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Drive (2011) REFERENCE:
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Stephen Bourne's Movie Quips © Stephen Bourne. Moviequips.ca and moviequips.com are the property of Stephen Bourne. All content of this website is owned by Stephen Bourne, unless obviously not (such as possible reference links, movie synopsis and/or posters featured under the terms of fair use) or attributed otherwise. This website is based in Ottawa, Canada. |
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The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Created by Bob Kane (1915-1998) with writer Bill Finger and debuting during the Golden Age of comic books in Detective Comics #27 (1939), Gotham City's famed caped crusader has been seen on the big screen since the cliff-hanger serials of the 1940s. He returned in 1966 with the campy TV show-based feature Batman: The Movie starring Adam West that also brought The Joker (played by Cesar Romero) and Catwoman (Lee Meriwether) to movie theatres for the first time, coming back again for more campiness in Batman (1989) starring Michael Keaton with Jack Nicholson as The Joker, Batman Returns (1992) with Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, Batman Forever (1995) casting Val Kilmer as Batman and Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, and mercifully ending with Batman & Robin (1997) starring George Clooney and bringing an albeit forgettably oafish version of Bane into the fray of Bat-flick baddies. Admit it. At least one of those is on your top ten list of guilty movie pleasures, right? Yeah, me too. Then again, I hated Batman Begins, but thoroughly enjoyed The Dark Knight. What's absolutely fascinating about The Dark Knight Rises is the script's clever and calculating interpretation of Bane. First appearing in the two-issue DC Comics publication Batman: Vengeance of Bane (1993) - his rise to infamy in the Knightfall arc came shortly afterward - not only are Bane's more notable dastardly deeds seen in the comics effortlessly included in this movie, but he's wonderfully established as an unstoppable deadly force both physically and intellectually while meting out chaotic terror served as comforting normalcy to a fairly docile and bewildered populous. Tom Hardy's performance as Bane is outstanding. Seeing Hardy's Bane, Caine's reprisal of Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as newcomer Gotham Police Officer Blake easily makes this one well worth the price of admission. However, this 164-minute full-circle actioner isn't completely flawless. Bale doesn't seem particularly engaged this time out, sometimes making it tough to care what happens to this visibly flat and detached Bruce Wayne and Batman as the story progresses. As well, while Anne Hathaway's portrayal as Selina Kyle/Catwoman is a billion times more believable than anything done with that character ever seen previously on film and there is a somewhat noticeable shift in her attitude as Bane's cold anarchy traumatizes the city at large, there's not much to her role that's particularly memorable. These flaws cut even closer thanks to cinematographer Wally Pfister's aggravatingly weak and lazy camerawork, surprisingly taking an arm's length approach that does somewhat work during the slower-paced moments and back story filler points but overwhelmingly fails to capture the full depth and detail of key scenes that definitely needed a stronger sense of grand drama up close. Simply sitting closer to the screen doesn't fix the problem, sadly. Lastly, Batman's new flying gear The Bat looks stupid and flimsy, resembling a turtle-shaped electric lawn edger, failing to live up to all the other kick-ass gadgets and gear in our cowled hero's stylish arsenal. While The Dark Knight Rises could have been better and definitely isn't as enormously satisfying as The Dark Knight was, Hardy's phenomenal performance and a clever script that does offer up some oftentimes sharp dialogue and wonderful twists make this effort an over-all reasonably enjoyable finale... 'til next time. Reviewed 07/12 © Stephen Bourne. The Dark Knight Rises is rated
PG by the Ontario Film Review Board for scenes containing some
grotesque images, use of expletives and mild sexual references,
and restrained portrayals of non-graphic violence, and is rated
G by la régie du cinéma in Québec.
