Movie Review: The Next Three Days (2010)

What would you be willing to do if a loved one was falsely imprisoned? How far would you go to get him/her out? Ponder this as you read this review.

Ladies and gentlemen… “The Next Three Days”.

After his wife (Elizabeth Banks) gets arrested for a murder she didn’t commit, John Brennan (Russell Crowe) aims to do anything in his power to get her out. so now we have our little drama-thriller. And is this plot any good? Kind of. The idea itself is pretty interesting (if unoriginal), and there are some solid dramatic moments throughout that made me feel really invested in the story, but the plot does have some issues. For one, there are a whole load of implausibilities in this movie, situations where the outcome makes no fucking sense. And the pacing at times isn’t very good. Both of these problems drag the plot down quite a bit, but not enough to make me think that it’s total shit. Just that it could be better.

The characters here are good. There are none that I feel are bad, but not everyone gets the same amount of development. Russell Crowe plays John Brennan, the man at the center of this story. Over the movie you seem him go from the average, loving, family man to something else due to this whole crazy situation with his wife. It’s an interesting character journey. And Crowe gives a really good performance. Elizabeth Banks plays Lara, John’s wife and the woman who gets falsely imprisoned. I’m not gonna say too much about her development, as that’s best left experienced rather than explained. But I can say that Banks is great in the role. Then you have Ty Simpkins as Luke, the young son of John and Lara. Sure, he doesn’t get that much development here, but he still works pretty well among the characters. And for someone so young, I thought Simpkins did a really good job in the role. Then we have Lennie James as a cop who gets involved with all this. Again, not that much development there, but his characters still works very well within the plot here. And James is really good in the role. Then you get a bunch of really solid supporting performances from people like Olivia Wilde, Daniel Stern, Jason Beghe, Aisha Hinds, Liam Neeson, and more. It’s a well acted movie.

The score for the movie was composed by Danny Elfman, and it is quite good. It’s emotional, tense, and overall well composed. Sure, it’s not necessarily one of Elfman’s best, but it’s certainly really good. The movie also uses a whole bunch of licensed tracks throughout, with Moby being the most frequent artist used throughout. And all the tracks work pretty well for the movie to elevate their respective scenes slightly. Good music.

This movie was written and directed by Paul Haggis, and is apparently a remake of a French movie called “Pour Elle”. Now, I haven’t seen that French original, so I don’t know how accurately this represents it, but as a movie on it’s own I think Haggis did a good job. The movie is pretty well shot and everything has a pretty nice flow to it in general. He even manages to create some half-decent tension in some scenes throughout.

This movie has gotten some mixed reception. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 51% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 52/100. Roger Ebert gave it 2,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,4/10.

While it’s not anything truly great, “The Next Three Days” is still an enjoyable drama-thriller. It has an okay plot, okay characters, great performances, really good music, and good directing. As for flaws, there are points in the plot where it’s a bit implausible, and the pacing is a bit draggy at times. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “The Next Three Days” is an 8,11/10. While flawed, it’s still definitely worth a rental.

My review of “The Next Three Days” is now completed.

This is the third movie in a row I’ve watched/reviewed where Jonathan Tucker has popped up. It’s like that guy is following me everywhere… and it’s a bit eerie.

Movie Review: The Grey (2012)

What does it take for your to survive? And I’m not just talking about basic needs like food or water, I mean everything else that can come into play. Are you the strong-willed leader or are you the one who will most likely break down and die first? It’s difficult to say. You also have to ask; What lengths am I iwlling to go to for survival? Think about that one.

Ladies and gentlemen… “The Grey”.

John Ottway (Liam Neeson) works as a marksman/bodyguard for an Alaskan oil company. Then when he and a bunch of workers hop on a plane to get the hell out of the camp they were staying in, it crashes in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. Surviving the crash are Ottway and six of the workers. They scavenge anything they can from the crashed remains of the plane. So now they have to survive in the middle of fuckin’ nowhere. And if the cold doesn’t kill them, the wolves will. Yes, there is a pack of wolves stalking and hunting them. And from that we get an exciting tale of survival that is really suspenseful and surprisingly thoughtful. It doesn’t only present this as a “Ooo, who’s gonna get picked off next?” type of story, but it is surprisingly philosophical and really asks what takes of you as a man to take this. It’s also really character-driven which is not something I expected at all with this. With my rambling I am trying to say that I really liked the plot of the movie.

