Theatrical Review: Captain Marvel

Date: Saturday March 16 2019
Location: Cinemark Theater at Stroud Mall
Time: 11am
Party: 2 (my mom and I)

Writers/Directors: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (and 4 other writers)
Composer: Pinar Toprak

Cast:
Carol DanVERS/Captain Marvel- Brie Larson
Nick Fury- Samuel L Jackson
Phil Couslon- Clark Gregg
Talos/Keller- Ben Mendelsohn
Yon-Rogg- Jude Law
Dr. Wendy Lawson- Annette Benning
Maria Rambeau- Lashana Lynch

Duration: 123 minutes (+8 trailers)

Write-up:

Opening Comments
So at the end of the last Avengers movie, Nick Fury calls for reinforcements after disaster strikes... this was who he was calling. Now I kinda wonder how he was so sure she wasn't going to be among those people that disintegrated at the end of that movie...

Anyway, this movie broke a lot of records and of course I had to find out the next puzzle piece before the final Avengers movie comes out next month. The hype was more than warranted for sure and it was another of those great audience experiences where everyone was into the movie from start to finish. It's one of those reasons why I hope movie theaters never go under because everyone would rather stay home and watch Netflix. (We're not cool enough to have Netflix, but even then, I'm glad we don't because I have little time as it is to get everything done. Even when I'm not on Twitter or Facebook for Lent... so I'm writing this at least a month before I actually can post it).

Trailers
There were 8... funny thing was it had me thinking... there's not that many movies I want to see this year... then one of the trailers comes up and I realize... almost everything I want to see this year is owned by Disney... every Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars movie is owned by them. And just when I was having this realization, a few days later Disney bought Fox... yeah, Disney owns everything... but I like their stuff, so I can't complain too much.

"Hobbs & Shaw"- OMG, do we NEED another Fast & Furious movie? This one is about Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham and how their characters have to work together to defeat the bad guy played by Idris Elba (I think he said his character's name IS BadGuy... ugh, they really have run out of ideas, haven't they?)

"Long Shot"- it's by the same people who did "Knocked Up" starring Seth Rogen and Charlize Thereon. She's trying to become the first female president. He's a reporter and they apparently were friends from way back when and end up messing around. I don't know which part gives me more ick... these two actors getting together in a movie or this is obviously Hollywood trying to rewrite (and taking the piss out of) the 2016 election. It's been almost 3 years- LET IT GO!!

"Shazam"- ugh, not another trailer for this stupid third-tier superhero movie... 

"Spider-Man: Far From Home"- I'm guessing that this is taking place after the last Avengers movie, so everything is ok now? Supposedly he's going on a class trip to Europe and wants to be normal, but Tony Stark's bodyguard/chauffer Happy Hogan and Nick Fury are looking after him or need him to fight crime. 

"Rocket Man"- After "Bohemian Rhaposdy" was such a hit, why the heck not? Beside, this looks amazing. AND it's not owned by Disney. It's also a little weird because Elton John is still alive. Don't they usually do these biopics after famous musicians have long passed away? 

"Dark Phoenix"- another X-Men movie, but this revolves around Jean Gray and has Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender back as the young cast of the X-Men... this looks like it's going to be quite dark, but it looks like it'll be well done. The only X-Men movie I'd ever seen in a theater was the Wolverine Origin movie. I also thought about how long it's been since I'd seen the original X-Men movie and just how far that franchise has come. 

"Frozen II"- it's the 2 minute teaser trailer that came online a while ago, but it's the first time I'm watching it... I don't know what the heck to make of any of it, but I am SUPER STOKED for it. OMG!

"Dumbo"- ok, this movie is about to come out... I think we can stop with the trailers now... I don't really have any interest in it. (Speaking of it, though, I'd been watching my fair share of MsMojo videos on YouTube doing top 10 lists... one talked about characters that acted like bad guys, but they weren't cast as the villains. One of them were the other elephants in Dumbo that made fun of his ears. Even when Jumbo was taken away, they were still ostracizing him... that movie is just so messed and depressing and I didn't even get to the Pink Elephant parade. But I also thought about a recent show I saw on Animal Planet or something where they said Asian elephants have ears like Asia and African Elephants have ears shaped like Africa... All of the elephants at the circus have small ears, but Dumbo has big ears. I wonder if that's implying that his dad was an African elephant and they were mean to him because he's... well, I think the term is bastard... I'm thinking about this too much and I'm not even into the main attraction yet)... I'd just have rather seen an Aladdin or Lion King trailer cuz I hadn't seen them as much. Not yet anyway. 

The Main Event
Well, before the actual movie starts, there's a really cool tribute to Stan Lee. I won't give it away :P but at the end, I wooted to myself, my mom started to cheer and then the rest of the audience joined us. It was a really cool moment. He deserves it. The reason why we're all here in this theater seeing all these movies. 

I'll be honest-- I was LOST for the first 30 minutes of the movie. Vers (as she's known on the Kree home planet) is training to be strong enough to join in a mission with her mentor, played by Jude Law. And he keeps telling her about keeping her emotions in check. Their mission is to take out this other race of aliens that are shapeshifters and taking over other planets. But she keeps having flashbacks that are garbled and it makes as much sense to her as it does to the rest of us.

Then she lands on Earth and things start to fall into place when we breach familiar territory. 
For starters, it's 1995 and she crash lands into a Blockbuster. Ah... those were the good old days. I was 9 in 1995 and a lot of the references I grew up around, so that was really cool. Also they had a lot of music from the 90's, so that was a nice touch too. I didn't think the 90's would ever be a period worthy of nostaglia for people. But then again, I grew up in the 90's. The only things I'm kinda nostaglic about are music and Disney movies. To me, the 80's are the coolest time period, but the people who were adults then say it wasn't that great. It's an ongoing cycle. "Midnight in Paris" goes really deep into it. 

