Lincoln

Let me explain how excited I was for this. I'm a huge fan of Steven Speilberg. It was his films that made me a movie fan in the first place and he ranks as one of my favourite filmmakers. And it goes without saying that Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the great actors of this generation. Do I need to give you this guy's resume? If you haven't seen any of his work, then go see it. The man is a genius. Also, I've always been interested in American history, and Abraham Lincoln has always been a hero of mine. I actually found out about this movie's production in 2011 from my American history teacher (By the way, he apparently loves this movie) Did it live up to my expectations? Oh yeah.

What can I say? Speilberg directing Day-Lewis as Lincoln with a script from the screenwriter of Munich. There is no place where this movie could not have been great. The script is tense and powerful, and it gives Day-Lewis plenty of time to develop his character. How good is he? I felt I was watching Abraham Lincoln in his real life. I wasn't watching Daniel Day-Lewis acting. He was Lincoln. This movie doesn't try to put Lincoln on a pedestal and treat him as some god. We see Lincoln the man as much as we see Lincoln the President. There are many times when we see Lincoln interacting with Mary Todd, and some great scenes when he is with his son Robert. We feel Mrs. Lincoln's anger at his threats to put her in a mental institution when she didn't stop crying over the death of their youngest child. We see their marriage warts and all: I'm glad they did that, it gives us a more human view of the whole thing. As much as I'm praising Day-Lewis, I actually think one actor manages to outshine him. Tommy Lee Jones was not a guy I was expecting much from when I heard he was going to be in this movie. He's a great actor, but I expected Day-Lewis and Sally Field to steal the show. Jones plays Thaddeus Stevens, and he's magnificent and an easy pick for Best Supporting Actor. Every moment he's on screen is full of power and intrigue. You just love this guy: I think he's my favourite character and the reveal at the end was very well done. The production values, as you would expect from Speilberg are the very best.  The Civil War scenes are minimal yet effective, but the rest of it looks great as a period piece. The makeup on Day-Lewis is great: he does look a lot like Lincoln. I also must say: the death of Lincoln was handled very well. Actually showing him get shot at the theatre would have been way too heavy. We've spent the entire movie getting to know Lincoln as a human being instead of a historical figure. People already mourn Lincoln just for what he did. Seeing him die in this movie would have been traumatizing. Showing his son's reaction to it worked better and was very powerful in his own way.

Is Lincoln one of the best movies of they year? Hell yeah. There was a ton of effort put into this to make a great film and a great tribute to Abraham Lincoln. Even if you're not a fan of history, see it. I realize this is not a great movie for young people (I was the youngest person in the theatre by like 20 years) but I would still recommend it to anyone. It's a great movie purely for the characters in it. Check it out.

Skyfall

I love James Bond. Who doesn't? Yes it can be campy. Yes it can be cheesy. Yes, everyone hates Quantum of Solace. But there is something about this franchise that is classic to me and I will always love it, but even I was hesitant to see this movie. I thought the trailers for Skyfall looked amazing and I do love Daniel Craig as 007, but the last movie's failure kept me away from immediately returning to the series. Thankfully I was totally wrong. Not only is Skyfall an amazing movie, but I would say it's the best of the series. Yes, I just said that. Better than Goldfinger. Better than Goldeneye. Better than Casino Royale. 

First off, this is Craig's best performance yet as Bond. He still brings that dark and brooding sense that keeps him apart from the other Bonds, he has a bit of a sense of humor in this one. Hell, he actually smiled a couple times. I liked him more here as a person rather than a character than I did in the last two films.  Do I even need to praise Judi Dench? She's a great M, and I won't spoil anything on her arch in this movie. By the way: hey there Ralph Fiennes, I have a feeling we'll see more of you. I did have issues with Javier Bardem as the villain. I know he's meant to chew the scenery: he is a James Bond villain after all. But the rest of the movie tries to be serious, so having such the villain overact some much is distracting. Even so, I won't deny he wasn't creepy and effective in the end: just a slightly more subtle performance would have been better. As for the story, I liked it a lot. It wasn't anything special, but it worked for what it was and lead to a really enjoyable movie. I liked the concept of Bond having to return from the dead. He could have continued enjoying his life with CGI scorpions (okay, that part was stupid) and ignoring MI6, but he knew he had to return and find the will to keep going. It was essentially the same idea as The Dark Knight Rises, but the idea of the hero's comeback is a little more underplayed here.

