Creed

Dustin: 4 of 5 stars Nick: 4 of 5 stars Average: 4 of 5 stars (Live canary)

Dustin: Creed is a movie about a privileged millennial who forgoes a promising career in banking to follow his dream. He believes he is entitled to a shot at light heavyweight champion of the world not for his previous accomplishments (he only had one previous fight in the division), but because of who he is. Even though he loses, he is given a metaphorical participation trophy when the entire crowd chants his name and the reporters center the story on him.

Nick?

Nick: Creed gave me an opinion I never thought I’d have: Sylvester Stallone is a great movie actor! Every scene with him was the heart of the film. Either making us laugh with his quick quips or even cry with his tearful sentiments of his not-forgotten past. This movie is way better than anyone would have ever thought.

Dustin: Stallone did very well with the part, very much coming off as an older version of the character in the 1976 original (I haven’t seen any of the sequels). He seemed very sure of himself in the role and his performance was superb. This was a good movie, in some ways rivaling the original, even though it had enough of the same beats to almost feel like a remake.

Nick: I have seen all of the Rocky films (Rocky V being in my list of worst films ever made), and Creed is certainly close to being as good as the original. The director/writer Ryan Coogler has a lot to do with that. There are an astounding number of shots that resonated with me. Including the one that I see many people are writing about, which is the one-shot (means no edits) take of Creed boxing his first real opponent in the ring. All of the technical aspects of the film are great, and the homages of the Rocky films are placed nice and neatly to point where it doesn’t feel like it’s bogged down with the weight of its past--much like Adonis Creed himself. The one part I could have done without was the running sequence with the boys riding past on their crotch rockets. Many other critics seemed to like this sequence, I personally felt like it was trying too hard. It was something that worked in the original Rocky, but that kind of corniness doesn’t work as well today.

Dustin: I liked that sequence. Adonis prancing around while the boys circled triumphantly around him was a little over-the-top, but I liked that the montage was cut this time with Rocky going through chemotherapy. It created an ironic and deep parallel with the similar sequence in the first film.

Nick: I guess I should stipulate that it was once the kids started circling him that I begun to roll my eyes and everything prior was ruined. It could also be that it was very quiet scene and we had one hell of a rowdy audience. It was tough for me. I felt like the film wanted to be serious and the cackling and the screaming of “Get up, bitch!” and “You got knocked the fuck out!” made it hard for me to take it in a serious manner. It felt as if I was watching Mystery Science 3000: The Uneducated Edition. A second viewing is something I look forward to!

Dustin: I liked when one woman behind us, during the film’s suspenseful final fight, said to her friend reassuringly, “Of course he’s gonna win. It’s a Rocky film!” She must not have seen the first film where Rocky loses (spoiler from 1976!).

I must commend Ryan Coogler’s direction on this film, as well as the writing. It worked both as a stand-alone film and as a Rocky sequel. It established a stylistic voice of its own while also fitting into the series. It is an appropriate step forward after Coogler and Jordan’s previous collaboration, the excellent Fruitvale Station. So many directors today are handed the keys to a huge, multimillion dollar action franchise after a small-scale indie project, in which they’re set-up for failure and their careers are ruined (see Fantastic Four). This was also a welcome return to form for Jordan after a misguided step into the superhero world with Fantastic Four (not that a young actor in his shoes has much of a choice, I can’t blame him if it seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime at the time).

Nick: Jordan was following another director into a bigger film like he did with Coogler and Creed. Fantastic Four was made by Josh Trask, who Jordan had worked with in his breakout role in Chronicle.

Dustin: While I liked this movie overall, there were some elements that fell flat for me. I never really understood Adonis’s motivation for becoming a boxer. He never knew his father, but he wanted to step out of his father’s shadow and make it on his own, even though he never really lived in his father’s shadow, no one knew he was Apollo Creed’s son, and no one expected him to become a great boxer.

