Top 20 Films of Summer 2016

Top 20 Films of Summer 2016

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Runner-Ups: War Dogs, Money Monster, Central Intelligence, Jason Bourne, Suicide Squad, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Independence Day: Resurgence, Now You See Me 2, The Purge: Election Year, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

Don't Breathe review

DON’T BREATHE:

A STARTLING, CHILLING, AND WELL EXECUTED NEW TAKE ON THE HOME INVASION GENRE AS WELL AS CLASSIC HORROR!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

SCREEN GEMS AND STAGE 6 FILMS

It’s burglars VS blind in Don’t Breathe

            2016 has been a very strong year for horror movies, we had The Conjuring 2, The Purge: Election Year, and Lights Out, all of which were well received upon release. Now director, Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead (2013)) and producer, Sam Raimi (Evil Dead franchise, Darkman, Spider-Man trilogy) brings a refreshingly frightening take on the Home Invasion genre with Don’t Breathe.

            Why do I consider this to be a refreshing home invasion movie? Well, most movies in this type of genre usually have the invaders be the bad guys and the person or people who live in the home are the good guys. Here, it’s the other way around, our protagonists are burglars who break into this blind old man’s house to get money but the blind man has a few dark secrets lurking in his home.

            The film brilliantly executes home invasion horror, without a high budget, lots of camera work, lighting, and tone feel like an old scary movie from the 80s, and when the blind man makes the house go dark, it’s very reminiscent of low budget horror movies like The Blair Witch Project. It’s one of those movies that had me startled, chilled, and hooked on the movie from beginning to end.

            The movie follows a group of Detroit delinquents named Rocky (Jane Levy-Suburgatory, Evil Dead, Frank and Cindy), Alex (Dylan Minnette-Lost, Awake, Goosebumps), and Money (Daniel Zovatto-Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Revenge, Fear The Walking Dead) who make a living by breaking into people’s houses that are secured by Alex’s father’s security system and selling the items they stole. The trio soon realizes that an old blind Army veteran known as The Blind Man (Stephen Lang-Tombstone, The Men Who Stare At Goats, Avatar) who lives in an abandoned Detroit neighborhood has $300,000 in cash locked in a safe in his home.

            Supposedly the money was given to The Blind Man as a settlement after a young woman killed his daughter in a car accident. So Rocky, Alex, and Money decide to break into his house and steal the $300,000 after staking it out and realizing that the man is blind, should be easy…right? Wrong!

            The trio gets locked in his house and The Blind Man’s got a few tricks up his sleeve and what lies inside his home is a dark secret about how he coped with the loss of his daughter, and it ain’t pretty. Outsmarting his dog, The Blind Man as he attempts to kill them, and the dark itself, Rocky, Alex, and Money are going to have to figure a way out of his house if they’re going to survive, otherwise they’ll lose their breath.

            Overall, Don’t Breathe is a tense, chilling, and intelligent scary movie, it doesn’t rely on cheap scares or slasher style gore, but rather quiet build-up to the big scares, and the majority of them leave an impact. I’m serious, I heard gasping in the theater when I was watching this film and I love hearing the audience’s reactions to horror movies, especially if it’s a horror movie done very well, and this certainly is one of those movies.

            Most of the terror comes from Stephen Lang’s amazing performance as The Blind Man, I mean, damn, this guy is absolutely terrifying and to think this is the same actor who played the Colonel in Avatar. Personally his performance in this is a lot more intimidating than his Avatar role.

            Obviously he can’t see but the way he moves almost feels like he has superhuman sight, almost like the Marvel superhero, Daredevil, if Daredevil was a homicidal maniac. Just the way he moves, his actions, and how he speaks sent chills down my spine in the cinema.

            Besides Lang, the three burglars are developed well too, despite slightly being horror movie stereotypes, I cared for these kids and I wanted to know what was going to happen to them, something I think a lot of modern horror movies miss very often, I think a horror movie will get better scares if you develop the characters very well prior to the shock gore and suspense, that way the movie will get more of a reaction from the audience.

            And after all the Friday the 13^th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and God knows how many Final Destination, Saw, and Paranormal Activity sequels that come out, I’d be down for this movie to begin a new horror franchise. The film does end on a cliffhanger and I think if the filmmakers and studio know what they’re doing, this could become the next big horror franchise, as long as they keep giving us something new with this genre.

