Top 10 WORST Films of 2015: #5-1

Welcome back to Rhode Island Movie Corner’s end-of-they-year Top 10 list of my picks for the Worst Films of 2015. This is the second half of a two-part post and today I’ll be listing my Top 5 Worst of the Year. For the other half, numbers 10-6, please click the link provided below. Let’s not waste any more time and get on with the rest of the list…

PART 1: (http://rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2015/12/top-10-worst-films-of-2015-10-5.html)

Starting today’s post off is my Number 5 pick, another lousy horror flick whose short runtime was really the only thing that kept it from getting any higher on this list.

5. THE LAZARUS EFFECT

At the very least this film sort of has an interesting idea for a horror film. Basically the premise is that a group of scientists have created a special serum code-named ‘Lazarus’, hence the title of the film, that resurrects things from the dead. This serum is then used on one of the lead scientists (Olivia Wilde) when she is killed during one of the tests but when she is resurrected, things start to take a turn for the worse. What follows is… just your average horror film. Seriously, there’s not much that I can say about this film. It has some good people in it, like Wilde, Evan Peters, Donald Glover, and Mark Duplass, but it’s extremely clichéd and mediocre in almost every aspect; the ‘horror’ elements, the deaths, the fact that the black guy is the first to die, etc. As I just noted, the only major redeeming quality about the film is that it’s mercifully short at only 83 minutes long. But at the same time, that also means that it doesn’t leave any major impression whatsoever and is just another bland PG-13 rated horror film. Many of you know that I’m not too big on the horror genre in general so like ‘Unfriended’ you can chalk this up as another horror film that I’m likely never going to watch again.

My Number 4 pick has a bit of history to it due to the fact that it took four years for it to get released… watching this film, it’s clear why…

4. THE LOFT

This film was originally shot four years ago in 2011. Yet it was only released this year mainly due to a change in distributor. Originally produced by Dark Castle Entertainment and intended to be released by Universal, it ended up getting transferred to Open Road Films when it got pulled from its original August 2014 release date. It’s also worth noting that this is the second remake of a 2008 Belgian film by the same director, Erik Van Looy, and even starring one of the same actors, Matthias Schoenaerts (there was also a Dutch version produced in 2010). I haven’t seen either the original ‘Loft’ or the Dutch version but I hope that they’re at least better than this version. It’s an erotic thriller that lacks in both the erotic and the thriller elements. It’s annoyingly shot and edited, with a whole bunch of awkward wide angle lens close-ups and overly artsy edits that just seem pretentious. But perhaps the worst part of the film is that it’s full to the brim with terrible characters. The main plot of the film revolves around five friends trying to figure out the details behind the death of a young woman in their shared loft apartment… a loft that they all use to cheat on their wives. So despite the fact that there are some good people in the cast like Karl Urban and James Marsden, you don’t like any of these a-holes because they are all, to quote an unintentionally ironic line from the film itself, ‘pigs’ and you don’t even get to know anything about them. In short, this is just an ugly film in every sense of the word that very much fits the bill of a ‘January release’.

How fitting… my Number 3 is the third film in its franchise… a franchise that went downhill fast right after its first installment with its latest installment being the franchise’s all-time low.

3. TAKEN 3

Talk about a franchise that went immediately downhill after its first film, sort of like ‘The Hangover’ trilogy. And the interesting thing about this franchise was that no one really expected much out of the first ‘Taken’ film in the first place, even its star Liam Neeson. He thought that it was just going to be a direct-to-video release. But when the film was released in the U.S. in January 2009, it became a smash hit and as a result, Liam Neeson’s career was changed forever. Now he was known as the Charles Bronson-esque action star and that would become a major influence on many of his subsequent action films… but perhaps maybe a bit too much of an influence was made. Since the first ‘Taken’, Neeson has starred in numerous action films in which it seems like he’s playing the exact same character every time. Thankfully Neeson has recently stated that he’s planning on moving on from the action genre in a few years which is good given the argument that his action films are beginning to look more and more alike. And in the case of the ‘Taken’ franchise, getting worse and worse. ‘Taken 2’ was released in 2012 and did not attract the same positive reception amongst audiences. A change in director led to faster and more erratic editing, something that many cinefiles feel is one of the biggest problems today with action films. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t ‘hate’ ‘Taken 2’. Yeah it’s stupid and has the aforementioned editing problem but it doesn’t bother me as much as it did other people for some reason. I could at the very least tolerate the film. ‘Taken 3’ on the other hand…

If you thought the editing in ‘Taken 2’ was bad, just wait until you see ‘Taken 3’, which easily has the worst editing job in recent film history. Director Oliver Megaton clearly isn’t very good at shooting and editing action and it shows in the film with extremely choppy and fast editing in almost every scene. There’s seriously a scene in which Bryan Mills is just jumping over a fence and yet it cuts to somewhere around 15 different angles in the span of like 8 seconds. There are also scenes in which the editing and frantic camera movement destroy any sort of logic within the action sequences. Like in one scene, Bryan crashes a car down an elevator shaft and it explodes. And despite giving us no clear shot of him getting out of the car before he explodes, somehow the film then cuts to him out in the open, making us question just how the hell he got out of that situation. Pair all of this with a story that’s trying to be more dramatic than it is and you have what is easily one of the worst action films in recent years. Not even Liam Neeson, who at the very least is still a likable enough action lead, can save this train-wreck. When this film was first announced, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who questioned how this series could even continue after the second film. Was Liam Neeson going to have to rescue his kidnapped dog? Was he going to kidnap himself? Well now that this film is out, we can maybe rest assured knowing that this will hopefully be the last film in the franchise.

My number 2 is a big one. 2015 wasn’t as good of a year for superhero films as 2014. Now I’m not talking about the two Marvel Studios releases this year because, of course, both of those films were excellent. I’m talking about the other superhero film released this year. Not only is it one of the genre’s absolute worst, but it’s also my pick for the most disappointing film of the year. Yes… I actually was looking forward to this film.

2. FANTASTIC FOUR

Despite all of the controversy surrounding this film, I was actually looking forward to it. I thought that this was going to be the film that would redeem the ‘Fantastic Four’ film series after a string of less-than-stellar adaptations of Marvel’s ‘First Family’. Despite all of the skepticism surrounding the film, I was hopeful that it was going to be awesome. It was to be directed by Josh Trank, fresh off of directing one of my favorite films from 2012, ‘Chronicle’. And despite the usual backlash that comes with every superhero casting, I thought that the studio went with a really nice cast of leads in Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan (racists be damned), and Jamie Bell to take on the roles of the Four with Toby Kebbell, fresh off of a terrific villainous turn as Koba in ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’, taking on the role of Dr. Doom. But in the months leading up to the film’s release, there was controversies everywhere you looked. There was the rumor about how the film was going to make drastic changes to the characters, including making Dr. Doom a hacker. Then Fox announced reshoots in January 2015 and reports stated that the studio wasn’t happy with Trank’s original cut of the film along with other reports that Trank had behaved erratically during filming. Despite all of this, I was still hoping for the best when it came to this film… how wrong I was.

Now for the record, I don’t entirely blame this on Josh Trank. This was probably just a case of a young director being unprepared to tackle a big-budget superhero film after working on the lower-budgeted ‘Chronicle’. Not only that, but Trank himself confirmed that the studio had made numerous changes to his original cut of the film, basically screwing him over in the process. That’s something that you can definitely tell based solely on the final cut. The reshoots are obvious, with the most infamous example of this being Kate Mara’s frequently changing hairstyle, and the plot feels completely garbled at times. After the Four first gain their powers, the film literally cuts to a year later when they are already in control of their powers and working for the government. What happened in this year could’ve led to some nice bits of character development but instead they just cut that part out entirely. But that doesn’t mean that Trank is off the hook because he was responsible for one of the major problems of the film; its dour tone. Simply put, it’s not fun to watch. I get that they were trying to not go too far into goofy territory like the previous ‘Fantastic Four’ films did but they should’ve just taken notes from what Marvel has been doing with the MCU in terms of overall tone. And yes I know that there are some who complain about the MCU’s supposed overly silly nature but even if that was true, and quite frankly it isn’t, I very much prefer the MCU films over something like this that’s actually kind of depressing.

