Review of 28 Weeks Later

28 Weeks Later has some big ideas fall through the giant holes in the plot

I’m not exactly sure why I’m on a zombie movie kick, but I’m just gonna throw away this leftover chicken just in case.

28 Weeks Later is the inevitable sequel to the surprise hit 28 Days Later, which, though not so bad on its own, opened the floodgates for raging rivers of bad zombie movies everywhere. The actual sequel to that movie included.

I will give this movie its credit. It follows through with some clever ideas. The quarantine of London proper, the reintegration of the returning people, the partial immunity to the virus. It was all set up really well. But then they had some problems. How do we uncover the mother? And so they had some children sneak across a bridge fortified with the National Guard. You know, like it’s Spy Kids. How do we expose someone else to the virus? Oh! I know! Let’s just leave the only confirmed case of a person immune to the virus WHILE STILL CARRYING IT alone for – oh, I don’t know – any amount of time at all. I don’t know much about the military, but I really hope this isn’t the competence level of the actual National Guard. Including the altruistic and necessary, but globally reckless mutiny from Jeremy Renner, in his warmup role for Hawkeye.

Unlike last movie, this was one that didn’t know quite what it wanted to be. Does it want to move on from the slasher genre into the more cerebral realm? Or does it want to keep its zombie gotcha scare tactic roots? Because when you try to have both, the audience gets confused and doesn’t know how to feel. Honestly, even if it did pick one tunnel to go through, it would have taken some serious work to pull it together. The plot already had the aforementioned chasms, and you don’t bring in Idris Elba and Jeremy Renner to make a high budget slasher flick. Maybe it’s like sneezing with your eyes open. It’s just simply impossible to make a zombie movie that makes sense.

To me.

4/10

Dustin Fisher

Review of 28 Days Later

28 Days Later brings the zombie culture back from the dead

I’m not a zombie guy. I don’t understand why they have become such a huge part of our culture, and quite frankly, it’s annoying. So I decided to go to the source. 28 Days Later reanimated our society’s love for zombies, and it added something that zombie movies had largely lacked up until then: a reason.

A rage virus. Simple. Brilliant. And I guess up until 2002, we really didn’t care about why zombies were zombies. But now we do. As a society, we needed more. Thank you, Danny Boyle. It was almost enough to make me forget I’m just not a zombie guy.

I got myself a little turned around in evaluating this movie. I’m staunchly opposed to the subject matter, as well as the overall genre of slasher/horror, and it’s a B movie at heart but never really tries to aspire to anything else. That said, the close-ups and the gotcha scares were still a little too cheap for me. I prefer my thrillers to be psychological.

Which is eventually what I got. The three travelers who were still alive finally find a refuge of some sort, only to discover that their troubles weren’t over and weren’t coming from the rage virus anymore. Damn. Gut shot. People really are alike all over. This was a brilliant turn, and once again, I was impressed with this low budget slasher film. But then Cillian Murphy goes on some impossible rescue mission that lasts too long, gets way too confusing, has more than its share of jump cuts, and shoves a love story in our face that didn’t need to be there.

In the end, there were some relatively clever concepts for the time, including planting a seed that would ultimately grow into The Walking Dead. But try as I may, I’m just not a zombie guy.

5/10

Dustin Fisher

Review of Gone In 60 Seconds

Gone in 60 Seconds is about how long I wish I had paid attention to the movie

What a waste of Angelina Jolie.

I went into Gone in 60 Seconds with already low expectations. The phrase guilty pleasure was about the best thing I heard people say about this movie. And those incredibly low expectations were still too high for this movie. Almost every single decision somebody made or action somebody took was completely contrived. How many service trucks need to back up right in front of this guy? How would he not see the missing part of the bridge inches from his feet? Why wouldn’t these construction workers stop what they were doing for five minutes when there were 10 cops on a high-speed chase through their work site? I get that this isn’t The Martian and we’re not necessarily trying to really figure out what people would do in these situations, but it makes for a much crappier movie when we don’t.

