Anniversary Celebration 5: My Fave Five New Movies I Watched in Year 5

November 11, 2018 by Drew

Hello, friends!

Welcome to the final item of my annual blogiversary celebration: my five favorite new films I have watched this year. But first, if you missed any of the reviews from this week, here is what you might have missed:

The Game, recommended by Ashley
King of Thorn, recommended by SG
United 93, recommended by Rob
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, recommended by Curt
The Wind That Shakes the Barley, recommended by Kira
The Raid: Redemption, recommended by Kim

Before I go into this list, I want to give a HUGE thank you to my blogger friends who gave me recommendations for this momentous event. These last few years have been fun and all of you have contributed to that, so I appreciate you helping me out in making this anniversary celebration stand out from the last four. Finally, to close out this celebration, here are my five favorite films I watched during my fifth year of blogging:

5) Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Robin William’s Jumanji is one of my favorite movies from the 90s. When I first heard they were doing a sequel, I was unsure what to think. On the one hand, Hollywood has been making sequels to ride on nostalgia factor, mostly to mediocre or worse success. But I didn’t want to judge before I saw it, especially after seeing the cast. I’m glad I didn’t write Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle off as a simple cash-grab because this was one fantastic film. All four cast members brought different kinds of humor that made for all kinds of laughs. Jack Black acting as a teenage girl was especially fantastic and something I didn’t know I needed in my life. I was in stitches throughout the entire film.

4) Black Panther

There is no doubt that Marvel Studios is a powerhouse. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an unprecedented cinematic accomplishment. At 18 movies in, they finally made a movie that many are pushing to be nominated for best picture at the academy awards. Whether or not Black Panther will receive that honor still remains to be seen. However, what is already clear is that this movie is amazing. T’Challa is a well developed character with an equally developed and compelling villain in Erik ‘Killmonger.’ Killmonger finally seemed to have broken Marvel’s shallow villain problem and that alone is note worthy.

3) Game Night

One of my favorite movie genres, if not my favorite, is comedy. And when it comes to comedy, I have a pretty low bar; if I laugh, chances are I’ll like the movie, whether it’s slapstick like Airplane! or more subtle humor like Cannonball Run. These days, comedies tend to go more lowbrow humor so a comedy that is clever is bound to get noticed. That’s where Game Night comes in. Game Night takes a simple premise, like a friend’s regular get together, and turns the crazy up to eleven. Best yet, it does so without becoming juvenile or distasteful. Every couple has their own dynamic, creating all sorts of laughs. Weird neighbor Gary, played flawlessly by Jesse Plemons, almost single-handedly steals the show. Comedies are great but one like Game Night that manages to be unique in the saturated genre is sure to be remembered.

2) Ready Player One

Ready Player One combines two of my favorite things: Steven Spielberg movies and video games. For as long I can remember I’ve had a controller in my hand. There’s something special about where games can take you. This movie understands what it truly means to be a gamer and playing for enjoyment and to bond with others. That spoke to me on a personal level. Outside of that, the animation from inside the Oasis was amazing and the story was interesting, especially when it highlighted the point above. Spielberg has a fantastic eye for fantasy and science-fiction and there could not have been a better director. All-in-all, Ready Player One simply had all the right pieces.

1) Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War is to the entire MCU up to this point what The Avengers was to Phase One. It was a culmination of all the movie that had come before. The Avengers only had five movies worth of characters to worry about but Infinity War had the monumental task of capping 18 movies! And like the first Avengers movie, this year’s was up to the task. It balanced all the characters well and balanced the serious moments with the signature Marvel humor better than most MCU movies before it. Thanos, this movie’s villain, quickly became Marvel’s best villain to date, even greater than Killmonger mentioned before. Even though it is titled “Avengers,” an argument can be made that this is Thanos’ movie and the Avengers are the antagonists. It’s a wonderful flip of hero/villain dichotomy but was a brilliant move by Marvel Studios. Once again, they demonstrated why they are the king of the box office.

Turns out I didn’t watch nearly as many new films over the course of the last blogging year as I thought I did. In any case, I want to thank you all again for you patience as I went on a review hiatus and took an extra three months to get this celebration together. You all are simply the best. Another thank you for following, reading, liking, and commenting. It’s always great to see you stop by and I can never get enough of it. 😀 Onward to year 6!

