Month: December 2018

2018 has been a pretty rough year, not just for movies, but for me personally.  My father passing away threw a huge monkey wrench in to a lot of things that I wanted to do on this website, so I had to take time to deal with that.  There were also a lot of movies that came out this year that really weren’t so hot.  I was also planning to do more for The Best of 2018, but I think I’m just going to wrap it up here with this post.  That’s the problem with plans, they rarely go the way you want.  But I’m not going to focus on the negative aspects of this year.  Instead, I want to take a look back at some of the finest movies this year has had to offer, and there were surprisingly a large amount, be it a theatrical production or a direct to video indie film.  If you look hard enough, there’s quite a bit of good movies that were released in 2018.  Let’s end this year on a positive note, shall we?  Here we go!!

Avengers: Infinity War

Marvel has had a huge year in 2018: Deadpool 2, Black Panther, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and the biggest event of the year: Avengers: Infinity War.  While Marvel and Disney have had a pretty good track record with their comic book movies, Avengers: Infinity War was the one film they needed to get right.  Not only did they get it right, it blew everybody’s expectations out of the water.  Infinity War is the culmination of 10 years of the MCU building up to this moment when the stakes have never been higher for Captain America and company.  Comparisons will be made to The Empire Strikes Back, and for good reason.  This is the MCU equivalent of the 1980s Star Wars film.  The fact that Marvel had the guts to end the movie the way they did speaks volumes about how much they actually care about crafting a good story.  It’s not just a spectacle for the sake of spectacle.  This film has some of the strongest character moments in the entire MCU, and a lot of that also goes to the film’s villain, Thanos, who doesn’t come across as a mustache-twirling 2-dimensional character.  There are moments when you could actually agree with him about why he’s doing what he’s doing.  That is very solid writing.

Paradox

While Paradox was released in China back in 2016/17, we didn’t get the film until it was released on Blu-Ray/DVD earlier this year.  This is a serious powerhouse of a thriller.  The story revolves around a Hong Kong cop who goes to Thailand to find his daughter who was kidnapped by organ traffickers.  Yeah, the action is fantastic and hard-hitting, but there is an underlying emotional core that is anchored by Louis Koo’s performance.  Paradox is basically the Hong Kong equivalent of Taken, but with greater consequences, and I really love the fact that the film pulled no punches.  It’s a pretty compelling film, because the stuff that happens in the film, happens every day in real-life, so crafting a story around all that makes for an extremely intense film.  If you can find it, definitely check it out.

The Debt Collector

While I haven’t given The Debt Collector a proper review that it deserves, that’s not going to stop me from recommending this movie.  This is the third collaboration between Scott Adkins and director Jesse V. Johnson.  While I saw it initially when it was released on DVD here in the States, I did get to see the UK premiere in London.  It was quite an experience.  This is actually a pretty damn good time.  I’ve always been a fan of Scott Adkins, but he is definitely at his best, not just in terms of his physicality, but acting as well.  His character’s relationship with Louis Mandylor’s character is fantastic and ends up being one of the coolest on-screen duos in years.  While the film is definitely funny at times, it also a surprising emotional core that comes from Mr. Mandylor’s character.  I was not expecting that and I think the film is all the better for it.  The action is top-notch and the humor is spot-on.  Definitely collect this one.

Hereditary

This is a horror movie that really blew me away at how powerful it is.  Toni Collett delivers the performance of a lifetime in her role as a mother that’s dealing with multiple tragedies that may have some supernatural underpinnings.  It’s a slow-burner of a film, so you need patience for it, but when it really goes bat-shit crazy, it goes all the way, and it’s an emotional wrecker.  While the film is bleak, it deals with people that have to cope with internal demons like grief and mental illness, and I think Hereditary tackles those subjects very well.  This was the first film directed by Ari Aster, and it really feels like it was directed by someone with more experience, so I can’t wait to see what Aster has up his sleeves.  If you appreciate slow-burn horror movies, this is a must-see.

