#2,066: Into the Storm

Yeah there's another version of a GOT Galaxy review in here. I'd been trying a lot of ways to write about it that didn't make me feel like a troll, but my experience of it contrasted so sharply with that of most of my friends or internet acquaintances that I find it really jarring.

In the Loop - ★★★½☆
I liked this more on a second viewing. I feel like I got more of what was going on, but probably I'd just forgotten those details over the past 5 years. This isn't a very good review.

Side Effects - ★★½☆☆
Interesting, but not great. (Like a lot of Soderbergh b-sides.) I think that some of the disconnect for me was how long it took me to notice we'd switched protagonists. I was expecting more of a Manchurian Candidate type plot, so it was fun to be completely wrong about what I was getting into. Some of the third act seems too easy, but I guess seeing all the events in great detail would be a separate, slightly boring movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy - ★★☆☆☆
I was there on opening weekend because of the Marvel Studios logo, but then, I also saw Cars in the theater. Guardians is a bunch of lousy writing slathered in an Attack of the Clones-quantity of nonsensical CG. We're constantly told things instead of shown. Characters announce their development instead of exhibiting it. Gamorra actually shows us the opposite. There's no sense of actual danger or urgency, the references "jokes" are flat, every character has the same story arc, we had as much or more laying track for future movies as the parts of Iron Man 2 everyone supposedly hated...

I left the theater thinking the movie was okay but kind of boring, but the more I consider it (and in the week since, I've been thinking of it a lot, trying to figure out where it is I seem to have gone astray of the (almost suspiciously) overwhelming online opinion) the more its "hey, everyone, this is fun, right? Remember Star Wars guys? What if every character was Han Solo, that's fun, right?" shine is wearing off.

Maybe I'm just not as big a fan of the cosmic Marvel stuff. Or maybe it's comedy. Maybe that's what I don't like. Certainly I don't like the ironic detachment that this thing is soaking in.

Into the Storm - ★★★☆☆
I went to a screening of this with no advance information except the dialogue-free teaser from a few months ago. I was surprised to find out a) it was a found-footage movie, b) it's kind of a comedy, c) it stars Matt Walsh! The audience was more into it and on board than for probably anything else I've seen in a theater this year, which is the best way to see a movie. It's not a great film, but I think it did a great job of hitting its mark. Plus, the b-movie trappings do a great job of hiding the constant VFX. Sure, you know the big tornados are CG, but you look right past the constant sky replacements and foreground additions and debris and everything because you're busy laughing at a silly line or something. From a mock-doc perspective, they didn't cheat too much, and it was generally better motivated that some other recent entries, like End of Watch.

#2,060: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Sorcerer - ★★★☆☆
For me, this was the good kind of puzzling at the outset. Like The Exorcist, the bits you've heard about don't start falling into place for about an hour. I liked the abruptness, the way the film gets out on the out line of a scene and not a moment later. Scenes that didn't have a line to end on though, I think a few of them could have stood to be trimmed down a bit. Fun to watch with a crowd of folks being made to worry.

Runaway Train - ★½☆☆☆
Wow. Multiple Oscar nods? Wow. I would have labeled Eric Roberts' character as either a disaster on the page or a disaster in the edit. Maybe both. It's like a poor man's Emperor of the North.

Under the Skin - ★★☆☆☆
This is a video that my friend Russell would like.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - ★★★★☆
With a constant tension that 24 can only dream about, this didn't feel much like a summer movie to me at all. Pros: Good score, has subtext in the vein of classic sci-fi, some amazing/horrifying imagery, and lots of apes. Cons: No one actually named Dawn.

Underground Comedy is Go!

For years, I've been tangentially involved in a documentary about the improv comedy scene in Los Angeles. In January we made a trailer for it, and now we're about to make the whole darn thing. We've got hundreds of hours of footage, and we want to bring you an interesting 90 minute feature film about what goes on in the black box theaters that are forging (a) tomorrow's big name comics and (b) tomorrow's accountants and waiters who did a fun thing in their 20s. Most people don't know about it, most people will never know about it, and even the folks that do might never get to see it because improv evaporates as soon as it's done, never to be seen again. Unless of course, someone is standing around with a camera crew documenting the whole thing.

Check out the trailer for Underground Comedy here and if you want to get a DVD in a couple years after we're done producing the movie and walking it around to festivals, or maybe a nice co-producer credit for your IMDB page, go have a look at the film's Kickstarter*, which is running for a mere 3 more weeks.

* Once upon a time, folks in film production probably compared notes on how they don't actually work so much with film anymore these days and isn't it a shame, why, I only ever worked on two projects in my life that shot on honest-to-goodness celluloid. Well that conversation is done, and everything's digital from here on out. The craft services table chit chat of the future is reminiscing about the days when films had investors. This is maybe my 5th crowdfunded movie.

#2,053: Edge of Tomorrow

Godzilla (2014) - ★★★☆☆
I think this was probably a good example of a classic Godzilla movie, but I don't know how many times I've actually enjoyed a classic Godzilla movie. Certainly, I liked this more than Monsters, but I think it was a misstep to swap out the charismatic lead for a kind of bland sap-faced dude.

Non-Stop - ★★★½☆
I watched this on a crummy hotel TV, and it was perfect. Solid 90s flavored action with more plot than the trailer gives up. Kind of a preachy speech from one of the bad guys, but he's duly punished for it. Recommended, even if you have to watch it on a high quality screen of some sort.

Duck Soup - ★★☆☆☆
It played much better the first time I saw it, in a packed theater, than it did in my living room. Either way, it's not one of my favorite Marx Brothers movies. Too much a melange.

Edge of Tomorrow - ★★★★☆
I totally expected some kind of twisty turny part after an hour or so, based on what the trailers gave us, but it's not that kind of movie. It's the movie the trailers tell us it's going to be, and it does a great job of being that. Comedic parts, action parts, and the best representation of the meta-nature of being a video game hero, just like everyone says.