Tag Archives: Ben Affleck

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Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice – Review

Going into Superman vs. Batman: Dawn of Justice, I had no time for the haters. I wrote off the detractors as people either still upset about Man of Steel or who haven’t seen anything Ben Affleck has been in since Daredevil. As an unapologetic Ben Affleck fan, I was psyched for Batfleck! You can keep your 15 year-old “You were da bomb in Phantoms!” joke. I love Ben Affleck. I love Batman. Get me to this movie.

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I still remember seeing the trailer for Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and being legitimately excited. The commercial made the movie look awesome. But I guess if you show only the 30 most exciting seconds of a movie, you can make the most boring movie look awesome.

And that’s just what they did.

Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice commits the most heinous crime that an action movie can commit: It is boring. I’m talking seriously boring. Fall asleep on your couch watching it boring. When I was watching the movie, I turned to a friend and said, “I feel like we’re just watching wheels spin.” He turned back to me and said, “That would mean the wheels were moving.” So much of the movie is expository, and it’s not even interesting exposition.

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The most disappointing thing is how much potential the movie had to be good. At its core, Batman Vs. Superman can be described as Batman doesn’t think too highly of Superman after the climatic battle in Man of Steel. Lex Luthor uses this to get Superman and Batman to fight each other. But Wonder Woman gets the heroes to unite, because they need to stop a bigger threat down the road in the name of Darkseid. I would pay to see this movie. This is the movie I was so excited to see, I was tempted to leave my wife and newborn daughter home for a couple of hours while I snuck off to the movie theater. I am so glad I talked myself out of that idea. Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice is not sneak off to the movie theater worthy. It’s not even Redbox worthy. I doubt it’s even HBO worthy (I mean, you could watch the first three episodes of The Night Of instead).

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice is a worse movie than the recent Fantastic Four movie. I can’t think of a superhero that was crapped on worse than Fantastic Four. But I would gladly watch Fantastic Four again before sitting through another screening of Batman Vs. Superman. Maybe it’s because I had such low expectations for Fantastic Four, but had such hope for this movie to be good.

fantastic four poster

And what’s up with that Knightmare dream sequence? Sure, if you’re a fan of the comics, you undoubtedly found yourself explaining to your non-comic-reading friends what the Parademons where, and how the giant Omega symbol in the sand was signaling the coming of their master, DC’s big-time cosmic bad guy Darkseid. But since when did Batman get visions of the future? And what’s up with the costume under a trench coat paired with goggles look?

trench-coat-batman

I can’t believe the amount of merchandising that’s come out of “Knightmare Batman.” Who honestly wants the Funko Pop Vinyl of Batman in a trench coat wearing goggles? In the future countdown list of worst Batman costumes, I see Knightmare Batman taking home the prize.

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Sorry, Rainbow Suit Batman. You’re just not silly enough as Batman in goggles and a trench coat.

I was hoping to like Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Lex Luthor. I liked the idea of Lex being updated as a cocky, Silicon Valley millionaire. Instead, we got Eisenberg channelling Frank Gorshin as The Riddler. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVED Frank Gorshin as The Riddler. But it didn’t work for Jim Carrey and it doesn’t work for Jesse Eisenberg here.

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The movie fails on so many levels. Did I set my expectations too high? I don’t know. I don’t think expecting a superhero action movie to be exciting is an unreasonable expectation.

After watching Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, I am seriously worried about the upcoming Justice League movie. If you take out the Nolan Batman movies, DC’s track record on live action movies looks abysmal in recent years, especially compared to Marvel. It is insane that when DC is doing such a great job with animation and live action TV that their live action movies would range between average to abysmal.

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I have not watched the Ultimate Edition extended cut of Dawn of Justice. Can you blame me? The last thing this movie needs is more minutes padded onto it.

Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice is not a good movie. It’s not even a good bad movie. It’s as boring as it is long, and it is a long movie.

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Tuesday Night Comics Podcast 119 – Wonder Woman: Earth One!