The jumbled final product, as well as Trank apparently telling the actors to be as ‘dull’ as possible in regards to their performances, also has a severely negative impact on the overall character development. The four main characters in this film never once act like the Fantastic Four of the comics. Heck, they’re only together once in the entire film and that’s right at the end of the film. When they first acquire their powers, Reed (AKA Mr. Fantastic) leaves the group for that aforementioned year that we don’t see in order to find a cure for the group’s newfound powers. It isn’t until the finale when the four are onscreen together and as a result, they never once capture the personalities and relationships that define their characters in the comics, aside from maybe ‘a little’ of the friendship between Reed and Ben at the beginning. Speaking of that finale, it is literally the only major action set piece in the entire film. Yes, that’s right, a superhero film released the same year as ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’ has only one major action sequence and it’s directly at the end of the film. And it’s a pretty terrible action sequence to boot, which makes me think that it was thrown in at the last second because the studio realized that they hadn’t done anything superhero-related in the span of an hour and a half. In other words, this is a pretty damn boring superhero film. Sure the beginning of the film is kind of interesting as the Four, along with Victor von Doom, build the teleporter device that sends them to the world where they acquire the powers but after that… nothing happens whatsoever. I couldn’t even do a Spoiler Post for this film, like I usually do for superhero films, because there was literally nothing to spoil. They get their powers, spend some time working for the government, fight Doom, The End.     

And finally let’s talk about Doctor Doom, arguably Marvel’s greatest villain of all-time. He has never been done justice on the big-screen. First there was the Doctor Doom from the 1994 unreleased ‘Fantastic Four’ film who, to put it quite simply, was a major pussy who kept getting his ass kicked by the Four and was sometimes completely unintelligible due to a clear lack of ADR work. The ’05 film version of Doom was also lackluster, with Julian McMahon being majorly miscast in the role. As for this Doom… he’s barely in the film. After the power-gaining incident, he’s left behind on the parallel dimension referred to as ‘Planet Zero’ and isn’t seen again until the government returns to that dimension. And then after that, he’s just evil because… he’s evil and wants to be left alone on that planet. So in short, you’re actually rooting for him to get his demands. It’s definitely a waste of Toby Kebbell, who’s covered in makeup (I think; it may have been CGI) so much to the point where, as the internet has put it, he looks like a damn crash test dummy. So that’s the 2015 ‘Fantastic Four’ reboot… the worst interpretation of the Four to date. It’s so bad that the 1994 unreleased ‘Fantastic Four’ film is actually better by comparison. It’s so bad that I’m no longer afraid to admit that I actually do like the 2005 ‘Fantastic Four’ film and its 2007 sequel, ‘Rise of the Silver Surfer’. And while I can’t really defend either of those films that much because they’re definitely some of the lesser films of their genre, they’re at least better than what we got here. Hopefully the rights to the characters will revert back to Marvel Studios soon. Fourth time’s the charm?

So what can be worse than ‘Fantastic Four’, you ask? Well, thankfully not a lot of people have seen this one but I did so I have to talk about it. And for the first time on this blog, I have to talk about the infamous duo of stinkers that have produced some of the worst films of all-time. That’s right, for my Number 1 worst film of 2015, it’s time to talk about… Seltzerberg…

1. SUPERFAST

Since this is the first time that I’m talking about this two on here, I better start off with a history lesson about the masters of crap that are Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. These two got their start writing the screenplay for the 1996 Leslie Nielsen starring spoof ‘Spy Hard’, directed by Friedberg’s father Rick. Similar to how their future films turned out, the film received highly negative reviews from critics. But that didn’t stop them from getting more work and in 2000, they collaborated with the Wayans on that year’s big box office hit ‘Scary Movie’, parodying 1996’s ‘Scream’ and effectively spawning the formula for all future spoof films. In 2006, the duo finally moved into directing with ‘Date Movie’ and have since produced other ‘spoof’ films such as ‘Epic Movie’, ‘Meet the Spartans’, ‘Disaster Movie’, ‘Vampires Suck’, and ‘The Starving Games’. Each of their films have been rightfully panned for being incredibly unfunny and being nothing more than brainless films that are just meant to cash in on whatever’s popular at the time, even if it has nothing to do with the supposed ‘genre’ of the film. For example, ‘Epic Movie’ spoofed films like ‘Nacho Libre’ and ‘Borat’. Epics? And as a result, the ‘spoof genre’ that had once dominated the film industry with classics like ‘Spaceballs’ and ‘Airplane’ is now home to godawful films that have forgotten about what made the spoof films of the past work so well.

So what was it about those classic spoofs that worked so well? Doug Walker of Channel Awesome and former Channel Awesome member Welshy both gave some solid answers to this question. In his video ‘My Problem with Current Movie Spoofs’, Welshy noted that one of the reasons why spoof movies of the past worked as well as they did was because the actors treated the material seriously even if it was intended to be comical, whereas nowadays actors in spoof movies are fully aware of the intended tone and just act all goofy. In his video ‘Is Parody Dead?’, Doug noted that one of the biggest strengths of the genre’s earlier days was how the comedy came from the filmmakers not just making reference after reference but taking the original story that they were satirizing and viewing it from a different perspective. The primary example that he used was the film that basically kick-started the whole spoof genre in general, Mel Brooks’ ‘Young Frankenstein’, which took the classic horror story and turned it on its head while still maintaining the general atmosphere of the original film, like having the kind old man that looked after Frankenstein’s monster be clumsy and having Frankenstein’s assistant Igor be unaware of his hunchback nature. Nowadays, the ‘comedy’ that comes from spoof films is just a series of references that are made to satirize whatever’s popular at the time. And right at the top of this ‘craze’ is the duo of Seltzerberg. Their newest film, ‘Superfast’, is, as you might have guessed, a spoof of the ‘Fast and Furious’ films. Particularly it’s a ‘re-do’ of the first film, even though the official series’ seventh installment was just released this year.

So yeah, if you’ve been unfortunate enough to have seen any of Seltzerberg’s films, you know what to expect from this film. Unfunny humor, dumb references, and awkward gross-out moments. The main characters are literally just named after the actors who played the real characters in the ‘Fast and Furious’ films. Dom is ‘Vin’, Letty is ‘Michelle’, Mia is ‘Jordana’, etc. And then they made their version of the Brian character a total dumbass, which is actually rather offensive to Paul Walker’s legacy if you ask me. If you want to talk about some of the cheapest films ever produced, not in regards to overall cost but quality, a Seltzerberg film is the prime example of the lowest of lows in the film industry. If there is any bright side to this, it is that since ‘Vampires Suck’, the duo’s films have not actually been getting wide releases. Originally, their films were released by Fox under their Regency label. Both this and ‘The Starving Games’ were released by an independent distributor so maybe these two will finally be stopped one day. However, they’re already working on a ‘Taken’ ‘parody’ (the term parody of course is used loosely in this context) titled ‘Who the F#@K Took My Daughter?” so we’re not out of the fire yet…

And those are my Top 10 worst films of 2015. What are yours? Be sure to sound off in the comments below. Thanks for going along with me on this ‘cleansing’ and be sure to tune in soon to me ending the year on a positive note and listing my Top 12 favorite films from this past year.

Top 10 WORST Films of 2015: #10-5

Well here we are at the end of the year so you know what that means… it’s time for the annual lists of our favorite and least favorite films of the year. Of course I’m starting off with the ‘Worst of the Year’ list simply because I want to end the year on a good note and talk about the good stuff. However, I’m fully aware that at the end of the day, this list is going to be the more popular of the two because the internet just LOVES to talk about the bad stuff. But not me; in fact, I’m kind of getting tired of the internet’s constant cynicism and mean-spirited nature. Right now online film culture is dominated by things like Honest Trailers and CinemaSins. And while I’ll admit to being a ‘fan’ of them in the past, nowadays I feel like these shows only ruin the reputations of perfectly good films. So with that said, don’t expect to see me rage that much about these films no matter how bad they are. I’m just going to be straight and to the point when it comes to talking about these films and their issues. Because this is the ‘End of the Year’ list, I will be discussing some of the more spoiler-y details of these films. But because this is the worst list, I’m not even going to bother to warn you guys about it because obviously I can’t recommend any of these films in the first place. So with all that said, here is Part 1 of my Top 10 list for the Worst Films of 2015. Today I’ll be listing films 10-5.

Kicking off this year’s list is a film that I had originally given a 3/5 rating to when I reviewed it this past April. However, as time has gone on, my opinion of the film has changed quite a bit. It is by no means the worst film that I’ve seen this year but it’s also one that I’m not keen on re-watching anytime soon.

10. UNFRIENDED

In the months since I saw this film, I realized that I appreciate it more for its technical merits than I do as far as it being a horror film is concerned. To its credit, it does have a pretty novel idea for a horror film. The film is set entirely within the confines of the computer of the main character Blaire and she and the other main characters communicate with one another via Skype. The terrors that they go through all occur as a result of a mysterious source that ‘hijacks’ their conversation whom they can’t remove no matter what they try. Again, to the film’s credit, I haven’t really heard of any other horror film like this before and the film definitely succeeds in sticking to its internet based setting, right down to the lag issue that can plague Skype conversations, something of which I’m familiar with through the podcasts that I have recorded with my friends. Obviously just having the whole film take place on Skype would’ve been rather boring so the film interjects these scenes with moments of Blaire using other applications like Facebook and Instant Messaging. And in certain parts, there is some genuine tension that comes from Blaire frantically trying to do something on her computer before something bad happens, like downloading virus removal software whose installation process is momentarily halted at one point due to some other application that is running at the same time or not showing a note that came from her printer that reads that one of her friends will die if she shows the message. And while not a ‘horror’ moment, I have to say that my favorite scene in the film is when the friends all get into an argument over secrets that are being revealed during a forced game of ‘Never Have I Ever’ and the killer trolls them by playing a song about lying on Spotify. Now that was hilarious!

