Ben-Hur review

BEN-HUR:

ASIDE FROM A FEW THRILLS AND AN ENJOYABLE MORGAN FREEMAN PERFORMANCE, THIS REMAKE CRASHES AND BURNS IN THE COLOSSEUM!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND MGM

Jack Huston as the Jewish prince who fought for redemption and revenge in a chariot race, Ben-Hur

            I can sum up my full thoughts on Ben-Hur in five words, “Hotchie Motchie, It Stinks, Goodnight!”. The first time I ever opened a review up with a quote by fictional film critic, Jay Sherman, but it’s totally called for.

            Director, Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, 9, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), best known for incorporating several slow motion action sequences and unique visual styles in his films attempts to re-imagine the classic story of Ben-Hur, the Jewish prince living in Roman-occupied Jerusalem, who was wrongfully accused for treason by his brother and eventually took him head on in a chariot race. The story of Ben-Hur was apparently so popular that it spawned several different film adaptations, of course we’re all aware of the 1959 Academy Award® winning film directed by William Wyler and starred Charlton Heston as the titular character, but believe it or not, that version was also a remake of a 1925 silent film, which again was a remake of another silent movie from 1907.

            So this story’s been told time after time before, but each variation of the story offered something different and new with each telling of the tale. I was down to see a new take on the Ben-Hur story, it’s been remade so many times before, so how could they possibly turn it into a trainwreck? Well, replace the grand and massive cinematography and editing with very choppy and distracting editing, uninteresting characters, some hokey acting, and overly relying on CGI.

            The 1959 film in my opinion is a visual marvel, the effects were amazing at the time and everything that was happening was really there, even some of the chariot race footage were made by accident, and we were all blown away. Here, they basically turned it into the same old biblical epic type of movie we’ve seen countless times before, not to mention we already had Risen, another biblical epic movie released earlier on this year, and the effects in this movie aren’t nearly as incredible as the ones from the 1959 movie.

            The film follows a nobleman named Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston-American Hustle, Hail, Caesar!, Pride + Prejudice + Zombies) living in Roman-occupied Jerusalem with his wife, until he is falsely accused for treason by his childhood friend and adoptive brother, Messala (Toby Kebbell-Control, The East, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). Ben-Hur survives years of slavery under the Romans, befriends a wealthy Nubian sheik named Sheik Ilderim (Morgan Freeman-The Shawshank Redemption, Amistad, The Dark Knight trilogy) who helps him on his quest for revenge, and seeks vengeance against Messala in a grand chariot race while being forever changed after several encounters with Jesus Christ (Rodrigo Santoro-Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, 300, The 33).

            Overall, Ben-Hur is a waste of talent and a huge step backwards for director, Timur Bekmambetov, who started off great with Wanted and even produced Shane Acker’s film adaptation of 9 alongside Tim Burton, and I hate to admit it but I find a lot of enjoyment and hilarity with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. This was probably the first time I felt tired watching a Timur Bekmambetov production and that should never be the case, the man is known for his Slow-Mo action sequences, wild visuals, and unique styles, unfortunately very little of that is showcased in Ben-Hur and it comes off as boring when the characters aren’t on a horse or a boat.

            But with that said, some of the action at times can be a lot of fun, I enjoyed the battle at sea on the slave boats, and the race in general was exciting. It’s not even close to surpassing the 1959 film but I was glad they attempted to do something different with the action, despite none of it looking real.

            And of course, Morgan Freeman is a joy to watch in the film, even when he’s in a bad movie, he manages to put effort in his performances. He isn’t one of my all-time favorite actors for nothing after all.

            Sadly, Freeman’s acting can’t save the rest of the acting, a lot of the acting in the film is very hokey at times, more specifically through the side characters, but Freeman, Huston, and Kebbell’s performances are alright for the most part.

            For a movie that had a lot of potential at first and its source material being remade several times in the past, this one felt very empty and pointless. As Sherman also said “If it’s a remake of a classic, rent the classic!”, that is the case here, go ahead and skip this but do check out any of the earlier adaptations of the story, I can assure you any adaptation you pick will do much better justice than this one.

