Hello All,
It’s a limited release kind of week this week. No really, where I live the biggest thing out this week is the Terminator 2 3D re-release. When I started writing this review, I admittedly didn’t even have a plan of what to see next (Edit: I know now, I’ll put it down below). So this week I had to go out of my way to see the films listed above. One’s a film about social media obsession, and the other one is an adaptation of a true story. So how are these films from the path less tread? Let’s find out together shall we?
Ingrid Goes West Review
Plot Summary - Ingrid Thorburn (Aubrey Plaza) is mentally unstable young woman who, after losing her mother and suffering a series of personal setbacks, heads out to California to find Social Media Star Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen) and start her life anew….at least at first.
Pros - Having never seen parks and rec, I now finally understand why people love Aubrey Plaza because she is at her deadpan best here. Playing Ingrid straightforward in a way that makes the character so horrifying but in such a fascinating way. The humour throughout the film is amped up because of this and Olsen as Taylor makes a tremendous counterpart, making Taylor comes across someone who is clearly always putting on a front, even if it seems like she herself isn’t quite fully aware of it. This ambiguity between the pair of them helps the tone of story rise itself above the quality of something like an after school special or a psa.
Cons - Some of the dialogue and performances may seem a bit on the nose for some people, so if you’re don’t to feel like you’re being preached at, maybe go in a bit more open minded than usual.
Final Score - 10/10
If it’s out near you, go see it, especially if you know someone with a social media problem, you may need to take notes.
Birth of the Dragon Review
Plot Summary - Inspired by the true story, Birth of the Dragon tells the story around of a legendary fight between Martial Arts Legend Bruce Lee and Shaolin Monk Master Wong Jack Man.
Pros - When Lee and Wong are on the screen together, they do make an interesting duo, especially when they fight. The film also does it’s best to try and keep in line with the actual history of it’s characters and the actual history surrounding the fight, while also tweaking a few key changes to make the film more interesting. The Kung Fu scenes as well for the most part are pretty sweet.
Cons - The rest of the story however is kind of the worst part. It’s not only badly generic with uninteresting characters and a so standard it’s almost weirdly terrifying if you think about too much star crossed lover plotline that also somehow makes chinese gangsters boring, it renders Wong and Lee as secondary characters in the film that was supposed to be centered around them. Instead the film follows generic white guy everyman (Which I normally don’t touch upon, but it hurts more for me because he overshadows BRUCE MOTHERFUCKING GODDAMN LEE) and the story of his chinese love interest who's being held by gangsters...and it has the nerve to be so fucking boring.
Final Score - 5/10
Why? Because I saw this movie with my Dad, who normally doesn’t like Kung Fu movies, and he said he enjoyed it. It’s not his favourite movie by any means, but any film that usually makes someone like a new genre, is okay in my book. That and the scene where they team up and fight the gangsters is pretty fucking cool.
Next: Good Time - An ambitious name. This will be interesting.
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Want to read more? Click Below for my last review. What is it of? The previous review, which was also a double, so four for the price of two, which is the price of one, which is free. But you get more though.
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Until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.
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