Arthur (1981)

Arthur (1981)
Looking over my recent posts I realized that this is the first comedy (not counting Manborg) film I've talked about in 2014. Arthur is slow paced for a comedy and features a lot of dry humor. The story is pretty basic but told well with good acting to support the solid writing. The jokes are great but the writing is more than just funny with well-developed characters and good setups and payoffs.
Dudley Moore plays Arthur, a rich drunk who will only inherit his family's fortune if he marries Susan, the daughter of a wealthy businessman. However, Arthur instead falls in love with a working-class woman named Linda (Liza Minnelli). The relationship between Arthur and his butler Hobson (John Gielgud) is surprisingly touching for a comedy. Hobson is much closer to Arthur and a better father figure for him that Arthur's actual father. Hobson is the typical British butler, but truly cares about Arthur like a son (think Jeeves from the stories of P.G. Wodehouse or Alfred from Batman) thanks to Gielgud's top notch performance and wonderful chemistry with Dudley Moore.
It's impossible for me to pick a favorite scene or line as I found the movie hilarious as a whole. One scene in particular that I loved involved a moose!
The Academy Awards tend not to recognize comedies but Arthur proved to be an exception. Gielgud won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and the theme song by Christopher Cross won Best Original Song. Dudley Moore was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Steve Gordon received a nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Sadly, Arthur is the only film directed by Steve Gordon (who also was the writer) as he died the year after it was released.
8/10

Fallen (1998)

Fallen (1998)
Fallen is an creepy thriller that features good acting, great writing, and nice cinematography. Denzel Washington plays John Hobbes, a detective who recently captured a serial killer named Edgar Reese. Edgar Reese is put to death for his crimes, but the murders continue in Reese's style. Is there a copycat killer on the loose or is something supernatural at play?
Fallen has a tightly written script, which is especially impressive for a work of speculative fiction. Writer Nicholas Kazan is the son of director Elia Kazan so it looks like the film making gene was passed down. Nicholas Kazan was nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenplay based on material from another medium for Reversal of Fortune. The story of Fallen has good twists and turns which kept things fresh. We have high stakes and insurmountable odds combined with well-written characters to make us care about what is happening. The theme of "evil among us" has been done since the beginning of human history, but the inclusion of the Azazael demon and use of scapegoats put a different spin on it.

Director Gregory Hoblit has made one movie I have seen before, Frequency. I remember liking that film but I saw it so long ago that I don't remember much about it. The directing in Fallen is very good with one of my favorite scenes being a creative "whisper down the lane" chase scene which features fantastic choreography.  The "demon vision" is a unique look that I haven't quite seen before. The Rolling Stones cover of the song "Time Is on My Side" is used multiple times in the movie in an interesting and effective way.
John Goodman is hilarious as Hobbes' fellow detective, Jonesy. Donald Sutherland, Embeth Davidtz, and James Gandolfini also put in solid supporting performances.
I found Fallen to be underrated since it's a movie most people haven't heard of despite being a major Hollywood film with plenty of recognizable actors. If you haven't seen it, check it out sometime.
Fun Facts: Fallen is one of the few movies to feature the Assyrian Neo-Aramaic language.
Fallen was filmed in part at Philadelphia and showcases locations such as 30th Street Station and Pat's King of Steaks.
8/10

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)
I never really watched Power Rangers as a kid but remember it being a big thing at the time. I saw this movie about a year ago and can't remember much so I'm going to keep this post short. I didn't bother to take copious notes on this one! Despite Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie being forgettable and stupid, it's still kinda fun as a bad movie to watch with a bunch of friends.
The production values felt more like a TV movie or direct to video than a theatrical release, which is not surprising considered it's based on a low budget TV show. This was probably done on purpose to turn a quick profit as the property was hugely popular with kids who would go see it no matter what. The tactic worked as MMPR:TM grossed over $66 million worldwide on a $15 million budget. Another reason why this movie has more of a TV look and feel is because director Bryan Spicer has mostly directed TV shows. MMPR:TM was Spicer's first theatrical film. He also directed McHale's Navy and For Richer or Poorer in the mid-90s before returning to TV where he is still active today with shows such as Hawaii Five-0.
The story about the production of MMPR:TM is more interesting than the movie itself! Read all about it here.
3/10

Real Steel (2011)