Pete's Dragon review

PETE’S DRAGON:

A VISUALLY IMPRESSIVE, THOUGHTFUL, AND THRILLING ADVENTURE FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

DISNEY

Pete and his dragon friend, Elliott in Pete’s Dragon

            Disney is on a roll with its live-action remakes of their classic films, last year we had the critically and commercially successful, Cinderella, this year we had the equally successful, The Jungle Book, and now we have a live-action/CG animated remake of Disney’s 1977 film, Pete’s Dragon. Prior to the groundbreaking effects of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the original Pete’s Dragon was one of Disney’s early films that combined live-action with animation, alongside other movies like Song of the South, Mary Poppins, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, it was impressive at the time and it felt magical, something Disney is always the best at.

            It wasn’t a masterpiece by any means, nor was it one of Disney’s strongest work, the original movie did suffer from slow pacing and at times it isn’t all that interesting, but once that big lovable 2D animated green dragon popped up, it turned into a visual marvel. And so with the popularity of computer animated special effects, director David Lowery (Deadroom, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Listen Up Phillip) brings a new take on Pete’s Dragon, only this time it’s a CG animated dragon that looks more realistic than the original.

            Compared to the original, this is a rare case where I consider the new film to be much better than its predecessor, I know, even after the other positively reviewed live-action Disney remakes that came out I usually still preferred the originals, but not this time. This new Pete’s Dragon movie has a much better pacing and it keeps the narrative flowing, and the design of the dragon, as well as the animation on him are very impressive.

            The movie follows a young boy named Pete (Oakes Fegley-Boardwalk Empire, Person of Interest, This is Where I Leave You) who has been living in the forest for a long time, since the sudden death of his parents. He has never been outside the forest nor has he ever made any human friends, but that doesn’t mean he’s all alone, he does however have one giant friend. A green dragon named Elliott who has the power of invisibility, camouflage, flying, and of course breathing fire.

            Pete and Elliott have lived together in the forest, until a family comes across Pete and takes him to their home. The family consists of forest ranger and mother, Grace Meacham (Bryce Dallas Howard-Spider-Man 3, The Help, Jurassic World), her husband and lumber mill owner, Jack (Wes Bentley-American Beauty, The Hunger Games, Interstellar), their daughter, Natalie (Oona Laurence-Lamb, Southpaw, Bad Moms), and her grandfather, Mr. Meacham (Robert Redford-All is Lost, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, A Walk in the Woods).

            So the family wants to show Pete the human world while Pete wants to show them his forest world, and it’s all touching and sweet. That is until Jack’s brother, Gavin (Karl Urban-Riddick, Dredd, Star Trek franchise) learns that the dragon is real and attempts to catch him, it’s up to Pete and his new family to save Elliott before it’s too late.

            Overall, Pete’s Dragon is a well-executed re-imagining of the Disney film, it balances between fantasy and family dilemmas very well and neither one overshadows the other. You grow to care about Pete and Elliott and you want to see them get reunited in the end, not to mention it can find a way into your feels.

            Oakes Fegley and Oona Laurence portray Pete and Natalie very well, and as I’m watching them I forget that they’re supposed to be acting, their performances are just like real kids, and I love young actors that can pull that off. Also Bryce Dallas Howard is great, I mean, come on, even if she’s in a bad movie like Terminator: Salvation she puts a lot of effort in her performances, Robert Redford is fantastic as well and surprisingly not at all a threatening type of character, I guess I was just so used to seeing him in the second Captain America movie, and the animation and voice work for Elliott is done well.

            As a whole I enjoyed this film quite a bit, though I do think the movie did lose some of the magic of the original movie when it comes to the dragon. The original movie’s dragon was a hand-drawn animated character and it felt more magical in that world compared to the CG one here, perhaps if the CG dragon was designed by the folks at Walt Disney Animation Studios or Pixar, it’d probably look more impressive in contrast with the live-action, because it’s basically a generic movie dragon we’ve seen many times, it’s not a bad thing really, but I think I’d probably enjoy it more if the dragon was more animated.

            Aside from that, it’s a solid re-imagining of the Disney film and a rare time where it surpasses the original. It’s a magical and exciting adventure for the entire family, humans, dragons, or otherwise.

