Media Man

LA Confidential is a 1997 crime film directed and witten by Curtis Hanson and was co-written by Brian Helgeland. Based on the book of the same name by James Ellroy, it has become one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed films of modern cinema, winning two Oscars at the 1998 Academy Awards. Story Taking place in 1950's Hollywood, the set-up finds a group of three cops trying to solve a mass murder that gives way to a larger conspiracy. That's the condensed version of a complex plot. While the story gets rolling once we're in the main mystery it takes awhile to get off the ground. There's a lot of time dedicated to character set-up, probably more than necessary. It definitely requires at least a second viewing because of a few scenes that are necessary build-up, but originally come off as filler. The mystery is just ok, mostly because it's difficult to follow and the payoff isn't that strong. Even though the who done it is a good twist you can see ...

The Deer Hunter  is a 1979 Vietnam anti-war drama directed by Michael Cimino and written by Cimino/Deric Washburn/Louis Garfinkle/Quinn K. Redeker. It has garnered a reputation as one of the greatest movies of all time, earning 5 Oscars and being preserved in the Library of Congress. Story The movie follows a soldier named Michael (Robert De Niro) before, during and after his military service in the Vietnam War. During these times, we also see the relationships with his friends and how they change over time. The film's themes boil down to every message the media has crammed down our throats since Vietnam itself; America sucks, Vietnam was unjustified, war is bad. I'm not saying they're completely wrong, I'm saying we've heard it a lot and it does get tedious after awhile. The film makes sure that you not only care about these characters, but also that you feel their struggle and journey. You feel the happiness of a wedding, the chaos of Vietnam and th...

Note: This version of season 4 of   Arrow  carries over consequences of events that happened in my version of season 3. Please read that before this.  http://connorveenstra.blogspot.com/2016/04/my-pitch-for-better-season-3-of-arrow.html Oliver wakes up in a hospital bed, his head wrapped in bandages. Detective Lance is sitting next to him. He promises Oliver that nobody ever found out. Oliver thanks him as he leaves. The doctor and nurse come in a remove Oliver's bandages, revealing burn marks on almost half of his face. Later, Diggle and Felicity rush in and ask him what happened. He describes the fight on the rooftop and what the Red Hood said about Ra's al Ghul. That can't be right, though, because Ra's has been dead for years. Oliver wants to find out what's going on, but his loved ones force him to stay put. We have a quiet moment between Felicity and Oliver as they ask each other if they're ok. Felicity seems much more distraught, however, and Oliv...

Chaplin is a 1992 bio-drama written by William Boyd/William Goldman/Bryan Forbes and directed by Richard Attenborough. The film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Charlie Chaplin and it tells the story of the performer's life. Story The story is good, however, it suffers from the same problems that every other post- Lincoln biographical picture had: they tried to tell the story of Chaplin's entire life. Bios that try this often end up the same way: pointless. The reason Lincoln  worked so well is that it told a single story of Lincoln's life: him trying to pass the 16th Amendment. With Chaplin , you get a very broad sense of his whole life and so the movie isn't really about anything. It's just scenes cut together one after the other to show Charlie Chaplin's life. That's never worked for a movie, that's supposed to have a point, and it doesn't work here. The screenplay is alright, but much of it doesn't stand out. However, a lot of the jokes they ...

Recently, there was huge news for the upcoming superhero film Spiderman Homecoming : 19-year-old actress Zendaya has been cast as Mary Jane Watson. I need to stress that this isn't the first thing that made me worried for the new Spider-Man movie, but it is the tipping point that has started making me deathly nervous about its quality. My worries started when I heard about who was heading the project: director Jon Watts, whose only other notable directing credits are a mediocre Kevin Bacon movie called Cop Car  and a couple of episodes of the comedy series The Onion News Network. The second aspect that caught my eye was the film's writers. Firstly, there are six of them, which makes me nervous because that's one story stretched between six people, all of whom probably have their own ideas of how it should be. Secondly, more than half of them are comedy writers with credits on American Dad, Community, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Horrible Bosses . Notice anythin...

X-Men Apocalypse  is a 2016 superhero movie directed/produced/written by Bryan Singer and co-written by Simon Kinberg/Michael Dougherty/Dan Harris, all of whom have worked on the scripts for previous X-Men films. The film has earned the love of its audience, with a 7.6 on IMDb, but has so far been a critical disappointment with a 47% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 53% on Metacritic. Story The film's set-up is pretty similar to how it goes down in the comics; an ancient mutant named En Sabah Nur has awakened from his slumber and has set his sights on destroying/conquering the Earth, wiping it clean of all  humans, who he sees as the weakest beings on the planet, and leaving only the strong to survive and rule. Now, the X-Men must band together to stop his master plan. Even though the set-up is good I think it's Fox trying to play their trump card after it's already been played.  Days of Future Past  was such a perfect climax/ending to the X-Men movies because it felt so...

Looper  is a 2012 sci-fi action film written and directed by Rian Johnson. The film garnered critical praise and financial success upon its release was one of the most well regarded movies of that year. Please note that it's very hard to review this movie due to its complex plot and just cool touches I don't want to spoil. Story Joe is a looper, an assassin who kills somebody sent back through time whenever the future mob needs to get rid of a body. (This is the simplest version I could come up with.) One day, however, he's sent a very special target: his older self. Old Joe escapes and now Young Joe must find him and kill him before his employers kill him for letting his target escape. The set up is delightfully original and many of the ideas in the film are pretty inspired. They make the world feel real, getting you sucked into the environment. The screenplay is fantastic. Even though the exposition at the beginning is clearly exposition, it doesn't feel lik...