I have started something monstrous. For your reading pleasure I will be watching and reviewing some of history’s worst movies. Why have I decided to do this? To be frank, I’m not sure. I think I might be discovering I have a penchant for inflicting unnecessary pain upon myself. Lets put it this way. If someone opens up a gift-wrapped package, smells what is inside, retches, and then insists, “ No, you don’t understand, you have to smell how horrible this is. You’ve never smelled anything like it.” Chances are you’re going to be a little interested to smell that stank. Watching these movies is me sniffing that stank. I just have to know how it smells.
I quickly realized that there are in existence certain movies that are incapable of tickling any fiber of anyone’s soul. I am normally in awe of any given film’s prodigious capacity to stir my emotions whether through laughter, tears, joy, sorrow, anger, or love. But now …now I feel nothing. I have begun my descent into film hell.
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The long-awaited trailer for the new P.T. Anderson film Inherent Vice dropped last night! Previous glimpses of the film being the occasional still and early b-roll clip, such a trailer, clocking in at a two minutes and eight seconds, is more than a welcome arrival. The film is set to release the weekend of December 12th, 2014, which, combined with the talent behind it, makes it prime for more than a few Oscar noms come February. Take a look after the break…
Last week we took at stab at predicting this past weekend’s box office results, and as it is oft to be, our predictions didn’t pan out quite the way we had anticipated. The box office is a tricky beast, with many films poised to break the bank end up flopping hard, and the occasional film coming out of nowhere and catching on with the movie going public. There’s rarely consistency or predictability so it’s always a bit of a crapshoot when it comes to predications, but that’s part of the fun! Regardless, we’re taking a look at the results of this weekend’s box-office and seeing where we were right and the many places we were wrong!
“Forrest Gump.” Just the title alone brings to mind such classic lines as “life is like a box of chocolates” or the always-entertaining “Run, Forrest, run!” When the movie came out, it was widely praised for its heartfelt story, on-point casting, and its unique look at key moments in American history through the eyes of loveable simpleton, Forrest Gump. So, suffice it to say, people are astonished when they learn that I only saw “Forrest Gump” for the first time this summer. But with the film just celebrating its 20th anniversary this year with a limited release in theaters, I figured now would be a good time to talk about it through the eyes of a recent voyeur. So, here we go: this is my review of “Forrest Gump.”
“Hector and the Search for Happiness” is a feel-good movie. There is not one positive thing about it in terms of writing, acting, directing, scoring, or anything else that factors into the craft of filmmaking. Nothing stands out after having seen it. The music was poorly chosen, the writing was subpar, and the directing did nothing to elevate the already stale, saccharine subject material. But when it’s over and you walk out of the theater, you’ll be left with a fuzzy feeling inside…for about five minutes, until you fully comprehend the uninspired summer filler you just watched.
Filmmaking by means of stop-motion animation is unquestionably an extraordinary art. With this week’s highly anticipated release of “The Boxtrolls,” audiences everywhere will surely be reminded of how visually captivating and pleasant it is to view such an incredible medium. The process, however, is far from pleasant. Travis Knight the producer of “The Boxtrolls” himself (with films such as “Coraline” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas” already under his belt) recently claimed that, “it’s the worst way to make a movie,” “It makes no sense. You’re cutting your hands and contorting your body. But it’s an incredible art form that is so rare and so beautiful.” If you do end up seeing “The Boxtrolls” this week, just keep this statistic in mind: while creating the film, the crew was able to complete one to two minutes of footage per week. With that being said, let us appreciate this rare and underappreciated style of filmmaking by counting down the five projects that best exemplify the excellence of stop-motion animation.
“The Equalizer” will be Denzel Washington’s fifty-second film, his second collaboration with director Antoine Fuqua; the first was “Training Day,” the film that earned Denzel Washington his second Oscar. On that night in March of 2002, Washington became just the second African-American to win Best Actor. He took the stage to a standing ovation, the camera cutting between Washington’s sincere look of appreciation and awe to Sidney Portier, the first black man to win the award grinning from the balcony above. Of Portier, Washington remarked, “I’ll always be chasing you, Sidney. That’s fine with me.”
Welcome all to Reel Reaction’s newest feature: box office predictions! From here on out our we’ll scour the Internet every week to determine which of the newest films are poised to break the bank, embarrassingly belly flop, or anything in between. Who knows how accurate our predictions are going to be but that’s half the fun. In our inaugural forecast we have the return of Denzel Washington to the megaplexes with “The Equalizer,” and Laika’s newest stopmotion extravaganza, “The Boxtrolls.” Are these new releases going to unseat holdover like “The Maze Runner” and “A Walk Among the Tombstones?” Take a look to find out and check back with us on Monday to see how our estimates measured up!
Since the resurgence of comic book films with the X-Men and Spiderman series in the early 2000s, it seems like fans have lined up outside Comic-Cons all across the world and rushed to popular movie forums to continuously ask the same question: Where is the Deadpool movie? These cries became even more apparent and pressing after his first appearance in 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” where the filmmakers stripped the character of his entire essence for a reason never truly explained. Removing the “merk with a mouth’s” ability to speak and giving him a grab bag of mutant powers, betrayed comic fans everywhere cried out in unison for a proper representation of the character on the big screen.
I can say with complete and utter honesty that I never thought I’d see a movie about a man being turned into a walrus, and yet, here we are. It’s late 2014 and I can now proclaim that the age-old question (is man a walrus?) has effectively been answered thanks to Kevin Smith’s latest film, “Tusk.” Yet, the biggest surprise isn’t the answer to the question stated above, but the fact that “Tusk” is actually pretty good, maybe even great. 
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