Sausage Party review

SAUSAGE PARTY:

A HILARIOUSLY NASTY FEAST OF TALKING FOOD, SEX, SWEARING, AND CLEVER STORYTELLING!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** 1/2 out of 4

COLUMBIA PICTURES

Frank the sausage is gonna fill his love bun with his meat in Sausage Party

Talk about a movie that completely exceeded my expectations, a lot of my critiques in the past I felt have been rather obvious, I (like the majority of moviegoers) love most of the summer blockbusters we’ve been getting lately as well as several animated films, especially those from Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks, this year alone had incredible animated features like Kung Fu Panda 3, Zootopia, and Finding Dory. Truly an amazing year for wholesome animation for the whole family. 

But one animated movie this year I was not expecting to rave the hell out of was Sausage Party, a CG animated comedy created by and starring Seth Rogen (This is the End, Neighbors, The Interview) and directed by Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2) and Greg Tiernan (Rugrats, The Wild Thornberrys). Lately I’ve been noticing the past few Rogen comedies all had a specific theme to his style of humor from Pineapple Express, he survived the apocalypse in This is the End, offended the Fuckballs out of North Korea with The Interview, and celebrated Christmas with weed and shenanigans in The Night Before. 

I guess the next logical step in his career is to set his style of comedy to Toy Story-inspired animation and talking food, so we have Sausage Party, the first R-rated animated feature to be distributed by a major film studio since South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut in 1999, as well as the first CG animated R-rated film with a wide release. Gotta be honest, the trailer alone got my attention, when I first saw the trailer (Red Band I might add!) I was shocked at the concept, seeing all these cute little food characters getting mauled to death, shredded, sliced, and consumed by a giant woman, it’s like the ultimate “Fuck you!” to family entertainment, I thought it looked interesting and hilarious, but to be honest I was more interested in watching it just for the sake of seeing an R-rated animated comedy movie in theaters again. 

So, when the movie came out, I rounded up a couple of friends, went to a 21+ adults only theater, sat down, and watched it. Many bizarre laughs were had, I mean it we were laughing constantly at the movie, it’s an animated comedy that takes full advantage of the comedic possibilities of its premise and I got pretty much every laugh I wanted to get out of it. 

The film takes place in a supermarket called Shopwell’s where food waits to be chosen by the Gods (Humans) and become eternal in a magical place known as the Great Beyond. A sausage named Frank (voiced by Seth Rogen) is in love with a bun named Brenda (voiced by Kristen Wiig-Paul, Bridesmaids, Ghostbusters) and they touch tips, and big shock a customer chooses Frank and Brenda’s packages. 

But after a freak-out involving a jar of honey mustard going on and on about the truth behind being “Chosen” Frank and Brenda get flung out of the shopping cart as Frank’s best friend, Barry (voiced by Michael Cera-Arrested Development, Superbad, Juno) among other groceries get taken to a woman’s house where they start to experience the truth for themselves. 

It turns out the food was being chosen to get eaten by the humans, so potatoes are skinned alive, bacon strips are fried to death, baby carrots are getting crunched, and a tomato is sliced in half, it’s murder and torture, and it tastes delicious. When Frank learns about the truth after smoking pot with the Non-Perishables, a talking liquor bottle named Firewater (voiced by Bill Hader-Superbad, Trainwreck, South Park), a Twinkie named Twink (voiced by Scott Underwood) and a box of Grits named Mr. Grits (voiced by Craig Robinson-The Office, Hot Tub Time Machine, This is the End) he makes it his mission to warn the food in the supermarket about what happens when they’re chosen. 

Oh, there's also a pain in the ass douche named…Douche (voiced by Nick Kroll-I Love You Man, Date Night, Dinner for Schmucks) who was apparently the only product in the grocery store that actually wanted to be chosen because he wanted to be put up a woman's...well, you know! But seeing how he too got flung out of the cart along with Frank and Brenda and his tip got damaged in the process, he now seeks revenge on them for ruining his life, and what follows are the transformation phases of a complete madman. 

