On Episode 8 of our InSession Film Podcast, we discussed our Top 3 Sports Movies of all-time and we had a ton of fun doing it! How does your list match-up?
Nate
1) Warrior
2) The Sandlot
3) Space Jam
JD
1) Warrior, Mystery Alaska
2) Remember the Titans
3) Cool Runnings
Matthew
1) Friday Night Lights
2) Field of Dreams
3) Rocky
On Episode 8 of the Insession Film Podcast, we review 42, give our Top 3 sports movies of all-time and we debut our first ever InSession Movie Series where we discuss Baz Lurhmann and his 1992 film, Strictly Ballroom.
– We begin our first ever InSession Movie Series. In our first series we will be diving into Baz Luhrmann and on this week’s show we discuss Strictly Ballroom.
– Latest News
– Elysium Trailer
– Rush Trailer
– Only God Forgives Trailer
– What We’ve Seen This Week
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InSession Film Podcast – Episode 8
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Writers: Baz Luhrmann
Stars: Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, Bill Hunter
Synopsis: A maverick dancer risks his career by performing an unusual routine and sets out to succeed with a new partner.
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DIRECTION
While Strictly Ballroom is outdated now, it was a critic success in 1992 for a reason. Baz Luhrmann does a great job of incorporating a mockumentary style of shooting that captures your attention from the start. There’s a lot of dancing and the opening sequence doesn’t shy away from it. The film has some eloquent costumes which sets the tone early for the experience you’re about to have. I think Luhrmann gets descent performances out of his main actors and uses the camera well to create a fun dance number. If you get outside of the subject material (for those of you don’t like ballroom dancing) it’s a descent watch with some fun humor. I think the story is well written and Luhrmann does a good job of giving it legs to stand on its own. It has some bad and quick edits that are at times distracting and the cartoonish sounds and look I think draws you away from the story, which loses its appeal. It’s not Luhrmann’s best film, but it was a good start.
Grade: B-
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SCRIPT
Luhrmann wrote the script long before 1992 and later developed the screenplay. I think the dialogue is good for the most part but he loses me with the mother, played by Pat Thomson. The mother’s lines are more annoyance than anything, but Thomson delivers them well. If the goal was to be the annoying mom that you don’t want to have, she does a fantastic job. However, I love the story of Scott Hastings and how it’s his story of becoming his own person. In a world where his mother is trying to create his path for him and control his fate, he rebels, creates his own dances, and lives his life. I like the idea of him being who he is supposed to be and him not settling for a life that’s not his. I think Luhrmann’s tells that story well and it comes across well on the screen. Some of it is cheesy and predictable but overall it’s a success.
Grade: B
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PERFORMANCES
Paul Mercurio does a great job of playing Scott Hastings in this film. I don’t feel like he gets a great supporting cast to surround him which makes the film seem dull at times. I also loved Barry Otto who played Mr. Hastings in this movie. He’s not a big character at all until the end of the film, but he has such a subtle humor throughout the movie that steals the show at time. His presence at the end of the movie is also great and it makes the story even bigger and better to me. The rest of the cast is average at best which drops the grade for me overall.
Grade: C+
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SCORE
David Hirschfelder gets the nod to score for Luhrmann in his first film and the score adds some good elements that I thought was very necessary. In a movie about dancing, music is a key element to the overall vibe of the film. Hirschfelder is a good composer and I think adds the appropriate sounds and mixes to what could of made this film better than what it was.
Grade: B
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We have a new poll this week! With Oblivion coming out this week, we want to know what your favorite Tom Cruise movie. Let us know and vote in the poll below!
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General Zod needs to find a different way to broadcast his threats.
In the newest TV spot for Man of Steel titled “You Are Not Alone,” Zod addresses the human race and gives an ultimatum to Superman to surrender himself within 24 hours. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see Zod as it is extremely static.
This is really our first glimpse (listen) of General Zod, played by Michael Shannon. Shannon isn’t using an altered voice here like Bane or The Mandarin and I like that; Shannon’s voice is pretty badass as is.
We’re getting closer to the release and I’m getting closer to going crazy – I need to see this!
Man of Steel opens on June 14.
The Expendables 3 is shaping up to be the best of the bunch.
Nic Cage has already signed on and Sylvester Stallone recently tweeted that Wesley Snipes will also be joining the cast. And if that wasn’t awesome enough, Stallone is trying to get Mel Gibson to not only direct but join the cast as well.
If Stallone can get Gibson to direct The Expendables 3, watch out. Gibson may be crazy, but he has shown he can make great films with Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto. Count me super excited if Gibson comes on-board.