From the moment the movie started, the premise had problems. Some exec had to try to figure out a way to get a car thief we could root for. And they came up with this paper thin older brother savior thing, which couldn’t even cover rock. So I already don’t care about these characters. And did the detective really get in the car and rev the engine? Now I can’t even root for them to get caught. Also, no matter how good of an actor Nick Cage might be to some people, he’s always the same exact guy to me. Looks the same, sounds the same, acts the same. But at least there will be some good car chases in this.

Nope. Unreasonable things kept backing out in front of Cage. He never did anything clever. He drove backwards for a while at full speed, which might have been cool to see when I was nine. There was much more of an emphasis on rock music than creating tension. The first seven minutes of Drive was better than this entire movie and it didn’t waste as much of my time. When they forgo good dialogue and story for cool car chases and spying on couples having sex in front of their very open window, please do something original or otherwise interesting with the car chases.

2/10

Dustin Fisher

Review of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Is a Tangled Mess That Never Really Fully Unties Itself

“Hey, Quentin! I just heard back from Margot Robbie’s manager and she’s in!”

“Well, great, but we’re all done shooting, dumbass.”

“But it’s MARGOT ROBBIE!”

“Ah, OK. We’ll find something for her to do.”

And that makes about as much sense as any other reason she’s in this movie.

There was a friend of a friend who kept showing up to a poker night that I had at my house a while back. He was a Class A asshole. He would do things like pound a table full of chips, sending them flying everywhere, take a leak off our balcony, and take my housemate’s prairie dog out it’s cage and let it loose. And every time Keith or I had to clean up his mess – metaphorical or literal, our mutual friend would say “Well, that’s just Nate.” As if that excused his assholedness. This is how we talk about Quentin Tarantino. Well I, for one, am done letting him piss off my balcony.

I’m not saying he’s an asshole, but we tend to look the other way when he tosses in what would be called gratuitous violence if it was another director, or when he misspells the title of his movie just for fun. Because he’s a quirky guy, and we all love quirks! Like how Margot Robbie’s character had absolutely nothing to do with the movie and wasted a whole lot of film, but we got to see her feet. How adorably quirky!

Confession. I did not grow up in this time period and I do not know much about the subject matter. I don’t know if the title is a reference to a specific thing, or just an allusion to a story being told. I don’t know much about the Manson hippies. And I have no idea who Sharon Tate is. Sorry. But I have to assume that other people out there are in the same boat. So who is this movie made for? People over 55? Big mass murder historians? Or film critics and Academy voters?

There were parts I enjoyed. He really brought 1969 to life for the entirety of the movie. And Leo coming to terms with his fading stardom, particularly in the scene with the little girl. And I did appreciate seeing his character nail that one scene after bombing the other scene. But after 10 minutes of a movie within the movie, I had wished I went to the bathroom. Little did I know that the Sharon Tate storyline would never quite intersect with anything else and I really could have gone to the bathroom many times during the movie, as many scenes didn’t really add any value to the story.

I’m mostly left confused by the movie. Is this what he had hoped would have happened to the Manson hippies? Is he trying to illustrate the randomness and chance that goes into stardom, and maybe life in general? OK, I guess that’s cool. And why is Margot Robbie in this movie? Because it’s random and quirky? Well, it seems as though the Academy appreciated something about it. But now I’m left to clean up the prairie dog shit under my bed.

3/10
Dustin Fisher

Ranking the 2019 Best Picture Nominees

The Movie Madness Facebook group ranks the 2019 Best Picture nominees and - go figure - kind of agrees with public opinion

Because all of you asked (nobody asked), the Movie Madness Madheads have ranked the nine nominees up for Best Picture at this years Oscars. Whether or not the Academy will see things the same way we do – well, we can't both be wrong. But here’s what a few of the Movie Madness Reviewers had to say about these nine nominees, ranked by the masses.