            Fortunately, this movie executes its terror perfectly, and it’s currently my favorite horror movie of the year, better than The Conjuring 2, better than The Purge: Election Year, and better than Lights Out. It’s a chilling mix of character, tension, and terror that I can go ahead and recommend to any horror nut…just remember, Don’t Breathe!

Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV review

KINGSGLAIVE: FINAL FANTASY XV:

A WILD ADRENALINE RUSH FOR FANS OF THE ORIGINAL VIDEO GAMES, BUT IT WILL MOST LIKELY LEAVE REGULAR MOVIE-GOERS LESS THAN THRILLED!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

STAGE 6 FILMS AND SQUARE ENIX

Nyx, Lunafreya, Titus, Crowe, Libertus, Regis, and Luche in Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV

            At long last, a feature film based on the incredibly popular Final Fantasy video game series that got a theatrical release plus captured the style of its source material. Although this is not the first time a Final Fantasy movie was made, the very first film was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within which was released in 2001 and while the film set new grounds for computer animation at the time, it failed to capture the spirit of the games it was based on, literally it was a Final Fantasy movie by name when really it was just a standard sci-fi action movie, but at least it gave Ming-Na Wen, Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, and James Woods work.

            It wasn’t until the 2005 straight to DVD film, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, a movie sequel to the 1997 PlayStation game, Final Fantasy VII, when we started to get Final Fantasy movies that understood its source material and did everything the filmmakers could to make the fans happy, and they did, the DVD and Blu-Ray sales were through the roof. So the release of Advent Children opened a door up to new possibilities for Final Fantasy movies, in comes Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, a movie prequel to the highly anticipated game, Final Fantasy XV.

            A friend and I always complained about Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children not being released in theaters in the U.S. because the action sequences in that movie, despite being all computer animated are amazing and was almost like being on ecstasy. Well now we got a Final Fantasy movie that was given a limited theatrical release but fortunately one of my local theaters was showing it so I was able to sit down and experience the excitement of the games on the big-screen.

            And it’s not that bad, personally I don’t think it’s nearly as exciting as Advent Children nor do the characters stick out to me as much as Cloud Strife, Barret, Tifa, and the rest of the characters from Advent Children. But on its own, when the action gets going, it’s an energetic joy ride from start to finish.

            Unlike Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, THIS is what I’d like to call a “Movie for the Fans”, sadly the critical reviews for this are very negative but the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is actually pretty high. So that leads me to believe that when watching this movie, it’s not recommended to think critically about it, if you are thinking critically about it, Florence Foster Jenkins is playing next door buddy.

            The film is set in the magical kingdom of Lucis, home of the Sacred Crystal, but the menacing empire of Niflheim is plotting to steal it and use it to destroy the world. King Regis (voiced by Sean Bean-Red Riding 1974, The Lord of the Rings, The Martian) commands an army of elite soldiers known as the Kingsglaive to do battle with Niflheim and save their kingdom.

            Wielding the king’s magic, Nyx (voiced by Aaron Paul-Breaking Bad, Mission: Impossible III, Eye in the Sky) and the rest of the soldiers fight to protect Lucis. As the empire bears down, King Regis is faced with an impossible ultimatum, marry his son, Prince Noctis to Princess Lunafreya of Tenebrae (voiced by Lena Headey-300, Dredd, Pride + Prejudice + Zombies), captive of Niflheim, and surrender his land to the empire’s rule.

            Although it becomes clear the empire of Niflheim will stop at nothing to achieve their devious agendas, with nothing but the Kingsglaive standing in its way.

            Overall, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV is sure to please fans of the games as well as get them excited for the Final Fantasy XV game coming out. Unfortunately, it probably won’t sit well with regular movie-goers, this and Advent Children have the complete opposite problem as The Spirits Within, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within appealed more to movie-goers over fans of the game, whereas these films are geared strictly towards people who already understand the source material and alienates everyone else.

            It’s the same kind of argument with movies based on TV shows or other forms of media, like the Pokémon movies. If you watch them with little to no knowledge of the source material, you’ll be confused and possibly bored all the way through, same thing can be said with the Final Fantasy movies.

            But with that said, the animation and action sequences are a ton of fun to watch, especially the climax, basically that whole sequence feels like being on speed. It delivers exactly what fans want to see.

