The Wolf of Wall Street

When young Jordan Belfort loses his new stock broker job after Black Monday in 1987, he takes a job with a small Long Island company selling penny stocks. Through corruption and lies, he builds his own firm using his friends and drug dealers who he turns into stock brokers. Sex, Drugs, Corruption and lots and lots of money is what drives this real life story of how Jordan built an empire with his scams and the inevitable fall at the hands of the FBI.

Cast

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort

Jonah Hill as Donnie Azoff (based on Danny Porush)

Margot Robbie as Naomi Lapaglia (based on Nadine Caridi)

Matthew McConaughey as Mark Hanna

Kyle Chandler as Patrick Denham (based on FBI Agent Gregory Coleman)

Rob Reiner as Max Belfort

 Jon Bernthal as Brad Bodnick

Jon Favreau as Manny Riskin

Jean Dujardin as Jean-Jacques Saurel

Joanna Lumley as Aunt Emma

Who will like this movie

Although you could make the argument that it is comparable to "Wall Street" with Michael Douglas,  I would more likely compare it to "Goodfellas" set on Wall Street instead. In fact, I think anyone who enjoys gangster movies like "Casino", "The Godfather" and "Scarface" should add this to the list of favorite movies. I would expect this to be popular among 20 something males. Due to the excessive language, nudity and drug use, it probably should not be seen by ANYONE under 17, even though it only has an "R" rating.

Phantom Thoughts

I can say this is one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. The cast was brilliant, the direction was spot on and the cinematography was genius. Am I over-stating? Perhaps. You'll have to decide for yourself.
   First off, let me say that I am not a fan of Jonah Hill. He just is annoying to me. But even I have to admit that he was nothing less than extraordinary in "Wolf of Wall Street". He earned recognition last year in "Moneyball", but his depiction of Donnie Azoff was beyond compare. He earned more of my respect once I learned that director Martin Scorsese asked to have a meeting with Jonah, but he insisted instead to audition for the part. Hill has not auditioned for ANY part in 6 years. Truly deserving of his Oscar nomination for best supporting actor, and my front-runner for winning it.
   Leonardo DiCaprio bought the rights to make this movie in 2007, winning out over a bid from Brad Pitt. I mentioned the similarity to "Goodfellas" above, and that was in part due to Scorsese's style of film making, but also for how similar DiCaprio was to Ray Liota's character. Leo delivers once again and does not disappoint.
   I think it's important to note that there has been a lot of talk about the record setting amount of times the word "Fuck" was said. Not only that, but there are a plethora of naked tits throughout movie. And let's not forget the huge amounts of cocaine that was snorted. (The actors used crushed up vitamin B to simulate those scenes. Although it did hurt their noses, ironically it gave them more energy to do the following scenes)
But as all this seems over-the-top (and it was...but on purpose) it was also necessary to the story. In order to accurately depict what it was like to be living that life, it needed to be as abundant as it was.
   Speaking of naked boobs, Margot Robbie is introduced to the American public by showing off every inch of her spectacular body. Yes, her performance was great, but My God....she has got to be the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Every curve of her is...perfection.
   I don't talk much about cinematography, and most people don't really notice it, but I have to give credit where credit is due. The lens change between when the characters on screen were high and sober immersed the viewer into the moment so well, I think I got a contact high. There was green-screen work on scenes you would never expect, in order to layer images to make the flow of the movie even more spectacular.
   If you've been a follower of this blog, you may have realized that I love those little hidden gems and nods to the originals. One of those special moments happened at the end of the movie. Don't worry, there's no spoiler to the plot here. The actual Jordan Belford introduces "himself" played by DiCaprio to the stage in the final scene. How awesome is that?
   So...do you think I over-stated it? If you're over 21, then go see for yourself. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Until next time, see you in the center seat.

Frozen

Anna and Elsa are sisters who are as close as can be. But when Elsa accidentally hurts Anna with her icy powers, she grows up isolated from Anna as well as the outside world. Years later, Elsa is to be named Queen of the kingdom, and as the whole land watches, her powers are finally discovered. Elsa runs to a far mountaintop while her powers unknowingly plunge the kingdom into eternal winter. Anna teams up with Mountain Man Kristoff and his reindeer pal Sven to find her and rescue the kingdom.

