My 15 Anticipated Movies in 2015!

I’m not one to make a ton of lists on here.  I have them on and off when I feel the desire for it.  In fact, it all comes down to how I’m a really indecisive person and making choices are really difficult.  I like to give everything chances, even if they don’t quite appeal to me, even if I know that I won’t like it.  Who knows, right? I’m all for something being a pleasant surprise. Every year I see a bunch of these most anticipated movie lists go up and I always want to do one.  I’m sure the 2013 and 2014 one is buried in my drafts somewhere.

One of my personal goals (that I didn’t talk about) is not procrastinating in 2015 (and forever, if at all possible). So, here it is! I doubt I’ll get to see all of these.  I usually get about 12 theatre visits a year or I try for once a month.  We’ll see how this year goes 😉

I’ll try to do this in order of release date according to the upcoming schedule on the Cinema Montreal site.

1. Blackhat (January 16)

Chris Hemsworth, Leehom Wang, Hong Kong and Cybercrime? Count me in!

2. Mortdecai (January 23)

Johnny Depp, what more can I say?
I haven’t actually watched the trailer because I don’t usually watch a lot of them But I love Johnny Depp’s acting.
He always is a highlight of even the not so good movies.

3. Jupiter Ascending (February 6)

I’ve been anticipating this movie since 2014 then it got pushed to 2015 release and still, I remain hopeful.
Channing, Mila, space-ish setting. That just screams the sort of movie I love.

4. In The Heart of the Sea (March 13 Update: Dec. 11)

Chris Hemsworth, Sea, and a classics adaptation: All works for me.
Now, just to read Moby Dick before this releases 😉

5. Cinderella (March 13)

Disney. Cinderella. Cate Blanchett. Hell Yeah! 🙂

6. Furious 7 (April 3)

I’m a HUGE Fast & Furious fan. No further reasons needed.
On a side note, I’m probably going to marathon the first 6 before I go see this one 🙂

7. Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 1)

I’m a die hard Avengers fan but I have to admit that the Avengers have a really good thing going.
I love the humor, action and everything so I’m in!

8.  Tomorrowland (May 22)

Disney. Britt Robertson. The premise.  I love it all 🙂 This looks awesome!

9. Jurassic World (June 12)

Chris Pratt and Jurassic Park sequel! I love dinosaurs 🙂

10. Inside Out (June 19)

I have to admit I was skeptical about this one at first but its starting to grow on me.  Plus, Pixar rarely does wrong.
The premise of emotions and all sounds pretty cool!

11. Ant-Man (July 17)

This one is a last minute addition after I saw the trailer released two days ago.
Paul Rudd hasn’t never caught my eye before but Ant-Man trailer looks really fun.
Plus, I’m starting to never doubt what Marvel can come up with. So far they’ve had a pretty awesome run.

12. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (September 18)

No trailer for this one yet (at least I couldn’t find one). I loved Maze Runner in 2014. It was one of the better movie adaptations I’ve seen.
Dylan O’Brien is fantastic as Thomas.  I just finished reading Scorch Trials and the book review will go up soon.
As much as I’m anticipating this, I have a little reservation as to how excited I am because of how they set up the first one.

13. The Walk (October 2)

I walked past The Walk filming in Montreal near my work place. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in it.
And Robert Zemeckis has made a lot of movies that I like.

14. Spectre (November 6)

I’m not much of a Bond fan but after Skyfall, I’m extremely excited to see this! Daniel Craig is an awesome James Bond 🙂

15. The Good Dinosaur (November 25)

No trailer yet and I’m not even sure what this is about but Pixar, dinosaurs and the cuteness overload of the poster 🙂

Honorable mention (in no particular order): Terminator Genisys, Pitch Perfect 2, Minions, Pan, The Fantastic Four, The Hunger Games-Mockingjay Part 2, Star Wars: Episode VII, Kung Fu Panda 3, Mission Impossible 5, The Jungle Book

Slot 15 was the hardest one to choose because I was playing around with shifting Cinderella, Pan and even Mission Impossible 5 on and off the list so they could very well have replaced The Good Dinosaur. Even The Fantastic Four landed on the list for a brief moment during drafting but it just didn’t have the interest I felt for the rest of these.

That’s my *preliminary* list. What’s yours? What movie(s) do you anticipate in 2015?