Mandy

Mandy could have an alternate title called Acid Trip: The Movie, and it still wouldn’t prepare for the insanity that ensues.  Nicolas Cage steals the show, as he usually does, but here he just gives in to the madness.  The visual aspects of the film are incredible with unique colors and hues that give the film an other-worldly vibe.  Linus Roache is also fantastic as an insane cult leader that abducts Red’s girlfriend.  Said girlfriend is played Andrea Riseborough, and it is one of the most unique and tragic performances in the film.  It’s a revenge thriller, but it takes you on such a visual journey, it’s kind of hard to tell where reality ends and the fantasy begins.  You don’t need drugs for a trip.  All you need is Mandy.

Black Panther

The second Marvel film on this list, Black Panther takes a break from the global events of the previous films and focus on a much smaller part of the world: The fictional country of Wakanda, the birthplace of King T’Challa or the Black Panther.  What separates this film from the other Marvel entries is the look and feel.  This is a far more serious film than previous MCU movies, and that’s a good thing.  The film takes place in a completely different culture, and it really pays homage to the different kinds of tribes and peoples scattered throughout the African continent.  The film doesn’t talk down to its audience and tries to get them to invest in how amazing some of these different cultures are.  It’s still an action movie, so there’s plenty of that, but none of that would happen if it wasn’t for the strong cast featuring Chadwick Boseman, Martin Freeman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita N’Yongo and others.  It’s an incredible film that I think anybody could enjoy, even people who aren’t fans of Marvel.  It’s the Marvel film that doesn’t feel like a Marvel movie, and that is an accomplishment all its own.

A Quiet Place

The next time somebody tells you that a PG-13 horror movie doesn’t work, show them A Quiet Place.  Like Hereditary, A Quiet Place is one of my favorite horror movies of the year and certainly one of the best PG-13 horror movies in the last 20+ years.  The film takes place in a world that’s been ravaged by creatures that hunt by sound, so even an accidental pin drop can prove fatal.  Trying to build a film around a plot where you can’t have any sound is a very tricky thing to pull off, and John Krasinski does a marvelous job.  Not only does he star in the film, he also co-wrote the screenplay, produced and directed the film.  That’s something that only a truly talented individual can do well, and he nails it.  His performance in the film along with Emily Blunt’s is amazing and truly heart-wrenching at times.  Definitely check it out.

While there were a lot of really good movies that came out in 2018, these are the ones that truly stuck with me.  I hope everybody enjoyed reading this, because I enjoyed writing it.  I also hope most people have had a relatively decent 2018 in spite of everything that’s happened in terms of politics and social issues.  What say we put 2018 behind us and look to what promises that 2019 may hold?  With that, this is my last post of 2018.  This is Major Tom signing off for the last time in 2018, so I will see you all next year!  Drink responsibly and have a Happy New Year!

When it came to doing a Christmas special for this website, I wanted to make it very special.  By special, I mean violent.  Nothing gets people into the holiday spirit faster than a bit of the old ultra-violence.  I’m not stranger when it comes to posts about violent movies here at Major Tom’s Movies, but I’ve never really done one with sword fighting.  There is something truly spiritually uplifting about grown people trying to hack each other’s limbs off with bladed weapons, be it axes, katanas, or rapiers.  I’m gonna warn ya, it’s going to get very violent and sometimes very bloody.  So, reader discretion is advised and their is a hefty SPOILER ALERT!!!  Let the slicing and dicing begin!!

Star Wars: Episodes 1-6

“The light-saber is the weapon of a Jedi Knight; not as clumsy or random as a blaster.  It’s an elegant for a more civilized age.”  As far back as I can remember, I’ve been a huge fan of Star Wars.  Those movies were so epic in terms of the gun fights, space battles, and particularly the light-saber duels.  The light-saber has become one of the most iconic movie weapons in cinema history, and it all started with the original film in 1977 when Obi-Wan Kenobi faced off against Darth Vader.  While that particular duel isn’t much to look at in terms of choreography, it was very important to the story.  Over the years, the choreography got better, but it wasn’t until 1999’s The Phantom Menace when George Lucas blew the lid off of what the Jedi and the Sith could do with a light-saber.  I will say that while I definitely love the duels in the Prequel Trilogy, none of them had the emotional heft that the Original Trilogy did, with the exception of the fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker in Episode III.  That being said, there really isn’t a bad light-saber duel in the Star Wars films, with the exception of the new movies.  We have yet to see a truly epic light-saber battle between Kylo Ren and Rey, and I really hope we get it in Episode IX.