Nick: The one thing the film couldn’t emulate from the original Rocky was the great love story between the titular hero and ADRIAN!!!!!. While I love Tessa Thompson as an actress, and she does a great job here, her character and Creed lack the same dynamism as the former. That’s fine and all, but what I remember most from the original Rocky were the cute dates between two very shy and awkward people. It doesn’t have the same punch when the love interest is basically in the same boat as the main character. She is an up-and-coming musician, who is slowing going deaf, who has her first big gig a fortnight away. Their story is fine, but not memorable. It is the one aspect of the film that makes it a slightly lesser version of the original Rocky.

Dustin: That romantic subplot was the other element that didn’t work for me. It seemed perfunctory, although it was still better than the one in Whiplash, another otherwise great movie.

Creed is about as good of a Rocky sequel/spin off as one could hope for. It’s stylish and almost as satisfying as Stallone’s original.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

Dustin: 3.5 of 5 stars Nick: 3 of 5 stars Average: 3.25 of 5 stars (Woozy canary)

Dustin: The Hunger Games - Part 4: Mockingjay - Part 2 is the last installment in The Hunger Games trilogy for real this time. Jennifer Lawrence reprises her role as Katnip Evergreen in her personal quest to kill President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and bring balance to Panem.

Nick: I have to admit I am so happy this series is finally over with until of course they remake it in 10 years. Though I must admit I’m waiting for this whole YA franchise-into-movies thing to end even more. The Hunger Games is easily the best out of all the genre, but it still tries so hard to evoke drama that it feels more like a soap or Lifetime film rather than a drama on the silver screen.

Dustin: I’m getting tired of these YA movies too. Admittedly, I’ve only seen this series, the first Divergent movie, and The Host. They all pretty much follow the same formula, and I mentally check off each item as I sit through them. Pretty girl with bland personality who turns out to be somehow more specialer than everyone (check), some kind of training montage (check), two hunky male love interests (check, check). The best thing I’d say about the Hunger Games movies is that they do the formula better than the others.

Nick: I’m in agreement for the most part but there are so many grandstands and speeches in this film meant to give hope or drive a character forward that it becomes an even more diluted version of the drama it’s trying to create. As well every time there was a character telling another “Don’t worry everything is going to be alright,” I turned to my mom and said, “So, that character is going to die!” and they sure enough did. Also whenever there is a wedding between two tertiary characters one of them will surely end up dead. (R.I.P. Remus and Tonks)

Dustin: That’s a pretty famous trope.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 should have been combined into one film called The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Both movies had long spells that just dragged. I remember spending a lot of time during this one with my head resting on my hand just waiting for the movie to get to the point.

Nick: Though Harry Potter did the same thing with more of a reason (700 pages), it also stalled in its first Part 1 (my least favorite in that series) and the same happened with Hunger Games. The first part was such a drag with no uptempo, while this film drags a lot between its interesting action sequences. The best thing about this series is the casting of brilliant, established actors like Sutherland, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Philip Seymour Hoffman and of course Lawrence while mixing with lesser known brilliant actors like Jena Malone, Elden Henson, Robert Knepper and Elizabeth Banks. They all do a good job, but their dialogue (which isn’t their fault) sometimes made me laugh for the wrong reason and kept me from EVER being truly instilled in the drama. Though Sutherland truly is remarkable as Snow.

Dustin: The all-star cast certainly lends these films some street-cred. I hated President Snow, and that is a testament to Sutherland’s performance. I couldn’t even recognize the smartalek character I loved in MASH (granted, that film is 45-years-old).

It’s interesting you compared this to the last Harry Potter, because like Harry Potter, this movie also had a pointless epilogue, which I will go ahead and spoil because it was truly pointless. Does the audience really care Katnip will go on to get married and have two kids?

Nick: It should have ended right before that with her in bed with the man she loves, but I think it went on to do that to end the film on a happier note, which I’m assuming the only thing the writer could think of was “Let's give her kids! Everyone is happier with kids! Especially two people with extreme PTSD.”

