Buddha's Rhubarb Of Opinions On Media

Glib reviews of recent-ish DVD and/or Blurays Bone Tomahawk This is one weird movie, or really maybe it’s two weird movies or three. Weird western definitely, of the more bookish Jonah Hex kind of tales. Not the movie, the 70’s version of the Comics is my touchstone. Ol’ Jonah was grizzled as heck and dealt occasionally with some spookier creepier western elements, in a very pulp western type of way. The first few minutes of the film were all about Sid Haig’s ode to Slim Pickens in his portrayal of a deeply cynical murderer and brigand who stumbles across into a burial ground and horrors unseen but seared in your brain in a very verite styled opening. Maybe there are a few short films in this movie that I like more, the more I write about it, defomitely more than when I sat down, to give it a middlin’ review, but thinking about it in review as opposed to the more visceral vibe of right after the movie ends, literally with a thud. If you are a fan of slow moving wester...

Glib Review of Ant-Man - Directed By Peyton Reed I liked a great many things about Ant-Man. The action scenes were good, the sfx I thought were quite good, the story was an interesting spin on a Marvel character I know very well, having been a comics nerd since the early 70’s. The changes in character from the comics to film universe are pretty reasonable. I thought Paul Rudd was great, as was Michael Douglas, and Evangeline Lily. I liked the family dynamic, and Bobby Cannavale is always great. The scene, not to spoil anything, with The Falcon is one of the best 'getting to know you' superhero fights on film. but.... but something about this movie bugged me. Groan.... True story though. I am having a hard time putting my finger on it. But the things I thought gummed up the works, were Lang’s sidekick ethnic stereotype buddies in crime. Michael Pena gave it his all, but a lot of the humour these guys were supposed to add fell flat for me, which messed up the pa...

Glib Reviews of Recent DVD & Blu Ray Releases. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.  - Directed by Guy Ritchie. A pretty entertaining movie rehash of one of my very first ‘Favourite TV shows.” Like my other early rerun Favourite ‘Star Trek,’ ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ was in reruns for the first time, after 5 years off the air, so 1973-ish for me.  My first crushes on men, were probably on these two, ‘not as suave as either thinks,’ and awesomely named super spies, ‘Napoleon Solo, and Ilya Kuryakin. I have rose coloured memories of watching that particular spy show. I was very much as a kid into spy tv shows, like this or, ‘the Avengers,’ ‘I Spy,’ ‘Get Smart,’ and the zillion others that came and went in the 70’s. I tried my best not to bring too much nostalgia to this movie remake. I enjoy the Star Trek movies, best as really good two part episodes of which ever show the characters are from. Most old tv shows rebooted into movies suffer from trying too hard to re-invent...

Glib Reviews of Recent DVD/Blu-Ray Releases The Avengers: Age Of Ultron Directed by Joss Whedon Well, it definitely was not as bad as a lot of folks made it out to be this little film. I am a big reader of comic books, and superhero fan, but even I think there are too many superhero movies. While this movie doesn’t quite capture the fun of the first Avengers movie, it scores a lot of points for me, simply by not being called Avengers 2. Oh, there are tons of spoilers in this review, fyi. The initial scene where everything is cgi seemingly except a few cutaways is weirdly out of place in terms of the cinematography, but it is a comic book movie, so I say embrace the cgi. It is supposed to be a bit ‘cartoony’. The lack of actual Loki (Tom Hiddleston) makes the whole thing less fun. The second most jarring thing for me was James Spader’s laconic glib take on Ultron. This really threw me for about half the movie, Ultron sounds like a preppy overprivileged lawyer?  ...

Glib Reviews of Fairly Recent DVD  Releases Inherent Vice - Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Finally got around to seeing the latest PTA flick, which I had heard a lot of conflicting opinions on. Inherent Vice is also based on a Thomas Pynchon novel, so there are of course some heavy wight ideas going on. Personally the only Pynchon I have ever been able to finish reading is The Crying Of Lot 49.  I had my own sort of mix of skepticism and hope going into this. Tried and tried to get through V. and Gravity’s Rainbow three or four times each, but also, something makes me give up on these books, I usually am so into the books, the first half or so, then something that just happens is that I have put the books down, and moved on to something else. Maybe it’s just timing; and I say this because this is what I see in this film, something that PTA groks about pace and timing, that generally, (with the exception of “The Master, which I can’t seem to stay awake through.)...

Glib reviews of DVDs and Blu Rays. Ride The Pink Horse - Directed by Robert Montgomery It might be a mistake to watch a movie adaptation only one day after finishing a novel that you love. Dorothy B. Hughes’ novel called Ride The Pink Horse is a wonderful small town noir of the sort associated with Jim Thompson, and at the same time a sweaty tension filled fish out of water story akin to the best of Patricia Highsmith. The fact that the film makers let the more literary name stand instead of giving it some generic but more cinematic title is a testament to the strength of the story. Many of the details of the film are changed for those kinds of what works in a book might be too subtle for a movie kind of ways, like some of the names of characters, most obviously, the protagonist (who is no ‘hero’ in ether the book or the film) goes from the no last named ‘Sailor’ in the book to the much more noirishly named Lucky Gagin, who is never once called ‘Lucky,’ with good re...

