This Bunch of Degenerates and Nutjobs is Too Uneven: Our Review of "Suicide Squad" (2016)

Directed by: David Ayer (End of Watch, Fury) 

Starring: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Viola Davis, Joel Kinnaman, Cara Delevigne, Jay Hernandez, Jai Courtney

Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout, disturbing behavior, suggestive content and language

Run Time: 2 hours, 3 minutes

Synopsis: Following the events of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, the U.S. government builds a task force of incarcerated "metahumans" as a backup plan should Earth need protection from evil forces. When one of their members turns into an evil force, the rest of the squad is sent into action.

REVIEW

Sarah: Hello dear readers! It's true, we are back with a brand new movie review for you! It's been almost on year to the day since our last review and we wish we could say that something exciting had happened to cause the hiatus, but really life just got in the way. We can't promise that there's going to be a ton of new content or that we will begin posting regularly again, but for now we wanted to do a quick little review on a movie that we had been looking forward to for a long time: Suicide Squad, the newest entry in the DC Extended Universe.

Suicide Squad was a comic book film that we had been anticipating for while now. There's a new Joker (Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, The Wolf of Wall Street) making her feature film debut, and a whole host of new characters (at least to me). We were totally in. Now that we've seen it, and you've seen it twice now Andrew, what are your initial thoughts?

Andrew: This is a bit of a tough one for a couple reasons. First and foremost, we were REALLY looking forward to this movie. The trailers did such a phenomenal job of getting us pumped for it. Secondly, this is not a good movie. It just isn't. There are good things in it, but as a fully formed movie it isn't good. And I'd say you can argue whether or not it's even a "fully formed" movie.

What are your initial thoughts?

S: I will agree with you that this was not a fully formed film. With the abundance of "Huh?" and "That's not how that works" moments it was easy to walk away with a sour taste in my mouth. 

But there were things about this movie that I really enjoyed! The music, for starters, was reminiscent of Guardians of the Galaxy with fun (and sometimes funky) beats to go with different scenes. It got the audience pumped, albeit for a short amount of time, to see what was going to happen next. 

And the characters that writer/director David Ayer did flesh out were done so with an obvious love for those characters. Harley Quinn and Deadshot (Will Smith, Men in Black) were given lots of care and attention, making them endearing to an audience in the hope of masking the fact that other characters were given the shaft. Even the Joker (who was highly publicized in the making of this movie) was only given a handful of scenes to really show off the fact that, no, this is not the same Joker you remember.

Five Reasons Why: You Should See "The Dark Knight Rises" in True IMAX

Sarah: Hello readers! Last night Andrew and I, along with our friend Doug, made the a trek up to Framingham, Mass to check out The Dark Knight Rises in true IMAX. (You can find out review of it HERE.) We had gone to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol at this particular theatre last year just so we could see the prologue for TDKR, and when it rocked our socks off we knew going back for the whole thing was a must!

Now you have already seen the two posts we have done reviewing this movie, but we really think that you should really get out and catch this one on the big screen if you haven't yet! And here are 5 reasons why...

1.) Christopher Nolan and his cinematographer of choice, Wally Pfister, filmed over an hour of TDKR was with an IMAX camera. That's unprecedented in feature film history. And they way that the film transitions between widescreen and the IMAX footage was seamless. Almost the entire final act was shot and shown in IMAX which was awesome because...

2.) You get the full impact of the large-scale shots. The plane crash scene, the full city shots, the Bat flying around, the action scenes...it's all pretty awesome. Nolan specifically shot so much of this movie in IMAX to get the grand scope of these shots and to bring us further into the universe he's built in his trilogy. And it's easy to see why he wanted to.

(Andrew's note: "I almost never noticed when the film transitioned between IMAX shots and non-IMAX shots, but every single time the entire screen was taken up my jaw dropped. It's a gorgeous looking movie.")

3.) Details become clearer. If you are one of those movie-goers who loves to pick through the details of a film, then IMAX is the only way to see TDKR. For me personally, I loved that this was a better chance to take a look at all the amazing costumes. For instance, did you notice that the Dr. Crane/Scarecrow's costume actually made him look the part even without his mask. The shoulders of his suit ripped up the way they were was fantastic detail. I loved also how we could really get the nuances of Bane's expressions. His eyes are so powerful in this film so it was so cool to get the feeling that Bane was talking to the audience.

(Andrew's note: "This was the third time I've seen TDKR but it was the first time I've noticed how torn up and scarred Bane's arms are when he's not wearing his coat. During his first fight with Batman I couldn't help but keep looking at his arms and wonder what happend to his character to cause those. Thanks to IMAX, I could actually make that detail out.")

4.) The sound is impeccable. I'm not entirely sure it every IMAX theatre has as great a sound sytem as the theatre we were in last night, but I want to say they do. Regardless, the speaker system's in IMAX theatres can only help enhance Hans Zimmer's amazing score and amplify the sound effects in the action sequences. When Bane and Batman are hitting each other with all they've got you FEEL the punches land because of the sound waves. It's awesome. Speaking of feeling the action...

5.) The Jordan's Furniture and IMAX we went to in Massachusetts last night has something no other theatre we've ever been to has: butt-kickers. What are butt-kickers, you ask? Well in every single seat in theatre (which were all Tempur-Pedic seats, too) there is a bass speaker built into the seat. So when the action is going on or the music is rocking, your SEAT is rocking too! It seriously felt like we were in the plane with Bane and his henchmen in the opening scene. It just helped enhance the movie-going experience!