Now here is where the movie really shines: in the action and the visual style. The fight in the skyscraper in Shanghai was one of the best fight scenes I've ever seen in a movie. From the pacing to the action to the photography to the tension, it was just flawless. The fight at Skyfall was huge and awesome: it was basically Home Alone without slapstick and a lot more guns (speaking of, it was great to see Q in this movie)

Skyfall is highly recommended. Even if you're not a fan of Bond, I still say it deserves a watch. From beginning to end this is one of the best action movies I've seen in years. Welcome back, Mr. Bond.

I'm Back

Yeah, I'll be the first to admit I pretty much abandoned this blog recently. Things in my life kept me busy and running a blog on entertainment kind of got pushed to the side. But I would like to come back and post again, or at least when I can. Here are some points I'd like to make now that I'm back.

-The Walking Dead review series is cancelled. I kept missing episodes and I found having to review them became a chore. Is that lazy of me? Maybe, but I don't think my reviews were all that great anyway. I'll say this: I think the third season of The Walking Dead is outstanding and the episodes I missed are all great. It's a huge improvement over season 2. Yes, I have heard that showrunner Glen Mazzara is leaving, and I'm very sad to hear that.

-I haven't seen as many movies as I would have liked to since The Expendables 2, but I have seen some. I will post those reviews asap. 

-I hate the NHL lockout. Hate it. 

-I realized recently that I actually really love all Christmas music. 

-Congrats to Gangnam Style on getting one billion views. 

That's all I got. Good to be back.

The Walking Dead "Killer Within"

Soooooooo, uhmm, yeah. That just happened. I'm still struggling to form words after what I just saw, but I will say this: this episode was easily the best thing this show has ever produced. Better than the pilot, better than the second season finale. You know what? I'm not going to review it anymore. And that's not me being lazy, that's me being at a real loss for words on how to describe this episode. Instead, I'm just going to list some words that could describe this episode for your reading pleasure.  Enjoy.

Exciting
Thrilling
GORY
Emotional
Powerful
Sad
Hopeful
Depressing
Action packed
Mysterious
Did I mention GORY?

The Walking Dead "Sick"

Yes, I'm very late with this one. Been a busy couple of weeks. I don't know how much it matters though, because I'm not sure I have a tone to say about this episode except that it was outstanding. The pacing was great, the action was great, the story and emotions were great and the stakes were huge. I'm spoiling a lot here, but let me try and explain what a great setup this episode had. Hershel was bitten on the leg by a walker. In order to save him, Rick chops of his leg with an axe. We then see that there are in fact human prisoners left in the prison which the group must deal with while trying to save Hershel. And did I mention that the only person who is at all qualified to help someone survive this ordeal is Hershel himself? Oh, and that if Hershel dies there will be no one to deliver Lori's baby, especially considering she'll likely need a C-section? And of course there are the prisoners, one of which has already proven to be hostile towards Rick and his group. Everything is timed well with every scene taking no more than what it needs to serve a purpose. The acting as always superb. I don't think I've talked much about how unbelievable Andrew Lincoln is as Rick. He brings an intensity and humanity that perfectly conveys the character. Is he as good as Bryan Cranston is in Breaking Bad? No. But I can't think of many actors as good as Cranston is in that show, so that's hardly a fair comparison. No, Lincoln is very good, and I hope his performance in this show will lead to more roles later on.

(SPOILERS)

Now the thing that is sure to be controversial here is Rick's decision to execute one of the prisoners in cold blood. I just thought it showed how different Rick is from the good cop we saw in the pilot. There are new rules in this world, and Rick is using them. Was he right or wrong? I don't see an answer to that question. He did what he felt he had to do. It'll be interesting to see where this new attitude takes the group in the future.

