a new movie! It sure wasn’t what we were thinking… but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Honestly, Tyler Perry looks like he is going to be good in this movie! We never really thought of him as a leading man in a drama – but after this trailer we are intrigued.

It looks like the plot is basically that there’s a serial killer and Tyler Perry is the lead investigator on this case. Then the serial killer starts threatening Tyler Perry and his family personally, and TYLER PERRY DOES NOT MESS AROUND WHEN YOU THREATEN HIS FAMILY. Then there are lots of explosions and shootings and stuff. Tyler Perry’s wife is very pretty and looks like she’ll be a great damsel in distress. Also, Matthew Fox from Lost is in this for some reason. It looks like he’s a bad guy. And not just a bad guy – THE bad guy. We are confused but curious. More importantly: Dr. Cox from Scrubs (actual name: John McGinley) is in this movie. We loved him on Scrubs and miss him a lot, so we’re excited that he’s here!

Basically, this the rare Tyler Perry movie that does not involve him playing a grandmother in drag–so if that’s your problem with him, consider seeing this movie as an opportunity to see that Tyler Perry is genuinely a talented guy in arenas other than comedy! Haters to the left–we think this is going to be very successful, and we are always happy to see studio movies that acknowledge that people who are not white exist in this world–especially when they’re allowed to be leads. Props, Tyler Perry. We are on board and excited to see Cross!

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Apr 22 2012
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Movies, Music, THINGS WE LOVE

Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap

As much as we personally love rap and respect it as an art form, it remains unfortunately all too true that hip-hop is still not considered “real” art a lot of the time… and by a large number of people, mostly white. Much of the time, rap is placed in this racialized ghetto away from what music’s establishment considers “real.”

Ice-T is actively trying to change this perception this summer with the movie he’s directing, Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap. He’s managed to get many of the most important and most prominent rappers alive today to collaborate with him on this movie, explaining their own processes and the importance of what they do. AND IT LOOKS AMAZING! Here’s the trailer:

“Dignity behind that rhyme” is probably the best quote from this trailer that sums up why we want to watch it. This film focuses on the artists themselves (basically every rapper ever) and it gives them a chance to really open up and explain their art. Hip-hop is an extremely important movement and has been for decades. This is legitimately one of the movies we are most looking forward to seeing this summer. While we may spend hours at a time looking up hip-hop music videos and artist interviews, we realize that not everyone else does. Ice-T has taken the time to piece together an amazing film that synthesizes the story of hip-hop, from its conception to its current status in popular culture today.

As the quote featured on the poster from Grandmaster Chaz says, “Hip-hop didn’t invent anything. Hip-hop re-invented everything.” This is so true–the number of things that hip-hop as a cultural movement had a major influence on is absolutely incredible, and our cultural landscape today would be unimaginable without it. Seeing the thoughts of the people involved in creating this huge movement is so important and we are so glad that Ice-T has put this together!

Also Snoop Dogg = Tae Kwon Do. We love him. Seriously. And we can’t wait for this movie.

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Jan 01 2012
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Movies, Oscars

Awards Season: War Horse

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Oh my god, you guys. This movie.

Okay, so War Horse is featuring more and more in the conversation about the Oscars. And on paper, totally easy to see why! Steven Spielberg directing and producing. Based on the Tony Award-winning play. Starring every person with piercingly blue eyes that you’ve ever seen. Lots of sweeping shots of European countryside. World War I, so a period piece. And it’s about a horse! Everyone loves horses!

Indeed, they do, and so this movie is downright painful to sit through.

How We Know We Should Feel:

What a beautiful movie. War Horse was profoundly affecting on every level, and is Steven Spielberg’s finest film in years. Spielberg manages to convey the true horrors of war as seen through a single horse’s journey, and establishes a unique narrative by crafting the story around a horse rather than a consistent human protagonist.

The film’s composition is uniformly stunning, with the landscape of first the Devon countryside and later the grisly shots of war framed with equal care. Even the bleak holes and swamps of no-man’s-land have a sort of profound nobility to them.