Glib reviews Of movies still in The Theatre. Mad Max: Fury Road - Directed By George Miller Maybe it was all the hype, maybe not, but I probably didn’t think this film was as good as I had been told. Don’t get me wrong, it was very entertaining, and I will rate it fairly high on my dorky ‘outta 10’ scale, but simply for sheer entertainment value. Obviously the film passes the ‘Bechdel test’. But it is by no means some sort of Feminist masterpiece, nor is it some kind of misandry masterpiece as the mra nutters would have you believe. What I watched was an exciting, silly, high budget chase movie with lots of car crashes, ‘Road Warrior-esque’ bad guys, and suitably post-apocalyptic backdrop. The look was pretty consistent with the second two Mad Max Movies; Road Warrior (I do not acknowledge the whole mad max 2 nonsense anymore than I do, ‘a new hope nonsense’ [/grumpyoldperson]) and Beyond Thunderdome, which yes, counts. It’s quirky and fun, and also has a couple of ba...

Glib Reviews  Recent DVD/Blu-Ray Releases John Wick - Directed by Chad Stahelski, David Leitch (uncredited) There two kinds of Keanu Reeves that the people want. Sad Keanu, and Mad Keanu, ‘John Wick’ gives you both and lots of both. The set-up involves already sad former assassin John Wick being made even sadder by GOT’s Alfie Allen, aka Theon/Reek. I can’t look at the actor with wincing. He nails the snivelling entitled gangster’s son who does stupid thing after stupid thing (not to spoil it) to turn Sad Keanu’s sad frown in to Mad Keanu’s angry grimace.  I had heard how great this movie is, and well, I definitely enjoyed it, it really is pretty hackneyed and silly. Lots of great cameos, and a hotel that is exclusively for assassins.  The gunfights and streetfight/MMA throwdowns are well choreographed, and happen with a regularity that keeps you from caring about nuance or character development. It’s okay, though, the movie really plays out like tha...

My Glib List of the Best Movies that I saw in 2014 As usual, the last few years, the sheer volume of DVDs that I watched has fallen off. This year may be my steepest decline since I started U of M film studies in 1984. The up side of this is that almost all the movies I saw this year were at least pretty good, worth a watch. I don’t recall turning anything off part way in, but maybe that happened.  I definitely fell asleep in a few viewings, including two films on many folks best of lists.  There were a few very disappointing films, some so ridiculously bad, that they are in my own personal “so bad its good” category. Also, as is my wont with these lists, the categories are my own vague loose categories, and I include links to my own earlier in the year reviews, where there are also trailers for each flick. My current opinion of the films may be warmer or colder, depending on whether I have re-watched them, or just thought, discussed and worked out a better or ...

(not so) Glib Reviews of (not so) recent DVD releases 20 Feet Feet From Stardom Directed By Morgan Neville I finally got around to watching “20 Feet From Stardom,” as it was suggested as ‘homework’ for the choir I sing in. And it was a great bit of homework. You can’t help but gain a real appreciation of what it means to sing back up vocals. A wide range of singers, almost all of whom started in choirs, are interviewed pretty thoroughly about the whole of their careers, a few front-folk like Mick, the Boss, and so on offer their own appreciation for the art and how much the backing singers bring to their songs. Some of the people have had okay lead vocal careers, but mostly, they have just kept singing behind the big stars. Pretty much everyone though is pretty humble about just getting to sing. Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, and so many others, may be familiar names that maybe should or could have been household names. Phil Spector may have given a lot of t...

Glib reviews Of recent movies - Theatrical release edition. Mommy - Directed By Xavier Dolan Holy cow, my second Xavier Dolan directed film in less than a week. This one in a very different way is just as intense as “Tom at the Farm.” Dolan is not acting in Mommy,” but young actor Antoine Olivier Pilon is mesmerizing as a charismatic and good hearted but violent and very troubled modern teenager.  Anne Dorval , a veteran of all of Dolan’s directorial efforts (and more Quebec TV than Roy Dupuis) except the aforementioned Tom at the Farm deserves recognition beyond Canada and Quebec. This is one of the great performances in recent cinema; her crusty hard bitten single mom (recent widow) trying to keep a sense of self while raising her larger than life son, whose enthusiasm is only slightly more infectious than the violence that follows him around like a smiling but feral puppy. The odd conceit, given to us at the beginning of the film is that it takes place a few...