Like I said, this movie heavily character-driven. And when you want the characters to drive your movie, you better make damn sure they are interesting characters. And I’m not gonna lie, they actually succeeded pretty well with these characters. Not only do they have a lot of depth as characters, but they are also really well acted. I think it goes without saying that Liam Neeson was great in this movie, playing a badass like in “Taken” but still being a vulnerable and even broken man. Every other actor was great too. I also think it was fun seeing Frank Grillo in a great role because I really like that guy, he’s a really good actor. Everybody was in fact good and every character was great and helped drive the story.

The score for “The Grey” was composed by Marc Streitenfeld who also did the scores for movies like “American Gangster” and “Prometheus” which is fitting since both of those were directed by Ridley Scott who was a producer on this movie. Anyway, enough of that little bonus fact. Now what did I think of the score itself? It was pretty damn great. The score manages to help build a lot of tension, but it also manages to be emotional and thought provoking which really shows that Streitenfeld has great skill as a composer. Yeah, it’s pretty great.

This movie was directed by Joe Carnahan who also did the “A-Team” movie (Oh shit). But fear not because unlike “The A-Team”, this movie is very well directed. The shots look great and everything looks pretty steady. And the cinematography is gorgeous, taking full use of the location that they’re in. That’s right, they are in an actual location that is cold as hell and isn’t a green screen in a studio. And the wolves were actually animatronic. Okay fine, when you see them in full motion and running, they are CG. But there are a lot of animatronics used as well which is kind of awesome. I have to also admit that there were a few times where the movie was a little scary, almost like a horror movie. There especially two moments that made me go “Oh shit… that’s actually a little scary”. I’ll show a picture of one of those moments that isn’t really much of a spoiler since it was in the trailer.

“The Grey” has gotten a little bit of a mixed reception. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 79% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 64/100. Roger Ebert gave it 3,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,8/10.

“The Grey” is a tense and exciting survival movie featuring some badass wolves vs. a badass Liam Neeson. But it’s plot is also surprisingly deep and thought provoking, the acting is terrific, the music is great, the directing is really good and the cinematography is gorgeous. Time for my final score. ARH-WOOOOOOOO! My final score for “The Grey” is a 9,86/10. It definitely gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “The Grey” is now completed.

Listen here wolf, I don’t know who you are, but I have a very particular set of skills.

 

Movie Review: Schindler’s List (1993)

 

If everything looks dark it might be impossible to see something good. But remember that even if everything looks dark, there is still a light waiting to pierce through and help you through the darkness. Never give up hope, it might be what saves you one day.

Ladies and gentlemen, for the final day of summer I present to you… “Schindler’s List”.

In this movie we follow industrialist and ladies man Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) who starts getting concerned about his Jewish after seeing what the nazis do to them. And I’m not gonna lie, it was quite riveting. I was engaged and invested in this story throughout the entire three hour runtime. Rarely has a movie that long been able to keep my attention and be this interesting. The story is dark, beautiful and even a little bit scary. The shit that happened back then, the dark side of humanity, that is what scares me. But it also showed the kindness and courage people might show during these harsh times and that is what makes this plot so fantastic.

When the characters start feeling like real people in these terrible times, that is when you know you got some great characters. A lot of it comes from the excellent writing, but most of it comes from the fantastic performances. This is definitely the best I have ever seen Liam Neeson, he really disappeared into this man and he was no longer Liam Neeson to me, he was Oskar Schindler. Ben Kingsley also did a phenomenal job as Schindler’s Jewish bookkeeper. And Ralph Fiennes (Pronounced Ray Fines, by the way) was pretty amazing as well, playing a major douchebag who at a lot of times is conflicted about what he’s doing. Every actor in the movie was pretty great and no single performance in the movie stood out as “bad” or even “mediocre”.

