Double Feature: Arrival (2016) & The Burrowers (2008)

After some pondering, I’ve decided that I’d like to go back to double features. The only exceptions, which are quite a few, will be theatre viewings, festival screenings, screeners, Disney and Hong Kong film reviews.

The first double feature to kick off the year are back to somewhat of a alphabetical order formula. Hopefully this time, I’ll get through the alphabet a second round although I can already see it being double featured somewhat scattered as there is at least one Disney title in between. I’ve been meaning to watch Arrival forever and it finally landed on Netflix and then as I try to get through a lot of the titles I’d like to watch on Shudder, my husband chose The Burrowers.

Let’s check it out!

Arrival (2016)

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg, Mark O’Brien, Tzi Ma

When twelve mysterious spacecrafts appear around the world, linguistics professor Louise Banks is tasked with interpreting the language of the apparent alien visitors. – IMDB

I always end up slapping myself everything I finish up a Denis Villeneuve as to why it took me so long to catch up with his film. Although, I’ve seen more of his films before he broke out in Hollywood which are also titles that I always suggest everyone to watch. Arrival is a breathtaking experience, both in its story telling execution and its character development as well as the cinematography and the setting (in the beautiful province of Quebec more rural areas).

Let’s start with the cast. The main players is Amy Adams who plays Louise Banks. She is fantastic as she is not only smart but also incredibly sensitive as a character that always gets questioned for her risky approach and dedication and fascination of deciphering this alien language and her defense of the situation. There is a level of obsession as she is constantly surrounded by the symbols that she is given as she dives into learning the language. Playing opposite here is Jeremy Renner who is more of the scientist of the operation who is fascinated not only by the situation but seemingly more so by Amy Adams character here and rightfully so. He defends and supports a lot of her decisions. Playing the Colonel, who pretty much runs the operation here is Forest Whitaker who is amazing as always. To be fair, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker are all actors that I absolutely enjoy watching so Arrival already had the winning cast for myself.

With Denis Villeneuve at the helm of this, there is always a darker atmosphere here. The urgency of the situation and the threatened environment of the world is definitely a selling point here as it feels quite authentic if the world were to have 12 alien spaceships land in 12 difference places how everyone would react. However, as the story unfolds and Louise Banks figures out the linguistics of it all, we also get brought into the world of what this all is about and to avoid any spoiler territory, it is a thought – provoking and meaningful sort of ending. Arrival is a definitely a must-watch!

The Burrowers (2008)

Director (and writer) J.T. Petty

Cast: Clancy Brown, David Busse, William Mapother, Jocelin Donahue, Karl Geary, Doug Hutchison, Laura Leighton

In the Wild West a rescue party sets out to find a family of settlers that has vanished from their home under mysterious circumstances. – IMDB

We’re huge fans of monster movies. Tremors is a hit at our house and The Burrowers honestly reminded us a bit of that when we were just looking at the poster. However, The Burrowers is a rather Western style horror film as it is centers itself around a feud between the Americans and their prejudice thoughts on the Amerindians being involved all the deaths and disappearances happening. For that reason, it does sometimes feel like the movie forgets what its trying to do. It does do a good job at the hatred between certain characters towards the Native Americans  and while the story wants to use that as well to drop the little clues here and there to show what The Burrowers are actually and their goal, at point, it goes so slow that it seems to lose its momentum and heads directly into the boring spot more frequent than I’d like.

To be fair, I’m not one to pick at slower paced films. However, The Burrowers seems to be just a lackluster experience. Somehow, I ended up being more affected by the brutality and the depth of the hatred and the actions of a certain character towards Amerindians than actually the threat of The Burrowers themselves. The idea of The Burrowers was a good villain when the whole story pieced together however, the execution of the story itself just didn’t work for me.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Captain America: Civil War is just around the corner, having its theatrical release on May 6. In the whole Marvel universe, Captain America’s movies has got me intrigued the most.  Its not saying I don’t enjoy the others also but you know, less so. I’m on the record since its one of my earlier reviews to have really liked The Avengers as many people are, but the one thing I didn’t agree on was Loki was a good villain. Even though I still had a lot of fun, somehow it is not enough that I’ve had the desire to see it again, oddly, now that I think about it.  Agree to disagree, right? You can read the review HERE, if you’d like.  Regardless, in preparation for Civil War, I decided to catch up with both the Marvel movies, I missed last year.  I’m guessing it’ll open up or set the stage of this movie and I think in the trailer I spot Antman, so I’m going to give that one a go soon also.

