Thursday, June 2, 2016
Shane Black, director of the classic Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and the very good Iron Man 3 returns to film noir with The Nice Guys, a grimy detective story starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe.
The movie is good. Just good. It’s often so good, it’s painful to witness the moments that don’t work.
Crowe plays Jackson Healy, an L.A. loser who takes punching requests from people. Folks pay him to rough up child molesters, for the most part. He gets an assignment from Amelia (Margaret Qualley), who wants him to pay a visit to private detective Holland March (Gosling)—a visit that turns out to be hilariously infused with comic violence.
Holland and Jackson wind up working on a case together, one that involves Amelia, a dead porn star, and a gun for hire named John Boy (Matt Bomer, relishing the chance to be super nasty).
When Gosling and Crowe are allowed to go off, the movie purrs on all cylinders. It’s when Black’s script (co-written with Anthony Bagarozzi) leads to a conspiracy involving Amelia’s mother, played by Kim Basinger, that it stalls out. That’s mainly because Basinger is tone-deaf in this film. She doesn’t seem to know what kind of movie she is in, and her line delivery is woefully over-the-top. In short, she’s blazingly terrible in her every scene.
The film gets by thanks to the pairing of Gosling and Crowe, who work very well together. They are like a modern day Abbott & Costello
The movie is good. Just good. It’s often so good, it’s painful to witness the moments that don’t work.
Crowe plays Jackson Healy, an L.A. loser who takes punching requests from people. Folks pay him to rough up child molesters, for the most part. He gets an assignment from Amelia (Margaret Qualley), who wants him to pay a visit to private detective Holland March (Gosling)—a visit that turns out to be hilariously infused with comic violence.
Holland and Jackson wind up working on a case together, one that involves Amelia, a dead porn star, and a gun for hire named John Boy (Matt Bomer, relishing the chance to be super nasty).
When Gosling and Crowe are allowed to go off, the movie purrs on all cylinders. It’s when Black’s script (co-written with Anthony Bagarozzi) leads to a conspiracy involving Amelia’s mother, played by Kim Basinger, that it stalls out. That’s mainly because Basinger is tone-deaf in this film. She doesn’t seem to know what kind of movie she is in, and her line delivery is woefully over-the-top. In short, she’s blazingly terrible in her every scene.
The film gets by thanks to the pairing of Gosling and Crowe, who work very well together. They are like a modern day Abbott & Costello
Tags: The Nice Guys , cinema clips , Ryan Gosling , Russell Crowe , Video
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
The System is Broken is a political docudrama filmed in Tucson that looks at the political voting process through the eyes of two young people.
Pete, Natalia and their fellow Latino volunteers take on corruption and racism in a presidential campaign by starting their own non-partisan grassroots movement, putting their relationships and their lives in danger.
Interested? Watch the trailer below.
Writer and director Ignatius Lin, producer Joshua Zientarski and Jim Parisi at PowerTalk, will be hosting a one-time screening of The System Is Broken at the Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway Blvd.) on Wednesday, June 8.
The event will feature a pre-screening meet and greet with politicians at 7 p.m., and a post-screening Q&A.
Tickets can be purchased online and more information can be found here.
Pete, Natalia and their fellow Latino volunteers take on corruption and racism in a presidential campaign by starting their own non-partisan grassroots movement, putting their relationships and their lives in danger.
Interested? Watch the trailer below.
Writer and director Ignatius Lin, producer Joshua Zientarski and Jim Parisi at PowerTalk, will be hosting a one-time screening of The System Is Broken at the Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway Blvd.) on Wednesday, June 8.
The event will feature a pre-screening meet and greet with politicians at 7 p.m., and a post-screening Q&A.
Tickets can be purchased online and more information can be found here.
Tags: Film , Community , Political , Documentary , Corruption , Screening , Video
After scoring a huge critical and box office success with X-Men: Days of Future Past, Bryan Singer’s triumphant return to the franchise, 20th Century Fox wisely brought the director back for X-Men: Apocalypse.
However, in a move that induces head scratching, Fox cut the budget for the current installment, while padding the cast and upping the action quotient. Actually, this is the studio that screwed up The Fantastic Four, so maybe the shortchanging of a reliable franchise isn’t all that surprising.
There are portions of the movie that are sloppier than the usual Singer offerings, and quite a few moments have cut rate looking CGI. The movie alternates from looking great to looking super bad.
The flaws eventually pile up, and while there are some nice, enjoyable stretches, it’s a bit of a mess in the end despite powerful work from Michael Fassbender as Magneto and new-to-the-franchise Oscar Isaac as the menacing villain, Apocalypse.
