charleswjoke Reviews

12 Angry Men (1957)

An ethical battle of minds brought to your screen

[10/10 · 20 November 2015]

This movie is excellent. 12 angry men is a spellbinding step into the juridical world of ethical choice making that many have to go through their life. This movie hits hard on many levels, the directing is masterful, making each viewer feel personally invested into the murder, the ethical choice of choosing on the fate of someones life and hoping that the people you are watching will do the right choice and deciding if they actually do the right choice or if they have all been duped by doubt. This movie is minimalist staying principally in one room, with 12 characters deciding the fate of a human being. The film traverses many genres: from the courtroom drama, to the detective drama, to the ethical character(s)portrait rendered by conversation and relation that each character has with one another and excels at each giving the audience a refined viewing experience, with little to no flaw.

True Romance (1993)

Simple yet effective

[10/10 · 20 November 2015]

I LOVE True Romance. Its a simple yet effective movie with amazing moments and characters that make me happy to watch film. The plot includes the classic traction twist and twirls with many minor characters who ultimately have a lasting effect on all the characters. Some people who aren't really important exude personality and charisma and makes the viewer want to watch a whole film about them (Gary Oldmans, Christopher Walkens and Brad Pits characters come to mind). The film feels cohesive (to me) and employs funny differentiations to other films on similar subject matters: drug deals (the Dr Zhivago conversation is one of my favorites), violence, romance, friendship, family, trust, loyalty are all important themes that are explored throughout whiteout a flaw. I felt invested into Clarence's plight throughout and felt rewarded for my diligence and interest. Please watch it and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Bare to the bone and excellent

[9/10 · 19 November 2015]

Reservoir Dogs is a self aware movie that depicts the fallout of a robbery gone wrong. It manages a balance between a detective story to find out who ratted the team out, an aftermath story of finding out who did what and what happened, a crime story with conflicting characters and a heist movie where villains (robbers) organize a heist. This film is an exciting story of betrayal and of humane trust and sadistic violence. Quentin Tarantino weaves a web of stories together to make pragmatic characters and situation where the viewer struggles with the moral choice of right and wrong. Of course, the choice is all in the audiences head where they root for morally flawed characters that are all acted with gusto by their respective actors. This story is the simplest that Tarantino has brought to screen but I enjoyed every second of its minimalist structure as it permits the viewing to become much more personal.

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

A psychological trip as strong as any drug

[10/10 · 19 November 2015]

This movie left me ragged and in tatters on the couch after the first viewing. I stayed in the fetal position in front of the screen on my computer for more than half an hour thinking about life and the choices one has to go through when living. This film was an emotional roller coaster rising with each apex to heaven through the drug taking to the rotten filth hidden under the crash of the same drug. This film accompanied me through the protagonists dreams of a better (american dream) sort of life and then dismantled these dreams forcefully and bitterly spitting on any semblance of hope. A question that this movie brings to mind is Why does one watch film? There isn't a real answer as it all depends on the viewer (its an art) . But If its to escape from the mundane, this film achieves the highs of the illegal and teaches the viewer the important lesson of responsibility and causality without actually butting them in a situation where they are at risk.

Breaking Bad (2008–2013)

Amazing

[10/10 · 19 November 2015]

This show is amazing. Honestly, anyone who is willing to invest this much time into a TV show should invest it in this show. It won't always be nice to the viewer, it won't let you breathe somehow, it will keep you waiting, it will break your heart and it will make viewers reflect on our long history of watching movies passively and criticize our neutrality. Breaking Bad is accessible to the average viewer but rewards the active watcher. The story is a Greek tragedy dressed with a modern coating, creating and slowly dehumanizing the "protagonist" Walter White into someone the viewer usually despises. This show is all about change and brings the audience for the ride where we visually and emotionally witness the change of Heisenberg. The cinematography is breathtaking and personal, the performances are jaw dropping and sincere and the story is a down to earth modern tragedy. Just watch it, do yourself a favor.

Trance (I) (2013)

Fantastic

[9/10 · 19 November 2015]

This film starts with an interesting premise but slowly surprises with many other layers. The movie starts with an enrapturing sequence, that is manipulated by the director/ the storyteller and thus keeps us invested in the plot. The story similar to inception (in a good way) delves into the human psyche, memory and the mind. This subject matter makes the audience feel intelligent and invested as well as the masterful performances of James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Rene Cassel keep your eyes attached to the screen. The ending gives the audience one of the greatest and most heartbreaking revelations in movies that changes how one views the protagonists and the plot.

