Folks. I hate to say it , but my time with writing posts on this here site is going to be very limited. The only reason why I am writing up anything today is because I have a day off before I start work again. Cinema Recall and Film Pasture Podcasts take up most of my free time, and I really don’t want to spend extra time writing up reviews. I will still try my best to write comments and share your articles and reviews as best as I can, and my sincerest apologies if it takes me a while to respond to your comments. Here are a few more movies I saw.
Wonder Woman
This movie has gotten some amazing buzz from those who saw it, but I wanted to wait before I went in. I still got to see it at a really nice looking theater, and I really enjoyed aspects of it. But I didn’t fully love it like a lot of people did. Now I will say that this is probably one of the best DC Comics best movies next to the original Superman(1978). Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman is right up there with Christopher Reeve as Superman. Don’t get all upset Linda Carter fans. She was great at the television version, but Gadot was more cinematic. I enjoyed very much how her character changes and grows throughout the story and she does have a good character arch.
What I didn’t like is all the cliche elements that have been in countless other super hero movies. Wonder Woman does not need a romantic sub plot. If she did, I would rather see her hook up with someone who was not as physically fit as her or someone a lot shorter. To me it sends the message to all girls that you can be even stronger if you have a man to help you out. I also thought the reveal of the bad guy was very weak. Like even Scooby-Doo and the rest of the gang think it’s a weak reveal. It also slaps the face of a previous scene where Wonder Woman and Captain Kirk(Chris Pine) get into a good debate about human nature and that everyone has the potential to be evil. This Aries God that she is looking for may just be a story and nothing more. I’m not saying there can’t be a god, but to have him hide among a human host was just ridiculous I know this was produced by Zack Snyder, but do all the action scenes have to look like his previous movies. The slow motion shots were cool but it was used way too much. Wonder Woman does give me hope for the new Justice League movie and I will watch this one again, but it’s not something I want to own.
Atomic Blonde
The trailers of this looked really bad ass and seeing Charilze Theron kick some ass made me really excited. But after a cool fight sequence inside a car, I got uninterested in the story. No, I became uninterested right from the beginning credits. This is going to sound like major nitpicking, but I don’t care. For the opening credits, the song that plays is Cat People(Putting out the fire)by David Bowie. It was used once as the actual theme for the movie Cat People(1982) and then again in Inglorious Basterds(2009). When a song that was written specifically for one movie gets used for another. I’ll give it a pass, but when you use that same song for your movie’s opening credits. I just groaned. Yes I know I am nitpicking, and I don’t care. They might as well used (Don’t You) Forget about Me by Simple Minds as the opening song. The whole soundtrack annoyed me and took me out of the movie, because they were all the standard generic hits of the 80’s that you see on mix compilations at gas stations . It even has these like odd covers of songs that are all done slow and tranquil while the original was light and happy. The movie did have some great fight sequences including one in stair well that is really awesome. Yet I did not once care about Miss Theron’s character’s mission to retrieve this list of double agents. I think that the character she played did have potential to possibly start a franchise, but the way it was told on screen was kind of weak in my opinion.
Monster. (2003)
I re watched this before I watched Wonder Woman, because they were both directed by Patty Jenkins. This is the movie that earned Charlize Theron a best actress Oscar in 2004. Based on the real life of Aileen Wuornos, this film is amazing. I have seen news exposes on Wuornos before and I remember thinking that this woman was crazy and was just killing men for no reason. This movie dives deep into her persona and explains more about this woman and her behavior. I felt a little bit of empathy towards this woman. Even though she is guilty for committing these heinous acts. I did end up feeling kind of bad about her outcome. It is a tragic love story with Christina Ricci playing the only person whoever truly loved her. After watching this and Wonder Woman. It feels like both movies were made by different people. I know that one is a PG-13 superhero flick and this one is a R Rated heavy drama. Yet I felt the weight of some of the more dramatic moments in Monster than I did with Wonder Woman. I was really hoping Miss Jenkins would do a different project instead of directing another sequel to a super hero flick. But I hope for the best.
mother!
