Home Blog Page 387

Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty

Nate Parsons
-
0
Movie Review: Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Writers: Mark Boal
Stars: Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton

Synopsis: A chronicle of the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden.
[/info]

DIRECTION
Starting with horrific sounds of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks played over a black screen and ending with the raid of bin Laden’s place of hiding, Kathryn Bigelow’s direction is top notch. Bigelow, the Oscar-winning director of The Hurt Locker, crafts a tight, visceral and sometimes pulse-pounding movie. She puts the viewer right into the events taking place, whether it’s the disturbing torture scenes (which forced one of my friends to leave the theater) at the beginning, the myriad of gripping dialogue exchanges in the middle or the riveting finale. With Zero Dark Thirty, she clearly proves she is one of the best directors working today.

Grade: A+

[divider]

SCRIPT
Mark Boal, the Oscar-winning screenwriter for The Hurt Locker, expertly pieces together a decades worth of information into a telling, almost documentary-style narrative. While the movie is nearly three hours long (with very little action and an ending that is already known), Boal still manages to keep the viewer engrossed and anticipating what will happen next.

Grade: A+

[divider]

PERFORMANCES
While the performances are great all around, this movie belongs to Jessica Chastain. She is a one-woman show as we see all the events take place through her eyes as the straight, fierce and determined CIA agent Maya. She deserves all the recognition she has been garnering and will likely win the Oscar in a couple of weeks. Jason Clarke also does solid work as Dan, a ruthless CIA agent who introduces Maya to the brutal workings of a US military black site in the opening moments. He does a good job of transitioning from brutish to likeable, sometimes even in the same scene.

Grade: A+

[divider]

SCORE
The score by Alexandre Desplat isn’t very memorable, but it was effective. That’s all you can really ask for with this kind of movie.

Grade: C

[divider]

Overall Grade: A

 

Movie Review: Gangster Squad

JD Duran
-
0
Movie Review: Gangster Squad

Gangster Squad

Director: Ruben Fleischer
Writers: Will Beall, Paul Lieberman (book)
Stars: Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Josh Brolin

Synopsis: Los Angeles, 1949: A secret crew of police officers led by two determined sergeants work together in an effort to take down the ruthless mob king Mickey Cohen who runs the city.
[/info]

DIRECTION
The movie starts out with some pretty graphic scenes which makes you think that the movie is going to be in the direction of a typical violent mafia movie. However the movie really gets a lot cleaner as it moves on adding lot’s of action and dialogue to create a 1940’s Los Angeles atmosphere. The movie starts to pick up when Chief Parker, played by Nick Nolte, picks Sgt. John O’Mara to make war against Mickey Cohen, played by Sean Penn. The action becomes a little predictable and at times cheesy, but it still keeps an entertaining value and is fun to watch. After not believing in the group at first, Sgt. Jerry Wooters, Ryan Gosling, teams up with the Cop outlaws as they start to reek havoc on Cohen’s schemes. The direction is pretty straight forward here and while some of the shots are great, most of the movie was disappointing.

Grade: B-

[divider]

SCRIPT
While I like the action, one major flaw is the character of Grace Faraday, play by Emma Stone. While her performance is okay, the character itself is pointless and adds no value to the movie. She starts a fling with Sgt. Wooters, which becomes a central story arch of the movie, but really adds nothing to the plot. In essence, they bring in Emma Stone to bring a little bit of star value while her character is flawed from the core. The dialogue is unique in that it’s the 1940’s but it’s also modern at the same time. I think overall the script is predictable and page and could have been spiced up a little bit.

Grade: B

[divider]

PERFORMANCES
The performances by Gosling, Stone and Brolin were actually very good given the script and direction. I think Brolin brought a strong, cop presence to the screen. Gosling was also good and had a convincing 1940’s tone that I really liked a lot. Sean Penn was a great Mickey Cohen. I thought he nailed the performance wonderfully and brought Cohen to life. It’s just sad that a bad script and a poor direction couldn’t have made these performances more memorable.

Grade: A-

[divider]

SCORE
The best part of the movie, easily, is the score by Steve Jablonsky. Jablonsky keeps the dramatized rhythms you’d expect from a movie like this while adding some heightened elements in movie’s biggest climatic scenes. It’s a score that I’d listen to again outside of the movie. The movie also adds some great 1940’s songs and sounds to the soundtrack which makes the music very likable and make the movie way more likable than it would be otherwise.

Grade: A-

[divider]

Overall Grade: B-

 

1...385386387Page 387 of 387