jpathomas Reviews

The Nice Guys (2016)

Something less than the sum of its parts

[5/10 · 14 December 2016]

Gosling and Crow have good chops, and Crow especially can make a bad bit of writing look good simply by being part of it. This is a good thing because this movie needs all the help it can get. The script is a hot mess and the editing seems to have been done with a hatchet. Script consistency? Not their strong point. People leave in the early afternoon, they arrive after dark. Even LA traffic is not that bad.

This movie is trying very hard to be a retro 70s version of Lethal Weapon. Mismatch partners, a bit of comedy, big conspiracy. But the truth is that it bears a much stronger resemblance to the old Richard Dreyfus flick, The Big Fix. That being the case my recommendation is to just watch The Big Fix and save yourself the disappointment.

This movie was OK, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it again.

The Big Bang (2010)

Worth watching

[28 July 2011]

I'm a casual movie buff, not a genera expert or closet critic. I can't speak to the films undertones or subtext. All I can tell you is what I thought.

The Big Bang showed up on Netflix streaming a few days ago and since it had Banderas in it I tossed it in my queue. I had no idea what it was about, no idea when it was released or how well it did in the box office. I just figured that it couldn't be worse than "Ecks vs. Sever".

Ten minutes in I was hooked. I know some people won't like the extreme visual style, hard juxtaposition and modern take on Nior style, but I found it interesting. As for the plot it kept me guessing (wrong) to the very end.

As far as the acting goes I thought it was good. Banderas I (almost) always like. Sienna Guillory I'd never heard of and Sam Elliot in a role I would have NEVER imagined him in. The movie is full of good supporting actors too. Thomas Kretschmann, Bill Duke, William Fichtner and move. Everyone does a good job.

The stand out for me was the quirky character of Fay Neman played by Autumn Reeser. She and Banderas share the chattiest love scene ever and redefine physics geeks.

I enjoyed this movie and I'll watch it again. It's strange but compelling and worth the hour and a half.

Ever Since the World Ended (2001)

A nice try, but fails to get it right.

[5/10 · 12 September 2007]

To my mind the most basic problem with this film is it's failure to envision how such a group of people might chose to govern themselves. In fact there doesn't seem to be any form of group governance at all. It's as if the film makers had no idea that people ever lived in communities before the industrial age. We are presented with a group of characters who are concerned with teaching piano, reviewing art, and building museums. No one is farming, no one is hunting, no one is milking cows, and everyone is well dressed and clean.

I came away from this film wondering why everything, and everyone, is so clean. From the group home of women and children who spend their time teaching piano and putting out the good china to the loaner who walked out of the city five years previous to live in the trees, everyone is showered, combed, brushed and shaved. The city, deserted as it is, is clean. Is there a team of rogue street sweepers out there keeping the place up?

I have a fascination with TEOTWAWKI films, and I was willing to give this little move a try. But there's nothing convincing about the environment, or the characters. I wish the film makers would have looked at history and how people live before the rise of modern civilization, they would have made a better film if they had.

Seraphim Falls (2006)

Well made, well acted, and not worth your time

[4/10 · 26 July 2007]

Okay, I read all the glowing reviews of this film, and I have one question for anyone who gave this thing more than a middle zone rating; Did you actually watch this movie? I won't recap the plot, that's been done a number of times already. I will say that both the leads to a great job in their roles, and the film looks great. But none of that matters if you don't have a story that is engaging. The simple fact is there is no character in this film who is wroth caring about. And then it goes all siddhartha in the end.

I'm open to new ways of using the western formate, I love a movie that surprises me and makes me think. This movie does neither. I gave it a 4 because it's well acted and well shot, but it's not entertaining, informative, or though provoking.

Ultraviolet (2006)

$299,999,998 on CGI, $2 on script

[1/10 · 9 March 2006]

When will they learn? Words alone are totally insufficient to express my sheer loathing for this movie. The first 15 minutes is a Revlon add with guns and swords, and frankly that's the best part of this movie. Badly written, badly directed, badly acted, badly edited; I'm at a lose to find one thing that makes this movie worth the 88 minutes it takes to watch it. On the whole you'd be better off hitting yourself in the head with a hammer as that would hurt less. Seriously, I walked out after the movie with an almost evangelical need to warn people not to see this thing. It's not that I expected it to be great, but I at least expected it to make a small amount of sense.