However, those are really the only major positives that I can give this film because as an actual horror film, it’s rather subpar. The deaths are very traditional and the jump scares are, as usual, annoying. As for the characters, they’re both incredibly stereotypical and really, really unlikable. For you see, the main plot of the film revolves around an incident a year before where one of their classmates, Laura Barns, killed herself after receiving endless abuse from her classmates over an embarrassing video of herself drunk and passed out at a party that was posted online. And as we learn over the course of the film, the main characters all had a hand in her torment so it’s pretty much impossible to sympathize with any of them. So that would mean that we root for the killer, right? Well yes in this case we do but even then we actually never learn who the killer really is. I mean, I guess you can say that the killer is meant to be the ‘ghost’ of Laura but the film never explicitly states that this is the case. In fact, at one point during the film, Blaire messages her boyfriend Mitch and tells him that Laura had an uncle and when I saw that, I thought that this was the give-away; that Laura’s uncle was the ‘killer’ looking to enact revenge upon his niece’s classmates for causing her death. However, that’s not the case and we’re left to assume that it is the ‘ghost of Laura’ that’s haunting her classmates. So in short, ‘Unfriended’ is a fairly original horror film as far as its concept is concerned. However, in execution, it ends up being another fairly clichéd entry in the genre.  

My Number 9 pick is a film that I really wanted to like. I didn’t care that it was a prequel, which many argued was unnecessary, but ultimately the film ended up being a fairly disappointing take on a classic story.

9. PAN

Like I said, I really wanted to like this film. Given the fact that, nowadays, most big-budget live-action films are usually rated PG-13 or higher, I was happy to see that we were getting a PG-rated big-budget fantasy film, one that the whole family could see. And despite my overall thoughts on this film, at the end of my review I still recommended it to families as I felt that, at the very least, kids might enjoy it for the colorful visuals and stuff like that. But as for adults, their mileage will vary on this, unfortunately, misguided attempt at telling the prequel story to Peter Pan. Again, I didn’t judge this film too much for being a prequel nor did I judge it for its heavy use of CGI. At the end of the day, this film’s biggest problem is the writing. There are two main reasons as to why this is. First off, the references made to ‘future events’ in regards to the story of Peter Pan are very obvious and lack subtlety. When Peter talks to one of the fairies during the finale, of course it has to be Tinker Bell. And when Peter, Hook, and Tiger Lily are rafting down a river of crocodiles, Hook notes his dislike of them, obviously referencing the crocodile that would end up taking Hook’s hand, hence the name ‘Captain Hook’. But then another issue is the fact that the plot feels rather rushed as it feels like the film is trying to breeze through moments that would constitute any sort of character development in favor of zany visuals. And while the film’s visuals are rightfully surreal in design, as one would expect from something like Peter Pan, the pacing is still very messy and the characters are very dull and underwritten. There’s also quite a few weird things in this film as well, like scenes where a bunch of characters, for no real reason, start to sing Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and the Ramones’ ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’. Simply put, Baz Luhrmann’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ this isn’t…

Peter himself probably gets the worst of the general lack of character development as he spends most of the film rather cowardly not wanting to live up to the prophecy about him saving Never Land from Blackbeard. Thankfully, Levi Miller sort of manages to get around this when he does have the chance to convey the playful and cocky attitude of the character. As for Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily, I didn’t pay much attention to the controversy over casting a Caucasian actress in the role of the native American character and to her credit, she’s the most straight-faced and down-to-earth of the four main leads; in other words, not over-the-top. But in a film like this that is very much over-the-top in tone, maybe this wasn’t such the best idea. By contrast, Hugh Jackman is incredibly over-the-top as the main villain Blackbeard. In my review I actually pinned him as the ‘weak link’ of the cast but looking back on it, I do realize that Jackman’s ridiculously campy turn is very fitting for the film. And with that said, while Garrett Hedlund might have been a bit too over-the-top as the Han Solo-esque Hook (and yes, this is a very fitting reference because the film very much feels like ‘Star Wars’ in both plot and characters as far as the main trio of Peter (Luke), Hook (Han), and Tiger Lily (Leia) are concerned), I still thought he was fine. But despite the best efforts of the four main leads, ‘Pan’ ultimately feels like a weirder and campier version of the ‘Star Wars’ prequels, even though I will give this film credit in that its heart definitely was in the right place.

Speaking of the ‘Star Wars’ prequels, my Number 8 pick is another film that feels a bit too reminiscent of those prequels. It’s another film that I didn’t want to dislike but unfortunately it didn’t do much for me.

8. JUPITER ASCENDING

I think it’s safe to say that as soon as this film’s first trailer was released, many people were expecting the film to bomb, even after it got moved from its initial Summer 2014 release to February of this year. And ultimately it did bomb, making that three in a row for the Wachowskis, whose careers have been in steady decline since hitting big with ‘The Matrix’ in 1999 and will probably now hit a major wall, in terms of films, after this box-office bomb. In other words, who knows when they’re going to get another chance to direct a big-budget film? Like ‘Pan’, this film feels very much like the ‘Star Wars’ prequels in terms of its overall tone and while I’ve admitted in the past to actually liking the prequels, I don’t view other films being like that as a ‘good thing’. As I noted in my review for the film, this was basically the 2015 equivalent of ‘Attack of the Clones’; a sci-fi film with minimal action that’s pre-dominantly exposition-based. In other words, this film really does drag at times. And the sad thing about all of this is that, despite the film’s shortcomings from a writing perspective, the film’s visuals are genuinely amazing. Clearly a lot of effort went into the art design of this sci-fi world. After all, that was the main reason why the film got pushed back from its original summer 2014 release date; so that more time can be given to finish the effects. But at the end of the day, that’s all for nothing as a result of a plot that’s pre-dominantly dialogue driven and fairly messy.

The film’s main character, Jupiter Jones, is a pretty poor sci-fi female lead. Literally all she is in the film is a damsel in distress, despite the fact that she’s supposed to be the reincarnation of the matriarch of the most powerful alien dynasty in the universe. To her credit, Mila Kunis at least does her best even though she has very little to work with. By comparison, Channing Tatum and Sean Bean, the latter of whom actually doesn’t die for once in a film (in fact he also doesn’t die in the next film on this list), both get more to work with as soldiers Caine Wise and Stinger Apini, respectively. And then there’s Eddie Redmayne as the main villain; Balem. It’s a good thing that Redmayne did win the Oscar for his work in last year’s ‘The Theory of Everything’ because his performance here is likely going to get him a Razzie nomination. There are two levels to his performance here; either he’s whispering in a raspy Voldemort-like voice or he’s RANDOMLY YELLING AT SOMEONE! Thankfully he actually isn’t in the film that much. Seriously, he actually disappears for the entire middle half of the film while his character’s siblings, played by Douglas Booth and Tuppence Middleton, basically take his place as the ‘villains’. Though I use that term loosely because, when their scenes are over, they’re never seen again. Nothing is ever done about them by the end of the film which is, again, a sign of the messy nature of the screenplay. Like Joe Wright with ‘Pan’, I can clearly see how passionate the Wachowskis are about their work but in the end they all ended up biting off more than they can chew as both of their films ended up being major commercial flops. Yeah aside from ‘Fury Road’ Warner Bros did not have a really good year at the box-office.

My Number 7 pick is a film that I was actually looking forward to despite the various aspects of the film that would make others not want to go near it with a 10-foot pole. But in the end, it’s another dud for its lead star.

7. PIXELS

Oh Adam Sandler… here you are again in another one of my ‘Worst of the Year’ lists. As I’ve stated before, I don’t hate Adam Sandler. He seems like a really nice guy in real life and I do like his earlier films like ‘Happy Gilmore’ and ‘Billy Madison’. But as many of us know, he’s been experiencing a lot more duds recently; ‘Jack and Jill’, ‘Grown Ups 2’, and now ‘Pixels’. As strange as it may sound, I actually was looking forward to this film but not because of Sandler. The main reason why was due to the film’s video-game based storyline. And while most video-game based films tend to be terrible, that usually isn’t the case for films that only have a storyline inspired by video games like ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ and the ‘Tron’ films. As many of you know I’m also a big fan of video games, especially retro games, so I was intrigued by this film’s use of classic characters like ‘Pac-Man’ and ‘Donkey Kong’ in the context of aliens using these characters as weapons against the Earth after an intended message of peace sent by us in 1982 was misinterpreted by them as an act of war. And for once it wasn’t a Sandler film that wasn’t directed by one of Sandler’s regular directors like Dennis Dugan. Sure Chris Columbus hasn’t had a hit in years but I will always remember the great films that he has made in the past; the first two ‘Home Alone’ films, ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’, and of course the first two ‘Harry Potter’ films. 

