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Review: ‘Captain Phillips’

“Captain Phillips” is Paul Greengrass doing pretty much what he knows best, which is recreating real life events in a way that feels immediate and actual, very cinema vérité despite the fact that movie stars often pop up to remind the viewer that this is indeed just a movie. Greengrass broke out with “Bloody Sunday” and he tackled the U.S.-Iraq quagmire in “Green Zone,” and now he’s here with a story about four Somali pirates hijacking an American cargo ship and taking the captain as a hostage for insurance money.

“Captain Phillips” is very much based on the very true story of a pirate hijacking in 2009, and as it was written by Captain Richard Phillips, it tells his story and his side of the whole nasty bit of business, and now this Phillips guy must really be on top of the world now because he survived a pirate hijacking (SPOILER! Duh! He wrote the damn book!), wrote a bestselling book about it, and now he gets to see Tom Hanks play him in a movie based on the book he wrote about a portion of his own life. Oh what a world.

But what makes “Captain Phillips” really work, and this is something noted in the Captain’s own book and is also backed up with a little bit of research, is how sympathetic the Somalis are in this instance. At least in this movie, the Somali men in a small, war-torn, destroyed village are ushered to the beach with machine guns pointed at them by gang leaders and mob bosses, forcing them to “work” by being pirates, as this has become the sole source of income for the impoverished country. And there is even a bit of a throwaway line about overfishing in the area taking away the livelihood of the people actually living there, though that’s really it. There really isn’t preaching or sermonizing in this thing at all, it’s just a very interesting true story that brings up some very tricky socio-economic points and issues on a geopolitical scale about the haves and the have-nots. But really this is just a taut thriller in which at the end of the day it kind of feels like there are no winners.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 10/14/13 – ‘Bernie’

“Bernie” is a rare kind of movie, because it is a mockumentary about a real life story, so while it has recognizable actors like Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey and Shirley MacLaine, it is also shot and presented as if these are real people telling their sides of a real story. Helping to blur the lines between reality and cinema are real people involved in the real story, being interviewed for this movie as if they were in a normal documentary, and not a weird yet delightful little movie featuring reenactments of real life events by real life actors.

From my original review of “Bernie:”

“Hiding her body, he then went on a shopping spree with her money by spending it on the community, helping some townspeople start businesses and sending local kids to college. But of course it all crashes down on him eventually, and the local DA Danny Buck (Matthew McConaughey, Killer Joe) finds that he needs to request a change of venue in order to get a fair trial because Bernie was just so well liked by everyone. And it didn’t help that conversely Mrs. Nugent was remarkably disliked. It’s because of stuff like this that makes this story, and this movie, so fascinating. People accused Bernie of stealing from Mrs. Nugent, but even if he did, it was evident that he was giving all of that money away to other people, like a small town Robin Hood. Everyone likes Robin Hood.”

#40 – Escape From Crespodome

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In episode 40, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn review Machete Kills and Captain Phillips, as well as the indie movie sensation Escape From Tomorrow.

Things discussed in this episode include:

The Netflix pick of the week is Bernie.

Chris defies the world to name a comedy sequel that is as good as the original.

Word of mouth spring boards Gravity into profitability.

Pacific Rim and The Heat come out on DVD this week, and new movies in theaters include Escape Plan, Carrie, The Fifth Estate, 12 Years a Slave and All is Lost.

The Crespodisco features two songs picked by Drewster Cogburn from the GTA V soundtrack: The Chain Gang of 1974’s “Sleepwalkin'” and “Smokin’ & Ridin'” by BJ The Chicago Kid.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Gravity’

Holy mole, if you have not seen this one for yourself just yet, you need to do yourself a favor and check out the next available showing of “Gravity” as soon as possible. And if you like 3D, then go ahead and drop the extra few bucks on the 3D screening because this is one of the very few movies that uses this gimmick very well. But in the meantime, just go see “Gravity” and know that I love it.

I mean, woah, what a movie. Containing a very simple story structure that proves you don’t need overplotting to make a story interesting, “Gravity” is a tale of survival in outer space and that’s pretty much it. A non-professional doctor (Sandra Bullock) is trained to do a space walk in order to install a new program into the Hubble telescope, accompanied by a veteran astronaut (George Clooney), and these two become stranded when debris from an exploded satellite causes a chain reaction that sends pieces of space debris flying at them, destroying their Explorer shuttle and leaving them with no way home. So the whole movie is how these people try to survive in space and how the hell they try to get back to Earth.

Leading up to the release of this movie, it is really incredible how often I heard people muse about this movie’s story and plot, wondering how they could possibly “stretch” out this premise to a feature length movie. I just couldn’t understand these people and their concerns because that is enough of a hook to make me WANT to see this film. Exactly HOW were they doing to pull this off? What were they going to do to make this a compelling and interesting movie from start to finish, or will there be boring parts of just floating in space?Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 10/7/13 – ‘Super’

Think you’ve seen every superhero movie there is to see? Think you know what a subversive comic book movie looks like? Well unless you’ve seen “Super,” you are sorely mistaken.

From my original April 2011 review of “Super“:

“We are just about at full saturation when it comes to superhero movies; there are at least five major blockbusters coming out this summer based on comic books (and a sixth summer movie based on a toyline that was turned into a comic book, cartoon series, animated movie, dishware, bedsheets, lunchboxes, Trapper Keepers, etc.), more major superhero movies are coming in 2012, and we’ve even had our first R-rated superhero movie in the form of Watchmen, and meta “what if” scenarios about real. everyday people trying to be costumed crime fighters with Kick Ass, Special, Defendor, hell, that set up actually goes all the way back to Blankman, so how on Earth can a new superhero movie find a way to differentiate itself from the pack?

