Search

Search only in certain items:

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
2018 | Biography, Drama, Music
Contains spoilers, click to show
I like some of their music but I’m certainly not the biggest Queen fan even so I still found plenty to enjoy here. It doesn’t do anything particularly new with the music biopic movie formula and it does shy away from some of the darker elements of Freddy Mercury’s personality. Where it succeeds though is in its leading man, Rami Malek is outstanding as Mercury. Charismatic , flamboyant and dominating every scene that Oscar was certainly well deserved. Ending the movie with an exact reproduction of Queen’s iconic Live Aid performance was also a smart move showing the band and Freddy at their best and sending me away to add Radio Gaga to my Spotify playlist.
  
40x40

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Little Ashes (2009) in Movies

Nov 20, 2020 (Updated Nov 20, 2020)  
Little Ashes (2009)
Little Ashes (2009)
2009 | Drama
A deeply weird and genuinely erotic little curio where a pre-𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 Robert Pattinson plays... er- *checks notes* Salvador Dali (donning all kinds of ridiculous wardrobe choices) who has a lot of gay sex and angrily paints all while spouting nonsensical metaphorical dialogue in a humorously cartoonish Spanish accent. Needed to be a little more controlled, leaner - I zoned out during at least one third of the talking bits, but it looks pretty! Not too shabby, I'll happily take this artsy oddball over most of the recycled biopic dumps up for awards contention today. Pattinson's full commitment to throwing himself at the wall for roles was evident even this early in his career.
  
Get On Up (2014)
Get On Up (2014)
2014 | Drama
7
5.0 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Thoughts on Get on Up
 
Characters – James Brown is one of the most influential musicians of the last century, there is no doubt what he did will live on forever. We get to see how James started with nothing, in an abusive childhood with no education, before learning to take the chances thrown his way, trying to make a difference to the world in the spotlight, even if he doesn’t always keep the crowd around him, not always as loyal as he should be. This doesn’t make James look like the most integral person behind the spotlight. Bobby Byrd is the man that gave James a chance to get out of prison, to start something with his singing in gospel, he will stand by James through all the troubles he faces, the bands he goes through, knowing James is the main talent and just being part of this would make him remembered. Ben Bart makes everything happen for James, he tries to help him navigate difficult moments in history, but will help him make the right choices which sees the friendship grow as the success does. Susie is the mother of James, she is forced to leave because of her partner and once he becomes famous wants to come back into his life, while James isn’t willing to let this happen.
Performances – Chadwick Boseman is fantastic in the leading role, he shows that his biopic man, he can bring James Brown to life on stage and in his personal life with ease. Nelsan Ellis is great in his role, showing us that he could provide excellent supporting performances in the film. Dan Aykroyd is strong too, with Viola Davis making a big impact in her scenes in the film.
Story – The story here follows the life of James Brown, from his poverty like childhood, to his international success in the music industry, we see his ideas on wanting to make a change and just what it will do to the people that helped him get to the top. One of the biggest weaknesses in the film here comes from the early time jumps, we are constantly jumping between moments, which doesn’t help the story telling process. This story also doesn’t paint James as a nice person away from the spotlight, even if he was always trying to achieve something more from his career. The story does try to ram too much into the film, which does make it hard to understand each moment of his life.
Biopic/Music – This does show a lot of his life, it doesn’t help us get invested in just how much of an impact each moment was. The music can’t be questioned with his hits playing through the film with every beat we know.
Settings – The film creates some of the biggest stages of James career, never looking like we aren’t in the correct time period.

Scene of the Movie – The performances.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The time jumps.
Final Thoughts – This is a by the book biopic, it has wonderful performances and the music you would expect to see, though we do cram too much in for everything to run smoothly.

Overall: By the Books Biopic.
  
Fighting with My Family (2019)
Fighting with My Family (2019)
2019 | Biography, Comedy, Drama
Heavily fictionalised women's-entertainment-wrestling biopic is kept very watchable by solid if familiar structure and a clutch of strong performances. Not really the pure comedy that the trailer suggests it may be; the more serious strands of the plot are surprisingly effective - not really the Dwayne Johnson movie that the publicity material also implies, as a high percentage of his on-screen contribution is in the trailer.

