Oculus (2014)

     Oculus is a very interesting thing, I certainly enjoyed myself watching it but I can't exactly put my finger on any one moment or scene that left me terrified or super hyped. It was more like the film as a whole was one big joke being played on you by the mirror; and I only got scared at the end when I realized I fell for it. THAT BEING SAID because of the nature of the movie talking about it without spoilers about the style and story might be tricky so if you just want a yes or no YES go see Oculus it's fun and inventive and we probably won't ever see another horror movie like it. I simply wish there was more of it.

     The first thing that grabbed me about the movie was it's overall style, in the trailers it looks like seeing the main duo as children is just part of the preface but instead the events of them as kids are actually spliced between scenes of them as young adults throughout the whole movie. It's hard to describe but based on the context when the kids show up it's always kind of fuzzy as to whats actually going on, it seems like the two main characters Kaylie and Tim (played by Karren Gillain and Brenton Thwaites) are just re-experiencing old memories but the movie likes to throw curves at you and constantly change the elements of the situation so that you never really no what's going on until it ends. 

     The plot of the movie is that after their parent's horrific death's as children Kaylie is picking up Tim from a mental hospital more than 10 years later and is convinced that the mirror their dad purchased when they moved into a new house all those years ago was the cause of the events that occurred and that they need to kill it because they made a promise to one another before they were separated. This is the first thing the movie does right , they make it very clear that Tim has been recovering in a stable environment and that Kaylie has been driven somewhat insane being mostly on her own. It keeps you on your toes through the first half of the movie as it keeps changing your gears for you based on who's the focus of the scene.

     The second major thing the movie does right is the brilliance of the mirror itself, at least on a conceptual level.  They never give a concrete reason as to why but the basic premise is that the mirror is evil and feeds on people Kaylie gathers up all this data of similar deaths that happen when the mirror is brought into a new place and honestly I could imagine that anyone watching the movie could believe she's right or that she's crazy because of the way Tim keeps interjecting. It really does a lovely job of balancing itself . When things do start to get a bit hairy the actual abilities of the mirror start to take shape, all it really does is mess with your perception and feed off negative memories and emotions. Thinking about it it spends most of the movie trying to distract the characters of make them hurt themselves, in a lesser movie it would keep doing more and more and get really stupid but the filmmakers and actors (both of the older and younger Kaylie and Tim) really keep you at the edge of your seat as you try to piece together what's really going on in a movie that moves too fast. Sometimes too fast for it's own good.

     Like I said above the only real complaint I can make about this movie is the length, it's barely an hour and a half and while I'm not saying every movie needs to be a 4 and a half hour trek through Middle Earth the movie occasionally feels short on time, and waves over some moments that could build more suspense. Frankly speaking that's really not much of a complaint, I mean there's a character who exists just to die but for the most part the movie is just so clever and so off the wall I would gladly put this in my top 10 favorite horror movies of all time. Go and watch it..but then maybe don't drive yourself home. Mirrors are scary and shit. 

The Raid 2 : Berandal (2014)

     If you haven't yet seen 2011's The Raid Redemption then drop whatever the hell your doing find somewhere to watch it, find some dude bros, find some snacks and set aside a day to watch it, discuss it, and watch it some more freaking times. It's the closest thing to a modern day martial arts movie mixed with a classic action movie gauntlet : A Swat team is tasked with infiltrating a tall building controlled by a drug lord (Yes it does sound a lot like Dredd) and when they get it they find it to be a trap and most of them The remain men try to to get to the top to avenge their friends and CRAY ACTION ENSUES. What separates this is that director Gareth Evans wanted to make the movies feel authentic so he traveled Indonesia and hired masters of it's native martial art Pencak Silat to help choreograph the action and star in the movie meaning that it's not in English and is all subtitled. That being said go watch this movie.

Seriously, watch this movie now. 

     The sequel (which didn't keep it's subtitle in the U.S.) focuses on the main character Rama following the aforementioned raid being tasked to get arrested in an effort to get in close with the son of a local crime boss and go into deep cover to find out some information about some stuff. Yeah... this movies biggest step back from the original is a distinct increase in story content. There is probably two or three times as much dialogue as the original and to be perfectly honest I enjoyed it on the first viewing but was kinda bored by it the second time around. I'm not trying to say that it's bad, in fact it almost plays out like the Godfather but interpreted in modern day Indonesia but you really feel the shift in pacing and sometimes it doesn't flow well. Luckily by the second half of the movie that goes away and makes way for whats most important ; The Action. 