9. Marriage Story: Noah Baumbach tells a tale that will feel familiar to the majority of couples whether you’ve never even entertained the idea of divorce or you’ve embraced and endured it, and that is because it’s the rather unremarkable tale of compromise and selfishness in one’s marriage told through the remarkable lens of Broadway and Hollywood success. As a married woman, a mom, a feminist, and as the daughter of divorced parents, I expected to feel those “yes! Sisterhood! Men can get away with so much more than women!” lines Dern and Johansson speak more deeply. But perhaps the fact that they were written for women by a man made them less relatable? If the premise of choosing oneself or one’s marriage strikes too close to your homefront, you may prefer to skip it. If not, the writing and Driver’s performance are to me what made it nomination-worthy but doubtful it takes home the grand prize tonight. 0 votes (Brett McKenzie)

8. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: If you're a fan of Inglourious Basterds and Tarantino's alt-history bent, this movie is for you. If you're a fan of over-the-top gore (after a yarn about an actor), this movie is for you. If you're a fan of Sharon Tate living her best life (sorry, spoilers), this movie is for you.

If you were born long after the Manson murders and you don’t have an emotional connection with the "golden age" of Hollywood, this movie might be tough.

The target audience is very specific. Luckily, that audience is basically the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – the body that awards the Oscars. 4 votes (Annie Stevenson)

7. Ford v Ferrari: Matt Damon is Carroll Shelby (creator of the Shelby Cobra), charismatic driver-turned-carmaker. Christian Bale is Ken Miles, race car driving savant andmechanical poet. Miles doesn't always win, andShelby doesn't always do the right thing. But these friends have been ready to take on the world since they first sat in a fast car. Enter Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari – titans of industry. They are prepared to do whatever it takes to beat the crap out of each other on the track. The stage is Le Mans, a 24-hour race in France that means more to all involved than they're ready to admit. Throw in Miles's adorable young son and some corporate backstabbing, and the drama writes itself. This movie is the story of a race. But it's also a story of two men who defined motorsports for the next fifty years. 4 votes (Annie Stevenson)

6. The Irishman: The Irishman is basically the sequel to Goodfellas. And the sequel to that movie. It took me a month to watch because I could never be sure if I’d have three and a half hours free at once. But it’s Scorsese and DeNiro and Pesci and Pacino. So you know it’s quality. Pacino’s silky-smooth turn as Hoffa reminded me how taken for granted he can be. And there was a scene in there about something as mundane as trying to remember what kind of fish Hoffa’s son had transported in the car earlier that exquisitely carried the tension of the implication of a wrong answer juxtaposed against such ridiculous subject matter that if you squinted enough, you could almost hear them say “You mean funny like a clown?” And I’m all for trying something new, like releasing the movie straight to Netflix and making it two movies standing on top of each other, but when the one thing people most talk about is the length of the movie, that’s probably not a good sign. 4 votes (Dustin Fisher)

5. Joker: Not your grandma’s comic book movie! In Joker, DC’s latest intro into the plethora of comic book movies released over the last decade (looking at you Marvel) looks at the origin story of Joker, the caped crusaders most well known adversary.  While this movie is definitely not canon and is closer to Michael Douglas’s 1993 Falling Down, it gives a gritty, dark look into the events that drove the Joker to his life of crime.  A great, if utterly depressing movie, if you are feeling down or have thoughts of inadequacy or suicide, maybe pick up the Princess Bride, or Die Hard, otherwise you can’t go wrong with Joker. 9 votes (Uriah Robbins)

4. Little Women: It really must be said that when an ensemble cast is so talented that you forget for a moment that Meryl Streep and Laura Dern are even in a film, you know that the casting director has done their job. The way that Greta Gerwig has written her adaptation of the film is something that could be lifted and replicated in almost any period in time, but it works very well in its original setting and a lot of that is due to Gerwig’s attention to detail.

