Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Picture Box



A co-worker and friend of mine is trying very hard to get his small student film to the high school section of the Heartland Film Festival, which takes place in Indianapolis, Indian. If you're a connoisseur of films and the art of filmmaking, like myself, then you may enjoy this emotional silent film that showcases how precious our memories become to us over time. As a friend and a fellow filmmaker I fully support this film, and I hope you do too.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Review: The A-TEAM

IMDb

Title: The A-TEAM
Distributor: Dune Entertainment (20th Century Fox)
Director: Joe Carnahan
Writer(s): Joe Carnahan(written by), Brian Bloom(written by), Skip Woods(written by), Frank Lupo(television series "The A-Team"), Stephen J. Cannell(television series "The A-Team"))
Staring: Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Biel, Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson, Sharlto Copley, Patrick Wilson
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence throughout, language and smoking.
Running Time: NA
Synopsis: A group of Iraq War veterans looks to clear their name with the U.S. military, who suspect the four men of committing a crime for which they were framed.

What Others Are Saying?


Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 52% (Rotten), Top Critics: 47% (Rotten), RT Community: 87% (Fresh)
Metacritic: Critics: 47 out of 100, Users: 8.0 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 57: (7.4% A, 38.5% B, 38.2% C, 13.6% D, and 0.0% F)
Yahoo Movies: Critics: C+ Users: A-

My Review

Source Material: Based on the television show with the same name.

Entertaining Value:

  • Action Elements: This is very well done action movie. In place it seem a little over the top, but really by the end you fell like you had a good ride.
  • Comedy Elements: Great one liners, and I'm guessing a lot of lines from the television show
  • Dramatic Elements: This film is driven mainly by action and comedy.
  • Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: No space or science type stuff, but there was a good use of fire and partial special FX.

Cinematic Value:

  • Acting and Dialogue: A-: From what I have heard each character made a great effort at portraying there television counterparts. Liam Neeson was by far the best actor on screen but everyone did a good job even the UFC fighter Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson. Sharlto Copley is making a pretty good name for himself with this film and District 9.
  • Art Direction: B-: It could have been a bit better. It had the right stuff for a good summer movie.
  • Cinematography: B+: This was a good action movie. Usually with action movies the quality of cinematography goes down cause the whole movie is shaky cam, not in this case, well not as much anyways.
  • Direction: B+: The pace was nice, I never felt board or confused. As for the directors style well, it more on the "dick-flick" side of things, which I like. For those of you who don't know, this is the same guy who did Smokin' Aces
  • Editing: B+: There was take on a technique I have seen in many other film that I really like where as the character tells the plan it happens.
  • Screenplay: B: There was big jumps in story, aging wise, but nobodies seems to age. From the opening scene/ introduction scene to the percent there is a 6 year 80 mission gap. Then there is another gap of 6 mouths (time spent in prison).
  • Sound and Music: B: I liked the sound track, it work for that type of movie.
  • VFX: B: Like I said before there was a good use of Special FX rather than Visual FX, either way it passed as a good job in my book.

Overall: B+: Its a very good guy summer movie. But I have a filling that 40-50 some will enjoy it too cause, from what I have heard the actors do a good job matching the originals.