Recent Movie Roundup

AKA the best roundup image on Google

I've seen a few movies lately, but I haven't had time to review any of them. As such, I'm going to condense all of the films into one column, with mini-reviews for all. Here we go:

THE EQUALIZER

I consider "from the director of OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN"
to be a far more encouraging tagline

Denzel Washington has sadly lost his touch. Not as an actor, mind you, he's still pretty great there. However, he either is having a serious midlife crisis or has a terrible agent, because he's pigeonholed himself into doing one crappy action movie after another (many of them directed by the late Tony Scott), with the last really great movie under his belt being the eight-year-old INSIDE MAN (FLIGHT was decent but uneven). The latest in this line of generic extravaganzas is THE EQUALIZER. It was directed by Antoine Fuqua, aka the director of OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (aka the greatest movie to watch while drunk), but also TRAINING DAY for those remembering his last collaboration with Denzel. Sadly, since then he's become sort of like a proto-Tony Scott, belting out one action movie after another, only without any of the borderline experimental and hyperkinetic style that makes Scott's movies interesting. THE EQUALIZER is a glum, plodding, and most damningly, boring action movie that offers virtually no surprises or thrills. Denzel gets pretty far on charm alone, but it's not enough to save this rickety ship. 3/10

GONE GIRL

Only Fincher could make this image that interesting

Thankfully, I saw David Fincher's newest outing next, and that made for a far more engaging filmgoing experience. GONE GIRL is delightfully dark, trashy, and sociopathic, with Fincher providing a flawless translation of Gillian Flynn's (who also provided the excellent screenplay) novel about a journey into a marriage's heart of darkness. It's got all of Fincher's usual pleasures as well, with the low-key and unnerving score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Jeff Cronenweth's dark and moody cinematography, and of course, Fincher's masterful direction. He also absolutely nails the casting, with Ben Affleck delivering the performance of his career. He was born to play Nick Dunne, and he's just as perfect as one would imagine while reading the novel. Rosamund Pike, though, is on another level as Nick's wife Amy, the titular gone girl, as we watch these two extremely detestable human beings navigate the icy waters of marriage. It isn't Fincher's best movie, but it's probably his best one that isn't a masterpiece. 8.5/10

JOHN WICK

The man who kills the boogeyman...

Now THIS is an action movie. JOHN WICK is everything that THE EQUALIZER should have been, and so much more. After years of providing action movies with all the stunts, David Leitch and Chad Stahelski step behind the camera, and deliver what will become a modern action classic. Not only is JOHN WICK filled with kinetic action, vibrant cinematography, and a healthy dose of humor, but it also succeeds at building a fictional world parallel to ours, one run by assassins. It's more ambitious and exciting than the places that most action films would go, and it enriches the already invigorating experience. As a side effect, this movie also gives us a great gift: the return of Keanu Reeves. Reeves plays Wick with the conviction of a man who will destroy the men who destroyed his hope, come hell or high water. It's Keanu's best role in years, and it will hopefully spawn a franchise that will allow us to play in this world for years to come. It also doesn't hurt that it has a stellar supporting cast, including Michael Nyqvist as the almost comically resigned villain, Alfie Allen (THEON GREYJOY) as his shithead of a son, and minor turns from such greats as Willem Dafoe, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, and even lesser known talents like Adrianne Palicki and Lance Reddick. Make this the action movie you see this year. 8.5/10

NIGHTCRAWLER

LA always looks so badass in movies...

And now, the golden goose of the Roundup, NIGHTCRAWLER. The directorial debut from screenwriter Dan Gilroy (brother of Tony, the BOURNE series writer) feels a lot like a masterpiece. Alternately tense, hilarious, biting, and horrifying, NIGHTCRAWLER is a dark look into the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles crime journalism, as one extremely sociopathic go-getter, Louis Bloom, attempts to fashion himself a career by getting news outlets the footage that more decent men will not. It also gives us possibly the best performance of Jake Gyllenhaal's career, one that he's been working towards for years. Louis is a man driven by nothing but cold hard ambition, and Gyllenhaal successfully sells the ice running through his veins. There are decent supporting turns from Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, and Riz Ahmed, but NIGHTCRAWLER is predominately a one-man show, and Gyllenhaal takes it down into the murkiest, darkest depths. 9.5/10

And that's it for the roundup. I've seen INTERSTELLAR, but I need a little more time to process it. My review will be up soon.