movie reviews

‘A Star is Born’ fulfills advance hype with excellent work from Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga

/ Ian Casselberry / 3 Comments

Could A Star is Born possibly be better than its trailer? That’s a joke (or cynical opinion) often reserved for superhero blockbusters like Iron Man, Man of Steel and Suicide Squad.

The preview released in June got seemingly everyone excited for this movie and probably brought some relief to those who thought a remake of the 1976 Barbra Streisand-Kris Kristofferson film was a terrible idea that could possibly destroy Bradley Cooper’s career (at least as a director).

No one’s laughing or wincing now.

Not only does Cooper give the best acting performance of his career, but he also impresses as a director. He lets scenes play out and trusts his actors, rather than resorting to quick cuts and editing to create a false sense of story movement. It’s not difficult to imagine that he’s providing the direction himself that he would’ve preferred other filmmakers gave him and his co-stars.

There might be a few scenes that go a bit long, especially in the movie’s less compelling second half. But when so many films now feel like they were sliced up and patched together in the editing bay, a movie that takes time with its characters and lets the actors shine feels refreshing.

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Fun and assured, ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’ is ideal follow-up to ‘Avengers: Infinity War’

/ Ian Casselberry / 1 Comment
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Every time a new Marvel movie comes out, there seems to be a compulsion to rank it among the previous superhero blockbusters. That sets an awfully high bar for Ant-Man and The Wasp, which doesn’t seem quite fair. Should it really be compared to a massive crossover epic like Avengers: Infinity War?

None of the Marvel movies are “small,” but the smaller scale here is an ideal follow-up to Infinity War‘s galaxy-spanning scope and grave stakes. Much of the speculation leading up to Ant-Man and The Wasp — from sites that needed content — focused on where the story fit in relation to the Avengers’ battle with Thanos. Does it take place before Thanos and his cronies attack Earth? Does it deal with what happened after Infinity War?

++ Avengers: Infinity War is an appetizer, but still a superhero epic with plenty of gut punches ++

While this is obviously a sequel to 2015’s Ant-Man and sort of a sequel to Captain America: Civil War — at least with the repercussions of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) deciding to help Cap out in his philosophical conflict with Iron Man — it’s also a fairly standalone story that isn’t largely constructed as a setup for bigger films to come. Yes, it takes place before Infinity War, but those events are eventually addressed. (You know better than to leave before the credits are finished with a Marvel movie.)

The one big plotline left dangling from Ant-Man was the fate of the original Wasp, Janet Van Dyne (played in this sequel by Michelle Pfeiffer). During a mission with the OG Ant-Man, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), Janet sacrificed herself — shrinking to sub-atomic size and getting lost in the Quantum Realm — in order to disable a nuclear missile. But Lang showed that it was possible to return from the Quantum Realm, inspiring Pym to find the wife whom he believed was forever lost.

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‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ is total nonsense, but Michael Bay makes a mess look cool

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

Note: This was originally published at The Comeback in June 2017.

Virtually nothing in Transformers: The Last Knight makes any sense, but does that matter? If you’ve seen the previous four films in this series — or even just seen one or two of them — you know that attention to story and detail isn’t a priority for director Michael Bay and the various writers who have pounded out scripts for these toy-inspired assaults on the senses.

Yet The Last Knight almost seems to double down on devolving into complete nonsense during its two-and-a-half-hour run time. Using the word “devolving” is probably generous, implying that the movie actually started out resembling something coherent and compelling. But I’ll admit that I was with this movie for the first 60 to 90 minutes.

Sure, the left side of my brain was saying to me, “You know none of this makes any sense, right?” But the right side of my brain was still enjoying what I was seeing on screen. No matter what you think of his movies, Bay is a master visual stylist who taps into something primal with his imagery.

Yes, he’s become a cliché in many respects. There’s not a gunfight or woman’s backside that he won’t linger on lovingly with his camera. But the man still frames silhouettes against a sunset and shoots muscle cars roaring down the road or fighter jets streaking through the sky better than anybody. That stuff just looks cool. Truly, no one does it better, even if it’s long past time that Bay move on from the giant robots in disguise clashing with one another and treating the earth like their sandbox.

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Guy Ritchie’s ‘King Arthur’ offers new take on old mythology, but won’t kickstart franchise

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

Note: This was originally published at The Comeback in May 2017.

Criticizing King Arthur: Legend of the Sword for being too much of a Guy Ritchie film might seem silly. You generally know what you’re getting with Ritchie as director.

He has a distinct style, utilizing speed ramping, slow motion and fast-cutting to keep the pace moving even when some scenes call for a bit more focus on detail. His characters are fast-talkers, bantering with colleagues and adversaries while often relying on wit to gain an upper hand. And music is a big factor in providing momentum, a hard-charging beat that adds to what’s shown on screen, underlining the action.

Check off all of those boxes for Legend of the Sword (which no one will call this film). This is very much a Guy Ritchie King Arthur movie. Imagine Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch taking place in medieval times, with some sword and sorcery mixed in (along with pinches of other influences like Game of Thrones, 300 and Man of Steel), and that’s what we have here.

It’s a reimagining of a legendary mythological figure akin to what Ritchie did with Sherlock Holmes, tearing down an old, familiar archetype that had become stuffy and reinventing it with an energy and mindset aimed at appealing to new audiences. That will work for some viewers who either aren’t all that familiar with the Arthurian mythos or are eager to see a new take on the story. But it will turn off plenty of others who already have an idea of what a King Arthur story should be and aren’t interested in any radical reinventions.

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