Triple Feature: As Tears Go By, Stop-Loss & Tell Tale

I rarely do triple features but Netflix has been driving me nuts on movie expiration on January 1st. I’m literally racing with time and its hard to decide if I should be watching TV series or movies.  The movies that make the cut are the ones that I find intriguing or that I haven’t seen in the bargain bin because I’ll just eventually get around to buying it if thats the case.

Between watching Numb3rs (which I know I can’t get another 5 seasons done in 4 days because that would be insane), I managed to get these 3 movies in. Word to the wise, in order to enjoy happy holidays you really shouldn’t watch dramatic movies (aka As Tears Go By).

As Tears Go By (1989)

Director: Kar Wai Wong

Cast: Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung, Jacky Cheung, Man Chi Leung

Mid-level gangster Wah falls in love with his beautiful cousin, but must also continue to protect his volatile partner-in-crime and friend, Fly.-IMDB

I’m going to confess right now that I’m not a huge fan of Kar Wai Wong (or maybe its just because I really didn’t enjoy 2046).  He makes some really complex movies.  I’m not saying I don’t like complex movies either because I like really messed up movies but his are just way too much for me.  I didn’t even know As Tears Go By  was his directorial debut until I was doing some research for this one. Before you start telling me, what about In the Mood For Love? I’m going to just tell you right now that I haven’t seen it yet so I really can’t tell you.  Its not for lack of trying to find it either.  I’m working on it.

Either way, As Tears Go By is actually pretty good.  It has the last 80s-early 90s kind of Hong Kong film style of making triad/gangsters lifestyle and mixing it with the whole romance angle.  I can remember a few of those when I was a kid.  Andy Lau was at his peak during those times (and he is still talented as ever if not more).  Maggie Cheung has proven herself to be a great actress over the years.  There is no doubt the performances are fantastic.  As Tears Go By is a pretty intense movie to watch.  There was one part where it was really brutally violent (well, two parts) and I had to look away because it was just too much.  The connection and chemistry of the love story was good.

Apparently this is based on Mean Streets by Martin Scorsese but I wouldn’t know because I haven’t seen it.  The story is a little cliche but the style  for a directorial debut is there, along with the awesome performances, it is one of the more enjoyable Kar Wai Wong movies I’ve seen. Then, the next few directorial efforts: Chungking Express and Ashes of Time was pretty epic also.

Have you seen As Tears Go By? Thoughts on Kar Wai Wong? Any comments on Mean Streets?

Stop-Loss (2008)

Director: Kimberly Pierce

Cast: Ryan Philippe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Channing Tatum, Abbie Cornish, Rob Brown

A veteran soldier returns from his completed tour of duty in Iraq, only to find his life turned upside down when he is arbitrarily ordered to return to field duty by the Army. –IMDB

I’m not very saavy about military terms but being stop-lossed is what it means to be ordered to return back to field duty.

Stop-Loss is a good drama.  I’m not one to like war movies but this is more of the impact of soldiers and how it affects their life afterwards.  Its an emotional and psychological toll more than its a physical one.  Sometimes, its enough and they want to return but circumstances are brought upon them differently and they have to go back to the field and thats exactly what happened here for the lead, Brandon King (Ryan Philippe).

Watching Stop-Loss was pretty intense (and I watched it the day after As Tears Go By).  There’s a huge test here.  There is no way to escape being stop-lossed and if you do, its against orders so either way there is really no way out.  Its a complex issue in itself. Brandon King tries to run from it and the story makes us see his own struggles and just how much him and his team has gone through, the friendship its built and how its affected his brothers in the army with him.  It brings on a burden to his family and in the end he has to make the choice of whether to run away or to go back.  The story is the winner in this one.  It does try to cover Brandon King but also carries a little more with adding in a focus on Channing Tatum’s character and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character, which was also two very good performances.

Stop-Loss is a little heart-breaking to watch.  Its a lot to take in but the movie is honest and sincere and it really does bring up some complex issues that will make you think a little about it all.

Have you seen Stop-Loss? 

Tell Tale (2010)

Director: Michael Cuesta

Cast: Josh Lucas, Lena Headey, Brian Cox

A man’s newly transplanted heart leads him on a dangerous journey to find out who murdered its donor. –IMDB

Tell Tale is supposedly based on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, which I haven’t read.

