Thoughts on movies, comic books, life, and other nonsense, by someone who should know better
I finally got around to watching Life After Beth ,a zombie “comedy” starring Dane DeHaan (Chronicle, A Cure For Wellness), and Parks and Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza. The movie, written and directed by Jeff Baena concerns the return from the dead of Beth, Zach’s girlfriend, and the gradual deterioration of things both inside and outside both character’s families. Doesn’t sound like a comedy, right?
My negative comments about the animated Batman: The Killing Joke and Justice League Dark were definitely affected by my lack of love for animation, but mostly because the animation was ugly, and the stories weak. My comments on the animated stories within A Monster Calls were positively glowing, so I guess it isn’t animation overall I don’t get into, though that’s my biggest complaint. Another complaint is that I don’t feel that animated stuff is much more than fanservice once it goes beyond the child demographic.
Logan is the R rated Wolverine movie that people were clamouring for, and thanks to the breakout success of Fox’s other X-Men property, Deadpool, it’s finally here. It couldn’t have come at a better time, actually. Less than a year after Deadpool, the Ryan Reynolds hit is still fresh in the minds of many moviegoers, certainly fresh enough to counteract the bad taste left by X-Men: Apocalypse last summer. But does the R rating make it good, or just enhance an already good movie. There’s definitely a difference, and for me it was the former, not the latter. It is NOT an adaptation of Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s Old Man Logan storyline, in any way, shape, or form – not even a loose adaptation. I’ll get that out of the way first.
I had planned on watching Manchester By The Sea, written and directed by Kenneth Lonergen, last night anyway, but feeling somewhat shamed by a buddy’s implication that I watch too many genre movies, I could not waver on that plan! As soon as I heard Casey Affleck had produced a performance worthy of acclaim, culminating in an Oscars nomination for Best Actor, I was intrigued. Wee Affleck? In a role that Matt Damon was originally set to play? But then I suddenly remembered that this wasn’t the first time he’d been nominated, and sure enough, a trip to Wikipedia shows that he was nominated as a Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Given that I already knew Assassin’s Creed was a critical dud, why did I end up watching it? I’m asking that myself, having witnessed it first hand. I don’t usually read reviews of movies I’m going to watch in case they might influence my viewing and elements of my own reviews, and I didn’t with this one – one look at the Rotten Tomatoes aggregate score was all I needed to know. As anyone who’s scrolled through my reviews knows, I’m largely a genre fan, so some movies I’ll watch regardless – that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.
AT THE FOOTHILLS OF MADNESS 