Don’t just take your daughters to this movie; take your sons. We begin conditioning our kids very early on to either be a part of or be a victim of a misogynist society and this movie is really the antithesis of that. Please take your sons, husbands, fathers, take your whole family to see this fantastic film – a timeless story but told freshly in a way that the world need to hear and see. 9 votes (Brett McKenzie)

3. JoJo Rabbit: This is what we used to call a Dramedy when we had our video store. Taika Watiti is able to take us on a journey that is like life – traveling through an emotional landscape from comedy to tragedy to poignancy and back again. There are scenes that just make you gasp, they are so unexpected and jarring. Then there are others that prompt belly laughs.

While there are similarities to Life is Beautiful - a young boy is protected by his parent from the horrors and truth of Hitler’s reign - one also has to give a nod to The Producers by Mel Brooks where the play Springtime for Hitler has the monster singing and dancing in silly songs.

In the end, the message of the film comes through that even in the face of unspeakable evil and cruelty, the humanity of enough people will manage, through courage, sacrifice, humor and open hearts, to restore a sense of compassionate community. It’s a message that I can use these days. 11 votes (Sherry Wack)

2. Parasite: In my pick for best picture of the year (since Die Hard is not eligible) Bong Joon Ho, gives us a cinematic masterpiece, that focuses on the Kim family, a down on their luck, lower class family that consists of the parents and their two adult aged children, as they embark on the con of a century.   What Ho presents us, at first glance, is a by the books social commentary, the 1% versus the rest of us, but upon closer inspection, what we really get is a social commentary, wrapped in a brilliantly done heist movie, that takes a turn into the unexpected!  It’s hard to discuss much without going into spoiler territory and I assure you, spoilers will ruin the experience, so get stop what you’re doing right now and see Parasite, so you can say you saw the years best picture before it was cool. 11 votes (Uriah Robbins)

1. 1917: I walked into the theater a sceptic, prepared to throw shade all over this new overrated war epic. Apparently anybody can win an Oscar if they just throw enough money at a period piece, especially one about war. Hey! Nobody’s done World War I in a while. Let’s do that one!

But Mendes made every dollar count. 1917 took the Birdman gimmick of a single 2-hour tracking shot and decided to make it about something more meaningful. Yes, war. And sure, there are probably a few places where the magic movie people are able to throw in a cut or two, and I also know Birdman didn’t invent the technique (Hitchcock and Warhol are among the more popular of yesteryear), but it did just win a Best Picture Oscar for this exact thing just five years ago. But the scope this film must have went through to create this world – the mile-long trenches that needed to be built, the number of actors and crew that needed to be coordinated, and the continuity that needed to be… continued was – dare I say Oscar-worthy. Probably Best Picture, Cinematography, Production Design, and maybe a handful of other technical awards. Unlike at least half of the epic Best Pictures from the last decade, I will rubber stamp 1917 for each little golden person it takes home tonight. Which fortunately leaves me plenty of shade to throw at Tarantino. 24 votes (Dustin Fisher)

Review of Marriage Story

Marriage Story spins a tale most couples can appreciate, for better or for worse

Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” tells a tale that will feel familiar to the majority of couples whether you’ve never even entertained the idea of divorce or you’ve embraced and endured it, and that is because it’s the rather unremarkable tale of compromise and selfishness in one’s marriage told through the remarkable lens of Broadway and Hollywood success. This simultaneously-released-to-silver-screen-and-streaming (Netflix) darling of critics and award nominators is well-written and authentic in its portrayal of a marriage that is fraying as it is pulled in two directions by a husband and wife who have different wants and needs for each other and themselves. As Noah Baumbach shares his life and a new baby with fellow best screenwriter nominee Greta Gerwig (Little Women), one can’t help but wonder if inspiration is drawn from their two careers and lives more than, say, the stay-at-home mom and a medical supplies salesman. Because the similarity to an average marriage falls apart when you see the bi-coastal support system of family and friends propping up the splitting duo, not to mention the decision they must make between Broadway or Hell-ay as a home-base.

