Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Be Kind, Please Rewind

He’s a Negative Spaceman. He’s the…

Vidiot

Week of March 17, 2017

Uranus has asteroids. First up…


Passengers

The downside to hypersleep is lying in your own nocturnal emissions for 100 years.

Smartly, the cyrosleeper in this sci-fi film wakes up to get his rocks off.

When an asteroid strikes a spacecraft carrying thousands of hibernating colonists to their new home, slumbering passenger, Jim (Chris Pratt), is woken 90 years too soon.

Unable to get back to sleep, or commandeer the controls, Jim’s desperation results in him rousing a female passenger (Jennifer Lawrence) to keep him company. But when she learns the truth, his plans for love are jeopardized.

Meanwhile, damage to the ship’s reactor threatens all life aboard.

With mediocre effects, dull performances and a stalker-like narrative masquerading as a love story, this ill-fated voyage distracts from its creepiness with a boilerplate climax that adds further insult to the viewer’s intelligence.

Besides, intercourse in space is the same as intercourse on Earth, just way more expensive.  Red Light


Collateral Beauty

Losing someone is very difficult, especially when they didn’t tell you any of their online passwords.

Fortunately, the deceased in this drama was too young to have that many PINs.

Spiraling into depression after losing his daughter, ad executive Howard (Will Smith) starts penning angry letters to Love, Death and Time.

When his business partners (Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Michael Peña) discover this they hire actors (Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren, Jacob Latimore) to portray those concepts and confront Howard publically.

However, their scheme to get him deemed insane makes them reevaluate their own feelings towards those intangibles.

A failed attempt at an uplifting ensemble, the hokey premise gets more pathetic and laughable as it limps towards to its overemotional ending. Not even its credible cast can save it from the sentimental scrapheap.

Besides, the only letters you should be sending after losing someone are those addressed to mail-order bride websites.  Red Light


Fences

The upside to being a garbage man in the 1950s was that households only had 1 garbage can.

But even that can’t keep the trash collector in this drama from complaining.

Relegated to the back of the dumpster - alongside the other black sanitation worker Bono (Stephen Henderson) - failed baseball star Troy (Denzel Washington) shares his resentment with his co-worker, his wife (Viola Davis) and his two sons on a daily basis.

Over the years his anger, drinking and his adultery drives further wedges between his loved ones. Meanwhile he wages a personal war against the Grim Reaper.

Directed by Denzel Washington and featuring an Oscar-winning performance from Davis, this minimalistic film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play is a powerful, albeit long winded, portrayal of a multifaceted but ultimately unlikable character.

Incidentally, movies are better than plays because you aren’t hit by any of the actors spit.  Yellow Light

***Low Salesman***


Death of a Salesman

The upside to being a salesman in the 1950s was that people would actually open their doors to you.

But even that can’t help the pathetic peddler in this drama become a success.

Still on the travelling sales beat despite his age and deteriorating health, Willy (Dustin Hoffman) heads home after a failed business trip to spend time with his concerned wife (Kate Reid) and his sons Biff (John Malkovich) and Happy (Stephen Lang), who are both failures like him.
During their visit, Willy fades in and out of the past, confusing people and divulging secrets on the event that destroyed Biffy’s football prospects.

The Golden Globe and Emmy award winning made-for-TV movie of Arthur Miller’s lauded play, this rare film adaptation of the Loman family is stacked with solid actors who bring the pathos to this patriarchal performance.

Incidentally, when a salesman does die they retire his bar stool.

He’s an Understudy Buddy. He’s the…

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