Win FREE movie tickets and concessions to Oblivion! We’re excited for the movie coming out this week and we want you to go for FREE! To enter, Like us on Facebook and sign up for our email newsletter below! Contest ends midnight on Thursday morning so enter today!
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The new teaser trailer for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire debuted last night at the MTV Movie Awards and it was amazing! I loved the first film and the teaser for this looks great. The drama is intense and the story only seems to ramp up even more. Take a gander at the trailer below and let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!
Just over 30 days ago, a Kickstarter campaign was initiated in an effort to raise necessary funds to get a Veronica Mars film made (read our story here). The goal of $2 million was reached within 10 hours – and after its 30-day period it’s finally ended at $5.7 million.
The campaign, started by show creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell, broke many Kickstarter records including: fastest project to reach both $1 million and $2 million, all-time highest-funded project in film category, the third highest-funded project in Kickstarter history and most project backers in Kickstarter history (91,585 shattering the previous record of 87,143).
For those of you who don’t know, Veronica Mars was a television show that ran from 2004-2007 on the CW. It starred Bell as Mars, a high school student who moonlights as private detective under the tutelage of her detective father. The show has a very film noir feel with smart and witty dialogue and unique characters – which should make for a great film.
The film doesn’t come out until next year so you have plenty of time to get caught up on one of the best television shows and title characters in history.
The Way, Way Back is a new comedy that stars Steven Carell and Sam Rockwell. This is directed by first time directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash so it’ll be interested. It should be interesting to see how this plays out. I’m a huge Rockwell fan while Carell is hit or miss. Either way, here’s the first trailer.
Star Trek Into Darkness hasn’t skimped on the posters and today we got a new one that is perhaps the best. It’s an image of the Starship Enterprise falling towards Earth, continuing the theme that the sequel will be much darker than the first.
I was a big fan of Star Trek and can’t wait to see what J.J. Abrams and Co. have in store. I particularly excited about Benedict Cumberbatch’s turn as the villain (check out the poster featuring him that was released last week below). Cumberbatch is incredible as the title character in BBC’s Sherlock series and it’ll be nice when more people get a chance to see him in action.
Star Trek Into Darkness opens on May 17.
I’m really looking forward to Terrence Malick’s new film, To the Wonder. Especially since in his last review, the absolutely wonderful, Mr. Rodger Ebert, gave it a positive review. Jackie Robinson’s new bio-pic, 42 comes out this weekend. We saw it last night and here’s what we thought of 42. Scary Movie 5 looks like it has it’s moments, but will probably be a flop. Into the White also looks like a great film if you get a chance to see it.
Which one are you going to see this weekend?
42
Scary Movie 5
To the Wonder
Antiviral
It’s a Disaster
The Angels’ Share
Disconnect
Into the White
Not Today
Director: Brian Helgeland
Writers: Brian Helgeland
Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie
Synopsis: The life story of Jackie Robinson and his history-making signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers under the guidance of team executive Branch Rickey.
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DIRECTION
I feel like with Brian Helgeland you never know what you’re going to get. He can be a great writer and director and sometimes he’s mediocre at best. With 42, we don’t get his best work, but he has his moments. Doing a bio-pic is a tough project because you have to be able to focus on someones life while telling the story well and many bio-pic’s struggle with that. Helgeland’s direction is all over the place with this film. Some parts are serious drama, other parts are all comedy, and at times Jackie Robinson isn’t even the main character. Helgeland lets Harrison Ford’s character, Branch Rickey, take over the show in some scenes. It feels like Helgeland struggled with knowing which parts of Robinson’s story to tell and how to go about it. I also feel like he failed with addressing what make Robinson so amazing and that was how he overcame the racism he experienced. Most of the racism is soft and unrealistic. It felt like Helgeland tried to sugarcoat it or dance around the topic while addressing it a little bit. The racism Robinson experienced in real-life was harsh and isn’t portrayed well in this movie at all. There are some scenes Helgeland nailed though which I enjoyed quite a bit and there was a great tracking shot of Robinson as he comes out of the Dodgers tunnel for the first time. Overall though it’s a disappointing performance, which is sad because I love the story of Jackie Robinson. Outside of the movie experience, the story of Robinson is great and worth getting to know.
