Feature: Oscar Recap

By Aaron Jankowski

It was supposed to be so easy.

The Artist was going to sweep the big awards and the technical awards were going to be evenly spread out amongst a bunch of worthy candidates.

We made picks using our own insights, insights of other reviewers and general buzz around the Internet.

As all the celebrities arrived on the red carpet, and Tom Gunn commented on their dresses and suits, I sat back with my Tim Horton’s coffee and timbits, looking over my Oscar picks, and I felt confident.

I couldn’t decide with George was going to win best actor or not and I thought that was my biggest concern.  

Then the show started.

Spoofing the top films of the year is par for course; it was going to be done whether it was Billy Crystal, Eddie Murphy or even Paris Hilton hosting. This, I understand. But when the spoof ended and Billy broke out into song and dance and not excellent, well timed and hilarious Hugh Jackman song and dance either, the 84^th Academy Awards started off on a low note. Sadly, it was going to get a lot worse before it got better.

It didn’t take very long for SpeedrocketENT to look like a bunch of stooges.

And the award goes to...Hugo!

And the award goes to...Hugo!

And the award goes to...Hugo!

Blah. Blah. Blah. FUCK!

Once it was clear our picks were going down the drain, it was time to just sit back and enjoy the show, and after having a few days to digest it, there was more to enjoy then there was to hate.

I was not a fan of Billy Crystal, at all. He had some genuine laughs, because the man is funny, and given four hours and all of Hollywood to riff on, even I am bound to make at least one good joke. That said, even though Crystal had way more misses then he did hits, he still came out of the night hitting at least .300.

Without a doubt, the presentation highlight of the evening, for me, was ... No, not Jolie’s leg ... It was Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, (or Zatch Galimakis). I have a soft spot for their brand of humour that will never die. It also helped that they awarded Brett Mckenzie, another hilarious human being, his Oscar.

Emma Stone and Ben Stiller were classic. Especially since Stiller’s antics have been the absolute shittiest part of the past few Oscar shows.

Ok, I’ll fess up; I also have a huge crush on Ms. Stone.

As a Canadian, and a big fan of him personally, it was amazing seeing Christopher Plummer win Best Supporting Actor for Beginners (review up soon!)

Plummer, who is only two years younger than the Oscars themselves, has long been over due for a win, and showed so much passion and grace in his acceptance speech. Sure, it helped that I picked him to win it.

When it came to the big five categories, we at speedrocketENT did pretty good, between us, we went 4 for five, only miscuing on Best Supporting Actress, as we over looked Octavia Spencer’s performance in The Help.

Yes, we are basking in picking the sexy categories right because we sucked it up hard in the meat and potatoes of the awards.

All in all, the show wasn’t a complete waste of my time, but it wasn’t the most exciting. I would have liked to see a more edgy host. Crystal played it safe, and ended up looking like an even less funny Jay Leno. I was waiting for him to start reading hilarious newspaper headline errors.

I was upset I hadn’t seen Hugo going into the awards, because I can’t fairly comment on its worth, but I am so pleased I saw The Artist. That said: I was disappointed I saw it after I placed my bet on George Clooney for Best Actor. Had I waited a few hours before submitting my picks, I would have beaten Scotty in the office pick’em, and would be enjoying a free Cornerstone coffee next time I am his way.

Live and learn I suppose!

TAKE AWAY THOUGHT: Why not let SpeedrocketENT host next year’s Oscars? I’m picturing Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin chemistry. Tune into our second podcast to hear more thoughts on the Oscars and more.

Film Review: Underworld Awakening (2012)

By Scott Jeffrey

Just when you thought that they couldn’t make another underworld film suddenly one more comes along. Not that this is a terrible thing it’s rarely ever horrible to see Kate Beckinsale in that outfit. But doesn’t deliver the same thrills as the other films? Let’s find out.

