Reviews by MaxL

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The Iceman is a biopic of the notorious contract killer Richard Kuklinski, who kept his true professional life hidden from his family.
I have to admit, this is a hard movie to talk about. Since I don't know the true story, my only hope was the film would tell it well enough to hold my interest.
Well, it half succeeded. During the first half, I was really struck by the earnestly morose tone, and could follow the proceedings without any difficulty. But, as the film progressed, I found it increasingly hard to understand what was going on and how the various events were connected – probably because I was having trouble cracking the dialogue. While I wasn't completely lost, it did leave me increasingly confused.
The brilliance of Michael Shannon's performance as Kuklinski never faltered, though. :) He's portrayed as a very cold, professional killer, completely unflinching. But he still truly loves his family – indeed, as he puts it, they're the only people who mean anything at all to him. So, when they're threatened later on, you start to get desperately worried just as he does. Also, after Man of Steel, it's such a relief to see Michael Shannon give a performance to be proud of within the same year! :)
To sum it up, while I might need to see it again to fully understand it, I'd still recommend this to anyone who wants to see a solid contract killer story. It's not great, but it's very effective.

My rating: 70%

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

A former Secret Service agent happens to be in the White House when it's taken over by North Korean terrorists, and must stop them with a little help from his contacts on the outside.
Does that sound like a rewrite of Die Hard to you? Well, surely no one would be that creatively bankrupt. To quote the Nostalgia Critic, they are when they frigging advertise it like that! Right on the front cover, it says "Die Hard in the White House". Subtext: "Throw out all originality, ye who enter here!"
Even my impression of it as a movie is tired and unoriginal. Like so many other modern action movies, it's not fun: it's boring. It's full of shaky cam that's not fun to watch: just disorientating and frustrating.
I also can't help noticing how grossly misogynistic the movie is. There's the death of the First Lady at the beginning, and the first hostage to be killed for a cheap shock death is a woman.
But my biggest problem with the movie, and the main contributor to its insufferable boredom factor: it takes itself way too seriously. When the terrorists strike, the gunning down of innocent civilians makes it feel too much like a real terrorist attack. There's just no escapism to it.
So, while it's at least bloodier and bolder than most action movies today, it unfortunately takes its authentic brutality too far. It's just all-around devoid of fun.

My rating: 30%

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Tony Stark's world is shattered by a ruthless terrorist known as the Mandarin, forcing him back to basics with minimal hardware as he sets out to find his nemesis.
As a fan of all these interconnected Marvel movies, naturally I was looking forward to this one. And, while I don't think it's one of the best overall, when it's good, it's really good.
There were a few things that bothered me, so let's get those out of the way first. It tries to be more psychological than the first two movies by making Tony prone to panic attacks following the events of The Avengers, but nothing significant ever comes of that. It's also far more unexpectedly gruesome than the first two, including several scenes of torture. And the ending seems like it's trying to wrap up a trilogy, but nothing about the ending makes sense.
But of course, where the movie shines is its action scenes, especially the big climactic battle. It's so entertaining that you're willing to forgive many of the film's shortcomings.
But now let's address the elephant in the room: the Mandarin twist. :) I never read the comics myself, but I can understand why fans would feel betrayed. Personally, in the context of the movie, I think it works.
Overall, while I would advise approaching with caution because it does get far more grisly than its predecessors, I'd still say this is worthy follow-up: equally humorous and exhilarating.

My rating: 70%

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Charlie Logan is under a hex that any girl he sleeps with will marry the next guy she meets, which complicates his relationship with Cam, the girl of his dreams.
When I saw Film Brain's review of Good Luck Chuck, I was so appalled at the movie that I knew I'd have to watch it myself to officially confirm whether or not it really was one of the worst movies I've ever come across. And, as expected… seeing the review first kind of softened the blow a bit.
But that doesn't make the film any less reprehensible! Right from the opening scene, with the ten-year-old children experimenting with sex, I was thinking, "What sick fuck came up with this?!" The sex-obsessed Stu is by far one of the most annoying characters in all of cinema. I even hated the movie's attempts to prove that Charlie's a good guy by making him a complete Good Samaritan: it's blatant overcompensation – especially since he steps into full-blown insanity later on! And let's not even get into how despicably sexist the movie is!
Oddly enough, though, Charlie and Cam do seem to legitimately hit it off in their first scene. But the whole curse aspect shoots any of that potential dead in its tracks.
In conclusion, while it's not one of the absolute worst movies I've ever seen, it was still a tough sit. Apart from being immature, annoying and sexist as all hell, a lot of the humour is just sickeningly tasteless.

My rating: 20%

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

When Roman general Maximus is betrayed and his family murdered by the emperor's corrupt son Commodus, he gets his chance for revenge when he comes to Rome as a gladiator.
I don't like to use the word "overrated", but I certainly couldn't get into Gladiator as much as everyone else seems to. Why? Well, several reasons.
For one thing, I'm not a Russell Crowe fan. I've always found him soporifically bland, and this is no exception.
The movie does so little to effectively establish its many plot threads that the whole thing just seems unfocused. Even Maximus's central quest for revenge ends up getting lost in a sea of other wrestling plot points. Some of them did perk my interest, like the Senate's plan to get rid of Commodus, but nothing ever comes of that. The third act in particular devolves into a completely disjointed mess; I was just thinking, "What do any of these events have to do with each other?" And how does Commodus find out about the scheme against him?
The fight scenes are some of the worst ever! This is one of those movies that succumbs to the sad cliché of over-editing, so sometimes I couldn't even tell what was going on.
I really wanted to love this movie, but in the end it just came off to me as okay at best. I liked parts of it, but they were just a few bright spots in an otherwise confusing, pretentious mess.

