Showing posts with label summer movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer movies. Show all posts
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Spider-Man: Homecoming: Does It Suck?
Spider-Man: Homecoming is out this weekend. It is the long awaited introduction of Spider-Man finally being in the Marvel movie universe. It is also the third reboot of Spider-Man being on the big screen as we were treated to the Sam Raimi films and the Amazing Spider-Man films with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. Sam Raimi's Spider Man films were pretty much like going down a slide: fun at first but the other few times kinda are boring and the Amazing Spider-Man films were just bad. Third times a charm right? Will Homecoming be crowned king if the summer superhero box office this year or will it wind up not being so amazing like the Amazing Spider-Man films. Does it suck?
As the title states, Spider-Man Homecoming is and feels very much like a High School movie. It's cool, hip, and fresh than your standard super hero movie. It really does smell like Teen Spirit, in a good way. You can tell that past John Waters inspired this film. They even made it obvious as they showed the Ferris Bueller chase scene while Spider-Man is chasing the bad guys in a van.
This time around they went the comedic route with Spidey this time around. No standard Uncle Ben death. No Emma Stone dying. We just get jokes and action, with plenty of jokes. It pretty much felt like a PG-13 version of Deadpool, a Deadpool Jr. and that was a good thing. speaking of both film, I like how Marvel is kinda distancing themselves from the cookie cutter superhero films they've done in the past like Civil War and are giving us something new and changing the format of how these iconic characters are being portrayed on screen.
The breakout star was Tom Holland who did not only a great job playing both Peter Parker and Spider-Man well. You do get the heroic quirkiness of Spider-Man who is just Peter under the mask and is has some good qualities in him as well, along with the quirkiness of being a teen as well. Holland found a balance that the other actor who donned the red and blue tights couldn't do just well. Tobey Maguire was an amazing Peter Parker, but couldn't nail being Spider-Man quite right and Andrew Garfield who was an Amazing Spider-Man, but wasn't a really believable Peter Parker. Honorable mention to Zendaya who stole the scene she was in as Michelle. Pretty much all the actors involved were good, except the guy who played Flash Thomson who seemed like a more annoying version of early Potter films Dracoy Molfoy than a rival for Peter, or maybe that was the plan? Oh, and I'm not going to spoil anything, but the rumors about her character are true.
Final Verdict
So, did Spider-Man Homecoming suck? Nope. It was a fun movie all around. Lot's of laughs and action without doing all the superhero movie cliches or not a lot of them to make it seem droll. Also,
going back to John Holmes metaphor, the movie had a great deal of using the characters and Peter himself in a way to make the movie in of itself not only be a great teen film, but using the notion of Peter wanting to be an Avenger, but helping others with his powers a great euphemism for growing up. It get's a 3.5. out of 5, unlike Aunt May who's a 10.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Ghostbusters: Did It Suck?
The original Ghostbusters is one of the classic comedy movies of all time. It harbored famous comedians Bill Murray, and Dan Aykroyd. It has won fans alike who still to this day quote lines from the movie. When the movie came out it was a hit. We've gotten a sequel, a cartoon, and let's not forget the Ecto Hi-C. There have been trouble getting a third Ghostbuster movie started ranging from script troubles to cast fighting. We wouldn't have anything Ghostbusters for years until now. Is the franchise back from the dead or is it time to put it to rest?
Ghostbusters, just like the original movie its rebooting, is a comedy. It was a bit different than the original as it kinda went for less of the dry humor and went for a bit more slapstick and the stuff you'd usually find in Paul Feig, the director, movies. It is full of jokes. The beginning did start off slow with some witty writing, but as the movie progresses, things build and things do get outrageously funny. Despite it having some funny moments, I felt the jokes were kinda tame compared to Feig's previous movies. There were a lot of funnier moments and the movie could've gone out with certain moments. Feig brought the funny, but it wasn't necessarily his A game.
The story was pretty much your standard Ghostbusters story. It's up to the Ghostbusters to save New York, and maybe the world but mainly New York, from a spiritual catastrophe. the only difference this time is that the antagonist is not some powerful ghost, but a human. Neil Casey plays the villain and like the Ghostbusters he is doing some ghost hunting as well for some really bad reasons.