Okay, so how do I start this one? Lets say that I’m a little confused with how I feel about this.  On one hand, I thought it wasn’t all that great.  I predicted a part of the ending twist like halfway through.  Then, I’m trying to really understand the whole concept of how a donated organ, like the heart is what is compelling its recipient to act without control in avenging the donor’s death, in a way. Its a little far-fetched, but then I thought about The Eye and figured if I could accept that movie, why not this one?

On the other hand, I really liked the performances.  Josh Lucas was great with what he had and Lena Headey was also fantastic.  My only issue was that it felt a little one dimensional.  Goodness, I never knew I’d actually know how to use this word related to movies.  The story itself is so slow, uneventful, predictable and just seemed like it wasn’t going anywhere.  I feel like I’m being harsh but this could’ve been better especially with the extraordinary cast they had on hand.  Everything that happened was really predictable even if there were moments, I kind of wondered what the whole deal was until it kind of started to make sense about the same time that I figured out that ending twist.

Tell Tale kind of put me to sleep a little especially when I really wanted to like this because it sounded interesting.  I just couldn’t get into it. Plus, its not a long movie, okay? So feeling boring and dragged out shouldn’t happen and it unfortunately did.

What did you think of Tell Tale? 

THERE YOU GO!

Three reviews! I expected to make them a little shorter so I apologize if it was extremely long. Netflix is just killing me here.  So, after some late night movie watching and spending some much needed quality time with my boyfriend after a busy holidays running around having fun with family and friends, we sat down and binged through a few movies so guess what? Another triple feature tomorrow but I promise, it’ll be shorter 😉 At least I’ll try.

Double Review: Sin City (2005) & Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (2014)

Surprisingly enough, I got selected for a special advanced screening of Sin City: A Dame To Kill For.  However, my memory of the first one was not that great especially since I didn’t remember much, so I decided to revisit it the night before I went.  The experience of being the first group to see the movie is definitely great and since I’ve been doing this little blog and diving into the world of movies, I’ve learned that I’ve changed a little in how I appreciate movies and that is the main reason why I wanted to revisit this.

Since I’ve been massively behind with everything, I decided to just go ahead and do a double review of these two movies. It baffles me that after almost 10 years we get a sequel for Sin City but still, lets see how it all went.

SIN CITY (2005)

Director: Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez (special guest director: Quentin Tarantino)

Cast: Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Rosario Dawson, Alexis Bledel, Powers Boothe, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jaime King

A film that explores the dark and miserable town, Basin City, and tells the story of three different people, all caught up in violent corruption.-IMDB

I have no other way has to how to describe this movie but just use the synopsis in IMDB. I’d give it a shot but honestly, I think it all starts with this.  The first time I saw Sin City in theatres with some college friends, I thought it was THE most boring thing ever.  Why? Because nothing made sense and it was like a jumble of nothing.  It was beautiful and black and white gory and brutal.  Its not really not my thing and as I rewatched it a few nights ago, I saw it in a different light.  There is a brilliance to the jumbled-up story and I stayed awake for it and apparently, I only remembered two parts from the original viewing.

What I absolutely love is the style.  The black and white and the interlacing of sharp colors: the red silk (and sometimes, blood), the colors in the eyes, the contrast in hair and that sort of thing.  It just makes an impression.  Then you have one of the bad guys, Yellow Bastard who is just a disturbing and ugly character that popped out because he was literally yellow.

The second thing that I love about it was the cast.  Bruce Willis is just amazing as Jack Hartigan.  Clive Owen is awesome as Dwight.  And then there’s the passion and chemistry between the characters. The stories gave time for the characters to grow and develop in exactly the space and time it needed.  Each of the stories had their impact and honestly, Basin City has some pretty impressive characters.  The Old Town girls are brutal, violent and fun to watch.

As I sit here thinking about it more, its really starting to grow.  The third thing that works is the stories.  Everyone has something that makes it worthwhile to watch. It has exaggeration, sarcasm, darkness, violence, manipulation.  This town is full of ugly people in personality.  Its corrupt and dark but strange enough, its also covered in beautiful women who are almost as lethal as you can imagine.  There are boundaries and all that.  Its a pretty amazing set-up for a movie.

