Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) [A Fat Jesus Quick Hit]

I'd been waiting a long to time finally get the chance to watch this film. Being hailed as one of the best films of 2014, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has crafted a black comedy, that often feels more a drama at times, that will command your attention for the entire duration. 'Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)' is a film in which camera work alone with leave you impressed, but the accompanying performances, led by Michael Keaton, will captivate you until the credits roll.

'Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)' follows the story of Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton), decades earlier he famously played the superhero Birdman. Riggan is tormented by the voice of Birdman in his head and often imagines himself doing feats of telekinesis and levitation. Now he is a washed up actor that is trying to reinvent his career by writing, directing and starring in his own Broadway play. The play is an adaptation of Raymond Carver's short story, 'What We Talk About, When We Talk About Love.' The play is being produced by Riggan's lawyer (and friend), Jake (Zach Galifianakis). While his daughter, Sam (Emma Stone), who recently got out of rehab, serves as his assistant. It stars Riggan's girlfriend, Laura (Andrea Riseborough), a first-time Broadway actress, Lesley (Naomi Watts) and a role that has been severely miscast. Riggan rigs a spotlight to fall on this guys head, replacing him with a highly eccentric method actor, Mike (Edward Norton). Riggan has gone all in, as we follow the tumultuous days leading up to the premiere of his play.

This film is not for everyone and if you're going into this expecting a superhero film, ala the Marvel Cinematic or DC Universe, you're barking up the wrong tree. In fact, it almost seems that 'Birdman' is at times is being critical of the superhero films that have been very dominant lately in Hollywood. With Riggan knowing the amount of fame he can gain from it, he also wants to be remembered for something he perceives to be a more serious venture. Don't get me wrong, I love superhero films, but I can see why actors, and critics alike, can be so hard on films that usually prefer style to substance. This film deals with this issue well, and coming from an actor who played Batman, he conveys everything perfectly. The supporting cast is also fantastic and play off of Keaton, and each other, well. The scenes involving Emma Stone and Edward Norton feel real. The scenes involving Amy Ryan and Stone with Michael Keaton himself are emotional. Norton brings a crazed edge to the cast, while Zach Galifianakis brings a humorous presence to a scene. Round that out with the talents of Naomi Watts and Andrea Riseborough and this complete cast clicks on all cylinders. The way this film is seen is also fantastic. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu had the vision of turning 'Birdman' into a film, that had the look of a film, that only took one lone take to make. Each scene, with the aid of editing and some CGI, are blended together effortlessly to look like this film has been shot in one single go. It was a daring way to film this and it worked out brilliantly. It took great writing, a great director and a capable cast, and it was all knocked out of the park. The score also aided to everything happening in the film. The jazz tracks were a welcome addition to a given scene and sounded beautiful. I found myself tapping along a times from the opening credits and being mesmerized by the awesome music throughout.

'Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)' is one of the top films of the year and I loved every second of it. From the opening credits jazz sequence, to the closing moments of hope shown, 'Birdman' will grab you and never let go. Michael Keaton turns is an absolutely fantastic performance and the entire supporting cast follows suit. The story is a great one and the score is awesome. Not to mention the filming and camera-work is phenomenal (and downright fun). This film isn't for everyone, but 'Birdman' needs to been seen by anyone who (at the very least) was a fan of the films that were given their due during last years awards season.

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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 [A Fat Jesus Movie Review]