Can Frank and Brenda stop Douche, save Barry and the rest of the supermarket food, and put an end to this hunger war that is ironically more accurate to The Hunger Games name than the actual Hunger Games, or will it be dinnertime for everyone? 

The film also features the voices of Danny McBride (Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, This is the End) as Honey Mustard, James Franco (Spider-Man trilogy, 127 Hours, The Interview) as a drug addict literally named Druggie, Jonah Hill (Superbad, This is the End, The Wolf of Wall Street) as a bisexual sausage named Carl, Paul Rudd (Anchorman 1 and 2, Dinner for Schmucks, Marvel Cinematic Universe) as the Shopwell’s manager Darren, David Krumholtz (Harold & Kumar trilogy, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, Superbad) as Kareem Abdul Lavash, Edward Norton (Fight Club, The Incredible Hulk, The Grand Budapest Hotel) as Sammy Bagel Jr., and Salma Hayek (Desperado, Frida, Grown Ups) as Teresa del Taco. 

Overall, Sausage Party is completely ridiculous but it cranks up the laughs to deliciously high levels, I was laughing so hard I felt like I was turning into one of those hyenas from The Lion King. When you’re going into a Seth Rogen comedy, you can expect crude and sexual humor, profanity, and of course lots of weed and drugs, pretty standard raunchy comedy material, but hearing the material set to animation makes it feel brand new and even funnier than before. 

Also, I was shocked that the characters were well developed, I cared for the sausage and bun and wanted to see them together and overcome their problems, yeah, a movie about foul-mouthed talking food and I said that sentence seriously, pay me! Most of it comes from the voice acting by Rogen and Wiig, they have very strong comedic and even heartfelt chemistry and I’m sure this won’t be their last film together. 

However, with all the profanity, sex jokes, and weed smoking going on in the film, Sausage Party is surprisingly a brilliant satire on religion with the Great Beyond essentially being what the food perceives as Heaven and the humans being like Gods to them (Obviously, not the case when they discover the truth). The movie also does a great job tackling those people who try to force their religions or beliefs down others’ throats with Frank after discovering what happens to food learning to inspire the other foods to rise up against the humans rather than force it on them, I love it when adult animation and/or comedies that seem extremely lowbrow at first sneak in some thought-provoking messages. 

If you want a refreshing take on animation and you don’t want to be stuck with the kids, leave the little bastards at home and go see this raunchy and hilariously wild animated comedy that's Foodfight if it was made by smart people. Also, the ending…I think it broke me! 

Suicide Squad review

SUICIDE SQUAD:

A FUN BUT MISGUIDED ANTI-HERO MOVIE! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** 1/2 out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Amanda Waller, The Joker, Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Col. Rick Flag, and Captain Boomerang are the chaotic new team of heroes, Suicide Squad

            Boy, DC Comics is having a rough time getting their cinematic universe going, aren’t they? The first film in the franchise, Zack Snyder’s 2013 Superman reboot, Man of Steel was a success commercially but the reviews were mixed upon release, honestly it wasn’t a terrible movie, nor was it great, it was a decent re-imagining attempt for Superman, different but passable (Not to mention movie-goers were already spoiled by Iron Man 3 and Star Trek into Darkness that summer, but I digress!).

            The second film in the franchise, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, also directed by Snyder, released earlier this year in March was when it started to go downhill. It boasted a profit but the film was slammed critically, and I can see why, the movie suffered from cramming in too much into one movie and just served as a starting point for the Justice League movie, although Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot were pretty cool as Batman and Wonder Woman, they weren’t enough to save the movie.

            However, when it came to DC films, there was one movie I was curious about, that film being Suicide Squad, directed by David Ayer (End of Watch, Sabotage, Fury) and starring a colorful cast of characters, all nutty. When I first saw the trailer it looked like the DC equivalent to Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, really when you get down to it both movies have very similar premises, a group of outlaws not respected by the world join together to save the world.

            After sitting through Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, I can say this movie is a lot more entertaining, but it doesn't quite deliver on the zany, fun ride that it promises. The characters feel a lot more lively than previous DCEU attempts and it looks like the actors are having a fun time portraying them, but the script is an inconsistent mess and the tone is just all over the place. 

