The Wings of Eagles (John Ford)
*** - This film is based on the life and writings of Frank "Spig" Wead, a
Navy man turned author and screenwriter whom John Ford had worked with.
He passed away a few years prior to the release of the film and this
was made in loving tribute to him. And though it's far from being my
favorite John Ford picture, it's still a very heartfelt film. Moments of
humor is quite smoothly interspersed with more serious moments and
doesn't get overly sentimental and flag-waving-y. It doesn't really
break new ground but its heart was in the right place.
Weekend (Andrew Haigh) ***1/2 - I've heard people describe this as a gay Before Sunrise and I would definitely agree. I would also argue that this also feels like a feature-length episode of Queer as Folk
only actually good. Two gay men have a one night stand after meeting in
a club and their relationship eventually stretches to an entire
weekend. It's intelligent, layered and even sweet and features two great
central performances.
Dark Shadows (Tim Burton) **1/2 -
Now, I'm a huge fan of Tim Burton, I make no secret of that but even I
was turned off and disappointed with the eyesore that was Alice in Wonderland.
This is actually an improvement. Not much of an improvement but still
an improvement. Tim Burton's film adaptation of the supernatural soap
opera series contains some really good moments. Johnny Depp and Eva
Green both give fun performances. There are some good laughs in there
too. But unfortunately the entire thing is so tonally off. It wants to
be both a gothic horror romance and a broad horror-comedy but does not
seem to find the right balance to let it flow and that wacky
over-the-top climax came from nowhere. But still, it's nowhere near
Burton and/or Depp's worst. I enjoyed it.
21 Jump Street (Phil Lord/Chris
Miller) *** - Now this movie was a blast. A movie adaptation of a TV
series from the 1980's is of course a lame idea and the great thing
about this movie is that it acknowledges it and decides to have fun with
the concept of police officers going undercover in a high school.
Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill both make a great team and makes for a
really funny action-comedy which actually pokes fun at many tropes of
action-comedies. It really shouldn't work but it does.
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3 comments:
This has me seriously wanting to watch 21 Jump Street now, thanks for the round-up as usual buddy, awesome post.
I'm kind of disappointed to hear Dark Shadows was like that really.
21 Jump Street I need to give a go. But there others not so sure. I am not fan of Tim Burton either, same old thing every time pretty much.
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