13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi Review

     When most people hear the name Michael Bay they automatically think "Oh, that one dude who puts all those explosions in his movies". While this true in his more recent films especially the Transformers franchise, Bay has shown us that he can direct a solid action film if given the right story. Some of his previous films such as The Rock and Bad Boys often go unnoticed now. With 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Bay returns to his days of a high octane, fun, and entertaining action filmmaking.

     13 Hours tells the story of an elite group of Spec-Ops that must defend their base after an American ambassador is killed at a U.S. compound in Libya. However when their allies and enemies are just everyday people roaming the street, it makes for quite a confusing situation.
     It was great to see Bay make a film and not overdo it with classic Michael Bay-isms. There were many explosions. Although they were much needed and paced very well. There were no girls in daisy dukes washing tanks. There wasn't that overuse of blue and yellow lighting we get in every single one of his films. This felt like a natural and fresh take from his previous projects. Although there was one classic Bay-ism that took me away from the film.
     There are a lot of slow motion shots. While they work for some scenes, there were times where it just felt unneeded and dragged on a little too much. There were also some normal story problems as well. Pacing was a little off at times. It was understood, Bay was trying to show how war can often be waiting around at times, however it felt like this dragged on as well. I also felt as though are characters were never that vulnerable and it felt a little too patriotic at times. I am happy Bay did not dabble in the politics of this film but he could have done a little better with the character development.

     The performances in this film are pretty solid for the most part. Jack Silva played by John Krasinski is the main focus on the story and Krasinski really does well for his first action blockbuster. You can definitely see the anger in his eyes in certain scenes and he goes through quite the range of emotions in this film. The standout for me was Kris 'Tanto' Paranto played by Pablo Schreiber. Tanto is the kind of the comedic relief for this serious story but the jokes are well placed and stay true to the character. There was not any case where his jokes took the audience away from the action.
     This is just a January action-flick so the expectations weren't that high going in. Although this is a fun, pulse bounding, action film that I believe Michael Bay really needed for his career. Other then lack of character development, too much slo-mo at times, and bad pacing here and there, this is a pretty fun action film that you don't have to see in theatre but there's a smidge of more enjoyment by doing so.

Rating: 7.3 out of 10

The Revenant Review

     Is The Revenant the film that will finally win Leonardo DiCaprio an Oscar? That will certainly be an interesting result to see when the award ceremony rolls around in February but man does he give a stellar performance in The Revenant. This highly anticipated film directed by Alexander González Iñárritu has been the talk of award season. It just recently brought home the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture - Drama. While it's not the best film of the year it certainly deserves much of the hype it has gotten thus far.
     The Revenant tells the story of Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) a frontiersman who has been through quite a brutal turn of events. When Glass is left for dead after a bear attack and witnesses his son's death by the hands of John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), he will do whatever it takes to track down Fitzgerald and get his revenge.

     There are two elements of this movie that particularly stand out. The first is the brilliant cinematography. The cinematography was done by Emmanuel Lubezki who won the Oscar for Best Cinematography the last two years. This film also gained a lot of attention when audiences and critics found out Iñárritu was to shoot the majority of the film in natural lighting (there are some campfire scenes that use artificial lighting). Although you can tell Iñárritu is a little limited to mostly shoot during the day and at dusk or dawn, to pull off such a daunting task is incredibly impressive. You can see the beauty of it while watching this. This is not the only beautiful aspect of the cinematography though. We get those long continuous shots much like Iñárritu gave us in Birdman. However there are a bit more cuts in this film just because it switches locations at times. The long continuous shots put stress on the actors to perform well since there are less cuts which leads us into the second element of the film that really stood out.
     The acting in this movie is very well done. Even though DiCaprio is not given a lot of dialogue in the second act of this film, he carries the performance with body movements and facial expressions. That is very much easier said then done. DiCaprio is not the only stand out performance of this movie. Him and Tom Hardy both have such a powerful on screen presence when we get them together. You can tell they feed off each other very well. Hardy's character is beautifully written and acted out. It would not be surprising to see both DiCaprio and Hardy get an Oscar nomination. More particular stand outs in this film are Domnhall Gleeson and Will Poulter. Both of these young up and coming stars, bleed talent throughout this film.
     The only concern with this film was the second act and a little character development with Glass. Without giving away spoilers, we see him get attacked by the bear and they could have developed his recovery a little better. The first and the third act are brutal and has you on the end of your seat most of the way. However the second act has a bit of a problem with pacing and tends to drag on just a little bit. It seems as though they could have cut about twenty minutes out of this film.
    Although the pacing of the second act is a bit slow and Glass' recovery was a tad bit rushed, this is one of the best films to see in the theater all year due to the gorgeous cinematography and vast landscape that almost acts as its own character. Although it's not my favorite film of the year, I would very much recommend seeing it in theaters.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10

The Hateful 8 Review

   

     Critics say that the best directors are those who can get great performances from their actors and Quentin Tarantino certainly does so in his eighth feature film The Hateful 8. This film is surrounded with fantastic performances that help to carry this murder-mystery like story.
     Hateful 8 tells the story of John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his voyage to take Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Red Rock, Wyoming in order to be hung. Unfortunately, inclement weather forces them to bunk up at at a nearby haberdashery. This haberdashery is not what it seems though. Full of deceit and conspiring, Ruth must do whatever he can from keeping Domergue from escaping.
     Quentin Tarantino manages to scrape out masterful performances on all cylinders with this film. Particular standouts include Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, Walter Goggins, and Michael Madsen. Tarrantino does an exquisite job of layering these characters and these performances really display that.

     Furthermore the story is very intriguing as well. This takes after many Tarantino's films in its manner to tell stories in an unorthodox order of events. It very much feels like a western Reservoir Dogs due to the use utilization of the majority of the story taking place in one setting and how the order of events are presented to the audience.
     There are only a few complaints with the him. The dialogue is a bit underwhelming at times. Tarantino does an effective job with the dialogue but it does not have that witty taste to it like most of his previous films. It is a bit dry at times. Some scenes tend to drag on as well. Tarantino scenes quite often are long and drawn out to increase the tension of the story. However in Hateful 8 there were some scenes that could of easily been cut down to decrease this run time of 2 hours and 47 minutes. Tarantino could have easily made this a great film but due to these complaints it's just pretty good.
     Overall this is a film that needs to be seen in theaters (preferably 70mm if you have the opportunity) due to its intriguing storyline and wonderful performances. If it weren't for the long runtime and dry dialogue at times this might be a legit Oscar contender.

Rating: 8.3 out of 10