What’s up, comic people?! Dave and Billy are back and they’re here to dive deep into Wonder Woman: Earth One by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette. Plus, the guys give you their picks for the must-read comics of this week!
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Tuesday Night Comics Podcast 101 – Benedict Cumberbatch and the Beard of Wispiness

Welcome to episode 101 of the Tuesday Night Comics podcast! This is a fun episode. Besides giving you our picks of the week The Twenty, we discuss the latest trailer to Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

And we end up on some interesting tangents. These pics will give you a hint as to the weird places in comic bookdom where we end up this episode. And since it’s episode 101, we give you a 101 level course on a character you probably know nothing about!

lex luthor 2benedict beardfirebrand 2

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Gone Girl – Review

gone girl poster“Wow, that was fucked up.”

Those were the exact words that crossed my lips as Gone Girl ended. I was referring to the final scene, but it can be applied to the entire movie. Gone Girl is riveting, and very entertaining, but it is very, very fucked up.

The movie is expertly plotted with the level of detail usually found in heist movies. Rosamund Pike is legitimately creepy in a distanced, sociopathic kind of way. Think Norman from Bates Motel in the body of a gorgeous 5’ 8 ½” blonde woman. She’s plays the role almost too creepy in the beginning of the movie. You definitely get bad vibes from her from the moment that Amy and Nick meet. At first I thought that Rosamund was simply overcompensating with playing an American accent in the role, but looking back on it, no, it was straight up Amy Dunne creep factor.

gone girl rosamund pike

Nick Dunne is the perfect Ben Affleck role. Whatever the word is for what it is that Ben Affleck haters don’t like about Ben Affleck, he brings exactly that to this role and it works so well. That slightly douchey feeling that some people get from Ben Affleck? It’s here, and it works perfectly. Because Nick Dunne is the worst husband of a missing wife ever. He smiles during press conferences. He continues his affair with a student. Nick would be his own worst enemy if it wasn’t for Amy taking the top spot.

gone girl douche husband affleck

Tyler Perry and Neil Patrick Harris are both in the movie in small supporting roles, and both are great. Never enjoyed Tyler Perry in a role before? You will here. And as for Neil’s Desi? There’s a lesson to be learned here gents. Stay away from your now-married childhood crush, especially when she complains about her husband. You never know if she’s a psycho-killer that will both bash your head in and besmirch your good name.

On a metatextual level, I wonder what effect, if any, Gone Girl will have on society. Will this movie (and the book that inspired it) cause people to doubt rape victims? I can see it happening. It would be a terrible thing if a rapist ever walked free because of the seed of doubt planted in members of a jury by a movie.

That worry leads to another big question, should Gone Girl be blamed for what people take away from it? I’ve never been one to put blame for crime at the feet of art, whether its movies, music, comic books or video games. I always felt that blaming crime on the Grand Theft Auto video games was a cop out. But if a rapist ever did go free because Gone Girl stopped members of a jury from being able to believe a rape victim? That would be even more fucked up than Gone Girl itself.

Gone Girl is a definitely see.

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Zero Dark Thirty – Review

5/5 – Zero Dark Thirty should be on your Must See list!

I didn’t think it would happen, but I might now like a movie from 2012 more than Argo. I loved Argo and am glad that Ben Affleck has been taking a bunch of awards home for it, but wow, Zero Dark Thirty, you are amazing.

To be honest, I wasn’t too excited for Zero Dark Thirty. I thought Hurt Locker was great, but it was so emotionally draining that I wasn’t sure if I could sit through another Kathryn Bigelow military movie. I had a feeling I would probably respect ZDT more than I would actually like it. Still, I wanted to see as many Best Picture nominees as I could before the Oscars, so I went with my Billy and Bryan Show co-host and frequent commenter on this blog, Bryan, to see it at at Cobble Hill Cinemas.

First, a little about Cobble Hill Cinemas before I get into the movie. I was pleasantly surprised to find that our Saturday screening qualified for the discount rate. Their discount calendar is little complex. Tuesday and Thursday movies are discounted all day. Monday and Wednesday are discounted before 5 PM. The first screening of a movie is discounted on Saturdays, but only if it is before 1 PM. And I think the fifth screening of a movie is discounted on Ash Wednesday if the date ends in a vowel.

There’s also some new items on the menu at the snack counter: Mexican coffee, and the Abuelita which is Mexican coffee mixed with hot chocolate. Oooo, how worldly! One Abuelita, please! Unfortunately, the drink becomes a little less exciting and worldly when you realize it’s coming from a Nescafe machine.

Okay, enough about the snack counter.