The three leading members (Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, and Laura Dern) all received all the nominations Hollywood could dole out but few wins so far, save for Laura Dern in the best supporting role that had me scratching my head. Not because she’s not, you know, Laura Dern good. But because we’ve seen better from her in this very award season in her performances on HBO’s “Big Little Lies” Season 2 and even as the iconic Marmie in Gerwig’s “Little Women.” She had brilliantly-written lines to deliver in “Marriage Story,” and real-life context for delivering them having endured her own public Hollywood divorce only years ago. So did Johansson, from both her blink-and-you-missed-it marriage to Ryan Reynolds ages ago and in her second divorce, which actually happened while she filmed “Marriage Story” (from ex Romain Dauriac with whom she shares a 5-year-old daughter). But I felt ScarJo’s performances in “JoJo Rabbit” and, candidly, “Avengers: Endgame” were more impressive roles than this. The actor who most captivates in “A Marriage Story,” ironically, is the happily married father of one Adam Driver. This felt less like simply a different Driver than Kylo Ren, and a lot more like the Driver of the “Girls” era all grown-up. His performance was the one that moved me to tears. As a married woman, a mom, a feminist, and as the daughter of divorced parents, I expected to feel those “yes! Sisterhood! Men can get away with so much more than women!” lines Dern and Johansson speak more deeply. But perhaps the fact that they were written for women by a man made them less relatable? To me, Johansson typecast as a “muse” with feelings of her own feels like something I’ve seen before. And as I stated earlier, I would pick Dern as Marmie in Gerwig’s “Little Women” or as Renata in “Big Little Lies” (where she’s often passed over in favor of Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon) over this performance.

At least, in real life, we aren’t forced to choose between Gerwig and Baumbach’s work as the Academy must do. For me, “A Marriage Story” is a glamorous version of a story you have heard or seen or lived a million times in real life. If the premise of choosing oneself or one’s marriage strikes too close to your homefront, you may prefer to skip it. If not, the writing and Driver’s performance are to me what made it nomination-worthy but doubtful it takes home the grand prize tomorrow night.

7/10

Brett McKenzie

Review of JoJo Rabbit

Watiti walks a very careful line between comedy and tragedy, and manages to keep his balance

This is what we used to call a Dramedy when we had our video store. Taika Watiti is able to take us on a journey that is like life – traveling through an emotional landscape from comedy to tragedy to poignancy and back again. There are scenes that just make you gasp, they are so unexpected and jarring. Then there are others that prompt belly laughs. According to Sam Rockwell, Taika “has a really good comedy compass.”

In Hitler’s Germany toward the end of WWII, the Nazis are so desperate that they recruit and train 10 year old boys and girls to be ready to fight when the Allies invade their towns. This of course sets up any number of comic situations. Jojo is such a gung-ho little Nazi that his imaginary friend is Hitler himself, who is hysterically portrayed by the director. But the hate and brutality of the Third Reich pops up throughout from time to time, creating contrast that keeps us on the edge of our seats.

The boy, Roman Griffin Davis, is extraordinary in his acting. As you can tell from all the award nominations and wins, the entire cast is excellent, as well as the writing, costumes, editing, etc. Everyone involved in the making of this film talks about how much fun they had.

While there are similarities to Life is Beautiful - a young boy is protected by his parent from the horrors and truth of Hitler’s reign - one also has to give a nod to The Producers by Mel Brooks where the play Springtime for Hitler has the monster singing and dancing in silly songs.

In the end, the message of the film comes through that even in the face of unspeakable evil and cruelty, the humanity of enough people will manage, through courage, sacrifice, humor and open hearts, to restore a sense of compassionate community. It’s a message that I can use these days.

10/10
Sherry Wack