Lights, Camera, Review - Week 1

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@JeffDLowe: Clearly I loved this movie. So much so that I think it is the third best movie I have seen in 2017. For starters, you need to see this movie NOW - seriously, close this web page, get up and go see it in theaters. This was a movie made for IMAX, almost as much so as 'Avatar' was back in 2008. The visuals are just simply breathtaking, whether it be the aerial dogfights or the action on the land and sea. The sound, as it is with every Christopher Nolan movie, is a huge part of why, as a viewer, you feel the tension of each scene jolt off the screen and into your body. Vox put together a really great video explaining how Nolan uses something called a "Shepard tone" in his films and how its sound illusion creates so much tension in 'Dunkirk:'
Incredible. I wondered how Nolan would use the element of time in a true story to take his viewers on a spellbinding trip and the results were amazing. Without giving much away, he uses three stories that start on separate timelines, but all wind up converging together at the end of the film. It's mesmerizing to watch come together, especially considering the movie doesn't have much character development. It's basically a war re-enactment playing out on the big screen. Will this bother some? Sure. But for me, it was the art of filmmaking at its finest. It was original, well paced, and captivating from start to finish. I am not sure many directors outside of Nolan could have pulled off a movie with this style. 'Dunkirk' will find itself at the Academy Awards in March without a doubt.

@BarstoolKenJac: This was a weird movie that was definitely hurt by the internet hype machine. It got billed as one of the greatest war movies of all time, but it really feels like that is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. This movie is suspenseful, visually stunning, and a technical masterpiece. But it also fails to register an emotional connection, which seems crazy important for a war epic. My best way of describing it is an HBO documentary with no narration. It was so incredibly focused on the historical aspect, but didn't really have a plot or story arc. And while there's nothing wrong with that, there are subtle ways to get the audience attached to your protagonists (see Thin Red Line). So I'd say it was definitely captivating, but only to a point. The timing and pacing of the plot were also sort of difficult to compensate for, but if the point was to throw off the audience, then it worked. 


 @JeffDLowe: Best actor to play Spider-Man, hands down! Finally, we got a Spider-Man who actually looks like a damn teenager. Spider-Man is supposed to look, act and talk like he does in 'Homecoming.' Tom Holland was great in a limited 'Civil War' role last year, so this isn't too shocking, but the movie being a slam dunk was a huge sigh of relief. Spider-Man will (likely) be the cornerstone of the post-Avengers 4 MCU, so this needed to be a good movie. The connections to the Avengers for Peter Parker really didn't bother me like I thought they would because they served the plot well and weren't there for fan service. A huge reason I scored this movie so high was the villain. Marvel is now 2-for-2 on the year with actual good villains. You were able to relate with and understand the motives of Michael Keaton's Vulture. Having a villain with depth can really carry a simple story to a whole different level. It also helps that Michael Keaton continues to pump out fantastic performances left and right. His scene where he interrogates Peter Parker in the car while holding a gun was gloriously evil to watch. Also, shout out to a really great twist that came out of nowhere. Spider-Man is finally back to being the hero on the screen that we want to see!

 @BarstoolKenJac: Such an absolute refresher after that Andrew Garfield garbage, this was AWESOME. Tom Holland absolutely delivers and is the perfect representation of Spider-Man in both the legacy sense and for what he needs to be in this Marvel universe. It's fun, technically sound, and keeps you laughing. I'd say my biggest complaint is that it feels like they very much planned it as a filler film to just close the gaps between Civil-Infinity War in that the major plot points and the antagonist's motives are sort of lazy and unoriginal. But they definitely succeed despite themselves if that was the case. 


@JeffDLowe: I will lose my mind if this movie is not nominated for an Academy Award next year. 'The Big Sick' is easily one of the funniest, and smartest, movies from the last 10 years. It's tough to find a truly great comedy these days - so many films are sloppy with "improv" instead of smart writing or use cheap comedy cliches to just garner a few laughs. While this may be a dramedy, it has consistent laughs from start to finish. The acting is top notch throughout as Kumail Nanjiani, Holly Hunter and Ray Romano execute their lines and scenes with perfection. The drama and emotion cut deep and sliced together with the jokes perfectly. The story is simple, yet effective. There are a few jokes that had me laughing for so long that I was still going well into the next scene. 

@BarstoolKenJac: My personal favorite movie of the year so far, 'The Big Sick' absolutely delivered in every aspect you could want from a dramedy. Shades of 'Meet the Patels/My Big Fat Greek Wedding' with a great comedic engine driven by Apatow and Showalter. Literally the perfect date movie, it never really leaves you wanting for too much more at any given point. I'd say my only complaint is that Nanjiani struggles in the dramatic scenes, but it's really inconsequential in the grand scheme. Oh, and Ray Romano and Holly Hunter fucking DELIVER. 


@JeffDLowe: Ha, ah fuck, man. It's upsetting, disappointing, unoriginal and, most of all, just straight up displeasing. It's a huge commercial for products, mainly owned by Sony, which makes it also pretty off-putting and offensive as a viewer. Do you remember the horrifying 'E.T.' rip-off 'Mac and Me?' (Famous clip below) 'The Emoji Movie' feels like the same thing but is ripping off 'Inside Out' instead.

@BarstoolKenJac: This one was a stinker. No way around it. I love the individual cast members, but them lending their voices to this trash concept and plot was just putting lipstick on a pig. It's almost as if their idea was to capture some of the magic and childhood novelty/nostalgia that 'The Lego Movie' got, and settled on emojis because all the EP's kids can't get enough of them. TIME's "hold my avocado" tweet turned into a movie. Just awful.