The opening minute or two of Zero Dark Thirty is very intense. The screen is black and all you hear are news reports and 911 calls from September 11, 2001. It’s rough, because I was immediately taken back to that day. At the same time, I was wondering why Kathryn Bigelow decided to start the movie like that. My theory is that it primes the audience to identify with the US interrogators who were using enhanced interrogation techniques.  All I can say is that it worked, because I found myself very much rooting for Jason Clarke’s character Dan to get information from that first suspect.

Jason Clarke is great in Zero Dark Thirty. I’m surprised he wasn’t nominated for an Oscar. Maybe his role in the film was too short to qualify as a Best Supporting Actor?

The real shining star of the movie is Jessica Chastain. Her character, Maya, reminds me of Erin Brockovich era Julia Roberts, and not just because they both have fair skin and red hair. It’s because they’re both no-nonsense women on missions, who are sacrificing their personal lives and going to the breaking point for the greater good. Maya’s response to James Gandolfini, when he asks who she is, might be my favorite line in the entire movie.

I’m surprised that Jennifer Lawrence is favored to win the Oscar for Best Lead Actress over Jessica Chastain. I liked Silver Linings Playbook a lot, but outside of her scene-stealing speech in Pat’s house, I didn’t think Jennifer Lawrence’s character was Oscar favorite-worthy over Maya.

There were a surprising number of TV actors in this movie. Kyle Chandler, James Gandolfini, Harold Perrineau (who, surprisingly did not yell “WALLLLLLLLLLLLTTTTT!!!!!” even once), John Barrowman, Mark Duplass and Christ Pratt all have roles. Out of them, I knew only Chris Pratt was in ZDT. He’s not in the movie as much as the trailer suggests, but he gives a very good dramatic performance. I’m so used to him in the comedic role of Andy on Parks and Rec that I forgot I first saw him in the drama, Everwood.

I’d been on a Torchwood and Doctor Who binge right before I saw ZDT, so when John Barrowman appeared on screen, I giggled.

After seeing Kyle Chandler in both Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, I’m fairly convinced he is an actual CIA agent.

Coach Taylor is Agent Chandler’s cover story.

The odds on favorite for Best Picture going into Sunday’s Academy Awards is Argo, and I’m very happy for Ben Affleck. He was unduly snubbed by the Academy for Best Director, so I hope he walks away with Best Picture. But after seeing Zero Dark Thirty, my personal race for Best Picture is too close to call.

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Oscars Rage!!

What!? Are you kidding me?!

Pardon the rage. The Oscar nominations came out today. I don’t always agree with the nominations, but this year seems particularly egregious.

I have four major problems with this year’s Oscar nominations:

Ben Affleck gets snubbed for Directoring. I was shocked to find out Ben Affleck wasn’t nominated for Directoring. Did you see Argo? If you did, I’m guessing it’s easily in the top five movies you saw this year. It is the best of the movies I’ve seen that was nominated for Best Picture, and the second best movie I’ve seen this year. After seeing the Best Picture nominees, Argo seemed like a shoe-in for the Best Picture winner. But the last time a movie won Best Picture without the director being nominated for Directoring was Driving Miss Daisy in 1989.

I would definitely nominate Ben Affleck for Argo over Steven Spielberg for Lincoln. And I’d give Ben the award too.

Lincoln gets 12 nominations. Lincoln was a good movie. It was not a great movie. Daniel Day Lewis was awesome in it and deserves to win Actor in a Leading Role. He deserves every bit of praise he gets for playing Lincoln.

But Tommy Lee Jones? No way. I loved Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln, but that’s because I love Tommy Lee Jones, and in Lincoln, Tommy Lee Jones was playing Tommy Lee Jones as a senator. Tommy Lee Jones is the new Jack Nicholson. You can put him in any role you want, but chances are you’re going get Tommy Lee Jones playing Tommy Lee Jones. Like I said, I love Tommy Lee Jones, but I don’t think he should have been nominated.

I saw three movies that Joseph Gordon Levitt was in this year. Out of the three, Lincoln came in third place. I don’t think Lincoln should have been nominated for Best Picture. It was good, not great. Its spot could easily have gone to Looper, the best JGL movie of 2012. But…

Looper was completely snubbed. Best movie of the year. Zero nominations. At the very, very least, it should have been nominated for Best Picture and Writing: Original Screenplay.