Before the opening credits (which look like shit) roll, we get a quick backstory on Apocalypse. En Sabah Nur (Isaac), an ancient Egyptian, morphs with some sort of ancient mystical being, thus becoming the world’s first mutant, or something like that. He’s then buried under a crushed pyramid for centuries. Cue opening cheapie looking credits.
Cut to the 1980’s, 10 years after the events of Future Past. A bunch of random people stand around in the pyramid ruins chanting, and En Sabah Nur awakens as Apocalypse, a blue monster that looks like a cross between Jeff Bridges in Tron and the Emperor from Star Wars. Even though he’s buried under a bunch of makeup and voice modulation, Isaac makes his every moment on screen count. He looks like he’s having a lot of fun.
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
The second film in the Adam Sandler Netflix era after the horrible The Ridiculous 6 is still pretty bad moviemaking, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Director Steven Brill made two of the better Sandler vehicles in Little Nicky and Mr. Deeds, and their third pairing has its moments. That’s thanks in large part to the pairing of Sandler and an effective David Spade, who is cast against type as Charlie, a nebbish nerd looking for new start on life.
Sandler plays Max, who shows up at their high school reunion, takes pity on Charlie, and fakes both of their deaths so that they can smoke joints and drink for the rest of their lives. The plot isn’t that simple, and the two wind up being pursued by a killer that is a fairly funny homage to Die Hard.
The film is put together better than most of the later Sandler comedies, and it packs quite a few good laughs. Unfortunately, it also veers into overkill way too many times, and the gross-stuff feels discordant and just wrong.
Still, I liked the characters, and the film classes up a bit at the halfway mark when Paula Patton enters the picture. She has a fight with Kathryn Hahn that is one of the better smack downs you will see in a movie this summer.
The movie doesn’t work as a whole, but it does show that Sandler and Spade are a good screen duo when in the hands of a semi-capable director (Also, it has Natasha Leggero in it, and that’s always a good thing).
Had everybody just held the phone on a few of the extreme sight gags, and perhaps edited a solid fifteen minutes off the movie, I might’ve been able to recommend the film. As it stands, it’s a near miss. Hey, a near miss for Sandler these days is a major triumph!
(Available for streaming on Netflix as part of Sandler’s straight-to-Netflix movie series).
Friday, May 27, 2016
Memorial Day weekend is here with it's sunshine and commemorative military events. Still, with three days off, it's tempting to dedicate at least a few hours to relaxing at home with television being the closest thing to connection with the outside world.
Here's your weekly list of the most popular movies from Casa Video.
- Deadpool
Tags: casa video , top 10 , movies , tucson video store , Image , Video
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Director Jodie Foster goes for a 1970s throwback vibe while approaching a modern financial subject in this valiant but messy effort starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts.
Clooney plays Lee Gates, host of Money Monster, a sensationalist financial program that features Gates dancing around the studio and making stock tips. Not all of Gates’ tips are winners, and he’s about to find out about the downside of bad advice. Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell) shows up on set as a delivery boy, but he doesn’t have pizzas.
He’s got an explosive vest for Gates to put on, and a gun that says “Don’t turn off the cameras, we are going to be here for a while!” Producer Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts) has to keep the show rolling as her host is held hostage. Kyle lost a lot of dough on a Gates tip, and he’s here to tell us all how we are being suckered by “the Man.” What unfolds is woefully predictable, with Clooney and Roberts laboring to make it all entertaining despite its flatness and many clichés.
Obviously, the cold-hearted Gates will see not only the evil in companies he talks about on the air, but his own clumsiness. His heart will swell for his put-upon captor, and he will join him in solidarity against the evil corporate dictator Walt Camby (Dominic West), who stole Kyle’s money due to a “computer glitch.” O’Connell overacts, and the movie feels dated and worthless, on top of being self-important.
Tags: money monster , jodie foster , julia roberts , george clooney , movie reviews , Video
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
The first half of this Seth Rogen sequel is as funny and snappy as the first movie, but the movie loses its way a bit by the time credits roll. Still, if you are looking at laughs per dollar, Rogen and Zac Efron deliver your money’s worth.
The spin this time out has a sorority led by Shelby (Chloe Grace Moretz) moving in next door to the Radners (Rogen and Rose Byrne). Shelby is determined to party like a frat does, and this leads to a semi-depressed Teddy (Efron) coming on as a mentor. This restarts Teddy’s war with the Radners, which is bad timing because their house is in escrow. It’s during this stage when the film is at its nastiest best. When a booted Teddy joins forces with the Radners to destroy the sorority, things get a little misguided.
