Hello, my name is Andrew Jara. I am trying to be a writer/director. I made a film named "Last Days" that i'm trying to bring some press to.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Plot:. A group of friends meet up for their ten year high school reunion. Cliches endure.
Review: So I really thought that with about two weeks left Man with the Iron Fists was going to go down as the worst movie of the year. But damn, if Ten Years didn’t come in to show me how bad, bad can be. There is just nothing good about this film so let’s dig right in. I am going to talk about each individual story and then we’ll look at the overall film. The main story is about Channing Tatum and Rosario Dawson, old flames with a bad history, as they try to overcome that now that they are in separate happy relationships. This story comes off as really boring since once it really starts you know where it is going (although most of the film feels like that.) Tatum tries to do what he can but his character has nothing and most of his characterization comes from what others say about them. Even if it is the main story it is also the most boring and has a sappy nonsense ending. Second story is about Justin Long and Max Minghella, two nerds that became cool. Max is married and Long is a playboy now, but are both trying to get Lilly Collins into bed as she was the party girl. This story is one of the main problems with the film, Max Minghella comes off as unlikable. As Justin Long tries to hit on Collins, Minghella keeps getting in the way. At first it seems that he is still awkward but you soon realize that he is also trying to flirt with her. Even though he is married, at every chance he makes a pass at her and it feels very uncomfortable especially since both treat her like nothing more than a conquest. By the end, we find out that he is in the midst of a divorce but that doesn’t really excuse his behavior and I wonder why the reveal was withheld. If we had known he was acting out because of his depression maybe we would have felt sympathetic but as it is we just hate him so when the reveal does come out we don’t care. Their whole story is to examine the lies that we show to others as none of them are as cool as they portrayed. Collins is a stay-at-home mom, Long lives in a tiny apartment just to stay in New York, and Minghella is going through the divorce. It works in the most shallow way but the male characters come off as such jerks that you can’t relate to them. The next story is about Chris Pratt, the high school bully, as he tries to make amends with the people he tortured, while getting as drunk as possible much to the dismay of his wife, Ari Graynor. This is the best story, only because it takes into account the reunion. Every other story is about a close group of friends meeting again and it could have been anywhere. But the bully trying to apologize to the nerds could only happen at the reunion as why else would they hang out. It also has a character with flaws unlike the rest of them who are perfect. The problem is Pratt comes off as so unlikeable and so annoying that his act gets very tired, very fast. For every apology he dishes out, there are 3 scenes of him embarrassing his wife or being an ass. It gets old and by the end, he doesn’t change. The film seemed to be going towards acceptance that he is just a dick and can’t help it but by the end there is just nothing and we are meant to take away that he tried. Which is fine if he had been fighting the apologies the whole time, but he embraced him. So there is no change or at least no revelation. There relationship ends the way it began and it is not satisfying. The last and most annoying story is about Jason Isaac and kate Mara. Isaac plays a famous singer who tries to win over the heart of the shy girl. The main problem is Isaacs who the whole movie hates the fact that he is rich and famous and it is DREADFUL. The whole time he wants us to feel bad for how rich he is, how many people love his song, how famous he is BUT THEN, but then when given the chance to sing his song, he jumps at it or when Mara states she never heard it is disappointed. He can either be mad at the fame or embrace but the film wants us to love him for not wanting it while also cheering for him when he does. And it never works. Plus Isaac is not a terribly good actor so the whole time I thought he was being shady. I never for a minute thought he was supposed to be sincere and was waiting for the twist. Once I realized that it was more Isaac’s acting that is questionable and not his character the story just became boring. Mara has no chemistry with him and she looks quite bored the whole time. She is a fantastic actress and I wonder why she keeps getting these terrible roles. But that brings us to the film as a whole. These characters never feel like friends. They spend so much of the movie going after their own motives, their own goals that they never spend any time with each other so they don’t feel like the family they keep claiming they are. Scott Porter ends up with the best story as someone who is moving to Japan and just wants to have fun with his friend. Only because he has no other motives, it’s just one last fun time with his friends. Every one else only has fun at the expense of others. Pratt has fun so his wife can’t, Mingella tries to screw over Justin Long, Isaacs completely ignores his friends to spend time with Mara. It seems no one is there to be AT THE REUNION. It brings the whole film down and you start to feel sad for these perfect looking characters which negates the whole thing. I think this is the rare time when they should have just focused on one story. As it is, the cliches in EVERY story add up to such a point that the more another story has them, the more clear they become. Where if it was just one story, it would have been less noticeable if not forgivable. but as it is it becomes so clear that none of the stories have the tiniest bit of originality that you start to focus on whether the actor read the script. To ruin such a great and diverse cast is a crime of cinema! The director needs to go back to school.
