Don't Kill It (2016 or 2017) | Short Review

Mike Mendez's Don't Kill It is a backward B-movie, with pretty good writing and acting but weak action and editing. That's enough to save the movie though, as surprising as it sounds. The film is about Jebediah Woodley's (Dolph Lundgren's) hunt for a demon that takes possession of the person who kills it's last host. The demon finds a fun hunting ground in Chicory Creek, Mississippi, and Woodley is given the perfect opportunity to try to contain the threat. 

What's great about this movie is the performances by the leads, Lundgren and FBI Agent Pierce (Kristina Klebe). They work really well together, when the movie isn't trying to push them toward each other. Those moments come off forced, with Pierce going from stick in the mud to potential love interest.

It's slightly balanced with Woodley being consistent. He's a fun guy to watch, and he's set apart a bit from most heroes, even if it's in ways that don't amount to much. It's mainly in the vape, the net gun, and the cowboy hat. It's the little touches that draw people to him. Strip those away and he's the smartest guy in the room, with a solid moral compass. It all adds up to a great savior that could show Evil Dead's Ash a thing or two.

Dolph Lundgren is way past being a national treasure. He's a global one | Copyright 2017 GSC Movies

The writing has a similar approach. For one thing, this is the only movie or show that actually does the police jurisdiction cliché in a way that isn't stupid. The FBI actually justify their reason for showing up, and it's something other screenwriters should take note of. Don't Kill It also builds itself up well, and quickly, making good use of its short runtime by focusing on the demon hunt and Woodley's character. At least that's how it seems on paper.

Mendez also edited the film, and at times it's choppy. It's most noticeable when Pierce is going over her origin. Every line is a separate cut, and every single one feels like it was shot separately from the one before it, so the scene artificially drags on. The action has similar issues. 

The action just feels slow, like it wasn't well choreographed or edited. Impacts don't really connect unless they're gunshots, and the saving grace is that the movie was clearly done practically and on-location. People with a bloodlust are going to have to look elsewhere, but people into mild psychological torture may enjoy the demon reveling in its inability to die. 

Don't Kill It is a fun action movie for all the wrong reasons, but that shouldn't stop it from being checked out. 

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Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (2018)

The Dark Knight Returns introduced the theory that Batman riding a horse is the mark of a good movie. Director Sam Liu's Gotham by Gaslight is compelling evidence and a great movie in its own right anyway.

Gotham by Gaslight is an alternative universe story where a 19th century Batman (Bruce Greenwood) must catch Jack the Ripper. At 78 minutes, that sounds like a streamlined story, but Liu and screenwriter Jim Kreig fit a lot into their runtime. This new setting includes a reestablished origin for Gotham.

Don't worry, Bruce Wayne's parents aren't featured in the movie, but the Monarch Theatre plays a central role, as Jack attacks women who perform there. First up, is a de-powered Poison Ivy (Kari Wuhrer) who starts things off on the wrong foot. The movie opens with her performance, and the animation feels noticeably rigid. While not wanting Poison Ivy to dance to provocatively is a good thing, there are ways to give her a creative, well-animated performance that's clean. She just kind of moves left and right a little. Luckily, once Batman tries to intervene the animation picks up considerably. The fight scenes are choreographed and sound similar to the ones in The Dark Knight Returns. Batman and Jack are fast, but their blows feel heavy and satisfying.

After their first meeting, a lot of time is spent on Bruce Wayne and the locals of Victorian Gotham, and Gotham by Gaslight becomes its own film. The setting and characters are well-developed and set up in a way that suggests Liu and Kreig will return them. Characters featured include Harvey Dent (Yuri Lowenthal), Catwoman (Jennifer Carpenter), and, interestingly, multiple pre-Robin Robins who already know each other. There's no telling how this could evolve, and Gotham by Gaslight encourages second-guessing of ideas.

Similar to the opening of the movie, animation, unfortunately, isn't the only thing that's occasionally rushed. Harvey, also unfortunately, isn't that well written as the links between Jack the Ripper and Two Face are clear to anyone old enough to watch the movie. It's handled in a very upfront matter, and how annoying the audience finds it will vary. At the very least, all the lines are delivered well by the cast, especially Batman's.

Also, is there any correlation between a distinctive cowl and a well-portrayed Batman, or a good Batman movie? | Copyright 2018 Warner Brothers

Bruce Greenwood returns to the booth, after voicing Batman in Under the Red Hood and Young Justice. He's fantastic, and like Kevin Conroy and Roger Craig Smith (Batman: Arkham Origins), he understands what makes Bruce Wayne compelling with and without the cowl. Working with Jennifer's Carpenter's Catwoman and an extended amount of time as Gotham's socialite adds new dimensions to a role he already had down to a science.

Occasionally rushed writing and animation hold back a would-be perfect addition to the DC Animated Universe, but these moments are in a world as well-realized as the one in The Dark Knight Returns. That one, technically, got a sequel, so maybe this one should too?

