Once again, I know it’s been a while. What can I say
other than it’s a busy time around the holidays, between working two jobs,
buying Christmas presents, and planning a vacation over new year’s I haven’t
had a lot of time to just sit and write. Also almost no really noteworthy movies
have been coming out or will be coming out until closer to Christmas (I can
tell you now though unless I can catch up on the other films I probably won’t
see the new hobbit movie, same goes with Hunger Games although I did see the
first film and fucking hated it.) Anyways, to try and make up for the dry spell
I’m gonna do a double review for you folks, first of Whiplash, then of Exodus
Gods and Kings, although I will probably be trying to keep these short. So here
we go.
Whiplash Review
Plot Summary – Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller) is a young
Jazz drummer who has been accepted into a prestigious music school. Upon
catching the eye of the school’s most notable teacher Terence Fletcher (J.K.
Simmons) he finds himself accepted into the best band in the school, only to
discover that Fletcher is a master of manipulating emotions and abusing his
students. In his quest to win his teacher, he finds his life falling apart
around him.
Pros – Miles Teller is good, J.K. Simmons is amazing.
He reminds me of every asshole teacher I’ve ever had or heard about and if he
doesn’t at least receive an Oscar Nomination I’ll be disappointed. The story is
also nicely told and it does build up to an epic showdown between the two men.
Cons – While it is well told, the story itself is a
bit familiar to anyone who’s seen films like this (although for some reason the
first one that comes to mind is Rockstar with Mark Wahlberg from a long time
ago.) And while the finale is awesome, it does feel a bit like the movie is
rushing towards it so some scenes don’t have as much impact as they should.
Final Score – 8/10
While it won’t blow your mind, it’s a pretty fun ride
and the music in it is pretty good as well.
Exodus Review
Plot Summary – It’s the story of Moses and how he led
the Hebrew people out of Egypt. That’s really all you need to know.
Pros – After thinking about it, I’ve gotten two things
I like in the movie down pat. The kid who plays god’s messenger is actually
really good, and the scene where Moses, instead of simply finding the tablets
with the Ten Commandments, he carves them himself.
Cons – Oh boy where to start? Oh yeah it’s too long,
everybody seems bored, the only names of characters I remember are Moses and
Ramses as nobody else is ever properly introduced when we first meet them
except for maybe two people, the plagues of Egypt all happen back to back
without allowing for any time for the scenes to make an emotional impact on the
audience, a lot of high profile actors are only in it for a few scenes before
being tossed aside (Sigourney Weaver has one scene with dialogue, and Aaron
Paul barely speaks for the whole movie, also we don’t ;earn his name until near
the end) and Ridley Scott decided that instead of trying to make the story more
interesting that he’d just make awesome visual scenes that, instead of feeling
epic, are just wasted because everything else around is so fucking dull.
Final Score – 1/10
While it isn’t flat out broken garbage (looking right
at you TMNT), it commits the worst offence of just being boring. At 2h 30m I
was bored by the first hour and the rest was torture, yet it’s also not
interesting enough to be worth any emotional outrage over. While being boring
is to me the worse offence a movie can make, TMNT is still the worse movie in
my mind because TMNT is not a movie, but I’ll get into to that more for the
year end top ten.
So yeah, once again have no idea what the next review
will be or when, maybe one of the Six Movies coming out on Christmas (unless I
get kicked in the head and decide to give Annie a try.)
Until then, I’ll see you folks at the movies.
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