So, if you live close to a true IMAX theatre we highly suggest you get there to see this summer blockbuster! Even though it was the second time for me and the third time for Andrew, The Dark Knight Rises did not fail to deliver!

Sarah Finally Saw TDKR So We Talk About Spoilerish Stuff (Plus Her Rating)

Andrew: Hello readers! Sorry we've been a little quiet since my review of The Dark Knight Rises on Friday, but it's still crazy busy at the day job and Sarah just got back from her trip late Monday. But fear not! We hit up the local multiplex last night to get Sarah caught up on TDKR and we're ready to get down and dirty with discussing some finer points of the movie and Nolan's whole Dark Knight Trilogy in general! (MAJOR SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN TDKR YET!!!!)

SERIOUSLY. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN TDKR, STOP READING THIS NOW.

Ok Sarah, the first thing I want to get your take on, because it's probably the most talked about aspect of the film, is the ending. It looks like Bruce Wayne has sacrificed himself by flying the nuclear reactor over Gotham Bay in The Bat and is blown to smithereens. His estate is given to the city to be used as an orphanage, Alfred gets the money from his belongings after crying his eyes out at Bruce's funeral, and the city has erected a statue in Batman's honor. But then Lucius Fox discovers that Bruce fixed the autopilot on The Bat, Commissioner Gordon finds the Bat Signal replaced with a new one, Alfred - in a call-back to an earlier scene - sees Bruce alive and well with Selina Kyle at an Italian cafe, and John Blake follows some coordinates Bruce left him and discovers the Bat Cave, implying he'll take up the mantle as the new Batman.

What did YOU think of that ending???

Sarah: Let me start off by saying that this was an amazing movie. But to answer your question the ending was phenomenal! I thought the way they wrapped it up was a little quick for my liking. I found myself going, "But wait, I want more of THAT!!" I loved how this movie felt a little different from the last two but still fit in well in the trilogy. The introduction of new characters was well done and they were perfectly cast. 

Here's the thing. The Dark Knight Rises ends and lends itself to be the right set-up for another one! But Nolan has repeatedly said that he didn't want to do another one. What's up with that?!

Nolan's Third Act Certainly Rose to My Expectations: Andrew's Review of "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012)

Directed By: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language

Run Time: 2 hours, 44 minutes

Synopsis: 8 years after the Joker's chaotic attack and Harvey Dent's death, Gotham is in a state of peace and Bruce Wayne (Bale) has retired the Batman. But a fearsome thug named Bane (Hardy) arrives with plans to destroy the city, bringing Wayne out of retirement. At the same time a cat burglar (Hathaway) is catching Wayne's attention, and a young police officer (Gordon-Levitt) tries to help Batman stop Bane's terror attack.

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! It's just me for this rare occassion. Sarah is away visiting family while I had to stay back for work. Naturally this had to happen when one of the most anticipated films of the year is released, so we can't do a regular review. So instead I will be giving a singular review of Christopher Nolan's final entry in his Dark Knight Trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. I'm going to do my best to not spoil anything. When Sarah returns we'll go more in-depth into discussion points on spoilerish things, but for now I'll give my general thoughts on the movie.

In short, as I tweeted on the Two Tickets For... Twitter account (@twoticketsfor) not too long after getting out of the theatre, "Wow. Just.....wow." Of the many things that made say "wow" is just the sheer scope of it all. Nolan certainly went big here: the settings, the action pieces, the plot-lines, the villain. If someone at Warner Bros. told Nolan to go big or go home, he took the first option and ran with it.

I've read many reviews for The Dark Knight Rises so far and a few of them have pointed out that they felt there was TOO much going on. I don't disagree with that sentiment but I don't fully agree with it either. I can see where some moviegoers might feel like the first hour of the film is heavy on exposition and there's the potential for a lot of information overload. It didn't bother me, but with all the following stuff I can understand if others thought so.

New Trailer for "The Dark Knight Rises" Premieres at MTV Movie Awards

UPDATE: The video we originally had posted has been taken off the Internet by Warner Bros. We apologize for the inconvenience. If and when it reappears we will make sure to post it again. :(


Andrew: I'm going to keep this short and sweet.


Last night at the MTV Movie Awards, Christopher Nolan and the cast of The Dark Knight Rises walked on stage and introduced a new trailer of sorts for what may be this year's most anticipated film.


It has some new footage including different scenes of Bane looking pretty menacing and new shots of how Selina Kyle (a.k.a. Catwoman) will be coming in to play. Check it out below. It's pretty sweet.


The Dark Knight Rises comes out on July 20th and stars Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard and Joseph-Gordon Levitt.

Courtesy: MTV

"The Dark Knight Rises" Has a New Trailer!

Andrew: Hello readers! Yes, two posts in one day! It's likely a new record for us, and it's for good reason!


The official website for Christopher Nolan's final entry into his Batman trilogy launched just the other day, and thankfully it also means they've released a new trailer for The Dark Knight Rises - one that is said to be attached to this weekend's The Avengers (read our reivew of that here).


July 20th needs to get here RIGHT NOW because this trailer just makes me even more excited to see TDKR. Check out the trailer below!