Grade: C-
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SCRIPT
The script was also written by Helgeland. Normally, I love it when a movie is written and directed by the same guy. He has the same vision on paper as he will in his mind to bring it to life visually. Again, Helgeland struggles with how to tell this story. He starts out with Robinson in the negro leagues and how he’s contacted by the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson starts out in the minor leagues with Montreal and eventually becomes a Dodger a year after that. But the script moves so fast that you miss all that if you’re not paying attention. There are so many elements between Robinson and his wife, his teammates, and fans that are not explored well and many details fall from the waste side. The only relationship that works well is between Robinson and Rickey. If Helgeland would of stuck to just that, this movie would of worked much, much better. There are some elements though that are hysterical and there are so many great one-liners that I really enjoyed a lot. So while, the acting isn’t all that great overall and the direction of the story could of been better, I like the script for the most part. The dialogue is great in some places and as I just mentioned has some awesome one-liners. The biggest knock on the script is the lack of realism in the racism dialogue. I understand that Helgeland doesn’t want to offend anyone, but the racist dialogue is what Robinson really experienced and what makes his story so great. He overcame all of that and became a great baseball legend. Outside of Alan Tudyk’s character, the dialogue is unrealistic and is extremely cheesy. It also doesn’t help that the cheesy dialogue wasn’t delivered well, which while isn’t his fault as the screenwriter, it is his fault as the director. Overall though, the story between Robinson and Rickey is written surprisingly well and the one-liners won me over for the most part.
Grade: B-
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PERFORMANCES
Harrison Ford is amazing in this film and he even steals the spotlight at times. His one-liners are amazing and I love how bold he is with it. He has a great performance that I think helps Chadwick Boseman who plays Robinson. Boseman and Ford had a pretty good chemistry that I liked a lot. Boseman I thought did a descent job as Robinson. There are some moments and parts that I thought were a little dull and uninspired but I believe he was directed that way. The biggest problem I had with Boseman is that he seemed a little awkward athletically at times. When he was on base, his athletic mannerisms seemed very fake like he had never played the game before or sports in general. I’m not sure if that’s how sports was in the 1940’s or if it was a bad performance. Either way, it seemed very awkward. Outside of that Boseman does a fine job though. In the very few scenes that he’s in, Alan Tudyk is amazing as well. He’s one of the best character actors you’ll see and he steals the show when he is taunting Robinson. He’s the only character who’s racism is believable. Sadly, that means it’s easily the best part (maybe only part?) that makes you feel inspired when you see Robinson overcome it. Christopher Meloni is also pretty good when he’s on screen. He’s not in the film a ton either, but as the Dodgers manager he’s great. I also enjoyed Lucas Black and John C. Mcginley as well. But again, not a lot of screentime for either of them. The rest of the supporting cast, including Nicole Beharie who plays Mrs. Robinson, is pretty bad and struggle to deliver quality lines. Sadly that includes most of the white baseball players and teammates, people in the crowd, and other supporting roles that don’t mean anything to the movie.
Grade: B
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SCORE
The score was done by one of my favorite composers, Mark Isham. Isham does a great job of adding appropriate music to what is going on in the film. The fact that the movie isn’t all the inspiring because of the direction, it feels appropriate to have a score that’s not all gung-ho. That being said I did like the strings that was accompanied by a great horn section. He also did a great job of bring the 1940’s into the score and soundtrack which I thought was a great personal touch. It’s not my favorite work by Isham, but it definitely fits the bill here.
Grade: B-
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You want to know what the best part about The Hangover Part III is? It’s that this is it, this is the last of these films ever to be made (hopefully).
Unlike most people, I hated The Hangover and didn’t even bother watching The Hangover Part II after hearing it was basically the same thing as the first. And The Hangover Part III trailer does nothing for me – No. 1 being it’s not funny, it doesn’t look funny, which is pretty important considering it’s a comedy.
The Hangover Part III opens in theaters on May 24.
There’s a new trailer for Now You See Me. It’s very similar to the first trailer but adds a lot of scenes that make me more intrigued about seeing this. I really like the premise about a group of magicians (“Four Horsemen”) who steal money from banks to give to the less fortunate, Robin Hood style. And I’m really curious to see what the big trick is and the reveal.
Now You See Me could be one of the year’s biggest surprises. It features a solid cast (Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson), a decent director (Louis Letterier) and it’s about magic.
Now You See Me comes out on May 31.
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Micahel Crichton and David Koepp, based on the novel by Michael Crichton
Stars: Sam Neil, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Richard Attenborough
Synopsis: An eccentric entrepreneur discovers a way to bring dinosaurs back from extinction and opens a theme park to showcase them; it’s the perfect business venture until chaos takes over.
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Review
Time has a way of repainting our memories. What may have been a mediocre movie that had a few good scenes becomes built up in a child’s memory and as an adult proclaims the film to be the best movie ever, yet, upon revisit, the film is not nearly as good as in recall. However, this paradigm is not true for Jurassic Park. Even though it was released 20 years ago, Jurassic Park still holds up. The plot and acting is still fresh, while the concept, once farfetched, seems even more probable today.