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A Quiet Place (2018)

A Quiet Place doesn't string audiences along through tension, building it from the beginning until the scares ultimately pay off or fall flat. Instead, it starts with an actual sense of security backed by the film's family. When the monsters appear, we're with this family as tightly as they're with each other, through thick and thin.

John Krasinsky's film is directed extremely carefully, as the premise dictates. It relies on characters, a couple (Krasinksy and Emily Blunt) and their three children (Noah Jupe, Cade Woodward, and deaf actress Millicent Simmonds), making as little noise as possible to avoid the detection of blind monsters with extra-sensitive hearing. Every movement is deliberate to create as little sound as possible. And the use of sound, and shots, is completely engrossing, but loose enough to create needed breaths of fresh air every now and then.

A Quiet Place is surprisingly not scoreless, thanks to composer Marco Beltrami, and speaking is as crucial in the film as communication is in real life. Sign Language is used throughout the film, but what's surprising is what's being signed can be every so slightly heard sometimes by some characters. The variances in the language are brought out through moments like that and shows, if only for a moment, security has broken through the tension. Your heartbeat may spike at a moment's notice, but it is not toyed with.

The family, however, is toyed with. Krasinksy is not starting with a perfect story, as writers Bryan Woods and Scott Beck pull the rug out from under the family with a tight grip every once in a while. The monsters aren't given an unfair advantage, it's just whatever starts a potential attack, to a certain extent, is avoidable, sometimes it's frustratingly avoidable. Once that is out of their hands though, the movie doesn't add insult to injury by placing the family somewhere like a wind chime factory. In fact, great care is taken in showing that their environment is the anti-wind chime factory, with many everyday objects they use replaced with paper and fabric versions, so it evens these "get the ball rolling" moments out pretty well. The only other cheap shot like this that stuck out was some exposition, but at least it was given visually. The history of the monsters and the family's situation is slammed in the audience's face a little harder than it needed to be with some shots that could've been cut. 

Theatrical Poster | Copyright 2018 Paramount Pictures

On that subject, the use of shots, by cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen, beautifully display the Hudson Valley and upstate New York. Parts were filmed in the same county as my college. What's displayed is quite an original site, aside from the woods and beautiful mix of natural and nighttime lighting. Krasinsky and his crew imagine new pits of terror and impersonal, environment-based torture. Those impersonal moments are heightened when the audio-centric monsters, designed by Jeffrey Beecroft and Scott Farrar, attack. The shots are too. Whenever the camera is on them, there's a want for it to stay there, to study the design. It should be considered an honor. One given to the Xenomorphs and Heptapods, and many in-between, that came before.

It's not necessary to encourage viewers to watch where they're going upon exiting the theatre. They'll be doing that on their own, at least until they start driving or return and feel comfortable to crank the volume on something, anything, to make sure they've snapped out of it.

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Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)

Back in December, I said that the 2007 Hitman film, "was able to maintain its faithfulness [to the games] and follow the key lessons of Filmmaking 101. It's not a perfect picture, but it feels like a complete picture." As a reward for its effort, it deserves a better trailer. That project is on hold, but I have a good start on it. When it's finished, both reviews will have links to it at the bottom of the page.

The 2015 film, Hitman: Agent 47, directed by Aleksander Bach, doesn't deserve a fan trailer, it doesn't deserve the sequel it tries to tease, but it doesn't deserve pure hate either. It at least has a few things going for it.

First, and most importantly, the basic story is simpler and easier to follow from the start. Agent 47 (Rupert Friend) is protecting the daughter, Katia van Dees (Hannah Ware), of the man, Dr. Litvenko (Ciarán Hinds), who creates agents.

Well, the basics are simpler. Writers Skip Woods and Michael Finch try to give the movie a heart and soul by giving these characters connections to each other that are a little ridiculous and arcs that are underdeveloped. Ware is forced to go from would-be victim to assassin on par with 47 in a short time-frame, but she's written like a bumbling sidekick a little too often. When she does come into her own, she's great, but seeing where the inspiration for her may have come from, there were better options. If the filmmakers wanted to pull from the games, specifically Hitman: Absolution, they should have made her more competent from the start, or, like that game, made her a kid who's either hidden away from the villains for most of the movie or allowed to make rookie mistakes.

Second, the actors are pretty good. Friend makes the role his own and is very different from Timothy Olyphant's Agent 47, who had some swagger and humor. This time around 47 is scarier, more intimidating, and truly uncompromised. Ware, again, is best when the movie allows her to be. Other than that, she's just solid. Zachary Quinto's agent hunter John Smith is mostly a good match to Friend.

The problem with Friend's Agent 47 is he's an ass for no reason other than because that's seemingly the only way to sell killing machine. He regularly puts people, including Ware, unnecessarily in danger, threatens children (at least not directly, but through their parents). He's just not a fun guy to watch most of the time. He's an overcorrection from eight years ago, to the point where scary is more like a killer in a horror movie more than a man just doing his job. It's clear in the shots that show him by himself, from a distance, standing absolutely still.

