The Official Review Thread of 2021

anonymous1980
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2021

Post by anonymous1980 »

IN THE HEIGHTS
Cast: Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, Leslie Grace, Melissa Barrera, Olga Merediz, Jimmy Smits, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Gregory Diaz IV, Stephanie Beatriz, Dascha Polanco, Noah Catala, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Dir: Jon M. Chu.

The film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical which put Lin-Manuel Miranda on the map. It's about a young store owner whose block is under threat of gentrification as well as all the other struggles of Latino immigrants and Latino-Americans. I haven't seen the stage musical but I've listened to the Broadway cast album and I sort of perused the plot summary on Wikipedia of the show. So I was familiar-ish with the source material but not intimately so. I gotta hand it to them. This looks and feels like a good old fashioned movie musical despite it being in modern times and having a non-white cast. The dance numbers are rousing, beautifully shot and choreographed. The story might be a little clunky here and there. But the cast is uniformly great and there are a lot great songs in the score that more than makes up for it.

Oscar Prospects: Its disappointing box-office may hinder its Best Picture but it's got a shot. I sure hope Olga Merediz makes it in Supporting Actress. Also a contender for Song, Sound and Editing.

Grade: B+

LUCA
Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Saverio Raimondo, Maya Rudolph, Jim Gaffigan, Marco Barricelli, Sacha Baron Cohen (voices).
Dir: Enrico Casarosa.

Two young boys who just happen to be shape-shifting sea monsters make friends with a human girl on a seaside Italian town. I will say the bad news first: This is mid-tier PIXAR. But PIXAR has such a great track record, it's tough to beat the upper-tier films. So anything short of an all-capitals GREAT and masterpiece level of work feels like its coming up short. But the good news is it's still a very good film. The animation is gorgeous and beautiful. The comedy and the slapstick is really funny. The world they built is so much fun. The characters are endearing. The voice-acting is great. It's also effective when they go for the heart and the emotion. Yes, it is still the PIXAR formula but it's still an effective one. So, yeah, this one's a really good one.

Oscar Prospects: Animated Feature. The score is also really nice.

Grade: A-
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2021

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ARMY OF THE DEAD
Cast: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Garret Dillahunt, Tig Notaro, Raúl Castillo, Huma Qureshi.
Dir: Zack Snyder.

After Las Vegas is walled off due to a zombie outbreak, a group of soldiers is recruited by a Japanese businessman to steal $200 million in a safe. This is director Zack Snyder's second foray into the zombie horror genre. It is overlong (2 and a half hours, jeez!), bloated and does very much have the Zack Snyder look and style (he's his own DP on this as well so it's very much pure uncut Snyder) which I sometimes find annoying. But it does have more of a sense of humor and there's some undeniably fun, exciting moments. I actually love the zombie movie sub-genre and I'm interested in what filmmakers can add to it. Snyder manages to do that. Dave Bautista is a pretty charismatic lead and he's supported by a good bunch of actors (Nora Arnezeder and Tig Notaro both stand out). It's not a great movie but it's solid, gory entertainment.

Oscar Prospects: I think this has a shot at making at least the Visual Effects bakeoff list just for seamlessly replacing Chris D'Elia with Tig Notaro. If you didn't know this story, you would not have noticed it at all. I knew the story and I barely noticed it.

Grade: B.

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW
Cast: Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Julianne Moore, Anthony Mackie, Fred Hechinger, Wyatt Russell, Brian Tyree Henry, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tracy Letts.
Dir: Joe Wright.

A woman afflicted with agoraphobia spies on her neighbors and witnesses a murder. Oh, this is another Rear Window riff that we often get once in a generation. But this one has pedigree: It has an excellent cast, a director known to direct Oscar-calibre films, a screenwriter who has a Pulitzer and a Tony to his name and a highly qualified team of artisans. Is it good? Not really. You're just reminded of the better films that this film cobbled from. The plot is not different enough to justify its existence. The execution is not good enough to be taken seriously and a bit too dull to be entertaining in a campy or trashy way. The actors try their best but they never rise above the material. It's not god-awful but it's stunningly mediocre considering the people involved.