I’ll just be perfectly blunt here; this film’s biggest weakness is that it isn’t funny. Almost all of the jokes fall flat. There’s been a lot of talk about the film’s poorly written female characters and I must say that this is very much true. Michelle Monaghan is severely underused in the main female role and is constantly being called a ‘snob’ by Sandler’s character basically because she doesn’t accept any of his romantic advances on her (at first). Jane Krakowski literally has nothing to do in the role of the First Lady (and yes Kevin James plays the President… I was never bothered by this so moving on…). And as for Ashley Benson in the role of the warrior Lady Lisa, a character from an in-universe arcade game, she may be touted as a badass warrior but ultimately she’s just the love interest for Josh Gad’s character. But at the end of the day, this is far from being my ‘worst’ of the year because there are still a few redeeming qualities to this film. While I may not have grown up during the 80’s, the filmmakers clearly have a lot of affection for the era and that’s clear through the film’s many, many 80’s references. The pixel-like visuals for the alien creatures are pretty cool as are some of the action set-pieces that pay homage to these classic games. I won’t lie… the ‘Donkey Kong’ finale was actually pretty cool. And despite the fact that his character is really nothing more than just a jerk to the other characters, Peter Dinklage is easily the most memorable part of the film. So that’s ‘Pixels’ in a nutshell for you. If you’re still a fan of Sandler’s films, you’ll probably like this. But as for me, this was quite a bit of a disappointment. Though considering that this is a Sandler film, I guess you could say that I should’ve known better at this point.

(P.S. And no I did not even bother with his Netflix film ‘The Ridiculous 6’)

It may surprise some of you to see this next film ranked as low as #6. While it definitely is bad, it’s actually not the worst film I’ve seen this year.

6. FIFTY SHADES OF GREY

Well this isn’t that much of a surprise for some of you, is it? I mean seriously, who out there was actually expecting anything good out of this? However, I’m not here to complain about how this film ended up being a big commercial hit when it was released in February, grossing over $500 million worldwide. I don’t complain about that kind of stuff given all the talk about the film industry’s declining ticket sales, regardless of the quality of films that are either commercial hits or duds. And as you can see, this isn’t even my #1 worst of the year. But don’t worry, that doesn’t mean that I’m going soft on this film… far from it. As you all know, this film was based off of a book that was fan-fiction spawned from ‘Twilight’, so you can get an idea as to how poorly written it is. But at the very least, ‘Twilight’ at least had a few vampire/werewolf action sequences to kind of (though not really) hold the attention of non-fans. ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ doesn’t have that same luxury. It’s just regular people doing regular things and speaking horrible, horrible dialogue, from ‘Laters Baby!’ to ‘I’m 50 shades of f***ed up!’. Though I will say that the one line in the film that had me laughing the most was when Christian tells Anastasia that “I don’t make love… I f*** hard!” If any of you internet people recall the scene in the Nostalgia Critic’s review of ‘Saved by the Bell’ where the Critic goes on an epic laughing fit after seeing Zack Morris dressed up like, as he put it, ‘Vanilla Ice’s bitch’, that’s how much I was laughing at that line.

But it’s not just the dialogue that’s bad. Another noticeable thing about the writing is how indecisive the characters are, specifically Anastasia. Sometimes she loves Christian, other times she doesn’t, and so on and so forth for pretty much the entirety of the frigging film. At the end, even after all that he had put her through to make her question why she’s with him, she still tells him that ‘she’s fallen in love with him’. And as for Christian, it seriously raises the question of why any girl would fall for someone like this; a total psycho/sadist/any other similar word you can think of that frequently stalks his romantic interests and tries to control their lives; how much they eat, how much they exercise, etc. So even though this film has terrible dialogue and characters, you’d think that it’d at least deliver on the one thing that made the books so controversial; the BDSM sex scenes. And believe it or not, it doesn’t. I’m guessing this is due to the film trying not to go as far as an NC-17 rating but aside from the fact that sex/nudity actually shouldn’t be that much of an issue for MPAA ratings, the sex scenes in this film are extremely bland for what was an extremely controversial and ridiculous book. At the very least, Dakota Johnson at least tries her best with the terrible material she has to work with as Anastasia, though I can’t say the same for Jamie Dorman as Christian. There’s no denying that ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ is exactly what you’d expect from something that originally spawned from another terrible book/film franchise… nothing more, nothing less.

That’s the end of Part 1 of my Top 10 Worst of the Year list. Check back tomorrow for Part 2 and my Top 5 worst films of 2015.

Rankin-Bass Christmas Specials: 2015 Update

Hey folks, hope you’re having a nice holiday season! If you recall, back in December 2013 I did a post on almost all of the major holiday specials produced by Rankin-Bass. To me, no Christmas is complete without watching the studio’s many holiday classics. And given the fact that that original Rankin-Bass post is currently the fifth most-read post on this site, clearly a lot of you love Rankin-Bass too. It just goes to show how timeless Rankin-Bass’ specials truly are and the strong appeal that they have to audiences both young and old. Sure the animation is very dated by today’s standards but the characters, songs, and messages of these specials will always be unforgettable. That’s why the company recently celebrated its 55^th anniversary. That’s why ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ has been consistently aired on TV for over 50 years, with many of the studio’s other specials soon set to celebrate their own big yearly milestones as well in the years. Yet despite all of the great things that have come from these specials, it’s disappointing that in some places they have fallen victim to a more cynical modern mindset. Because if you ask me, that kind of attitude goes against the powerful messages that these specials have always conveyed that make them essential viewing during the holidays. Like I said before, yes the animation is dated to the point where it can produce some truly bizarre visuals (case in point, remember the song ‘My World is Beginning Today’ from ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’, which is nowadays cut from the ABC version? Talk about an acid trip.) and there are elements of certain specials that were clearly subjected to the social norms at the time. However, their charm more than makes up for what they may lack in terms of visual ‘beauty’.

Today you can consider the following post as a companion piece to the original Rankin-Bass post that I did two years ago. The main reason why I’m doing a second post is because when I did that original post, I didn’t cover all of the major Rankin-Bass holiday specials. I only covered the ones that I had seen up to that point. So today, I’ll be doing quick reviews of three of the studio’s specials that I hadn’t covered before. If you want to check out that original Rankin-Bass post, a link will be provided below. But for now, let’s close out my all-encompassing tribute to one of my favorite animation companies of all-time by looking at the final few Rankin-Bass specials that I haven’t yet seen. This time, I’m going in order of release unlike last time where I went in the general order of when I first seen the Rankin-Bass specials, starting with the three that I had seen on a regular annual basis since I was young (‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, ‘Frosty the Snowman’, and ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’) and then going into the ones that I had seen at an older age, like ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ and ‘Jack Frost’. I’m aware that I may still be forgetting a few of Rankin-Bass’ lesser-known holiday specials but these three are the last major specials that I know about so there will not be a ‘Part 3’ to this.

http://rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2013/12/rankin-bass-christmas-specials.html

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1974)

Starting off today’s post is the studio’s 1974 traditionally animated special ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’. Obviously it is inspired by the classic Christmas poem of the same name but no, it is not just a straight-forward adaptation of that poem. If it was like that, then the special would only be like five minutes long. Instead, it tells the story of a town named Junctionville that tries to get back on Santa’s good side after a young mouse named Albert (again this is Rankin Bass so just go with it) writes a letter to Santa that mocks him by saying that he ‘doesn’t exist’, to which Santa responds by sending back all of the town’s letters to him and threatening to ignore them on Christmas Eve. So yeah, like ‘Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July’, the plot admittedly has a bit too much of a downer vibe to it at times, something that seems questionable for a holiday special. Also, like ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, the Santa in this special comes off as, to put it bluntly, a bit of a dick given how he’s willing to completely ignore an entire town just because one person wrote a bad letter to him. I mean technically Albert’s letter implied that it came from the whole town but still…

But despite this special’s flaws, it still manages to be a decent entry in the Rankin-Bass library. 