My rating: 60%

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Ren McCormack moves from the city to a small town where dancing and rock music have been banned, and his rebellious spirit threatens to change that.
So now I've seen both the two 80s dance movies I've seen get the most attention. :) Perhaps surprisingly, I liked Dirty Dancing, but this one just didn't do much for me.
It's interesting, though, that this movie is the polar opposite of Dirty Dancing in some ways. :) What really made Dirty Dancing was the bond between the two leads, but the romance here is not in the forefront of the story, and it's just kind of mediocre. Ariel is established as a fiercely rebellious spirit before we even meet Ren, so it just seems like they were meant for each other anyway.
Also, I felt the only letdown of Dirty Dancing was the villains. But the main antagonist here, the Reverend Shaw Moore, is not just a simple stick-in-the-mud who won't listen, but is actually a three-dimensional and kind of sympathetic character.
But I think the main reason I couldn't get into this movie is because the prejudiced environment comes off as very peripheral. Ren getting into trouble at school, the townspeople violently turning against him and his mother… all these ideas are hinted at, but none of them are fully fleshed out.
So if you like Footloose, if it inspired you, great. I just found it to be really nothing special.

My rating: 55%

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Henry Roth meets Lucy Whitmore and thinks he's finally found the girl of his dreams, until he discovers she has short-term memory loss and forgets all about him the next day.
Just because Adam Sandler was in this, I was already dreading it, but I'll give anything a chance. But it turned out to be far worse than I could have expected!
First of all, as you can probably guess, the overly crass humour just annoyed the fuck out of me. Any of Rob Schneider's screen time was especially insufferable. But on top of that, the romantic side of the story is so sappy that it really gives you whiplash when it's playing off such vulgar humour. So it fails as a romantic comedy because the romance and the comedy contrast too sharply.
And don't even get me started on my issues with the film's morals! That's a discussion for a full review. But here's the gist of it: even though everyone had good intentions, I just felt like they were all simply exploiting Lucy regardless. Henry himself clearly has a conscience and knows it'd be wrong to take advantage of his fear of commitment… but he does so anyway. And as for Lucy's father and brother… well, the longer you keep up a charade, the harder it's likely to bite you in the ass.
So there you go. I hated almost everything about this movie, and I just felt bad for Drew Barrymore for appearing in it.

My rating: 20%

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

A wandering ronin comes across a town torn apart by two criminal gangs, and decides to end the town's trouble by playing them both against each other.
Now, I'll be tackling this movie in perhaps a very different way. I saw A Fistful of Dollars (the spaghetti western remake) first, so I couldn't help comparing the two as I was watching it.
In terms of story, A Fistful of Dollars follows Yojimbo almost beat for beat. The key difference is the attitude of each movie. Fistful of Dollars plays it with much more humanity: you sympathise more with the law-abiding Baxter family. But in Yojimbo, both sides are as corrupt as the other, so you can't help but agree with the samurai: the town would indeed be better off with both of them dead.
The samurai himself is a fascinating character, too. He seems completely uninterested in almost everything unless it involves violence. I especially love the scene early on where he gets both clans on the brink of battle and he just sits back to watch! :D
By a certain point, the proceedings were just different enough for me to start to appreciate Yojimbo in its own right – helped all the more by the fact that I felt as if I'd settled into the town environment.
Overall, this is an excellent tale of bringing balance to a savage community, and I certainly look forward to seeing it again when I don't have Fistful of Dollars on the mind.

My rating: 80%

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

When Clarence and his new wife, former call girl Alabama Whitman, unintentionally steal a suitcase full of cocaine from her pimp, they attempt to sell it in Hollywood. But the gangsters who own the drugs are on their trail.
True Romance, to my knowledge, is one of only two movies that Quentin Tarantino has written but not directed. And this movie definitely spells "Tarantino" all over it, with its sardonic overall tone, its gleeful depiction of violence, and conversations on pretty trivial subjects. And boy is it awesome! :D
One of my favourite scenes is when Christopher Walken is interrogating Dennis Hopper, because you never know if he's going to be diplomatic or turn violent. And, when Alabama is getting brutally beaten, I was actually laughing in that the guy had the sheer balls to beat a woman like he would anyone else!
Sadly, though, the overall direction does let the film down quite a bit. In terms of acting and camera work, it all feels a bit too raw; it's not as polished as Tarantino would have made it.
On a side note, the Drexl character really fascinates me. Maybe it's because I know it's Gary Oldman, but it just sounds like he's putting on an accent. Does the character talk like that just to fit in with his peers? I really want to know! :)
Overall, if the movie had been a little less sloppy in its direction, I might rank it up there with the best of Tarantino.

My rating: 75%

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

After her release from prison for the kidnapping and murder of a young boy, Lee Geum-ja begins to orchestrate her plan for revenge against the real culprit – while reuniting with her estranged daughter.
Just to let you know, this review will contain a spoiler for the climax.
I'll probably get some flak for this, but I think this is easily the weakest of the Vengeance Trilogy.
For one thing, while Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Oldboy were presented relatively straightforward, I feel as if this one is trying way too hard to be artsy, with its nonlinear narrative structure and philosophical moments.
I really didn't like how the daughter subplot was handled. There was great potential for the mother and daughter to develop their relationship despite the language barrier, but that's barely touched on. As a result, the daughter seems completely secondary to the revenge plot (even, dare I say, expendable), so I just didn't care how their relationship worked out. I think they needed to either devote more screen time to that, or just cut that subplot from the film altogether.
The highlight, however, was the final scene, where the families of all the killer's victims take turns exacting their revenge. That's brutal! :)
In conclusion, while I don't dislike this movie, I certainly think it's a big step below the other two. It might grow on me more with repeat viewings, but for now at least, I think it's just okay.

My rating: 60%