Considering that this is a Steven Spielberg movie, one should not be surprised that the score for the movie was done by John Williams. Not that it’s a bad thing at all, Williams is a fantastic composer. Anyway, Williams did it again. He managed to compose a score that made you feel all of the emotions. Especially sadness, a lot of it thanks to violinist Itzhak Perlman helping out in a lot of tracks. The score is really beautiful and perfectly complemented the movie.

Like I said, this movie was directed by the one and only Steven Spielberg. And as always, the movie was incredibly well-directed. A lot of it can also be attributed to the fantastic cinematography by Janusz Kaminski. The movie looks beautiful. Some might call the whole black and white style a gimmick, but I call it beautiful art. I would say that it really improved upon the movie and did a lot to make it even better than it already was. I do also appreciate the selective coloring throughout the movie. If you’ve seen the movie you know what I am talking about. Here is also a fun fact: Kaminski has also provided the cinematography for some other Spielberg movies such as “Saving Private Ryan”, “Minority Report” and “Catch Me if You Can”.

This movie has gotten pretty much universal acclaim (the hilarious part of that statement is that Universal is the studio behind it). On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 96% positive rating (100% if you go by “Top Critics” only) and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 93/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 4/4 stars and put it on his “Great Movies” list. And on imdb.com it has a score of 8,9/10 and is ranked #6 on the “Top 250” list. The movie also won 7 Oscars (Wow) in the categories of Best picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Set Decoration, Best Film Editing and Best Original Score. The movie was also nominated for an additional 5 Oscars in the categories of Best Actor (Neeson), Best Supproting Actor (Fiennes), Best costume design, Best sound and Best makeup. 

“Schindler’s List” is a movie with a beautiful and haunting story, excellent performances, fantastic music and excellent direction & cinematography. Time for my final score. ACHTUNG! My final score for “Schindler’s List” is a 9,89/10. It deserves the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

Finally, “Schindler’s List” is now reviewed.

Wow, 1993 was a great year for Steven Spielberg. Both this and “Jurassic Park”.

 

Movie Review: Run All Night (2015)

Liam Neeson has become quite the action star in recent years. I mean, who ever thought “God… It would be so awesome to see that guy from “Schindler’s List” do an action movie”. But ever since “Taken” in 2009, he has become one of the biggest action stars of the modern age. So let’s review another one of his action movies.

Ladies and gentlemen, I suggest you… “Run All Night”.

So in this movie we follow ex-hitman Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) who one night kills the son of his old boss/friend Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris) to protect his own son (Joel Kinnaman). Now Jimmy and his son have one night to try to set everything straight while being chased by Sean’s mobsters, a police officer (Vincent D’Onofrio) and a hitman (Common). The idea is pretty great because it constantly keeps our heroes on the move, they can’t get any rest, they have to keep going to not die. What the plot also does pretty great is make you feel “I’m not sure if they will succeed or not”, it constantly keeps your attention with it’s suspense and and surprisingly good storytelling. Problem however is that there is at least one point in the movie where they have a few too many irons in the fire and everything becomes convoluted. But I was never bored, I was entertained by the plot through the entire thing.

You know what I was surprised by with this movie? The depth of the characters. I’m not kidding, these are some pretty deep characters. Liam Neeson doesn’t play your typical “I have a very particular set of skills” action star that you see in every movie these days, in this he is a very broken man, a drunk who’s haunted by all the deaths he have caused. Sure, he kicks a ton of ass in the movie, but he isn’t the superhero he’s been in everything else he’s starred in recently. Joel Kinnaman was also pretty great in the movie. This is probably the best I have seen him in anything (Sidenote: Keep in mind that I haven’t seen the TV-show “The Killing). He was fine in “RoboCop”, nothing else. Ed Harris was pretty great as always, I mean he is Ed Harris… he’s always great! And Common was pretty great as this professional hitman going after Liam Neeson and his son. Every actor did a great job and all the characters were interesting.

The score for the movie was done by Tom Holkenborg (Sidenote: Also known as “Junkie Xl”). And the score was pretty great, fitting perfectly in every scene it was used in and help keep the suspense/tension of the situations our heroes endured. It was also surprisingly emotional at times without feeling forced. The score overall was great.

