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Reviews
Extraction (2015)
I'm okay with a simple mma and tits action flick, but....
But you have to stick to the formula for making what's at heart a C movie actually entertain the target audience, drunk dudes. That formula? Simple storyline, bare bones dialogue, and expertly choreographed fight scenes that come no more than five minutes apart. The script was terrible from beginning to end. Bruce Willis tells a bad guy "Don't you ever threaten my family", just before delivering the kill shot. Immediately I got a bad feeling, because the line should have been "Nobody threatens my family" in order to make sense as far continuity. That may seem like a small detail to someone who isn't a writer but trust me, words matter. The dialogue never gets better and though most of the fight scenes are okay, enough of them are badly staged that it detracts from the only thing that makes the film worth seeing. The acting was below average with the exception of Bruce Willis, who phoned it in but is still a veteran. Gina Carano was under utilized, which seems to keep happening to her. There are too many bad movies that are still a lot of fun for you to waste time on this one. 4 out of 10.
True Story (2015)
Wasn't interested until I watched a Doc about the source material...
And then I was in. I'd turned the film off a few months back, but now that I had a better idea where all the random cut aways were leading up to I decided to give it my time. Unfortunately, the cheezy doc handled suspense better. I haven't researched the making of this film, but my distinct impression is that the actors had too much influence on the writing and direction. So much needed to be cut, and so much needed to be added. They lost track of the heart of the story and tried to focus on the mind game between Longo and Finkel. Nobody cares about Finkel, he's the least important element in the TRUE STORY. This was about a man who killed his wife and three toddlers because WHY?, and what they give us is a bunch of week flirting between two grown men who are entirely unlikable for obvious reasons. More importantly, nothing happens in the third act. Nothing! I can't find any reason to recommend this film save interest in the Christian Longo case or being a Franco fan. If the former, just look it up on wiki and read that while you watch something else.
Close Range (2015)
They spent all of the money on action choreography...ALL OF IT
...And it kind of works out. The acting, wooden. The writing, juvenile. The directing, well, he stuck to a detailed storyboard so it's not too terrible. But what is actually watch worthy is the action sequences. Fantastic fight scenes, creative shoot outs. Complex single shot stunt takes that wow. I was impressed from the beginning (except for one accidental camera angle where a bad guy clearly waits to jump into the fight-my peeve). This is not a thinking persons film at all. In fact I suggest you crack a twelve pack with your bros and sit back to cheer for some brutal MMA action. P.S. There really should have been some gratuitous nudity. It's just that kind of flick.
Fanboys (2009)
Most of the suck came from technical issues not artistic
Yes, a lot of the jokes fell flat but the problems IMO start way before that during the initial filming. First, why did they go with sub par filming equipment? High quality digital cameras are cheap now. Any film student can rent high quality cameras so that was clearly the first bad decision the producers made. Secondly, the directing was very basic, not imaginative but serviceable, which is why I can't figure out why they couldn't save this project in editing. Or, now that I think of it, maybe they did. Personally I think everyone was stoned most of the time but even so, with a tighter production crew, this could have been hilarious.
Son of Morning (2011)
If you don't think writing is important, please don't try to direct a feature film...
Nobody sets out to make a bad movie. That said, somebody should have performed an intervention at some point to tell the director that nothing was working and he needed help. Early on I had the feeling that the film was being helmed by someone who really enjoyed saying, "I'm a director," but didn't consider directing as something that should take a lot of thought or work. And then there was the writing which also let me know pretty early that there probably wouldn't be much payoff for my time and attention. **SPOILER** The Sun is going out because it's running out of Hydrogen...because that's what it's made of and if it doesn't have that then it doesn't, like, work right anymore. And that's all you need to know about that. So, now you have a director who doesn't seem to be trying to communicate anything visually, a writer who thinks making sense isn't all that important and guess what, it's the same guy. Later I looked the guy up and discovered that it's his first feature. Which is fine, but why wasn't somebody checking up on him? They used expensive film, had multiple locations and a lot of big name cameos. Why would they sit back and let him pretend like he knew what he was doing? What's that you say? He's Heather Grahams long time, good looking boyfriend? Ohhhhh. Gotcha. I guess that's enough for automatic carte blanche, but they really didn't do the guy any favors. In fact they owe him an apology. A seasoned writer to bounces the script off, and a veteran cinematographer to marry the shot to the message and this film might have been salvaged. Not good, but marketable.
All of the performances are wasted due to lack of control and or vision, the soundtrack is so unimportant to the story or scene that it's actually an unwelcome distraction; "Why are we playing that music at this point in the scene?" "I don't know, cause it was too quiet?" "Hm, okey dokey" The whole exercise reminds me of some people I went to art school with. They know what they like, but they haven't the slightest clue how to get there. And will quickly tell you you're not smart enough to understand what they're saying (Quick tip: Only a stupid person or a con man would ever say something like that). Son of Morning wants to say something important, but important words don't come easy to privileged people. So basically it ends with a string of useless clichés as the protagonist's final speech before a great big giant flaming cliché as his last act.
And not one single second of any of it ever mattered.
2/10