Trivia: Jamie Lindon wrote this after his own reunion. Which leads me to believe that he is the Isaac’s character. Which makes me hate him.
This week, we will be looking at The Hobbit, Ten Years, This Means War, and hopefully Zero Dark Thirty!
Plot:. A hitman is called in after two kids rip off a mob run poker game.
Review: This film wants to be a great allegory between crime and politics. It both fails and succeeds at this. It succeeds because it uses the 2008 Obama McCain debates to set up the movie and frame the story. The movie opens with the debates and it puts us in the right place and time. We are in America in a time of uncertainness but are dealing with people who don’t care too much about that. It says so much in no time. However, it fails because almost every other scene has a transition of political speech or debates as the movie continues. This becomes both jarring and a bit annoying. The whole film you think it’s leading to something more but by the end (SPOILERS) it’s nothing more than “criminals and politicians have a lot in common.” It’s not enough to justify it and ends up talking down to the audience. If it didn’t have the debates at every turn, we would still get the point. The setting was enough to draw conclusions especially with the conversations the characters have. Richard Jenkins and Brad Pitt’s scenes about the ever changing “politics of the mafia” and that works better to show us the allegory that the director, Andrew Dominik, is trying to make than the actual speeches playing throughout. What the film is, even with this mistake, is a great crime film. No one can deny that it is fun and thrilling. In fact, it is the first film this year and in a couple of years where I had no clue where the film was going. The characters are so good and so well defined that any thing can happen and you are waiting on the edge of your seat to see what will happen even until the very end. James Gandolfini and Ray Liotta show up for quick but memorable roles that I would not be surprised if they were given nominations. This is also Brad Pitt’s movie. He moves with the kind of suave animal that he was so great at playing in “Fight Club” and “Snatch.” He is a monster that you learn to love and in his contradiction, he again shows the politician that the director wants us to connect the dots to get to. It is a great film but I can see what it is so jarring and why normal filmgoers have shown so much hate for it. Dominik uses the same long meandering speeches that he did in “Assasination of Jesse James,” but they sometimes feel out of place and I could see how people were bored. I never was, it is important to note. But we did have a couple of walk outs. It isn’t the “pulp fiction-y” draw you in type of film but more like a real roller coaster. In that you have to strap yourself in, and let yourself go. Your expectations do not belong here. Whatever you want this film to be, it isn’t. And maybe that’s the best allegory with politics, the film has.
Trivia: Was based on the book, “Cogan’s Trade.”
Was killing them softly the most polarizing film of the year? Survey say YES
Plot:. A found footage film about three nerds throwing a party.
Review: I heard a lot about how funny this film was so I finally caved and watched it. It was okay. It succeeds in that it makes you laugh but it fails as a movie. You never really care about any of the characters or know more about them then their cliches. I can’t even remember any of the guy’s names. Also they do the “your friend has been in love with you the whole time” trope but the girl who was in love with him, like the nerdy girl, is LITERALLY the hottest girl in the world. So the whole thing about them being losers doesn’t make sense when they are best friends with a hot, funny, cheerleader. What more do they want? Also they have a Jonah Hill character and he is terrible! Since super bad, there is always someone who wants to be Jonah Hill and it never works. The character just is really annoying and every time he is on screen it brings the movie to a halt. Also the funny thing about Jonah Hill is that in the back of his mind, Hill’s characters aren’t cool and they know it, that’s why they overact. But here it’s just someone who doesn’t get the joke and it never works. The found footage aspects also hurts the film as we never get to see the characters just being friends. They are always in “party mode” and it makes it hard to care for them or what they are doing. Plus the film gets rid of all consequence pretty early so we never see any threat. I know it’s a comedy but you can still have tension. In superbad, they have to get alcohol, in fired up it’s getting laid. There is always some tension. Here we know that the party is gonna happen, we know it’s gonna get crazy and we know nothing is gonna happen. So it’s all about getting from one set piece to another. It works sometimes but you get boring. Watch this if you want a few laughs or want to forget something as quickly as you saw it.