     The real appeal of this movie and its predecessor comes from the action. Action , like love, transcends language and can be appreciated by anyone. Even if this movie didn't have subtitles you always understand when someone gets the side of hie face shoved into a table. To put it bluntly the action in this movie is brutally real, the hand to hand combat is sickeningly cool without being utter fantasy, even a couple characters that seem to have jumped out of a totally unrelated anime are used totally straight and make for terrifying on screen presences. The violence and gore is on a completely other level then any other movies right now, Evans refuses to pull any punches. To quote an internet personality "You have a normal action movie where a dude gets punched really hard in the head, he trips over a table or something and falls out of frame , in the Raid the dude gets kicked in the throat and falls on the corner of something concrete and painfully and very clearly dies". The movie isn't for the faint of heart but if it's your cup of tea this is the top tear of gritty action the money was all clearly put towards making the punches punchy and the gunshots go bang and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. 

      If it wasn't already clear this movie is a must watch in my book it's totally unique in a world with movies like Taken and the Expendables where even the violent action feels very subdued. I completely understand how people felt insulted about the Total Recall remake when someone remakes this (which I hear is already in the works) good or bad it will never recapture the magic and intensity that this provides. The setting, the cinematography, the seriousness of the plot, and the utter insanity of the action  - it's not just that they couldn't remake this it's that no half-assed bullshit committee of american "Film Executives" could create anything in any genre half as impressive as the Raid movies. I can't say everyone will enjoy this , but there is not another action movie that meets this level, so make the climb. 

Captain America The Winter Solider (2014)

     To be perfectly honest it's hard for me to look at this movie and pretend I'm not biased I mean HOLY CRAP possibly the most popular and most famous Captain America comic book story of all time and they actually managed to directly adapt it into a movie that also fits into their current film universe that also happens to be a really good movie. Blowing my mind over here Marvel. The thing that winds up making this the best Phase 2 movie (The Phases are broken up by Avengers movies hence why we're in Phase 2) so far, and trust me this movie is really enjoyable, is the fact that it works both towards building the universe and as a direct sequel to Captain America 1.

     As I said above one of this movies greatest strengths is being a directly sequel to Cap 1 more than the Avengers while still filling in story for both ; set a few years after the events of New York Captain America (Chris Evans) A.K.A. Steve Rogers is working directly for S.H.I.E.L.D. as a military asset and leader of a covert strike team that has been drifting towards the unsavory under the orders of Nick Fury (played by Samuel L Jackson) and after an attempt on his life he hides out in Rogers' apartment to warn him that he thinks S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised and that he needs to figure out who's in charge of all the evil doings including a new auto-threat-elimination system of helicarriers. He is then shot before he's able to give the Captain any details by a mysterious assassin with a strong cybernetic metal arm. Together with the help of Agent Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) they'll have to find out the identity of the Winter Solider and figure out who's been secretly taking over S.H.I.E.L.D. IT'S A WHO DONE IT IN WASHINGTON! To be fair that plot may not sound very cool but trust me it culminates in some of the series' biggest action set pieces and best hand to hand fights. The villain is menacing and well designed a lot like the movie as a whole which manages to take the tone of the original Cap movie and bring it over into the modern setting.


     The thing that catches a lot of people off guard with the character of Captain America is that he's just a super human. Nothing unique, no special powers just a good solider trying to do good things. He spend a good amount of time behind his shield and more interestingly is constantly holding back unless he absolutely has to fight. He doesn't want to kill anyone he just doesn't like bullies. You see unlike the plot of Iron Man 3 his resolve never changes and neither do his motivations because hes a very simple guy who constantly parades around talking about freedom and protecting others and doing the right thing. By all accounts he should be goofy and kind of obnoxious but the guys who write him have found a good balance and words and action that constantly keep you rallying for the Cap. They even have a moment in this film that's basically the "Swing the cranes in, we gotta help Spider-man" except it's done in such an emotional way with such a real character that you almost want to cry at the sincerity.


