Eddie the Eagle review

EDDIE THE EAGLE:

EDDIE FLIES LIKE AN EAGLE INTO OUR HEARTS!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

20^TH CENTURY FOX

Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman transforming a British underdog into their greatest ski jumper ever in Eddie the Eagle

            From producer, Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, Kingsman: The Secret Service) and director, Dexter Fletcher (Wild Bill, Sunshine on Leith) comes Eddie the Eagle, a sports drama based on the true story of British underdog turned Olympics ski jumping superstar, Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards. I find it amusing that we had two movies about the Olympic Games released in two weeks, the other one being Race.

            I knew very little about the actual story when coming into this movie, but seeing how I’m a huge fan of Matthew Vaughn’s work in the past and Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service) already won me over with his Kingsman role. So I was coming into the movie to enjoy a film and not focus much on accuracy, and in terms of being an entertaining movie, Eddie the Eagle does it well.

            Most of what makes the film enjoyable is the chemistry between its main stars, Egerton and Hugh Jackman (X-Men franchise, The Prestige, Chappie) and its feel-good story about an underdog who achieves his lifelong dream, thus resulting in a truly inspiring film. Granted I liked Kingsman more but for a second helping of Taron Egerton after his breakout performance from Kingsman, it’s pretty solid.

            The film follows Michael “Eddie” Edwards (Egerton), a young man from Britain who ever since he was a boy dreams of becoming an Olympian at the Olympic Games. After several failed attempts in hurdle jumping, javelin throwing, and other Olympic related sports and his father not believing in him, Eddie remains determined to participate in the Olympics and prove everyone wrong.

            But upon hearing about the Winter Olympics, he decides to become the first British ski-jumper. However, there’s just one problem, he’s not very good at it, but does that hold him back? No.

            In comes former ski-jumping champion, Bronson Peary (Jackman) who agrees to help Eddie train to become a professional ski-jumper for the Olympics. From learning how to jump from the 15, 70, and 90 meter slopes to properly landing, Eddie and Bronson are determined to transform Eddie from a nobody to an Olympics superstar.

            After several successes and failures, they make it to the Olympics where Eddie has one chance to make a difference, by successfully jumping off the 90-meter slope.

            Overall, Eddie the Eagle is an inspirationally entertaining film, granted it’s nothing new when it comes to the sports drama genre, we’ve seen several of these stories before. But what makes the film shine is the chemistry between Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman.

            Basically Jackman is like the Mr. Miyagi to Egerton’s Daniel LaRusso from The Karate Kid, if Mr. Miyagi was a drunken ex-athlete who’s fool of himself. Fortunately, Jackman pulls off his performance very well, he even manages to be funny at times, plus I find it strange hearing him with an American accent without Wolverine claws.

            I also find it refreshing that Eddie doesn’t care about finishing 1^st Place at the Olympics, but rather just participate to make his family and friends proud. Most sports dramas I’ve seen usually have the athletes participate for fame and fortune, granted Eddie is famous, but he’s mostly just happy to be there to jump.

            Granted I don’t consider it to be Matthew Vaughn’s strongest work as a director or producer, I still thought Kingsman and Kick-Ass were better films in his filmography, but it’s far from being terrible, it’s a decent movie that’s inspirational and entertaining. About the same opinion I had on Race last weekend, it’s no game-changing sports drama, but it’s a solid film that represents the man who ski-jumped to glory.

Race review

RACE:

IT’S NO CHARIOTS OF FIRE, BUT ITS STORY AND STRONG PERFORMANCE BY STEPHEN JAMES ARE ENOUGH TO MAKE IT PAST THE FINISH LINE!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

FOCUS FEATURES

Stephen James as Jesse Owens in Race

            From Jamaican film director, Stephen Hopkins (Predator 2, Blown Away, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers) comes Race, a biographical sports-drama based on the true story of African-American Olympics track runner, Jesse Owens who broke a record of winning four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. After seeing films like Chariots of Fire, Steven Spielberg’s Munich, and most recently McFarland, USA I don’t see why I shouldn’t check this out, judging by the trailers it felt like the 42 (the 2013 Jackie Robinson movie) of track and field sports movies, and parts of it are, but in a good way.

            Besides winning the Olympics, Race also tackles several intense and important moments in our history like defeating the Nazis, discrimination, racism; you name it. Fortunately, the film represents those historic moments very well, the film is strong on character, has plenty of time to balance sports excitement with drama, and the portrayal of Jesse Owens is absolutely perfect.

            The film is set in the 1930s, pre-World War II and follows a young African-American man known as Jesse Owens (Stephen James-Selma) attending college to make it big as a track and field runner at the Olympic Games so he can live happily with his wife and daughter. Jesse is supposedly a very fast runner and jumper, so he participates in the college’s track and field tryouts and catches the attention of coach, Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis-30 Rock, Horrible Bosses, We’re the Millers) who agrees to coach him so he can compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics against Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

            After long and tiresome days of training, relationships, and drama, Jesse participates in the Games in hopes of winning Gold Medals and making a big difference in a world feared by Nazi rule.

