Big Epic Small Epic

This week I woke up the earliest of all time during my stay in Japan. I woke up before seven and got ready to catch a bus, catch a train, and catch another bus to get to the movie theater. Some sacrifice huh? The first film I watched today was Alfonso Cuaron's single shot-porn Gravity in 3D! This is the first time I watched a 3D film in Japan! The second is 47 Ronin, which makes this review quite special because this might be the very first few reviews of the film because it's released two weeks early in Japan (and it bombed in Japan).

Gravity
Gravity might be the most thrilling film this year, and possibly ever made. It is also might arguably be the most technically advanced film ever, beyond Avatar. Alfonso Cuaron has made a superb film that made you, almost literally, hold your breath. The film's decision to be super-realistic by using no sound in space is another point in awesome and an advantage too. The heroes in this film are Sandra Bullock who could carry the film almost all by herself, music composer Steven Price with his intense score, DoP Emmanuel Lubezki for his incredible shots from outer space, visual effects guys, and of course Alfonso Cuaron as the director. The 3D is also effective and might be the best 3D film I've ever watched. It's so great that the only thing I can comment is that if you haven't watched this, why haven't you? Gravity is intense, smart, thrilling, superb, and one of the best films of the year. Gravity: rated 5/4 TOO GOOD TO BE RATED.

47 Ronin
47 Ronin is a hyper ambitious film, with swollen budget and multiple delayed release dates. It stars Keanu Reeves and a flock of Japanese Hollywood graduates such as Hiroyuki Sanada (Sunshine, The Wolverine), Tadanobu Asano (Thor, Battleship) and Rinko Kikuchi (Babel, Pacific Rim). It also stars famous J-TV actress Ko Shibaseki and boyband member Jin Akanishi. Its decision to cast Japanese actors is commendable and deserves a standing ovation. It's a brave decision yet still they still feel the need to add Keanu's unimportant character. The film shows great deal of Japanese culture and honors them too. The bushido code of the samurais scenes are just perfect. It also improved the legend at some parts but it is plagued with cheesy lines, not a surprise coming from the writer who wrote Fast and Furious series and the writer who wrote the super minimum dialogue for Drive. The CGI is surprisingly not bad and the direction for a first-timer is quite okay. However, the other decision to add witchcraft and fantasy elements is also questionable. The film wanted to be an adventure epic but didn't explore the story too well that it actually came out like Clash of the Titans. We didn't get to invest much on the character, and they could omit some parts in favor of more important things but didn't do so. I'm not a fan of Keanu Reeves in this film, but the Japanese actors are great, particularly Hiroyuki Sanada, Rinko Kikuchi, and Min Tanaka. You could skip this film, but if you didn't it's not a bad thing either. Especially if you like Japanese stuff. 47 Ronin: rated 2.5/4

About the title, it refers to both Gravity and 47 Ronin. Gravity managed to be a great epic with a very little setting and story yet 47 Ronin just managed to be a small epic while it aimed to be a big one.

Next two weeks: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Hellish Busy

I'm so sorry but this is going to be very short. I'm so busy out of nowhere and I have no time to write the blog and actually I had no inspiration to write the blog. So, almost two weeks ago I went and watch the new Paul Greengrass film starring Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips. That would be a short review and I'll add  late three reviews of some 2013 films.

Captain Phillips
It's Tom Hanks vs. Pirates, but not as glorious like Pirates of the Caribbean nor even it is that American-heroic. It's a tense thriller, seeing the sides of both parties. The story is about Captain Phillips who's a captain for a cargo ship that had to go through the Somali Basin, which is pirates' waters. The film did justice by showing the pirates' side as well, and it did more justice by casting Somali people. Barkhad Abdi is amazing, and so do the other Somali actors. Tom Hanks is even greater, by the final scene alone, he could get an Oscar nom. Greengrass' direction is indisputable as it has been his standard since The Bourne Supremacy. The film's so good and it's not even Greengrass' best three films. It kinda shows how the Americans are the evil ones, although there seemed to be no other option. It was a very realistic, intense film set only at the seas. The only downside is the film kinda drags too long in the middle and the final scene's music is a reminiscence of Hans Zimmer's Time for Inception. But all in all, a very good film. Captain Phillips: rated 3.5/4

Kick-Ass 2
Kick Ass 2's story revolves after the events of the first film. Kick Ass and Hit-Girl are trying to fit in like usual, not as superheroes and Red Mist swore to avenge his father's death by being a supervillain named The Motherfucker. Inspired by Kick-Ass, some of the people in the city braved themselves and put on costumes like superheroes too. The film is not a bad film on its own, it's actually pretty good. But as a franchise to follow the far superior Kick-Ass, this film sucked. And it sucked almost in all aspects, starting from CGI to story. The story is unworthy and kinda disgraceful on treating the deaths of important supporting characters. Some loose ends are not tied up too. The brilliance of Jim Carrey is wasted, unfortunately. No wonder he didn't want to promote the film. I bet it's not only the violence that turned him off, but also his own screentime. Now let's talk about the good parts, Aaron Johnson and Chloe Moretz are great. The story line for Mindy/Hit-Girl is superb and it deserves a film of its own. This film belongs to 'Films That Are Not Bad Yet Its Existence Is Questionable' along with The Bourne Legacy and The Amazing Spider-Man. Kick-Ass 2: rated 2/4

The Family/Malavita
Malavita boasts great cast and a pretty good director, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones with Luc Besson. It has a killer premise of a mafia family in a witness protection program living in Europe. However in reality this actually looks like a parody of Robert De Niro films. At one point in this Martin Scorsese-produced film, Robert De Niro's character watches a Robert De Niro film which was directed by Martin Scorsese. The story isn't interesting at all and the use of violence as comedy might be fun at first but bitter when it was prolonged. The only violence I support is when Dianna Agron's character beat up guys for her women rights. It's completely forgettable although it's kinda fun at first. The Family or Malavita whatever you want to call this film: rated 2/4.

Insidious Chapter 2
After the so-so but technically great The Conjuring, I was thirsty for some real, jump-scare-moment-filled, scary horror films, then this film came. I loved Insidious' ending that I really loathed the idea of a sequel but apparently it's also good. As a horror film you'd want to watch at the cinemas or with your friends during slumber party, Insidious Chapter Two wins at every aspect than The Conjuring. The story satisfyingly answered some questions raised in the first film, expanding Patrick Wilson's character and ghost. However, the first Insidious is still better for it's prolonged horror atmospheric scene and the characters while Chapter Two resolves the story with more action, losing the stakes of a horror film and also loses the interesting characters introduced in the first film in favor of jump scare tactics, and sometimes unintentional, strange humor too. But this film succeeded in making the super-kind looking Patrick Wilson as a scary figure. Insidious Chapter Two: rated 3/4


LATER THIS WEEK: ALFONSO CUARON'S GRAVITY 3D REVIEWED!
I'd like to do 47 Ronin but apparently it's not even that well-received in Japan. Mind you, the film is already out for a week but it only collected $1.3m. And I'm not even that interested in the film so, yeah, SKIP.