Until next time, cheers!

Ready Player One Review

April 20, 2018 by Drew

Synopsis
In the near future when a virtual reality world known as the Oasis serves as the most popular social getaway, Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) is on the hunt for three hidden keys hidden by the game’s creator. His search puts not only his virtual self but real-world self in the sights of IOI, a corporation looking to control the Oasis.

Review
I wanted to see Ready Player One for exclusively two reasons: 1) it is based around a video game (one of my favorite past times), and 2) it is directed by Steven Spielberg (my favorite director). A marriage of the two was guaranteed to get me into a seat. I know that it is based on a book of the same name, written by Ernest Cline. However, I have never read it so I can’t say how it compares to the source material. What I can say how it stacks up as a film and boy does this film deliver!

As soon as the movie steps into the Oasis, you are overwhelmed with breathtaking visuals. While much of the world looks realistic, it does just enough to prevent itself from falling into the uncanny valley territory, making sure you know it takes place inside a video game. With that, a wide range of environments are visited throughout the film. There’s a race track, a night club, a bustling city, tundra, literally every kind of place imaginable makes an appearance, driving home that the Oasis is a place is inside a video game.

Since half the movie is inside a video game, where literally anything is possible, this movie takes full advantage of that. Every turn of the camera reveals a plethora of pop-culture characters, icons, and items from anything including video games, movies, or television series. Nothing is left out. I can’t wait for the home video release so I can comb through the movie and find all the easter eggs that I missed in the theater. As someone who loves to play video games (one of the reasons this review is so delayed), I felt a real love and reverence for the medium oozing from this film.

No video game movie would be complete without some action and adventure. The action is big and the adventure is exciting. This film takes full advantage of the “anything is possible” aspect of its video game setting that I have mentioned several times already. The opening scene is a car race along a track filled twists and turns and loop-the-loops, populated with all kinds of movie characters. Later the characters have to make it through a portion of The Shining. And then a huge fight sequence happens in and around a castle in an icy world. Even in the real world, there are car chases and excitement throughout. All of it, in the Oasis and the real world, everything is well shot. It doesn’t rely on too much shaky cam or cut-a-ways. What’s important stays in the frame.

World building can be a tricky thing to do. Some movies use flashbacks, some use exposition, Ready Player One does a little of both, as well as its own special method. While Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) narrates some of the basics of how the world works in 2045 after a virtual reality world takes over the real world, the Oasis’ history is given through flashbacks but not in the standard fashion. Instead, the game’s tasks requires Wade and his friends to look through the game’s creator’s memories. This way, the history is integrated into the story itself and doesn’t derail the narrative. I found this technique unique and engaging.

One of my favorite characters was actually the villain I-R0K, voiced by TJ Miller. I-R0K is a gun-for-hire, tasked by the main baddy, Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), with eliminating Wade’s avatar inside of the Oasis. Miller infuses I-R0K with his signature wit and humor, creating a character that you know instantly is Miller. His voice feels like a mismatch compared to I-R0K’s large and sinister figure, making it all the more comical (appropriately so).

I thought Ready Player One was GREAT 😀 From simple things like appearances of popular characters or items, to classic genre tropes, to easter eggs, even to why people play video games in the first place, I felt connected to the story and the characters themselves in a way that I can’t say happens very often to me during a movie. Director Steven Spielberg weaves a dazzling pop culture tapestry and a love letter to games and what it means to be a gamer. There isn’t anything more exciting than playing with your friends or more satisfying than playing simply for the enjoyment of the game. This movie understands that and shares that pleasure in a genuine and beautiful way.

Trivia
Oasis is actually an acronym. It stands for Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation. This is mentioned in Ernest Cline’s source novel but not mentioned in the film. (Via IMDb)

Trailer

Cast & Crew
Steven Spielberg – Director
Zak Penn – Screenplay
Ernest Cline – Screenplay

Tye Sheridan – Parzival / Wade
Olivia Cooke – Art3mis / Samantha
Lena Waithe – Aech / Helen
Philip Zhao – Sho
Win Morisaki – Daito
Ben Mendelsohn – Sorrento
TJ Miller – I-R0K
Mark Rylance – Anorak / Halliday
Simon Pegg – Ogden Morrow