The Wire (2002–2008)

Shakespeare's modern tragedy

[10/10 · 19 November 2015]

The Wire is a show that transcends television and excels in every artistic choice that it makes. The story is timeless yet stuck in a time period that feels relevant and poignant to the modern viewer. The characters are part of a huge tapestry of humans trying to get ahead in life, each with their flaws and passions in a varying degree of grey. This show is an intelligent critic and message on the contemporary world that we inhabit with each show delving into another aspect of the city of Baltimore starting with the police department and the drug trade and the players. It then expands to the ports, politics, schools and ultimately journalism. These different aspects of Baltimore melt together into the entirety of the wire which makes you feel conflicted on all sides of the drug problem. This show also criticizes modern institutions that alienate the people who rise to the occasion and the inability of change in a modern setting on multiple levels. This is my favorite show of all time and honestly, there's is nothing wrong with this show. The cinematography is raw, but emphasizes the reality of the situation, the acting is amazing as each actor inhabits his memorable character throughout and all of these personas are awesome and pulls at your hearten one way or another. (Theres no way to review this impartially, I love this show way too much.)

Game of Thrones (2011–2019)

Fantastic (but lacking if book fan)

[8/10 · 19 November 2015]

Game of thrones is an increasingly hard TV series to review. I started the show during the third season but have since invested a lot of time to the book series and have started to understand the amazing complexity that George RR Martin has weaved throughout his emotional masterpiece. Sadly, the TV show cant replicate this complexity of each character development and plot line but it can give the audience an enjoyable, funny, clever but somewhat lacking version of ASOIAF. If one watches the show without the books, one will enjoy the events even though they are tough to witness and recall the tragedies of recent emotional stories such as the Wire. But a book reader will be ultimately left with a shallow view of the multi dimensional stories that they have read throughout 5 books. The performances are excellent but the characters themselves pale next to the complex characteristics of each character in terms of psychology and what GRR Martin considers the apex of ASOIAF: The human heart in conflict with itself.

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

Nostalgia

[10/10 · 19 November 2015]

I hope the newer generation loves this film. Its a classic story but it is executed to perfection. The old mentor, the impatient hero, the sassy princess, the charismatic smuggler, the menacing general, the imperialistic soldiers, the funny side characters... its all here and its fantastic and its in space. This film doesn't ask too much from the audience, it just expects you to enjoy the ride, an intergalactic struggle of wills and politics. The special effects aren't much compared too what we expect these days but are used in such a way that they aren't noticeable. The story moves in such a way that we aren't bored and are always on our feet expecting different things from the plot, but knowing that our heroes will be OK as the cosmos moves in such a way that will guarantee their survival. Indeed, this is one of those films where the story will end with a nihilistic destruction go the rebellion. The story proves that hope is still present in a galaxy far away and long ago.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

A fantastic epic

[8/10 · 16 November 2015]

I am a Star Wars fan since I was a kid and it's very hard to watch this film critically after all these years. What I was wondering throughout this viewing is why does this movie work as well as it does. It really shouldn't... The dialogue and acting is average, the special effects aren't picture perfect, the plot is as old as plots come yet I felt compelled to watch and be entertained. I was enthralled with this movie once again. Perhaps, its the simple cinematography that doesn't really try to do anything special but just works, maybe its the simple hero story of growth and learning, maybe its the chance to live in this entertaining and strange world where meeting a green little creature can change the tide of the film. This movie instills a sense of hope to the viewer. We somehow know everything will be OK, the heroes will live another day, which is really strange as the plot of this Star Wars is all about the failures of the heroes, the failure of Luke, the failure of the rebels... but the movie leaves a slight glimmer of hope that makes all the difference. This film hearkens back to a simpler time, where films were simple and enjoyable and people liked that with a childish sense of naivety, but hey, we should all be children once in a while.

Absolutely Anything (2015)

Harmless fun

[6/10 · 12 November 2015]

Watching the trailer gives you a pretty good idea how this film is going to turn out and thats not necessarily a bad thing. This movie set out to be a average comedy about a man who gets the power to wish anything. And this is the core of the movie. Simon Pegg is likable as always and serves as a good hearted doofus who gains extraordinary powers. The jokes are funny, without being too clever or too cheesy. The love story is serviceable without being boring and Rob Riggle who plays a jealous ex is pretty funny. This film doesn't revolutionize anything but its harmless fun. I enjoyed it and it was nice to hear Robin Williams once more who was pretty funny in the film, but I won't re watch it soon.