Wow, it's been awhile since I've done this, I hope I still remember what I'm doing. I figured I'd start with a superhero film and what could almost be considered the least looked forward to hero flick of the year. The Amazing Spider-Man is a movie that I liked. I realize it has flaws, what superhero film doesn't, but it didn't keep it from being a solid start to the reboot of a franchise a lot of us watched growing up. Well, at least I did. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 mostly brings back the same cast from the first movie and from the trailers I expected a CGI crap-shoot. That Sony had just thrown together a sequel to further a movie deal to the most anticipated part of the series rumored to happen. While it's crammed with CGI, some forced humor and it kinda felt long, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 isn't all that bad.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 follows the story of Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) as he grows to be the heroic vigilante New York City is divided over. To open the film we are shown Richard and Mary Parker as they are on a plane, after the events of the first film, where they are shown leaving Peter with his Aunt and Uncle. An assassin attempts to take out the plane and eventually succeeds, killing all aboard. Fast forward to present day as Spider-Man is chasing down a group of Russian thugs, led by Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino (Paul Giamatti) who have stolen a truckload of plutonium from Oscorp. Peter is ignoring his high-school graduation as he tries to stop the thieves. During the chase he saves a man by the name of Max Dillion (Jamie Foxx), an employee of Oscop. By saving his life, Max becomes enamored with Spider-Man and begins to idolize him. Later on in the chase, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) calls Peter and tells him to get to the graduation asap, causing him to turn it on and end the chase. Alekisei swears he will get the spider and Peter makes it to graduation on time. Peter then sees George Stacy (Dennis Leary) and remembered the promise he made him in the first film. Feeling guilt ridden, Peter and Gwen break up and he begins to solely focus being Spider-Man. While all this is going on, Harry Osborne (Dane DeHann) is called to his father's bedside. Norman (Chris Cooper) tells him, that the disease he's dying from is hereditary and tells him he's wasted so much potential. That night, at Oscorp, Max is forced to work late on his birthday to repair some things. As he is finishing up, he gets electrocuted and falls into a tank of genetically modified eels, effectively turning him into Electro. Peter must repair a strained relationship and rekindle an old friendship, all while protecting NYC from a new crop of baddies that only want to bring havoc and destruction.

This film suffers from the things most superhero films suffer from, taking a star-studded cast and them actually translating the the story to screen effortlessly. Andrew Garfield is totally fine as Spider-Man/Peter Parker and actually is one of the better points of the film, but it just felt like everyone else seemed off. Emma Stone as Gwen was fine, but I became bored with her pithy one-liners in almost all the scenes she was in. I kinda mentioned this about Kat Dennings in my Thor 2 review. You don't just throw in bad comedy cause you have a comedic lead, it just doesn't work sometimes. On the other side of the acting spectrum, from the trailers and previews I thought I was gonna hate Dane DeHamm and Jamie Foxx, as Electro and Harry Osborne respectively. I thought they did an okay job. To watch Foxx transform from mild-mannered and walked over Max into the super-villain Elcectro was fun. The relationship between the returned Harry and Peter throughout was a okay as well. I'd never seen Dane DeHamm before this, but at the very least, as Harry Osborne, he carried himself well. Neither blew me away, but they were far better than I thought they'd be going into this.The the veterans were good support. Sally Field is still good as Aunt May. Chris Cooper is always nice to see and Norman's character fits his acting style well. While Dennis Leary provides a Dennis Leary presence, despite his very limited screen-time. My other grips are what I actually mentioned before. Like the first film, I felt like this was too long and dragged in a lot of places. The overuse of CGI wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. It just keeps reaffirming that superhero movies are gonna overdo it on CGI for almost no reason. Also the humor, while good in some spots, Spider-Man joking with baddies and even Max idolizing Spider-Man, is atrocious in other spots when they force feed them a corny one-liner. Everything I just talked about all just felt, well, only okay.

Never fear though, there was actually a lot I liked about the film. Despite said overuse of the CGI, in some spots it was actually pretty cool and looked good. The opening scene with Spidey swinging around NYC was fun and the scenes involving Electro and his electricity are pretty solid too. Foxx's CGI as Electro was still a little wonky, but that's hardly the worst the CGI looked in this film. The action was also fun, the finale fight was great and I've always loved Spider-Man's mannerisms and fighting style. Going hand in hand with the CGI, the overall look of the film was good as well. I love cinematography and the sweeping shots of NYC at various points of the day, throughout the film, looked pretty good. I actually enjoyed the story as well. Sure at parts it was written kinda bad, but the overall feel, character dialogue, character/story development and even the ending was done well. You watch as these guys, grow and transform in the film, both towards good, towards evil or even just understanding themselves better. I like that kinda stuff in a genre not known from giving much character development at all. You could also call it a tale of two halves, cause the second half of the film really does make up for the first. They could've done way worse with a bridging sequel leading to the third installment in a trilogy, so props to the writing team for not just phoning it in. Marc Webb did fine directing it, just like with the first one, just stop using those stupid camera tilted angles. I hate those so much. The music was alright as well. Hanz Zimmer has done good work for big movies and this film is no different. Without making everything too over dramatic, or something of the sort, the music flows with the movie well. Keeping the comic characters close to what I remember them from the comics is always a plus as well. This film really had a "I'm reading a comic book they put on a screen." I loved that.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a film that furthers the first film in the series but didn't really improve on anything from the first. Everything got bigger, it never really got better, but luckily it didn't get worse either. The acting was mostly fine, the story was good and for the most part it looked and sounded good throughout. The drawbacks are certainly its length, the over abundance of CGI and the other side of "the acting was mostly fine." This was a fun watch. The action was cool, the humor, when it was good, is solid and it's everything you could want in a super-hero film. I'm highly looking forward to see if they can end this trilogy well with the Sinister Six stuff, always loved that baddie group growing up.