Oscar Prospects: None (I did like the Danny Elfman score, though)

Grade: C
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2021

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OXYGEN
Cast: Melanie Laurent, Malik Zidi, voice of Mathieu Amalric.
Dir: Alexandre Aja.

A woman wakes up in high-tech cryogenic chamber controlled by an A.I. and with no memory of who she is or even how she got there and finds out her oxygen is running out. As someone who has a little bit of claustrophobia, this was quite an effective thriller. As the film progresses, as the mystery of her predicament unfolds and the twists and turns happen, which I will not spoil here, the film may become a bit ludicrous for some people. But Melanie Laurent who pretty much acts solo for 95 percent of the film holds it all together with her great performance. Sure, she kind of had to be but she pulled it off. I mean, the film is watchable mainly because of her. This is yet another pretty solid genre piece from director Alexandre Aja.

Oscar Prospects: Melanie Laurent wouldn't make an embarrassing Best Actress candidate but only if it's a very, very weak year.

Grade: B.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2021

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THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES
Cast: Danny McBride, Abbi Jacobson, Maya Rudolph, Mike Rianda, Olivia Colman, Eric Andre, Fred Armisen, Beck Bennett, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Charlyne Yi, Conan O'Brien (voices).
Dir: Mike Rianda.

In a last ditch effort to bond with his aspiring filmmaker daughter, a technophobic dad takes his entire family on a road trip on the way to college. But then, an evil A.I. decides to take over the world so it's up to the Mitchells to try and save the world. This must be the first great film of 2021. It is a complete and utter delight and a near perfect animated feature. The film manages to be a lot of things: a sharp satire on tech culture and its effect on society, a hilarious road trip movie and a really sweet family comedy all with wonderfully inventive animation. This was produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller who was able to pull this off before. It features a fantastic voice cast as well (Olivia Colman is of course delightful as the villain) and a lot of cinephile-friendly gags. I'm actually considering watching it again. It is a complete and utter delight.

Oscar Prospects: We have our first true blue Oscar contender for Best Animated Feature.

Grade: A-
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2021

Post by Reza »

Godzilla vs. Kong (Adam Wingard, 2021) 6/10

There is nothing really new here but whatever fun there is comes from the spectacular set pieces involving the many, many clashes between two titans each trying to impose its alpha supremacy - a third upstart waits in the wings making this clash truly into a ménage à trois of epic proportions. The characters surrounding the two monsters are pure stock with a plot that screams formula. The story "sort of" follows what came before in “Kong: Skull Island” (2017) and “Godzilla:
King of the Monsters” (2019). Godzilla who was once the good "guy" suddenly emerges from beneath the ocean and goes on a rampage attacking a cybertech facility in Florida. A conspiracy theorist (Brian Tyree Henry), a young missy (Millie Bobby Brown) - daughter of a doctor (Kyle Chandler), both holdovers from one of the previous chapters - and her nerdy computer geek friend (Julian Dennison) believe the corporation is upto something nefarious. Of course it is, the minute you see its megalomaniac head (Demián Bechir in full-on Bond villain mode) all but frothing at the mouth as he orgasmically and deviously plots. Meanwhile back on Skull Island a scientist (Alexander Skarsgård) convinces an anthropologist (Rebecca Hall) to sedate Kong, take him shackled out to sea on a ship and urge him to fight and destroy Godzilla. Kong is now pretty much sedate and accomodating thanks to yet another "beauty" who has mesmerized him - a young hearing and speech impared little girl (Kaylee Hottle who is actually deaf) who can secretly communicate with the giant ape. The first meeting between the titans doesn't go too well as entire fleets of ships and aircrafts get mangled in the noisy fracas. The plot then moves into Jules Verne territory as the scientist thinks that Kong's original home is located at the center of the earth and they all board spacecrafts and tumble - Kong included - through a created void in Antarctica and, lo and behold, find a world very similar to Skull Island. After yet more scrapes with dinosaur-like creatures the entire cast and the two monsters converge onto downtown Hong Kong which is decimated in a bid where each tries to prove having a bigger dick than the other. Then a third beast is unleashed by the evil corporation. Action-packed nonsense is great fun while it lasts but is instantly forgettable the minute the film ends. Now we wait with bated breath to see which monster Hollywood conjures up next to pair-up with the two here. Maybe it will be Ghidorah the three-headed monster? Apart from the many CGI choreographed fight sequences the film uses to great effect four songs accompanying the action - "Over The Mountain, Across The Sea" by Bobby Vinton, "Loving Arms" by Elvis Presley, "Breaking The Law" by Judas Priest and "The Air That I Breathe" by The Hollies.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2021