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Stephen Bourne's Movie Quips © Stephen Bourne. Moviequips.ca and moviequips.com are the property of Stephen Bourne. All content of this website is owned by Stephen Bourne, unless obviously not (such as possible reference links, movie synopsis and/or posters featured under the terms of fair use) or attributed otherwise. This website is based in Ottawa, Canada. |
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Dark Skies (2013) Despite what moviegoers might hope for going in, Dark Skies isn't a particularly good ghost story where Stewart's paper-thin screenplay replaces ghosts with extraterrestrials. Clever idea. Badly realized. All you see for the most part is the psychological unraveling of this dull family as their awareness of what's happening to them clarifies with (for them) terrifying results. Remember M. Night Shyamalan's tragically lame 2002 alien invasion movie Signs? Yeah, this one's an even weaker cousin of that one: All suspense, no scares. None. Even the few glimpses of the film's tall and skinny, sausage-headed aliens feel anti-climactic. Just like the cliché ending. Awful. J.K. Simmons is the only highlight here, making a couple of brief, stoic appearances as a kind of David Jacobs/Budd Hopkins-like alien abduction expert named Edwin Pollard, lending explanations and warnings to the Barretts later on. When Dan finally starts to believe and asks, "What's so special about us?" Pollard replies, "Nothing," telling Dan and Lacy they're little more than lab rats to those malevolent E.T.s. However, unlike Communion (1989) or Fire In The Sky (1993), this feature neither claims nor attempts to specifically reenact what self-professed alien abductees have insisted actually happened to them. I can't imagine anyone who takes ufology or any aspect of it seriously being particularly satisfied with this movie. Along with being a boring and utterly pointless flick from beginning to closing credits, the most aggravating aspect of Dark Skies is how often what's presented makes no real sense. For instance, after being told of physical evidence resembling abuse experienced by their sons, Lacy and Dan being the desperately concerned parents they are react by worrying about what friends and the authorities think. We never see them tend to Sam's and Jesse's injuries. This kind of ridiculousness happens time and again, mainly during the times when the Barretts aren't summarily reduced to twitching, slack-jawed meat puppets momentarily tormented by alien mind control. At least some of those scenes are so cheesy they're funny. Online, the movie's stylishly useless webpage at darkskiesfilm.com merely presents you with basic links to its vaguely updated Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr pages. The only bright point is the film's separate youhavebeenchosen.org site, where Facebook users have the chance to see their personal info and photos creatively incorporated into an eerie infographic gallery of alien abduction data. Officially, there's no synopsis or cast line-up to be found, except at Blumhouse Productions' own site which nobody bothered to link to. Sloppy. Just like the movie, sadly. The premise is promising, but Dark Skies is so forgettably disappointing that it's hardly worth the price of admission for fans of alien invasion movies or of flicks that go bump in the night. Reviewed 02/13, © Stephen Bourne. Dark Skies is rated 14A by the
Ontario Film Review Board for occasional gory/grotesque images,
use of expletives, mild sexual references, illustrated or verbal
references to drugs, alcohol or tobacco, occasional upsetting
or disturbing scenes, embracing and kissing, fondling, sexual
innuendo, tobacco use, and restrained portrayals of non-graphic
violence, and is rated 13+ by la Régie du Cinéma
in Québec.
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Stephen Bourne's Movie Quips © Stephen Bourne. Moviequips.ca and moviequips.com are the property of Stephen Bourne. All content of this website is owned by Stephen Bourne, unless obviously not (such as possible reference links, movie synopsis and/or posters featured under the terms of fair use) or attributed otherwise. This website is based in Ottawa, Canada. |
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Dead Man Down (2013) Dead Man Dumb, uh, Down, tries desperately to be too many things from beginning to closing credits. It starts off as an entertaining, high octane hornets’ nest of hate and bullets ripping across the screen, but then quickly fizzles into being little more than a goofy, cripplingly dull tete-a-tete of enigmatic body language, awkward silence and ridiculous twists from left field that all attempt to resemble a psychological thriller. It fails. Miserably. Numbingly. Dead Man Lame, uh, Down, is cinematic brain freeze for action film fans. It's not much better as film noir, either. That's due in large part to Oplev ineptly handling the ambitious subtleties of unspoken dialogue clearly coming from J.H. Wyman's amateurishly wobbly screenplay in scene after scene. Sure, the basic premise has potential: Farrell's otherwise mild-mannered character Victor wants mortal revenge for the two-year-old murder of his wife and daughter, so he's infiltrated the New York City gang responsible to coyly torment his unsuspecting criminal boss Alphonse Hoyt (played by Terrence Howard.) Okay. Somewhat contrived, but an interesting enough twist on the blood vendetta riff. Then, French car accident surviving ex-beautician Beatrice (Noomi Rapace) appears from the apartment building neighbouring Victor's, venomously blackmailing him into killing the drunk driver who scarred her face. Double revenge. Got it. More bullets, please. However, she then continually flop-flops between that and girlishly flirting with Victor from across their facing 18th floor balconies - 'til he begins fancying her too. Buying her gifts. Returning her Tupperware. Who the what-what?! Did the reels get switched? I was watching an action movie five minutes ago. Bullets and bloodshed, not the unmedicated cut of Bridget Jones's Diary. So confusing. So so disappointing. Switching to the official Dead Man Yawn, uh, Down, website at blooddemandsblood.com is pretty much a waste of time too. You get a relatively pointless synopsis and some slap-dash cast bios, a handful of on-set photos, and a gallery of all the TV ads and trailers that dishonestly promoted this cinematic sleeping pill. Ho-hum. In far more capable hands and with a script that lived up to the challenge, Dumb Lame Yawn, uh, Dead Man Down could have been a thoroughly intriguing humanistic crime-drama. As it stands, you're better off just enjoying the action-packed highlights in the trailers and imagining a better movie far from the box office. Reviewed 03/13, © Stephen Bourne. Dead Man Down is rated 14A by
the Ontario Film Review Board for occasional gory/grotesque images,
limited use of slurs, coarse language, partial or full nudity
in a brief sexual situation, implied sexual activity, tobacco
use, and violent acts shown in clear, unequivocal and realistic
detail with blood and tissue damage, and is rated 13+ by la Régie
du Cinéma in Québec.