There’s some nice songs packaged in there like ‘Give your Heart a Try’, a song that the Father Mouse, voiced by George Gobel, sings to his son in the hopes of easing his cynical nature towards Santa and ‘Even a Miracle Needs a Hand’, sung by Joel Grey who plays a clockmaker named Joshua Trundle who comes up with the idea of building a special clock that would play a song on Christmas Eve as a means of convincing Santa not to ignore Junctionville. But when the clock gets damaged, again as a result of Albert’s interference, Joshua still remains optimistic that a miracle will happen as he sings the song to his kids. The animation is nice for the time, producing some colorful visuals, and Albert, despite all of the trouble that he gets into in regards to nearly ruining Christmas for the entire town, does have a nice little arc in which he takes responsibility for his actions in order to save Junctionville’s Christmas, and the ending does provide a heartwarming contrast to the melancholic nature of the special’s dilemma. And while the special only covers the actual poem at the beginning and end, it does do a really nice job in giving visuals to this iconic story. So in short, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ is an enjoyable, albeit occasionally flawed, entry in the Rankin-Bass lineup that is definitely a nice old-fashioned tale to watch during the holiday season.

NESTOR, THE LONG-EARED CHRISTMAS DONKEY (1977)

This special follows the titular Nestor, a donkey who, as the title points out, has ridiculously long ears, which results in him being mocked by his peers, just like when Rudolph was mocked for his glowing nose, due to his general clumsy nature as a result of him constantly tripping over his ears. But when he ends up getting kicked out of his stable by his owner, he soon finds himself helping Mary and Joseph get to Bethlehem. ‘Nestor’ is a pretty decent entry in Rankin-Bass’ filmography though there are a few issues. For one thing, the special feels very rushed in places. At just 24 minutes long, the special speeds through the story pretty quickly. I can’t really explain why but other Rankin-Bass specials that were this long were just better at managing a smoother pace. Not only that, but the design of the human characters in this particular special, other than Mary, look, well, kind of weird. But aside from that, Nestor is a pretty likable character. Sure he may just technically be a ‘carbon copy’ of Rudolph given the fact that he’s a ‘misfit’ ridiculed for his, to quote Sam the Snowman from ‘Rudolph’, ‘non-conformity’ but he does go through a really nice arc in which he gathers the courage to help get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem so that she can give birth to Jesus. So in short, Nestor is by no means one of the studio’s best efforts but as per usual with Rankin-Bass, it’s a nice little family-friendly affair to watch around this time of year.

PINOCCHIO’S CHRISTMAS (1980)

So in Rankin-Bass’ interpretation of Pinocchio, the famous wooden puppet first came to a life as a talking tree before he was cut down and the piece of wood that remained was then carved into a marionette by Geppetto. Originally I was going to say that this sounds really silly compared to what happened in Disney’s ‘Pinocchio’ but I have been made aware that this was just like what happened in the original book ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’ by Carlo Collodi so at the very least, thankfully this wasn’t as messed-up as the book. Anyway, despite the fact that I had never seen this special before this year, I must say that I really liked ‘Pinocchio’s Christmas’. Like the classic Disney version, this special does a nice job in conveying a nice message for Pinocchio to learn, even though at first he succumbs to some bad habits in order to get Geppetto a gift for Christmas. It doesn’t mean he’s a bad, um, ‘kid’… he just doesn’t know any better. And the message that this special covers is a nice one for this time of year; that a gift from the heart is much more valuable than one that is simply bought. It’s sort of like ‘Gift of the Magi’ without Pinocchio and Geppetto having to give up something valuable to them in order to get a gift for the other person that went with the possession that they had just sold.

The stop-motion animation is solid as usual and there’s some nice voice-acting work from the likes of George S. Irving (who many of you will recognize as Heat Miser from ‘The Year without a Santa Claus’) as Geppetto, Todd Porter as Pinocchio, and Alan King as the puppet-show master (‘Stromboli’ in the Disney version) that tries to take advantage of Pinocchio for financial gain. There’s also some nice songs in there as well, including ‘Forget It’, a ‘duet’ that Geppetto has with his mirror reflection (again, would you expect any different from Rankin-Bass?) about the struggle over what gifts to get, and ‘The Whole Truth’, a song performed by the Fox and Cat (‘Honest John’ and ‘Gideon’ respectively in the Disney version) in which they try to prove to Pinocchio that they’re telling the truth, during which they repeatedly get comically struck by lightning. There’s even a few references near the end in regards to the original story and Pinocchio’s journey to become a real boy, including the ‘turning into a donkey’ incident on Pleasure Island and the encounter with the giant whale. Maybe it’s a bit overlong for a story of this size but overall I was surprised to find that I really liked this one despite the fact that I had never seen it before. No it’s not one of Rankin-Bass’ all-time best but it’s a very enjoyable addition to the studio’s library and one that I will definitely be re-watching on an annual basis from now on.

And there you have it… the last three Rankin-Bass specials that I will be covering on this blog. What are your favorite Rankin-Bass specials? Sound off in the comments below and of course, I wish you all Happy Holidays!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) review

(Note: Fear not, those who haven’t seen the film yet, for I will be as spoiler-free as possible during this review.)

It was over 38 years ago when George Lucas released the first installment of his epic space saga, ‘Star Wars’, later retitled ‘Episode IV: A New Hope’, into theaters. Despite all of the problems that occurred during the film’s production, it became one of the biggest hits of all-time, spawning two equally critically and commercially successful sequels and creating one of the biggest and most beloved franchises in pop culture history. After 1983’s ‘Return of the Jedi’, it seemed as if the story of Luke Skywalker and his friends had finally come to a close. Lucas initially had plans for a sequel trilogy but those plans ended up getting scrapped. However, Lucas would soon return to the world that he created through the creation of a prequel trilogy, beginning in 1999 with ‘Episode I: The Phantom Menace’, which explored the rise and fall of the original trilogy’s main villain, Darth Vader AKA Anakin Skywalker. However, while this second trilogy was just as commercially successful as the first, the prequel films did not receive the same critical acclaim as their three predecessors. Many ‘Star Wars’ fans were especially disappointed with the films as they felt that Lucas had placed greater emphasis on visuals than story and characters, the opposite of what made the Original Trilogy so beloved. Regardless, the films were still big commercial hits and when 2005’s ‘Episode III: Revenge of the Sith’ was released, once again we all thought that this was the end of the ‘Star Wars’ saga.

And then, in 2012, everything changed when Disney purchased Lucasfilm for $4.06 billion and announced that new ‘Star Wars’ films were going to be produced. Not only was there going to be a brand new trilogy of films that would follow the events of the Original Trilogy, as Lucas had originally planned, but there were also going to be ‘spin-off’ films that would further expand the universe. In January of 2013, J.J. Abrams, fresh off of resurrecting the ‘Star Trek’ franchise with 2009’s ‘Star Trek’ and 2013’s ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’, was hired to lead off the new series of ‘Star Wars’ films. And over the next two years, Abrams began production on what has arguably become the most anticipated film of all-time; ‘Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens’. Seriously, I don’t think there has been a film that has been this anticipated since, well, the last time ‘Star Wars’ made a comeback on the big screen with ‘The Phantom Menace’. And with that said, yes we are all very much aware about what happened the last time we ‘Star Wars’ fans hyped up a new film this much. That ended up backfiring big-time for most people and even though I was very excited for this new film, primarily because one of my favorite directors working today was directing it, I made an effort to keep my expectations in check hoping that, at the very least, this would not become another situation like ‘The Phantom Menace’ where most people would end up being very disappointed by it. But now that ‘The Force Awakens’ is in theaters, I can happily say that you will not be disappointed by what J.J. has given us.

It has been 30 years since the events of ‘Episode VI: Return of the Jedi’, in which the Galactic Empire had finally been defeated by the Rebel Alliance. But in the years since then, a new villainous faction has emerged in the form of the First Order to oppose the Rebel Alliance, now known as ‘the Resistance’. As the film begins, Resistance pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) is sent on a mission by General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) to retrieve a vital piece of information that both the Resistance and First Order are after. When the First Order catches up with him, Poe is captured but is freed by Stormtrooper FN-2187 (John Boyega), dubbed ‘Finn’ by Poe, who defects from the First Order when he finds himself unable to follow their vile ways. The two end up getting separated and Finn soon finds himself coming across Poe’s droid BB-8, who is carrying the aforementioned vital piece of information, and its current companion Rey (Daisy Ridley), a scavenger living on the planet of Jakku. With the First Order aggressively pursuing them, Finn and Rey embark on a life-changing adventure to bring the information that BB-8 is holding back to the Resistance before the First Order, and more specifically Dark Side user Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), gets it first. Along the way, their journey even sees them coming across legendary figures like the one and only Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his trusty co-pilot Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew).