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BAD TRIP
Cast: Eric Andre, Lil Rey Howery, Tiffany Haddish, Michaela Conlin.
Dir: Kitao Sakurai.

A guy reconnects with his high school crush then decides to take a road trip to New York City to meet her again and declare his love. He brings along his best friend and "borrows" his best friend's sister's car. The sister happens to be an escaped convict and she's pissed. Wackiness ensues. This is a prank movie in which the performances in the the movie act out their wacky scenes and stunts with real, unsuspecting bystanders. I have to say this movie made me laugh quite a bit and quite often so it's successful in that regard (...and though I'm aware of Eric Andre's brand, I wouldn't say I know his stuff). Some of the jokes and gags may cross the line of good taste every now and then and this type of comedy is definitely not for everybody. But, personally, I enjoyed it.

Oscar Prospects: Maybe Original Song for "I Saw a Girl Today".

Grade: B.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2021

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ZACK SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE
Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Amy Adams, Ciaran Hinds, Jeremy Irons, J.K. Simmons, Diane Lane, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Eisenberg, Connie Nielsen, Amber Heard, Joe Morton, Jared Leto.
Dir: Zack Snyder.

Back in 2017, Zack Snyder had to step down directing Justice League due to a personal family tragedy and Joss Whedon took over, overseeing post-production and doing a few rewrites of the film himself. The result is a film that got mixed reviews from both critics and fans. Ever since, fans have been demanding that the fabled Snyder Cut be released. A few years later, lo and behold, Zack Snyder re-edited the film, restored a few scenes, even filmed new material to make the movie he intended to make. The result is a more cohesive....yet also more bloated film. To be fair, this film is better than his previous DCEU films but it still contains his bad habits that I'm not a fan of. Is it better than Joss Whedon's? In some ways, yes, in some ways no. I think it evens out to they're about the same: This one makes more sense but more of a chore to sit through (FOUR HOURS??!) If you're a fan of Snyder's stuff, there's much to love but if you're not, eh, you can take it or leave it. It's fine.

Grade: C+
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The Official Review Thread of 2021

Post by anonymous1980 »

LOCKED DOWN
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ben Kingsley, Stephen Merchant, Mark Gatiss, Mindy Kaling, Claes Bang, Dule Hill, Ben Stiller.
Dir: Doug Liman.

A couple whose relationship has soured during the quarantine together decide to rob some precious diamonds to start their life anew. At some point during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine, I thought to myself, there will be quite a few sub-genres of romantic comedies and heist/crime films set during the pandemic within the next couple of years. And now, lo and behold, there's already one that's sort of a combination of both and it's one of the first mainstream narrative film set during and about the pandemic. The film overall is pretty entertaining, mostly because I marvel at the fact that they shot this during the actual lockdown. The two leads, Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor, give it their all. That said, this film would've improved greatly with zippier editing and a tighter script. Overall, it's just okay.

Oscar Prospects: None.

Grade: C+
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