so many movies, TOO MANY MOVIES

Ok, so its that time of year. Good ole' awards season is in fully swing so I've basically spent the past couple of weeks trying to track down some of the hot listed films I either missed or have been waiting to come to my area. And as with every awards season I know I'm going to miss stuff. So sadly I won't be seeing Danny Boyle's "127 Hours" before the year is out and a few others I was interested in. But still I've seen quite a few things and have a couple more to go. So I'm going to do fairly cut and dry reviews for this lot. Then sometime next week I'll finish up with a review for the Coen brothers "True Grit". Directly after that I'll have my Top 20 films of the year list posted. So here we go.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader"
Overall probably the most enjoyable of the series to watch, but nothing to write home about. It's the first one to not attempt to be like "The Lord of the Rings" or "Harry Potter" and manages some good fight scenes and one highly impressive monster battle at the end. Still there are a good number of dull dips around the middle of the film and also some pretty damn corny ass segments that don't clear up fast enough to not be an issue. All this said I'm not completely knocking it, but I'm far from loving it.

"Best Worst Movie"
If you've never seen "Troll 2" then go rent that and this documentary and make it a double feature. "Best Worst Movie" takes a look at the hardcore fan basis that's amassed for the terrible, but great early 90's horror flick "Troll 2". In it you see almost all of the original cast and crew(which is great at times, but also quite sad given the lives of some of them). Mainly though you follow charismatic and charming George Hardy who played the father in the movie. Hardy is a nice guy through and through, but having him as your tour guide through the wide world of "Troll 2" can be as exhausting as watching the movie a ton of times within a few days. Still it's a fun and funny documentary that it's very entertaining and adds to the lore of the "Troll 2" universe.

"Monsters"
I don't expect ALOT of people to like "Monsters", but I really dug it. Made for a total of $15,000 dollars, it's a qusi-indie drama romance that takes place in an infected section of Mexico. Said infected zone is inhabited by giant alien octopi that are none too friendly. What makes me fall for the movie is really just the way in which creator Gareth Edwards goes the extra mile dramatically to tell a big story despite his budget. Sure some of the effects aren't perfect, but they also aren't that bad. In fact some are pretty fucking great. But really it's about these two people who are trying to get back to the lives they live and question if they want.

"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest"
An entertaining and interesting end to the trilogy. After being bored and letdown with "The Girl Who Played With Fire", I was pleased to find the finale pretty damn fun to watch. It's far less of a thriller than either of the prior films and is instead closer to a courtroom procedural.

"Black Swan"
Among the tip top best films of the year is Darren Aronofsky's beautiful, twisty and sad "Black Swan". Natalie Portman delivers probably her best and most fearless performance as Nina, the dancer looking for perfection. And like most quests in Aronofsky films... they don't go too well. But the road there is paved with little nuances from the horror genre and then some generally creative integrations of the physical and the mental tension. Simply a GREAT picture and one not to miss.

"The Fighter"
Another great film of the year and also connected with Aronofsky (this time as executive producer). "The Fighter" is simply put a goddamn great movie to watch. It has all the entertaining elements that make dramas good, sporting films good and just general stories good. Christian Bale and Melissa Leo deliver great performances that focus on the showy (which is great). But I do feel like Wahlberg's Micky Ward is a great performance on the opposite end of the spectrum as a strong, but subtle piece of acting. Another key note is director David O. Russell ('Three Kings' and 'I [HEART] Huckabees') reminding us just how good a filmmaker he is. Russell doesn't really change up styles, he just implements some new ones like filming the boxing matching in HBO format. What makes those even more impressive is just how strong the boxing scenes are. While there aren't a ton, they are highly realistic and well done. This is easily his best film since "Three Kings".

"Tron Legacy"
On the one hand I feel like they got the "spirit" of the original with this sequel. Never did I feel that the 1982 "Tron" had a strong storyline or for that matter one that made a lot of sense. But it's designs and some of it's undertones made me love the film. "Tron Legacy" is a well made, fun and very solid sci-fi adventure picture. It's not filled with needless action turning into a meathead movie, but it does lack the subtle "depth" I was hoping for. So yeah I'm a bit disappointed. I DID however like almost all the characters (sadly Michael Sheen is one I didn't care for as he was pretty useless) and I liked seeing the updated design work that really did pay homage to the original instead of trying to just make suped up versions of it. Had "Tron Legacy" (or rather it's writers) aimed at making a headier sci-fi movie I'd be giving this all types of love, but it works for what it is. Daft Punk's score DOES make the film is many ways too. I'm not sure anyone else could have scored this with the same intensity and intelligence. Overall quite fun.

The Warrior's Way review

Walking into movie without much to go upon except a couple of trailers and posters is probably what I love doing the most. Let's face it movies today get spoiled months in advance due to the online world, but once in a while there's a film falls through the cracks in certain respects. One that not enough people have any interest in to comment on the happenings surrounding it. Sometimes it's a movie like "Skyline" in which no one had much to run on outside of the brothers Strause comments about the studio system. Then opening weekend we discovered the movie was absolute shit. And then there is "The Warrior's Way". The trailers almost scream movie made for the meme generation. Slack-jawed, morons without a shred of intelligence or good taste that love to make poor jokes about zombies, ninjas or whatever else is "popular" at the given second. Well it still might kind of be that movie... but it's an absurd amount of fun.

Viewing "The Warrior's Way" can only be compared to the first time I watched something like "Dead Alive" or "Darkman". For the first ten to twenty minutes I questioned what the hell this was and then something happens that makes me fall for it. With "Dead Alive" it zombie killing, kung-fu fighting priest. In "Darkman" it was the lab assault that creates him. In this it's Danny goddamn Huston. Huston plays Colonel, a scar-faced bastard who loves raw steak, fucking with the townsfolk and rape. He loves himself some rape. It's a character role for an impressive actor where seriousness and good taste get to fly out the window and he's let go to do whatever he wants. But he's not alone. As soon as Kate Bosworth opens her mouth and starts rattling off in an over the top, but likely southern jaw it's great. You start to love her goofiness in all fashions. And Geoffrey Rush as a drunken rifleman is as exciting and humorous to say the least. Really the moment in which our hero played by Dong-gun Jang reaches the deconstructed western town is when the film really seems to come alive.

The plot is something of a mixture of generalized eastern and western stories. On one end is the wayward swordsmen who grew a heart and turned his back on his master. On the other is quirky western towns people that gets roughed up by a band of marauders as they just try and skate by in life. Apparently mixing these two elements and having them exist in a cheapened "300" like universe works. And I use the "300" thing lightly. Despite the green screen environment several of the gorgeous horizons don't appear to be CGI, but simply real skies super imposed onto the screen. Also the cheap effects work wonders for the feel of the movie. It starts to feel like something made with the same love and sense of experimentation as old school Jackson or Raimi. Okay that's a big thing to say, but see it and then compare it with some of their older films and see if you can't find the same heart.

I mention the off feeling I had at the beginning of the movie, but by the end it all makes sense. The opening seems like it's aiming to be something less than it could be. It feels like a video game and the violence is too fast and shows very little for an R-rated film. By the end I understood why. It's not a gore-hound film, but it is violent. I realized that had they shown since the opening the style in which they really fight it would have grown stale and dull by the big climax. They employ an interesting type of slow motion fighting that doesn't feel like the Snyder-slo mo we've been seeing as of late. It's faster and more fluid. The action set pieces are also quite fun to watch and cleverly put together. Again they are cheap, but that cheapness WORKS. You don't need sixty million dollars to make a fun and original genre movie and "The Warrior's Way" proves that.