This Thanksgiving break I felt like a real, professional movie reviewer. I say that because I have seen four movies in the last seven days and it has been a blast. 2012, what I thought was going to be just an okay movie year is shaping up to be incredible. The last four movies I saw, though not all major Oscar contenders, have all been great movies.Although, I do expect to see a lot of them at the Academy Awards this year. So, instead of writing four lengthy reviews I'm going to do a Thanksgiving break rundown with a small review and a rating of each movie I saw, in the order I saw them. Most of these movies are new to theatres, save Wreck-It-Ralph, so you'll have time to go catch them.
First up the 23rd addition to one of the longest film franchises in history (50 years). That's correct its Daniel Craig returning as James
I won't lie, I'm a little biased towards the Bond franchise because I've been watching it since I was a small child. I don't know if that makes me judge it easier or harsher, so you let me know. As far as Skyfall is concerned, I loved it. It was one of those action films that didn't rely on action sequences to make it a good film. I'm convinced that it could be a good film even if you left out every action sequence. Its the first Bond film in the Craig era (Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall) to heavily rely on the acting and the story to keep the movie going. The other two films seemed to be action sequences with story to connect them all, where Skyfall is a story that has acion sequences connected to it. With this one marking the 50th anniversary of cinematic Bond, there were some great homages to the old films, but not so many that its overwhelming. The best part of this movie is the relationships formed between characters. We finally get to see how Bond relates with other people and how they relate to him , its the most realistic Bond movie in that sense. The best performance of the movie was Javier Bardem. He was absolutely phenomenal. Every time he was on screen I was nervous for everyone else, he had such a demanding presence on the screen. He was constantly doing little mannerisms that made his scenes completely unsettling for the viewer, he may be the best Bond villain of all time. Overall Sykfall gets a 8.5/10. I would give it a perfect but it was far from the perfect film and it sometimes relies to heavily on the "Bond" checklist to be a exceptional film.
The second movie I saw this week was The Life of Pi, once again I'm biased since I read the book, but I was definitely going into this movie very critical, some might say overly critical (Transformers fans.)
The Life of Pi has a fairly simple plot, a boy fights for survival on the Pacific ocean while in the company of a Bengal Tiger. This movie was gorgeous. The CGI on the animals was full proof, the way the ocean and the sky would reflect perfectly, the trippy vision thing, that crazy whale scene, they were all so beautiful. I cannot compliment the creators enough they made one of the prettiest films I have ever seen. It was such a visual film I was overwhelmed at some points. The acting was also superb, Irrfan Khan who plays older Pi, the main character, was genius. He was so emotionally involved in his own story that it forced the audience to be emotionally involved. And newcomer Suraj Sharma, who played Pi through out most the film was, incredible. I believed the helplessness in his eyes, anything he did onscreen I understood why her doing that action. Look out for this kid in the coming years. Overall I'll give Life of Pi a 8/10 there were parts of it that lost my attention and also the filmmakers could have handled some situations better, that I can't tell you about because spoilers.
Hold on, we're halfway there. Get ready to hear me gush, because I saw one of the greatest films ever crafted by human beings this week and I'm about to tell you about it.
10/10 I'm just going to say that now. Lincoln was the perfect film, there was not one thing that Steven Spielberg or anyone else could have done to make it better. The cast is the greatest ensemble of actors I have ever seen assembled, headed by the phenomenal Daniel Day-Lewis who is the one of the greatest actors to ever do be a part of film making. Everyone gave a perfect performance, I have no criticism for any of the acting in that movie, it drove the entire film. The best part of the movie is that it didn't rely on any gimmicks or "smoke and mirrors" as my brother would say. It relied on two things and two things only, the story and the people telling it. I'm telling you, they all did such a fantastic job that I was worried about the 13th amendment getting passed. I know full well that slavery is illegal but this movie and those actors did such a great job that I was so enveloped in the story, that things that I knew were going to happen became suspenseful. So, a perfect 10 for Steven Spielberg and I will see you at the Academy Awards sir, on stage, for best picture.
The last movie I saw was no Lincoln, but it was one of the funniest films I have seen this year, Wreck-It-Ralph.
Can I start by saying that I love Disney. I'll just do it, Disney I love you. You will not allow a bad movie to go through your studio, every movie you make you genuinely think that kids and their parents can enjoy your movies, you don't just make good children's films, you make great films. It's always hard to review animated movies because a large chunk of the live-action movie making process is gone. I will say that the voive acting in this was phenomenal. I have never liked John C. Reilly (Ralph) more than I like him here. Sarah Silverman, (Vanellope) Jack McBrayer (Fix-It Felix, Jr.) and Jane Lynch (Calhoun) were all great. The hard part about animation is making me care about a bunch of computer code that is told to make a character move around and move its mouth and Wreck-It Ralph's cast did that, I really cared about all the characters. I was emotionally involved with all of their stories and that's a hard thing to do. The plot was smart, and the jokes were clever, especially for video game fans, like me. I laughed harder at obscure video game jokes than I did anything else, but the non-video game humor was good too, you don't have to be a video game nerd to like it. I'll give it an 8/10.
So that's the film rundown, this has been a phenomenal season for film and things are only looking up. The first part of The Hobbit looks great and one of the only films that looks like it can rival Lincoln at the Oscars in Les Miserables.
Feel free to comment, agree, disagree, what you want to see reviews of. Thank for reading!
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