Underworld 4:Awakening, takes place six months after the events of underworld evolution. Human governments have begun a genocidal campaign against vampires and Lykens known as the purge. Selene (Kate Beckinsale) is captured and put into cryogenic stasis. Known as subject one Selene is freed 12 years after her capture by an entity known only as subject 2. After escaping the facility where she is held, Selene begins to have strange visions. Her assumption is that these visions are linked to her lover, Michael Corvin.

Selene eventually links these visions to young girl only known as Eve (India Eisley). Who was later revealed to be a hybrid just like Michael. Soon revealed is that the research facility where they were both held is in fact run by Lycans in disguise. The object of their research is to create a new breed of Lycans. All of this research done in complete secret under the noses of human governments which are still seeking to find and kill any non-humans. With both the humans and Lycans out to get them, Selene finds an ally in David (Theo James), a fellow vampire and must take refuge with his group of vampires to defend her and Eve from the human/ Lycan hordes.

The music was as to be expected, nothing terribly memorable. Underworld is never been known to have an amazing score. The soundtrack is a different entity entirely it’s too bad that it didn’t make the film. They have remixes from artists like The Cure and 8mm, which would’ve been great to include in the feature.

Acting in this film is sort of an afterthought. Most of the film is action based, there is of course a little bit of emotion with the girl Eve in peril. Most of the emotional scenes sort of come across as having a very robotic acting style in this film. It’s as if they’re just added in between the gratuitous action scenes to fill time. Not that I expected any great shakes out of an Underworld film let alone an Underworld sequel.

The visuals weren’t even too impressive either. The Lycans look like they were animated using a really old stop motion technique and didn’t seem to have much fluidity to their movement. With all the computer-generated animation studios that there is today it’s a wonder that Underworld didn’t shop around to get the scariest looking monster possible. During a high-speed van chase the animation looks choppy enough to be a throwback to the original Clash of the Titans.

Score: 5/10

Acting: 4/10

Effects/Visual: 5/10

Writing: 4/10

Directing: 5/10

Overall: 23/50

Take away thought: This is a good popcorn film. That is to say if you need something to watch while you’re eating a bowl of really good popcorn, go ahead and put this on. It really won’t take a lot of your attention away from your really good bowl of popcorn which should be the main focus. It’s got some cool action scenes but for the most part you could fast forward through most of it. If you’re big fan of the series go for it.

Film Review: Attack The Block (2011)

By Scott Jeffrey

There are few alien invasion films that have the kind of charm that Attack the Block has. Its similar to Battle LA in terms of being thrust right into the action. But the characters and pure situational humor of aliens waging war on a South London neighbourhood make this an excellent film in every way that Battle LA was a terrible flop.

The story opens up with a lone nurse named Sam (Jodie Whittaker) is mugged by a gang of teenagers near her home: Pest (Alex Esmail), Dennis (Franz Drameh), Jerome (Leeon Jones), Biggz (Simon Howard), and leader Moses (John Boyega). Their mugging is interrupted by an object falling from space and colliding with a nearby car. Sam manages to escape the gang with this distraction and Moses begins to crawl into the wrecked vehicle searching for valuables. Moses is then attacked by a small furry creature which scratches his face up. He vows to kill the creature and soon after the gang works together to track the animal and kill it.

After the creature is dead the gang look upon the carcass and find it very unusual indeed. Thinking they may have found something alien they take the body with them to the safest place they knew for safekeeping, a drug dealer’s apartment.

Meeting with their associate and drug dealer Ron (Nick Frost), they ask permission from Ron and his boss Hi-Hatz (Jumayn Hunter) to keep the dead body in the fortified “Weed Room”. Before a decision is made other objects begin falling from the sky. The gang is anxious to collect more specimens and run out of the apartment to the closest crash site.

When the group come up on the nearest crash site they observe that from the size of the wreckage the aliens that were landing around the neighbourhood now were much, much larger. They see a giant set of glowing fangs off in the distance and begin to run back into the apartment complex. This begins the chaos that has the group working together to combat the aliens. Eventually making unusual allies with the woman who they mugged, who coincidentally lives in the same apartment complex.