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Stephen Bourne's Movie Quips © Stephen Bourne. Moviequips.ca and moviequips.com are the property of Stephen Bourne. All content of this website is owned by Stephen Bourne, unless obviously not (such as possible reference links, movie synopsis and/or posters featured under the terms of fair use) or attributed otherwise. This website is based in Ottawa, Canada. |
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Despicable Me 2 (2013) In Despicable Me, then-maniacle Gru's audaceous plot to steal Earth's Moon became a laughs-filled, escalating battle of wits against oddball upstart villian Vector, quickly leading to Gru adopting cookie-selling orphans Margo, Edith, and Agnes (voiced by Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, and Elsie Fisher, respectively) as unwitting pawns in that diabolical scheme aided by his senile sidekick, evil scientist Dr. Nefario (voiced by Russell Brand). Gru now faces a new villian and a new sidekick, but all the familiar characters and voice actors return in Despicable Me 2. Fans will likely rejoice that Gru's yellow horde of gibberish-babbling, pint-sized minions are back to once again steal every scene with their often bizarre antics throughout. They're just as hilarious here as Gru takes on this new adventure. His new adventure of, uh... yeah, funny minions are funny. The problem is, this isn't the same Gru. He's lost the edgy egomania that made him such a great comedic protagonist in Despicable Me. As a result, this sequel isn't as consistantly hilarious as the first film. Some of it even feels a little bit regurgetated from the first film. Being a parent has softened Gru. It's distracted him from the once delicious simple pleasures of meting unbridled mayhem and plotting unrivaled super-villian domination. Dr. Nefario more or less points this out, packing up and moving on to another job that offers far more evil-doing than legitimate businessman Gru's converted underground lair of minions does now pumping out albeit foul-tasting all-natural fruit preserves in environmentally-friendly glass jars. The minions start disappearing soon after. So do the laughs. Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul's big screen story plays out more like a small screen episode while it tries desperately to make all the primary characters - and a couple of supporting roles - enjoy equal importance during the course of this feature. It doesn't work. The pacing flatlines and the resulting mess of individual stories all vying for your attention quickly fizzle out. The villian, portrayed as a bombastic and corny racial stereotype called El Macho (voiced by Benjamin Bratt), is then relied on to give this screening a pulse through the last half 'til the minions make delirious funny again. Seriously, the main story doesn't really matter. Budding romance. Uninteresting. Undercover spy stuff. Lame. All you leave the movie theatre remembering laughing at are the minion scenes. More minion laughs await you at the official website, where fan mashups have taken over for the most part. You'll find photo galleries of fan-made minion crafts and snacks, fan-made minion artwork and videos, and fans sporting paper goggles like those worn by the minions. The printable 2-page PDF artwork is free to download, but tough to find without keying 'goggles' into the site's search box. You'll also find the Minion Rush game download from iTunes and Google Play, as well as a link to the Behind The Goggles site of studio sketches, storyboards and video clips. Plus, the official site serves up a whopping 49-page production notes PDF that covers much of the usually expected synopsis, and cast and crew info, as well as character bios, background notes and screen shots. Just be aware it also contains spoilers. The international poster's tagline is, "When the world needed a hero, they called a villain." However, its image of Gru standing over a sea of minions doesn't really say anything about Despicable Me 2 except that the characters you might have loved seeing in the first film are back. That's enough convincing to slap down your box office cash, right? Well, no. No, it's not. It's lazy marketing. Some of the visually simpler foreign language posters for this movie offer far superior story-centric solutions, frankly. Rife with weak and weakened characters spread too thinly and lacking the original's freshly wry storytelling, Despicable Me 2 pretty much relies on the minions' hilariously weird antics to prove its otherwise small screen worth on the big screen. Unless you desperately need to take the kids to the movies and there's absolutely nothing else appropriately family friendly playing at the matinee, just rewatch the first one and wait to rent this fairly empty, unnecessary sequel. Reviewed 07/13, © Stephen Bourne. Despicable Me 2 is rated G by
the Ontario Film Review Board, citing suspenseful situations
with short scenes or glimpses of scary characters or images usually
in comedic, fantasy or historic setting, non-sexual nudity with
no close-ups, sensitive to scenes and situations related to child's
security, limited embracing and kissing, and restrained portrayals
of limited violence, and is rated G by la Régie du Cinéma
in Québec.
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Stephen Bourne's Movie Quips © Stephen Bourne. Moviequips.ca and moviequips.com are the property of Stephen Bourne. All content of this website is owned by Stephen Bourne, unless obviously not (such as possible reference links, movie synopsis and/or posters featured under the terms of fair use) or attributed otherwise. This website is based in Ottawa, Canada. |
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