Trivia: Project X was the working title and they were just like fuck it.
Oh NOOOOOO
Plot: A pilot makes a daring landing after his plane malfunctions but when they find out that he was drunk on the flight, he may have to come to terms with his drinking.
Review: If someone did something great but did it while doing something not so great does that make it okay? Can someone be wounded and still functional? Does the ends justify the means? All these questions are brought up in the first act of Flight and I’m happy to report that NONE of them are answered in the course of this morality tale! Terrible Job Zemeckis. This is Robert Zemeckis’ first live action film in 12 years and he is rusty. The main problem with Flight is that the film wants it to be about something else but Zemeckis turns it into a black and white morality tale. The first twenty minutes which is the introduction of Denzel Washington’s character and the plane crash are amazing. They are thrilling, quick, stylized and fun without losing focus that this is a wounded man. At the beginning, we see Washington’s character take a drink as he answers the phone. It’s not the focus of the scene and it’s subtle to let us know that he is a bit of a drunk. Then the plane crashes and it all goes to hell. Once aftermath comes in, the crash becomes incidental and then pointless. It becomes a story about alcoholism and nothing more. Every character is either a addict, a recovering addict or a holier than thou perfect person who looks done on every drink taken. That’s not the way to show how bad addiction can be. That’s the way to alienate and talk down to your audience. If the movie had been the consequences of ends verses means or even just a character piece about a good man who had a problem it would have been great. But it’s nothing more than a morality play. Everything is taken to such extremes that it becomes laughable on more than one occasions. Washington turns in a great performance as always but the script slowly turns into a one dimensional character without realizing it. We never explore why he is an alcoholic or what makes his addiction other than a divorce and other cliches. I wish we had seen him and explored his mind. Instead what we get is a lifetime movie hiding behind good performances. This is worth a tv watch and I wouldn’t forgive you if you turned it off once the plane lands and the movie crashes.
Trivia: This is only Zemeckis’ second rated R film.
Plot: In this sequel to “The Collector”, The Collector has taken a woman hostage and it’s up to a group of tough guys and the lone survivor from the first film to break in to the Collector’s house and save the girl.
Review: Wow! Earlier we talked about surprises and The Collection is probably the biggest surprise of the year! Now I saw the Collector and felt that it was torture porn and boring. The only reason I saw this film was my growing love of Emma Fitzpatrick, who is my dream girl. So my expectations could not have been lower. Thankfully this film was one of the funnest experiences of the year! The film tries it’s hardest to not be another generic horror film and gives the characters motivation and characterization. Fitzpatrick is amazing as the lead and even has obstacles to OVERCOME. More than just not getting killed. I know that this shouldn’t be great but in a horror film, it is rarer than you think. No one is dumb and they all seem like they could get out. Unlike last time, The Collector is a threat but he’s not a superman. He can be hurt and to me that makes him more scary. If he isn’t supernatural he should have weaknesses, and this film shows us that. (Which the original did not.) Josh Stewart returns as the lone survivor and he does a good job of being the wounded survivor. His performance reminded me of Ripley from Aliens and I’m glad he doesn’t get lost in the background. This film is about wounded people trying to survive and it manages to be fun and scary. The scares are great and I was generally afraid a couple of times. This one isn’t a much of a torture porn film, it does have gruesome deaths but it doesn’t linger on them, and it adds to the film’s positives. Overall this is a solid horror film and probably the best one of the year. It’s not doing so well in the box office so give it a watch and support real horror.
Trivia: I previously talked about Emma Fitzpatrick in my In Time review, she also had a bit part in The Social Network and she’s an angel.
Plot:. A girl watches her parents get killed and spends her life training to get revenge.