Cast

Kristen Bell as Anna
Idina Menzel as Elsa
Jonathan Groff as Kristoff
Josh Gad as Olaf
Santino Fontana as Hans

Who will like this

As a Disney movie taken from a classic fairy tale, Frozen delivers for Disney enthusiasts young and old. There are many similarities to the last animated feature Tangled, so chances are that if you liked that one, this will be up your alley as well. It is a perfect family movie night out movie.

Phantom Thoughts

In doing my research on this movie, the history of Frozen getting made is almost as interesting as the plot itself. It's a well known fact that the fairy tale Frozen is taken from is the Hans Christian Anderson story "The Snow Queen". And it deviates greatly from that story, to make it more relateable to modern audiences. But in order to do that, it took many years to accomplish. Disney had a treatment to bring this animated feature to life as early as the 1940's. In the late 1990's Disney once again tried to make "The Snow Queen" into a movie. There were several failed attempts that went through 2010. It wasn't until 2011's success with Tangled did they come up with a way to change the story to the one we saw on screen.

But that is also part of the problem. Because many of the characters bear a very strong resemblance to the characters of Tangled. They changed the Snow Queen to be the sister of Anna, the heroine in the story instead of just a villain, completely changing the essence of the original fairy tale. The story itself is just alright, but it is saved by not going down a predictable path, which I was afraid it was going to, until near the end of the movie where a plot twist occurs. There are a number of different similarities to the movie Tangled, including the title change. But the lack of differences in the character looks remain the strongest.

However, there are a lot of good in Frozen as well. The music and songs are very good done by Husband and Wife team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez and reminds me of the songs of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast which were put together by the late great lyricist Howard Ashman. The visuals of snow and ice are brilliantly done and the comic relief of Olaf the snowman was not over the top and a sub plot keeping the main focus on the plot.

Though extreme critics have put nit picked the heck out of Frozen, overall I think it was a good movie and one that families will enjoy. Disney enthusiasts will be proud to add this movie and songs to their collection of favorites.

Until next time, see you in the center seat!

Delivery Man

An extreme under-achiever, David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn) is a truck driver in his father's meat business. 20 years ago, he was a sperm donor under the codename "Starbuck" and through a mistake at the clinic, fathered 533 children. 142 of them have filed a suit to find out who their father is. Now he must decide whether or not to come forward while trying to convince his girlfriend that he would make a good father to their unborn child.


Cast


Vince Vaughn as David Wozniak
Chris Pratt as Brett
Cobie Smulders as Emma
Andrzej Blumenfeld as Mikolaj Wozniak
Simon Delaney as Victor


Who will like this:

Watching the trailers for this movie, you may think to be a light-hearted comedy. If that is what you are looking for, you may be disappointed. Although there are comedic moments, it seems to be more of a pull-at-your-heart-strings feel good movie. It could probably fall under the category of "chick flick". It is a remake of a Canadian movie called "Starbuck". If you liked "The Five Year Engagement", you will probably like "Delivery Man".

Phantom Thoughts

Although they DO speak English in Canada, the translation gets lost between the Canadian "Starbuck" and this remake. This is a departure for Vince Vaughn's normal comedy movies, but not a successful one. With such talent as Vaughn, Cobie Smulders as his pregnant girlfriend and Chris Pratt as his friend/lawyer, "Delivery Man" fails to deliver the comedy it boasts in it's trailers.

I think the problem is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it a comedy? A drama? A look at the pros and cons of being a parent? No. It falls short on all these things. In the beginning of this mess, we see Vince Vaughn's character as a total and complete screw up. I mean, over the top so. I'm not a proponent of suicide, but if I was David Wozniak, I would consider putting myself out of my misery permanently. He has more problems than Bill Murray's John Winger in "Stripes".

It's been a while since the Phantom has been to the movies unfortunately. And after seeing this....I wish I had stayed home and cleaned my bathroom.