Dustin: I also thought when it cut to black right before the epilogue that was a perfect ending point. I groaned when the sunny meadow came up. The scene right before that was tender, but also had an ellipsis. The tweenage girls who are the most devoted fans of the series might wanted a happy note to end on, but I didn’t find the epilogue convincing, and it was pointless to boot. I could imagine if Stanley Kubrick had directed these, the epilogue would have been Katnip and Peeta in some kind of couples counseling for PTSD.

Nick: The most jarring concept to me was the character of Tygress. I only assume that’s how it’s spelled considering what series we are watching. Why couldn’t it have just been a normal (for Hunger Games) looking person instead of a seemingly spliced half-tiger, half-human character, which I had not seen any character look like throughout the series. Maybe I missed the spliced characters from before, but it sure didn’t stick out like Tygress (Taigriss).

Dustin: Well, there are people with body modifications in the real world too, and it’s jarring to see them at the mall, liquor stores, job interviews. But that is a funny point. Right after they take shelter with Tigris (thank you, Hunger Games wikia), Katnip and Gale put on a disguise to slip into the crowd taking shelter at President Snow’s mansion. Their disguise is a large black hooded jacket. I’m sorry, but I think the Storm Troopers, I mean, Peace Keepers, would be well within their rights to shoot them and ask questions later. In a city where outlandish makeup and hairstyles are the norm, they go with the most suspicious-looking cover ever. Were the writers lazy or just stupid?

Nick: I think the writer(s) were constantly lazy. When the twin sisters were left in the building of the rebels’ last known location they could have carried the wounded sister to the building across the street with them and left her there, which would have been at least a logical move. Also the most combat-ready character with the most experience is the one who runs head-first into a possibly mined area and dies. Also when the character who has been brainwashed and is hitting his head against his own gun you might want to put him in handcuffs. Also when Gale tells Peeta I’ll take you out if that time ever comes, so you mean the guy in your squad that he just killed wasn’t enough? I feel like I could go on and on and I don’t know who to blame, the writer of the book or of the movie? I get it, it’s nitpicking, but when the entire film can be nitpicked it’s kind of a problem.

Dustin: I have a feeling the problem stems from the books. I doubt these movies strayed too far from the source material given the fanbase they had to please. I think a lot of the writing had to come from the hack mind of Suzanne Collins. Men simply don’t talk like the characters in this movie. Two male rivals don’t sit down and talk about their feelings, or ask others what they’re thinking. Especially when they come from a dystopian future where you have to play everything close to the chest as your true thoughts can get you killed.

Nick: Long Live the End of The Hunger Games! Both the game and the book and movie series. Another part I found amusing was when Coin was afraid of the support Katniss had and was hoping she would die, yet she gave her the honor of killing Snow in front of all the unified forces. Would that not make her even more popular?! Also, the fact Coin stood on a ridge right above Snow with her hands outraised made that scene so ridiculous. It would have been better if she was standing far far behind Katniss on a ridge over-looking the scene and Katniss turns around and lets the arrow go quickly. Instead of a close up on Katniss, her obvious lifting of the arrow and letting that arrow go towards Coin. It was a very bland moment that should have been huge! It might have been bland because it was so obviously going to happen with everyone talking shit on Coin while later in the film she became a tyrant like Snow. I also love the way people die in films like this so beautiful and gracefully. Julianne Moore falls from the high-up ridge after being shot with the arrow and falls on a thin piece of cut stone laying there as if she had died of a heart attack.

Dustin: There was one set piece I loved in this movie, and that was the one regarding the lizard mutts chasing Katnip and the gang through the sewers. It was an intense, nightmarish scene that got my heart racing. It was like something out of a different movie.

Nick: It was a very well filmed and intense scene, but also had many obvious moments. When the new leader was the only character left on the other side of the stone wall while not a single other character aiming their gun through the hole to protect her! (These are all trained in combat people, besides Peeta). And also the death of the character who was married early on in the film. The way it was filmed kept telling me this is the scene where he would die. Maybe only film students would notice that, but it kept showing him more and more isolated. While it’s also a thing that a tertiary character who is kicking a lot of ass in a battle will more than likely end up getting hurt or dead and he of course was the only one kicking ass!

