Movies | City of Angles

Woodlawn: A Review

Posted on October 20, 2015 by commbro

Woodlawn

Runtime: 2 hours 3 minute
Budget: Estimated to be $25 million

Have you ever thought about what possesses a person to create a name like “Woodlawn?” It’s such a common name for a city, but what the heck was its origin? I mean, why not name it Polyesterfence or some weird crap like that. Or maybe “Liverpool”. Oh, that one is actually real.

I don’t see the resemblance

Why can’t they just make a nice creative name—like City of Angles?

Beyond Woodlawn and Liverpool being something you wouldn’t want in a literal sense (grass lawn and water pool, please) they both have their “football” teams. I guess that’s the formula. I will go establish the Polyesterfence Football team. Watch out for them because we’re going to make a deep playoff run in 2016.

They have more in common than Liverpool and a pool of livers.

Serious time. Woodlawn is a film that ties in football with religion, racism, and…Rudy? In actuality, it has more to do with Alabama and one of Notre Dame’s rivals than Notre Dame itself. I won’t say much more since I don’t want to reveal more than the trailer does. However, much like Rudy, it’s a story about an underdog football player that goes on to play for a blue blood program.

The film had a surprisingly large budget for a Christian movie, which are typically under $5 million—and it showed. There was definitely production value. It wasn’t some empty shell of a movie just meant to get a message across. The cinematography and acting are what you would expect out of a Hollywood film. Heck, they managed to grab big name actors like Sean Astin and Jon Voight.

Amazingly, Woodlawn‘s $25 million budget is a whole $10 million higher than When the Game Stands Tall. Like When the Game Stands Tall and other inspirational football movies, Woodlawn features lots of cliches and predictable moments. Regardless, they found a way to make the movie enjoyable. Much more so than When the Game Stands Tall. Yeah, that one was bad.

The way they integrated (see what I did there?) historical footage was satisfying. They also put an old-timey, vintage filter over certain parts to give it a similar feel. None of it seemed overdone or tacky. The faith aspect of the movie was present and struck a good balance. It wasn’t overly invasive until the latter part of the movie. Some people may be put off by that. I would tell you to give it a chance regardless of how you feel about Christianity since the movie is pretty good. There might be no hope if you hate football though.

CommBro Breaker

Caleb Castille, who played the role of Tony Nathan, is actually a former walk-on at Alabama.

Sicario: A Review

Posted on September 29, 2015 by commbro

Sicario

Runtime: 2 hours 1 minute
Budget: Estimated to be $30 million

So I caught the film while it was still on limited release. As a result, I’ll try harder than usual to keep it spoiler free.

First off, I decided to watch this because:

The trailer looked interesting
I like the cast: Blunt, Brolin, Del Toro, Donovan
The ratings were high

The acting was good stuff, but pacing was almost a problem at some points. Thirty minutes in, I still felt like it had just started. There were also weird parts thrown in that I would call incomplete. If you’re gonna include it, at least flesh it out a bit more.

The movie focuses around the Mexican-American border, drugs, guns and other things. One thing’s for sure. They know how to create tension. Many of the scenes were exhaustingly intense. The intensity was broken up every now and then with humor, mostly from Josh Brolin’s character. There’s nothing revolutionary or crazy about the plot and I don’t think it’s as good as the ratings suggest. It was worth a watch, but it’s not something I’d do again. I would go back to listen to the soundtrack, though.

CommBro Breaker

Don’t go in expecting an action movie, because it’s not even close to being one. It’s also not a movie about a bunch of people partying in Tijuana or Cabo…in case you were wondering.

Angled Outta Compton: A Review

Posted on September 8, 2015 by commbro

Straight Outta Compton

Runtime: 2 hours 27 minutes
Budget: Estimated to be $28 million

This biopic about several rappers out of a south LA suburb turned out to be a compelling movie. It provided a good general picture of the rise and fall of the N.W.A. and the West Coast rap scene. The movie did run a little long, which could be an issue for those who are uninterested or uninitiated to rap and its history. Also, the party scenes, while not to the level of The Wolf of Wallstreet, were overly gratuitous at times.