Highlander: Endgame – Duncan Vs. Connor

There can be no doubt whatsoever that the original Highlander from 1987 is a cult classic and can never be topped.  That’s not in dispute.  Of all the sequels that Highlander ended up getting was Highlander: Endgame.  This film was essentially a bridge between the TV series and the film series.  This fight scene with Connor and Duncan is basically a passing of the torch from one Macleod to another.  In terms of the scene’s set-up, Connor Macleod has come to the conclusion that in order to beat the film’s villain, Jacob Kell, it would take the power of two Macleods to destroy him.  In order to do that, one Macleod has to die.  Say what you will about the rest of the film, but this scene is particularly powerful, not just in terms of the sword choreography, which is fantastic, but also in terms of its emotional delivery.  Connor is a character that we’ve come to know and love over the course of three movies, while Duncan comes from the TV series, and the two are obviously from the same clan.  Over the centuries, they truly became brothers, so to see one sacrifice himself so the other one could survive really does tug at the heart strings.  In the end, there can be only one.

The Mask of Zorro – Alejandro(as Zorro) vs Captain Love and Rafael Montero

1998’s The Mask of Zorro was a massive hit featuring Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins.  Not only was the story fantastic, but it also had a great deal of humor, drama, romance and tension.  It was a grand and epic film that I still enjoy watching from beginning to end.  There are a number of truly memorable moments in the film, but this fight sequence between Zorro, Captain Love and Montero is one of the best in the film.  This is where we see Alejandro Murietta don the mask of Zorro(see what I did there?) for the first time and it’s absolutely fantastic.  Fencing, when done right in a film like this, is some of the most spectacular sword-fighting that you will ever see, and the choreography in the film is incredible.  I can’t recommend this movie enough.

The Princess Bride – Wesley vs Inigo Montoya

The Princess Bride is a true classic in every sense of the word.  Not only is the film fun, but’s funny, romantic, dramatic and has a lot of great characters.  It’s one of the most infinitely quotable movies of all time.  This fight scene is not only spectacular, but it is also very important.  It’s important because it gives us Inigo’s motivation for doing what he’s doing, but it also establishes both Inigo and Wesley as great swordsmen.  With the conversation taking place during the fight, you see the respect that both men have for each other, even if Wesley comes out on top.  You really don’t see that kind of respect between characters during sword fights these days.  The fact that Inigo allows Wesley time to rest after climbing before fighting him says a lot about the character, but it also shows how confident Wesley is in his combat abilities.  It is one of the most extraordinary sword fights I’ve ever seen in a movie.  If you haven’t seen this movie, what’s wrong with you?

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl – Jack Sparrow vs Barbossa

In 2003, Pirates of the Caribbean was a massive box-office smash, that spawned 4 sequels.  While I enjoyed all of them to a certain degree, the first film is still the best.  Johnny Depp stole the show as Captain Jack Sparrow and Geoffrey Rush was electric as Barbossa.  The film was loaded with a lot of amazing action sequences and special effects, but this last battle between Sparrow and Barbossa is the best in the entire series.  This scene has pretty much everything you would want in a pirate movie: Action, suspense, tension, and humor.  The way the two captains play off of each other is wild.  The sword fights here are just as electrifying as in the previous films that I mentioned.  While the sequels were mostly fine, this particular battle was just epic beyond words.  Combine that with the epic music score written by Hans Zimmer(uncredited, but it has his signature style all over it), and you have an amazing fight scene that just gets you pumped up.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – Jen vs Yu Shu Lien

You know I had to put this one on here at some point.  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a wuxia epic that really took the West by storm.  It was one of the most widely appreciated Kung Fu movies to hit Western cinemas.  While the reception in China was less than glowing(can’t blame them, they have a ton of these movies), we as a Western audience really didn’t see anything like this before, unless you were a dedicated Kung Fu movie nut, which I was/am.  It was visually incredible, dramatic, and an astoundingly choreographed film by Yuen Woo-Ping.  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is essentially art in motion.  I loved every minute of it.  This fight scene between Jen and Shu Lien is really the centerpiece of the whole film, as Shu knows that Jen is the one that stole the Green Destiny sword, so the confrontation between the two is as emotional as it is epic.  There’s not a bad fight scene in the movie, but this particular one is what most people tend to remember, and for good reason.

