Movie Review: '71 (2015) - Ireland in the 70's, what could possibly go wrong then?

I feel like every time I wanna try to get back into doing reviews, I either get really busy or really sick. I’m still also debating going into rehab for WoW, but I’m still on the part of the addiction where I’m having too much fun with it so that will most likely have to wait. Another fun fact, I was originally going to review another movie today, but I ended missing my bus going to the theatre, which also might have been closed but I wasn’t able to confirm that fact so I ended up at ‘71 instead. Also yes that’s how the movie’s name is spelled.

Before i get into the review, I feel like I have to explain the setting of the story since it’s based on true events. Now, I only have a basic knowledge of it, so if I get some details of it wrong I apologize, but it basically goes like this.

1919 - 1922: The Irish Republican Army is formed during the Irish war of independence against Britain.

1922 - 1969: The IRA performs a long string of violence and terrorists attacks in both until the group split in 1969.

1969 - 1971: Now named The Official Irish Republican Army, the goal of the group was to have Ireland removed from the United Kingdom. They attempted to do this by both attacking and defending themselves against british soldiers. In fighting also occurs between the british loyal protestant Irish and the catholic IRA, itself split up into two factions.

Now, we can go to the Plot Summary.

Plot Summary: Teenager Gary Hook has enlisted in the British Army, and his first posting is to Belfast during the midst of the war with the IRA. After attempting to help the police search houses, Hook gets separated from his squad and must try and find safety while avoiding IRA forces wanting him dead.

Pros - The film is beautifully shot, as it manages to capture the darkness of that point of Ireland’s history and express that in the cinematography. The film is also well acted, with special mention going out to Corey McKinley only credited as loyalist child. He’s in the movie briefly but my god does he manage to use that time wisely. Jack O’Connell is also wonderful as Hook, managing to capture that perfect mixture of soldier calmness and youthful terror at the depth of the situation that he finds himself in.

Cons - There’s really only two kind of glaring issues with the film. One: characters are sporadically introduced properly. I didn’t even know Hook’s name until about halfway through the film. Two: The story does get a bit confusing, but I’m not sure if that is supposed to be intentional or not giving how one of the themes in the film is supposed be about how the whole war was in reality one giant chaotic mess.

Final Score - 9/10

Normally a film like this would end up at a 8, however, and I didn’t want to list this as either a negative or a positive, when it was over I found myself for some reason thinking that this was the film that American Sniper should have been, and I’m pretty sure this isn’t even based on a true story. I guess after being disappointed by it I needed something to fill that void. Go figure.

There’s three films that I might do next, and these are them in order of eagerness to see: It Follows, Furious 7, Woman in Gold. Expect one of those three.

Until next time, i’ll see you folks at the movies.

50th Post! Netflix Review: The Double (2013)

So far early 2015 has been…..okay. A few bad movies here and there, but the good ones stand out even more because of it. That being said, there’s been a real lack of drawing power for me in the past few weeks, and with World of Warcraft dominating most of my down time I found myself struggling to keep up with my work. Luckily though I managed to break away yet again and watch a movie that actually popped up on my radar last year, a little film called The Double.

Plot Summary - Based on the novella of the same name by Theodore Dostoyevsky, Jesse Eisenberg plays both Simon James, a mild mannered office worker who is practically invisible to the world around him, and James Simon, a cocky confident who tries to usurp Simon by basically taking over his life, forcing Simon to drastic measures to try and take it back.

Pros - Eisenberg does great double duty and Simon and James, allowing him to really show off both the dramatic and comedic sides of his skills, especially in the scenes when the two talk to each other. Director Richard Ayoade also provides great direction in making the film have both funny and dramatic elements and putting both of them into a good balance. I’m also a really big fan of the atmosphere of the film as it manages to real capture both the loneliness that the characters feel as well as making the world around them seem depressing and empty.

Cons - The only real thing I think that some people might not like about it is it’s art house style approach to certain scenes. Also this film reminds me a lot of another film that came out around the same time called Enemy, not that either of those points are bad to me, I just bring them up as something people might not like about this movie.

Final Score - 10/10

I love this film, and even though it’s on Netflix I still might go out and get the DVD. It’s the kind of thing I’ve actually needed to see that will hopefully break me out of this funk I’ve been in lately.

Furious 7 comes out next week, I’ll probably go see if I can get all the Paul Walker jokes out of my system first but I know there’s one film playing that I’m a bit more eager to go and see first. I actually might do a review on it depending but until then I’ll see you folks at the movies.

Movie Review: Chappie (2015) - Johnny Five is Alive!!! Wrong movie sorry

I apologize for the lack of reviews lately, but I have two reasons as to why this happened. One: there were not that many interesting movies released in the past few weeks, and two: world of warcraft has been dominating my life lately. But luckily I managed to pull myself away from that long enough to go see the next movie review, Chappie. Made by Neill Blomkamp who did District 9, does his third film fly or flop? Wow, that was lame, to make up for that, the review.

Plot Summary - It is the year 2016, and South Africa is being controlled by an army of police droids known as Scouts. When the scouts creator Deon (Dev Patel) manages to make a robotic consciousness, he ends up having to steal a damaged police scout for a test subject, but gets kidnapped by a group of thugs including Ninja and Yolandi (of Die Antwoord fame) who plan to use the robot to pull off a heist. When Deon loads the program up, the robot is given the name of Chappie (Sharlto Copley), and ends up being raised by the thugs while they try and keep Deon away.

Pros - Sharlto is very good as the child like Chappie, doing both the voice and motion capture. Although I know nothing of Die Antwoord both Ninja and Yolandi are pretty solid in the film as well, with Yolandi playing the loving mother to Chappie and Ninja who just uses Chappie at first but ends up coming around to Chappie’s side. Dev Patel is good, I just sort of wish he had more to do. The look and story of the film hold up as well for the most part too.

Cons - Hugh Jackman is also in the film as a rival to Deon, and while he is good and he does get some good scenes, he really doesn’t do anything until the third act and even then he only serves as a plot point. Also, the story sort of takes this weird turn in the third act when Chappie realizes his damaged battery will run out soon and that he will die unless he can get a new body. I won’t spoil it, but it left me kind of befuddled at the idea of it.

Final Score - 8/10

I sort of compare this to Kingsman in the sense that Kingsman had more minor flaws, Chappie has a few “major” flaws that don’t really tank the rest of the film. While Kingsman was the better film, I don’t think either of them will be on the best list, they will likely get honourable mentions.

*Sighs* I might end up having to go see Cinderella if I can’t think of anything else to see. I’m not looking forward to it. Until next time (and yes I will try to get back into updating this more often) I’ll see you folks at the movies.