Spielberg has truly accomplished something here–displaying in equal parts the futility and absolute destruction of war while also giving us the hope that can emerge from it.

How We Actually Feel:

Okay, fine, so the first like 20 minutes and the last 20 were beautiful and heartwarming and all that crap. The 2 hours in between, though, are grisly horror that we kept wishing would move faster.

Oh, something nice and heartwarming is happening? Oh that’s so nice maybe finally something good will happen–nope. Something terrible. Every single time. This isn’t even a spoiler, it’s just a warning. Every. Single. Time. There are like two times that this isn’t true.

Why is all of this necessary?? Yes, war is terrible, we understand. But that doesn’t mean that we feel the desire to sit through a 15-minute trench sequence. No one wants to see that. No, we don’t believe you, absolutely no one. Even within the “war is terrible” drumming, there are some plot holes that maybe only bother us so much (the gas??? Why he can’t hear what’s happening at the top of the hill?) but that fundamentally should have been addressed.

Yes yes, beautiful cinematography, etc. We realized at the end that the score for this was actually really amazing and complemented the whole picture, but not until the end because all of the rest of it was spent with us COWERING IN HORROR.

Conclusion:

Fair warning: lots and lots and lots of grisly war. We weren’t prepared for that amount of war, or for the amount of time that was spent just watching people die or looking at bodies. (Yes, we did notice that it’s called War Horse, thanks ever so. It’s based on a play with fucking puppets in it, shut up.) We maybe teared up at the end, but we aren’t convinced that the number that it did on our emotions was worth getting there. See at your own risk.

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Dec 30 2011
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Movies, Oscars

Awards Season: Hugo

via collider.com

There are some movies that you just know are going to be in the conversation for an Oscar. This year, Hugo… was definitely not one of them. At least not for us.Yes, Hugo was helmed by Martin Scorsese, who does tend to get most of his movies nominated. But still–it was a kids’ movie. Directed by Martin Scorsese. In 3-D. And it’s called Hugo, telling us exactly nothing about what is going to happen in the damn thing.

But then we saw it (after all of the film critics started talking about it.) And by god, Marty (hope he doesn’t mind that we’re calling him Marty) has done it again. Even if it is a kids’ movie, Hugo is honestly one of the flat-out best movies we’ve seen this year. Unlike Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, we were even able to understand and enjoy it.

So for Hugo, how we felt and how we should have felt were essentially the same thing. This is a show that you, and literally everyone you know (even randos you don’t know) will enjoy. So go see it. Here are the reasons why:

  1. That kid! Asa Butterfield played the title role, and oh how heartwrenching he is. Hugo has been orphaned, and his uncle has disappeared, leaving Hugo to take over his role in keeping the clocks in the giant train station running. Asa Butterfield does a superb job in such a large role, and his eyes alone show more emotion than many older actors. (Also, he’s been cast as Ender in the Ender’s Game movie adaptation slated for 2013, so we had several reasons to like him.)
  2. This movie, more than anything, is a love letter to the cinema. Martin Scorsese’s joy and wonderment in the art of film is evident throughout, but especially in the sequences dealing with the development of the technology and the films of Georges Melies.
  3. Simply put, the movie is utterly beautiful. Every shot is wonderfully composed, as one expects from Scorsese, but Hugo has a purity both of vision and spirit that Scorsese manages to capture and spread to the audience as well.
  4. The 3-D was tastefully done. While we are usually kind of nauseous at even the thought of another 3-D movie, this one was done well. It was not even really all that noticeable, and we mean this in a good way–it enhanced the movie and drew us in without calling attention to itself. We were even happy to have paid the extra money.
  5. Sacha Baron Cohen and his dog. They were the cutest villains of all time. For serious.
  6. Having not read the book, we truly had no idea where they were going with the plot. Maybe (probably) we are exceptionally bad at predicting things, but it surprised us in a pleasant way and at no point did we say, “Oh, that was sooo obvious.”
  7. The automaton! The automaton. We won’t say any more. But so perfect!


So guys, just go see it! It will make you happy! And it will make us happy if you do.

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