“Baby Driver” had me hooked from the get go. Like every Wright film, “Baby Driver is expertly paced.” Fueled by awesome music, choreographed chase scenes and great performances, this movie has everything you could ask for.

What I loved

I loved the music.

This is the first movie I really remember where the story’s protagonist moves with the score. If you’ve seen the trailer then you’ve seen Ansel Elgort and his ear buds. He wears them pretty much the entire movie. What he listens to on his iPod affects the rhythm of each scene and the way Edgar Wright pulls that off is remarkable.

The movie is also driven by great performances. See what I did there? Any-who, I was a little hesitant when I heard Ansel Elgort would be leading this movie — his acting prior to this has kind of bugged me — but he delivers here in “Baby Driver.” The other performances to note are Jon Hamm, Kevin Spacey, and Lily James. Who doesn’t love Jon Hamm right?

When it comes to action, Wright is able to balance crazy without losing his audience. Car chase scenes generally follow a pretty standard template, but Wright is able to breath new life into what has otherwise become a Hollywood staple.

The little I did not like

I did not enjoy Jamie Foxx in this movie. I don’t know what it was but he just didn’t land with me. He is a great actor and he seemed like a good fit but I just never bought into his character.

The only other thing I didn’t like was about half way through the movie the whole tone and vibe of the movie switched. Without giving too much away, I’ll just say had the movie maintained the look and feel Wright creates in the beginning, this could’ve been a masterpiece. It’s still a very, very good movie. Others I know that saw it actually enjoyed the switch in tone but for me, I wanted more of the first half vibe.

Looking at the list of still-to-come summer movies, I can’t imagine anything comparing to “Baby Driver’s” style. I might be wrong, but for now, I’m calling this the coolest movie of 2018.

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I will admit, I did not have high hopes for this movie, it seemed to follow all the formula from the three previous DC movies that had a great trailer but the movies disappointed. I did not know much about Wonder Woman, besides what I learned in “Batman V Superman.” I think that actually played to my advantage. I don’t want to really dive into the plot because I think the less you know about the movie going into it the more entertained you will be.

I also had my doubts that Gal Gadot could carry a movie like this even though she was one of the bright sides of “Batman V Superman.” Well, she proved me wrong. She has star power and nailed the role. Chris Pine was also fantastic as usual and they both had great chemistry together.

Is “Wonder Woman” the perfect movie? No, it has its flaws and kind of drags at some points and I was not a fan of the main villain but did enjoy watching her fighting Nazi’s.  Overall though, it was an entertaining movie. Maybe since I didn’t know much about Wonder Woman it played to my advantage and I found it intriguing to find out her backstory. Maybe knowing Superman and Batman’s story made me have too high expectations for those films but they still left you feeling empty and like they could have done so much more with those films. “Wonder Woman” however will make you leave the theater excited for future installments and feeling satisfied.

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I know most people put horror movies in their rearview mirror after Halloween, but for horror junkies like me, horror movies are the gift that keeps on giving the whole year.

Recently I had the chance to watch “Tales of Halloween” which was released earlier this year in October. The movie is compiled up of 10 short films and features major horror genre talent. Some of the heavy hitters that directed some of the shorts are Darren Lynn Bousman (the Saw series), Adam Gierasch (Night of theDemons) and Neil Marshall (The Descent).

What I liked about “Tales of Halloween”

I really enjoyed the format of the movie. 10 short films put into a 90-minute format. It was kind of like sitting around the campfire and hearing ghost stories from everyone there. It is kind of like “Tales from the Crypt” but more professionally done and a lot darker, scarier and tons of gore.

My favorite short was “Sweet Tooth” directed by Dave Parker. Parker was able to capture everything you want in a horror movie in a short feature. It was funny, suspenseful, scary and had a few good jumpy parts.

What I did not like about it

I am usually not one for crazy graphic gore. I understand there is a market for that, but it ain’t for me. This had a fare share amount of it. I feel like some shorts focused more on the gore than they did the story.

A few shorts tried to be more on the funny side of horror but really missed the mark.  Particular a spoof on slasher movies called “Friday the 31^st.”

Overall

If you are a horror fan, especially ones with tons of gore, this will be up your alley. I think the format was cool. I have seen some movies that are comedies try the same thing but fall flat, but this seemed to work and would love to see this format more in the future.

The post ‘Tales of Halloween’ movie review, and yes I know its Christmas time… appeared first on Utah.Film.

Before the interview, we were discussing before Ed arrived how he was in the new M. Night Shyamalan movie coming out the next year. No one knew much about it and M. Night likes to keep his movies secret until it is time to promote it. We knew Ed could not talk about it, but we tried to get some details out of him anyways. Listen to it here: http://www.flixjunkies.com/podcast-flix-junkies-and-the-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-day/

Well fast-forward a year later, and we finally got to see “The Visit.” It is no secret on our show that we like M Night’s earlier films, in fact I might say we loved them. Then his past three films left much to be desired, to the point that you thought his career was over. Well I am happy to report that M. Night for the time being is back.