Towards the end of the movie, you could tell how much influence Dr. Dre and Ice Cube had over it. They were the two most generously portrayed characters. I hesitate to say that biographical films shouldn’t be made until involved parties are deceased. While there is a lot of potential for meddling and awkward moments of “they represented me badly,” perhaps its for the best. It prevents a completely embellished and inaccurate portrayal for the sake of maximizing entertainment. Movie-goers should continue to take these things with a grain of salt. What you can’t deny is that a couple of guys with little to no hope made it out their hometown in a big way.

Overall, I would recommend everyone give this movie a try. It was well-written and quite interesting.

CommBro Breaker

The movie featured portrayals of people with connections to USC. Snoop Dogg was (is?) a longtime fan of USC’s football team. Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine donated $70 million to start the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy at USC. Jerry Heller actually attended USC. Aaaaaaand Ice Cube was in Boyz n the Hood, which…had a character that wanted to go to USC. Totally not a stretch. Fight on…

Ant-Man: A Review

Posted on July 20, 2015 by commbro

Ant-Man

Runtime: 1 hour 57 minutes
Budget: Estimated to be $130 million

This movie is harder to review while avoiding spoilers, but I’ll do my best. Ant-Man has a tough job since the character is such an obscure hero and has the unfortunate position of following just months after Avengers: Age of Ultron. It really showed in their approximately $57 million (US only) haul for opening weekend, making it to the lowest since The Incredible Hulk (2008) and by far the lowest in phase two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’m sure people will be quick to chalk this up to audiences being superhero weary or some such crap, but here’s a CommBro Breaker right in the damn middle of the post (because that’s the spirit of a combo breaker):

Ant-Man was the highest grossing movie of the weekend. It was $8 million above the Minions movie and $17 million above Trainwreck. You can spin this whichever way you want with statistics.

NOW TIME TO ACTUALLY REVIEW THE MOVIE:

I’ll admit it, the beginning was kind of slow. The whole origin story deal had to be set up, so things took a while. Once it was, though, it was definitely worth it. This film was made to feel like a heist movie and employs an interesting narrative strategy with one of the characters. Unlike Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the tone was much lighter and humorous. Kind of like Guardians of the Galaxy. However, that made the corny father-daughter issue moments a little more of an uncomfortable fit…like if you showed up to class while joking with friends and find the teacher crying.

I cring evertim

Anyway, it’s got a lot of what you expect: cameos, easter eggs, after credit scenes, quips, and action. You know, typical Marvel stuff. They utilize Ant-Man’s powers well for comedy and cool scenes. I would watch it again…but maybe after fast forwarding to the middle.

Inside Out: A Review

Posted on June 29, 2015 by commbro

Lava

Runtime: TOO DAMN LONG
Budget: I hope they paid the editor interns well.

First and foremost, I have to review the short. My gosh. Was the entire thing really based around a bad pun? I mean, I guess I have no right to speak ill of puns, consindering my liberal use of them, but damn. Simple concepts aren’t always bad, but that was definitely a bad kind of simple. Didn’t they learn from Les Misérables or the other Disney work, Frozen, that singing exposition and dialogue is a terrible idea?

The verdict: it was probably the worst Pixar short I’ve ever seen. I don’t say that lightly.

It was all downhill from here…

Inside Out

Runtime: 1 hour 34 minutes
Budget: Estimated to be $175 million

I’m gonna open by saying that I thought it was just okay. My friend made a joke about how we thought it was better than it actually was because of the contrast against Lava. Enough jokes at the creators’ expense. They probably worked hard on it and crap. I’ll give them credit. Although the concept wasn’t unique, they really ran with the whole idea and brought a different perspective to it. In the end, it was more of a kids’ movie than anything…which is good because that was probably their target audience.

CommBro Breaker

Their best material was playing alongside the credits.