            The film also stars Jeremy Irons (Die Hard With A Vengeance, The Lion King, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice) as International Olympics Committee president, Avery Brundage, William Hurt (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Children of a Lesser God, The Incredible Hulk) as Jeremiah Mahoney, Carice van Houten (Black Book, Game of Thrones, Repo Men) as German filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl, and David Kross (The Reader, War Horse, Into the White) as German Olympic long-jumper, Luz Long.

            Overall, Race is a very engaging film, nothing Oscar worthy but the movie manages to be entertaining and informative. Though it may not be the most accurate representation of the Jesse Owens story, so this movie might not be the best movie to study in school history classes, you’re probably better off watching a real Jesse Owens documentary.

            I say that because at times, the film feels more like a traditional sports movie rather than a biographical dramatization of the real man. Granted it’s nothing necessarily bad, but it can get a little cliché at times. But what makes the film shine is Stephen James’ performance as Jesse Owens, yes it’s an actor playing him but I was almost convinced I was looking at the real Jesse Owens, the same feeling I got when I saw David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King in Selma.

            Besides James’ performance, the one cast member I was actually shocked I enjoyed a lot in this type of movie was Jason Sudeikis. It’s very refreshing to see him something that isn’t a comedy because I usually associate him with comedies like Horrible Bosses or We’re the Millers, same thing I felt when I saw Jason Bateman in The Gift, and I don’t think I really need to go into much detail about William Hurt’s performance, I mean come on, he’s one of the best actors working to date.

            If you’re looking for a drama that’s historically accurate to a true story, you may or may not get what you’re looking for here, but if you want a compelling story, good characters, and even greater performances, then “Race” over to your local theater and give it a watch.

Risen review

RISEN:

FAITH-BASED EPIC HAS BIG PRODUCTION DESIGN AND IS WELL-ACTED, BUT THE PACING CAN BE A LITTLE SLOW AT TIMES!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

COLUMBIA PICTURES AND AFFIRM FILMS

Joseph Fiennes as Clavius in Risen

            From writer and director, Kevin Reynolds (Red Dawn, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Waterworld) comes the latest film in his writing and directing career, Risen, a faith based epic drama based on the Bible story about the first 40 days of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now let me make something perfectly clear, I’m not going religious on anyone, this is just me sharing my overall thoughts on a movie that happens to revolve around it, so as always I’m judging how it holds up as a movie rather than a representation of the Bible.

            When I saw the trailers for this movie, I thought it looked pretty cool, a Biblical epic that’s much less cruel than Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ and less ridiculous than Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, I am aware of the second coming of Christ and the many stories written about it, but I’m not very knowledgeable on these religious topics, nor am I that religious.

            Nothing personal and no disrespect, I have nothing against people’s religion, me personally I just don’t have much interest in it. So I came into this movie with very little knowledge of what I was getting into, aside from trailers and TV commercials, and…it was okay, not a great film but it’s not terrible, it’s about the same as what I thought of Kevin Reynolds’ 1991, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves movie that starred Kevin Costner, adequate and serviceable.

            I’m not the right person to ask if this is a proper representation of the original Bible story, but I can definitely claim that it’s much closer to capturing the spirit of the Bible than Noah, Rock Giants, seriously? Anyway, it doesn’t focus on gory bloodshed like Passion of the Christ, nor does it really focus on the action sequences for that long, but the focus is where it should be, the main characters and their journey to uncover the truth behind Jesus’ second coming.

            Set during the first forty days of Christ’s resurrection, the film follows, Clavius (Joseph Fiennes-Elizabeth, Shakespeare in Love, American Horror Story: Asylum), a powerful Roman Centurion being charged by prefect, Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth-Amistad, Mighty Joe Young, Pearl Harbor) to investigate the rumors of a risen Jewish messiah and locate the missing body of Yeshua to put an end to Jerusalem’s uprising. During Clavius’ journey his doubts of the supernatural occurrence peel away he encounters numerous historical bible characters such as the Apostles as his quest that will lead him to a man who came back to the living world.

            Overall, Risen is a decent movie for what it is, just don’t expect heavy amounts of clashing, arrows, and torture. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all there but it’s very minimum and might throw some people off who are expecting a Lord of the Rings or Braveheart style biblical epic.

            The film is very dialogue heavy and a lot of it feels like filler just to pass the two-hour mark. I felt they should have replaced some of the dialogue heavy filler with a few more action scenes.

            But again, what makes the film shine are the cast, Joseph Fiennes, who I don’t know much about makes a good Clavius, Tom Felton (Harry Potter franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) as Lucius, Peter Firth as Pontius is great as well as intimidating, though I wish he had more screen time in the movie, and Cliff Curtis (The Piano, Training Day, Live Free or Die Hard) as our lord and savior himself, he’s no Jim Caviezel (Basically one of the only good things to come out of Passion of the Christ!), but he portrays Jesus Christ pretty well.

            Also the cinematography and production design is beautiful, the way it’s filed and how everything is built up makes it feel monumentally epic on the big screen, and it almost feels like you’ve traveled back in time. But again, could have used some gory violence in this film.

            If you just want a substitution for the overly violent Passion of the Christ or absolutely ridiculous Noah, you might find Risen tolerable, but if you want a pitch perfect representation of the story, this movie may not “Rise” to your expectations.