Movie Review: The Hateful Eight

Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) brings us his eighth film.....The Hateful Eight.....see what he did there?

Movie Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service

Matthew Vaughn's (Kick-Ass) vision of the world of Kingsman: The Secret Service will make your head explode.

The Kingsman are a group of international spies that are so top secret that none of the world governments even know who they are.  One of the members dies on a mission and Harry Hart/Galahad (Colin Firth, The King's Speech) feels guilty because it could have been prevented, so he presents a medal to the man's wife and small child.  He tells them, if they ever need help, to call the number on the back and give a certain coded message.  17 years later, the child is grown up.  Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton) calls in that favor of a long time ago, when he is picked up by the cops for stealing a vehicle.  He's a very intelligent, talented kid who just had a troubled childhood.  Hart knows this about him and by chance another Kingsman had just died on a mission to find a kidnapped professor (a nice cameo by Mark Hamill).  When he goes to bail Eggsy out, he also tells him about the open position.  When a Kingsman dies, the rest of them bring in a suitable candidate for replacement.  These candidates all go through rigorous training with only one victor claiming the vacancy.  Eggsy decides to go through the training.  While all this is going on a billionaire named Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) is giving the world SIM cards for their phones that would give everyone free internet access forever.  Of course, he's the villain, so there's a catch.  The training ensues, the villain's plans escalate, and it all ends in a glorious cacophony of violence.

This film is a bloody good time.  I mean that literally.  The violence in this film is not for the faint of heart.  It's a great send-up to the old spy movies, Bond in particular.  It does poke fun at them, but I feel it does it in a loving way, also paying homage to them at the same time.  If you like gadgets in your spy movie, it's got plenty.  Action, of course.  Humor, tons.  This film finds that fine line where it somehow manages to go over the top without actually crossing over into campy.  It knows it's ridiculous and embraces it.  Samuel L. Jackson plays a supervillain with a lisp, who projectile vomits at the sight of blood.  His lead henchman is a woman who bounds around on fake legs slicing people up with the swords sheathed in them.  On paper, that is absolutely absurd (let's be honest, it's absolutely absurd on film too), but you go with it.  It's bizarre, but in this over-the-top world, it somehow doesn't seem out of place.  Much of the humor plays the meta card by being jokes about what would happen in a typical spy movie.  Most of it was written cleverly enough to keep me chuckling throughout the film.

And it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye, or a head, or gets impaled, or dies in one of any other multitude of ways you can think of.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, this movie drops the humor and goes balls to the wall with the violence.  I'm not sure what the death toll is, but it's fairly high, and you get to see most of them.  Like the humor, the violence is over-the-top, and you just go with it.  Most of it is pretty well choreographed and filmed.

The characters are great too.  Colin Firth plays the straight man to Jackson's crazy villain.  He gives us his best James Bond impression, and does it well.  He brings just enough seriousness to give that balance I mentioned earlier.  Because whenever Jackson is on screen, he just chews up the scenery.  Jackson pretty much gets most of the lines in the film that you'll remember later and laugh about.  Taron Egerton is fairly new to the game and he is given what is probably the most complex character in the film.  We watch him progress over the 2 hours from punk kid to spy material.  Egerton handles this progression quite well.  It will be interesting to see what this actor does in the future.  In turn we also get strong performances from the supporting cast including Mark Hamill, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, and another newcomer Sophie Cookson (who does well as another of the potential recruits).

This film is a wild ride that will have you laughing, cringing, and just plain having a good time.  It's a well balanced film that's both serious and self-aware.  It is the first good action flick of 2015, and sets a good bar for it's followers to try to achieve for the year.  Sit back, grab a popcorn, and just enjoy the show.

Rating: ********-- (8 out of 10) [matinee]

Memorable Quote:

Valentine: Is he dead?

Movie Review: Captain America: Winter Soldier

Captain America: Winter Soldier is the next installment in phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  It is a superhero political thriller action movie brought to you by Anthony and Joe Russo, the guys who also brought you Community.  Wait....what?  I'm just going to start this review by saying don't worry, believe the hype, and go see this movie now.  It is amazing!


I think Marvel has been doing an amazing job with the universe they are building.  Even the lesser movies in the series are still fun to watch.  Each respective director they have chosen have done well with the material they're given.  They've also done a great job with casting.  Robert Downey Jr. was a no-brainer as Tony Stark.  Then out of left field came Chris Evans as Captain America.  I thought he nailed the part in the first movie, and he has only gotten better since then.


In Winter Soldier, Captain America (Chris Evans, Fantastic Four) has been around in the current time for a while now after having been frozen for the last 70 years.  He came from a time where loyalty, honor, and truth all meant something.  Now he's been thrust into a jaded, cynical world where you don't know who you can trust.  That is exactly what he is trying to figure out through this film.  Someone has infiltrated SHIELD and he doesn't know who he can trust anymore.  I can't go into any more than that without hitting spoilers.  To top things off, he also runs into a trained soviet killer with a metal arm, simply named the Winter Soldier, who seems to be just as fast an tough as he is.


CA:WS has the feel of an old 70's political thriller.  And it even throws in Robert Redford (All the President's Men) as Alexander Pierce.  The story at it's core is pretty grounded and intriguing, with a few of those fanciful outlandish comic book plot points thrown into the mix quite well.  If you are one who finds political thrillers a little on the dry side, don't worry, there are some amazing action scenes.....and plenty of them.  They managed to mix this great story with almost non-stop action.


If you've been following the Marvel universe, then you will be familiar with a lot of the actors and the characters they play.  We of course have Samuel L. Jackson (Snakes on a Plane) returning as Nick Fury (and if you like him, that's good, because his role keeps expanding with each film).  Then there is Scarlett Johansson (Don Jon) as Black Widow (always sexy and kick-ass).  There is some new blood as well, and they hold their own quite well against the seasoned pros of the series.  Already mentioned is Robert Redford as Pierce.  It almost seems like this role was written specifically for him, he fit it so perfectly.  The newcomer that you will all want to see more of after this movie is Anthony Mackie (Pain & Gain) as Falcon.  He basically is Captain America's new sidekick in this movie and the chemistry between those two actors is amazing.  They play off of each other like they've been doing this for years.


The Marvel movies have all done a great job of tying in with each other, but also working as stand-alone films.  This balance is one of the many things I love about these movies.  And it's another thing that CA:WS does very well.  It helps to see the other movies to get small references, but you can see it alone and still get 100% enjoyment out of it.  I know I'm a little biased for comic movies, but I've tried, and I really can't find anything at all to criticize this movie about.  The rest of the comic movies this year have their work cut out for them....and, in my opinion, the rest of the movies in general.


As a side note, there was a passing mention of Dr. Strange's name.  Exciting.  And for all my fellow Iowans, Iowa City gets a small shout out.  Bottom line, though, go see this movie.....right now.  You will not regret it.


Rating: ********** (10 out of 10)


Memorable Quote:
Black Widow: Would you like to play a game?