Dustin: I also liked the twist at the end. I won’t spoil it, but I guess it shouldn’t have come as a surprise Julianne Moore’s character (Hillary Clinton) turned out to be a duplicitous politico. Or that the rebels would turn into Robespierres as soon as they took over. I guess I did spoil it…

Nick: I already spoiled it! But not really! From early on the film sets up Coin as the real enemy who needs to be defeated by end. And she is, but in a very bland scene that lacks any true emotional weight.

Dustin: Suzanne Collins spoiled it when she consciously ripped off Battle Royale.

SPECTRE

Dustin: 3.5 of 5 stars Nick: 3 of 5 stars Average: 3.25 of 5 stars (Woozy canary)

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

Dustin: SPECTRE finds Daniel Craig starring in a Sean Connery film. The plot, I guess, is about Bond closing in on a shadowy organization for reasons that take forever to understand, while his employer, MI6, is being shaken up at the administrative level. It’s all an excuse to bring Bond face-to-face with his mortal enemy, Blofeld (oh, was that a spoiler? I guess you’ve never seen a Bond film before/or don’t remember Blofeld has always been the head of SPECTRE).

Nick: So very disappointing is the first thing that comes to mind. Everything I loved about Skyfall is either missing or overdone. The “overdone” would be all the winks and nods to former Bond films. I read something the other day there is at least one reference to every previous Bond film in SPECTRE. The missing is engaging drama, a memorable villain, and a somewhat unique story for the Bond series. Skyfall will live long in my memory, while SPECTRE might not last the week.

Dustin: I caught many references. A lot of it was visual. It wasn’t as painful as Die Another Day where they would reuse exact props from earlier films, but in SPECTRE we see similar sets from Dr. No or On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. They also reused some situations, such as the train fight (From Russia with Love), the showdown in a funhouse (The Man with the Golden Gun), and Bond splashing a beaker of his own urine in a henchman’s face to disable him (Never Say Never Again).

The movie has actually grown on me a bit since we saw it. I appreciate what they’ve done in bringing back a lot of the fun, flamboyant elements of the original Connery films. If I had to fault this movie with something, it would be they tried too hard to backtrack and make SPECTRE the force behind all of the villains Craig has encountered. I understand for Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, because there was an unnamed, shadowy organization behind the villains in those movies. But Silva had enough motivation on his own in Skyfall that making him an agent of SPECTRE sort of ruined it. I understand Blofeld was the best Bond villain (or a close second to Goldfinger), and the producers have worked forever to get the rights to that character back, which is why they couldn’t kill him off in this film (spoiler). But they didn’t need to backpedal so much. Or, if they wanted to backpedal, they could have made SPECTRE the secret organization behind every Bond film since 1971. The North Korean general who becomes a white person in Die Another Day? SPECTRE.

Nick: He was my favorite villain! Never saw it coming. I think it was the previous Daniel Craig Bond films (minus Quantum) which ruined this new one for me. I was enamored by Casino Royale and in awe of Skyfall. They both move slowly, build characters, have well-developed plotlines and some of my favorite action set pieces in quite some time. So many of the action sequences in this Bond involve a helicopter. So many that it felt like a Michael Bay movie at times. Why does the bad guy in spy movies always try to make a getaway in a helicopter! Even the solid comedy Spy ends with a fight scene in a helicopter. Blofield would have gotten away by car or maybe gotten further considering it’s a Bond film and he is fucking unbelievable!

Dustin: Frankly I’m surprised Blofeld didn’t have an underground monorail already in place.

This movie was good as fan service, and if it had followed Quantum of Solace, I would have seen it as a step in the right direction. As a stand alone movie or a follow-up to Skyfall, it was a bit disappointing.

Nick: Pshaw! Severely disappointing in that regard. Where would you put it on your list?

Dustin: Between The Living Daylights and Live and Let Die.