     On a film making level this movie is wicked awesome, great action set pieces on both a hand to hand and large scale boom bang explosion level without losing sight of what's important. Every little twist in turn is handled really nicely including the introduction of a classic Captain America side kick type character who I'm not going to spoil. Honestly it's way easier to criticize a movie than to praise it, and if I had any critiques for Cap I'd say it half introduces a lot of universe building type characters that I would have liked to see more of like a potential love interest and a recurring bad guy that sort of thing. I always appreciate nods to the comics but there a couple here that are really odd choices (Like Georges Bartoc of all characters) but I don't they detract from the movie. The biggest thing that will waiver your opinion of this movie is simply if you like all the Marvel movies thus far, if you do you'll like this one it's great, if your on the fence this one could change your mind, but if you don't like them and think there are too many super hero movies then there's nothing anyone can do. AND I PITY YOU!

 Unlike Iron Man 3 and Thor 2, which were good movies, this movie really delivers on all levels. Go see it!

Divergent (2014) (P.S. It sucks)

     Now here we have a genuinely unpleasant movie to watch. A bad cast of bad actors wrapped up in a convoluted sci-fi plot that's just stupid enough to have actually come out of a teen novel ooooooh it's movies like this that really bring my blood to a boil, it has no redeeming fun qualities it's just all bad all the time. It tries to be emotionally engaging and comes off as weakly scripted, it tries to have good action but no one on set was qualified to direct good action, it tries to be intense and comes off as really boring, but worst of all when it tries to be serious it all comes off as a big joke.

     Let me make one thing perfectly clear, movies based on teen novels suck (Harry Potter is not a teen novel in the same sense) period. Beautiful Creatures kind of got a pass for being really well cast and adapted but the others including Mortal Instruments and Hunger games do not. Besides the weak premises of the both those series' their biggest problem is a lack of proper adaptation. I've never read these books it comes across clearly in the dialogue and pacing. When I first heard that Divergent was getting a crack at the big screen all my hope came from the setting and the main plot which sounded okay ; A run down post apocalyptic Chicago inside of a giant wall houses a society of people split up into five classes based on their skills and personality. Everyone gets to take a test at a certain age to determine where they're most suited and then gets to choose their path in life. The twist is that some kids' take the test to reveal that they are Divergent and "don't belong in a single category because their brains work differently".... okay so the setting was cooler than that central idea I mean that just screams "DON'Y WORRY 13 - 17 YEAR OLD GIRL YOU DON'T HAVE TO FIT IN YOU'RE SPECIAL" ughhhhhhhhhhhh this is painful.

     So the core sucks but hows the rest? Well it all sucks too but let's talk about it anyways. This movie takes a long walk off a short pier in the third or fourth scene by introducing the supporting cast, which is mostly terrible, and the bad guy who is only vaguely hinted at as the bad guy until you realize about halfway through that she has to be the bad guy or the movie can't have a story (Played oddly enough by Kate Winslet). The rest of the supporting cast in order of importance is her racially ambiguous best friend who's personality is having things around her be unfair, two white guys who are SO generic and interchangeable I often forgot there was two of them even when one of them dies, Miles Teller as a smug douche bag, annnnnnnnnnnd her love interest. Oh yeah I guess I haven't mentioned the two characters in the above photo. Let me tell you why. I forgot their character names, I forgot how they become romantically involved, I walked out to go to bathroom and consider ditching my friends and when I came back they suddenly were in love POOF PACHANG CHIZOW! To put it mildly they are little bland to be leading characters in this strange little sci fi world. All the basic film making stuff feels really weirdly cheap ; what little special effects happen are bad, there are no big sets everything is either outside a building , in a small room, or in an ugly big sound stage. Since they never venture outside the city we never get any good outdoor landscapes except for these ugly little nightmare sequences that make no sense at all.

     This movie is not redeemable but the worst thing about it is how slow it all feels, the story is lightly sped up over the course of what is supposed to be months if not a year but they give very little indication of any time passing so the pacing comes across as they just tore out half the pages in random spots of the book and wrote "AWKWARD TRANSITION" between all the pages. Just... don't go see this movie. Please. See Captain America The Winter Soldier or something.