Sin City has the formula for a great movie and for the most part, it delivers.  The question is whether its your type of movie.  I love the comic book visuals, the sharp contrasts, the set up of the town and the stories of our main characters, and especially the fantastic cast.  It was well-balanced, brutal and very fun to watch. However, its not exactly my type of movie that I go for everyday so it took time for me to really see it through.  The second viewing definitely made me praise it a lot more.

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (2014)

Director: Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller

Cast: Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, Josh Brolin, Eva Green, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rosario Dawson, Powers Boothe, Bruce Willis

Some of Sin City’s most hard-boiled citizens cross paths with a few of its more reviled inhabitants.-IMDB

On a lesser run time than the first one and having a few new characters, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For still lacks a little something.  I loved the style that was equally has beautiful as the first with the black and white and sudden colors to give it a great experience.  The music was awesome and matched the atmosphere.  I’m trying to pinpoint in my mind if there were 3 or 4 story arcs right now but they weren’t quite as fun as the first.

 

The characters were great because the cast is still very decent.  Mickey Rourke returned as Marv and is still as violent (and a bit stupid) as before.  The new additions of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green and Josh Brolin all bring something new to the table. Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets his own story arc as a cocky gambler who never loses.  He goes to Kadie’s to challenge Senator Roark except in the corrupted sin city, he gets warned time and time again that its not a wise thing to do.  As much I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt in absolutely anything and he is very wonderful as Johnny, I felt his story wasn’t quite where I wanted it to go.

The next story arc was for an older Dwight (previously played by Clive Owen) but is returned this time played by Josh Brolin. Dwight’s story is possibly the most elaborate.  He is trapped in a flame that he can’t shake off.  He tries to not respond to the attractive Ava, played by Eva Green who is now married to a rich man.  She comes back and he falls right back into her arms.  This leads to a game of manipulation, a trap, revenge and a lot of naked Eva Green scenes. This one was actually pretty fun to watch.  The chemistry, passion, manipulation all works out even if you can predict what will happen 😉

I guess, the fourth story would be Marv retracing how he ended up where he was, except I’m wondering if there was anything for him.  Except, Marv, played by Mickey Rourke (like the first one) is the key to drawing everything together because he appears in all the stories in one way or another.  If anyone is easily manipulated, it would have to go to him. Plus, he is the action and the brutal violence.  There is no doubt that Marv is a great character and Mickey Rourke does a great job, even after 9 years he still has the essence of Marv in him and revives him on the big screen.

I personally like the follow up with Hartigan’s death and the impact it has on Nancy the best.  The roles are both still played by the original two, Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba. Although Nancy and her dancing scenes are thrown around the entire movie and it lets the audience see how she’s completely broken by it all.  Its a mental struggle for her and she not only wants revenge that she can’t pick up the courage to do so she drowns herself in alcohol.  In her struggle, she sees glimpses of Hartigan, as if he’s never left her side.  Its really something to watch.  There was one shocking part that I never would’ve guessed and its pretty awesome the way they handled it.

Overall, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is not as good as the first one.  The stories lack the punch it had in the first one, even though there are two that particularly stand out.  However, the style and the music is still amazing.  The 3D is done extremely well and adds to the overall effects.  The cast does a great job at bringing everything they can to the movie and for the most part, they do a very good job.  Even the new additions, Joseph Gordon-Levitt brings a charm to his story (even though it falls flat), Josh Brolin has a compelling character and story and Mickey Rourke is fantastic once again as the ever so violent Marv.

I need to make a point of saying this: If you were a fan of the first one, the chances of you enjoying this one more than me is very high.  Keep that in mind when you decide whether you’d like to see this 😉

Are you a fan of Sin City? What makes it so great to you? Have you been anticipating the sequel? Do you think its been long-awaited or unnecessary?

 

Christmas Marathon: Lady Gaga & The Muppets Holiday Spectacular (2013)

Saturday mornings, bad weather and all apparently lead to me making weird choices.  Its not really a movie but it was still on Netflix so I guess its considered a show/special, whatnot. Lady Gaga and The Muppets Holiday Spectacular was something that fit perfectly into my schedule.

I’m not a huge Lady Gaga fan but I’m not a hater.  I think she likes to stand out in her own awkward way and plus, this was pretty much a cross promotion of Lady Gaga’s new album Artpop and The Muppets upcoming movie.  Its like a little concert with a few guests from Elton John, Kristen Bell, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Yup, you read that, right?) and RuPaul.