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The Croods [A Fat Jesus Movie Review]

Dreamworks, at least their animation side, has always been the number two to Pixar in animation. While usually always good, they never quite get the praise of Pixar stuff. Rightfully so as Dreamworks releases much more bad than good when it comes to their animated movies. But stuff like: Shrek, Madagascar,  Kung Fu Panda and Megamind are all pretty great animated features. I went into The Croods knowing next to nothing about it, and it turned out to be a pretty fun little movie. Not quite Pixar level, but not Shark Tale level in the slightest. Side note, I really want a pet sloth.

The Croods follows the story of Eep (Emma Stone) a teenage girl in prehistoric caveman family. She has always been taught by her dad Grug (Nicholas Cage) that new things are bad, and avoid new things is how the family has survived. These two are living with Eep's mother, Ugga (Catherine Keener), younger sister, Sandy (Randy Thom), brother, Thunk (Clark Duke), and grandmother, Gran (Cloris Leachman). One night she ignores her fathers warning and sneaks out of their cave. She follows a light source that she sees and find that it belongs to Cro-Mangon caveboy, Guy (Ryan Reynolds) and his pet sloth, Belt (Chris Sanders). The light source turns out to be fire and she wants to learn more. Guy informs Eep that he believes that the world is going to end and subsequently asks her to join him. Eep declines, but Guy gives her a noise making shell in case she ever needs him. About this time Grug catches Eep and drags her back to the cave. Eep shows the shell to the family, who destroy it in fear. As this happens a earthquake starts and destroys the cave they live in forcing them to run and they all land in a lush forest. Grug only knows one thing, and that's to find a cave for his family to live in. But they may have to rely on Guy if they was to survive the "end of the world".

First things first, this movie looks nice. From the ho-hum rock and sediment colors to the lush rain-forest like area, all looks vibrant. Nothing is just eye popping to be eye popping. The CGI isn't bad as well. Especially with a lot of Dreamwork stuff is them going for that "cartoony realism" in their human characters. This keeps it relatively good. While there are spots where they look superhuman and/or over exaggerated, as a whole they keep a good balance between realism and CGI. Making things too real, or too animated, in a movie like this can bring complaints, but like I've been saying, this has a pretty great, balanced look. The other great thing about this is, surprisingly, the amount of times I chuckled. This a kids movie through and through, but some of the lines, and bits they do, are pretty good. Just about everything Thunk (Clark Duke) did was pretty funny and reminded me why I like characters, like Kevin from The Office. While the stubbornness and retort between Grug and Gran and Grug and Guy are pretty good. You may not be a fan of Nicholas Cage's acting in live action movies, but he made for a good voice in this. The other two big parts were Clark Duke and Ryan Reynolds. While Emma Stone is the main character, it's her support that really takes the cake. Not saying she's bad, but like Catherine Keener and to an extent Cloris Leachman, Emma is a highly forgettable voice. Combine that with a lot of the good lines coming from Cage, Duke and Reynolds and Emma just feels left out in this.

The rest of this movie is average at best. While a lot of the characters have funny moments, it's really just left at that funny moments. I never really get into any of the character's or their overall story, aside from the close of the movie with Grug. They're there to facilitate the story, comedy, etc, and they do that well. But as I'm not a kid, I don't really invest in them overall. I wanna feel emotion in these types of feel-good family movies. I wanna tear up like at the end of Toy Story 3 or the opening scene of Up! I wanna laugh at giant monster being scared of a toddler or a fish with short term memory. With The Croods there just no one that memorable. Give me Mike Meyers, give me Jack Black, give me Ben Stiller or give me Will Ferrell as a lead. Don't give me Emma Stone only to have her out-shined by Nicholas Cage and Ryan Reynolds. The story is fine as well. A caveman family, who spends all their time inside, cause they fear if they leave they'll get killed. Until the curious daughter ventures out and sets off a series of events where the family must learn to love outside of a cave. It's fun, it's simple for kids and it's a sure bet. Not reaching with story elements, or trying to cater to much to the parents who will be watching with their kids. It's a safe story that wasn't going to flop, with above average CGI and comedy. I was into it, it kept me interested and the ending of this is a pretty good one as far as kid's movies go. The music was fine, dramatic when needed and lighthearted when needed as well. The length was fine as well. Not too short to not tie up neatly and not overly long where you could feel it dragging. There were a couple of scenes where I was thinking to myself, "Why is this in here?" Then I remembered I'm watching a movie targeted at kids.