Glib Reviews of Recent DVD/Blu ray releases X-Men: Days Of Future Past -Directed by Bryan Singer Can it be that a person who reads several X-Men comics a month can be kind of bored by the X-men? Apparently.  This movie was probably the best looking, best shot movie of all the X-Men movies, and it tries very hard to tie them all together as much as possible. Perhaps a bit to hard, as I felt like there was just too much exposition, too much handwringing, despite some great action set pieces, and some of my favourite X-Men being included, like Kitty Pryde, Blink, Iceman, Storm, and so on.  You can’t blame a superhero movie for being contrived can you? I think you can. This movie has a better pace, and script than the ‘First Class’ movie, but for some ineffable reason it was not nearly as entertaining, for me at least. This may sound like a negative review, and it’s not really.  I liked a great deal of the movie, up to the latter part where Magneto goe...

Glib Reviews of Recent DVD/Blu Ray releases Edge Of Tomorrow, aka Live Die Repeat, aka All You Need Is Kill.  - Directed by Doug Liman Apparently the book is called All You Need Is Kill, The movie in the theatre was called Edge Of Tomorrow, the Disc release is Live Die repeat: Edge Of Tomorrow. I am not sure why there is a lack of confidence in any of the whacky titles, It’s a pretty solid sci-fi action flick, with a good sense of humour as well. All the Groundhog Day comparisons are pretty spot on, right down to the tacked on cheeseball ending, which works better in Groundhog Day. Cruise is very well cast in these Sci-Fi action flicks, Like in Oblivion, he gets to ride at least one motorcycle, and fly a copter, there are few surprises in the film, except the solid sense of when to cut, when to let the story progress.  Director Doug Liman, maybe most famous for Swingers, or The Bourne Identity is at the top of his game here. Bam bam bam, the show moves alon...

Glib Reviews of Recent Blu Ray/Dvd Releases. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Directed By Marc Webb What an odd movie is The Amazing Spider-man 2, for my money, as bleak as Man Of Steel. It has all the elements for the retelling of a seminal Spider-Man story , a superhero trope that in the comics Spider-man pretty much invented, and that Daredevil perfected. That super-dude kryptonite of not ever being able to save your girlfriend from who you are. I’m talking, yes Spoilers, indeed, Gwen Stacy: Spidey’s Karen Page. or vice versa. This “Death of Gwen stacy Storyline” storyline is one of the very first that I remember being gripped by as a kid reading every comic I could find. It was the most adult thing I had read, and well, I deeply grokked Peter Parker’s sense of responsibility for things that are not his fault, but... One of the biggest character building arcs in Spider-history, Uncle Ben looms large in the comic, but not as much in the film. But this version of that ic...

Glib Reviews of Recent DVD/Blu-Ray Releases. “Aronofsky’s Noah” & “Jodorowsky’s Dune” The last two films I have watched are Darren Aronofsky’s SCI-FI take on the story of the Ark building, “Noah,” and the documentary “Jodorowsky’s Dune,” which is the story of how a pretty crazy sounding version of that novel I can never finish reading, almost but not quite got made. Myself, I can’t hear the name “Noah” without thinking of the Bill Cosby sketch of the same name, where God indeed gets Noah to build an ark, and gather up all the animals. The Cosby version is funnier, but just barely. Aronofsky’s laughs though, I think are not intentional. The whole fallen angels as rock men who help Noah get this completely insane sounding task done are ridiculous, and a clever plot device. If you are looking for “biblical accuracy” (sic) this is not your movie. If you are looking for a grim kind of alternately shouty/mumbly performance from Russell Crowe, then this might be your ...

Glib Reviews of recently released DVDs (Blu rays too) Zero Theorem -Directed By Terry Gilliam It’s a crying shame that Gilliam’s latest and most “Brazil-esque” movie in decades isn’t getting a theatrical release in Canada. I hope it does some art house or second run, it’s a shame that I didn’t get a chance to see this sumptuous cinematography and sound on the big screen.  Am I saying it was a great film? Maybe; I definitely think it bears a second or third viewing to decide, really. There is a lot going on in between some of the best performances you will see all year. Christoph Waltz is as Oscar worthy as he usually is. Great performance of neurosis trapped in a hyper neurotic world. His character basically plays Minecraft with mathematical equations for a living. His manic portrayal of the loneliest man who ever lived in an old church, lovingly spoons with the note perfect middle manager, shift supervisor, professional wash out, ever so perfectly turned by David T...

Glib Reviews of Recent DVD Releases Enemy Directed by Denis Villeneuve Cronenberg-tastic ode to creepy as fuck 1970’s movies. Toronto hasn’t looked so terrifying in a long time. (unless maybe you live near Rob Ford, too late, too soon?)  Director Villeneuve makes no mistakes telling the age old tale of “the Evil Twin.” For me personally, these kinds of stories where “the other” turns out to be a doppelganger , or double, these are the stories that get under my skin the most. The idea that there is another exact (or close to) duplicate of me out there, but not me or is me, either way, waaaaughhhh! I used to get mistaken for other people a lot when I was younger, it still freaks me out. It’s no spoiler to tell you that that’s what this tale is, with many cinematic odes, or nuances borrowed from Hitchcock, Truffaut (the whole first part has a real Bride Wore Black Vibe.) Polanski, and of course there is lots and lots of Uber-Dystopic Toronto Cronenberg atmosphere, so m...