There have been quite a few people that have made comparisons between this film’s plot and the plot of ‘A New Hope’. And yes if you really do look at it, it’s true that this film follows quite a few of the same beats of that film, like the fact that the two main factions are after a piece of information of great importance to both sides or how the film’s finale revolves around a powerful space weapon. But even with that said, unlike some of the film’s detractors, I didn’t mind at all the fact that this film is very reminiscent of ‘A New Hope’ in regards to its plotting because it just shows how much J.J. Abrams respects the original trilogy while also making sure that ‘The Force Awakens’ is its own story. In other words, ‘The Force Awakens’ is very much a new ‘Star Wars’ film. It all feels like a very fitting continuation of the story since we last left it in ‘Return of the Jedi’, giving the major returning characters from the previous trilogy further character development that respects what has been set up before while also establishing its new main protagonists who will lead the way for the rest of this new trilogy; Finn, Rey, and Poe. And I must say that in our current age where the internet could spoil anything about a film (I very much sympathize with anyone who unfortunately had something about this film spoiled by jackasses trying to ruin everyone’s fun), it’s nice to go into a film like this generally unaware of what’s going to happen and I will say that there were some things in this film, namely certain plot-points that I of course won’t at all reveal in this non-spoiler review, that I didn’t see coming.

One of the major reasons why fans loved the Original Trilogy, particularly from a modern-day perspective, was that it was primarily done with practical effects in a time when CGI wasn’t even a thing yet. As a result, one of the major complaints of the prequel trilogy, as well as the changes made to the ‘Special Edition’ versions of the original films, was the over-reliance on CGI. So fans will be very happy to know that this new film does not go down the same ‘CGI-heavy’ road of the prequel trilogy. After all, J.J. did the same thing with the ‘Star Trek’ films, opting to utilize as many practical sets as possible for a sci-fi film of that scale. And that is once again the case with ‘The Force Awakens’. Sure there are obviously still quite a lot of CGI effects in this film but unlike ‘Attack of the Clones’ and ‘Revenge of the Sith’, in which Lucas went as far as to just shoot the actors in front of a green-screen and not actually shoot on a set, the major set-pieces of ‘The Force Awakens’ were filmed in real locations and they definitely look much better because of it, resulting in some pretty awesome action sequences. Not only that, but the screenplay by J.J. and ‘Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Return of the Jedi’ writer Lawrence Kasdan, as well as J.J.’s direction in general, really captures the same fun spirit of the original films through fast-paced action and witty dialogue.  

As many of us know, the cast is a combination of both returning members of the Original Trilogy and a whole bunch of newcomers. Fans of the original trilogy should be satisfied with the appearances of the original leading trio of the series, all of whom easily return to their iconic roles with ease, especially Harrison Ford, with Han Solo basically having the most substantial role of the original trio in this new film. And right from the get-go, the new cast of leads are well-established and all three work greatly off of the writing. John Boyega gets a great redemptive character arc as Finn, the former Stormtrooper who rejects the ways of the First Order but then perhaps gets a bit too in over his head as a result, Oscar Isaac brings a Han Solo-esque charm and wit to the role of Poe Dameron, whom Isaac himself dubbed as the ‘best freaking pilot in the galaxy’ (a claim that he basically does back up given his piloting in the film), and Daisy Ridley captures a lot of the same relatable qualities that Luke had in the Original Trilogy and brings that to the role of Rey. Now let’s talk about the main villain, Kylo Ren. Without giving anything major away, Ren has a particular connection to the ‘Star Wars’ lore that not only makes for one hell of a reveal, but it also brings quite a lot of depth to the character and his motivations. It’ll be very interesting to see how Ren’s story arc will play out in subsequent films.

‘The Force Awakens’ is a film that very much lives up to the massive hype that the fans built around it. Like with Marvel and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this film squashes the fears of any skeptic/cynic who thought that Disney’s purchase of the brand would lead to its downfall. It’s a film that both continues the ‘Star Wars’ series in grand fashion while also honoring its previous installments. Under J.J.’s excellent-as-usual direction, the film is a rousing adventure full of awesome action, funny dialogue, great character moments, and moments that just simply feel epic given the legacy of this franchise. As you could see from this review, I didn’t make much comparisons to the last set of ‘Star Wars’ films, the much-maligned prequel trilogy, because I wasn’t willing to go down the same path that I know many other reviewers are; using this film as another way to bash the prequels. Instead of being stuck in the past and busting a trilogy that seriously isn’t as bad as the internet constantly puts it out to be, I kept my eyes firmly locked on the future and based on this first film, I can tell that we are in for one hell of a new ‘Star Wars’ trilogy, with Rian Johnson set to direct ‘Episode VIII’ in 2017 and Colin Trevorrow to helm ‘Episode IX’ in 2019. But for now, I end my review with this message to the one and only J.J. Abrams. Thank you J.J. for giving us one of the most exhilarating film experiences in recent memory that proves just how special this franchise has been to many people and how it will be again for a whole new generation of fans. ‘Star Wars’ is back!

Rating: 5/5!

In the Heart of the Sea (2015): Short Review

(It’s only a short review this week because, well, with you know what coming out soon I wanted to make sure this review was done before I ‘go dark’ on social media on Monday to avoid unwanted spoilers. In the meantime, please enjoy this review of ‘In the Heart of the Sea’.)

When it comes to ‘Great American Novels’, stories that became a vital part of America’s cultural history, arguably none are more famous than ‘Moby Dick’. Written by novelist Herman Melville in 1851, ‘Moby Dick’ told the story of Captain Ahab and his obsession with killing the titular Moby Dick, the sperm whale that had destroyed his ship and took one of his legs. While the novel failed to attract much attention commercially upon its initial release, it ended up getting more and more attention over time until it became one of the most iconic stories of all-time. In the film/TV world, ‘Moby Dick’ has been seen quite a few adaptations over the years. There have been some straight-forward adaptations, with the most famous being the 1956 John Huston directed film starring Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, some ‘retellings’ through classic cartoons like ‘Tom and Jerry’ and ‘The Flintstones’, and some films have even implemented references to the novel into their stories, like ‘Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’ with many of Khan’s quotes lifted directed from the novel itself.  But what some of you may not know is that the story of ‘Moby Dick’ was partially inspired by a real-life incident involving a giant whale; the 1820 sinking of the whaling ship Essex. In 2000, this story was told via the novel ‘In the Heart of the Sea’ written by Nathaniel Philbrick. 15 years later, Ron Howard directs the film adaptation of the event that inspired one of the most classic stories of all-time. And while the film may not entirely capture the ‘epic’ scale of its source material, it’s still a very engaging old-fashioned adventure.

For the record, if you’re going into this film expecting a lot of whale-ship action, you might be a bit disappointed because that only takes up about one-third of the film. Instead, the film is more about the crew of the Essex as they try to survive after being shipwrecked. Though with that said, for a story as grand in scale as this one, admittedly it feels a bit truncated at times. By that I mean certain parts of the story feel a bit rushed. The film is only two hours long and it does fly by really quick. As a result, it does feel like the film sort of glosses over some important parts of the plot, like the rivalry between Essex’s First Mate Owen Chase and Captain George Pollard Jr., the former being an experienced whaler and the latter being an inexperienced seaman who mainly got the position of Captain as a result of his heritage, and some parts of the crew’s days lost at sea. Though ultimately while the film could’ve definitely benefitted from a heftier runtime, I still found myself admiring the film for its simple old-fashioned execution via Ron Howard’s direction. It’s a simple story of man vs. nature and while the film may not carry as much emotional depth as it’s looking for, there are still quite a few excellent moments peppered in here and there. In particular, the big sequence involving the whale attacking the ship is definitely a highlight and an intense action sequence. And despite the shortcomings with story and character development, the film does feature a solid cast of leads from Chris Hemsworth, who undergoes quite a physical transformation unexpected from someone like the God of Thunder, to new Spider-Man Tom Holland.

Ultimately if you’re in the mood for a simple, old-fashioned tale of survival, you’ll probably enjoy ‘In the Heart of the Sea’. It has some flaws but overall I still recommend it.

Rating: 3.5/5

Creed (2015) review

Over the span of three decades, audiences witnessed one of the greatest underdog stories ever told through one of the most famous film franchises of all-time; the ‘Rocky’ series. It all began in 1976 with a $1 million budgeted boxing film written by its star, Sylvester Stallone, about a small-time boxer named Rocky Balboa, a ‘nobody’ from Philadelphia who was given the opportunity to fight the heavyweight champion of the world, Apollo Creed. In a way, the first ‘Rocky’ was as much of an underdog as its main character but it ended up becoming one of the biggest sleeper hits of all-time, becoming the highest grossing film of the year and winning the Oscar for Best Picture. It subsequently spawned one of the most famous film franchises of all-time; one that experienced both highs and lows over the years. After 2006’s ‘Rocky Balboa’, which primarily came as a result of Stallone wanting to give the franchise a much better conclusion after the critical and commercial disappointment that was 1990’s ‘Rocky V’, it seemed like the franchise had finally come to an end. But then, out of the blue, comes this year’s ‘Creed’, a film that not only continues the series but takes it in a whole new direction. Under the direction of Ryan Coogler, fresh off of 2013’s critical indie darling ‘Fruitvale Station’, ‘Creed’ shifts the series’ focus from Rocky Balboa to a new character, Adonis Johnson Creed, the son of Apollo Creed. And thanks to the superb direction from Coogler and the terrific lead performances of its two main leads, ‘Creed’ proves that the ‘Rocky’ series still has quite a bit of gas left in the tank.