Ex Machina: A Review

Posted on May 19, 2015 by commbro

Ex Machina

Runtime: 1 hour 48 minutes
Budget: Estimated to be $13 million

I don’t normally watch indie films unless I hear good things. I appreciate that they take risks, but it so often feels so contrived. Trying to be different just to be different—that sort of thing. Just like me when I was in elementary school. That means I was a hipster even before hipst—dammit, nevermind. On to the review.

It’s a story about how Ronald Weasley meets RoboCop and the two go on wild adventures, fighting crime with magic.

Close enough

But seriously, the movie starts out quite slowly, but gripped my attention the rest of the way. The screenplay was very well-written. They found ways to include witty humor even admist the serious tone. Enough clues are given to foreshadow the things to come. It also really gives you something to think about.

I think it’s safe to say they really maximized their small budget.

CommBro Breaker

I’m going to skip the obvious, and somewhat inappropriate pun. Watch it and I’m sure you can figure out what I mean. Also, typical indie type of ending.

Mad Max: A Review

Posted on May 17, 2015 by commbro

Mad Max: Fury Road

Runtime: 2 hours, 00 minutes
Budget: Estimated to be $150 million

Mad Max: Fury Road is the fourth movie in the Mad Max franchise. I almost feel unfit to be reviewing this film since I have not watched a single one of the others—keyword almost. If this movie cannot stand alone against one of the most ridiculous critics, then it probably has no hope. That being said, it was surprisingly good.

This is one of those rare cases where they have a completely uninteresting trailer yet the movie turns out well. The whole thing was very…unique.

Unique—like this mad sax guy. Okay fine, it’s a guitar. Goshdammit, I feel like there was a missed opportunity here (GIF credit: Warner Bros., MTV.com)

I can’t say too much without spoilers. They do a good job of setting up the world and culture without some character outright explaining it all. Not sure I would watch it more than once though.

CommBro Breaker

The entire movie is just one damn long road trip. If you’re not into action, you won’t find much here.

Oh hey, Raiders fans tailgating…wait, crap (Photo credit: madmaxmovie.com)

Ultron’s Age Makes Him an Infant: A Review

Posted on May 2, 2015 by commbro

Film history is a long and strange one. They trace their origins to the late 1800s, much like USC does. Most films were almost immeasurably short during that time period. Any random YouTube video you pull up now would, at the very least, rival one in length. Sound in film didn’t catch on until the late 1920s. Fast forward to 2015 and $200+ million budget films with explosions and ear-rupturing sound aren’t even uncommon. All kinds of new technology like IMAX, 3D (which sucks, by the way), and 4DX are shoved down our throats. We live in a great time to be movie-watchers.

The sheer volume of movies means we also get a metric ton of crap. You know it’s serious when an American switches to the metric system (Just FYI, we DON’T use imperial. We’re more pretentious than that. It’s called “US Customary Units”). To help you sift through the garbage (and maybe collect some cans to recycle), I will release periodic movie reviews. What trip through Los Angeles is complete without a stop in touristy Hollywood? The idea is straightforward: I’ll keep it short, simple, and as spoiler free as possible—it might even be shorter than the early films.

With that being said, the first movie review to grace this blog will be:

Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Runtime: 2 hours, 21 minutes
Budget: Estimated to be $250-280 million

If the budget was only $8.00

The bottom line: you get what you pay for. As usual, Joss Whedon gives you a bunch of snarky one-liners and banter. Marvel keeps finding new ways to keep the action different and exciting. They also continue to elegantly weave scattered pieces of Marvel comics together even while taking liberties. The characters being more genre-saavy also adds an interesting flavor. It is a fairly straightfoward and enjoyable movie.

CommBro BREAKER

A City of Angles post would not be complete without another angle! I mean come on, the blog’s tagline was a quote in Captain America: The First Avenger with a few changed words. I have to apply some more angles to this review.

First off, I felt like the movie lacked a clear climax like Transformers 3 (which was kinda bad). Some parts also dragged a bit.

And before you try to pat them on the back for all the action scenes, consider this: whether intentional or not, some fight scenes in indoor areas were hard to follow because the shots were too tight. You could say…the ANGLES WERE BAD.

P.S. Why do so many movie critics rely on puns to make it interesting?