I really enjoyed “The Visit.” Even though I am sick of the found footage/Documentary style of horror films, M. Night made this one work. Thanks mostly in part due to the awesome cast.

The person that really steals the show is Ed Oxenbould. After our interview last year with him, we felt like this kid was going to be a star, and I think we were right, for once. This movie gives him a chance to flex all his acting muscles, most noticeably his comedic acting. He informed us that his favorite movie was “Anchorman” and he must have been studying it cause he has awesome comedic timing.

“The Visit” is a mix of horror and comedy and it plays very well. It makes for an entertaining movie. There are already rumors out there that M. Night might team up with Blumhouse Productions again for a film starring Joaquin Phoenix. Yes Please. We just hope he throw Ed Oxenbould into the mix as well.

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Written by the same writing team that brought you the hilarious action/zombie flick “Zombieland,” Rheet Reese and Paul Wernick look like they are trying to stay as true as possible to the comic of Deadpool in the trailer. Over the top action with a ton of humor. The movie also star the hilarious T.J. Miller, so how could this not end up being an entertaining and funny movie.

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And it was at first. I was totally into it. The set up was more creepy than the original and I was ready for the crazy ride they were setting up. But then it fell flat — like a rollercoaster taking you straight up only to level out at the top, shooting you along a straight rail at 25 mph, with only a slight curve or two till the end.

Unlike its predecessor, there’s no real setup, especially when it comes to the characters. It comes in at 93 min, and they tried to jam a lot into it.It would have been beneficial to maybe add 10 minutes to the film to set up the family dynamic. Instead, it was so rushed that at the point the daughter disappeared, it almost seemed like no one really cared.

Now my biggest concern, and let me step up on my soapbox here for a moment, is Ghost House Pictures just doesn’t know how to make a good horror film. Look it up. They lucked out early on with “The Grudge,” but they’ve been making bad movies ever since. They seem to believe that in the horror genre, more equals scarier. They want you to see what is making that bumping sound in the night. Ghost House needs to take a look at what Blumhouse Productions is doing — the people behind “The Conjuring” and “Insidious.” What the audience can imagine going bump is scarier than actually seeing a ghost on screen. Ghost House doesn’t know when to edit themselves. They end up cramming so much onto the screen that there’s nothing left to be afraid of. And, the CG is so bad you can’t even call it eye candy.

Before the film started I heard some people talking about how because Sam Raimi produced it, so it was going be great. Well guess what, Sam Raimi is overrated. There I said it. He made one decent movie in his career and people now think he is the king of horror. But I’ll stop there. I could go on forever about this but I’ll hop off the soapbox for now.

Do I think this movie will find an audience? Yes. Especially the younger generation unfamiliar with the original. And to be fair, I watched the original with a group of people a few years ago and it didn’t really hold up to today’s horror standards. In the 80’s though it was awesome.

So here is my recommendation. If you love the original, don’t bother with the remake. If you’ve never seen the original, I’ll just say I didn’t hate this remake, but it missed so many great opportunities. This is really a case of squandered potential.

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But when I saw the trailer, it peaked my interest big time. I like Tom Hardy and the trailer just looked so freaking nuts that I asked, “How can this not be a fun movie?”

And it was. Pure craziness of fun.

But while I liked this movie a lot, I didn’t love it and here are some points to illustrate what I mean.

Why I liked it

The pace. The pace of this movie was insane. I was trying to think of a movie that goes this fast throughout pretty much the whole film and came up with nothing. Right from the get-go the movie puts the pedal to the metal and never lets up.

The action was pretty incredible. I feel like George Miller spent the last 30 years thinking of the craziest action he could create in the desert and then strung all his ideas together.

The acting was great. Tom Hardy was perfect for the role of Mad Max and Charlize Theron is phenomenal. Another person that was creepily fantastic was a guy that I’d never heard of before the movie, Hugh Keays-Byrne, who plays the main villain Immortal Joe. Fun fact here: he was also in the original “Mad Max.” But while I loved the action, it also leads into why I can only say I liked the film.

Why I didn’t Love it

The movie to me was 85% action and only 15% story. It was almost as if they designed the whole movie as an action film then went through and added a story where they could. I personally would have liked to see a little more story development, not a lot more, but enough to make me invest more emotionally in these characters. Which brings us to Nicholas Hoult. I went from loving Hoult’s character to hating him during the film. I can’t say much about it without spoiling the movie, but I feel they sorely missed the mark with his character.

There are a few other details I would love to dive into as well but it might spoil the movie so I won’t. You are welcome.

Overall, this was a fun film. You will enjoy watching it. Is it the best movie you will see this year? Probably not. Will it be a movie you’ll have fun with? Yes. Just go in knowing you are pretty much getting the same craziness you saw in the trailer and some more craziness piled on top.