We meet Nick Fury before the eye patch. And Agent Coulson is on his first day on the job. And they're trying to figure out where she came from and who she is. 
We do eventually find out who she is and that she was originally from Earth and had been missing for 6 years... it becomes clear after a while where this is one of those movies where everything you think is true is not and vice versa. 
Jude Law has been playing more bad guys lately, it feels like... and I had this really weird feeling about him. I think even during the trailers. And then there's a point where he's talking to Ronan on telecom... he was the bad guy in "Guardians of the Galaxy" so right there, that was a major clue. 

It's kinda funny seeing Nick Fury in this capacity. Apparently, Captain Marvel was his first ever encounter with someone who'd come from another planet. I don't know what the heck S.H.I.E.L.D. was doing before they were defending against aliens and rogue superheros... but apparently they got a new purpose after the events of this movie. 

Once all the pieces came together and Vers found out she was really Carol Danvers and she was one of the first female pilots in the US Air Force... the movie just became awesome. Kinda like being nearsighted and suddenly you get glasses and you're able to see everything clearly. 
There's a lot of talk about girl power in this movie and it's definitely well thought out. There's been more focus on that lately in the entertainment business and beyond that. I feel like some of it comes off as pandering, supporting it just because it's "the thing" to do right now. Kinda like pushing for diversity just for the sake of having diversity. The ultimate lesson learned is that you're not strong because of what others have given or taught you. Strength comes from within. And Jude Law gets his butt handed to him in the most epic way possible... I like the guy a lot, but in this movie, he kinda deserved it. 
And her best friend, Maria, she's a bad ass too. And her daughter Monica, precocious because why the heck not- all kids in these movies seem to be, is super adorable. 

With the Kree world, they have something called the Supreme Intelligence that's practically their god and it takes a different form depending on the person. Based on who that person admires the most. It's an interesting idea... but it's scary as hell when you think of the implications of that... manipulating people and taking away their free will

Also, there's a scene-stealing cat named Goose... keep on a eye on that cat... super cute, but full of surprises. 
Also, the Tesseract comes into play too. No Infinity Stone has gotten more screen time than that thing. It was in "Thor," Loki stole it to wreck havoc in the first Avengers movie, Red Skull was trying to use it for world domination in the first Captain America movie... I'm still trying to figure out how the heck it came back to Earth... I thought it was underwater with Captain America until he was rescued in 2012... there are so many of these movies I can't keep timelines straight. 
(Taking time to look into it after rewatching the movies... it was fished up before finding Captain America... and whatever Loki used in "Thor," it wasn't the Tesseract, it was an artifact that belonged to the Frost Giants... but Erik Selvig was brought into S.H.I.E.L.D. to experiment with it)

And yes, there are two post credits scenes. One connects to the last Avengers movie and the last one has to do with the cat. 

Grade: A- (if I caught split the movie in half, I'd give the first half of the movie a B- or even a C because it was that confusing... but I think this is a good score to round everything out)

Theatrical Review: Fantastic Beasts- The Crimes of Grindlewald

Date- Sunday November 11 2018
Time- 11:35am
Location- Cinemark at Stroud Mall
Party-  2 (my mom and I)

Director: David Yates
Writer (book AND screenplay): J.K. Rowling
Composer: James Newton Howard

Returning Cast:
Newt Scamander- Eddie Redmayne
Jacob Kowalski- Dan Fogler
Tina- Katherine Waterston
Queenie- Alison Sudol
Credence- Ezra Miller
young Grindewald- Jamie Campbell Bower

Newcomers:
Grindlewald- Johnny Depp
Theseus Scamander, Newt's older brother- Callum Turner
Nicholas Flamel- Brontis Jodorowsky
Nagini- Claudia Kim
Albus Dumbledore- Jude Law
Leta Lestrange- Zoë Kravitz
Duration: 134 minutes (+8 trailers)

Write-up:

Opening Remarks

There was a bit of hype leading up to this movie... at least among Harry Potter fans. First off because it's another of the series. And it also includes a younger Dumbledore and shows some scenes at Hogwarts. It's somewhat of a homecoming, even though it's only for a few short scenes, including some flashbacks. 
The theater was kinda empty at first, but it quickly filled up in that half hour we were sitting there. And it got pretty quiet once the movie started... but we also had to get through tons of commercials and trailers first.

Trailers:

I'd been saying the last few posts that 7 seems to be a common number because it's happened several movies in a row... well, we finally broke the pattern and got one extra trailer. Are any of them worth seeing? ...not really sure. I was expecting a lot of repeats from previous theater trips, but only one repeated. 
And it was the "Kid who would be King"- where a bullied 12 year old in private school pulls the sword from the stone and it brings all kinds of monsters (and Morgana) from Camelot into modern day England and they have to fight them. 

As for the other 7: 

"The Secret Life of Pets 2"- a teaser trailer, really... Leonard the poodle is left at home again and as soon as his master leaves, a dance party ensues with tons of other dogs. And there's this little Chihuahua tries to put on Copacabana and it falls on deaf ears. 
(Have yet to see the first one, but I'd like to at some point)

"Mortal Engines"- funny how quickly this trailer started circulating... we saw it and when we got home, it came on multiple times. It's directed by Peter Jackson (of the LOTR/Hobbit franchises) and it looks like his work... really huge visual effects. What I gather is that it's a post apocalyptic story about cities becoming moving machines and London is the bad guy. And the female protagonist has scarring on her face and her mom was involved in this conflict in the past. Nothing about this really grabs my attention- it could be a huge success or huge flop, depending on how many people see it and how well it's written.

"Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse"- this is animated and it's about a bunch of Spider-men in different alternate universes trying to defeat some bad guy. It looks like it'd be fun for kids, but as a superhero movie, there doesn't seem to be a lot to it. Although not every movie has to be as jam packed as the last Avengers film. 

"Bumblebee"- this is another installment of the Transformers franchise. And this time, it's a girl (Hailee Steinfeld) who bonds with the machine. But instead of a Camero, like Shia LeBoeuf found all the way back in the first Michael Bay film (15 years ago, I think... wow, a lot's changed), Bumblebee is an old yellow VW beetle. And Michael Bay isn't directing, so it may have a chance to be halfway decent with its story and not being completely overtaken by effects and explosions. 

"Five Feet Apart"- kind of an interesting teen movie... it's about a couple of kids who are in the hospital all the time, sick with cystic fibrosis and they fall in love. The guy is Cole Sprouse, who was Cody from "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody"... dang, that feels forever again and he looks so different now, it's crazy. But he's kind got a defeatist attitude about the whole thing and they start taking their meds together and falling in love, but they can't really interact physically cuz they could catch each other's germs and die. It has potential to be good... I just don't know how good. 

"Detective Pikachu"- yeah... so many feelings about this one. This is one of those movies that could either be good or be a complete disaster. There's a video game that's been out for a while, my sister has watched playthroughs on YouTube, where Pikachu actually speaks words with kind of a deep voice and he's a detective, obviously. They actually brought Pikachu and the other Pokémon into the real world and they're animated so they kind of look like animated stuffed animals. I cannot begin to say how much I love this franchise, but depending on how this is done (I doubt I'd get to a theater to see it even if I wanted to), I could love it or really hate it. I'm already kinda weirded out about Pikachu talking like a normal person. The trick is that only this one teenager can understand him and they work together to solve a crime. Oh, and Ryan Reynolds is Pikachu, so there could be that whole self-deprecating Deadpool sense of humor (PG-rated, of course, this is a kid's franchise) involved that makes fun of the franchise. It's an interesting match-up, but I won't know until I see it if it's gonna work. At least for me... this is a side-mode game I don't see myself getting into. I personally just love the general franchise. Hard to believe next year will mark 20 years since I started playing the game, starting Blue and going onward. I actually took a break for a number of years, but I got back into it in 2015 when 2DS finally went down in price to $80... just in time for the Nintendo Switch, my timing totally rocks #Sarcasm

"Shazam!"- this has nothing to do with the Shaq movie from the 90's... it's another DC supehero where this teenager comes across this power and everytime he says the titular phrase, he turns into Zachary Levi and has super powers. It looks like it could be funny, but at the same time, I'm starting to get a little sick of superheroes. I don't know about everyone else. 

The Main Event- 

yeah, we're finally here... I'll put some mild spoilers about the previous Fantastic Beasts, but not so much for this movie... 
But I'll cut to the chase in saying that this was the first time in all the Harry Potter franchise that I left a theater disappointed... as far as sequels go, The Twin Towers (Lord of the Rings), Empire Strikes Back (Star Wars)... even the first of the Deathly Hallows movies, all of them felt like they accomplished SOMETHING even though their purpose was to set up for the bigger picture that would come in the follow-up installments. 

The title of the movie establishes, of course, that Grindewald is the villain and the whole purpose of this side franchise is to defeat him and throw him into Azkaban for eternity. And Grindewald does show up at the end of the prevous film. I just neglected to mention him (or Johnny Depp) in the cast at all because that would be a huge spoiler for that movie. But the HIstory of Magic, as told by J.K. Rowling (and Bathlida Bagshot, the character who wrote that particular Hogwarts textbook) states that Grindewald was defeated in an epic duel with Dumbledore. Heck, in the actual book, The Philospher's/Sorcerer's Stone, it says on Dumbeldore's Chocolate Frog card that he defeated the great Dark Wizard, Grindewald among his many accomplishments, including discovering 12 uses for dragon's blood and he and Nicholas Flamel studied the stone. I just looked it up... this duel takes place in 1945... meaning that we still have less than 20 years until this happens.
Of course, all of the movies will be leading up to this duel... I just hope more happens within this movies, like story progress, to warrant multiple installments. 

I think the thing that really got to me about this movie was that there were a million questions we came into it with. First off, we find out that Credence is still alive... he wasn't killed at the end of the previous film, which I thought was a sad moment because there was a chance he could have been saved. Now, this movie starts with him being revealed to be alive and he's going to Paris to find out who his family is. Multiple explanations are given and they connect him to various Wizarding families familiar to Potter fans... but Grindewald finally gives him answers at the end and we have no idea if he's telling the truth or he's giving him this identity as a way to use him against Dumbledore. 
That's just one example of several. But there were so many questions and by the end, very few of them were answered and more questions came up to take their place. Like trying to kill a Hydra. It's pretty dang annoying. 

We get to reunite with our old favorite characters from the last movie. Newt Scamander is trying to get his travel ban lifted... and Dumbledore more or less helps him navigate around that. In the end, it makes a lot of sense why he does it this way, but Dumbledore becomes even more engimatic than he already is. He has his reasons behind what he does, but he has a real roundabout way of going about that. The Deathly Hallows had this major conflict between Harry and Ron because Ron was skeptical about Dumbledore sending them on this quest to find/destroy Horcruxes to defeat Voldemort when he's given no clues how to go about it. The answers do become clear eventually, but the lack of a road map is frustrating to him. We're all taught to trust Dumbledore absolutely... and maybe it's because it's Jude Law  (who I really like, by the way) and it's a younger version of him, but it was hard for me to completely trust a younger Dumbledore. It's an uneasy feeling... 
It's kinda cool to see him teach at Hogwarts. He's actually the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher and he's teaching the kids how to defeat Boggarts- poltergeists that take the shape of what a person fears and they need to use the Riddikulus charm to turn it into something funny to finish it off. Interestingly, he is relieved from this position by the Ministry of Magic- they're trying to find out what Grindewald is up to, but he's not being cooperative. This brings back the running joke that no DADA teacher has lasted at Hogwarts for more than a year. Although we see flashbacks when Newt and his ex-girlfriend, Leta Lestrange were going to school and they were fighting Boggarts then too. So Dumbledore was in this position for a couple years. I do remember when Tom Riddle was in his 6th year at Hogwarts (based on the flashback in Chamber of Secrets) that Dumbledore was a Transfiguration professor. The whole running joke actually started when Dumbledore refused to hire Tom Riddle as the DADA professor... and the position became cursed. 