Adonis ‘Donnie’ Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) never knew his father. That’s because his father was former heavyweight champion of the world Apollo Creed, who died as a result of his fight with Russian Olympian Ivan Drago (as seen in ‘Rocky IV’), all of this before Donnie was even born as the result of an extramarital affair. After spending some time in a youth correctional facility, Donnie is taken in by Creed’s widow Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad). Years later, a now grown-up Donnie quits his firm job in order to pursue a career in boxing just like his father. After being rejected by one of LA’s top boxing gyms, Donnie heads to Philadelphia where he finds Apollo’s old friend and former rival, fellow former heavyweight champion Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), and asks him to train him. Although hesitant at first, Rocky becomes Donnie’s new mentor as he begins to climb the ranks in the world of professional boxing. When Donnie’s connection to Apollo is revealed to the world, something that Donnie didn’t want to happen as he wanted to establish his own legacy, he and Rocky are approached by the handlers of ‘Pretty’ Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew), the current light heavyweight champion of the world who challenges Donnie to be his final opponent before he goes to prison. Donnie accepts though is now pressured to truly prove himself as ‘the son of Apollo Creed’. Meanwhile, Rocky takes on a personal battle of his own outside of the ring that forces him to confront his own mortality.

As far as being part of the ‘Rocky’ franchise, ‘Creed’ not only continues it from a new perspective but also stays true to a lot of the things that have defined the franchise since the beginning. With this new film, Coogler foregoes quite a few of the usual elements that fans have come to expect from the franchise, namely the series’ primary songs in favor of a more modern soundtrack. But at the same time, the story of Adonis Johnson Creed’s rise to fame is very reminiscent of Rocky’s ‘zero to hero’ story in the first ‘Rocky’ through certain story beats. And even though that means that the story can be rather traditional at times, that is by no means an issue as it’s executed really well given Coogler’s clear affection for the franchise. Of course one of the key themes of the franchise has always been its underdog spirit and this film more than exceeds in continuing that tradition. But while previous films put Rocky through underdog situations like being a nobody taking on the heavyweight champion of the world to proving that he still has that ‘fighting spirit’ even at the age of 60, this film’s underdog story is a case of Adonis trying to prove himself with one hell of a legacy to live up to as the son of Apollo Creed. And while Adonis has overtaken the role of the series’ main protagonist, Rocky is still a vital part of the story. The ‘age’ factor that was a key part of ‘Rocky Balboa’ is once again in play here as Rocky now finds himself having to confront his own mortality, putting him at probably the most vulnerable state that he’s ever been at in his series, especially now that everyone close to him has either moved on or died.

The fight sequences for the film are superb, particularly the one in which Adonis fights a local Philadelphia boxer that was legitimately shot in one single take. As for the cast, there’s been quite a lot of talk about Sylvester Stallone’s performance in this film, with quite a lot of people predicting a potential Best Supporting Actor nomination at this year’s Oscars. And I must say that I completely agree with those people. I mean to be perfectly frank Stallone has always been great in the role of Rocky, even in the franchise’s weaker installments. And this film, the first of the series that he did not write, once again proves that as he once again conveys all of the qualities that made Rocky such a lovable character in the first place, including his inherent likability, his great comedic timing, and most importantly his willpower that allows him to overcome any adversity in his life. But of course he’s not the main character this time around as Michael B. Jordan, one of the best up-and-coming actors in the business, takes on the role of the series’ new main protagonist. And he very much succeeds in that regard, capturing quite a lot of the mannerisms that Carl Weathers brought to the role of his father Apollo while also establishing his own personality; a young man who’s been through quite a lot of rough patches in his life and has worked to forge his own legacy, though of course he still carries the weight of his father’s legacy on his shoulders. But as the film goes on, he too goes through a lot of the same endeavors that Rocky went through in the first film. He falls in love, in this case with an up-and-coming singer/songwriter named Bianca (Tessa Thompson, who serves as an excellent foil to Jordan as Adonis’ love interest the same way Talia Shire was always a great foil for Stallone as Adrian), and even experiences a few personal lows.

Under Ryan Coogler’s fantastic direction (two films into his career and he’s already become one of the best new directors in the industry), ‘Creed’ reinvigorates the iconic ‘Rocky’ franchise for a new generation, primarily by moving away from some of the things that made the series so beloved in the first place (for one thing, you don’t hear ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and only hear brief snippets of ‘Gonna Fly Now’ in the score). But even with that in mind, ‘Creed’ still very much feels like a ‘Rocky’ film through beats and themes reminiscent of previous films, especially when it comes to retaining the series’ trademark underdog spirit. No this film doesn’t do much to ‘reinvent’ the genre but that is by no means an issue when it comes to this film. The fight sequences are excellent, Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone excel performance-wise, and as a result, this series that had previously been considered done has been given new life. Which of course begs the question… will the franchise keep moving forward now that it has a new main protagonist? Where could Adonis’ story potentially go? Will Michael B. Jordan go the same route that Stallone did and one day direct one of these films? Will he end up fighting an Olympian in an incredibly over-the-top fight a la ‘Rocky IV’? Whatever happens next, ‘Creed’ is definitely another great installment of this great franchise.

Rating: 4.5/5

Rocky Franchise Retrospective (1976-2006)

When it comes to sports film franchises, there is not a single series out there that is more iconic than the ‘Rocky’ franchise. What started out as a simple $1 million ‘underdog story’ written by the film’s star, Sylvester Stallone, soon became one of the most famous films of all-time. At the 1977 Academy Awards, where it was as much of an underdog as its main character, ‘Rocky’ ended up winning 3 Oscars, including Best Picture, and would go on to spawn a highly successful film franchise with many of the sequels directed by Stallone himself. As a result, the character of Rocky Balboa has become a beloved icon of the city of Philadelphia and the iconic moment from the first film in which Rocky ascends the stairs leading to the Philadelphia Museum of Art has been mimicked on a regular basis by tourists along with them taking photos of the ‘Rocky’ statue that had once stood at the top of the ‘Rocky steps’. This past weekend saw the release of the newest installment of the franchise; one that takes the series in a whole new direction. Directed by Ryan Coogler (‘Fruitvale Station’), ‘Creed’ focuses on the character of Adonis Johnson Creed, the son of Rocky’s first major opponent Apollo Creed, as he becomes a protégé of the ‘Italian Stallion’. But for now, in honor of the new film’s release, today I’ll be covering all six of the previous ‘Rocky Balboa’ films, from the original classic ‘Rocky’ to the most recent entry in the series, 2006’s ‘Rocky Balboa’. It’s time to ‘go the distance’ and honor one of the most famous film franchises of all-time as I look back upon the ‘Rocky’ films. ‘Yo Adrian!!’

ROCKY (1976)

As the poster described it best, Rocky Balboa’s ‘whole life was a million-to-one shot’. But when fate came along and Rocky was given the chance to fight the Heavyweight Champion of the World, Apollo Creed, he stunned the world by ‘going the distance’ when the odds were completely against him. Really, what more can be said about this film that hasn’t been said already? Not only is it one of the best sports films ever made, but it’s also one of the best films ever period. The true definition of an underdog story, Rocky is a highly sympathetic character from the start. Sure he spends most of his time fighting and acting as an enforcer for a loan shark but deep down he’s got a good heart, which we see come out in spades when he romances the shy pet store clerk Adrian. Basically this film is two stories in one; Rocky’s fight with Apollo and his budding romance with Adrian and by the time the actual fight begins, we’re fully on Rocky’s side as the fight between the two keeps us on the edge of our seats the entire time. And of course a lot of that comes from Sylvester Stallone’s excellent performance in the title role, and he’s backed up by an excellent supporting cast that includes Talia Shire as Adrian, Carl Weathers as Apollo, Burt Young as Adrian’s brother Paulie, and Burgess Meredith as Rocky’s hardened trainer Mickey. In a way, the first ‘Rocky’ was as big of an underdog as its main character but the end result led to the Oscar for Best Picture, making it a key essential part of film history.

Rating: 5/5!