All in all The Croods is an average movie from a year, so far, that has been very underwhelming. The first kids movie of the year is one that's alright. Nothing is bad in this, just nothing is that good either. The comedy is well above what I thought it would be (a lot due to Clark Duke) and the CGI is pretty good throughout. Dragged down my the mediocrity of almost every other facet of this, The Croods is a great one off movie. A great movie that kids will surely enjoy, while the parents won't be bored to tears watching.

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Superbad [A Fat Jesus Movie Review]

Hard to believe it's almost been six years since Superbad hit theaters. I remember seeing this when it came out on DVD after it's initial theatrical run. Since I was a filthy teenager at the time, of course I loved it. I saw it a couple times since, with friends, hanging out with people, etc. But this is the first time I've actually watched it again and focused in on the story, jokes and all the little nuances of this movie. Seth Rogen co-wrote one of the best raunchy coming of age teen comedies of all time. Though it's still behind the likes of Fast Times At Ridgemont High and Dazed and Confused. Superbad is one of the modern comedies that really sort-of captured what it felt like for the less popular kids at the end of high-school.

Superbad follows the story of Seth, Evan and Fogell (Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Chrisopher Mintz-Plasse). They are in their senior year of high-school and Evan and Fogell have gotten into different schools than Seth. Seth is paired with a girl named Jules (Emma Stone) in their home-ec class one day. She invites him to a party she's throwing since her parents are out of town. Since that day Fogell is getting a fake ID, Seth offers to being the alcohol to the party. Fogell shows the ID to Seth and Evan later in the day, but they highly dislike it for many reasons, including the name being only listed as "McLovin'". Seth decides that they have to use the ID and gives Fogell the list of alcohol to get. The ID works, but as he's paying a thief runs in, punches Fogell and steals the money form the cash register. The police are called and two cops, Slater and Michaels (Bill Hader and Seth Rogen) take statements from everyone. Seth and Evan decide that Fogell is a lost cause and leave to go to a party with a guy who hit Seth with his car. Meanwhile Fogell gets a impromptu ride-along. The two groups go in drastically different directions en route to Jules' party. Seth and Evan deal with the idea of finally being separated going to different schools, while Fogell gets once in a lifetime advice from two unorthodox cops.

This is one of Apatow's five best comedies during the years of 2004 to 2007. Where arguably he had his best comedies made. Anchorman, The 40-Year Old Virgin, Talladega Nights and Knocked Up are some of my favorite comedies of all time and Superbad stands with them pretty well. Co-written by Seth Rogen there's a ton of great one-liners and dialogue in one of the most raunchy and perverted movies you'll ever see. From a kid with an addiction to drawing penises, to a buddy cop duo so irreverent that would make anyone join the force, this movie is a lot more than over using curse words. The interactions between the characters, especially scenes involving the main three, are great. I was a high-school kid once upon a time, as I'm sure most people reading this are. We would try to put on acts in front of out parents or teachers, but we all wanted to be the cool kids. Cursing, cracking inappropriate jokes and sneaking around was apart of growing up. Though maybe not as much to this scale for a lot of us. The plot for this is pretty straightforward, though done in a way that was unique to help the comedy along. I mean kids getting a bad fake ID to buy booze for a party sounds really dull. Throwing in the "cool" cops, the older man going through a rough patch hitting a kid with his car and the high-school crushes we all had, makes the story more real and relatable. The music was an awesome touch as well, as it wasn't just generic party music. Exclusive jazz tracks by Lyle Workman and even a shout-out to The Roots, make this music in this pop.

There are a couple drawbacks to this though for me. Aside from the main five there's not a ton of character development. I would've loved to see Jules and Becca get more screen time as they were the main girls and it felt like we didn't REALLY get to know their characters till the last 30 minutes or so of the movie. Emma Stone has a great comedic air about her and this being one of her first movies I guess they didn't wanna test those waters too much. Now I've seen both versions of this, the theatrical and unrated editions. Both felt long to me, with the unrated sometimes being a chore. There's a ton of dragging or unnecessary scenes. The bar scene, while funny, could've been made shorter or cut. Also the parallel scene with Seth and Evan at the strangers party, while again funny, could've been cut down at the very least. Length is a huge plus or minus for me with movies. Nearly two hour comedies take a lot to be good the whole time. Cutting stuff definitely would've made this movie in that tier with something like 40-Year Old Virgin or Knocked Up. One more thing, and I say this with a lot of movies since a lot are filmed in LA, try to take advantage of the LA scenery. LA, from everything I've seen over the years is a beautiful place. Put in some pull backs, shots of famous landmarks or skylines. It doesn't hurt ANY movie to do that.