Anyway, I got away from the old characters. Newt is back and we find out the previous movie, he went to America because Dumbledore asked him too. We find out that the Muggle he and the other American wizards befriended... he didn't lose his memory like all of the other Muggles. And he and Queenie have been seeing each other. At the time, it was against the law for people with magic to be romantically involved with Muggles, people without magic. And of course, Newt has his suitcase full of creates and adds a few more to his collection. The Niffler also makes more appearances and it actually has a family now. (The theater was actually selling them for $12 and I was almost tempted to get one... they're so cute!) 
And Newt and Tina see each other again, but things are a little tense because she thinks he's engaged to someone else... his brother is actually engaged to Newt's ex girlfriend, Leta. She's alluded to briefly in the previous movie, but we get to know her better here and she's also on a search to find out more about her family. We already knew the Lestranges were pretty screwed up because Bellatrix is a psychopath. She was the reason why Neville's parents, respected Aurors in their time, were driven to insanity via the Cruciatus Curse. She's very sadistic. And her family really has a screwed up history... we did get a healthy amount of history, but some of it was hard to watch. Interesting thing is that she's nowhere near as evil as her descendant was. I read up briefly on Newt's history cuz I thought he was related to some other wizard (the only connection I found, and already knew, was that his grandson married Luna Lovegood). He was expelled from Hogwarts because of something Leta did that endangered other students and he took the blame for it. There were flashbacks with her and Newt and they were fun to watch. The actors they cast looked a lot like them and had the mannerisms down perfectly. 

The one thing amiss about this movie was that it is called the "Crimes of Grindewald"... he doesn't really have a lot of screen time and he's really not committing any crimes... not yet anyway. Sure, the movie starts with him being transferred from the American ministry to London's ministry and by extension, Azkaban and he escapes custody (the one thing we learn about prison transfers in movies and TV... they never end well) and a bunch of wizards are killed in the process... and he does have some people killed in Paris in order to lie low in their residence... but with that title, you'd expect something more.
Instead what he does is try swaying Credence to join him and he's reaching out to other Wizards and Witches to join him and commit to "The Greater Good"- that phrase has come up once or twice in the Harry Potter books and goes back to him. His goal is to get the Wizarding world out into the open, to stop all the secrery and hiding from the human world. He also shows visions to his brethen of what he sees is the future- tanks, Holocausts and atomic bombs. He more or less predicts the humans will bring the end of the world with World War II. Funny enough, 1945, which is around the time the war is ending... that's when he's supposed to face off against Dumbledore. 

Another character we meet is Nagini. Harry Potter fans know her as the snake that follows Voldemort and ultimately becomes a Horcrux. Here, she's an Animagus that's part of a freakshow cirus. The ringleader says to the crowds that she changes to a snake by night and there will come a time when she'll transform and never be able to change back. Whether that's true or just for sure, it's hard to be sure. I just know that she will eventually become a snake permanently to serve Voldemort. (Speaking of Voldemort, I checked on him and he was born in 1926, so he was a baby when this movie was taking place. And when the duel happens, he's 19... so there is a possibility then that Tom Riddle will appear in one of these movies at some point. There's nothing on his Wiki page that says he was inspired by Grindewald... but JK Rowling could still make a connection somewhere, especially if we see more of Nagini in later moies)

Those who pay attention will see some other cameos of characters that relate back to the other franchise. I noted Jamie Campbell Bower, despite the fact he has no lines, he is shown in pictures alongside Dumbledore and he played him in the Deathly Hallows flashback... I just liked how they kept that continuity... and that they changed his eyes to make him look similiar to Johnny Depp.
There's also a funny cameo from Nicholas Flamel... when Harry Potter was in Hogwarts, Flamel had just celebrated his 665th birthday. This is 70 years earlier, meaning he was just short of 600. He looks pretty ancient as it is :P which is crazy to think he's still alive, but he is staying alive thanks to the Elixir of Life from the Sorceror's Stone. He comments how he hadn't seen any action in decades, but we do see him later in the movie. We find him because he's in charge of the safe house Dumbledore told to Newt. So even then, those two were good friends. 

And to fulfill another curiosity of mine, I looked up Dumbledore because I thought Jude Law looked too young to play him when he looked so much older in the Harry Potter movies. I thought maybe he'd be as old as Nicholas Flamel because of how close they are... not even close... the wiki page says Dumbledore was born in 1881. Meaning he was 100 when Harry's parents were murdered and he was 116 when he was killed. So relating it to the Fantastic Beasts timeline, Dumbledore was 45-46.
Ok, that makes a bit more sense. 

Going back to the movie as a whole, though, it does start up really slow. A lot of exposition where we catch up with old characters and learn about some new ones. But I don't really know what the point of this movie was. Was it trying to stop Grindewald, and failing? Was it trying to kill or arrest Credence, and failing? From what I can tell, it was about drawing lines about what side everyone was on, the "Greater Good" as Grindewald puts it or was it to remain at peace with the muggle world. 
There's some great action with other beasts that Newt befriends, although so much is happening, it's hard to keep track of everything. We start to get some answers about things as we go, but more questions pop up to take their place.
All this movie sees to be is a set-up for future sequels. And I really hope more happens in the next movie to make up for the lack of clarity with this one. 