And….the number 1 greatest sword fight in cinema goes to……..

Spaceballs – Dark Helmet vs Lone Starr

What?  Don’t tell me this doesn’t belong on here.  It most certainly does.  It’s Spaceballs.  It’s one of the funniest damn movies ever made and this “fight” is one of the funniest moments in the film.  I brought Star Wars into the mix, so why shouldn’t I bring a spoof in as well?  You have to credit Mel Brooks for being inventive when it comes to spoofing movies like Star Wars and Star Trek.    Just don’t watch the Spaceballs cartoon.  It’s awful.  Stick with the movie and May the Schwartz be with you!

I hope you all had as much fun reading that as I did writing it.  Always remember:  Swing your sword responsibly and don’t stab your eyes out.  Happy Holidays, everybody!!

Have you ever seen a movie that you feel has so much potential, but doesn’t quite reach it?  I mean, when you look at when a film is announced to a final trailer and everything in between, you get the impression that the film could end up being something grand and spectacular.  But we’ve all seen those movies that we want so badly to succeed that the final product, for one reason or another, doesn’t live up to those expectations.  Regardless of the marketing campaign and all those interviews, sometimes a movie just comes up short for some people.  To be fair, not every film that I mention is going to be a bad movie.  They don’t have to be bad.  In fact, some of them are really good, but they didn’t quite hit the mark.  So…let’s take a look at some films that had good ideas and some good potential, but failed for certain reasons.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

When it comes to the Star Trek films, the popular theory is that the even-numbered films are the best and the others are the worst.  I don’t necessarily think that’s true, as Star Trek III was a pretty damned good movie, as was the original film.  The one thing that everybody seems to agree on was that Star Trek V was a disaster.  Objectively, mind you.  Funnily enough, this was one of my favorite movies growing up.  I loved it as a kid.  However, as an adult, looking at the film as objectively as possible, there are so many things that went wrong.  One of the most obvious things that was awful, were the visual effects.  This was a film done on a budget and the visual effects reflected that.  They were some of the worst in the entire series.  Another issue was the tone of the film.  Now, a lot of fingers were pointed at William Shatner, who directed the film.  Fingers were also pointed at Paramount Pictures for interfering.  The way the story goes is that William Shatner wanted to do another Star Trek film that was more in line with the original film.  He wanted it to be more thought-provoking and intellectual as well being spiritual to a certain extent.  Paramount, fresh of the success of Star Trek IV wanted a more comedic approach as that approach had worked in The Voyage Home.  Shatner and Paramount apparently butted heads over the whole thing, but Paramount won out in the end.  There are kernels of greatness in this film.  There is a scene in which Sybock forces Spock, Kirk and McCoy to face their past and their pain.  This is easily one of the greatest moments in Star Trek.  We get to see another side of Dr. McCoy that we never saw before and it was a truly compelling scene.  Some of the questions that the film asks are some pretty interesting:  Is God real, and is he waiting for us beyond the stars?  There are ideas here that make it a Star Trek film, but ideas alone don’t make for a good movie.  There was a lot of potential for a great film here, but the overall construction of the film fell apart.

Justice League

This was a movie that was a long time coming.  People had wanted a Justice League film for years, even long before the Superman reboot, Man of Steel.  Unfortunately, because of some highly questionable decision-making at DC and Warner Bros., the overall quality of the film is all over the place.  Now, one of the reasons why the film failed to ignite audiences, was because the tone of the film was incredibly inconsistent.  It went from being a dark movie, to something much less serious.  Now, what had happened, was the Zack Snyder, the original director of the film, had to leave the project to due a very personal tragedy, so Joss Whedon was brought on board to finish up and “fix” things.  The final result was a complete mess of a film in terms of its narrative and overall structure.  While I still found the film to be really fun and really cool, this was a film that needed more re-writes and a lot more time in the oven.  I understand that DC was trying to catch up to Marvel and their Avengers films, but they had a ten year head start.  DC/Warner should have focused on making the best film possible.  The overall execution here is not terrible and a lot of fun at times, but there was so much that needed to be worked, especially with the main villain, Steppenwolf.  He was supposed to be a build-up to a confrontation with Darkseid, the ultimate villain of the Justice League, but the film flopped so hard, that seeing a follow-up film involving Darkseid is almost out of the question at this point.  Snyder’s departure and possible interference from the studio trashed what could have been one of the biggest movies of 2017.