Opinions on Friend's 47 will be divisive, just like when Olyphant played him |  | Copyright 2015 Fox

Third, the hand-to-hand combat is well-shot. It may cut too much, but it's tough to get lost in what's going on, and it's another area where Agent 47 could've just fallen apart. The fights can be pretty fun too, the best ones being between Friend and Quinto. On paper, they may sound boring, since two killing machines fighting dredges up memories of Terminators, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which I watched earlier today), but their skills vary enough to keep it entertaining.

Other action scenes are ridiculous and there's a noticeable lack of stealth in Agent 47. The most appalling examples involve intentionally blown cover in an international embassy, a blown-up helicopter, and stopping an opponent by throwing a random bystander into him. The point of making movies under this license is it's supposed to inspire something a little more thought out than that. Unfortunately, it didn't this time.

So, some good, some bad, and some ugly. Throw in some intrusive product placement, cinematography that's all over the place, and two out of a handful of jokes that work, and at least it has its moments.

If you're completely new to this franchise, please still give the games a shot.

Update: My fan-made trailer for the 2007 movie and for this one. I may have been overly harsh in my criticism of this movie, but overall I stand by this review.

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The Amazing Spider-Man | Homecoming Style (Fan Made Trailer)

I reviewed The Amazing Spider-Man the day it came out, and I really liked it. The review is full of grammatical errors, but I wouldn't change a thing about the original post. I've thought a lot about expanding that review and writing about the sequel and Homecoming, but the bias is...strong.

The objectivity is there, and I can talk about it all day, but I couldn't write the scathing review Amazing Spider-Man 2 earned or the 4/5 Homecoming gets simply because the filmmakers were burdened by not repeating what audiences have seen before and ties to the MCU. We kicked and screamed for this, but it had drawbacks. It's acknowledged, but then everything else about this latest iteration is given an extra boost.

So, what should be done when there's more to say, but movie magic must be maintained?

Fan trailers are a way to go, and Homecoming paved the way for me to (re)learn editing, after one course on it in college.

The editing process was rough, especially audio, but it's a learning curve and future projects should come out better

The same goes for this post and Spider-Man reviews as well. There's just always something to revisit with this franchise, whether it's requested or not.

This video, and others are collected, on-site, here.

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The Prestige (2006)

First, watch it twice. If you can, wait roughly a decade between viewings. It makes a difference.

Occam's Razor, or the idea that the simplest explanation is usually the right one, isn't just at the center of Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, but it should be at the center of Hollywood. In the age of big budgets and CGI, the simple camera tricks still are enough. The real legwork begins in pre-production because Occam's Razor doesn't mean create an endless stream of remakes, no matter how complete those scripts start.

Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) are competing magicians with different approaches to the art. Angier is more cautious but feeds of the admiration of a crowd. Borden believes in pushing the art and understand that it comes with a price. Yet, both lean on the same showstopper, "The Transported Man," and its many innovations and interpretations.

The film takes audiences through these scenarios, weaving in and out of each, across the long lives and careers of Angier and Borden. It's not always clear when an event is happening, but little details become memorable thanks to strong performances from Jackman and Bale, and this allows pieces to come together when needed.

Supporting the leads are some of the best performances from Michael Caine as Angier's engineer, Cutter, Rebecca Hall as Borden's wife, Sarah, and Scarlett Johansson as Angier's assistant, Olivia. If Angier and Borden are too cold to follow...they don't help things.

That's why the second viewing helps, it was easy to focus on how terrible Angier and Borden are too each other. This time around, the focus was on terrible they were to others, but their better sides came through as well. Just two good men brought down by obsession. A difficult thing to watch, but with hope.

The Prestige shows that when obsession takes root there are glimmers of hope, and (more concretely) ways out and compromises that can be made so that the thoughts subside at least a little, if not completely. Typically, obsession is shown as more inner torment, and situations are all-or-nothing. This gives the outsider's perspective. For people who deal with obsession internally, watching The Prestige may frustrate them, but it may help as well, as the credits roll and the conclusion sets in. There's a clear line, and while that line may move, it's still there and can be stepped away from.

The Prestige, like "The Transporting Man," is a great mystery, but it boils down to a few things, too. Fantastic performances from its cast, continuity editing that doesn't call attention to itself (the time jumping does that enough), beautiful sets, and brilliant storytelling. It's not a trick, but solid filmmaking.

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Spy Hard (1996) | Short Review

While Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, released just a year later, has more memorable characters, Spy Hard may be the better film.

With a style of humor closer to Airplane and Leslie Neilsen taking the lead, Spy Hard is rapid-fire comedy, instead of prolonging jokes at the risk of killing them. The problem with the spoof genre is the feeling that filmmakers given free reign to be absurd leads them to not care and try anything. Luckily, that's hardly ever a problem here, and when Spy Hard goes too far, it's not really painful.

Spy Hard holds up surprisingly well, and even the dated jokes (except for one that'll be seen as racist today) have some standing on their own, like a sequence related to Home Alone. At one point the movie even ahead of its time, when bringing up the state of the country.

For people who aren't sure about seeing it, start with the theme song by Weird Al. If he can't convince you to check it out, nothing can.

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