2016 Films: #5. 10 Cloverfield Lane

April 8th in Chicago. This film had been out for about a month and my wife and I decided it seemed like to good choice to check out a new cineplex (the kind that serves booze and lets you order food & booze from your seat) downtown. The picture had a budget of $15 million and got it all back with a $24.7 million opening weekend. The film, had gotten some good buzz and an 89% Rotten Tomatoes rating, so it was worth a look.

There's a lot to like about this film. First time director, Dan Trachtenberg does a very nice job of creating a claustrophobic thriller. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Michelle. Michelle lives in New Orleans and after an off screen argument with her boyfriend, moves out of their apartment and manages to get on isolated rural roads in about 5 minutes (why she didn't just jump on I-10 and head either East or West is beyond me). While on a deserted road she gets into a bad car accident. She wakes up with her wounds treated and chained to a wall (never a good situation). She is then met by Howard (John Goodman), who explains that he rescued her. Michelle is having none of that and she makes a feeble escape attempt. Howard tells her that they are in his bunker and that things have gone bad in the outside world. Michelle is skeptical to say the least but calms down for a but after meeting Emmett (John Gallagher, Jr.). Emmett had known Howard and sort of confirms Howard's story. Still unconvinced, Michelle tries to escape by stealing Howard's keys but realizes Howard just might be right when she watches a woman die outside.

After that incident, the three settle down for an undetermined amount of time but Michelle feels a bit weird abut Howard. Things he's said about his past just don't really add up. Michelle recruits Emmett to help her make a DIY gas mask and containment suit. Eventually Howard gets the notion that something is fishy and confronts the pair. It's here where Howard's true colors are revealed. Things don't go well for Emmett and Michelle is able to escape the bunker as it burns up behind her. While on the surface things appear ok but after she takes off the mask, things go South quickly. Aliens are lurking about.

As I mentioned earlier this is a real good claustrophobic thriller, good enough that I didn't mind the Tom Cruise version of War of the Worlds mash-up at the end. The film started off as a straight thriller but got the sci-fi aspect when JJ Abrams came on as a producer. This is not a Cloverfield sequel. Personally, I think the film could have stood on its own as a thriller and didn't need a real or imagined connection to Cloverfield.

There are a few scenes where a character would just disappear. That didn't seem likely to me considering this was a bunker and I never got the feeling that the place was overly large. The other issue I had was when Michelle escapes she's travelling on Louisiana State Route 26 and has a choice to go in one direction to Houston and to Baton Rouge in another direction. Having run that corridor in my truck driving days I looked up the highway. It exists. It exists over 200 miles West of New Orleans, north of Lake Charles. Where the f*ck was she going when she left? Michelle doesn't have a thick Louisiana accent so I doubt she grew up in the Bayou and wasn't going home. She also probably wouldn't have survived her crash either.

This film is worth seeing. You can wait for it to come out in an alternative format instead of seeing it in the theater. Solid acting, good direction and it doesn't drag on. 

2016 Films: #4. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

March 31st in Las Vegas. When the trailer for this picture first came out, I was very excited like everyone else. To be honest though, my interest starting waning as the release date approached. When the film was released over a week ago, the reviews were bad. Reviews aside, people are seeing the film. As of April 1st the film has grossed over $261 million ($167 million opening weekend) and will probably make twice that in the overseas market.

The picture is far from awful but it's not good. Which I find strange because there are very good performances. Ben Affleck is great as an aged Bruce Wayne/Batman. I liked Henry Cavill in Man of Steel and he does a nice job as Clark Kent/Superman. I like the way he's conflicted about himself, wanted to do good and help people but not understanding why people are afraid of him (the death toll in the battle of Metropolis might have something to do with it but we Americans have problems seeing the big picture sometimes). The reviews about Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor were mixed. I thought Eisenberg did a fine job but I don't agree with the direction of where the character was taken. Gal Gadot was breathtaking as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. Gadot had great screen presence and held her own with Affleck and was every bit as badass as the men. After this film, I am looking to see her in the Wonder Woman film in 2017.

Check out this article about some dumb stuff from the film.  Also, I watch a lot of Cinema Sins videos and they gang over there said some things about this picture that I wish I could say they "stole my thunder." But I'm not smart enough to come up with some of the stuff they have...

Director Zack Snyder is known for being able to make scenes look like they came from a comic book panel. That's fine. He stayed so close to the source material, Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, he completely steals dialogue form the graphic novel. That's not homage, that's lazy. In fact there is not a lot of originality in the film at all. There's a scene where Lois throws Kryptonite down a flooded stairwell. That scene was lifted from the original Superman film. Remember inSuperman Returns when Luthor gets access to the Kryptonian crystals? In this film Snyder has Luthor get access to the mainframe of the damaged Kryptonian ship from Man of Steel.