Until next time, see you in the center seat.

Man of Steel

The story of the Man from Krypton who comes to Earth and must find out what his destiny on this strange planet is. The man who will become Superman finds that growing up with super powers is not as easy as we would think. His Father and his adopted parents try to lead young Kal-El (Clark Kent) to be a better man, but it's the threat of warriors from his doomed home world that force him to become the hero the World needs.

Cast

Henry Cavill as Clark Kent / Kal-El
Amy Adams as Lois Lane
Michael Shannon as General Zod
Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Jonathan and Martha Kent
Laurence Fishburne as Perry White
Russell Crowe as Jor-El
Antje Traue as Faora

Who will like this:

Any fan of the Superman comics, movies or otherwise should be able to come away from this movie feeling satisfied in some way shape or form. This "re-telling" of the classic story does not stray to far or try to put it's own spin on what is known as an iconic figure and one of the oldest Superhero tales in modern times. It may not be suited for the very young, like the Christopher Reeves movies as it is just a bit more dark and violent. However, there were similarities to The Chronicles of Riddick and the Matrix Trilogy that fans of those movies will find appealing. 

Phantom Thoughts

I started this blog long after Superman Returns, but if I could just briefly say something about that movie, I would say that the reason it didn't do so well was because it didn't know what it wanted to be. By that I mean that it was funny in parts reminiscent to the Christopher Reeves movies and serious and drama filled in others, while giving Superman some kind of human element that just didn't work all together and patch worked together. THIS is not that movie. It is basically updating the story we all know and love and putting it into a time we all know instead of 1938, when Superman was first introduced in Action Comics.

The beginning of the film starts with the back story on Krypton. After that, most of the history of growing up on a farm in Smallville is told in flashbacks. Though some have said that it does not give a full enough description, I think that being such a well known character Man of Steel hits the important and necessary elements of his back story and gives the audience credit for filling in the "gaps".

Now let me explain why I referenced The Chronicles of Riddick and the Matrix movies above. In re-designing the famous Superman costume, Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan provide an explanation for why he has it, where up until now, we assumed that it was something that Clark Kent came up with for his alter-ego. I was not a huge fan of what it looked like when I saw the first photos leaked, but during the movie, it didn't bother me as much (unlike Andrew Garfields hideous Spiderman costume! So glad they fixed that for the sequel) The skin tight garb is actually the under armor of classic Kryptonian warriors. Kal-El only uses this part of his home world's uniform and not the armor part because he is a man of peace, not war. But the whole first sequence of the movie set on Krypton, and that Kryptonian armor, were very similar to the look and feel of Riddick.

As far as the Matrix goes, well...let's just put aside a moment that two of the main actors, Laurence Fishburne and Harry Lennix from The Matrix also had roles in this movie. Let's put aside for a moment the fact that Harry Lennix plays basically the EXACT SAME CHARACTER in both movies. What's left is Clark Kent, realizing who he is and learning his abilities. It reflects Neo so much it's scary, right down to the first time he takes flight.

Overall, the film was great. It was well paced, told a good story and the fight scenes were really good. I mean, besides pretty much leveling two different cities, which I thought being who he was, Superman would have tried to take the fight to a less populated area. There were a lot of nods to the old movies as well as TV shows and comic books for the enthusiasts to catch. I had fun with it and I am anticipating the 2015 sequel which has been confirmed to have Batman in it.

Until Next time, see you in the center seat.

Oblivion

It is the year 2077, and Tech 49 Jack Harper is one of the last people on Earth. There has been an alien invasion by the mysterious"Scavs", and although humans won the war, the Earth was ruined. So most of humanity is on a colony on Titan, powered by giant machines in what's left of the oceans that convert sea water into fusion power. Jack and his partner Victoria are a maintenance team who keep drone robots running to guard the machines against the few remaining "Scav" bandits left. They report to Sally, the mission controller who is aboard the "Tet": a giant tetrahedral orbiting the Earth.
    Jack and Victoria's memories have been wiped out 5 years ago for security reasons, but Jack is having dreams he thinks are memories from before the war. They only have 2 more weeks before they are to leave, but Jack is not as enthusiastic to leave. But when a pre-war NASA ship crashes to Earth, and Jack saves a crew member named Julia, all Hell breaks loose. It starts a series of events that makes Jack question what he thinks he knows and starts him on a journey to find the truth.