            Suicide Squad, while flawed isn’t dull and boring, the characters in the film crack jokes, they talk to each other, have distinct and unique personalities, and Jared Leto (Fight Club, Panic Room, Dallas Buyers Club) gives a very...interesting portrayal of the infamous Batman villain, the Joker.

            After the events of Batman v. Superman, intelligence operative, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis-Doubt, The Help, Prisoners) assembles a team of criminals for a chance at redemption. An evil witch who has possessed the body of archeologist, Dr. June Moone, known as the Enchantress (Cera Delevingne-Anna Karenina, Paper Towns, Pan) and her brother, Incubus plot to build a demonic machine to destroy all of mankind.

            So instead of calling someone like Batman or The Flash, she calls in assassin, Deadshot (Will Smith-Men in Black trilogy, I, Robot, Hancock), crazed supervillain, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie-The Wolf of Wall Street, Focus, The Big Short) and girlfriend of her “Puddin”, The Joker, man with reptilian traits, Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje-The Bourne Identity, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Thor: The Dark World), fire shooting former gang member, El Diablo (Jay Hernandez-The Rookie, Ladder 49, Bad Moms), expert martial artist and master swordsman, Katana (Karen Fukuhara), and assassin who utilizes deadly boomerangs and unhealthy pink unicorn fetishes, Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney-Jack Reacher, A Good Day to Die Hard, Terminator: Genisys) to destroy the witch’s spirit and save the world, and in return they will be granted their freedom (or at least a latté machine in their jail cells).

The film also features the return of fan-favorite, Batman (Ben Affleck-The Town, Argo, Gone Girl) in a chase sequence between him, Joker, and Harley, and in a scene involving Deadshot.

Overall, Suicide Squad is more of what I was looking for in the DC Extended Universe, at least in tone, dark and harsh stories, but with a sense of fun. However, the script while less messy than Batman v. Superman does bring the film down, it never really establishes the Suicide Squad members very well aside from Smith's Deadshot or Robbie's Harley Quinn, the main villains are bland and boring, and it feels like the film doesn't know what it wants to be, a heavy, grittier comic book movie like Deadpool or something kids can watch, you can't have it both ways and because of that Suicide Squad doesn't really live up to its full potential. 

However, as flawed as it is what makes the film enjoyable are the performances by Will Smith and Margot Robbie who had previously worked together on 2015's Focus. Both of them add plenty of charisma to these characters, they're funny, and also sell the dramatic moments, particularly Smith's character and how he's trying to set a good example for his daughter, they're definitely the most developed out of the Suicide Squad members. 

            Margot Robbie is a perfect Harley Quinn, we’ve never had a Harley Quinn depicted in live-action film yet, but she fits into the role very well, she’s wild, crazy, funny, sexy, and she kicks ass, everything Harley Quinn is known for, Will Smith is also great as Deadshot, kind of a traditional type of performance with him but he has fun with it and he cracks a few one-liners that get a laugh.

Jared Leto's Joker on the other hand is pretty odd, granted he isn't in the movie for very long (Which is very disappointing because if you're going to have the Joker in your movie, you better do something with him!) but something about his appearance, delivery, and the fact that Jared Leto did a bunch of crazy sh*t onset to "Get in character" Yeah, I've never read the Batman comic where the Joker mailed a bunch of used condoms to Viola Davis, did you? Don't get me wrong, when given the right material Leto is a phenomenal actor but here his Joker is definitely different I'll give it that, but I don't think it's in a good way, he doesn't really have any of the iconic traits or characteristics from previous Jokers like Jack Nicholson from Batman (1989), Heath Ledger from The Dark Knight, or Mark Hamill from Batman: The Animated Series, Hell, Cesar Romero from the campy Adam West Batman show from the 60s understands the character better than Leto does. 
Suicide Squad is a mess, but has things about it to be admired like the style, performances of Will Smith and Margot Robbie, and some of the action sequences can be fun at times. Unfortunately, they get bogged down by a generic, uninspired script and lack of character development and the film ends up being an entertaining time waster rather than an engaging and unique comic book movie.