While there isn’t a lot of plot, this has got some laughs to it. Dark laughs because in all truth these aliens are ripping a lot of people to shreds, but watching as the gang members act in an adolescent manner while solving very adult and scary problems is quite a treat. The use fireworks, ebay swords and scooters to take on a massive alien army, and who wouldn’t want to see that?

The acting actually wasn’t terrible. John Boyega plays an excellent gang leader, you can see both a tough exterior and a side of vulnerability. For a young actor this guy has got some serious chops. He is pretty good at disposing of aliens as well.

I was surprised with the soundtrack as well until I saw the credits. Basement Jaxx is responsible so the whole of the film has a really upbeat techno vibe. It makes the scenes really show a sense of urgency and during the action really pumps the scene up. The used a lot of videogame sounding stuff, it actually reminded me a bit of the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack.

Visual weren’t too bad, this isn’t a big budget film by any means. The aliens were made fairly simple and I am sure this saved a lot of the visual effects budget. They basically looked a lot like big carpets with rows of the glow in the dark vampire teeth. They are frightening but cartoonish in their own way, and maintain the look of aliens without having to shell out a massive budget for CG characters.

Score: 8/10

Acting: 6/10

Effects/Visual: 7/10

Writing: 6/10

Directing: 6/10

Overall: 33/50

Take Away Thought: Overall a very fun ride, quite reminiscent of Nick Frost and Simon Pegg’s Shaun of The Dead just not quite living up to the same quality. It’s certainly very entertaining Sci Fi Film that doesn’t take itself seriously one bit.

Predictions: The 84th Academy Awards

@speedrocketENT
 

Best Picture
Scott: The Artist (Midnight in Paris)
Aaron: The Artist (Midnight in Paris)
Best Actor
Scott: Jean Dujardin (Gary Oldman)
Aaron: George Clooney (Jean Dujardin)
Best Actress
Scott: Glenn Close (Rooney Mara)
Aaron: Meryl Streep (Viola Davis)
Best Supporting Actor
Scott: Nick Nolte (Christopher Plummer)
Aaron: Christopher Plummer (Christopher Plummer)

Best Supporting Actress
Scott: Bérénice Bejo (Melissa McCarthy)
Aaron: Bérénice Bejo (Jessica Chastain)
Best Director
Scott: Martin Scorsese (Woody Allen)
Aaron: Terrence Malick (Woody Allen)
Animated Film
Scott: Rango
Aaron: A Cat in Paris
Art Direction
Scott / Aaron: The Artist

Cinematography
Scott / Aaron: The Tree Of Life
Costume Design
Scott: The Artist
Aaron: Anonymous
Documentary
Scott / Aaron: Hell and Back Again

Short Doc
Scott: The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom
Aaron: Incident in New Baghdad
Film Editing
Scott / Aaron: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Foreign Language Film
Scott: Bullhead
Aaron: In Darkness
Makeup
Scott / Aaron: Albert Nobbs
Music
Scott: War Horse
Aaron: The Artist
Original Song
Scott / Aaron: “Man or a Muppet” The Muppets
Animated Short
Scott: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Aaron: La Luna
Live Action Short
Scott: Raju
Aaron: The Shore
Sound Editing
Scott: Drive
Aaron: Transformers
Sound Mixing
Scott / Aaron: Transformers
Visual Effects
Scott / Aaron: Planet of the Apes
Writing (Adapted)
Scott: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Aaron: Hugo
Writing (Original)
Scott: Midnight in Paris
Aaron: A Separation

TAKE AWAY THOUGHT: Watch for our second podcast to see who wins our Oscar showdown as well as the results of our All-Snubbed Oscar poll.