Jurassic Park is a milestone in movies. I wonder if Steven Spielberg knew the lasting impact Jurassic Park would have while he was making it. Spielberg of course used Michael Crichton’s novel as source material but Spielberg brought what had once been contained to the realm of the imagination to realistic moving pictures on a screen. The film deftly blends horror, sci-fi, action, adventure, and drama without ever becoming overdone or unrealistic. Jurassic pulls in a wide demographic for its audience as it delights children with its magical realism and grips adults with base in science and drama.
Characters are often one of the most impressionistic aspects of a movie. We remember their eccentricities or bouts of heroism or their great one-liners. All the characters in Jurassic Park still reamin memorable two decade down the line. Jeff Glodblum’s witticisms are still funny, Sam Neil is still heroic, and Richard Attenborough dances between being mad and grandfatherly. All of the performances come together to create characters that feel fresh even when they’re clothes are now outdated.
3D can often cheapen a film, making it gimmicky or a little too much like a vide game, but Jurassic Park 3D does not fall of any of the standard 3D traps. The 3D version of Jurassic Park plays as if Spielberg had always meant for the film to be shown in 3D. Classics scenes like the climactic escape from the raptors to the initial T-Rex attack heightened with the third dimension. What was was riveting in 2 dimensions becomes immersive and terrifying on a new level since it’s hard to escape images coming right at you.
Overall, Jurassic Park 3D is worth the trip to the theatre and the extra $3.50 not only to revisit a childhood memory but to experience the film as it was actually meant to be experienced.
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James McAvoy gets a little bit of a different role as we see him as a dirty cop in his new movie Filth. The film is based of off Irvine Welsh’s novel by the same name. The first trailers have been released and it’s a little raunchy. The name has it’s reasoning and you see it in the trailer. Fair warning: it’s not very clean.
My anticipation for Man of Steel is starting to get the best of me and these pictures don’t help any. The current edition of Entertainment Weekly has some shots of Zack Snyder’s take on Superman and those shots were brought online via Slashfilm.com.
We get some shots of Superman (Henry Cavill), Lois Lane (Amy Adams), Zod (Michael Shannon), Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane). I love the trailer for Man of Steel – probably one of the best I’ve ever seen – and I can’t wait to watch this.
Man of Steel comes to theaters on June 14.
It’s been confirmed! The amazing Robert Redford will be joining the cast for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and he’ll have the role of Agent Alexander Pierce. I love this move as Redford is a legendary actor that will bring the right charisma to the movie and a character like that. Pierce is a senior agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and isn’t used very often in the Marvel universe. I personally enjoy that fact because it will give a fresh look into a fresh character. And who doesn’t love Robert Redford?
According to indiewire.com, shooting has begun and even released it’s first photo (above). Marvel has announced it’s final cast that will include Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson reprising their roles. Also reprising their Marvel roles are Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Toby Jones as Arnim Zola and Maximiliano Hernández as Agent Jasper Sitwell. The newbies to the Marvel universe are Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon, Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow, Georges St-Pierre as Georges Batroc/Batroc The Leaper, and Emily VanCamp as Agent 13.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier comes to us in theaters April 4, 2014.
As someone who works in social media, I love it when directors use it to reveal some awesome new stuff. Yesterday, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 director, Marc Webb, went to Twitter to reveal a new “electrifying” set photo that looks like a lot of fun. As we know, Electro, is set to be the main villain in the Spider-Man sequel and as you can see, he was destroying everything on set yesterday. The tweet came with the message, “Day 45. This is what happens when you try to give Electro a ticket.” I wish I had the ability to create that when I get a ticket.
Jamie Foxx is playing Electro and while I prefer him in a good guy role (cough, Django Unchained, cough), it’ll be fun to see how he sparks the audience as this particular bad guy. There hasn’t been any information on the character or the movie itself. So far, Webb and company are keeping things pretty vague which makes photos like this one fun. It also brings 1,000 more questions as we have no idea what’s going on. I kind of like it that way and I hope the marketing for the film doesn’t give too much away when the time approaches.
he Amazing Spider-Man 2, will be in theaters on May 2, 2014. Returning to the film is Andrew Garfield return as Spider-Man along with Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Sally Field as Aunt May, and Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben. There will be a lot of new casting as we’ve talked about before that will include Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn, Shailene Woodley as Mary Jane Watson, Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborn, Paul Giamatti as the Rhino, and B.J. Novak, Felicity Jones and Colm Feore in mystery roles. It will hopefully be a lot of fun!