The film has some of the funniest dialogue of 2016 (“Sometimes you have to suck a bunch of dicks to find out you don’t like sucking dicks”), and I’m always down for Rogen. Byrne is an undervalued comic actress, and Moretz fits right into the stoner mode. Efron gets the biggest laughs in the movie, even when it starts to get a little too busy. A garage gag involving those ever-pesky airbags is killer funny, as is another visit with the Dean (Lisa Kudrow).
As sequels go, this isn’t a great one, but it’s a worthy installment.
Monday, May 23, 2016
Jason Bateman follows up his strong directorial debut, Bad Words, with The Family Fang, a loopy tale about a quirky, dysfunctional family that never really finds its way.
The film gets off to a good start, with Bateman playing Baxter Fang, a down-and-out writer trying to put together his next novel but taking odd writing jobs in the meantime. He winds up doing a feature on potato guns, eventually getting shot in the head by one.
Enter Annie Fang (Nicole Kidman), his actress sister, who used to be an indie queen but has reached that stage in her career where taking off her clothes is mandatory. She comes home to assist Baxter, which gets them to ruminating on their childhoods with their crazy parents.
Their parents, Caleb and Camille (played by Christopher Walken and Maryann Plunkett as older people) were infamous pranksters. They would stage bank robberies and other public occurrences, film them, and call it art. This resulted in a rather screwy childhood for Annie and Baxter, with famous parents who got famous by basically being horribly irresponsible.
Oddly enough, the film loses steam when Walken enters the picture. The premise involving his character feels a little too contrived, and it actually puts a strange sort of restriction on the weirdo actor. When Walken is off screen, the movie has a whimsical, funny vibe to it. When Walken is on, despite an okay performance, the film feels phony.
Bateman looks to be an interesting director, but his subject matter doesn’t suit his style this time out. The Family Fang feels uneven, but Bateman and Kidman are good together, and it isn’t a complete waste of time.
(Available for digital download and rental on iTunes, Amazon.com and On Demand during its limited theatrical release. Available on DVD July 7).
The film gets off to a good start, with Bateman playing Baxter Fang, a down-and-out writer trying to put together his next novel but taking odd writing jobs in the meantime. He winds up doing a feature on potato guns, eventually getting shot in the head by one.
Enter Annie Fang (Nicole Kidman), his actress sister, who used to be an indie queen but has reached that stage in her career where taking off her clothes is mandatory. She comes home to assist Baxter, which gets them to ruminating on their childhoods with their crazy parents.
Their parents, Caleb and Camille (played by Christopher Walken and Maryann Plunkett as older people) were infamous pranksters. They would stage bank robberies and other public occurrences, film them, and call it art. This resulted in a rather screwy childhood for Annie and Baxter, with famous parents who got famous by basically being horribly irresponsible.
Oddly enough, the film loses steam when Walken enters the picture. The premise involving his character feels a little too contrived, and it actually puts a strange sort of restriction on the weirdo actor. When Walken is off screen, the movie has a whimsical, funny vibe to it. When Walken is on, despite an okay performance, the film feels phony.
Bateman looks to be an interesting director, but his subject matter doesn’t suit his style this time out. The Family Fang feels uneven, but Bateman and Kidman are good together, and it isn’t a complete waste of time.
(Available for digital download and rental on iTunes, Amazon.com and On Demand during its limited theatrical release. Available on DVD July 7).
Friday, May 20, 2016
Has anyone else been ready for this week to be over since last Sunday? Celebrate the weekend with sour beer, some time by pool and maybe a few movies.
Here's a look at the 10 most popular movies at Casa Video last week:
- Deadpool
Tags: casa video , casa video top 10 , movie rentals , Video
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
This is one oddball movie. Tale of Tales sort of comes off like David Lynch’s Princess Bride. Italian director Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah, Reality) adapts three fairytales and sort of mixes them together, creating one semi-consistent and relatively cohesive narrative.
In one of the stories, John C. Reilly plays a king (he actually looks like the Burger King) who must stalk a sea monster and get its heart so that his queen (Salma Hayek) can devour it and become pregnant. In another, Toby Jones plays another king who becomes fascinated with a flea, feeding it blood and steak until it grows to the size of a large sow. In yet another, Vincent Cassel is a king who falls in love with the voice of what he thinks is a fair maiden, but it turns out to be an old lady.
All of these characters share the same universe. There are times where it becomes a little lifeless, but the visuals are always remarkable, and some of the performances (especially Hayek and Jones) are pretty great.
Garrone knows how to put a film together on the visual side. He can use a little tightening up with the verbal part. Still, the overall experience is a good, albeit very bizarre, one, and lovers of decent fantasy films should indulge (Available for rent on iTunes, Amazon.com and On Demand during a limited theatrical release).
Tags: Tale of Tales , fairy tales , princes bride , Matteo Garrone , Video