Let’s check this out! 🙂

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Director: Joss Whedon

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, James Spader, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elisabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle

When Tony Stark and Bruce Banner try to jump-start a dormant peacekeeping program called Ultron, things go horribly wrong and it’s up to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans.-IMDB

The market is completely saturated with superhero movies nowadays.  Its why I didn’t care enough to go see Avengers: Age of Ultron in theatres.  And why I didn’t see all those other ones including TV series.   Thinking about it, I took a nice one year break (most of 2015) from it.  Maybe there was like one or two older ones but I skipped most of the new stuff and its helped to maybe feel more into the mood of seeing it.  Plus, The Avengers did so well that I wasn’t sure how Age of Ultron would do. It turns out Avengers: Age of Ultron is better in some ways than The Avengers. Thinking back and reading the review I wrote for it, its missing a lot of components that I felt was lacking in the first one the more I thought about the movie and Age of Ultron remedied it quite a bit. I won’t go into talking about the story components quite so much because to me, superhero movies are pretty formulaic and simple.  They are entertainingly predictable and that’s okay because we want our superheroes to come out on top.  We’re there to watch them struggle in taking down those pesky villains who just keep on coming around and causing destruction, but no matter what, they usually manage to take it down even if it comes with a few consequences.

 

One of the first issues I had with The Avengers was that they were a six person team, except Black Widow and Hawkeye always got cast in the background a lot seeing as they never got their own movies like the other four.  Of course, Black Widow also did get a little more attention and she was then in Captain America: Winter Soldier so it made up for her lack of importance, in a way.  But Hawkeye almost always was neglected and to me, I liked his character the best. Its nice to see that in Age of Ultron his lack of importance is remarked on and remedied.  In Age of Ultron, he turns into something of a glue to the team and he knows that.  It elevates the loyalty and trust he has to this team that he literally fights life and death on any mission. We got to see the two sides of him: Hawkeye and Clint Barton.

What Marvel does do best is to create a superhero that is not only an action film with spectacular CGI effects and all those crazy larger than life action scenes focusing on Avengers as a team and fighting those villains and getting out of trouble.  The team dynamic is still there even under all their bantering and different views.  Age of Ultron also managed to give a better balance in the importance of the character and really show their weakness and the fears they have turning them maybe more human but also giving them their own stories.  Much to my expectation, the difference between what Tony Stark and Captain America start diverging and with Thor, who floats in and out of scenes links us to what the next Avengers will probably about and what all this means in that mid-credits cut scene.  However, despite the heavy bits of the movie when the plot of flowing and danger is surrounding them and all those action scenes, there are still lots of moments tucked in between to give the audience a little laugh.  That is the heart of Marvel: knowing when to let the audience just remember that this is a superhero movie and a fun one with a little humor.

Since we’re talking about the cast, its hard to not lead into the involvement of the new Avengers in the twin siblings that are known as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.  I personally like Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen quite a bit.  I think they both have the acting needed to do this and their careers will do well.  But then, I kind of like Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kick-Ass and its hard to be like, “oh, but he’s also Quicksilver? Now you’re confusing me.” But, I like them and these two characters a lot and well…let’s keep this spoiler-free even if the majority of you have seen it. On that note, I can’t wait to see Scarlet Witch in Civil War.

The last bit I want to touch on is the villain.  I’ve always had an issue with villains in superhero movies, except The Dark Knight trilogy. Like that dude in Thor: The Dark World comes to mind.  I can’t even remember his name because he was so non-existent.  I didn’t think Loki was a good villain even if some of you might think he was in The Avengers.  Now, we come to Ultron.  I mean, he’s AI, a robot and can pretty much infect the grid by implanting himself, at least thats what I understood.  I want to say Ultron was successful and I don’t know, villainous.  He is villainous but was he ever a villain that made you fear for the superheroes life even if you knew they would come out on top, even just slightly? He didn’t.  Ultron is entertaining and even a little goofy and c’mon, not even the character design was scary after he found that robot to fit himself into.  I mean, the first broken version in the trailers was a little bit more effective but this one, not one little bit. He reminded me of the villain in Robots, a fantastic animated film that you should see if you haven’t. But then, he wasn’t scary but I guess the excitement is in the vibranium making the planet fly and then the superheroes swooping in to save yet another nearly impossible day, right?