This movie was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the same guy who directed “Non-Stop”, also starring Liam Neeson. And this movie is very well-directed. The shots look fantastic, the movie has tons of energy & style and it is just an overall great looking movie. And the action scenes in this movie are pretty great too. They are fierce, they are brutal and they are Rated-R (YEEEEES!!!). The only action scene I had problems with was (minor spoiler) a car chase, and that was mainly because the editing was a little too choppy for me to really get invested in it. If it hadn’t had as many cuts as it had, I would probably enjoy it more than I did. All othe actions scenes are pretty great though.

This movie has been pretty well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 60% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 59/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,6/10.

Guys, I had a great time with “Run All Night” despite the plot being convoluted at times and the car chase being choppy. But I otherwise thought the plot was pretty solid, the acting/characters great, the music great, the direction terrific and the action badass and awesome. Time for my final score. Jeff, give me the envelope. Jeff, give it to me! Jeff, I have a very particular set of skills, skills that I have aquired over a very long career. Thank you! My final score for “Run All Night” is a 9,21/10. It really is worth buying.

Review of “Run All Night” is completed.

I don’t know if I can Run All Night.

 

Movie Review: Taken (2008)

 

I am honestly not a big fan of modern action movies. There are not that many that I have found that appealed to me. Sure, I have a few that I can call “guilty pleasures” (“Expendables 2” for example). And that is a bit of a disappointment considering I in general like action movies. Anyway… I also like Liam Neeson, the guy’s a great actor. Recently he started to do less dramas and insted do more action oriented movies. You might remember that I did a review for his most recent movie “Non-Stop” about a week ago. Well today we are not revisiting that movie! Today we are taking a look at the movie which launched him into the action movie circle.

Sons and daughters… “Taken”.

The story of “Taken” follows ex-CIA agent Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson). He lives a quiet life as a… retired guy. He retired from the CIA to be closer to his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) who now lives with her mother Lenore (Famke Janssen) and step-father Stuart (Xander Berkeley). One day Kim asks for his permission to go to Paris with her friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy). So after a little while, Bryan agrees to it… with a few conditions. So then Kim and Amanda goes to Paris… but it doesn’t end well. And by “doesn’t end well” I mean they get kidnapped and it is up to Bryan to get over there and find them… in the most badass way possible. And there we have our story… at least in a basic synopsis-y way. Is it a good premise? Yes. Is the execution of it good? Pretty good I suppose. I’m not saying the execution is bad, I am just saying it is not done in such a way where it keeps me interested. Although I was interested in a different thing about the movie that we’ll talk about in a bit. But back to the point! The drama in this movie was not very engaging and never felt as real as it could. Sure, a few bits struck a small nerve with me, but that’s about it. Not much interest in the execution of the story.

The characters are done in a way that actually keeps this movie going. Not saying they are my favorites in any movie ever… but they work. Let’s start with the only one really worth talking about (Yes, I’ll skip the others), Bryan Mills. He is one of the biggest badasses ever. But he doesn’t only kick literal ass in this movie, but also metaphorically… let me explain. He is very well-written and also carries the emotional parts of the story in this movie. Sure, he doesn’t start crying in this movie, but he really shows emotions compared to every other action hero ever. Also, while he is kicking ass in combat and never seems to lose, you can still notice that he is vulnerable… not just the ultimate killing machine (even though he is that as well). So in general, good characters that work, but we only care for Liam fucking Neeson because he is Liam fucking Neeson.

The music was pretty damn good. It was a mix of a few cold tracks (explanation of cold tracks: Tracks that are calm and used to create a cold and kill-all-the-happiness feeling) and exciting action based tracks. All tracks in this movie comes together to have an orgie and make a great soundtrack for this movie. And that is something I really like! Good job, soundtrack!

Remember when I said I would talk about something that interested me? Yeah, me neither. But time for it to happen! What I meant was the action in the movie… it is pretty awesome. Sure, some of it is obstructed by the curse of shaky-cam, but what you can see is pretty awesome. It is fun to watch and it makes for great entertainment. Also, like I said, this movie really helped launch Liam Neeson into the “action hero circle” which I am so thankful for because he is amazing in action movies (“Non-Stop” is a fine example). Also… camera work (when it isn’t having an epileptic seizure) is fantastic. The shots done in this movie are really great and makes for some real eye-candy.