Wreck-It Ralph deserved a Best Picture nomination. I thought we were past the days of great animated movies being stuck in the Animated Feature Film ghetto. Wreck-It Ralph was awesome. It lived up to its name and wrecked it. It wasn’t technically a Pixar film, but for all intents and purposes, it was a Pixar movie. And like all Pixar movies that don’t have the word Cars in their title, it rocked. But then again, so did Argo and Looper and the Academy was more than happy to short all three of these movies in favor of gushing over “I’m at least a half hour too long” Lincoln.

I’m watching the 18th Annual Critics Choice Awards while I write this rant. Affleck walked off the stage with the Best Director award. Looper won earlier for best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie. Maybe the Academy should have waited a few days before they released their imperfect list of nominees.

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Argo – Review

5/5 – Go see this movie!

Ben Affleck is now three for three when it comes to directing. Not only that, but Argo is the best of those three movies as well. I really liked Gone Baby Gone and loved The Town, but I think Affleck has set a new bar for himself with Argo.

Affleck is helped by a really stellar cast. Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Victor Garber and Tate Donovan join Affleck in this movie about a fake movie. Kyle Chandler even makes a very brief couple of appearances.

Don’t blink. You might miss him.

Argo is based on the real life story of a CIA mission from 1980. When the American embassy in Iran was raided by revolutionaries in 1979, 6 embassy workers managed to escape to the residence of the Canadian Ambassador. Tony Mendez, played by Ben Affleck, is the CIA agent tasked with getting them out of Iran before they’re discovered and killed. The tension is high throughout the entirety of the movie. Seriously, the tension is high right until before the credits roll. That works great at making Argo a very suspenseful movie.

I was on the look out for it, but could not find one instance of Affleck Face at any point in the movie. I was shocked. A Ben Affleck movie without Affleck Face? He came close once, but never gave us full Affleck Face. The tension was broken instead by my new favorite phrase, “Argo fuck yourself!”

“Argo fuck yourself!”

I will be shocked if Argo doesn’t get nominated for Best Movie, Affleck for Best Director and screenwriter Chris Terrio for Best Screenplay at the next Academy Awards.

I’m starting a 1-5 rating system with this review. A 1 means avoid the movie and a 5 means you should go see it right now. You can find the number rating at the top of the review, just under the movie poster. In case you missed it, I gave Argo a 5.

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On The Couch 2011 #25: The Company Men

During the manic movie-watching month that was December, 2010, I saw the preview for The Company Men numerous times at The Angelika and at Brooklyn Heights Cinema and I really wanted to see it. I planned on it being 1 of the final movies I saw in the year of the 52. Unfortunately, it wasn’t released in 2010. I eagerly anticipated its release in 2011 and somehow completely missed that it even came out in the theater. How long this movie play? One day? A full weekend? I swear I didn’t know it had been released until it was already out on DVD.

Needless to say, once I found out it was out, I moved it immediately to the top of my queue. Then it arrived and sat on next to my TV for about a month before I finally got around to watching it. That’s no fault of the movie. How many of you out there have experienced the same “excited to see this movie that ends up doubling as a mail away coaster for weeks” aka The Netflix Syndrome.

The Company Men is very good. This movie deserved to do well in the box office. Kevin Costner steals his scenes as Ben Affleck’s carpenter brother-in-law. Costner’s New England accent comes and goes, but he has some of the best lines in the movie.

While watching The Company Men, I realized that in every Ben Affleck movie, there is a point where he gives us what I call Affleck Face. It’s usually right after everything is going wrong for his character and then it suddenly all goes right. Here, it’s right after he has the interview of his life and meets up with his other out of work friends. They ask how the interview went, and Ben goes into full out Affleck Face. It’s a shit eating grin/smirk that can occupy the whole screen. It’s infectious. It is 100% confidence concentrate. It makes me as the viewer think nothing can go wrong for Affleck from there on out. It makes me as the viewer think that nothing can wrong for me from there on out. In The Boiler Room, Affleck even describes Affleck Face. How does Affleck Face smile? “From ear to ear, baby.”