Before I enter into more spoiler territory, I’m going to end this write-up.  Overall, Avengers: Age of Ultron was fun and entertaining. That’s what I’d expect. The action and humor was good.  The story was cool.  The characters, old and new Avengers and the sequence of events were nicely developed.  Its nothing groundbreaking but I think I liked this one more just for Hawkeye having a bigger part and the addition of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. We spend a little more time learning about the characters that didn’t get their own movies pretty much and that is great. I liked it quite a bit. 🙂

Have you seen Avengers: Age of Ultron? What did you think of it?

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)

Hello, everyone! I finally made my way to the theatres thanks to a very lovely  Cineplex week of cheap Tuesday price all week long! I just had to take the opportunity to go and since I’ve been wanting to see Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation since forever, this was the perfect time to go! I went with my friend on Wednesday night, ran over there after work and made it just in time with a little bit of time before TimePlay started.

There was only 3 people playing TimePlay but I got 1st place! Woohoo! 😉

So, allow me to do a rant before we start this review so I can get this off my chest! If you don’t want to read it, simply scroll down and start reading where the poster starts 🙂

Some of you that have been reading a good bit of my reviews know that my theater visits have been…eventful.  I mean, when I went to go see Gravity, there was a dog in the theater.  That’s an extreme case.  This time around, I had to be extremely proud of myself for controlling my urge to toss my apple juice bottle at the couple sitting like 4 seats away.  I have no issues with young couples.  I’m even cool with PDA.  BUT, the theater is NOT your living room.  You do not commentate in a voice that you think is whispering but I can hear throughout the movie, especially in the quiet talking parts.  Two, you can make out on your living room couch but not the theater even if its in your dark little corner especially when your f**king seats creek every single time you shift.  Subtlety is your best friend in that situation.  I kid you not, these two love birds were non-stop the whole time.  When the movie was in their discussion part, no music, quiet, I could hear them even clearer and those lip smacks and that vibe of, “I want to rip your clothes off right here and then” was travelling straight at me a few seats away.  So no, if you intend on being inappropriate, don’t go to the theater, wait for the damn movie and rent it.  Then you can do whatever you so wish and NO ONE will give a crap! If you do decide to go to the theater, then have the common courtesy and shut the f**k up! You might not give a shit about the $7 spent on this movie but I went to see a movie, not hear you smooch and chat and comment and whatever else all that noise was. RANT OVER!

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)

Director: Christopher McQuarrie

Cast: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Alec Baldwin

Ethan and team take on their most impossible mission yet, eradicating the Syndicate – an International rogue organization as highly skilled as they are, committed to destroying the IMF. – IMDB

 The Mission Impossible series fell a little short for me in the middle but it sure did pick itself up in the last one, Ghost Protocol.  Now, that one had me all pumped about this one.  Sure, Tom Cruise went a little cray-cray with his scientology but there is no doubt that he is a respectable action star.  One that doesn’t seem to be leaving this world of adrenaline pumped scenes.  And Rogue Nation is full on proof that his stunts are more and more dangerous every time.  Excuse me as I catch my breath just thinking about a few of the scenes. As disturbing as my theatre neighbors were, they only ruined my movie experience and not so much the movie.  Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is a lot of high octane, adrenaline rush, blood pumping fun rolled in with some fantastic moments that kind of break the intensity a little.  In parts that you probably shouldn’t laugh, they give us a reason to just relax for a sec. That is all thanks to a wonderful cast that mesh so well together.

Tom Cruise is the star here but there is no doubt that his IMF team is equally great.  Benji, played by Simon Pegg is hilarious all the time.  When he is scared, he makes us laugh even more.  And then we have the absolutely stylishly cool but funny one liners in Ving Rhames.  Making up for the authority in the IMF is Jeremy Renner who has a much smaller part this time but whenever he shows up, he makes up for some good laughs.

 This time, we toss Alec Baldwin in the mix as CIA essentially dissolves IMF and then takes over their people and is this authority that really doesn’t believe much.  But he definitely isn’t the highlight.  New addition highlight goes to the new girl Ilsa, played by Rebecca Ferguson who not only is pretty and sexy but also a rather good actress and has some really great action scenes. I guess we can’t talk about her and not talk about our bad guy in this installment, Solomon Kane, the mystery man behind the elusive Syndicate that is played by Sean Harris. While I was not exactly sure about him and his bad guy role, I think as a villain, he was convincing enough mostly because we never really knew who he was and even when he was around, it was never long enough to figure him out completely.  That sort of mystery keeps the plot going as to what the Syndicate is and who this man is and what in the world he is after.

What we can’t ignore is that while the characters are fun and entertaining or twisty and mysterious, there is no denying that the sets they did and the location they chose were fantastic.  The shots are just so nice to look at whether its in London or Venice or wherever else they went.  The mood fit what they wanted to do.  Everything worked very well together.