Nick: Although the action set pieces were perhaps my least favorite thing about SPECTRE, it had one great one in that train fighting sequence. The brutality unleashed by Dave Bautista upon Bond is back breaking, to of course anyone else but Bond. My favorite thing would be the cinematography. There are some very interesting shots throughout this film enough to where I feel as I left with a note of happiness. SPECTRE is truly a beautiful film when focusing on that one aspect.

Dustin: I agree. While this wasn’t a great movie, it had the look of a great one. I also liked some of the touches in the story, like the return of Mr. White, and the way Bond becomes something of a protector of his former enemy’s daughter.

What do you think will be the future of the series? Daniel Craig has hinted he may not be very interested in doing another Bond film, and I almost feel like he has outgrown the character. I kind of liked how this movie ends with Bond walking away as well. Should we leave it at that?

Nick: I think so, this film seems to not try as hard in terms of originality, which is what I was so enjoying about the new Bond era and with the way it is left with the obvious fork in the road I would be happy if they recast. Sam Mendes stated he is definitely not coming back, and Craig said he would rather slit his wrists then make another one at the moment.

Dustin: So now for the fun part of discussing who will be next. If I had to put money in Vegas on who I think will be cast, it would be Henry Cavill. But if I could choose the next Bond, it would be Michael Fassbender, even though he’s from Germany.

Nick: I will gamble with you, my friend. In no terms will they cast Cavill--they tend to cast relatively unknowns, and he has been in many big budget films including two as Superman, be cast as the next James Bond. Fassbender would be an amazing choice, and perhaps Richard Madden (of Game of Thrones) would be another one, but I like the idea of Idris Elba, but only if they call him 007 and not James Bond. Since it’s not an alias, but his actual name.

Dustin: I wouldn’t be surprised if Fassbender was a villain at some point. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Craig’s statement was really his way of holding out for more money, knowing he won’t be able to play the role much longer, trying to get a big payday for his final film.

Best of Bond. James Bond.

Dustin says: In anticipation of the latest Bond film, SPECTRE, opening in American theaters this Friday, I've compiled a slideshow counting down all the Bond films from worst to best. I've thrown in the unofficial movies just for fun. There's room to disagree with me in the comments.

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Dope

Dustin: 3.5 of 5 stars Nick: 3.5 of 5 stars Average: 3.5 of 5 stars (Live canary)

Dustin: Dope is a comedy about a black kid and his two best friends who are accused of trying to be white for getting good grades and aspiring to go to college. Shameik Moore stars as Malcolm, a boy living in a part of town known as “The Bottoms” with his single mother and one memory of his father from Nigeria. He is trying to get into Harvard, but doesn’t know how to stand out to the admissions committee. Through a string of misadventures, he ends up with a bag of a cocaine-like drug known as “Molly” and relies on the help of his two best friends to get rid of it.

Nick: The film has a very recognizable storyline while being shot in an original and fresh style, like Birdman, but not to that extent. All the expected things happen, but as the scenes played on the film continued to succeed in its wholly predictable story. Although the story is predictable, it’s also over-complicated for the time allotted. Dope should either have been less complicated and shortened or kept the complicated story, but added to it to where the characters can have the right amount of depth and elongated the running time.

Dustin: I liked the motley crew of characters. Malcolm and his two best friends, Jig and Diggy, are unlikely protagonists. Malcolm is an awkward, geeky black kid who sports a ‘90s-style flattop hairdo. Jig is his “14 percent black” Mexican friend, and Diggy is a lesbian often mistaken for a boy. They are obsessed with their idea of ‘90s pop culture and have a punk band with upbeat tunes that often play on the soundtrack. A lot of the secondary characters, though, feel a little more like types. There’s the Blood who is willing to kill Malcolm for his bag of dope, and the bystander witness who makes a spectacle of himself on the nightly news. But the originality and likeability of the main characters was like a breath of fresh air.