Spectre (I) (2015)

Disappointed

[5/10 · 10 November 2015]

I'm trying to figure out if I'm a bond fan. I grew up with Pierce Brosnan as my Bond and when Daniel Craig stepped into his shoes, I was interested and enjoyed immensely the physicality and realism that he brought to the franchise. Three films later and I feel like we lost a lot of the brutality and psychology behind the character. This film didn't feel (to me) like a Bond title. there were some elements of James Bond, the hero, the exotic settings, the villain, MI6 but there were some elements that didn't fit. The love story is not a Bond story, especially if it isn't tragic in some sense and Bond can't just leave the life he lives. The detective story of uncovering the spy network felt unnecessary and very long and didn't fit with the Bond I remembered. The statement the film makes on the issues of governmental surveillance felt like filler and unimportant. The film felt too long, with too many plots and too many settings/ set pieces. The reveal of the villain was lost on us as there was no real setup in the other Daniel Craig Bond movies and it felt like the movie was trying to tie them all together flimsily. The action scenes were entertaining and I wish we had seen more of Christoph Waltz as he is always a pleasure to watch. I want to compare Spectre with all the other spy movies that have come out this year such as Spy, The Man From Uncle and Mission Impossible 5 and I feel like Spectre is one of the weakest out of all of these films.

Southpaw (2015)

Raw to the bone

[7/10 · 10 November 2015]

Southpaw is a punch to the gut. The story is a pretty basic one, a boxer at his prime goes through some personal losses, and has to learn a new better way of fighting and thinking to claim his redemption. It's an efficient story but a sad one as it felt like Billy Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) couldn't get a break until 2/3 of the movie was finished. The movie does not back down on Hope and this can get disheartening but makes the ending much more powerful. The performances were all very good with Gyllenhaal almost unrecognizable in his role. His track record as an actor is becoming better and better as he switches from different roles to another. Forrest Whitaker proves once again that he is a great secondary actor by playing a memorable flawed trainer. Most characters were interesting and three dimensional and I was looking forward to a flawed, guilt ridden portrayal of the "villain" who was indirectly involved in the event that crushed Billy Hope and started his descent from glory. Instead, the issue isn't addressed and we are left with a somewhat bland antagonist...

Ant-Man (2015)

Is Marvel getting kind of bland?

[5/10 · 2 November 2015]

This movie made me realize that we've seen too many superhero films in the last few years and sadly, it looks like thats the plan for the next 5 years too. The film made me realize a few problems that Marvel movies have. First, they try to tie in all movies into the marvel universe. Now a passing sentence or a clever remark are good, they don't detract from the whole movie and pot but here, the plot is sidelined to make space for a fight between a pre existing superhero and the films protagonist. Plotwise, that scene meant nothing and it detracted from the villain that then feels less important. Marvel has a villain problem, they aren't relatable and are very much like bond villains, very similar to each other (movie to movie), always have the same powers as the hero and always die at the end. Lastly, female characters are vastly underutilized to the extent that the plot doesn't make sense. In this film, Hope is the perfect person to use that suit but is put on the sidelines for Scott Lang. Of course this movie isn't all bad, its pretty funny and the performances are good (somewhat too comedic for me), the cgi is breathtaking at times and i really wanted to see more of Scott's discovery of the miniature world. The movie really does suffer from the whole marvel movie universe and has the same feel to it and ends up very bland.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

Meh?

[8/10 · 1 November 2015]

I like Guy Ritchie, his films like Snatch, Lock stock and Rocknrolla are some of my favorite movies. They are very re watchable, the characters are fun and interesting and the dialogue is very quotable and memorable. The Man From UNCLE has fun interesting characters in the form of the two main secret service agents, one that resembles a suave bond and another a more realistic less smooth Russian agent. These are fun characters and their relationship and conversations are the highlight of the movie. The rest is sadly kind of dull. The action wasn't particularly interesting or investing, the drama was blandish, and I was never really invested in the intrigue and plot. So... yeah... I'm hoping Ritchie goes back to Britain for his next movie as I feel he has a more personal connection with that world, not the spy world.