The Walking Dead: "Seed"

Just like I promised, here is the first review in my series of reviews for each episode of The Walking Dead. I was really hyped for this episode after the stunning season 2 finale. It was an episode that finally let the show live up to its potential and go all out. No slow pacing, no bullshit, just straightforward zombie action coupled with a pretty good story. Did this episode live up to the hype? Well, not exactly, but I still enjoyed it a far bit. SPOILERS!!!!!

The episode started out fantastically with the group trying to take down a group of walkers and take over a house. It's very well done: there is no dialogue and the group acts like a well oiled machine. They efficiently take down a group of walkers and then proceed to flee when an even bigger group approaches them. We see Carl has fully embraced this world now. He is carrying a gun and participating in the attack. We also see Rick has really enforced his "This is no longer a democracy" rule. People can advise him on his decisions, but he gets the final say. It's also clear there has been a large passage of time since the last season ended. Since Lori mentions at one point that their baby is just "days away," I'm going to go ahead and say it's been nine months. The episode does have a very cinematic feel. It really seems like a sequel to a movie that came out years ago. The pacing is much better. It does drag at times, but for the most part everything seems to be moving well. I also liked the evolving dynamics. Rick and Lori have clearly become hostile towards each other, and I'm amazingly not blaming Lori for that. She actually tries to have a conversation with him to try and sort out some "things," but Rick will have none of it. I didn't mind Lori a ton in this episode, but that's largely because she didn't have much to do. Hey, that's a great solution for the Lori problem: ignore her! The zombie action was great, and the ending was top notch and more than a little bloody and shocking. I kind of saw part of it coming, but I did not see the results coming. Now, I said I didn't like everything about this episode. The biggest problem I had were the occasional pointless scenes. I did not get the scene that had Maggie and Beth singing. Maybe there was some symbolism behind it or maybe it was meant to generate atmosphere, but I felt it just brought the episode to a screeching halt for two or three minutes. I also did not like the scenes with Michonne. Yes I know she's important, but you could have held off on her for a bit, or at least just kept the single scene she had with Andrea. Again, those scenes brought the episode to a halt. But at the end of the day, those may just be nitpicks. It was a good return for the show, and I hope to see it improve next week.

In Defence Of Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull And Condemnation Of Temple Of Doom

I realize the above title alone may turn most people away from this blog forever. You know what? I don't care. I like Indy 4. I don't love it necessarily, but I do like it. Is it the worst Indiana Jones movie? Not at all. This one is: 

Yeah, that's the one. The worst of the series by far. In fact, I think it's Speilberg's worst film, and matches only The Phantom Menace in anything Lucas has touched. Disagree? Well read on dear reader, and see if you agree (You probably won't, but whatever) 

Let me be clear: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (hereafter known as Indy 4) is very, very flawed. I really dislike the CGI effects in the movie, and I can't say I'm a fan of Shia LaBeouf's character, or at least in terms of LaBeouf's portrayal, but I'll get to that. There are just a lot of dumb moments, scenes with refrigerators included. But is that enough for it to be  the disgrace many people make it out to be? No. Not at all. I think much of the criticism aimed at the movie comes are signs of the times. In every negative review I read of Indy 4, one word kept on coming up: unrealistic. That the fridge scene is unrealistic, that the waterfall is unrealistic, that the alien plot is unrealistic, and that everything in general is unrealistic. Well, if I sat down to an Indiana Jones movie that completely realistic, I would walk out. This series is the ultimate in unrealistic action adventure. Making it realistic ruins the whole point. Sure, getting thrown through the air by an atom bomb while sitting in a lead lined fridge is absurdly unrealistic, but let's be honest: the first movie has Nazis opening the Ark of the Covenant, which literally melts their faces. That's okay? That's realistic? Using a life raft as a parachute is all right? I consider lack of realism as a weak criticism of this film. It was never supposed to be a realistic story, and I'm glad it's not. Everything has to be grounded in realism these days, and that's a shame. Cinema is an escape from the grind of real life, so it's too bad that realism has to be essential in Hollywood these days. These movies are meant to be carefree, wholesome fun and this movie has that sense. Is it as successful as Raiders or Last Crusade? No. But this movie does have a sense of adventure that is interesting. What's wrong with aliens in this movie? The other movies all dealt with religious artifacts, but this one did it in a different way. To the ancient civilizations portrayed, this was religion. Legends do tell of beings that came from the sky that acted as gods to them. Is it real? Well, it's a matter of belief.  But to them, it was real. Why can't Indiana Jones deal with alien beings? It's not like the other movies were crazy realistic with their religious symbols. Call me a bad fan, but I legitimately do not see a problem. Now, there are obviously problems with the movie. I'm not sure how I feel about Shia LaBeouf's character, but I don't care for LaBeouf's acting as the character. He did nothing new: he was basically just recycling his Transformers character. I hated the fact that there was so much CGI in this movie. It could have been a chance to honour the classic stunts from the original movies, but they screwed it up. We did not need the scene with the monkeys: that is the only scene in the movie that makes me cringe. But for all the flaws, this movie is still fun. That's all: good mindless fun that is well paced. 