Works pretty well as a sports movie, hitting all the right beats; tries to fudge the fact that entertainment-wrestling isn't strictly speaking sport (i.e., the results of the matches are scripted), not especially successfully. Fun to watch anyway; Florence Pugh carries the movie effortlessly and doesn't even need to go into high gear to do so.
  
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
2014 | Action, Sci-Fi

"You know d’ast well this is my favorite film! Adapted from my super-violent memoirs, Marvel Studios brought to Earth the formerly little-known story of how a one-of-a-kind hero, YOURS TRULY, united a group of Kyln prison rookies and saved the whole krutackin’ galaxy! Bradley Cooper, an acclaimed cinematic thespian, starred as ME, while TV’s Chris Pratt turned in a surprising performance in what was SUPPOSED to be a supporting role (Don’t worry, Rocket fans, I got a “call” into his agent!). Still, this biopic was mostly factualistic. Only thing is, they messed up the title — the more accurate nomenclature is Rocket and Some D’ast Useless Flargs. I’ve offered it up free of charge for the sequel."

Source
  
Ivan The Terrible: Part I (1944)
Ivan The Terrible: Part I (1944)
1944 | Biography, Drama, History
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Potemkin is taught in film schools worldwide, more like a fossil than a real, breathing animal that must be dissected. Watch it because it’s important. So budding filmmakers are taught about formalism and montage, and they rarely get to watch Eisenstein’s later works, like Ivan the Terrible. They’re missing out: imagine a biopic run through the meat grinder of German expressionism, with every image connoting the pitfalls of absolute power, with cutaways of faces that are thankfully forever captured in celluloid marble, with a sense of mounting state paranoia and ever-crumbling artifice. Potemkin may have the classic scenes, like the dish, the lion, the guns, but Ivan has taken all those early lessons and boyhood feints and given us a masterpiece."

Source
  
Birth of the Dragon (2016)
Birth of the Dragon (2016)
2016 | Drama
5
4.7 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
At first I was curious about the movie that was meant to be about Bruce Lee titled Birth of the Dragon. I love Bruce Lee. I grew up watching his movies, I watched episodes of The Green Hornet, and I voraciously read everything I could about him. One of my titos (that's Tagalog for uncle) told me about how he met Bruce Lee before and how kind he was. I am Filipino and white so I grew up with both these cultures and I'm grateful for it. My family has all kinds of people from all over and all walks of life and I love them dearly. When I would visit my Filipino family I loved that we would often gather round together on the couch with popcorn and snacks and watch Bruce Lee movies. This was special and it's one of my favorite memories from my childhood. I would watch Kung Fu Saturday when I was a kid and I would be excited when they would feature a Bruce Lee movie. My grandparents weren't really into it, but they would watch with me and my brother Rob sometimes.
I will always love Bruce Lee and his movies. He was an incredible person and so talented. Watching his movies was a huge part of my childhood and when I see that there's a Bruce Lee movie on, I always watch it.

I didn't know anything about Birth of the Dragon. There was a trailer that looked interesting. Then I kept hearing negative things about the film such as it's racist towards Asians and they made Bruce Lee the secondary character yet claimed it was a biopic about him. Then I read this: http://www.asamnews.com/2016/09/29/birth-of-the-dragon-biopic-enrages-bruce-lee-fans-buries-asians-in-favor-of-a-white-guy/




Birth of the Dragon is disappointing to me for this. It IS insulting to Asians and if we're really being brutally honest, it IS insulting not only to Bruce Lee, but to his family and friends who loved him. I don't understand making the white guy the main character when this was shopped as a Bruce Lee biopic. On top of this, it seems they made Bruce Lee appear to be this very one sided character who was just arrogant and stupid and it's simply not true. While Lee himself owned up to being foolish when he was younger, he was never stupid. Bruce Lee thought about each and every thing he did and in his movies there was always a political theme and the ideas expressed were intricate and well thought out. They provoked ideas and discussions as well as entertained. Read any of his books on martial arts and you see a deep philosophy and calm practicality to his teachings that show someone who was an incredibly thoughtful person.