Film Review: The Adventures of Tin Tin (2011)

By Scott Jeffrey

CG graphics have come a long way in feature length animated films since the first Toy Story. We can really see how far we have come with technology in regards to CG when watching Steven Spielberg's, The Adventures of Tin Tin.

The visuals in this film are absolutely staggering. Sometimes when looking at a scene and seeing how perfectly characters vocals are in sync with natural facial movements and how well the textures are done, while still keeping the iconic look of the original Tin Tin art style intact. This direct comparison between the art of the past and present is shown in the first 5 minutes of the film, where the scene opens with Tin Tin getting a caricature sketch done at a local market. The artist then compares the older cartoon Tin Tin with the newly rendered digital Tin Tin of 2012. How far we have come indeed.

The plot begins with Tin Tin (Jamie Bell), a famous reporter, purchasing a model ship at the very same market. From there he is thrust into a whirlwind adventure, where many buyers including a mysterious Mr. Sakharine (Daniel Craig) set out to purchase or steal the model of the ship known as “The Unicorn” out from under the intrepid investigator. This leads Sakharine to the point of kidnapping Tin Tin and taking him on board his tanker steaming towards Morocco to solve the mystery of The Unicorn, a wreck said to house great riches.

Tin Tin escapes from the cargo hold with the help of his dog snowy. Crawling up decks he manages to meet the drunken Captain Haddock (Andy Serkins). Haddock is the owner of the boat and his crew was bribed into mutiny by Sakharine. 

Turns out Haddock is the heir of the captain of The Unicorn and knows the true story of why the ship was scuttled. Tin Tin and Haddock race against Sakharine to capture all the pieces of the puzzle before it is too late. The treasure of The Unicorn cannot fall into the wrong hands. Bumbling Interpol agents, The Thomson Twins (Simon Pegg, Nick Frost) lend a hand when they can.

The story is pretty good. I wouldn’t recommend Tin Tin For young kids. Haddock is a functioning alcoholic and seems to treat it like Popeye treats spinach. The action doesn’t really let up either. There is also a fair amount of gunfire and violence. It does make it very interesting for mom and dad to see an actual plot and action in an animated film, but don’t be fooled by the exterior. I wouldn’t show this to an 8 year old.

Nick Frost and Simon Pegg are excellent as Thomson and Thomson. Watching them bumble around the case brought me right back to the Tin Tin animated series on television. They are frustratingly stupid and its very comical.

I can`t decide if Craig plays a good villain or if his spooky foreign accent makes me cower or giggle. You can tell it is Daniel Craig Voicing Sakharine, but just barely.

The visuals are amazing, and the action scenes would be spectacular on blu ray with a surround sound system. There are plenty of action scenes to speak of this film does not have many dull moments to speak of.

The score was excellent as well. But it was John Williams so what do you expect. I am glad they kept it classical and didn’t try and bring in any popular hit music, it would have really cheapened the film.

Score: 8/10

Acting: 7/10

Effects/Visual: 9/10

Writing: 8/10

Directing: 7/10

Overall: 39/50

Take Away thought: I would recommend seeing this film. It has some memorable action scenes and if you are a fan of the Tin Tin show or comic book you really need to see it just to relive the adventure. 

FILM REVIEW: Chronicle (2012)

By Aaron Jankowski

Chronicle is the perfect bastard son of three of Hollywood’s flavors of the month right now: origin stories, superheroes and found footage style films.

This doesn’t mean it is a bad thing. Heck, I love a good superhero/origin story (See X-Men: First Class). Though, I am not a fan of found footage. Like all styles, it can be used effectively and creatively. However, I find it is mostly used in the exact same way and it lends itself to lazy editing and awkward “real talk” dialogue that sounds so forced in its attempt to be natural it’s painful.

Chronicle, directed by Josh Trank and written by Max Landis, falls prey to the trap of trying to sound real and failing, causing a lot of the interactions to come off as well as those acting troupes that go to high schools and do mandatory attendance plays about saying no to drugs, and not making the sex without a condom.

