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Sunday, April 1, 2018

MOVIE REVIEW: READY PLAYER ONE







































From filmmaker Steven Spielberg comes the science fiction action adventure “Ready Player One,” based on Ernest Cline’s bestseller of the same name, which has become a worldwide phenomenon. The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger. Spielberg directed the film from a screenplay by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline. 

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance

Release Date: March 29, 2018

Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action violence, bloody images, some suggestive material, partial nudity and language

Runtime: 2h 20min

Review:


Ready Player One is an interesting bit of cinematic alchemy where 80s pop culture becomes pop culture in a fun if hollow fable.  Steven Spielberg’s film is a rapid fire collection of gamer and 80’s references that hit you so quickly and consistently that’s it’s easy to get overwhelmed.  The plot isn’t much more than an updated take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the characters aren’t terribly dense but it’s all fairly fun and energetic.  Spielberg does some solid world building in and out of the Oasis with both having a certain charm.  That being said it’s easy to be left with a ton more questions once you start thinking about the worlds being presented.  Tye Sheridan leads the film ably even if he rates closer on the bland side than anything.  Olivia Cooke is equally capable but provides a bit more spark than Sheridan.  Lena Waithe and T.J. Miller are solid supporting players that provide some of the films highlights even if we never see Miller in the flesh.  Mark Rylance is a tad over the top as the socially awkward creator but he does parse out some humanity and heart of him none the less.   Ready Player One is a love letter to multiple things and it delivers some truly engaging and frenetic set pieces, one in particular I won’t ruin, but it does fall a little bit in love with itself especially towards the end which starts to drag just a tad before it ends with one Spielberg’s more candy coated finales. 


B+

Cindy Prascik's Review of Ready Player One







































Dearest Blog: Thanks to the long holiday weekend, yesterday it was off to Marquee Cinemas for an early screening of Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One.
 
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.
 
The deceased creator of a virtual reality world called "The Oasis" leaves his followers a challenge: Find the hidden Easter egg, rule the Oasis, and win the fortune that goes with it.
 
From my first encounter with a Ready Player One trailer, I had a feeling something was off, a feeling that carried all the way through the finished product. The movie is not without its positives, but they're far too few to make it less than a torturous couple hours.
 
Ready Player One kicks off with the god-awfulest song in history, Van Halen's Jump, so it doesn't give a person much hope right...well...right from the jump. The main cast of youngsters ranges from a little wooden to pretty awful, so grownups Simon Pegg, Mark Rylance, and even the extraordinary Ben Mendelsohn can't do much to help. The movie's production design is impressive, but scenes inside the Oasis are curiously less so than those in the real world. In fact, the Oasis--a place where people can be anyone or anything they choose--is actually a little creepy and dark, not at all fanciful, and the film's hundreds of pop-culture references wear thin in their ubiquitousness. I had hoped for a great 80s soundtrack, and there are some terrific songs, but they're so muted and cropped as to be nearly invisible. Sadly, Ready Player One did nothing to exceed my middling expectations.
 
Ready Player One clocks in at 140 minutes and is rated PG13 for "sequences of sci-fi action violence, bloody images, some suggestive material, partial nudity, and language."
 
A few years back, Sylvester Stallone and Robert DeNiro did a movie called Grudge Match, about a pair of aging boxers coaxed out of retirement for one final match. It wasn't on anyone's awards shortlist, but, if you were of a certain age, plenty of it was pretty damn funny. When a teenage friend mentioned she didn't enjoy it, I told her it probably wasn't "for" her. I'm not a gamer, and there are no other versions of me running around in any VR worlds, so it's entirely possible that Ready Player One just isn't "for" me, BUT...a really great movie is somehow for everyone, regardless of their investment, and this isn't that, either. Of a possible nine Weasleys, Ready Player One gets three.
 
Until next time...

Sunday, March 25, 2018

MOVIE REVIEW: PACIFIC RIM UPRISING







































Jake Pentecost is a once-promising Jaeger pilot whose legendary father gave his life to secure humanity's victory against the monstrous Kaiju. Jake has since abandoned his training only to become caught up in a criminal underworld. But when an even more unstoppable threat is unleashed to tear through cities and bring the world to its knees, Jake is given one last chance by his estranged sister, Mako Mori, to live up to his father's legacy.

Director: Steven S. DeKnight

Cast: John Boyega , Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Jing Tian, Adria Arjona, Zhang Jin, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman

Release Date: March 23, 2018

Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and some language

Runtime: 1h 51min

Review:

Pacific Rum Uprising is one of those sequels that feels like a lesser version of the original film.  That’s not to say that Uprising doesn’t offer some robot action because it does but it just doesn’t connect in the same way the original did.  Part of the reason is its decision to jettison the majority of the cast of the original film.  Idris Elba died at the end of the first film so his omission is expected but Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi should have had some sort of role in the sequel.  Hunnam couldn’t participate due to scheduling issues and Rinko Kikuchi is given a token appearance before she’s taken off the board.  It’s a shame when a sequel removes nearly everything from the previous film in order to start with a clean slate and present us with a new cast of character.  John Boyega in the lead is good fun since he’s allowed to spread his wings a bit more than he has in the recent Star Wars films.  Boyega displays some of the energetic charm he displayed years ago in Attack The Block.  Sadly the supporting cast is a solid display of blandness across the board.  Scott Eastwood may look like his father but he doesn’t have anywhere near the same kind of screen magnetism.  The rest of the supporting players are made up by faceless 20 something where supposed to care about but can’t since their about as one dimensional as they come.  Charlie Day and Burn Gorman returned for this entry but sadly the magic just isn’t there.  Pacific Rim Uprising is a passable sequel but you can’t help but feel like it should have been much better.

C+

MOVIE REVIEW: SHERLOCK GNOMES







































After a string of garden gnome disappearances in London, Gnomeo & Juliet look to legendary detective Sherlock Gnomes to solve the case of their missing friends and family.
Director: John Stevenson

Cast: James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mary J. Blige, Johnny Depp

Rated PG for some rude and suggestive humor.

Genres: Animation, Adventure, Comedy

Runtime: 1h 26min

Review:

Sherlock Gnomes is a fun and lighthearted sequel that works more than it doesn’t even though it doesn’t deliver a ton of surprises.  Going through the basic of Sherlock Holmes mythology in gnome form plays out in a fun family friendly manner.  Johnny Depp provides the voice for Sherlock Gnomes and gives him a fun self centered narcissistic voice.  Depp and Emily Blunt spend the better part of the film together and they have some fun chemistry.  McAvoy spends the better part of the film on a separate storyline which means that he and Blunt don’t have a lot of interplay which was the highlight of the original but it’s all in service of the story.  The film has a solid message of not taking loved ones for granted which is a bit more thoughtful than it really needed to be for this type of family film which is refreshing. 

B
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