Reception for “Taken” has been for the most part good…with a few exceptions. Rotten Tomatoes has a score of 58% on it. On Metacritic this movie has a 50/100 rating. And while I couldn’t find a decent quote, Roger Ebert seemed to like it a little bit since he gave this movie 2,5/4 stars. The highest (overall) score has to be on imdb.com since it has a 7,9/10 on there.

“Taken” has fun action, a decent plot, some great music and a great performance by Liam Neeson. So now I will hand out my final score and the movie will take (haha) it. My final score for “Taken” is a 9,52/10 which is just enough to give it the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”

“Taken” is at last reviewed.

This movie has Taken me in…

Movie Review: Non-Stop (2014)

Liam Neeson, one of the greatest actors we got (at least I think so). He truly gained fame back in 1993 with his movie “Schindler’s List” (which I have not seen yet). But a few years back he made a small turn in his career with the movie “Taken” which puts him (for the most part) these days in action movies. And now in 2014, he made another one…set on a plane.

Men and women, boys and girls…”Non-Stop”.

Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) is a drunken(ish) air marshal who’s going on a transatlantic flight. On that he meets a woman named Jen Summers (Julianne Moore) whom he befriends. But while on the flight, something weird happens. He starts receiving these mysterious text messages from an unknown (Liam Neeson pun, haha) person. This person says he/she will kill one passenger on the plane every 20 minutes if Bill fails to transfer 150 million dollars to a certain bank account. So it’s a race against the time to find this mysterious person until every passenger on the plane is dead. But there seems to be more going on than that. And now we have our movie. And I have to say that I really enjoyed the story aspect of this movie. Not only was it well-written, but it was also very suspenseful. And to be honest, this movie is not straight-out action, but it is a bit like “Jack Reacher” in the sense of it being a suspenseful mystery with action parts every now and then. And in that sense…I really liked the story.

The characters…not the best in the universe. Not calling them bad/horribly written…just not too interesting. But it is also difficult to give different characters interesting personalities when they are so many. Sure, a few get a little development, but not enough to keep them that interesting. But we are not here to see people, we’er here to see Liam Neeson…and he delivers. Sure, he stays very similar throughout the movie with little to no change…but I don’t mind. Neeson gives a good enough performance to stay interesting.

The soundtrack by John Ottman is honestly pretty great. It is one of those soundtracks that fit it’s movie so well that it doesn’t matter what I say. It really helps build the suspense of the scenes in the movie. It is also not a too bombastic soundtrack like most modern action movies want to make their soundtracks, but it is a lot mroe subtle than a big ol’ “BWAAAAAAAAAH”. So yeah…I really liked it.

The camera work in this movie is honestly some of the best I’ve seen in a modern movie. Sure, a few parts are hurt by shaky-cam, but it doesn’t ruin the entire movie. Sure, the camera work is not really on par with any David Fincher movies, but it manages to hold it’s own against most other movies. Also, this movie kept me on edge. The claustrophobic feeling it gave really helped build the suspense and really did keep it fresh and interesting. Seriously… try to find a modern action movie that can keep me on edge… that is difficult. Also, this movie was produced by Joel Silver who also helped produce the “Matrix” films and “Die Hard”.

Reception for “Non-Stop” was mixed but for the most part pretty good. It has a 60% score on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment. On Metacritic it has the lovely score of 56/100 (Did you see the sarcasm, or did it just fly by). And on imdb.com it has a 7,1/10. So like I said…mixed, but overall good.

“Non-Stop” is a movie with good action scenes, good acting, great camera work and a good soundtrack but is dragged down a bit by lack of characterization and a little bit of unnecessary shaky-cam. So now it is time for my final score. The final score for “Non-Stop” is an 8,92/10 and a recommendation to buy it. It is not worthy the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!” but it is somethign that is good enough to pick up.

“Non-Stop” is now reviewed.

Where’s Leslie Nielsen when you need him? (Bonus points if you get the reference).