Nick: A$AP ROCKY was solid as Dom as well. An amusing thing I found out after the film was that the filmmaker, Rick Famuyiwa made my favorite “black” movie ever, The Wood. During Dope I kept thinking that the kids and the situations they get into reminded me of the flashback scenes in The Wood. Another film Dope reminds me of is Dear White People. They are not the same movie whatsoever, but they both have the geeky black teen who can’t get along with any other black kid and the ending message, which Dear White People actually deserved since it actually covered what the film was about. The last scene in Dope felt so out-of-place with its preachiness and self-congratulatory comments. The film doesn’t reach the depths that the last few comments made by Malcolm seem to think. Dear White People gets a lot closer to deserving it’s final statement.

Dustin: I agree with that sentiment. I don’t really get why the movie decided to climb onto the soapbox for the final few minutes. I think the movie got its point across without doing that, and the ending sort of diminished what came before, as that is what will be hanging in people’s minds as they walk out the theater.

There was another scene that also hit the wrong note entirely. This was when they were talking about how dangerous life is in the hood. A black kid gets shot while standing in line playing a Game Boy at a fast food restaurant. He’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. They show a blood-splattered Game Boy hit the floor, and during this tragic moment, they inserted a joke, and ran with it into the next shot. I didn’t feel like laughing, and even in a dark comedy, showing an innocent child get murdered isn’t funny.

Nick: I actually did laugh for a short moment but only because it was the original Game Boy and all my amazing and awful memories of that handheld device came flooding back. Dope sets up so many story lines that hardly ever get more than a mention. Malcolm is going to help his “dream-girl” study for her G.E.D. This is shown once and then at the very end she has passed. The main bad guy of the film, who is a rich and powerful type, has a daughter who becomes a viral video sensation for something illegal, is never shown getting flack for this even though he is publicly a good man who went to Harvard. Then, of course, is the Blood who you think is going to be the bad guy, but is then written off quickly and that storyline is completely gone. There are many small stories throughout the movie that makes it seem Dope would have worked better as a mini-series on HBO, where it could have seen out these storylines in a smoother fashion before adding more storylines that never get fulfilled.

Dustin: The movie definitely has an abundance of loose-ends, like you mentioned. In the hyperactive scene you just alluded to, the rich guy’s daughter ODs on “Molly” and ends up running across a busy street to pee in some bushes. Malcolm, who was in the car with her, is late for his Harvard alum interview, and basically steals her car and abandons her. Her brother, who was meanwhile getting shot in the leg, is in a high-speed police pursuit and sees Malcolm as he passes him. Yet, we never learn the consequences or outcome of any of this. We never learn what happens to Dom in jail, and apparently no one ever asks Malcolm for the $100,000 some dollars he made selling the dope, or for the dope itself. He lives in an environment where people are killed for no reason, but himself is immune to consequences and even ends up at Harvard.

Nick: Don’t forget that Malcolm’s physique is one of an athletic teen instead of one whose only exercise is biking around between school and home. It’s also shocking he doesn’t have a job. He wants to get into Harvard, yet he doesn’t have a job and his mom works as a bus driver. So his only hope is to get a full-ride from Harvard or be in some major debt in the future if he actually gets accepted. You would also assume he would have many extra curriculars and or doing charity in order to put it on his application. He seems like an entitled kid who just wants things to be given to him instead of working toward the goal he desires. Which actually does fit the plot of the movie, but by the end with his preachiness on the soap box it ruins most of what he might have learned having to clean up a situation for himself.

Dustin: I didn’t really think of that, but now that you mention it, Malcolm’s life does seem at odds with the world of the movie. He does come off as a privileged kid. Band equipment isn’t cheap. He lives in a decent house rather than a low-income housing project. And he devotes a lot of time (and, presumably money) to following obscure interests--something that’s usually associated with the upper-middle class. Come to think of it, his teenage years were probably better than mine growing up in the whitebread suburbs.

Nick: One of the many things I enjoyed were the scenes with Blake Anderson (Workaholics).  Mostly the ones where he tries to convince them that he should be allowed to say the N word in an affectionate way towards his friends like all of them do towards each other. The N word is mentioned in an almost countless capacity to the extent he might have a point, but of course in only in an affectionate manner!

Dustin: I enjoyed most of the movie and came to like the characters. There were some miscalculations and too many loose-ends, but overall, it was an entertaining and original film.