Wyatt Earp

There were two westerns involving the legendary lawman Wyatt Earp that were released during the mid-90s: Tombstone and Wyatt Earp.  One film tried to encompass a lot of Wyatt’s life before and after he became a lawman, but the other focused on one particular period in his life.  When you focus on a particular historical figure, it is really important to narrow your view and focus on a particular event that really showed who and what that particular figure was about.  While Tombstone focused on Earp’s time in Arizona with his confrontation with the Cowboy gang, Wyatt Earp took a much grander look at the lawman.  One on hand, we get to see how Wyatt initially become a member of law enforcement but left after he killed someone.  The film also looks at what he did before Arizona.  The film shows that Wyatt was not the squeaky clean person that everybody hears about.  Kevin Costner did a pretty good job as Wyatt Earp, but it was Dennis Quaid that stole the show as Doc Holiday.  Unfortunately, the film was too ambitious for its own and regularly got side-tracked ending up with a film that lasted about three hours.  Wyatt Earp is not a terrible movie, but Tombstone was definitely the superior film in nearly every way.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Nearly a year after the film’s release, The Last Jedi is still dividing audiences down the middle.  You’ve got the people that absolutely hated the film and you’ve got people that loved it.  I fell in with the crowd that loved the film, at least initially.  Having seen the film multiple times, I still love it, but the cracks are already beginning to show.  There were a lot of things that Rian Johnson did as a writer and director that I don’t get and I don’t really like.  I don’t necessarily think that making Luke a cynical old man was the worst idea, but it pushed the film in a direction that I don’t think was really the best idea.  I knew it had to be different from the previous film, but the film went WAY too far out of its way to be unpredictable.  The stuff with Luke, Rey and Kylo Ren are some of the most interesting parts of the film, but they can be overshadowed by some of the lesser parts of the film.  The whole casino planet sequence needed to be cut out of the film, it didn’t need to be there and it felt out of place.  There’s a lot of great things about this film, but there were definitely some questionable decisions that were made behind the scenes.  This could have easily been The Empire Strikes Back of the new trilogy, but I don’t think time will be that kind to it.  I just hope Episode IX will wrap things up and explain things more clearly.

Alien: Covenant

This one you can chalk up to Ridley Scott’s enormous ego.  Prometheus was a very different kind of film than what most people were expecting.  People were expecting a prequel to the original Alien, but what they got instead was a bizarre science fiction film that really had nothing to do with Alien.  I thought it was a great movie and had some really awesome ideas.  So, after the film ended, people were wanting to see what the character of Elizabeth Shaw was up to when she and the android, David went off in search of the Engineers, the beings that created humanity.  With Alien: Covenant you don’t get that at all.  In fact, Shaw is actually killed in between movies because Ridley Scott wanted to actually bridge the gap between Prometheus and Alien.  What we got instead was a sequel/prequel that ended up failing at both.  Honestly, I wish Scott had jettisoned the whole idea of the xenomorph entirely to focus on Shaw’s potential relationship with humanity’s creators.  This is also why the customer isn’t always right.  People were clamoring for another true Alien film, but they didn’t really get that, either.  Since Fox got bought up by Disney, I don’t know if we’ll ever see another entry into the series.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The word “clusterfuck” doesn’t even begin to describe this monstrosity.  I’ve been a huge fan of the X-Men films since the first film showed up way back in 2000.  Even some of the lesser ones like Last Stand and Apocalypse were decent enough.  X-Men Origins: Wolverine?  Let me first state that I am a huge fan of the character of Wolverine.  He doesn’t put with shit, has an adamantium-coated skeleton with razor sharp claws and an accelerated healing factor.  One of the reasons that people liked the character, was that he was shrouded in mystery.  Nobody really knew where he came from, how old he actually is, or what his real name was.  Not even he knew.  Now, these questions would be answered to one degree or another in the comics, but the movies had no real answer.  That’s where X-Men Origins came in.  I wasn’t opposed to that.  I wasn’t even opposed to Sabretooth being Logan’s brother.  Honestly, the two actors that make the movie watchable are Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber.  They were fantastic.  The problem with the movie is that it was rushed, under-cooked and pushed out before it was ready.  The CGI was terrible, the writing and the story were amateurish and what they did with Deadpool was unforgivable.  X-Men Origins was such a travesty that it was referenced not once but multiple times in the Deadpool movies, with the sequel basically doing what everybody wished they could do to Origins.  This movie really could have been something special.  Thankfully, the follow-up movies turned things around completely.