Cast

Tom Cruise as Commander Jack Harper
Andrea Riseborough as Victoria Olsen
Morgan Freeman as Malcolm Beech
Olga Kurylenko as Julia Rusakova


Who will like this:

I describe this movie as an adult Wall-E mixed with The Matrix, Independence Day and Total Recall (the original). Confused? I know. This is a very intricate movie plot that cannot be summed up very easily. It watches like more of a series than a stand alone movie. The reason for this may be because it is based on an unpublished graphic novel by the same name from Joseph Kosinski, who wrote, produced and directed this film. It's part sci-fi, part romance drama and part action film.

Phantom Thoughts

Strap yourself in. This is going to be a long one. No. I'm not talking about my thoughts, I'm talking about this movie. It's over two and a half hours and it FEELS like it. It's not that it was boring...it's that there is a LOT going on. Maybe too much, which is why it didn't do as well as it could have.
     I kinda liked it though. Some of it was a bit predictable, but for the most part it kept my interest. It may be a slow start, but getting a feel of the backstory was a necessary element to moving forward. But let's talk about why I used the movie references I did in the above section:

    An adult Wall-E? Yeah. The drones that Jack is in charge of fixing are very reminiscent of the white robots from the Pixar movie. I can't be sure, but this may be left over from when Disney had the rights to this movie. They later dropped it and Universal picked it up.

     The Matrix. Here's some SPOILER for the rest of the review. The same way that Neo is living in a dream world and finds out what reality REALLY is, Jack finds out that the humans didn't really win the war. In the Matrix, humans scorched the sky as a last ditch effort/ after the Moon is destroyed and causes havoc on the environment  humans use their nukes as a last ditch effort. Neo finds out that he was not the first "One"/ Jack finds out that he is one of thousands of clones the aliens are using to harvest the Earth's resources.

Independence Day. This is mostly referring to the end sequence of each movie. Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith take an alien spaceship into the mothership of the aliens and blow them up with a nuke. Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman fly their ship into the "Tet" (which looks a LOT like the mothership in ID) and blow it up with a bomb of their own.

     Total Recall. Quaid finds out that the woman he thought was his wife is actually a spy that tries to kill him once he finds out the truth. He then turns to the underworld of Mars who help him. Jack finds that his wife is actually the crash survivor Julia who has been in cryogenic sleep for 60 years. When his partner/girlfriend finds out, she tries to kill him as well. Jack turns to the humans who are masquerading as aliens to show him the truth and he helps them defeat the real aliens.

So now do you get it? I hope so. With everything I have described, there's STILL a lot more I haven't even gotten into here.

Until next time, see you in the center seat.

Star Trek Into Darkness

The Enterprise crew is expecting to receive a five year exploration mission. However, instead Kirk has the Enterprise taken away from him due to his inability to follow orders and violation of the Prime Directive. That decision is short lived as deadly terrorist John Harrison attacks Starfleet and then hides on a Planet the Federation cannot go. Kirk is sent to destroy him, but when he catches up to Harrison, the mysterious man causes Kirk to doubt which side he is actually on.

Cast

Chris Pine - Commander/Captain James T. Kirk
Zachary Quinto - First Officer Spock
Zoe Saldana - Lieutenant Nyota Uhura
Anton Yelchin - Ensign Pavel Chekov
Karl Urban - Lieutenant Commander Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy
Simon Pegg - Lieutenant Commander Montgomery "Scotty" Scott
John Cho - Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu
Benedict Cumberbatch - Commander John Harrison
Bruce Greenwood - Rear Admiral Christopher Pike
 Peter Weller - Starfleet Admiral Alexander Marcus

Who will like this movie

With the original cast and crew returning from the 2009 Star Trek movie, fans who liked that one will like this one. Some "original" Trek fans may actually enjoy this one more as it is filled with nods to the original series. Especially after the last Star trek movie totally wiped out the existence of the original series altogether.
Good for 'tweeners and above due to some racey scenes and intense action.

