If you saw one movie last weekend, it was most likely Zack Snyder’s follow-up to Man of Steel. A cinematic event both hotly anticipated and highly divisive in the movie-going community, this iconic “match up” is something of an anomaly. On paper (both the story from David S. Goyer and Chris Terrio, and the various seminal comics they culled from) this big screen throw down was a grapefruit that Snyder and company should have knocked out of the park….but sadly, BvS is a bit of a mess. While the intent was to craft a reverent adaptation, what fans got was a sluggish affair – one mashed together so hastily that very…
-
-
G-S-T Review…Zootopia
You really have to give Disney a hand for getting back in the animation game. Thanks to hits like Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, and last year’s Big Hero 6, Disney is once again a major force in the industry. Change is inevitable, and as things go, producing features using drawn animation could only have lasted so long. CGI powehouse Pixar hit their stride long ago, but now it is the Mouse House who is seemingly ahead of the curve when it comes to pixels and the digital arts. As the studio has come in and out of greatness, one thing has been constant – they are fantastic storytellers who are able to draw in…
-
G-S-T Review…Lazer Team
One of the darlings of Fantastic Fest, and others like it, this sci-fi buddy comedy – about four morons being Earth’s only hope against pending galactic doom (would you expect any less from a genre film?) – is everything you could want in a midnight movie. As such, it joins a long line of preposterous romps, namely Idiocracy, Hobo With A Shotgun, Machete Kills, and Turbo Kid, and all the zaniness they can deliver. Lazer Team is a modern yarn, but the premise has a decidedly throwback vibe which will make any fan of the ’80s happy – especially the absurdly over-the-top elements. It’s highly irreverent, and tries to channel a Nation Lampoon level of humor, but sadly, the results…
-
G-S-T Review…The Revenant
In what might be the best film of the year (not the most popular – that’s a toss up between Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mad Max: Fury Road, and, for us, The Martian), Alejandro González Iñárritu one-ups his stellar Birdman with an equally compelling narrative which is, shockingly, a true one to boot. The Revenant has echoes of what other filmmakers might have done with their own surreal Western (Kubrick, Malick, and Refn to name but a few) and yet Iñárritu makes this his own, replete with stand-out visuals that say more than the characters ever could. The dialogue is kept brief, and the scenery/imagery tells us all we need to know. After…
-
Off the Shelf…’Ant-Man’
These days, the world of home video sees trends come and go with the arrival of each subsequent “big thing”. 3D is falling off fast, almost non-existent at this point, but once in a while it translates well from the big screen to the small(er) ones. Ant-Man, Marvel Studios’ little engine that could made a big splash earlier this year, and it is just as welcomed at home in this Blu-Ray release. Even if you don’t have a 3D set up, the film and its supplements won’t disappoint. Now those that do have the already outdated technology will revel in scenes that simply sing in the third dimension. As far…
-
G-S-T Review…Brooklyn
With Brooklyn, John Crowley (from the novel by Colm Tóibín) tells the story of an ambitious Irish immigrant, Eilis (played by Saoirse Ronan), who makes her way to New York in the 1950s. After arriving, her life changes completely, but the longing for her homeland never subsides, and the tale of determination so far from home touches on the immigrant in all of us. But Crowley’s film is a bit of an oddity, a bittersweet emotional tale, and because of it, the film is an unexpected triumph. The film has the charm and humor of a Woody Allen movie with the heart and honesty of a Raymond De Felitta story, and that…
-
Off the Shelf…’Tomorrowland’
Brad Bird has an affinity for telling heartfelt stories and infusing them with incredible amounts of whimsy and delight, charm and inventiveness. The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and now Tomorrowland, Bird is proficient in spinning yarns that are as nostalgia-fueled as they are forward-thinking. Tomorrowland presents itself as a duality, which is to say Bird shows us the best we as a society might hope for in a distant future, but also offers a cautionary tale about not taking action while we have the chance. Now it’s not doom and gloom. In fact, it’s fun and fanciful and more so because of the characters, not just the inventions. We are thrown…
-
Off the Shelf…’Cop Car’
In Jon Watts‘ simplistic thriller, Kevin Bacon portrays a shady police officer who oozes unsavory from the very first moment we see him. Forget that the film starts with him dragging a body to dump in makeshift, yet well-worn pit in some clandestine location. Most of the time, Bacon has a uniquely effortless way of telegraphing that he’s a bad dude with very little effort. Still, his insidious delivery can be as charming as it is nebulous. Playing a corrupt Sheriff, he’s prepared to go great lengths to conceal his nefarious deeds, but also keep the fact he’s a dirty cop under wraps. Yet, like a modern-day Scooby-Doo episode, he would have gotten away with it…
-
G-S-T Review…The Martian
What can you say about Ridley Scott‘s work that hasn’t already solidified him as one of the more amazing and versatile filmmakers of our time? Well here’s some more praise – The Martian is easily one of the best movies you’ll see this year, and certainly one of the best of the last five. Scott’s adaptation (of the book of the same name) showcases a multitude of competent decisions and finesse that make The Martian a win in all categories as well as an entirely fun-filled cinematic experience. On the surface level, the film might appear to be a drama, but with healthy injections of Matt Damon charm, this one-man show looks like a variety act…
-
G-S-T Review…Drafthouse Films’ The Keeping Room
Simply stated in the title cards of Daniel Barber‘s bleak and understated narrative, “War is cruelty“. And at the start of his film, Barber spends little time getting to the needless and hateful violence of people all but removed from morals, and the gravity of their actions. Hardships and loneliness for women abound, and The Keeping Room is but a small sampling of how vulnerable wives, daughters, and the like can be with a war on. Yet these women are hard and driven when their lives are at stake. There will always be pain and misery on the battlefield, but the same hardships can spill over and affect those left to…
