Bagel Bagel

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE

Fun, genuinely good film, not a masterclass in cinematography or anything but it isn't too bad. The pacing is a little wonky and the story isn't very clear. However, it manages to keep your attention most of the time and is generally surprisingly enjoyable. Jacob Batalon is hilarious, and RDJ is flawless. Tom Holland perfectly illustrates an anxious teen that wants to look cool and be respected by other teens and adults. The movie very well orchestrates a just about perfect teen movie, while still staying fairly Disney. However, there are a few scenes/lines that I'm surprised weren't censored out. It isn't particularly superhero-oriented, and just seems like a comedic coming-of-age movie with a dramatic sci-fi twist. 6/10.

A classic defying films of the 2000’s and the fantasy genre itself, The Fellowship of the Ring is a film that will go down in history as one the most iconic of all time. Based on the 1950’s novels of J. R. R. Tolkien, the story is that of many hobbits, men, dwarves, elves and wizards as they come together over the soul purpose of destroying an all-powerful ring. Elijah Wood seems to be our protagonist, portraying the young hobbit Frodo Baggins. He is accompanied closely by hobbit Samwise Gamgee, played by Sean Astin, and the wizard Gandalf the Grey, played by Ian McKellen. Though in this film the fantastic acting of Astin and Wood is never really seen in its entirety, McKellen gets quite a few good moments as his wise old wizard character passes on his wisdom. There are also the hobbits Meriadoc and Peregrin, played by Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd respectively. These two seem to only be comic relief in this movie, and once again never get the chance to really shine. The pacing of the film isn’t particularly quick, despite the amount of events of the story trying to fit a 400-page novel (which I should probably note I have read) into a mere feature film’s duration. That being said, this film is incredibly long. The movie is about 3 hours long, which definitely helped to do the iconic tale justice (there is also an extended edition of the film which adds an additional 45 minutes or so). Later in the film we are introduced to Viggo Mortensen’s character of “Strider” Aragorn, who is probably the best performance of this movie. He’s a young, savvy, Indiana Jones-ish adventure hero who could only be described as “awesome.” The visuals of the movie are great, including the amazing CGI used to create places like the shire and the elven city Rivendell. Rivendell in particular is incredibly well made, to the point where it genuinely feels real. However practical effects are also used in this film, and are probably even more impressive. The use of changed perspective to make Gandalf appear to be twice the size of the hobbits is absolutely incredible, and ultimately works very well in a shot where Gandalf is giving a hobbit his massive hat, for example. The story is very well told, though there are definitely areas for improvement. Many of the characters don’t quite feel like real people, however for a movie with so many central characters, I suppose that’s to be expected. About half-way through we are introduced to the rest of our fellowship, which is made up of Orlando Bloom’s Legolas, John Rhys-Davies’s Gimgli, and Sean Bean’s Boromir. Bloom’s performance is pretty lackluster, especially considering that Legolas is mostly representing the elven race in this film. Rhys-Davies does a marvelous job at creating a stubborn little Dwarf creature and executing perfectly, becoming comic relief but also a very sympathetic character at times. Finally, Sean Bean is just about perfect in this movie, particularly in his final scenes towards the end. In the end, this film is the first third of a story that is much better all in unison. However, out of the three this is probably the best standalone story, which is nice for a casual viewer. Despite this it is very long, and should probably be seen with some breaks in between upon first viewing. This story all probably translates the worst into cinematic form, with the way that it’s almost like multiple stories stacked on top of each other to the point where it feels like it will never end. This is by far the biggest problem with the movie. Despite this, there must be credit where credit is due, and a lot of credit is due. 7/10.

I don't love it, yet it's still one of my favorite films of all time. I think that that perfectly describes how I feel about this movie. Like the original Star Wars films, the amount of iconicity saves this movie. That's not to say that this film isn't bad. When it comes to Spielberg it's second to only Jaws, and when it comes to Lucas it's definitely his best work. A lot of this movie is mindless action, which was probably fantastic in the '80's, and still holds up despite being slightly dull nowadays in an age of CGI and green screens. None of the actors have unbelievable performances, however Ronald Lacey did a fantastic job of being TERRIFYING and definitely deserves MVP of this film. As for Harrison Ford, he also did a good job and did very well portraying Indy as a stubborn, slightly egotistical adventurer. It was also fun seeing a younger Alfred Molina portraying Satipo, if only for a couple scenes. Speaking of which, the opening scenes definitely stand out as the best part of the film, and the greatest cold open of all time. The cinematography of this film was better than I remembered, and this scene shows that off flawlessly. Slightly goofy, nostalgic movie full of action, adventure, and shockingly good filmmaking. 8/10.