Probably one of the most divisive movies ever to be released this year. mother! was met with a fury of debate on social media with some calling it the worst movie of the century and others hailing it as a masterpiece. Who is wrong and who is right depends entirely on your opinion. If you loved it, that is great and I totally support your views on why you think so. If you hated it, I support your opinion too. I love that a movie makes people want to talk about it. Regardless of how you felt about the movie, people are talking about mother!. I wonder if this is what Darren Aronofsky wanted. To get people talking about movies again. Most flicks that get released wide are usually middle of the road safe pictures. Ones that all demographics could basically enjoy. Even if they do drive home a particular theme, they won’t offend many people. Mother!, however is not that kind of film. This is very much an independent feature and should have been released as such. If this was an indie movie, there would be no F grade on Cinema Score. General audiences would not hate on it as much because it would not be playing near them. Most of the debates would among us fellow movie geeks that do read this site. Can you imagine if Lars Von Trier’s Anti Christ got a wide release. How good do you think movies like Mulholland Dr,Donnie Darko, and Under The Skin would do if they were picked up by a major studio. They are all good movies, but there is no way a general audience is going to praise them. That is very much the case for Aronofsky’s latest film. It is an art piece and like all works of art. Your enjoyment really depends on your perception. It takes a different mind set to go into a movie like this. It is not a horror film and should not have been sold to the public like so. I do however wish that Aronofsky and his boo Jennifer Lawrence would stop talking about all the metaphors of the movie and let viewers decide for themselves. What each character of mother! represents is something that should be decided by each individual viewer and not the director. Those thoughts should have been saved for the director’s commentary. Oh I realized in this whole section, I did not give you my opinions on this movie. Well click on the link below to hear my review on The Cinema Recall podcast
http://thatmomentin.com/2017/09/16/mother-2017-review/
Witness(1985)
This is one of Harrison Ford’s earlier movies I have not seen before. I know it was directed by Peter Weir who also gave us The Truman Show so I was excited to check this out. Harrison Ford plays a cop who moves to live with an Amish woman(Kelly McGillis and her son( Lucas Haas) after he sees a murder. I really thought that this movie would make jokes at the Amish, but they don’t and they do respect their customs. I don’t understand why they don’t fight back and if any of you see someone harassing the Amish. You have my permission to beat them down. The pacing of the story and the acting are all really great. It was especially refreshing to see Danny Glover as a bad guy. I wish he took on more villain roles. Look out for Alexander Godunov and Viggo Mortenson in the cast as well
Scarface(1983)
I’ve been re watching this classic gangster flick starring Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer on Blu-Ray with the picture and picture commentary feature. It has interviews with director Brian DePalma, screenwriter Oliver Stone, and various others that worked on the film. once in a while it will show the network TV version as it compares to the theatrical one. I also love that it plays scenes from the original 1932 version of Scarface alongside the same exact scenes in this remake.\
The Adventures of Ray Gunn & Starburst
I rarely post about audio dramas on this site, and I plan on doing a show all about modern radio dramas on The Film Pasture Podcast sometime. The Adventures of Ray Gunn and Starburst follows the intergalactic adventures of two heroes for hire Ray Gunn(Dominic Westerland) & Starburst(Georgia Humphrey). Everyone assumes that Ray Gunn is the hero when it’s actually Starburst who should get the credit. In season one they are trying to stop Castalan Lar(Ian Sharman) from trying to take over the galaxy. While in Season two, our heroes must protect a time paradox(Eleni Dimitriadis) from the clutches of The Librarian( Stacey Taylor).
Written and directed by Holly Rose, this audio drama is a lot of fun. The voice acting by everyone is just phenomenal. I even like it when the characters break the fourth wall to talk with the narrator(Alyson Leeds) during the course of each episode. Each episode is only about 30 minutes long, but you will be hooked. I left a link down below so you can get started
https://raygunnandstarburst.wordpress.com/downloads/
I feel that I am forgetting something, but that is all I can think of right now. I don’t know when I will be back again on this site, but keep your eyes and ears open for updates on either Cinema Recall, The Film Pasture or even ScreenTrax. Talk to you all soon.
The Vern's Video Vortex. 
I’m in the camp that liked mother! but I think it’s flawed as it tends to be too allegorical at times while moments that were supposed to be serious had me laughing. Still, I enjoyed it though it’s not in my top 5 best films of the year so far… Wonder Woman is in my top 5 though.
Yeah Mother has different views from those that have seen it and I can not fault those opinions. I really liked Wonder Woman and think Gal Gadot is perfection in the role, but I did not fully e. njoy the plot and story Thanks for the words
I really liked Wonder Woman. There were plenty of cliches, but they were handled in a way that served the film rather than detract from it. I’ll also disagree to a point about her needing a man. I thought the movie made it clear men needed her far more than she needed them. Glad you at least liked it, though. And yeah, Monster is amazing.
Yes of course Wonder Woman doesn’t need a man, but they still had a romantic sideplot that in my opinion didn’t feel earned and was rushed a bit I think that it was a great movie and I loved that all the action scenes were clear to see, instead of being all jumpy made me very happy Thanks for the comments
Scarface shocked me with its violence the first time I saw it, though it is a masterful gangster film with a great soundtrack. Still need to see the 1932 version!
Agree Darren Aronofsky went too far with his recent interviews on Mother! Too early to give us the explanations. If he must do it, at least wait until the film has been out for a while.
Exactly wait until the commentary to share your thoughts about the movie. The original is great because of Paul Muni