ROCKY II (1979)

‘Rocky II’ does what any great sequel does. It continues the story and further develops the characters while doing just enough to maintain a lot of the same elements that made the first film so great. In this film, Rocky tries to readjust to normal life after ‘going the distance’ with Apollo. But he soon comes to find that it’s rather hard to find a job due to his lack of education. Meanwhile, Apollo begins pressuring Rocky into a rematch and after a while, despite the disapproval of Adrian, who he just married, Rocky does end up prepping for the fight. Like the first film, ‘Rocky II’ definitely paints Rocky as the underdog in the situation while also putting him through what are arguably some of his absolute lowest of lows, especially when compared to the first film. An eye injury sustained during the previous fight leaves him at the risk of going blind and there’s even a point where Rocky pretty much loses his spirit to fight, especially after Adrian falls into a coma after giving birth to their son. But of course, everything starts to get better and Rocky regains his spirit just in time for the rematch with Apollo which, dare I say, is even more epic than the one in the first film. The advertising wasn’t lying when it said that this truly was ‘the rematch of the century’. ‘Rocky II’ may not be as great as the original ‘Rocky’, but it still manages to be a solid follow-up nevertheless.

Rating: 4/5

(P.S. Can’t go wrong with probably the best scene of the film in which Rocky chases a chicken: “I feel like a Kentucky Fried Idiot!”)

ROCKY III (1982)

I think it’s safe to say that ‘Rocky III’ was the point where the series started to become much more over-the-top in tone compared to its much more grounded first two installments. While not as crazy as its immediate predecessor, this film sees Rocky fighting both Hulk Hogan and Mr. T in just one film. Stallone has even admitted that he sort of ran out of ideas after ‘Rocky II’ so this film ended up being more about the fights than it was about the story and characters. But even with that in mind, ‘Rocky III’ is still a very entertaining installment of the franchise. Mr. T as the brash and cocky Clubber Lang is a highly memorable adversary of Rocky (“I Pity the Fool!”), the death of Mickey is a genuinely tear-jerking moment, and it’s pretty cool that this film sees Rocky’s former rival Apollo coming back to help Rocky train for his rematch with Lang after the first fight ends with Lang defeating Rocky. Just like the first film, ‘Rocky III’ also introduced a few iconic elements of this iconic franchise. This was the first film to introduce the Rocky statue that now sits near the bottom of the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum after originally being located at the top of the ‘Rocky Steps’ and briefly relocated to the Wachovia Spectrum. And then there was the famous theme song ‘Eye of the Tiger’ by Survivor, a theme that is as equally iconic to the Rocky franchise as ‘Gonna Fly Now’, the main training theme from the first film that returned for the second, third, and sixth films. Admittedly ‘Rocky III’ doesn’t really have the same underdog spirit as the first two films, namely due to Rocky becoming a celebrity in this film after becoming the new Heavyweight Champion of the World, but it’s yet another highly entertaining entry in this highly entertaining franchise. Though things would only get even crazier with the next film…

Rating: 4/5

ROCKY IV (1985)

‘Rocky IV’ is both one of the silliest films ever made and one of the most awesome films ever made. I mean this film is full to the brim with ridiculously cheesy moments and dialogue. Paulie gets an actual robot for a birthday present, Apollo enters a fight to a James Brown concert, and the ending is, no joke, pretty much the equivalent of Rocky single-handedly ending the Cold War. But even with all of that in mind… this film is just so damn entertaining that I can forgive it full-heartedly for its sillier moments. It gives Rocky arguably his most powerful enemy ever in Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago, a Russian heavyweight whose punch is so strong that when Apollo fights him in an exhibition bout, it kills him. And the final fight between Drago and Rocky is pure over-the-top epic-ness. It should also be noted that this film probably holds the record for most montages in a single film. The film is probably 75% montages and it’s the shortest of the series at just 90 minutes. Still, these montages are just as memorable as the rest of the film; the flashback montage set to ‘There’s No Easy Way Out’, the first Training Montage in Russia, the second Training Montage in Russia set to ‘Hearts on Fire’, and the fight montage set to composer Vince DiCola’s track ‘War’. Yes ‘Rocky IV’ is a pretty stupid film if you really think about it but I don’t care about that whatsoever. That’s because it’s arguably the most entertaining film in the entire series and fully embraces its silliness. It’s completely over-the-top and silly and I love it.

Rating: 3.5/5 (Entertainment Value: 5/5!)

ROCKY V (1990)

Many film franchises have what is regarded as a ‘black sheep’ AKA the one entry in the series that has the worst reputation with fans of the franchise. For the ‘Rocky’ franchise, that film is ‘Rocky V’. Sure it may have saw the return of the first film’s director, John Avildsen, after the last three films were all directed by Stallone but it’s pretty much universally regarded as the ‘worst’ film in the series. Even Stallone himself has admitted that he wasn’t satisfied with the final product, saying that he really only did it for the money. During an interview with Jonathan Ross, when he was asked to rate all of the ‘Rocky’ films, he gave ‘Rocky V’ a 0. But is it really as bad as everyone says it is? Well, while I will concur that it definitely is the weakest of the series, I still think that there are some good things in this film. There are some genuinely touching moments peppered throughout, like an very emotional flashback that Rocky has of a moment with Mickey (“Get up you son of a bitch, cause Mickey loves ya!”) and scenes in which he’s trying to reconnect with his son (who in this film is played by Stallone’s real son Sage, even though this does create a bit of a continuity error given how he older he is compared to how old the character was in ‘Rocky IV’, the events of which occurred just a few days before the start of this film). Plus the final fight scene between Rocky and his former protégé Tommy Gunn is pretty awesome/over-the-top, namely because it’s the only instance in which Rocky partakes in a street fight.

But as for this film’s main issues, there are quite a few to mention. The film can be quite a downer sometimes and even a little mean-spirited with its apparent ‘pro-fighting’ stance. Now I don’t mind that the filmmakers tried to bring Rocky back to his roots after the last two films had him living the celebrity life but it just doesn’t capture the same charm that the first film had. Tommy Gunn is a pretty terrible foe for Rocky; sure he’s an intimidating fighter but he ends up being an egotistical jerk that ends up disrespecting Rocky even though he was the one who helped make him a star in the first place. Plus the whole plotline of Rocky having to retire due to him suffering brain damage as a result of all his fights has actually turned out to be fairly inaccurate. Originally the film was going to end with Rocky’s death but Stallone ended up changing it because he felt that it wouldn’t have been the right kind of ending for a series like this, even though the original ending technically would’ve been more fitting for how the film in general played out. Would it have been a better ending? We’ll never know but on the bright side this did lead to a much more fitting finale to Rocky’s story 16 years later. In short, ‘Rocky V’ may be the ‘worst’ of the ‘Rocky’ films but I wouldn’t go as far and say that it’s completely forgettable. There are some good things in it, especially the final fight between Rocky and Tommy, but overall it really doesn’t have the same heart or entertaining craziness of its predecessors.

Rating: 2/5

ROCKY BALBOA (2006)

(Just a quick disclaimer: I am aware that even though I’ll be frequently referring to this film as ‘the finale’ of the franchise, this moniker has officially been made null and void by the release of ‘Creed’, even though that film is technically just a spin-off. So for now, just view this film as the finale to Rocky’s story. Now onto the review…)

So as we just noted earlier, ‘Rocky V’ was such a critical and commercial disappointment that even its main star was dissatisfied with it. Not wanting this to be the final send-off to this beloved franchise, Stallone returned to the director’s chair for one final ‘Rocky’ film (until ‘Creed’), ‘Rocky Balboa’, released 16 years after the fifth film. Now retired from boxing, Rocky finds himself yearning to return to the sport one last time after a computerized simulation has him (in his prime) beating the current heavyweight, Mason ‘the Line’ Dixon. Suffice it to say, this is a much better conclusion to Rocky’s story than ‘Rocky V’; in fact, I’d argue it’s the best of the series after the first film. It clearly was a very personal project for Stallone and you can really see that, particularly in scenes that were clearly meant to parallel his own struggles in getting the film made. It’s the franchise’s strongest ‘underdog story’ since the original; whereas in that film Rocky was a nobody given the chance of a lifetime, this film sees him trying to overcome the factors of his age and the overall unlikeliness of him achieving much in the ring because of it. And yes, the idea of the then 60-year old Stallone getting back into the ring sounds rather ludicrous but Stallone was clearly aware of that as it does play a part in the plot. Stallone and Burt Young, the latter once again returning as Paulie, are both excellent once again as are newcomers Geraldine Hughes as Marie, a character who first appeared in the first film (the one who told Rocky ‘Screw you creepo!’), and real-life champ Antonio Tarver as Dixon. Dixon’s a much better opponent than Tommy Gunn, who also deals with the pressure of being in Rocky’s shadow but isn’t a completely egotistical jerk like Gunn was. And while Talia Shire doesn’t reprise her role as Adrian, the plot-point of the character’s death between films adds the right amount of weight to the film’s strong emotional core. All of this comes together for a very emotional yet highly satisfying ‘final hurrah’ for the ‘Italian Stallion’ in the ring.

Rating: 4.5/5

So now comes the question… how do I rank all of these films? Well, like this…

6. Rocky V

5. Rocky IV

4. Rocky II

3. Rocky III

2. Rocky Balboa

1. Rocky