Grade: B- (I get the feeling a lot of other people, particularly non-Potter fans, wouldn't be nearly this considerate)

25. Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Code-name: 1890's bromance

Director: Guy Ritchie

Type: book-to-movie, mystery, thriller, drama, action/adventure

Music: Hans Zimmer
(I had, unknowingly, been a fan of Hans Zimmer for years and this movie is why he's become one of my favorite movie composers, second only to John Williams).

Cast:
Sherlock Holmes- Robert Downey Jr.
Dr. Watson- Jude Law
Lord Blackwood- Mark Strong
Irene Adler- Rachel McAdams
Mary Morstan- Kelly Reilly 
Mrs. Hudson- Geraldine James
Inspector Lestrade- Eddie Marsan
Clarkey- William Huston
[Honorable Mention]
Dredger- Robert Maillet

Notable Awards and Nominations:

Golden Globe-

Best Actor (comedy/musical)-

Robert Downey Jr.

...yeah, it's kind of a big deal 8-)

nomination-OSCAR- Best Art Direction (lost to "Avatar")
nomination-OSCAR- Best Original Score- Hans Zimmer (lost to "Up")

...btw, where was his freaking Oscar nomination for this? :-P

nomination- Grammy- Best Original Score- Hans Zimmer

Write-up:

First Impressions [both of Sherlock and this movie]

I knew nothing about Sherlock Holmes before this movie. The closest I got to it was when we read "The Speckled Band" in 7th grade.

It was announced a few months after Robert impressed me in "Tropic Thunder" that he'd play the title role in this new adaptation. This was a couple years before I became the crazy super fan I am now, so my intentions were just to see another great performance.
I want to say that I saw the movie before he won the Golden Globe. The timing of both things were pretty close. The same weekend I saw it and "Avatar" (the 2nd time, this time in 3D) was the weekend he won...

Anyway, my reaction was mixed. I gave "Sherlock Holmes" a B+
and my first review went something like this:

Overall, I’d say my rating is generous. Of course, I am very generous to my current favorite actor. There was one part towards the end before the climax where I think I was starting to fall asleep. It’s the sort of movie where your paying attention is rewarded at the end where everything is explained. But at times, it's very hard to pick out individual words and phrases from Downey’s British accent. One scene aside (featuring McAdams in men’s clothing and mulitple explosions in slow motion), there are some moments that only RDJ’s charisma make special"

Aside from running a little too long, my first impression wasn't great because I didn't know what to expect coming into it. I expected the typical pensive Sherlock Holmes we're all accustomed to seeing or, in my case, just knowing of. Instead, this was an action/adventure with emphasis on action. It took me a while to get used to the fact that this was a more active version of this character.

As it turns out, this was actually the closest adaptation there's been to the source material.
Aside from the dead-on accent, the comedic aspect and, obviously, Robert's overall performance, the coolest thing about it for me the first time was the final act. When Sherlock reveals to Lord Blackwood how he solved the case and discredited him as a practitioner of dark magic.

My dad's mentioned a few times with a couple movies he'd seen in-flight how it helps to pay attention because it comes together in the end. This was my first experience with this personally and naturally that helped me fall slowly in love with the film.
Unless you're British or have a good ear for accents, on those grounds alone, I'd recommend seeing this movie more than once. Not just catching the dialogue, but also all the tiny details that come together in Blackwood's grand scheme.

Plot
We open up in the middle of the action. Sherlock and Watson are pursing a killer responsible for the deaths of four girls and if not for them, would have killed a fifth in yet another ritualistic sacrifice. Lord Blackwood is apprehended and taken to jail to await his execution.

Three months later, he's to be hanged and Sherlock's biggest concern, aside from lack of cases, is losing Watson to marriage. In this portion, there's a lot of great character development between the two roommates, which helps if you're unfamiliar with the stories. Mostly in the form of witty banter and one-liners from Sherlock.

We get back to the main plot where Lord Blackwood tells Sherlock about the next part of his plan, just moments before he is hanged.
Then reentering his life for, according to dialogue, the third time is Irene Adler. She asks Sherlock to find someone for her and he purses her (in disguise of course) to find more. Particularly a little about her employer.

He does find her missing "ginger midget" (his words), but in the coffin of Lord Blackwood. Scotland Yard had been called to the graveyard initially on reports that he had risen from the grave. And so the game is afoot...

Watson tries his best to break ties with Holmes, but gets roped into one last case with him where they try to discern Lord Blackwood's plan. This is done with some assistance, as well as some hindrance, from Irene Adler.

The Actors and The Acting

Oddly enough, I have a very hard time imagining where I had seen Jude Law before Sherlock Holmes. I'm starting to think that the only place I'd seen him was in entertainment news and as People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive.
After this movie and seeing the amazing chemistry he has with Robert, I'd wanted to see more of him. Plus, he's a good looking guy, so that goes without saying. Sadly, the only other positive venture I got out of it was "The Holiday." I stuck with him and defended him throughout "Closer" until the final moments. And "The Talented Mr. Ripley"... let's say he did deserve what he got.

Between "Mean Girls" and "The Vow," I'd seen so much of Rachel McAdams lately that the illusion I always had of her as Irene Adler was temporarily shattered. She is so into this role and so good at it that I usually see her as the character, not as one of my favorite actresses.