Real Steel (2011)
As promised in my Flight write-up last week when talking about John Gatins, here is my review of Real Steel. Writer John Gatins followed up Real Steel with Flight, and his next movie will be Need for Speed which comes out next month. Director Shawn Levy got his start in TV and now mostly makes typical Hollywood fare like Night at the Museum, Date Night, and The Internship.
Although Real Steel is billed as being an adaptation of the Richard Matheson short story "Steel," I doubt it has much in common with it. I've never read the original story but I've seen the Twilight Zone version which is also titled Steel. The only similarity between the two is that they feature robots and boxing.
I didn't expect much coming into Real Steel, but was pleasantly surprised with a solid family film. Real Steel takes place in the near future where boxers have been replaced with robots. Former boxer Charlie (played by Hugh Jackman who puts in a nice performance) now uses robots to fight for him but has had bad luck and is now in a lot of debt. Charlie discovers that he has an 11 year old son and the two bond while working together on turning a robot found in the scrap heap into a champion.
Real Steel clocks in at 127 minutes which is too long for this type of movie. Several scenes went on too long and could've easily been trimmed. I've had this complaint about a decent amount of recent movies. I don't have a problem with long Hollywood blockbusters if they deserve their running time, but most movies that have followed this trend (such as Real Steel) usually do not.
Real Steel is basically Rocky with robots but at least this movie has heart and emotion, unlike the live action Transformers movies. Although Real Steel is predictable, it's still well executed for what it is (an action family movie for all ages) and the cinematography is better than expected. The visual effects are quite good and received an Oscar nomination before losing out to Hugo.
6/10

Manborg (2011)

Manborg (2011)
I don't think you are prepared for the plot of Manborg, but I'm going to throw it at you anyway. During the Hell Wars between humans and Nazi Vampires, a human solider is killed in combat by the vampire leader, Count Draculon. The soldier's body is given robotics and he returns to life as Manborg, who vows to get his revenge by defeating Count Draculon with help from the resistance. His comrades are Mina who looks like she fell in a vat of New Wave, her brother who is a gunslinger and Billy Idol look-alike, and a martial arts fighter called "Number One Man" voiced by anime voice actor Kyle Hebert.
Manborg is a pastiche, parody, and homage to 1980s action and science fiction movies. Of course there are references to The Terminator, Robocop, and Blade Runner, but Manborg is more focused on emulating the style of 80s B sci-fi flicks such as Eliminators, Robot Holocaust, Future War, The Dungeonmaster aka Ragewar, etc. As somebody who has seen those movies and had fun with them (thanks in part to MST3K!) I completely understood what they were doing. The tongue is planted firmly in cheek here and great efforts were made to capture the look and feel of these movies.
I love the above poster for Manborg. It looks like a VHS cover you would see on the shelf of a video store in the 1980s or a comic book cover circa 1990!

Manborg uses green screen to create a unique look in a way that I haven't really seen before, which is sometimes combined with stop motion animation. The art direction is inspired by 1980s neon and pastels, cyberpunk imagery, and video games. Manborg was made on a $1,000 Canadian budget and while the movie looks low budget, that number surprised me as it doesn't look THAT cheap.
If you have seen movies like Cyborg, Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe or any of the ones I mentioned earlier, you'll have fun with Manborg as a loving parody of low budget 80s sci-fi movies. Otherwise you probably won't get it. I can easily see people who have never heard of movies like Robo Vampire mistaking Manborg as an honest to goodness terrible Z grade sci-fi flick. Although I enjoyed Manborg for what it was, I couldn't help but think it would've worked better as a fake trailer, short film, or internet mini-series in the vein of "Ninja the Mission Force." Manborg is only 75 minutes long but still overstays its welcome as this sort of thing generally works better in short bursts.
I had never heard of Astron-6, the Canadian production company behind Manborg, but looked them up after I watched this movie. Astron-6 has a bunch of cool 70s and 80s homage stuff on their website, most of which is shorter than Manborg. Check them out if you are into that type of thing. They nail the clothing style and film look of the 70s and 80s. If you do watch Manborg, be sure to stick around for the fake Bio-Cop trailer shown after the movie!
5/10

Dredd vs. The Raid

Dredd vs. The Raid

This article is going to compare and contrast The Raid and Dredd. I preferred Dredd but quite liked both films. While the two movies were released the same year and had a lot in common, there are also some big differences.

Similarities:
- Released in the USA in 2012.
- Violent R-rated contained action films that take place in a locked down apartment building.
- The protagonists are lawmen who must fight their way to the top of said apartment complex (with some help) to take down the crime lord in charge of the criminal operation.
- Both protagonists are able to convince civilians to let them seek refuge in a room.
- The villains in both films kill some of their own henchmen.
- The Raid features corrupt policemen while Dredd has corrupt Judges.
- Both films were released with unnecessary subtitles, The Raid: Redemption and Dredd: 3D.
- Prior to Dredd, director Pete Travis had made two feature length movies: Vantage Point (2008) and Endgame (2009). Prior to The Raid, director Gareth Evans had made two feature length movies: Footsteps (2006) and Merantau (2009).