This not to say that Landis’s story is not a good one, or even that Trank executed it poorly. I loved Chronicle’s story, and though some of the character development was seemingly written paint-by-numbers style, it worked. We believe the characters.

Chronicle jumps right into letting us know everything is not alright with Andrew Detmer (played by Dane DeHaan). His father is an alcoholic and abusive and his mother is very ill. Because of this, Andrew retreats from life and hides behind a camera, vowing to film everything from here on out, because it makes him “safe.”

This is a little weak of a set up, but it gives an excuse for why the revolution that is coming will be televised.

Andrew, camera in hand, goes to a party with his cousin and bona fide cool guy, Matt Garetty (played by Alex Russell). Matt hangs out with Andrew, and tries to involve him in social activities because they are cousins, but he knows Andrew is an outcast and just does not fit in.

At the party, we are introduced to a character that has a vlog, and thus, is filming everything also. She is basically a means of giving us more depth into the characters when Andrew isn’t around.

The party also serves to show us, Andrew does not fit in. He gets picked on, abused and insulted.

As the night grows old, and Andrew as resided himself to hanging out outside and crying, Steve Montgomery (Michael B. Jordan), the all-around loveable high school athlete / class president / popular guys, comes and gets Andrew to join him and Matt in exploring a hole in the ground they discovered.

Long story short, what they find in the hole gives them telekinetic powers. Some may be angry that Landis does not explain what exactly happened, but the who why and hows don’t actually matter in this story. The film is not about how they get the powers, but what these young men do with it when they have it.

At first, the powers bond the three boys, as they become close exploring their powers together. Had this not been a found footage film, we would be treated to a montage of them lifting objects with their minds, throwing baseballs and all sorts of general tomfoolery. But it is found footage. So instead, we sit through each of these things as their own half hearted full length scenes. (I never thought I would be advocating for a montage!)

Chronicle, though it has a good story, holds no surprises. The two already popular boys can handle their powers, but Andrew, the poor loner who has been picked on, beaten and bruised by everyone, takes his new found power with a chip on his shoulder.

The visual effects in Chronicle were excellent. When I saw the trailer which had Andrew crushing a car, I figured that was the big budget effect. Their load was blown. But I was dead wrong. I have never seen a found footage movie with such good effects. Trunk managed to infuse the film with a lot of excellent action scenes.

All in all, Chronicle left me wanting more. Much more. And not only because it is a ridiculously short 84min film, but because the story had so much potential it never reached.

With great power comes great responsibility. If only with a great story came a great movie.

SCORE: 4/10
ACTING: 5/10
EFFECTS/VISUAL: 9/10
WRITING: 6/10
DIRECTING: 7/10
OVERALL: 31/50

TAKE AWAY THOUGHT: I wish Hollywood would use one more of its favorite tricks right now, and do a gritty reboot of this story in the next few years. This story had so much potential, but I think the found footage style acted as a governor for the film, stopping it from hitting full speed.

Scott's Take: Pathetic, cinematic wank. 

Film Review: Haywire (2011)

By Aaron Jankowski

Haywire is the beginning of something beautiful.

Though, it is a very rough, sometimes painful beginning to say the least. Haywire is most definitely the beginning of a promising new action hero career for Gina Carano.

Written by Lem Dobbs and directed by Steven Soderbergh, Haywire is an action movie in the vein of the Jason Bourne franchise. No, there is no memory loss involved (in spite of the audience’s presumable will to forget they paid for this.)

Mallory, played by acting newcomer and MMA fighter Carano, is a top notch mercenary working for a private contractor. I am sure you can guess the rest, but I’ll lay it out for you anyways. 

Mallory has been double crossed by her boss and is hell bound to find out why. We are then sent on a 90 min spree of dodging the police, fighting and not a lot of character development.