I have to admit that I really enjoyed this. One of the best parts was that I acknowledged that Lady Gaga does have a fabulous voice, very strong and pretty great.  But her performance was pretty funny because she made some weird expressions.  My boyfriend thought the same thing so I’m not being picky.  The Muppets was really around to help out with the comedy with some random sketches.

BUT, note one thing, with Lady Gaga and her costumes, this one is definitely NOT for kids.  Do not watch them with children.  Don’t let the Muppets fool you. However, the musical content is quite good.  I like her new album. It has some catchy tunes and some nice songs.  On top of that, JGL was part of the guests and they did a reverse roles version of Baby Its Cold Outside.

JGL is handsome as always and thats already good enough for me 🙂 An expected part of this!

Overall, it was a fun little show with a little bit of Muppets and some good music.  They added a few dashes of Christmas and some funny and others, sweet moments.  🙂

The Lookout (2007)

Back in December, Target bought out Zellers and as our neighborhood Zellers was cleaning out all of its stock, I went hunting for extra cheap DVDs.  In the piles and piles, I found this one.  I like Matthew Goode and JGL, so why not?

Director: Scott Frank

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Matthew Goode, Jeff Daniels, Isla Fisher, Carla Gugino, Sergio Di Zio

When a tragic accident causes Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to lose every thing he had in his promising future, he has to rebuild it step by step and adapt to being handicapped with his memory.  He no longer can sequence his thoughts properly and control his emotions due to damage to his frontal lobes.  Due to this, he ends up paired up with a blind man called Lewis (Jeff Daniels) as a means to take care of each other.  After a night shift at his job, he meets Gary Spargo, a guy who claims he used to date his sister and praise the success he had in school back in the day before the accident.  Gary introduces him to his friends and helps him meet an ex-dancer called Luvlee (Isla Fisher).  Eventually, he learns that Gary approached him to manipulate him to join them in their bank heist and be their lookout and teaches him that “Whoever has the money has the power”.

Even after a few days of seeing this, I’m having slightly mixed feelings about this.  Don’t get me wrong.  Its a decent flick.  In fact, for a good part of this drama/crime thriller, I felt that it was alright.  Especially since we had to understand what our main character Chris was going through and to understand how his life was run.  However, once the whole heist thing goes down, I felt it was a bit more predictable.  I had a feeling of what was going to go down and I even figured out some of their lines.

 

There is one specific element that I’d like to really emphasize on because the movie would’ve been pretty horrible without it was the cast and their characters.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a really good Chris, a guy who has to calm his emotions and deal with the mess he’s made when his brain isn’t really cooperating with him.  Even before all the great breakthrough roles he had, this one shows us how promising he is.  It helps that everyone else, or at least the other  roles were outstanding as well.  I’ve always liked Jeff Daniels.  Remembering him in Speed makes me love him even more.  Now, as Lewis, he plays a tough, sometimes vulgar, sarcastic, but pretty easy going blind guy.  He’s extremely chill with everything that Chris does, but uses all his other senses to look out for him.

 

Matthew Goode pretty much plays the bad guy here. He’s the leader of the heist and he wants the money to have more power.  He’s secretive and the moment his Gary Spargo ends up on screen, we start wondering.  He’s a suspenseful character, mostly because we’re not completely sure if he’s manipulating Chris or whether he’s really out to help him sincerely and be his friend.  Thats the guessing game and the surprises of the movie and he is the main thrill.  Of course, except for his other henchman, Bone who really looks creepy and doesn’t talk.  That guy had me thinking about what he was there to do every time he popped up.

 

Isla Fisher plays the lovely Luvlee, an ex-dancer (we never see her dance so we’ll just accept that its the truth) who ends up having a “relationship” with Chris.  This wasn’t a big role but its Isla Fisher and I love her charisma on screen.  I’ve enjoyed most of the movies with her in it.  Most of who Luvlee is isn’t really apparent as we don’t really learn much about her throughout the movie.  This also gives her character a little bit of mystery.

This movie is a decent thriller mostly for its characters.  The story is slow-paced but for a good part of the first half, it really has us guessing and trying to figure out everyone’s positions as the characters slowly one by one enter the screen.  It does drop off a bit at the end however, its worth the watch just to see Matthew Goode in a bad guy role or JGL’s awesomeness.