It can be batshit insane, like Super. For both good and ill, this is something of a low rent masterpiece in genre subversion – it takes a hard look at the concept of the costumed crimefighter and pokes this concept in the belly with a sharp stick. The movie starts with repressed, twerpy and dull Frank D’Arbo (Rainn Wilson, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) losing his ex-junkie wife Sarah (Liv Tyler, The Incredible Hulk) to slimey strip club owner Jacques (Kevin Bacon, X-Men: First Class). Frank’s life sucks, but a vision from God (because he sees visions) tells him to put on a costume and fight evil in all of its forms. This leads to him donning the identity of the Crimson Bolt, adopting the slogan “Shut up, crime!” and utilizing a pipe wrench as his weapon of choice. He goes around town for a little while and fights all manner of “criminals,” ranging from drug dealers to line-jumpers, and he leaves them all lying on the ground with heads split open by his wrench. It’s not really made clear why he has to spend time fighting crime on the streets before he gets the chutzpah to go get his wife back from Jacques, but he does so anyway, eventually enlisting the services of comic book store clerk Libby (Ellen Page, X-Men: The Last Stand), who becomes his sidekick Boltie and proves to be even more unhinged and sadistic than he is.”

#39 – Rampant Answers

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In episode 39, Chris and Drew are joined by Ivan Lopez (@IvanTheOk) from RampantRadio.com, as well as Steve Etchie (@Etchie) from the show Answer Pants, and they talk about all things movies as well as podcasting and indie radio.

Things discussed in this episode include:

Why is Ivan taking on The Man with his indie podcast network Rampant Radio?

The Netflix Instant Pick of the Week is the James Gunn film Super.

They recap the weekend box office top five, and Chris and Drew review Gravity.

Ivan talk about how he got into indie radio and podcasting.

They talk about the new movies coming out on DVD and in theaters.

The Crespodisco includes songs from the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Rush’

Not the epic biopic featuring the three-piece Canadian rock outfit that we were all hoping for, “Rush” is the story of a pair of Formula-One racers in the 1970’s who developed one of the most intense and interesting sports rivalries ever. Directed by Ron Howard with consummate skill and featuring very good lead performances from Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds) and a tight script from Peter Morgan, “Rush” is actually better than I expected it would be, and is definitely worthwhile for people to check out.

What makes this movie work so well is that it is all based on a true story, which allows for some thinner characterization, as the real story is inherently appealing enough to carry the dramatic weight of the film. It doesn’t matter that English driver James Hunt (Hemsworth) was merely portrayed as a playboy and party animal while the German driver Niki Lauda (Brühl) was shown to be an overly serious fuddy-duddy with a penchant for pissing everyone off by being truthful to a fault; what matters is that we see these two excellent drivers push each other to the limits of their abilities in a sport that was as close to legalized Russian Roulette as any sport could get thanks to the very high death rate of drivers up to this point (the great documentary “Senna” goes into how Formula One managed to make their races much safer, but only after more tragedy hit the sport).Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 9/30/13 – ‘Dumbstruck’

“Dumbstruck” is a wonderful little documentary about one year in the lives of several ventriloquists and how they ae trying to do the best they can with their chosen hobby or craft, which happens to be speaking through little dummies. This is a balance, well-made and respectful film about a group of people who are easy to mock, and really it is quite a touching movie filled with people that are pretty easy to like…once you look past the ugly dolls that they keep playing with.

From my original review of “Dumbstruck“ after I saw it at the 2010 Florida Film Festival:

“While Dumbstruck does go into the art of ventriloquism and puppet manipulation, and also shows a bit of what goes into honing a respectable routine, it is the stories of the people themselves that takes center stage. And perhaps it is a testament to how interesting these stories are that the movie feels like it ends a little early. Most of the movie’s subjects, if not all five of them, would have benefited from a little more filming. While the film is chronologically set up to be book ended by Vent Haven conventions, it feels like none of the stories wrap up after a year (with the exception of Terry Fator, who by the end of the film only has one place to go, which is down. And we don’t want that, he seems like a nice fella). Another year of following these people around might have resulted in a little more closure story-wise. Then again, it might haven resulted in more opened ended questions and plot threads. Such is the danger of documentary story telling.”

#38 – Dying Cancer Dragon

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In episode 38, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn are joined by Johnny the Hater (@johnnythehater) and they talk about new movies, the box office review, there is a new Netflix Instant Pick of the Week, and Johnny takes on Drew in a new round of Drewster Cogburn vs the World!

Things discussed in this episode include:

Chris announces a new contest to win a show poster.

The Netflix Instant Pick of the Week is Dumbstruck, a documentary about ventriloquists.

Chris, Drew and Johnny recap the top five for the weekend.

Chris and Drew review Rush.Continue Reading …

Review: ‘The Act of Killing’

“The Act of Killing” works on two levels. First off it is a compelling look at the monsters behind the 1965 mass genocides in Indonesia and how they are still in power and see nothing wrong with their past evil deeds (or present evil deeds). And secondly, this documentary stands as a testament to the transformative power of cinema and how movies can indeed change the world, even if at the rate of just one person at a time.

Sounds like fun, no?

The backdrop of this movie is a harrowing one. There’s a reason why this movie starts with a short clip from the director in which he explains how he does not expect people to “enjoy” the film per se, but instead he hopes everyone will be compelled by it and will learn from it. He says this TWICE. “I won’t say ‘enjoy the movie’ because… .” He REALLY wanted to hammer that point home. You won’t ENJOY this. But you will still probably be fascinated by it.Continue Reading …