Those are some of the movies that really could’ve been something truly special, but were held back because of various reasons.  There are a lot more out there, and I want to get to them, but my fingers are getting tired from all this typing, so I’m going to end Part 1 here.  I’m still working on my Best of 2018, and I should have that wrapped up relatively soon.  Stay tuned.

Over the past decade, we’ve seen a number of popular animated Disney films get a live action re-make.  For better or for worse, these live-action re-makes have been pretty popular.  So far, we have had The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and a number of interpretations of Snow White.  There was also Maleficent, which is actually more of an alternate take on Sleeping Beauty, so in that regard it was actually pretty unique.  The first three movies that I mentioned were pretty much straight adaptations of their animated counterparts, the best of which was Beauty and the Beast, in my opinion.  The wave of live action re-makes continues with the upcoming films The Lion King and Aladdin.  Neither of which I’m particularly excited about as those films were among my favorites when I was younger.  I still have a special place in my heart for those films.  While The Lion King is looking to be a total CGI-fest, Aladdin is going to feature actual people.  I’m usually not one to judge a book by its cover, as sometimes the marketing doesn’t always get it right, but with Aladdin, I’m very concerned.

Let’s start with the casting.  It looks like a very solid cast overall.  Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine, Marwen Kanzari as Jafar, and Mena Massoud as Aladdin.  Overall, it definitely looks like the cast belongs in a movie like this, at least in terms of how they should look in a film that takes place in that part of the world.  My issue here is Will Smith as the Genie.  Make no mistake, I’m a big fan of Will Smith.  I think he’s a very talented actor and musician, so the new Aladdin will hopefully take advantage of those talents.  The problem is that the Genie is an incredibly iconic character from the animated picture.  The reason for that is the late Robin Williams who truly brought the character to life in so many ways and basically made the movie as popular as it was.  You can’t top that.  What I think is going to happen is that Will Smith is going to have to do his own unique take on the character.  I’m interested in seeing how he does it, but I’m very concerned about how the character looks:

With these images being released so early, it’s really hard to gauge how all this is going to fit together in the final film.  First impressions are important, and I’m NOT buying the Genie’s look.  Granted, it has to be different from the lovable big blue character, particularly with how Will Smith is going to play him, but I’m not getting good vibes here.  With the other images that have been released, I’m not buying the look of the film.  The costumes and set designs need to look like they are from Persia, or wherever this film is set, but I’m getting Star Wars Prequel vibes from what I’ve been seeing.  It all looks like it’s period specific, but it also looks very fake.  I don’t know.  Again, it’s too early to tell whether or not the film’s going to be any good, and I wish director Guy Ritchie the best of luck here.  I’m honestly wondering at what point that Disney will stop with these re-makes, if at all.  All it’s going to take is one movie that nobody wants to go see, and Disney may put any future live action re-makes on the chopping block.  I want Aladdin to be good.  I really do.  I’m not the kind of reviewer that wants film-makers to fail.  Not at all.  But I’m not convinced that the new Aladdin is going to blow people away.  If you want your kids to experience some really great Disney films, have them watch the older animated films and not these new ones, they might thank you for it in the long run, and honestly, those older movies are better…..mostly.  Ultimately, the new film is going to come down to how Will Smith does as the Genie.  That’s the character that people are going to be looking at with a microscope.