The movie opens with Mallory waiting for her boss, Kenneth, played by Ewan McGregor, in a coffee shop. Instead of Kenneth, she is met by another one of Kenneth’s mercenaries, Aaron, played by Channing Tatum.

What we get here is our first look at Carano’s acting, but more importantly, our first look at what we all came to see – her kick some ass.

After getting into a fight with Aaron, Mallory escapes the scene with the help of a bystander and his car. Mallory uses the young man as a sounding board as she tells him what has happened to her leading up to the meeting. When Mallory tells her story to the young man, we get to see what happened, as the films timeline jumps from her mission in Barcelona, where she was to save a hostage, to a mission in Dublin where she runs into another mercenary, played by Michael Fassbender, up until the present.

Haywire plays out much the way you would imagine it would. 

There are government agents trying to cut deals to catch the bigger fish, sexual and romantic motives and lots of killing.

The fights in Haywire are exceptional. They may take a second to get used to because they are not at all as stylized as a lot of fights in films today. Instead, they are very technical and determined. One of the best decisions made in this film was to cut the music during Carano’s bouts. This adds more impact to the sound of flesh on flesh and makes the battles feel rawer and almost uncomfortable, as if the fight had really broken out right in front of you. Her background in MMA is obvious as she brings a lot of grabs and takedowns to the fights. This combination makes Haywire’s bouts like no others I’ve seen in a while.

Though the lack of score helped accent the violence in the movie, the music’s presence throughout the movie is awkward. 

It is very bass driven and all sounds like it is a rock version of classic porn grooves. The constant driving bass gives every scene the same amount of urgency which I do not think was intended.

Haywire wasn’t filmed the way most action movies are either. 

Soderbergh used a lot of odd angles and obscured shots to capture the characters when they were speaking, then sat back at a comfortable distance and just watched as they fought. It was a relief to not have the camera jumping all over the place as you were trying to get engaged in both the dialogue and the violence.

It would appear the idea for Haywire was to surround Carano with great actors (which they did, the cast boasts not only McGregor and Fassbender, but Michael Douglas and Antonio Banderas) in hopes they could help rise the newcomers abilities. However, as the adage goes, you are only as strong as your weakest link, and Carano was the weakest link, as to be expected.

But with a typical action movie script, full of cheese and cliché, no one was going to come out of Haywire with any awards or high praise.

That said, Carano showed she knew what she was doing, and I would not be surprised to see her again, and soon.

SCORE: 4/10
ACTING: 6/10
EFFECTS/VISUAL: 6/10
WRITING:5/10
DIRECTING: 8/10
OVERALL: 29/50

TAKE AWAY THOUGHT: Haywire has a major saving grace in not taking itself too seriously. Because of this, there are a few genuine laughs which come as a major surprise. I recommend seeing this movie on DVD simply so you can say you were there when Gina Carano, Hollywood’s newest action hero, was born.

POLL: The Best of the Rest

@speedrocketENT

Best Picture:

Drive

Shame

The Ides of March

J. Edgar

Bridesmaids

Best Actor:

Ryan Gosling (Drive)

Michael Fassbender (Shame)

Leonardo DiCaprio (J. Edgar)

Clive Owen (Trust)

Mel Gibson (The Beaver)

Best Supporting Actor:

Patton Oswalt (Young Adult)

Phillip Seymour-Hoffman (The Ides of March)

Albert Brooks (Drive)

George Clooney (The Ides of March)

Andy Serkis (Rise of the Planet of the Apes)

Best Actress:

Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin)
Charlize Theron (Young Adult)

Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids)

Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene)

Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia)

Best Supporting Actress:

Carey Mulligan (Shame)

Shailene Woodley (The Descendants)

Emma Stone (The Help)

Elle Fanning (We Bought a Zoo)

Keira Knightley (A Dangerous Method)

Take Away Thought: Vote for who you think should win each category here in the comment section, on our Twitter page, or on Facebook! We will be giving out the results, as well as our own picks the weekend of the Academy Awards (Feb. 26).