Watching Ghostbuster was almost like remix of the original in that it seems like a completely original movie and it had some moments that were inspired by the original movie. The first encounter in the mansion was the library scene. The rock concert was the hotel scene where they caught Slimer. And the subway scene was from Ghostbusters 2 even with one of the ghost brothers that was electrocuted. Also their are a ton of cameos. The movie is almost one big Ghostbuster reunion as it featured almost the whole cast in different roles except for Rick Moranis and Harold Ramis you know because he's dead. You even got one from the Stay Puff Marshmellow Man.
As for the female Ghostbusters, everyone did their job well. Melissa McCarthy was classic Melissa McCarthy is almost every role she's mainly been whether you like that or not shame on you if you don't. Kristen Wiig is in full comedy prime quirky Erin Gilbert. They were the Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd of the reboot. Kate McKinnon was great playing the pretty much out there "Egon" of the group, Jillian Holtzmann The highlight of the movie clearly was Chris Hemsworth. He played a ditzy male receptionist well. He has amazing comedic timing. It was shocking to see him able to have a comedic side and him doing it so well. Also cred to due to Lesie Jones. She was amazing and despite some claims that her character was too "stereotypical" (and like they even care?) it wasn't nor did she come across that way. She was a sassy and witty New Yorker who wasn't just sitting back on the side lines to say something witty compared to the other girls' characters. And to boot Jones' was funny as hell delivering her lines.
Overall the movie was fantastic. Is it better than the original? No. Definitely not. But it's not trying to be. It was made to show love for the original Ghostbuster movies and bring it to a new generation, with a modern twist. It's a great popcorn movie. It was fun. The audience I was with had a good time dancing when the original Ghostbusters theme played as well as during the ending credits. The people who are spending all their time hating this movie and crying over their "tarnished childhoods" are seriously missing out. I'd give it 4 out of five stars.
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Monday, May 23, 2016
Who You Gonna Call When You Hate the New Ghostbusters?
The Ghostbusters reboot just around the corner. We haven't had anything Ghostbusters related in a while with the last movie, a sequel, made in 1989, a couple of failed projects to get a third movie made, and a video game made almost 6 years ago in 2009. With the smell of nostalgia in the air, you can can feel the excitement or better yet the hate.
The new Ghostbusters has been the subject of internet hate. Fanboys have taken to repeatedly down vote trailers and have even gone as far as to harass director Paul Feig and cast members. It's has gone pretty much downhill ever since it was announced that who was directing it and that the reboot would feature a mostly female cast. The most recent of the negativity has come from YouTuber cinemasscre. Cinemasscre, real name James Rolfe, has pretty much made a 6 and a half "non review" discussing about how much he is not going to see and review the Ghostbusters movie. I could talk about how absurd, childish and the lack of professionalism that a supposed amateur movie reviewer on YouTube would go to make a 6 minute rant about how much they're not going to see a movie, but that's another day and another topic. This inspired me to finally talk about the movie and address the hate that the movie has brewed.
Some opponents of the movie claim that the movie is just another cash grab for the studios to make money off a popular franchise. Hollywood has been the culprit of doing this for the past years and this could spark a debate on truly if Hollywood should should stop the trend of making remakes or reboots just to make quick cash instead of coming up with new innovative ideas and concepts and that is a actual problem. Whether that is the case for this particular movie or not is up to debate. One thing is for sure is that issue will not be resolved with giving the director and cast death threats and harassment.
Bottom line it's just a movie. It's no need to get this worked up over a movie. No movie is worth this much hate. No movie is worth sending the cast and director harassment and death threats. For the people citing nostalgia and claiming that the movie will ruin the franchise, if one reboot is capable of doing that, then your childhood nostalgia and the franchise itself had nothing to stand on. If this is truly bad then I think the franchise is be just fine, it survived Ghostbusters 2. You can still watch the original Ghostbusters movie and enjoy that. You can even watch Ghostbusters 2 which wasn't as charming and funny as the first one. The new reboot doesn't take anything away from those movies. The new Ghostbusters reboot might be fine after all, then again you wouldn't know that if you're too busy downvoting trailers and making "non review" videos.
P.S. Harold Ramis probably wouldn't be upset over the new reboot. We tried contacting his ghost but reportedly its held in storage in a firehouse in downtown Los Angeles.
What are your thoughts on the negative wave of hate on the new Ghostbusters reboot. Is it justified?
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