The Filipino kid in me is extremely disappointed by this and a little angry too because Bruce Lee is one of my heroes and I'm disgusted by what appears to be blatantly anti-Asian propaganda in a film that was being sold as a biopic about him. This is irresponsible and Asian people have every right to be angry about this because once again Hollywood is shoving us into the background and telling us we're not as important because we're not white. I loved Bruce Lee because he was amazing and I loved that there was an Asian person who was the main character in his movies; someone like me and my brothers and my sister. That meant something to me and it still does. The people who made this movie should apologize for the horrible lie they told about this being a biopic about Bruce Lee and at least be honest about what it really is a film stating that white people are better than us. We'll never get that apology of course because these are the kinds of people who run Hollywood and have for years. I do know that I for one will not see this film and I will watch Bruce Lee's movies and celebrate the amazing person he was.
  
40x40

Awix (3310 KP) rated A Private War (2018) in Movies

Feb 23, 2019 (Updated Feb 24, 2019)  
A Private War (2018)
A Private War (2018)
2018 | Biography, Drama, War
Solid biopic detailing the last years of the celebrated war correspondent Marie Colvin, including visits to Sri Lanka, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. To some extent it constitutes a catalogue of recent sources of liberal shame, and there are moments when the film threatens to become sanctimonious, trite, and portentous, but the performances from Pike and Dornan are strong and keep it authentic.

Obviously the film is about the role of war correspondents and the role they play in our society, but the film also works on a more personal level, about what exactly it was that drove someone like Colvin to put her life in danger time after time. If it never quite gets to the bottom of this, that's probably excusable as she herself probably couldn't have said. A serious, well-made film.
  
40x40

Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated The Dirt (2019) in Movies

Apr 4, 2019 (Updated Apr 4, 2019)  
The Dirt (2019)
The Dirt (2019)
2019 | Biography, Music
Decent cast (0 more)
Feels false (0 more)
Brainless Fun
The Dirt is a Motley Crue biopic that debuted on Netflix last month. It is Jeff Tremaine's, (the director of the Jackass movies,) first narrative feature film. This should maybe give you some idea of what to expect within the movie. If Bohemian Rhapsody, Wayne's World and Jackass had a baby, this would most likely be the result.

Your enjoyment of this movie will probably depend on what you are wanting out of it going in. I am a casual Motely Crue fan, I only know a few of their songs and have a very surface level knowledge of their history. I was watching this movie for a bit of dumb fun after I had seen the trailer and it delivered exactly what I expected it to. If however, you are a die hard Motley Crue fan looking for an in-depth biopic with a sense of grit and realism, you will most likely be sorely disappointed.

The plot to this thing plays out like a Wikipedia article, in the sense that it hits all of the major beats of the band's history, but glosses over so much more and leaves any sense of nuance at the door. It is also incredibly cartoonish and cheesy, at no point in the film do you ever feel that you are watching the actual members of Motley Crue and it is always painfully clear that you are watching a group of actors in bad wigs playing faux, characterture versions of real people.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that the cast have anything to do with how shallow or glossy this thing is. I think that Daniel Webber did a decent job as Vince Neil and Douglas Booth is okay as Nikki Sixx. For some reason, Machine Gun Kelly plays Tommy Lee as a goofy, lovable rogue, as apposed to the aggressive violent abuser he is in real life. Iwan Rheon is by far the stand out as Mick Mars, the older, more jaded member of the group who totally dismisses the immature 'sex drugs and rock and roll,' bullshit mentality of his band-mates and comes away with some of the driest, funniest lines in the movie.

Overall, I gave this a 7 based on the brainless fun I had watching it, but it by no means feels accurate or realistic, nor does it feel like it's trying to be. Hardcore Motely Crue fans will probably feel like they were let down by this biopic, but I got exactly what I wanted out of it and enjoyed it for what it was.
  
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)
2018 | Biography, Drama, Music
Good soundtrack carries a watered-down, simplified biopic.
Knew what to expect heading into this one, just didn't expect it to be so formulaic. It's almost as if one of the VH1 Behind The Music writers was now writing rock biopics. It follows the same formula to the letter. While it was interesting to delve into the life of Mercury and bandmates, it all felt a little watered down and simplified in contrast with the larger than life enigma that was the Queen lead singer. The amazing soundtrack carries the film and tries to fill in the empty spaces the writers left in the plot. Also felt the film left you feeling too happy in what truly is a tragic tale of rock lore. Mercury and Queen are bigger and so much more than this film portrays.