Overall, Mission Impossible Rogue Nation is a lot of fun.  The IMF crew with Ethan Hunt, Brandt, Benji, and group are as always funny and entertaining.  Their chemistry is really great.  The new additions are nice as well.  I kind of think that the villain could’ve been a little better but what he represents was mysterious enough to keep me guessing what the end goal was. Best of all, the action sequences are intense and dangerous, exactly what we expect Tom Cruise to do and he delivers those adrenaline filled sequences remarkably. Its the fifth outing for Mission Impossible and I’ve got to say that I really look forward and hope to see a sixth installment.

Have you seen Mission Impossible Rogue Nation? What did you think about it? 

Halloween Marathon: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)

Whats a Halloween marathon without a flick about witches and hunters? I chose Friday when I was all alone sitting at home, not wanting to watch a horror movie and not sleep all night, so I put in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.  I had seen a part of this before when my boyfriend saw it a few weeks ago but I never review anything without having put my full attention in it.  I had a good idea what to expect from the little bit I had seen…

Director: Tommy Wirkola

Cast: Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, Famke Janssen, Pihla Viitala, Derek Mears, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Thomas Mann

We all know the story of Hansel and Gretel.  In this new version, young Hansel and Gretel are deserted by their parents and in the witch’s place, they overturn her evil plan and end up burning her alive to save themselves.  Ever since then, Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel’s (Gemma Arterton) life was being hired to hunt witches for a living and having each other’s back.  Years later, they’ve built themselves some rep and they get hired by the mayor of a small town where children have been going missing.  They end up saving Mina, who is assumed to be a witch, from the clutches of the Sheriff and try to figure out who is behind these evil plans and to save the children.  As the Blood Moon approaches, they start suspecting that there is a greater plan for a group of witches lead by Muriel (Famke Janssen) that they need to stop.

I’m going to tell you right now.  I tend to like ridiculous movies like these.  Call it a guilty pleasure if you’d like.  I class these with Resident Evil: Retribution and Van Helsing.  Not all that great in any aspect but somehow the bad adds up to being a fairly decent form of entertainment.  However, this one doesn’t hit the same level of “so bad its good” as say, my absolutely fave Resident Evil.  Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is charming because of the two main characters.  As cheesy as those lines can get, it does work to get a few laughs.  And then they also had some pretty nice weapons that they used and it made the characters look extremely cool and badass.

Now, I was a bit surprised that this was categorized as horror, but hey, I need a break from so much dark suspenseful things.  You don’t want to know the contents of my dreams/nightmares after a few nights of extreme horror (I promise you, thats coming up).  This one is a horror comedy and even though it strives to be gory at times with the murders and whatnot, it really isn’t anything too intense, actually for the most part, when someone does die, I was laughing at the bad computer graphics.  Thinking about it now, I actually still have a smile stretching across my face.  Good times, right?

There isn’t really much to compliment when looking at this silly fantasy/horror/adventure flick.  I can’t even seem to pinpoint what it really wants to do but at least they had some good looking characters and some of them are actually decent actors and actresses.  Honestly, I watched this for the very charming Jeremy Renner.  He can say the silliest things and do the most illogical things and I’ll still think he’s pretty cool. Gemma Arterton is pretty and plays the whole tough chick role very well.  One actress I’d like to mention is the actress Famke Janssen who plays Muriel, the evil witch.  I think she naturally has this super evil, cruel, manipulating feeling to her acting.  If this movie doesn’t convince you, well, head on over and watch her in Hemlock’s Grove.  As much as I’m on the fence about that series, she was the best of part that as well.

Overall, Hansel and Gretel is simply a brainless fantasy/action/horror flick full of silly dialogues and bad CGI but has moments where these elements combined can make for some laughs.  Maybe you are laughing at the movie itself, but if you have a hard day’s work and want to shut off your mind, this might prove to have some entertainment value.  Just remember that you really need to fully close it off  (as I did).

What did you think about Hansel and Gretel? We’ve had a lot of classic tales retold in the last few years, which is your favorite? Do you enjoy those sort of storylines?

The Town (2010)

Director: Ben Affleck

Cast: Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall, Blake Lively, Jon Hamm

Set in the town of Charlestown where bank robbers are born and passed down through generations, Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck), James “Jem” Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Gloansy and Dez are the next generation in a group that starts the story robbing a bank which results in them taking the bank manager as a hostage and then letting her go unharmed.  This starts to worry them when the FBI, especially Special Agent Frawley (Jon Hamm) gets involved and Doug decides to approach the bank manager, a woman called Claire (Rebecca Hall) and starts to fall in love with her.  Just as he wants to leave town with her, there is a big job that comes up that he has to take.  The question now is whether he’ll be able to get out of this mess and manage to leave the town.