Review: This film is forgettable. That’s the best thing I can say about it. Making a character dark and broody isn’t as easy as action films would have you believe. If you go too far one way, they aren’t dark and if you go too far the other way (as this one does) then you get a boring character. Leon from the Professional was dark and deadly but he also made jokes, he fell in love, he had emotions other than just kill kill murder murder. I use Leon as a example because they were both written by Luc Besson, who knows how to write these characters. Here he just goes through the motions. Zoe Saldana can act. We’ve seen her act before! But here she is given NOTHING. She doesn’t talk and we never see any sides of her to get to know her. She’s a hot killer. That’s it. Plus she gets so many of her friends and family killed that you almost start to hate her. I rarely mention a character’s looks more than in passing but this film makes you. After her first kill, she goes to her apartment, takes off her bra, (and yes the camera makes you notice she has no bra) and just dances sexily. She never does it again, it doesn’t show you another aspect of her, it’s just there to see how sexy she is. I got bored pretty quickly and it doesn’t do anything to really grab you. The director is named Olivier Megaton which I found more interesting than anything in this movie.
Trivia: Was originally a sequel to The Professional, starring Natalie Portman.
Short Version: this movie suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked
Plot:. A rookie cop’s past back comes to haunt him.
Review: This is a non movie. No one is trying. Al Pacino and Ray Liotta look asleep. Tatum doesn’t know what to do as his character is all over the place. The plot doesn’t work and at the end it doesn’t make sense. Okay so the movie was about a rookie cop that accidentally killed some junkie that was trying to kill him. So it was self-defense. Then for no reason, Al Pacino covers it up. No one reports it. It’s like the actions of babies. Everyone just does stuff because it makes sense on a minimalist sense. All bad instincts. Then in the future, someone is sending Tatum letters saying I know what you did. But it also doesn’t make sense. It’s like at the end, the letter sender is trying to get rid of Al Pacino as a cop but Pacino is already retiring? So it makes no difference. It’s almost like the director/writer wanted to have a morality tale but was scared for Tatum to do anything bad in case he lost the audience. But you have to take a risk, or at least make sense. No effort was put into this.
Trivia: Was based on a book that was never published. YEAH
No one watched this movie but will anyone read the review?!? We’ll have to wait and find out
Plot: A man gets out of a mental institute and tries to win back his wife. Along the way he realizes that he has to start living his life first.
Review: Wow! Talk about coming out of left field. When I saw the preview to this film, I wanted to see it but my hopes were low. It seemed like a generic romantic quirky comedy and that’s kind of the charm of the film. The whole time you are watching it, you could see it starring kate hudson and Chris Evans and being terrible. But David O. Russell makes the characters real and saves the film. You never forget that the characters are a bit crazy and can have dark sides. They don’t cure their problems, but instead learn to live with them. That’s the theme of the movie. Finding the Silver Lining in life and getting on. Jennifer Lawrence brings a new side to her and isn’t just the moody grim character that we were getting tired of. She shows great range and stands out. Bradley Cooper also shows new sides of himself and you get lost in his role. Robert De Niro finally brings back the good Robert De Niro and was my favorite character. I could go on and on about the wonderful performances but really it’s David O. Russell’s great film. I want to say more but I don’t want to ruin it. Instead I’ll leave it at this and it’s going to end up on my best of the year where I can share more. Go see this. It’s a great comedy, it’s a great romance but more importantly it’s a great movie.
Trivia: Originally starred Mark Wahlberg before he was replaced by Bradley Cooper.
A good romantic comedy? They exist! Read on!
Plot: In order to win the love of his life back, a zookeeper gets help from the wild animals, who can talk.
Review: I watched this movie after liking Here comes the Boom so much. Sadly this film wasn’t as good as that one. The main problem was the premise which works okay for a short film but as a feature length movie doesn’t hold up. Kevin James is likable and holds his own but the film would problably have been better without the animals. Celebrities fill up the roles of the animals and the best part is figuring out who is who. Sylvester Stallone plays one of the main lions and is only mentioned because of how much I like Stallone. None of the animals have more of a role than to give James outlandish advice. The movie follows the same formula as any romantic comedy and by the end you just want it to finish. I don’t think it’s terrible and probably better for kids but it is nothing more than forgettable.
Trivia: Geoffry, the famous giraffe that played the Toys R Us mascot, died after filming this movie. He was 18 years old.