Then there's the stuff that just doesn't make any sense. Luthor hates Superman. I mean really hates his guts. First he wants a Superman deterrent. He gets denied that then he comes up with the idea to create Doomsday. He's going to destroy a peaceful Kryptonian with a Kryptonian deformity that he has NO WAY of controlling. This of course leads to more destruction when Superman and Doomsday battle. Then, Batman leads Doomsday back into Gotham, thereby doing the same thing he's pissed at Superman for! Oh by the way, Doomsday looks a awful lot like Abomination from 2008's Incredible Hulk...

Abomination, meet Doomsday.

Both share a relation to another hulking grey creature from a different franchise...

A troll from Middle Earth. There's definitely a family resemblance.

Then there was, for me anyway, a laugh out loud, guffaw moment when we get treated to a training montage of Batman getting ready to fight Superman. Bruce Wayne lifting weights and working out to prepare for a fistfight with an indestructible foe...

Trust me, the actual footage is hilarious. Despite this, Affleck is a great Batman/Bruce Wayne.

Here's the thing, Batman has no chance of defeating Superman. None. In The Dark Knight Returns, Batman is able to last as long as he did because Superman was not at full strength after having a nuclear warhead detonate in front of him and he had Green Arrow use an arrow with Kryptonite gas to weaken him further. Snyder pretty much used the same plan in this film. Again laziness. Oh and Superman being on the wrong end of the nuclear blast, that happened in the film as well. I thought to myself, "they went to the nuclear option rather quickly."

The story itself is all over the place. The end game is in the title but it takes over 2 hours to get there for some reason. Essentially, this is a 150 minute teaser trailer for the upcoming, over a decade in development Justice League film. The real purpose of the film is to lay the groundwork for the the DC Cinematic Universe. In closing, this film wasn't good. There are moments but that's it. Nothing original and a lot of wasted talent. If you see this film, avoid paying extra for 3D. It may not be as bad as some of the reviews but it's not even mediocre. It was a somewhat enjoyable disappointment for me anyway.

2016 Films: #3. The Witch

March 25th in Chicago. What do you day after a half day of work on Good Friday? Why see a film with Satanic undertones of course. This film had a lot of buzz around it and it was well received. It got a 90% Rotten Tomatoes rating and the trailer seemed interesting. The film takes place in Puritanical New England in the 1600's. The film opens with a trial of sorts where William is banished from the community for "prideful conceit." He and his family are forced to hack it out in the woods (the woods are never a good place to be in modern times so in the 17th century, you're days are numbered). William and his family: pregnant wife Katherine, daughter Thomasin (the oldest), oldest son Caleb, twins Mercy and Jonas, manage to find a nice clearing in the forest and is able t make a home there. Samuel is born and while Thomasin is playing peek-a-boo with him, he disappears. It wasn't like they were playing peek-a-boo from a block away, she was standing over him. Gone.

While the family blames a wolf for taking Samuel and prays for his return, he meets a bad fate at the hands of a crazy naked lady. Katherine is devastated by Samuel's disappearance and she slowly stats to lose it and eventually blames Thomasin. Caleb and Thomasin go out hunting one morning and during some commotion, Thomasin is thrown from her horse. Caleb finds that their do has been killed and is captured by a crazy naked lady. Thomasin makes it back to the house and there's no Caleb. Katherine has now completely lost it and has it in for Thomasin. Caleb, naked and in a bad way, makes it back to the farm. Turns out he's possessed and eventually dies. Katherine with the help of the twins, points the witchcraft finger at Thomasin. Thomasin denies everything but gets locked up in the barn with the twins and their creepy goat Black Phillip.

Not sure how they didn't finger Black Phillip as Satan. It's all right in front their eyes for crying out loud!

When William opens up the barn in the morning to find that the twins are missing, the livestock are dead (except for Black Phillip, given) and Thomasin with bloody hands. Unsurprisingly, things get worse from there. The film ends with a naked Thomasin joining a coven of naked witches in the woods.

The film was the directorial debut of Robert Eggers. He also wrote the film based on old timey New England folklore and fairy tales. The film is more creepy than scary. It's a decent into madness film (which I dig). The family slowly starts to lose it, being isolated in the woods with weird sh*t happening to them. There's some real creepy imagery as well. The scene where Samuel is in the witch's clutches is disturbing and there's a scene where Katherine dreams that Samuel has returned and she begins to breast feed him. Suffice to say it wasn't Samuel that was breast feeding and it wasn't a dream. That image really creeped me out! It creeped me out so much my wife still makes fun of me about it. THe film is only 90 minutes and it gets right to the point. Eggers does a real nice job ratcheting up the tension until the climactic ending.

The only problem I had with the film is that I don't believe that William and his family would've lived long enough to have all this misfortune happen to them. I just didn't believe they'd survive the Winter in tact as a family unit considering they had nothing when they were banished. Otherwise this was a nice little film that is worthy watching if you dig creepy movies.