This is really one of the last few great Apatow produced movies before his slide began in 2009 after Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Step Brothers and Pineapple Express. Seth Rogen co-wrote one of the great coming of age comedies of all time. Jonah Hill, established himself as a great lead for comedies, Michael Cera cemented himself as the type-cast timid funny man and Christopher Mintz-Plasse may have unfortunately given himself "McLovin'" for life. The length is something that I get by because Bill Hader and Seth Rogen play off each other so well in so many scenes. Even the long or unneeded ones. There is plenty of laughs that still stand today in whatever version you do watch and this is a good comedy to go back to every once in awhile.

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Gangster Squad [A Fat Jesus Movie Review]

Zombieland is one of my favorite movies from 2009 and 30 Minutes or Less is a pretty underrated comedy from 2011. So when I heard Ruben Fleischer was doing a gangster and noire movie I was quite excited to see it. Add in the fact it's built around the story of Mickey Cohen, with the likes of Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, Ryan Gosling, Michael Pena and Emma Stone acting, how could this go wrong? Well, for me, it was wrong almost from the get go.

Gangster Squad follows the story of Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) as he hunts down the infamous Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) in LA. We open the movie with Mickey Cohen interrogating a man until he has two cars pull off in opposite directions, tearing the man in half. Meanwhile O'Mara saves a woman from Cohen's thugs and is selected by Chief Bill Parker (Nick Nolte) to head a task-force to catch Mickey Cohen. O'Mara's pregnant wife, Connie (Mireille Enos), helps select the men. They are: a detective, Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), a wire-tapper, Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribsbi), and a gangster killer and his partner Max Kennard and Navidad Rameriz (Robert Patrick and Michael Pena). Turning down an offer is O'Mara's close friend Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who is infatuated with Cohen's girlfriend Grace Faraday (Emma Stone). The two eventually start a secret relationship, but a young boy that Wooters knows is killed after Cohen calls a hit. This causes Wooters rethinks O'Mara's proposition and this new squad has their sights on taking down Mickey Cohen and his organization.

Oh boy, I'm not a fan of this movie. From within the first five minutes I knew this would be a fight for me to finish. Unfortunately I figuratively tapped about around the hour and 20 minute mark of this nearly two hour movie. Length was definitely a problem for me with this one. My other problems start with surprisingly, gore. Like I said in my summary, right off the bat we get a dude getting ripped in half. Also in the early goings you have a man losing his hand to an elevator and three men getting burned alive. These are almost like leftover kills he didn't get to do in Zombieland or something. I don't mind violence in the least, but this was borderline SAW at times. It really didn't fit. The shootout scenes were pretty fun though, I guess. I like old school cars from the period driving up and getting blasted with Tommy guns and other automatic weapons. But the well made violence is few and far between. Most scenes turn into a shootout. If it's not a shootout though it's unnecessary gore.

My other problems come with all these different characters. While there is a ton of acting talent in this movie, there's no denying that, I don't really identify with any of the characters. You have decent development for Sean Penn as Mickey Cohen, Josh Brolin as John O'Mara and the duo of Gosling and Stone as Jerry Wooter and Grace Faraday. But there are still so many other characters that are important to this movie it's almost impossible to get decent development out of everyone. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth there's so many people on screen I just never cared about. The story is pretty good, but it's written so badly and with so much needless dialogue and dragging scenes, it was hard for me to stay into it. I love great dialogue, but this movie has so many back and forths that were just plain uninteresting. Humor, when used, felt forced as well and that's never a good thing either.

I love the crime thriller and gangster genre, but Gangster Squad doesn't live anywhere near up to the genre in any way. I love Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte and Michael Pena. But it was embarrassing to see them in this. Too many characters, who most don't get enough development, in a uninspired story with lackluster acting, amount to huge disappointment. With all this talent and a decent man directing, in Ruben Fleischer, this should've been way better than it was. If it was anything. I wish they had delayed putting this movie out at all. There is nothing redeeming about this movie.

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