Random Thoughts of a Movie Insomniac: December

White male caucasian young adult on bed with head on pillow with eyes wide open staring off into space at the camera. Afraid of the dark.

As I write up this latest draft, I am now in the last year of my 30’s.  Today  I am 39, and I  feel pretty damn good about it.  I’m still doing the things I love, and am still pretty active.  I guess it hasn’t hit just yet.  I don’t feel old because I don’t understand what my niece is listening to because I never was much into pop music anyways.

Although I feel bad about my lack of writing new articles and reviews.  I feel most bad for not visiting the many great sites that took time out of their day to read mine.  So for this post I’m going to give you my thoughts and  links to reviews that others have wrote.  Not for all but for some

 

Arrival

When I saw that the director of this was going to tackle the sequel to Blade Runner.  I was somewhat hesitant because the other movies I saw from this guy were pretty intense.  Both Sicario and Prisoners have a lot of nail biting moments and I don’t want the sequel to one of my favorite Sci-Fi flicks to have me feel tense.  I went into this expecting Amy Adams to torture Jeremy Renner because she thinks he is an alien.  What I got instead was a great thought provoking film that made me look at my own life and valuate things that I find important.  In this movie a bunch of spaceships are sighted across the world and Amy Adams is called in to decipher the strange type of writing the alien has.  For a movie with such a wide release, I was a little surprised and happy there wasn’t much action in it.  This is more in line with flicks like Solaris than Independence Day.  I think the way the movie is structured  was really good.  I didn’t know if I was seeing events in the past or the present, I loved it.  Yet I feel many people will find it to to be to slow.  When I saw it in theaters I was glued to the screen but I heard other people yawn.  Let’s read what Brittani Burnham of Rambling Films and Veronika Zakonjsek of Veronika’s Film Reviews  thought of this.

http://ramblingfilm.blogspot.com/2016/11/review-arrival.html

http://www.veronikasfilmreviews.com/2016/11/26/arrival-2016/

 

Mad Max Fury Road: Black and Chrome Edition

One of my favorite action flicks looks even better with this all brand new Black and Chrome version.  Now if you just think that all they did is just take the original movie and  remove the color, you are sadly mistaken.  George Miller wanted this to be in Black and White but because of the studio request was forced to make it in color.  Now the original version is amazing and if you are happy with that, than great.  But this is my preferred version.  There are sequences in this that look better in black and white than color.  One of those being the moment where they go into the tornado and Immortan Joe’s headquarters at the start of the film .   Let’s read what Eric M of One Ticket Please had to say.

https://oneticketpleaseblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/13/mad-max-fury-road-black-and-chrome-edition/

Here is a great video from Leon Thomas as he discusses the benefits of black and white films

 

Bad Santa 2

Ugh.  This movie was bad and I’m not trying to sound pretentious when it comes to comedy.   I loved the first Bad Santa because Terry Zwigoff(Crumb) takes a character who is truly despicable and makes him likable even though the character himself never changes.  In the sequel from director Mark Waters(Mean Girls), Billy Bob’s character tries to kill himself in the first few minutes  and I wish he would.  This is the perfect example of a Drunk Comedy  in which I should be really drunk to enjoy it

SPOILERS.  Here is why the movie sucks

Willie is a guy that is drunk all the time, rude to everyone and kind of ugly.  Why the hell did he get to have sex with someone that even looks remotely hot like Christina Hendricks.  It would be more plausible if she wanted to have sex with washing machine than him.  Not only that but it seems like all the girls in this get wet for this guy and I don’t get it.  It’s like getting a homeless guy really drunk and than having him succeed girls at the playboy mansion.

It’s funny when you are 8 years old and being around a foul mouth guy, but when you are in your early 20’s and you still act the same age.  It’s annoying.

Umm didn’t your partner try to kill you.  Why the hell would you want to work with this guy at all.  Also , why does the black midget(I’m sorry, sorry, but I forget the character’s name) need Willie’s help in cracking the safe anyways.  Isn’t there anyone else that can do the kind of job he does.

Oh Great Kathy Bates is his mother.  I had more laughs from her in American Horror Story than this movie.  Let’s Hear some thoughts from Jordan Dodd of  Epileptic Moondancer

https://epilepticmoondancer.net/2016/11/30/bad-santa-2-2016/

 

Bad Moms.

Better than Bad Santa 2 but that’s not really saying much either.  Here is my full review from Cinema Sentries.

http://cinemasentries.com/review/bad-moms-blu-ray-review-factory-made-comedy/

 

Cafe Society

Woody Allen’s latest has Jesse Esienberg going to Hollywood to work at his uncle’s(Steve Carell) Studio.  He falls in love with Kristen Stewart but problems arrive when he find’s out that she is also seeing his boss.  It’s an alright flick but  I will never understand why Jesse’s character is still attracted to Stewart’s  after he marries Blake Lively.  That girl is very sexy while Stewart is just pretty.   Here is a full review from Keith and The Movies

REVIEW: “Café Society”

 

The Love Witch.

I have been following the release of this film ever since I saw the trailer.  Anna Biller is filmmaker I hope gets the respect and love she deserves after this movie.  The Love Witch looks like a loving tribute and homage to the films of the late 60’s/early 70’s.  But there is  something genius in the way Miss Biller turns the table on the usual tropes that were written for women back in those times .  Samantha Robinson plays a woman who seduces men with her love poison, but they can’t handle that level of high emotion and so they die.  She meets up with a cop investigating the deaths and she thinks she may have found a guy to with stand her drug, but it will have strange results for them both.  There is a lot more going on with this film that I need to re watch a few more times before I can fully grasp it, and that is fine.  The Love Witch should be nominated for best Cinematography(M. David Mullen), Best Costume Design(Anna Biller), and Best Set Design(Biller) at this year’s Oscars. Yeah it’s visuals are that good.   I am very happy that Miss Biller and many other people who worked on this film  have accepted my friend request on Facebook.  I’m going to watch every single flick she makes from here on out and I hope you do to.  Please read this great article from Kristen Lopez at Cinema Sentries.

http://cinemasentries.com/review/the-love-witch-review-a-loving-tribute-to-a-bygone-era/

 

Body Heat.

Found this at a Goodwill on VHS and decided to give it a watch.  William Hurt  is a lawyer who begins sleeping with Kathleen Turner and they both decide to  kill her husband.  I don’t want to go to much into spoiler territory but I will say.  As soon as I saw him break open the window to get at her.  I knew something wasn’t right about this lady, and I was right.  It’s a nice homage to Double Indemnity, but that one did it way better.

 

I will be back with my best of 2016.  Should I do a written post or a video one.    I’m going to post other great reviews and articles from writers who are way better than me on here before that one posts.  See all of you cats later.