Now for Temple of Doom. Good Lord, it's a trainwreck. Let me get out the most commonly cited problems with this movie: Willie and Short Round. I hate these two. God, I hate. They are without a doubt the most agonizing characters in this series. Willie is a female stereotype at its most offensive. She whines, cries, screams about breaking her nails and overall acts as a waste of time, film and oxygen. She is also given NOTHING to do. She's a throwaway character who is there for no reason other than to give Indy a love interest. Then there is Short Round. Another stereotype, this one being an Asian one. He spouts his accent because Speilberg thinks its funny and acts terribly. Hey, did you know the guy who would one day create Jar Jar Binks wrote this movie? And that the guy who directed it would one day go on to produce Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen? But the real problem I have with this movie is the tone. Now look, it's not unusual for sequels (well, technically Temple of Doom is a prequel) to be darker than the original, and that's not always a bad thing. On the contrary, movies like The Godfather Part II and The Dark Knight have used a darker tone to improve themselves as films, and even surpass the original in the case of The Dark Knight. In fact, Lucas had already made a great second act to a trilogy in The Empire Strikes Back. But this one just went way, way, WAAAAAY too far to the point where it's unpleasant to watch. Lucas and Speilberg were both going through divorces when this movie went into production and that really reflects in Lucas' script. Gone are the senses of heroism and adventure. Replacing them are child slaves, kidnapping human sacrifices, voodoo ceremonies, mind control through curses, human hearts being ripped out of chests and tons of blood flowing everywhere. Again, I have nothing against going darker for Part II in a series, but this was just hard to watch. The villain is terrifying, but overly so. He is disturbing in many ways because of how powerful and psychotic he is. Heath Ledger's Joker did not scare me this much. Keep in mind that much of the marketing for this movie was centred on children. There was a toyline and few video games. I would not take a kid to see this. I saw it when I was 11 and it scared the crap out of me. I know this is a weird criticism of a movie, to say the villain is too scary, but it really does go too far. Being scary is fine, but you have to know your audience. This guy was like something out of a voodoo Saw movie. The relationship between Indy and Willie is unbearable because I do not buy for a second that someone as tough and badass as Indy would ever develop feelings for someone this annoying and needy. He fell for Marion in the first movie, but Marion was tough and resourceful. When we first meet her she is taking shots with a bunch of guys. Elsa in the third movie was also believable because of her love for archeology and history. She and Indy had tons in common, even though she turned out to be a traitor. Willie has nothing in her personality that would make Indy think of her as anything more than an annoyance. In  fact he does view her as an annoyance for the beginning of the movie until they suddenly fall for each other for no real reason. If this movie did do one thing right was that it really established Indy as a hero. He has nothing to gain out what he is doing other than save the children who are captive. Outside of that, I do not like a thing about Temple of Doom, and I am not alone on this. Speilberg has openly admitted that he is not happy with this movie. I'm not 100% sure what Lucas thought of it, but considering it's the guy who did the Star Wars prequels he probably loves it. So why do people seem to like Temple of Doom more than Crystal Skull? I think it's the nostalgia googles. People have been watching this movie for years and is considered one of the "classic" Indiana Jones movies. The new one never had a shot. People will always remember the original trilogy and that's what they did. So that's it. Proof I have no intention of bowing to popular opinion. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: not perfect, but still not bad. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: awful movie.