I liked the cast a lot.  Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall and Jon Hamm and even many of the other characters was amazing.  They were great in their roles.  I really enjoyed that a lot.  The only person that I didn’t enjoy was Blake Lively as Coughlin’s sister and also a girl who loves Doug.  I’ve been a fan of Blake Lively in Gossip Girl and even when she did The Sisterhood of  the Traveling Pants movies.  She was fantastic in that but somehow for this one, her accent sounded forced and it bothered me because if I didn’t have the subtitles, I wouldn’t have understood what she said at all.  However, she didn’t have that much screen time so it was alright.

I’ve never been a big fan of Ben Affleck as an actor, but funny enough, I’ve been seeing his movies which he directed.  This one definitely was a good movie, maybe not a great one for me.  However, I did enjoy Gone Baby Gone so thats why I had decided to give this a shot.  Point is, even as an actor here, I found him very enjoyable.  Maybe its because this is something that he’s creating himself so there is more heart and soul that he puts into even the role he takes.  It doesn’t really matter because it works to its advantage.

Also, I felt that I enjoyed the second half of the movie a lot more than the first part.  It really takes some time to get into the whole story.  Its not that the basis is bad.  I did some research and its based on a novel called Prince of Thieves which I will add to my reading list.  As a crime thriller, I felt that it really caught my attention near the climax when things started getting bad and then eventually get to the very awesome ending.

Even though thats the case, I did sit to think about this a bit and I’d say that its definitely worth a viewing.  The good parts really more than make up for the parts that were lacking and I’m pretty sure that I would gladly sit down and watch this again.

So what do you think about The Town? How about your views on Ben Affleck as a director? Or maybe you  liked him better as an actor?

The Avengers (2012)

Last Saturday I went to go see The Avengers with a group of friends.  I don’t know much about superheroes other than by names.  I have no idea what their individual stories were and I even planned to watch a few superhero movies such as Ironman 1&2 and Thor (since I own it but hadn’t found time to watch it yet).  As usual, I ended up not having the time to do so but still I went, a bit of worry that I’d be lost.  Fortunately that did not happen and I found it amazing.

There has already been many reviews on The Avengers and many people probably already have a general idea of the plot.  I think that is part of the appeal of superhero productions.  The plot is always very simple but with some twists here and there.  There is a villain (or a group of them), some scheme goes down and the superhero(s) come in and save the day.  Straight forward!  There is a lot of fighting, a lot of explosions and a enjoyable adventure to watch.

With all the rapid developments in technology, the films that use a great amount of computer graphics are the steal a lot of our attention and this is especially applicable to superhero movies. The last few days, I’ve been watching Ironman 1&2 as a complement to The Avengers hype going on and just looking at the development of Ironman gear.  Not only in the gear, the costumes, the weapons, but especially Loki’s army was just so…WOW! (as lack of a better word).  I found the movie compelling at parts where we felt like we were in it and we wanted to do something, we felt like we were part of it.  I think that feature was worth a whole lot of applause (which the audience in my theatre gave at certain parts: cheering and clapping at certain parts).

Aside from that, they used really good actors.  The actors each had already been seen before in their current roles (except for one, The Hulk) and had already gained general acceptance of their portrayal. Ironman (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) all brought their A-game to this production.  In the aftermath, I watched both the Ironman and Thor to gain better perspective on what led up to this and why some characters did or said certain things.  My issue at the end of the movie was not with the Avengers themselves but rather with the villain, Loki (Tom Hiddleston).  I felt that he was not convincing as a villain and that some of his actions wasn’t justified, maybe it was also because to me, he did not feel “evil” enough.  I have changed perspective on that though.  I watched Thor shortly after and realized that his character was built to act the way he did and many of his actions did make sense afterwards.  The cast was booming as usual, with the Avengers led by the character, Nick Fury (Samual L Jackson).  I can never expect a bad movie from Samuel L. Jackson (even Snakes on a Plane didn’t suck because of him).

So to wrap this blog up (since its taken me a few days already), cast was fantastic, technology (computer graphics, etc) was innovative.  The movie itself was compelling.  It definitely was an amazing adventure to go take part in: I laughed at parts, I was startled, I cheered and clapped.

It was a great way to start off the summer blockbusters! Lets hope that the rest of the summer will be as awesome!