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.

Jackman and Gyllenhaal Headline This Top-Notch, Fincher-esque Thriller: Our Review of "Prisoners" (2013)

Directed By: Denis Villeneuve 

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Terrence Howard, Paul Dano, Melissa Leo

Rating: R for disturbing violent content including torture, and language throughout

Run Time: 2 hours, 33 minutes

Synopsis: Keller Dover (Jackman) is facing every parent's worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV that had earlier been parked on their street. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) arrests its driver, Alex Jones (Dano), but a lack of evidence forces his release. As the police pursue multiple leads and pressure mounts, knowing his child's life is at stake the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family? (Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

REVIEW

Andrew: Hello readers! We are BACK after a relatively long hiatus, and we’re excited about this film we’re coming back from. Real quick though we want to apologize for the length of our absence from blogging. It’s just been a really busy last couple of months and our schedules have been so mixed up that it’s been difficult to A.) see a movie together, or B.) record, transcribe and post a review if we DID see a movie. But things are starting to get back to normal and we should be coming back with regular review posts as we get closer to the end of the year. We’ll also be posting reviews we’ve had in the can during our hiatus, so be on the lookout for those.

But the other night Sarah and I were able to catch a preview screening of this weekend’s new drama, Prisoners. It is the Hollywood debut of French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, who has already made a name for himself with foreign films like his Academy Award-nominated 2010 film Incendies.

Prisoners starts Jake Gyllenhaal as a Pennsylvania police detective, Detective Loki, who picks up the case of two young girls who have been abducted on Thanksgiving Day. Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard play Keller Dover and Franklin Birch, the fathers of the girls who are taken; Maria Bello and Viola Davis play the mothers…

Sarah: And Paul Dano plays the prime suspect – a man with a low IQ that lives with his religious aunt, played by Oscar-winner Melissa Leo. It’s a fantastic cast!

Our Preview of This Week's New Releases (for Friday, September 28th)

Andrew: Hello readers! We're back with another weekly preview (sorry for them being sporadic lately) and boy is this one a doozy. We have a few wide release films coming out such as the new Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis film Won't Back Down; the Anna Kendrick led a cappella film Pitch Perfect; a new animated kids film in time for Halloween, Hotel Transylvania; and most importantly, one of the most highly-anticipated science-fiction films to come along in quite a while - the Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Bruce Willis time travel film Looper.

Sarah, I want to kick things off with the one we're most excited about, and that's Looper. It's directed by Rian Johnson, who isn't very well-known to the general public but he started to make a name for himself with 2005's high school noir film Brick (also starring JGL), 2008's The Brothers Bloom, and a couple of well-received episodes of AMC's Breaking Bad. The exciting thing about Johnson, to me, is that he wrote the film as well and it has a killer set-up. (More after the jump)

Official Trailer for Looper

Playing Oscar Catch-Up: Andrew's Review of "The Help"

Directed By: Tate Taylor

Starring: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain

Rating: PG-13 for Thematic Material

Synopsis: In the early 1960s, Southern socialite Skeeter Phelan (Stone) graduates from college determined to become an writer. Inspired by how her friends treat their black maids, Skeeter tries to get the black women who spend their lives working for white families to tell her their experiences for a book. After finding initial resistance, she is able to get maids Aibileen (Davis) and Minny (Spencer) to tell their stories, leading to both good and bad consequences.

REVIEW

Sarah: Hello readers Many of you, including myself, have seen Tate Taylor’s “The Help.” Andrew, however, had not seen it. So, in regards to this being the week before the Oscars, we are catching up on the Best Picture nominees we missed. I have read the book and seen the movie, and like most books-to-movies, I thought the book was better, but I do think it’s a very good movie with great acting.

But I am interested to hear what you thought, Andrew, coming both from someone who didn’t read the book or is from the South.

Andrew: Well I think those are two separate things, so I’ll tackle them individually. First, coming from someone who has not read the book, I really enjoyed the film. I felt that I got the real gist of the book and the story without missing anything. You’ve told me you thought all of the actors were casted very well, and I’ll have to take your word for it – but I do agree in that I thought Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Jessica Chastain and Bryce Dallas Howard were all exceptional.

Now, as someone who wasn’t raised in the South like you were (Sarah was born in Virginia and lived in Alabama for another 5 years, dear readers), I was totally disgusted with Howard’s character, Hilly Holbrook. I feel that the depiction of blatant racism is eye opening because of how genuine the performances felt. I think the film presented that era in American history quite well. And heck, I’ll go so far as the say that Howard’s character is one of the best villain’s in film history. I hated her.

S: Yes, I would have to say that Holbrook is one of the worst characters ever written. She’s just wicked. Now, Jessica Chastain, Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis are all up for Oscars this year. While I think you will agree with me that they all deserve the praise and if they could give out two different Best Supporting Actress awards, Chastain and Spencer both deserve the praise. What did you think about the other actors that didn’t receive any acknowledge, like Bryce Dallas Howard and Emma Stone?

A: Well as I just mentioned, I think Howard was perfect as Hilly Holbrook. She was just despicable; and while not on the same plane as Hannibal Lecter or Darth Vader, I think her realistic performance deserved more accolades.

Emma Stone is quickly becoming one of our favorite actresses (side note: if you haven’t seen “Easy A” yet, readers, you should – it’s hilarious) and I thought she was great in “The Help.” In regards to her performance, I really don’t understand why she hasn’t garnered award talk because I see almost no difference between her job in this film and Julia Roberts’ in “Erin Brokovich.”

There’s a particular scene toward the last quarter of the film that Emma’s character, Skeeter, has with her mother (played by Alison Janney) that really got to me. For that scene alone she should have gotten more award chatter. I guess in summation, the cast of “The Help” deserved their SAG Award for Best Ensemble.

S: I agree with your thoughts on the actresses, and I think they should have gotten more recognition. Now, with the Oscars coming up, what do you think are the chances of this one?

A: How about we save that conversation for later this week when we delve into our analysis and predictions of Sunday’s Academy Awards, shall we? I think our plan for right now is to touch on the Supporting roles categories on Thursday, the Lead roles categories on Friday and then do Best Pictures and Best Director on Saturday. Then Sunday we’ll have our complete Oscar predictions and we’re going to try to do a running blog of the award show. Sound good?

S: Works for me! And your final grading for “The Help” is?

A: Now that it’s out on DVD, I do think this is a must-see film for all the performances alone.

(Out of Five)