Everyone else, I'm getting to know for the first time. I'd seen Eddie Marsan once or twice since out of pure coincidence. Mark Strong, the only other time I'd seen him was a cameo he had on a Jaguar SuperBowl commercial with Tom Hiddelston and Ben Kingsley (note: all three had worked with RDJ... the only other common link is that they're Brits who play helluva good villains).

Just recently, I've started watching Kelly Reilly's new show "Black Box" and the results have been great so far. There could be an Emmy in it for her ;) assuming it avoids cancellation

As far as the acting goes, this is definitely among Robert's finest performances. The Golden Globe was well deserved. He always has this magnetism on screen. When he's at his best, I feel like he becomes his character and I forget he's playing a role.
Having said all that, I have other roles I prefer him in per my personal tastes. Sometimes it's more about the emotional intangibles than grade A execution. Also, as much as I think he pulls off a great accent here (thanks to his dialect coach Andrew Jack, whom he worked with on "Chaplin"), I find his normal speaking voice much more attractive.

Credits to the Director and Producers

Except for Mel Brooks back in the day, I didn't really pay attention to directors until I watched Robert Inside The Actor's Studio. He spoke so highly of the directors and writers he'd worked with that I couldn't help but want to learn more.

Guy Ritchie is a very hands-on director. Behind the scenes, you'd see him up close with the actors going over the choreography with them step by step.

After Sherlock Holmes, I checked into "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch"... just to see the types of movies he'd been known for doing beforehand.
So far, for me, the results have been mixed. I think I needed subtitles for LS2SB because I could not understand 80% of the dialogue. I don't remember much else except there were no big names in it and the last half hour was actually good. As for "Snatch," I could understand it better but not by much. It starred Brad Pitt and he was rather good in it. It had some comedic moments, but the pacing was slow on numerous occasions.
But I'm not giving up. It might just take multiple viewings for me to wrap my head around this man's style. One thing's for sure: Sherlock Holmes speaks on a grander scale with a much sharper picture, probably thanks to having more resources from WB studios. And kick-ass producers like Joel Silver ("Lethal Weapon" and "Weird Science" to name a few), Susan Downey (yes, Robert's amazing wife 8-) ), and Lionel Wigram (all of David Yates' directed Harry Potter films).

[Just found this out: WB approached Guy Ritchie to direct this movie. Rather fittingly, Guy grew up on the stories and had wanted to bring them to the big screen.
WB wanted him to make it more like the films he'd done in the past and he wanted to do it on a broader, more accessible picture and the result was a compromise of that... fascinating stuff...]

All the Details
Overall, this movie is very cerebral. The dialogue is fast-paced, often with a lot of technical details, so you have to be on your toes. Or better yet, relax the first couple times and you'll absorb the details via osmosis :-P

If you have extra time, I'd recommend just searching the many interviews on YouTube Robert and Jude gave promoting this film. I have four of them saved under my YouTube favorites, but I'd probably seen this one the most out of all of them. They talk about how they go along almost instantly, their chemistry, how the characters relate to one another. Lots of juicy details.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAIHw55aeWM
In another interview, director Guy Ritchie said how he liked the idea of an American playing Sherlock. Then Jude coming on board came down to Robert saying "only Jude would do" and this epic bromance is born.

I've seen so much footage from interviews to Guy Ritchie's Maximum Movie Mode on the Blu-ray extras that I've learned so much about this movie, what happens in it, how certain scenes were shot, where some of the inspiration came from (actual dialogue in the actual stories!)... whether that makes me an obsessed fan girl or movie nerd is your choice.
I just found it all very fascinating, which makes the overall experience even more fun.

Seeing the movie more, going past the obvious things that keep me coming back, I came to love how detail-oriented it is. Every article in each setting belongs there and has some merit and bearing on the overall story. Some more obvious than others.
One thing Guy Ritchie pointed out in Maximum Movie Mode is a post in Baker Street Sherlock likely used to practice his martial arts on.

Like I said, this is a very physical film. Once I got used to that new element, I couldn't help but marvel at the fight scenes. Guy Ritchie worked with a lot of slow motion, especially in key fights where we see the slowed down version and it's sped up to normal speed after all the explanations.
The only scene where I felt this didn't work was during the slaughterhouse explosions... it was just overdone for me. Then again, the following scene where the police find Sherlock, wouldn't have worked if it was all filmed in normal speed.

Of course while doing their research, the guys read all of the stories. Robert went the extra mile by spending time with Leslie Clinger, a tax lawyer who lives in Malibu who happens to be an expert in all things Sherlock Holmes.

Researching The Brand

Part of it is because I'm a sucker for useless trivia and part of it is also living up to the fact this man researches his roles so well that he knows them backwards and forwards. I wanted in on that action. Actually, I think some of that has filtered into the novel I'd been working on for the past several months, wanting to know my characters as well as he does.

Sometime in early 2011, I bought myself the first volume (of two) of Sherlock Holmes and started reading the stories. I finished it within a month and shortly after got the second volume.
Makes me go back to one interview he did with Jimmy Kimmel. Robert asked the audience who read the books and Jimmy discounts the cheering saying they're all liars.
It'd been a year or two after the movie came out, but yeah, I READ THE STORIES, JIMMY KIMMEL!

Did I make that loud enough? :-P

I don't remember which ones, but there were only a handful of stories I didn't get into. One of them was the "Sign of Four," which I found overlong and boring.

With the first story, "A Study in Scarlet," I was impressed by chapter 2 where Holmes goes through his process, talking about how he only keeps the most important knowledge at his disposal (not caring that the Earth revolves around the sun, stuff like that), and at the crime scene where he measured a man's height by the stride of his footprints.

Extraordinary stuff...
it's also great reading Watson's engaging narrative and getting to know him, not as the bumbling old man people had come to know in previous adaptations, but as an ex-military man who battled in Afghanistan. It's pretty obvious how much they care about one another even if some of that involves tough love.