Phantom Thoughts

Let me first say right off the bat that I am not a "Trekkie". I'm more of a Star Wars fan, although I did get into Star Trek: The Next Generation back when it was on and have seen all of the Star Trek films. That being said, I was a bit surprised at the lack of backlash from the last film. As I said above, the last one pretty much made the original series, and all the movies after....non-existent. Perfect for this film franchise going forward as to not have to worry about lining up events or storylines to the TV show. I wasn't as upset about this as I felt die hard fans should have been.

Seeing as you have gotten past that little speed bump in the story telling, we move on to Star Trek Into Darkness. (No colon, please. The writers spent a lot of time trying to come up with the title and didn't want any ties to the old Star Trek titles like Star Trek: First Contact.) We find our new cast still together and Zachary Quinto and Simon Pegg once again steal the show as Spock and Scotty respectively. Seriously. Without these two, and the few points I will bring up momentarily, then on it's own, the movie was just nothing special. No more than a Redbox selection on a weekday night. Now although Benedict Cumberbatch played a great villain, his portrayal of the worst kept secret in Hollywood (but for the sake of argument, I'll put the word SPOILER here) as Khan he just didn't measure up to the original, brought to life brilliantly by Ricardo Montalban. Here's the REAL SPOILER: Khan was not the main villain. In fact it was Peter Weller. Which should not be a surprise to Trekkies as he has played a villain in the series "Enterprise" twice before. But the thing is, that shouldn't have been necessary. Khan is a strong enough character to work on his own. The addition of this "twist" was just a waste.

But Phantom, you say....what if they wanted something that was different from the original series and movies? Well, after seeing this movie, you'll realize how ridiculous that statement is. I'm gonna just go ahead and write SPOILER for this entire paragraph. If you haven't seen it yet, skip to the next one. For those still reading, I actually liked the blatant references to the original series such as the Tribble, the "red shirt" joke, and the lines taken directly from the TV show like Bones' "Shut up, Spock. We're trying to rescue you!" But even those were not as direct as the use of the final scenes from "Wrath of Kahn" that were used almost scene for scene and line for line where Spock saves the ship and dies. Only this time reversing the Kirk and Spock roles and having Kirk die. These things made the movie, in my opinion, worth seeing in the theater.

But that's not the only thing. The 3-D was amazing. In a movie going world where EVERYTHING is now seen through digital sunglasses, this one was well worth it. The amazing thing about this is that it was not shot with a 3-D camera. In fact, this is the first film shot in IMAX with the 3-D done entirely in post production. That fact alone is pretty impressive.

A question I've heard is "Why did it take so long to make a sequel?". I found the answer to this and to be honest...I'm not surprised. Damon Lindelof, the man who single-handedly ruined the most anticipated movie last summer "Prometheus" is a producer of this movie. I found out that he also took the script THAT WAS DONE and then made his own changes to it. There was a re-working of the script back and forth with J.J. Abrams for some time after that. Although I have no proof, it is my belief that Lindelof is the reason for that ridiculous "twist" in the movie I spoke of earlier. I honestly don't know why anyone in Hollywood hires this man who just fucks up everything he touches.

Finally...can J.J. just stop with the lens flare already? I know he loves it and it's his "thing" but after the last Star Trek, I thought he had listened to the fans who complained about it. I had heard that he was cutting back on it, which would have been fine. After all, I'm not expecting him to give it up completely  but there was so much of it, that it was just plain distracting. Not to mention the lens flare was even more pronounced with the great 3-D this movie had, which was the only downside to an otherwise awesome effect.

I found out that Michael Dorn, who played Worf in TNG as well as a Klingon (supposedly a relative of Worf) in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was cast as an officer. But he was cut out of the film because the film makers "didn't want to mix the old and the new". Christopher Doohan, son of James Doohan who played the original Scotty, plays a transport officer and is seen alongside Simon Pegg, the current Scotty.

