The Call Review

The Call is one of those movies that I heard such mixed things about that I felt like I had to see it so I could at least weigh in and see just how good (or bad) it was. I never intended to see the movie, I thought it looked pretty mediocre and not worth my time...but it couldn't be worse than some of the shit I watched this year...right?

The Call follows the story of Jordan (Halle Berry), a 911 operator, and how her life changes when she takes a call from a teenage girl (Abigail Breslin) who has been abducted. While this doesn't sound like a very exhilarating story, I think this film benefited from some good direction, and solid performances from Berry and Breslin.

The writing in this film was pretty mediocre. I wouldn't call it bad, because it strung together a pretty good story, but with some fairly bland dialogue. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the story was entertaining, but what people were saying seemed fairly to very irrelevant. At some points, I though that Breslin's character was attempting to turn her mouth into a dog whistle. Not only was it irritating, but it was also nauseating. But, hey...it wasn't that bad.

The direction in this film was, surprisingly, above par. I thought that the director did a great job of building tension with cramped shots, and used odd angles and interesting framing to increase the tension throughout the film. It was no surprise that this was the same man that directed the phenomenal The Machinist.

While this was, by no stretch of the imagination, and Oscar winning performance for Berry, I was really impressed with what she did with the role. Her character isn't inherently likeable for the first...let's say 40% of the film, but towards the end I actually found myself rooting for her and wanting her to find the kidnapper. Berry is an amazingly capable actress, and she really showed it in this movie.

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While I wouldn't say you should rush out and see this film immediately, I would say it's worth it if you want something to watch on a Saturday night and it's available on RedBox. The story is thrilling, thanks to some excellent direction, and the acting will keep you enticed until the very end.

Writing: 5/10

Directing: 7/10

Acting: 7/10

Pacing: 6.5/10

Rewatchability: 5/10

Score: 6.1/10

Oblivion Review

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I was kind of excited for Oblivion. I thought it looked like an interesting and original sci-fi film. The trailers looked reminiscent of some great Philip K Dick stories, so yea...I got my hopes up. I wasn't expecting anything phenomenal, but was expecting a pretty decent, well scripted sci-fi film...sadly that's not what I got. 

Oblivion is literally a mashup of a couple of recent (and original!) sci-fi films. It draws greatly from Moon (one of my favorite sci-fi films of all time, let alone the last decade) and Daybreakers (which was a great twist on the vampire genre, especially in the wake of the awfulness that is Twilight.) It you can imagine what those two movies would look like mashed up...you might see a, conceivably, good film. Sadly, this film takes two great storylines, but fills it in with absolutely crap. 

The biggest problem with this film is definitely the writing. Whoever wrote this didn't have a single original idea in their head. They pieced together a couple of great sci-fi plots, but couldn't connect them well enough with their own originality that it all fell flat. And the dialogue was absolutely abysmal. Everytime a character spoke, I wanted to vomit a little bit. Now, when I say the movie wasn't "original enough," I imagine a lot of you are going to complain about how most movies nowadays aren't original, as they are remakes or adaptations. But this is a whole different story. This is a movie that claims to be original, but just regurgitates other movie plots...and poorly at that. I wasn't even a tiny bit surprised when I found out the writer also directed the horrendous Tron: Legacy. 

Other than the script, the rest of the movie was fairly mediocre. The acting was nothing special, but not awful at all. I was really disappointed with how little they used the best actors in the film, those being Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (aka Jaime Lannister) and Melissa Leo. It focused far too much on the less talented people (sorry Tom Cruise fans, but he's been going downhill for a while now.) I also wouldn't have minded a little more Morgan Freeman, even if I did find his character's dialogue to be the worst...but that's might just be because I have a man crush on his voice.

The direction for movie wasn't very good. This movie had a lot of opportunities to wow us with some stunning shots of a war torn Earth, but it didn't capitalize at all. Instead, it just threw a ton of obviously CGI'd landscapes at us and expected us to find it amazing. I really think that if this movie had included some large set pieces, or maybe even used some biggatures, it could have had some impressive shots, and really impressed a lot of people. Instead, we get the guy who did Tron: Legacy, who just loves CGI, apparently. He went crazy with this movie, and it was really disappointing.  

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This movie suffers from poor writing, it's really that simple. The acting was nothing special, and the direction was pretty bad, but the bland, unoriginal script stood out as the biggest failure for this film. I think a better life decision would be to sit down and watch Moon and Daybreakers back to back instead of wasting two hours on this film.

Writing: 3/10

Directing: 3/10

Acting: 5/10

Pacing: 5/10

Rewatchability: 3/10

Score: 3.8/10

Welcome to the Punch Review

I have a weird fascination with James McAvoy. Call me crazy, but that guy is a pretty great actor. Just like any sane human being, every time I see him, I instantly start screaming "OH MY GOD, IT'S MR. TUMNUS!!" But seriously, this guy is a phenomenal actor, and I will watch anything he is in...and yes, that includes Gnomeo & Juliet.

Welcome to the Punch is your typical "cop out for revenge" plotline, so there isn't much here that makes you go "wow, I need to see that." It really is quite generic in it's story, which makes it hard to really recommend. The story revolves around Max (McAvoy), a cop who is obsessed with catching a notorious villain, Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong). Sounds pretty familiar right? You even get those corny pieces of dialogue like "YOU'RE TOO CLOSE TO THIS CASE!" etc. But, surprisingly, that doesn't make the movie bad, just...less good.

The story for this movie may have been generic, but for some reason it didn't feel like I was being shown something for the billionth time. I found the characters to be pretty well written, and character motivation to be pretty interesting. I was really a fan of the script up until the very convoluted ending. I feel like the ending tried to be much more than it should have been, and really failed. Other than that, the writing was pretty decent. Nothing special,  but not bad in any sense of the word.

The acting was what really held this movie together. When you have two great actors like McAvoy and Strong leading the film, it almost demands that the supporting actors bump up their performance. I thought that everyone did a very good job, which kept the movie interesting instead of bland, as I assumed it was going to be.

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While Welcome to the Punch might not be a great movie, it is definitely entertaining and worth seeing at least once. I wouldn't rush out to see it, but it would be worth picking up on RedBox, or seeing when it (inevitably) winds up on Netflix. Just watch it and fawn over the amazing-ness that is Mr. Tumnus...I mean...McAvoy.

Writing: 5/10

Directing: 5/10

Acting: 7/10

Pacing: 5/10

Rewatchability: 6/10

Score: 5.6/10