Wow. Just wow. Going into this my expectations were very low given other reviews, but it blew all those expectations out of the water. The Great Gatsby is an adaptation of a 1925 novel by the same name (that I personally haven't read) chronicling the few days in which a young man named Nick spends with his mysterious neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Throughout the film each character gets their own time to shine, and I thought that the actors did a wonderful job interacting with and differentiating from each other. Tobey Maguire is of course wonderful in the leading role of Nick. I had no idea he was in this film, but he did a good job with his Jim Halpert-type character. I do wish he had more lines, seeing as at some points other characters are talking and it seems he should react, but doesn't. Carey Mulligan is fine. She does what she needs to do as her character of Daisy, but other than a few particular scenes doesn't do all that much in terms of performance. Not that she needs to, though. Joel Edgerton plays Tom, sort of the antagonist when it comes to the simple love triangle theme of the movie. His performance is great, especially his interactions with Leo, and I love how his character is really the only one of the main four to greatly change and develop throughout the film. And finally there's Leo, who absolutely stole the show. I very much adored the way he made Gatsby such a mysterious, yet relatable character. There were multiple scenes in which Leo's fantastic acting is on display, both center stage and even in the background of shots. Like many, I personally love the way he reacts to different things, and his performance stays beautiful even when he's not talking. The story of the film starts out slow, and to be honest I kind of lost hope for film around 20 minutes in. The speaking, sound effects and music in the movie don't really work quite right. Obviously Tobey Maguire, who narrates the film, has a pretty quiet voice. And given his liens and character, Leo isn't very loud either. On top of this the noise is often very loud in this film. Particularly, the scene where Gatsby is driving Nick around in his car toward the beginning. Leo and Maguire are both talking gently, meanwhile the car engine is booming. The music throughout was also very poor when it comes to how loud they decided to make it, and it was also a bold choice to use 2000's pop music for a film taking place in the 1920's. Also a problem specifically in this film was the amount of repetitive party scenes in the first half hour, with a few minutes of quiet, then a roaring party over and over three times within 30 minutes. Despite all this, The Great Gatsby is a fantastic movie. My hopes were very low at first, however all things considered it was a great, tragic romance movie that I would recommend for almost any fan of cinema. 9/10. (Also if you're interested in reading the book or streaming the movie with no commercials you can find either one just by searching for "The Great Gatsby" on YouTube or Google. YouTube has it available free with skipable ads and since it's public domain, Google Books has the whole novel available in pdf form legally for free.)

Fantastic movie. One of my favorites of all time, my favorite biopic of all time. I think that it definitely gets better as it goes on. Toward the beginning it all seems very quickly paced, with the film starting, to Freddie going to see guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor performing for the first time, meeting bassist John Deacon, defying their sound, and getting signed in around fifteen minutes. However at the end of the film it feels a lot more natural. I loved how the film didn't take itself too seriously, instead just trying to simply tell the story of a rock band going from small underground shows to becoming the biggest band in the world. However there are some dramatic scenes, particularly with the love triangle forming around Freddie and his struggle with dividing business from his personal life. These parts were eased into very well and orchestrated just about perfectly. Rami Malek does a fantastic job portraying Freddie, at least when it comes to his voice and body language. However, I think that when casting the performer they sort of sacrificed getting an actor that looked like Mercury for an actor that gave a good performance. In the end though, this was probably for the best. Gwilym Lee looks exactly like May, and I think his performance was just right when positioned as sort of an antagonist/best friend of Freddie's. Ben Hardy also nailed his portrayal of Taylor, and got his look and body language perfected. Finally Joseph Mazello, despite not getting much screen time, was the best possible actor for John Deacon. The guest appearance by Mike Myers was also pretty fun. Altogether, this film very well portrays the life and times of Freddie Mercury and his relationship with friends, family, lovers and fans. 9/10.