Until next time, see you in the center seat.

Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3 takes place some time after the Avengers Movie and the events of New York. Events that have left Tony Stark shaken and prone to panic attacks. That has put a strain on his relationship with girlfriend Pepper Potts. Tony Stark has made some major improvements to his suit, but when terrorist threat in the form of the unknown "Mandarin" injures someone close to him, Iron Man seeks revenge. His problems get worse when he is forced to go back to basics and the terrorist plot takes an interesting turn.

Cast

Robert Downey Jr. - Tony Stark
Gwyneth Paltrow -  Pepper Potts
Don Cheadle  -    Colonel James Rhodes
Guy Pearce -   Aldrich Killian
Rebecca Hall -   Maya Hansen
Jon Favreau -   Happy Hogan
Ben Kingsley -   The Mandarin

Who will like this movie

This is not your kids comic book movie. Geared to an older crowd, it's not for the fans that likes the fast paced action of the previous Iron Man and Avengers movies. But if you're looking for a correlation to a comic book movie, this has a similarity to the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy of the past few years. Shane Black who took the director chair from Jon Favereau on this one describes it as "more of a Tom Clancy Thriller" than the previous movies.

Phantom Thoughts

     They said it would be different, and they were right. I have to admit, I was not aware that Jon Favreau was not directing this one. (Maybe he spent too much time buying up all the Twinkies he could when he heard Hostess was going out of business? Someone get that guy a diet coke, for Christ sake!) As much as I love the movies and try to read up on what's coming down the pipe, I don't always get the info on everything. Which is a good thing, as I'm not a big fan of major spoilers. (Yes, I know I have given a few on this blog. Irony?) Look, one of the reasons that the Batman Trilogy worked so well was that they were able to keep the same director and (for the most part) all the major players throughout the arc. It's not the only reason, but a big part of it. So while doing my research after seeing the movie and seeing things like "they wanted to do something different", I understood why I didn't like this one as much. I'm all for not re-hashing the same movie over and over again (Hangover 2, anyone?) But you can't ignore what got you there. After 3 successful movies, you have to give the people what they have come to see. For me, that didn't happen.

     I'm also not saying they made a bad decision in trying something different. Hell, I liked what they were trying to do. I don't think it was executed right. While Shane Black admittedly took tips and advice from Favreau, it wasn't enough. After the larger than life Avengers took on aliens from another dimension, Tony Stark was stripped down to the bare essentials, and knocked off his superhero high horse and given human frailty. He had to rely more on his intelligence than his tech for most of the movie. Although he showed flashes of the smug, wise-cracking billionaire we got to know (I especially liked the "Westworld" reference) he was too far removed  from who I got to like over the last few years.

     I'm not giving anything away by saying that the villain in this movie has been reported to be "The Mandarin" played by Ben Kingsley. I'm also not giving anything away by saying that the character in this movie is different from the one in the comic book. Where the Mandarin has 10 rings that give him his supernatural alien powers, here he is portrayed as a non-superpower terrorist. However, that's not the twist. Ready for it? HUGE SPOILER: He's not even the villain in this movie! They took some minor characters and a story from the "Extremis" story arc to serve as the main foes of Iron Man in this movie.
 *Phantom Note: I liked Guy Pearce's character better when Jim Carey did it in "Batman Forever".

     The thing I keep going back to was the last line of the first movie. "I am Iron Man." That's the premise of the whole story of Iron Man. In this one, I was given the impression that Tony Stark was not Iron Man, but just Tony Stark. And that anyone (SPOILER: and at times...no one) could be Iron Man. That didn't sit well with me.
*Phantom Note: The 3-D in this was not anything special at all. If you want to save a few bucks, don't bother with the upgrade.

    Robert Downey Jr.'s contract is up after this movie. The studio has already said that on the strong possibility there is an Iron Man 4, they are prepared to make it without him. There is a kind of closure that could wrap up this arc if they wanted to, but we all know that there will be an Avengers sequel as well as more Tony Stark. I have a feeling RDJ will be back for at least the Avengers 2, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Until next time, see you in the center seat.