Tag Archives: Ben Affleck

Reel Hooligans

Summer Movie Preview — August 2016

AUGUST 2016 SUMMER MOVIE PREVIEW:

8.5

THE FOUNDER: The story of McDonald’s founder, Ray Kroc. Starring: Linda Cardellini, Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman.

9 LIVES: A stuffy businessman finds himself trapped inside the body of his family’s cat. Starring: Christopher Walken, Robbie Amell, Kevin Spacey Dir: Barry Sonnenfeld.

SUICIDE SQUAD: A secret government agency recruits imprisoned supervillains to execute dangerous black ops missions in exchange for clemency. Starring: Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Ben Affleck. Dir: David Ayer.

8.12

FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS: The story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a New York heiress who dreamed of becoming an opera singer, despite having a terrible singing voice. Starring: Rebecca Ferguson, Meryl Streep, Simon Helberg.

PETE’S DRAGON: The adventures of an orphaned boy named Pete and his best friend Elliott, who just so happens to be a dragon. Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Karl Urban, Robert Redford.

SAUSAGE PARTY: An animated movie about one sausage’s quest to discover the truth about his existence. Starring: James Franco, Paul Rudd, Kristen Wiig.

8.19

BEN-HUR: A falsely accused Jewish nobleman survives years of slavery to take vengeance on his Roman best friend, who betrayed him. Starring: Jack Huston.
WAR DOGS: The true story of two young men, David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli, who won a $300 million contract from the Pentagon to arm America’s allies in Afghanistan. Starring: Miles Teller, Bradley Cooper, Jonah Hill. Dir: Todd Phillips.

MAY    |    JUNE  |    JULY  |    AUGUST

2016 Movie Reviews

‘Batman v Superman’ movie review: Progress but joyless

Well, they can’t all be winners, but damn, this one stings — as a critic, yes. But also — as a FAN.

It’s not good, don’t let anyone tell you different. That doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to like about it. I generally enjoyed this a little bit more the second time I saw it with my boys. But the problems I had with the film’s dumb, bloated plot were still there.

Henry Cavill is a little bit of a more reluctant Superman than we've come to expect. (Warner Bros.)
Henry Cavill is a little bit of a more reluctant Superman than we’ve come to expect. (Warner Bros.)

“Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice” is the long awaited pairing between DC’s heaviest hitters. The only problem is, for all the hype, the film fails to capture any of the magic of these characters. From the opening moments of the films, Snyder bogs the audience down in slow motion recaps of Bruce Wayne’s parents’ murder and a non-sensical plot that fails to be fun.

This is a movie about a news reporter (Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman) and “the world’s greatest detective” (Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/the Batman). If Clark was even a decent reporter or Bruce even a marginal detective, their problems could have been A. more interesting and B. solved much quicker (even if they still had to come to blows to do it) — but no, we get mopey Superman and grumpy old man Batman.

batman eyes
Ben Affleck is a hardened and jaded Batman. (Warner Bros.)

The action is great. Affleck is a beast and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman is a show-stopper. But the problem is the big moments just aren’t earned the way they could have — and should have been — through just a little more patience, another movie or two, which would have allowed for the proper character development and world building necessary to give this movie the emotional impact it deserved.

When Batman refers to Superman as his “friend”, literally five minutes after he nearly kills the Son of Kryton and later on, when Bruce Wayne talk about “failing” Superman…it just doesn’t hold any weight.

I’m gonna defend my people on this one. Critics get a bad rap, especially when we go against the “fans”. Keep in mind, our job is to view a film with “criticism” — but not matter where we are, we all got into this because we love movies.

Unfortunately, all of Wonder Woman's scenes are in the trailer, but Gal Gadot tocks it. (Warner Bros.)
Unfortunately, all of Wonder Woman’s scenes are in the trailer, but Gal Gadot tocks it. (Warner Bros.)

I wanted to badly to LOVE this movie. But I didn’t. That being said, I think DC is on the right track, kinda, finally. Hopefully, they can find someone that can inject some FUN into these movies. Dark and mature is fine, but dark and mature can still be FUN!

You can read my initial review below and check out my podcast, Tim and the REEL Hooligans. This week we’re talking Batman v Superman.

Full Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice movie review

Rating: 5/10

Directed by: Zack Snyder

Written by: David S. Goyer and Chris Terrio

Starring: Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Amy Adams, and Jesse Eisenberg

Running time: 151 mins.

MPAA rating: PG – 13 for intense sequences of violence and action throughout, and some sensuality

Examiner

‘Argo’ shocks Hollywood at 2013 Golden Globes

Affleck wins Best Director

Last night in Hollywood, the 2013 Golden Globes were held. While the show was a snooze as usual, it did offer up a few alarming surprises.

On the TV side, cable TV is flexing it’s muscle over the networks. Both the drama winner “Homeland” (Showtime) and “Girls” (HBO) come from cable channels and they pretty much dominated the Globes. Check out the 2013 Golden Globes TV winners.

Everyone thought “Lincoln” was going to roll as an early preview of what would be to come from the upcoming Oscars in February. Instead, it was “Argo” that would up winning Best Motion Picture Drama, with Ben Affleck winning Best Director. It’s an interesting turn of events, especially after Affleck was considered one of the bigger snubs when the 2013 Academy Award nominations were handed out last week.

“Les Misérables” took home the Best Movie Comedy or Musical, making it the early favorite to win the Oscar. See the full list of 2013 Golden Globes Movie winners.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @tbenglish.

t.b.