Movies, Film, and Chili

Pacific Rim: Uprising  is the sequel to the 2013 Guillermo del Toro original Pacific Rim. Written and directed by Steven S. DeKnight,  the same man who directed some of Smallville and Angel, but is better known as the writer. There are some camera issues that Transformers doesn't have. The shots of the Jaeger's are cool, but the character direction is odd and some of the choices in close-ups are technically flawed. I should say extreme close-ups. John Boyega  tries to carry a film as the lead actor again and it's not really selling to me. His character adds humor to the film which destroys some of Scott Eastwood's smooth delivery. Finn from Star Wars is his best acting so far and that's because of his direction there. Speaking of Scott Eastwood , he plays Nate Lambert who is a Jaeger Ranger and veteran in training the young crowd. I wish that he could lead the film because he's a better actor. I hope with whatever sequel comes next that Eastwood gets to ...

Tomb Raider is a film following and rebooting Lara Croft's origin similar to the way the video game rebooted the video game franchise. Directed by Roar Uthaug , awesome name. He's a relatively unknown director from Norway. It's great that companies are getting new talent to come in and direct big budget films. There isn't anything really noticeably wrong with the way the film is shot but more of the pace of the film. This is really the hardest part of making a video game film. While the game has expectations and parts where things die down a film like this needs to keep a good pace. Alicia Vikander  plays Lara Croft which does a pretty great job, performance wise. Sure the accent is different depending on which Lara you're talking about. Is it child, teenage or twenty-something Lara? Doesn't matter. She does a good job hiding her Swedish accent. She was excellent in Ex Machina and Jason Bourne. If you're a fan of the reboot video game by Square Enix, t...

The Strangers: Prey at Night is the follow up to the 2008 film The Strangers. The premise is pretty much the same except it's at a mobile home park and it's a family of four. Bryan Bertino did the original and wrote this follow up's screenplay. The dialogue and structure of the film is very 80s horror and throws in a lot of tropes that audiences have come to expect. It's formulaic and predictable if you're an adult. This film is rated R but for some reason, the kills that were used throughout the film were generally muted. Sure there's blood but I left the theater thinking that I saw a PG-13 film. Johannes Roberts has improved since doing 47 meters down. Don't ask me why that film got a sequel. This man loves his horror films and it shows. There are some camera and editing problems but nothing too major. He used the zoom function of the camera so much in the film. There are parts where I could see intent on how he chose the shot and then others seem ra...

Red Sparrow  is about a Russian ballerina who must work for her government. Her mission: to get information out of an American who has a mole in the Russian administration. Directed by Francis Lawrence,  the same man who brought you The Hunger Games and I am Legend, Lawrence does a great job with the flow of the film. For films that are thrillers and mysteries, the problem is having the audience figure out the ending before the climax. The way the film is edited and used allows a smart audience member to be tricked into thinking it is one person when it was someone else the entire time. Great direction. This, other than Mother! is the hardest role I believe that Jennifer Lawrence has ever done. She has a pretty trying and rather quick transition from ballerina to Jason Bourne , Black Widow , completely-awesome heroine. She is smart and willing to go the distance to make sure that she and her mother are happy. I can't really go into more details without spoiling her chara...