Differences:
- Dredd is an English language US/UK production that was also filmed in South Africa. The Raid is an Indonesian language film made in Indonesia.
- The Raid is a martial arts movie. Dredd is not, though it does feature some hand-to-hand combat.
- Dredd is based on the long running Judge Dredd comic book franchise. The first attempt at bringing Judge Dredd to film was Judge Dredd (1995) starring Sylvester Stallone. The Raid is a brand new story not based on any pre-existing media.
- The only female character I remember in The Raid was Rama's pregnant wife. In Dredd both the main villain and Judge Dredd's partner Anderson are women.
- Dredd takes places in the future while The Raid is set in the present.
- The Raid will have a sequel, The Raid 2: Berandal, which will be released later in 2014. There are no current plans for a Dredd sequel, so buy the Blu-ray if you haven't yet to support the cause!
- Dredd features actors Lena Headey and Karl Urban who previously appeared in the international blockbusters 300 (2007) and Star Trek (2009). The actors in The Raid are unknown outside of Indonesia.
- According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, Dredd had a $50 million production budget and made $35 million worldwide in theaters. It was considered a commercial failure but would later make back a lot of money thanks to DVD/Blu-ray sales from good word of mouth. The Raid had an estimated $1.1 million budget and grossed $15 million globally.

Are there any similarities or differences that I missed? If so, let me know in the comments section.

Dredd (2012)

Dredd (2012)
I'm going to start off by discussing the elephant in the room. I saw Judge Dredd starring Sylvester Stallone a while ago and wrote about it on this blog. Even though that movie does not have a good reputation I enjoyed it for what it was. It probably helped that I had not read the comics before watching it. Coming into Dredd I knew it had very good reviews and was billed as the Judge Dredd movie everyone had always wanted. Luckily Dredd met my high expectations. In fact, I liked it so much that it actually inspired me to go read some Judge Dredd comics, which I enjoyed.
Dredd is a contained action film that mostly takes place inside Peach Trees, an apartment building with over 200 floors. Judge Dredd and his Judge in training Anderson, go to Peach Trees on a mission to take down a gang run by the drug lord Ma-Ma. Ma-Ma's clan is selling the drug SLO-MO, which slows down the perception of reality in its users. Dredd is a relatively small scale story which is unusual for a comic book/super hero movie. Instead of the whole city or world being at stake, the focus is just on stopping a crime gang in one building and hoping that Dredd and Anderson will make it out alive. I found this a refreshing change of pace and wouldn't mind seeing other comic book movies, like the Batman franchise for instance, do something similar.

The acting is quite good, with the standouts being the three leads. Karl Urban (who I remembered as Dr. McCoy in the 2009 Star Trek movie), plays the title role of Judge Dredd. Unlike the Stallone Judge Dredd, Urban never takes his helmet off. Urban's voice and presence are perfect for the character. The rookie Judge, Anderson, is played by Olivia Thirlby. Anderson just misses the minimum requirements for being a Judge, but is given another chance due to her psychic abilities. Thirlby does a nice job of portraying a character who has to face her first true test in the brutal crime ridden Mega-City One. While Dredd is the law, Anderson is a much more human character. Making the two partners allows for the audience to have a character we can relate to both emotionally and story wise since Anderson is new to being a Judge. Since Anderson fulfills that role, it doesn't have to go to Judge Dredd, which therefore means Dredd's helmet gets to stay on! Thirlby does a good job portraying Anderson as a multifaceted character who is inexperienced as a Judge, yet still strong willed and determined. Our villain is the crime lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), whose gang runs the Peach Trees apartment complex. It was interesting to see a female play the heavy in this type of movie and Headey does a great job. Headey is no stranger to playing tough, violent female characters having previous roles such as Queen Gorgo in 300 and Sarah Connor in the TV show "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Besides our three leads, Wood Harris puts in a nice supporting performance as Kay, one of Ma-Ma's henchmen.

Although I loved Dredd I did have a few quibbles. One member of Ma-Ma's clan is a computer expert with what appears to be a cybernetic eye that can interface with computers. I found the concept and character interesting, but think he could've been explained better as I found it confusing at times. He wasn't even given a name and only credited as "clan techie."
CGI blood almost always looks like crap and its appearance here is no exception. I guess that CGI blood was used because the SLO-MO special effects were also used in that scene, which off-hand I believe was the only time it was used. If there was no other way to show the blood during these SLO-MO scenes then I understand. But I'm still not sure why fake blood couldn't have just been sprayed in slow motion. No matter what, it still looks bad and briefly took me out of the film since the rest of the special effects (practical or CGI) looked great.
Personally I would've liked to have seen more satire in the style of Robocop. Dredd certainly isn't worse for a lack of satire, but a bit more well-placed humor could have given the tone some more balance as the film can be quite grim at times. However, the tone is consistent and when the film uses humor it works well, which is what counts.

Although I watched Dredd in 2-D and thought it looked great, I bet the SLO-MO scenes are fantastic in 3-D. However, I think that the emphasis on the 3-D in the marketing was one of the reasons that Dredd didn't do well in theaters. I've heard that 2-D showings were hard to come by, so I imagine many people who don't like 3-D just decided to wait for it to hit video.
I saw Dredd right when it came out on Blu-ray and then watched it again a couple of months ago. Dredd holds up on repeat viewings as I liked it just as much the second time around. Although Dredd didn't do well at the box office, it has been selling like hotcakes on Blu-ray. I would love to see another Judge Dredd movie in this universe so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel.
My next post will compare and contrast Dredd with The Raid.
8/10