Naturally, I decided to check into as much Sherlock Holmes related stuff because I found the mythology fascinating and of course, part of me wanted to compare and say how much better the Guy Ritchie version is. (And how Robert would always be my favorite Sherlock).

From the scholarly standpoint, I think the CBS series "Elementary" captures the feel of the books better. How eccentric Sherlock was. And I also loved Lucy Liu as "Joan" Watson. On the premise alone, I was intrigued by a female Watson and she's an interesting character. They also take an interesting angle with her relationship with him, showing how she doesn't have much a life going on outside of him and as of recently, she decided that needs to change.
However, I can't stand by all of the reimaginings  presented in "Elementary." Case-in-point: how they made Irene Adler and Moriarty THE SAME PERSON. People who saw Sherlock 2 had their complaints that Jared Harris wasn't a sinister enough Moriarty (I'll cover that in a bit). I just felt cheated that they combined two of the most iconic characters from the series. And I rather liked Natalie Dormer as Irene Adler until they screwed things up.
Recently, they also caused a ruckus with Sherlock's brother Mycroft. He'd been featured in a few stories, written as someone even more brilliant than Sherlock, but too lazy to apply his powers of observation in anything constructive. In "Elementary," they wrote him as the estranged brother who had a fling with Watson, was a secret agent and ultimately had to fake his death to get away from the bad guys... yeah, nothing like the books or any other version.

I'd been meaning to see the highly acclaimed series Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch, but the timing was never right. Unless it's available on Hulu, I was always watching something else at the same time. But whatever flickers I did see of it, I did like, but I need to see more to be sure.

I also saw one adaptation of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" where Sherlock was played by Peter Cushing. It was a well-written adaptation for sure. I especially impressed that they had a more active Watson than people were accustomed to seeing.

Sequels

Yes, I have an "s" at the end of that and it's not just blind optimism.

I saw an article on IMDB from one of the producers who said a third Sherlock Holmes is in development. The problem is that everyone got busy... to which I say, "You try being Iron-Man and Sherlock Holmes and in Avengers at the same time" :-P

But it would put my heart at ease to see the moment where Sherlock and Watson have their epic reunion scene... seeing as Sherlock 2 ended with Sherlock believed to be dead by everyone but the audience ;)
I also want to give everyone involved a chance to redeem themselves for "A Game of Shadows."

To put it lightly, I felt like they went too big too fast.
The third act penultimate "explanation" of how he solved the puzzle of Moriarty was extremely rushed and muddled. Instead of laying out the evidence piece by piece in the background like in the previous film, they were barely glanced over to begin with. We're just expected to believe Mary had been playing detective with Mycroft and Sherlock followed Moriarty's whereabouts under more disguises... sorry, I ain't buyin'.
Jared Harris as Moriarty was intimidating at first, but seeing it a couple more times, I think his actions were more intimidating than his on-screen presence. Upon further examination, the final chess scene when he does his own "Holmes-a-vision" bit to counteract Sherlock's fight scene scenario comes off rather goofy.

What did work in its favor was casting Noomi Rapace as the new female co-lead (my first experience with her and I thought she was great). Watson's wedding to Mary was very touching. Every scene at 221b Baker Street felt like home. The train scene had all the elements of a great Sherlock Holmes action scene and is one of the better executed bits of dramatics in the film.
The funniest part with his promotion of Sherlock 2 was talking about this cross-dressing scene and how awkward it became remembering how it was HIS idea :-P

Of course, I have to address the awesomeness that is Robert hosting Maximum Movie Mode on the Blu-Ray. He joked throughout that this was something only of interest to people who are sick or cooped up on a rainy day.
I do not need those excuses to deal with DVD commentary. I do it because I want to know more about movies from the directors, producers and actors that work on them.
As he always is, Robert was intelligent and knowledgeable when he needed to be and comedic in the times in between. Personally, I have to disagree with his belief everyone decided that they loved seeing him get his ass handed to him in movies after getting a taste of it in a certain indie flick he did in 2005... I prefer seeing him able to handle himself ;)

Coming Soon


[here's hoping my next couple entries come out this good]


Next week will be a movie that has a little something for everyone. Action, adventure, romance, comedy (lots of great comedy), loveable sidekicks and much more. It's probably the most quotable movie on this list where I could easily mute it and know it word for word. And it's another movie, for whatever reason, I fought my mom on seeing for years and when I did, I couldn't not find out how it ended.

Theatrical Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Date: May 4, 2014
Location: Pocono Community Theater
Time: 1pm
Party: 3 (my mom, sister & I)

Writer/Director: Wes Anderson

Duration: 100 minutes (+3 trailers)

Cast:
M. Gustave- Ralph Fiennes
Mr. [Zero] Moustafa- F. Murray Abraham
Zero- Tony Revolori
Madame D- Tilda Swinton
Heckels- Edward Norton
Dmitri- Adrien Brody
Jopling- Willem Dafoe
Agatha- Saoirse Ronan
Deputy Kovacs- Jeff Goldblum
M. Ivan- Billy Murray
M. Jean- Jason Schwartzman
M. Chuck- Owen Wilson
Young Writer- Jude Law

Theater & Previews:

We arrived a few minutes before the movie started. There was maybe a dozen other people in theater, most of them looked older than 50.

The first preview was for a Richard Linklater called "Boyhood," which I'd seen posters for on IMDB but don't know much about it. It sounds like it's a labor of love he spent 12 years slaving over and is unlike any movie you'd seen before. Something about following around a family for a dozen years and filming them, although I'm not sure if it's an actual family or they're all actors.