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If you have listened to the Flix Junkies podcast in the past, you know that once Edgar Wright “dropped” out of directing “Ant-Man” all our enthusiasm to see it was squashed like an ant. Pun intended.

The new trailer keeps adding to our cause that Marvel should have done whatever it took to keep Wright at the helm. There is really nothing to get you excited to see the film besides Paul Rudd.

For our sake, let’s pray the movie is like the surprise hit “Guardians of the Galaxy.” A film that didn’t look all that appealing from trailers but ended up being quite entertaining. If not it might be a huge failure for the small size super hero.

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It got me thinking. What is the best basketball movie ever made? When you think about good sports movies I feel like it is easy to come up with lots of great baseball and football films, in fact you could easily do a top 10 list for those. Now try to think of 10 great basketball movies? Can you? Neither can I. In fact I could only coome up with one great basketball film and that is Hoosiers.

Hoosiers is a story about a small town in the 1950’s Indiana that defies all odds and goes on to win the state basketball championship. Gene Hackman gives an awesome performance as the coach with a checkered past teaching a team that fundamentals and hard work are what win games.

Written by Angelo Pizzo who also wrote “Rudy” and was scored by the wonderful Jerry Goldsmith, they capture the era of basketball that most of us never knew. Even though you know the outcome you will still find yourself holding your breath and rooting for this underdog team.

Now try to think of a basketball film that compares to this. “Space Jam”, “Glory Road” I don’t think so. It is not like they haven’t made a lot of basketball films, they just haven’t been very good.

So once again, I dare you to tell me a better basketball film than Hoosier. If you dare, you better come to play ball because in this scenario you are Hickory where your shots of winning are slim, not impossible but very, very slim.

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Here are five directors that started out so promising, but fell so far. Hopefully one day will win our love back.

George Lucas

Will George Lucas ever direct again? “Why would I make any more when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?” George Lucas once told the New York Times.

Well you are not a terrible person George, you’re just not good at making movies anymore.

George Lucas started out insanely strong directing films like
“American Graffiti” and “Star Wars: IV- A New Hope.” He then passed the directing reigns on for installments V and VI of the Star Wars saga. He then decided to direct the prequel installments, Episodes I-III. We could write hundreds of pages of what is wrong with those films, but if you’ve seen them you already know.

So maybe it is better he has called it quits for now.

Tim Burton

Burton has kind of got himself back on the right track with his latest movie “Big Eyes,” but before that can you name the last Tim Burton movie you liked?

For me it was 2003’s “Big Fish.”

Burton’s quirky directing style made him a hit with movies like “Beetlejuice,” “Edward Scissorhands” and “Batman” among some other awesome films. Then enter Johnny Depp. This weird partnership with Depp has produced films like “Dark Shadows,” “Charlie and Chocolate Factory” and a few other misfires.

Burton might have a chance to right the ship if “Beetlejuice 2” ever ends up happening. We all could use another Burton classic in our DVD collection.

Oliver Stone

Stone scored two Oscars for his directing skills back in the day. “Platoon,” “Born on the Fourth of July”, and “Natural Born Killers” are just a few of his earlier success. He was so good that the main focus of his trailers were the fact he directed the movie.

Well now when you see it is an Oliver Stone film you roll your eyes. How could you not after films like “Any Given Sunday”, “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” and “Savages”? His over-directing has become almost as comical as his movies. Almost.

Hopefully his upcoming film “Snowden” will get him back to his old self, but I am not holding my breath.

I think it might be time to retire to your mansion Mr. Stone.

Ridley Scott

“Alien”,“Blade Runner”, and “Gladiator” are all classic films. Scott’s films are larger than life, and he has the ability to put you right in the action. If you’ve ever seen “Black Hawk Down” you know what I am talking about.

These days, however, when I see a Ridley Scott film is coming out I can count on two things: it will be long and likely not that great. “Exodus: Gods and Kings” was a flop, “Robin Hood” put me to sleep, and I couldn’t bring myself to see “The Counselor.” Some argue that “Prometheus”, was pretty good, but it was no “Alien”.

Scott directed the upcoming big screen adaptation of “The Martian,” which comes out later this year. I still have high hopes for this one. Hopefully “Exodus” him a lesson and he’ll learn from his mistakes and get back to his roots.

M. Night Shyamalan

Oh M. Night, what happened to you buddy? I will start by saying I am a M. Night fan. I loved “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable” “Signs” and “The Village.” I even liked “Lady in the Water,” which most people hated. Then “The Happening” happened and it’s been downhill since.

I tried watching “The Last Airbender”, could not get through it, and the only reason I did watch it is because he directed it. I was excited he teamed up with Will Smith to make “After Earth,” but that was another massive failure and major disappointment. I watch his earlier films all the time and wonder how he fell so far?

His next film “The Visit” comes out later this year and the rumor is he is back to his old self. Well let’s hope so, because this might be his last chance before all his fans finally give up on him.

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