            However, one thing throughout the movie did bother me, there was product placements in this Final Fantasy movie, specifically Audi cars. I swear several scenes in the movie play like a flashy Audi commercial you would probably see on TV, when I think of Final Fantasy, Audi cars is probably the last thing I would think of, but that’s really a nitpick.

            The movie offers plenty of awesome to keep me in the cinema and who knows? I might end up getting the Blu-Ray of the movie when it comes out, along with a copy of the Final Fantasy XV game. Don’t expect an Advent Children, but you can definitely expect Final Fantasy style fun.

Kubo and the Two Strings review

KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS:

ANOTHER WIN FOR LAIKA ANIMATION, WITH STELLAR STOP-MOTION ANIMATION, AND EQUALLY STRONG CHARACTERS!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

FOCUS FEATURES

Monkey, Kubo, and Beetle in Kubo and the Two Strings

            Laika Animation, the stop-motion animation studio behind Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls strikes again with their fourth animated feature, Kubo and the Two Strings. After closer evaluation and comparing the film to Laika’s previous movies, I can gladly say this might very well be the best film the studio has made so far, YES, even better than Coraline.

            Don’t get me wrong, I loved all the films they produced, but besides Finding Dory, Kubo was taken much more serious than all the other animated films that came out this summer. Yes, it does have comedy in it, but this movie is taken seriously very often and it’s fueled on characters’ emotions and carries a powerful message about life and death and it’s executed beautifully through the animation, story, and characters.

            Laika might very well be the stop-motion equivalent to Pixar or Studio Ghibli, while their films have a very familiar tone resembling Tim Burton’s animation, the characters and writing have a Pixar feel to them. I’m serious, I cared for the characters in Kubo a lot more than several characters from more mature movies I’ve been watching lately, and these are just clay puppets.

            Set in ancient Japan, the film follows a young boy named Kubo (voiced by Art Parkinson-Game of Thrones, Dracula Untold, San Andreas) who lives with his ill mother (voiced by Charlize Theron-The Cider House Rules, The Huntsman franchise, Mad Max: Fury Road) in a cave in the mountains. Every day he goes to a village to tell stories using pieces of paper that magically form into origami that can move under music that he plays on his shamisen.

            One day, he accidentally summons a spirit from his past which came down from the heavens to enforce an age-old vendetta. While on the run, Kubo befriends a wise monkey (also voiced by Theron) and a man/beetle hybrid named Beetle (voiced by Matthew McConaughey-Dazed and Confused, Mud, Interstellar) who accompany him on his quest to find the ancient artifacts that can send the spirit back to where it came from before Kubo’s world as he knows it will be no more.

            Overall, Kubo and the Two Strings is a character-driven visual marvel, the animation is gorgeous especially in 3D, the characters are well-developed and extremely likable, the heart and emotion are spot on, and it manages to squeeze him some decent comedy. Yes, a movie involving a boy and a talking monkey on a quest, and I could take that seriously, that’s a sign of a great flick.

            Kubo is a strong protagonist character and in my opinion one of the best kid characters I’ve ever seen in a movie or TV show, he’s obviously busy on his quest but he has plenty of time to fool around and act like a real kid. In a lot of children’s films you can tell that a child actor is only acting, luckily Art puts a lot of effort in his performance when voicing Kubo.

Charlize Theron is great as Monkey and I appreciate that they didn’t try to make her funny, usually in movies (especially animated family films) they always try to make talking monkeys funny, I’m glad they didn’t, it would have been an extremely obvious cliché if they went that direction. Beetle on the other hand is where most of the comic relief comes from and Matthew McConaughey delivers it very well, a man who was cursed with a beetle body and has complete amnesia, naturally this is our funny guy on the team.

            I praise Kubo and the Two Strings for being a kids’ movie that doesn’t talk down to children, it’s smart, thrilling, and fun for anyone. A lot of animated movies feel like they have to be loud and dumb to entertain kids, this one thankfully doesn’t try to be hip for the young crowd and instead focuses on thoughtful storytelling and strong characters set to animation that you can tell the animators put all their work and heart into it.

            Really, what more can I say about it? It has everything that I personally think makes a great movie, and this is a great movie. Don’t take the kids to Ice Age: Collision Course, instead why not take them to a gorgeously animated, smartly written, and character driven family film with a strong message about death.

            Oh and don’t mess with the Monkey!