The second looked interesting. It was called "Words and Pictures," starring a very handsome Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche (who I know from "Chocolat") and they're teachers that develop an unusual relationship. He's a writer who's an English professor in danger of losing his job because he has a drinking problem. She's a newly arrived art teacher that's a little rough around the edges and fresh from an injury we'll likely hear about later in the film.

Then the third was "Dom Hemingway," which is said to be a Jude Law performance unlike any other... might be interesting to see down the road. He certainly can't do any worse than "The Talented Mr. Ripley" or "Closer".

Write-up:

Every now and then, we will take the trip downtown to see a movie not available locally. We'd been here maybe a handful of times, including the two Oscar winners I picked correctly (The King's Speech and The Artist), "Water for Elephants" and maybe one other that I'm forgetting.

I kinda expected this movie would be another one of those. For whatever reason, Wes Anderson movies are still deemed to be on the independent circuit so they don't come to all theaters.
Since its release date, I've said how much I want to see it, but it's not playing locally. Luckily, it finally did make it and my patience was well awarded.

When it comes to this particular writer/director, a few things are inevitable.

• Bill Murray will be in it somewhere
• We'll get at least one Wilson brother
• The sets will be incredibly detailed, all the way down to the shelf knick-knacks
• I'm going to compare it to "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" because it was my first Wes Anderson film.

I was attracted to "The Grand Budapest Hotel" because it looked like another quirky, fun Wes Anderson movie. A few months ago when it was just coming out, I watched the Behind the Scenes special about it on HBO and all of the reviews were positive. People were saying it was the best movie of the year so far.

I'm happy to say that all of the Wes Anderson movies I'd seen so far, this one has been my favorite... second only to "The Fantastic Mr. Fox".

Other than that, I'd seen "Moonrise Kingdom" which I thought was more serious than it had to be and "The Royal Tennebaums" which was so serious it bordered on depressing.

It's kinda hard to explain what "The Royal Budapest Hotel" is about. It starts out with a girl leaving a key at a statue dedicated to a man and she's reading a book named for the movie. We hear the narrative in voiceover and that leads us to the writer talking to a camera. We go back a couple decades and see the writer much younger (played by Jude Law) talking to the man who owned the hotel.

This man (played by F. Murray Abraham) tells us the story the majority of the movie goes into, following the concierge M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) and his loyal lobby boy Zero (newcomer Tony Revolori).

M. Gustave teaches Zero the ropes, telling him how a lobby boy treats the guests so well that he anticipates their needs before they do.
The hotel is located in a very exclusive, but beautiful location. The inside runs like a well-oiled machine, like something we'd only read about or see on film. Just wondrous to behold.
It's also suggested that M. Gustave takes such care of his guests that he meets their every need, some of which are sexual.

This movie is R-rated, but it goes as far as partial or brief nudity (some of this is in paintings and drawings on the walls) and the amount of cussing.
With the former, I was wary because I didn't want to expose my sister to too much. She was a little more concerned with the amount of cussing (she counted 13-14 f-bombs).

The plot takes off when one of the regular hotel guests passes away. He and Zero goes to her estate to pay respects and to see if she left anything in her will to him. Her will bequeathed to him a portrait known as "Boy with Apple."
Her family is all looking for their cut and is taken aback by the concierge's inclusion in the will. Her son Dmitri is the most vocal, very opposed to him getting the painting... for whatever reason :shrug: seems silly to me, but there's gotta be conflict somewhere.

When they arrive back at the hotel, the police are there looking from him... for some reason believing he killed her.
I saw this scene in the Behind the Scenes where he says "I knew something was suspicious, we never got the cause of death" and he proceeds to run from the authorities.

The movie progresses as he's put in jail, he and some inmates plan a break-out and another member of the Madame's family, Jopling, goes after the executor of her will.
Willem Dafoe plays this role almost like it was written for Christopher Walken. He's pretty hardcore about it, although I'm having trouble recalling if he has much dialogue.

The humor varies from being incredibly obvious to an actor randomly cussing up a storm when something doesn't go their way to something that takes a while for the laugh to hit. The pacing is slow at times. There was a period after the prison break scene where I found myself getting bored because not much was going on and there weren't many laughs to be had.

Another thing that can be expected in a Wes Anderson film is pacing. Often times, you'll have a scene where things race by you, both with the scenery and with the dialogue that it's hard to keep up. Then in the scene immediately afterwards, everything stops and it's almost so quiet you can hear a pin drop.

Probably my favorite part was the chase scene (and its hilarious resolution) where M. Gustave and Zero on a toboggan are chasing after Jopling on skis. You get all kinds of twists and turns. You see a sign that welcomes us to the sight of the local winter games (how timely of them :-P), which includes slaloms, ski jumps and sledding tracks. I won't give away the resolution, but it's unexpected and one of the best laughs of the entire movie.

Pretty much all of the actors are great in this. It's certainly interesting to see Ralph Fiennes do a comedic role after only knowing him as Voldemort for the past several years :-P
Most of the cast members, Wes Anderson has worked with before, including Jason Schwartzman (who I will give his due in my "Fantastic Mr. Fox" review), Edward Norton and Jude Law.

Overall, I found it very enjoyable. The details and quirks were as I expected them to be but there were plenty of surprises in between. The scenery was often vast and the fact it takes place in wintertime with plenty of snowflakes... I just love that, it makes it all look so beautiful.
Yeah, winter does suck and the fact we've had so much snow this year sucks, but I'm a sucker for great winter scenery. My "Frozen" review went into it quite a bit ;)

In its constructs, it's probably the best realized movie I'd seen so far this year. I didn't fully enjoy it as much as some of the other ones I'd seen so far, but it was very satisfying.
I guess you could say it's a sleeper hit in that the enjoyment comes in small subtle doses and doesn't hit as many highs as it could have.

Grade: B+