Affleck Face

The Company Men is a movie for our times. It’s about people who have worked hard their whole lives, only to have the rug pulled out from them and get laid off, just so the company can boost its share price. It’s a movie that a lot of people in this economy can relate to. Maybe that’s why it didn’t do well. Maybe people can relate to this movie a little too well right now. If you’re out of work and can’t find a job, do you really want to escape from your troubles by watching a movie that hammers home how crappy the job market is right now? Maybe people didn’tt want to watch a guy who made $160,000 try to find a job when they made a quarter of that and need a job too.

Whatever your reason for not seeing The Company Men, see it. It’s good. And everyone could use more Affleck Face in their life.

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At The Theater #31: The Town

I flied solo for the first time during this movie watching project when I caught The Town on a rainy afternoon at Brooklyn Heights Cinemas. This is the first time I went to see a movie by myself since I saw A Hard Day’s Night at Film Forum about 10 years ago. Before that, I don’t think I had been to the movie by myself since I was in junior high school, when I saw movies alone regularly in the summer 1990 (the last being either Problem Child or Total Recall) at the two small movie theaters in Pearl River, NY. On a side note, I was hugely popular in junior high (Liar!).

On another side note, how sad is it that both of those Pearl River theaters are now gone? Any readers of this blog remember those theaters? Okay, one wasn’t that great, but the nicer one had such a classic old-style movie theater vibe that’s hard to find in these days of multi-story megaplexes.

On a third side note, what’s with me going to the movie theater alone only during years that start new decades?

I know people who refuse to go to the movies alone, just as I know people who refuse to go to a restaurant alone. While I would much rather see a movie or dine with a companion, I recommend doing either alone both from time to time. There are definite advantages to seeing a movie by yourself: there’s no compromising on what movie to see (The Town), the show time only has to work for one person (me), and you get to pick out whatever snacks you want (small popcorn with butter and a regular Dr. Pepper, please) . But while this is freeing, there are definite downsides. You’re responsible for all the popcorn you choose to buy (luckily I had the foresight to order a small). Also, don’t expect a stranger to fill you in on what you missed while you were in the bathroom (that medium Dr. Pepper made the last 20 minutes of The Town excruciating). And when the movie’s over, there’s no one with whom to talk about the movie (except you, faithful blog reader, but even this is a mostly one-way street).

In order to get to 52 movies for the year, I expect I’ll be seeing a few of them by myself from here on out. But it really is much nicer to go with someone else.

The Town is about a 1960s ad exec and an ageless smoke monster teaming up in the FBI to take down Daredevil and an Iraq war veteran, who have turned their back on the law and become bank robbers. You’d think the smoke monster would wipe the floor with the bank robbers, but he’s surprisingly ineffectual during the climatic gunfight. Wait, I might be mixing up some roles…

Don Draper doesn’t get Mad (Men), he gets even.

Seriously though, The Town is awesome. Go out and see it in the theater. I will be very surprised if this movie doesn’t get nominated for an Oscar. As my snack stand order was being rung up, the ticket-seller/concession counterperson/movie-booker (seriously, while she was pouring my Dr. Pepper, she was on the phone ordering future movies for the theater – that’s multitasking!) said, “This one’s really good, you’re going to like it,” referring to The Town, not the Dr. Pepper. At least I hope she wasn’t referring to the Dr. Pepper. Don’t get me wrong, the Dr. Pepper was enjoyable. I just wouldn’t expect someone to get that excited about a fountain beverage.

Listening to the dialogue in The Town, I started to get a feeling that Ben Affleck was largely behind writing the cute dialogue in Good Will Hunting. The conversations between Affleck’s bank robber Doug MacRay and his hostage turned girlfriend Claire had the same vibe as Will and Skylar’s date in Good Will Hunting.

The highlight of the movie for me was the interrogation scene between Jon Hamm as an FBI agent and Ben Affleck’s theif Macray. Jon Hamm lets out the most exaggerated Boston agent ever while making fun of MacRay. It’s awesome.

The Town is definitely the victim of its own marketing campaign. When I first heard the title and saw the poster, I thought it was a horror movie. Maybe the name The Town reminds people of The Village. That can’t help. The trailer for The Town cleared up what genre the movie is, but didn’t do much else. The trailer made The Town seem like it was Heat 2.

Filmmakers, do your best not to associate your movie with this one.

The Town is a much better heist movie than Heat. Affleck is 2-for-2 as a director. If he keeps this up, Affleck may become the Martin Scorsese of Boston crime movies.