Beasts of No Nation (2015)

An interesting movie

[6/10 · 30 October 2015]

The problem about a film on a child soldier in Africa is that child actors are hard to direct and are usually not good actors. That cannot be said for Abraham Attah who embodies his character and makes us feel all his pain as the movie progresses. The first part of the movie where everything is good is all the more heartbreaking when everyone gets shot down. We slowly see how a child's mentality can be twisted and controlled by a charismatic but ultimately shallow Idris Elba who as always kills it in his role. The action sequences remind me who directed the movie as the controlled chaos is very Fukunaga and he excels at those scenes. They all have emotional motive and impact and are very realistic. The problem that the movie has are too many minor plots and minor characters take too much screen time. The commander's second and command and Agu's foil/ friend are well utilized but extend the movies long screen time. The ending was a bit of a letdown as Agu and the army leaves the commander in the jungle without any real payoff.

The Martian (2015)

an honest disappointment

[6/10 · 28 October 2015]

I like Ridley Scott, I like Matt Damon and I like Space. A film with all three of these things was exiting. But sadly all of these things were there in spades, but the film lacked something. A survival story in space seems like an interesting idea but while I was watching it, I felt like I had already seen this somewhere else, in Interstellar and Gravity to an extent. Some shots felt exactly the same (because the technology is the same (realistic) there are only few ways to shoot a docking scene) and I felt more invested in Interstellar movie where they go and rescue a scientist (played by Matt Damon. The feeling of deja vu reminded me of how more i had enjoyed interstellar which I then reflected cant be much because I had felt like Interstellar hadn't been a good movie. Some things i Didn't like about the movie itself. I felt that because of the nature of the story, we were only really seeing the highlights when we would see Matt Damon talk to the camera. I understand that it seems more realistic but I would've preferred less time between scenes on Mars. Time passes unnaturally, sometimes at normal speed an then we jump four years in the future. So that the movie is realistic, these time jumps have to be included but it just felt too long. Matt Damon was a pleasure but we didn't really spend enough time with anyone else for a lasting impression.

Everest (2015)

An emotional and physical climb

[8/10 · 28 October 2015]

The movie starts slowly but only to establish and humanize the different important people so the viewer can figure out who is who once they are up the mountain. There are many characters that the viewer can attach too as many of these characters die. Many of these people are played by some of the very talented actors and Jason Clarke is very likable as Robb Hall. This movie feels like two different genres: it starts out as a Oceans Eleven kind of movie, meeting the characters and planning for a caper/ amazing feat. Then as they try to achieve this amazing feat the movie becomes a horror film as each character is progressively killed, one by one by this gigantic storm. The viewer really does feel as if they are in the storm experiencing this violent force of nature. All in all a very emotional recounting of a true story that does justice to the people who died there with a very good movie.

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

Roller-coaster in a theater on film

[8/10 · 15 January 2015]

If the title doesn't wake sense it's because this movie takes some time to wrap ones head around. It is shot to look like one continuous shot and this gives the film a surreal feeling. I was uneasy when watching this film because I as a viewer am not accustomed to see a film without cuts. The camera isn't immobile either throughout and it isn't like in Russian Ark where the camera moves like a ballet. The camera here dances around the characters like rock and roll. And this movement is disorienting as much as it is a good ride. The camera gives the story intensity, rapidity and drama. The story is well told: a now director who used to be a blockbuster actor wants to create a significant play to feel relevant again. He has issues with his actors and family and all that drama unfolds around the play. The main character experiences delusions as well and this is explored throughout the movie. The acting is fantastic and it is hard to look away when Michael Keaton, Edward Norton and Emma Stone are on screen. This film has to be seen by any cinema buff simply because of the unique cinematography.

The Lego Movie (2014)

The amazing imagination of children put onto film

[8/10 · 15 January 2015]

Personally, i remember the great times I had playing with my toys when I was a child. Lego, Playmobil and action figures gave me thousands of hours of fun because I was able to create these really insane worlds where all these toys would interact. The stories I imagined were all more preposterous than the other but in my mind they were all as epic as Star Wars or Lord Of The Rings. And here we have a film that encapsulates all of that imagination in one story. The story is not important, it's bad against good but it's a fun unique out of the many story with twists and turns you would expect. The story has many action movie tropes such as a prophecy, a meeting of heroes, a "heist" and battles. This movie definitely was made for children in mind but adults will enjoy this film nonetheless with the many pop culture references and nostalgia linked with these imaginative toys. I still wish I had this sort of imagination and watching this film was having it back for an hour and a half.

Boyhood (I) (2014)

Honesty in film

[8/10 · 15 January 2015]

The world of cinema is mostly about lying to the audience. That's what George Melies based most of his films: on the magic tricks that were possible because of the medium. To this day, there are very few films that don't use special effects or even makeup. But this movie does away with aging special effects because the aging is real. The director chose to film every year with the same actors and explore the life of a boy as he grows up and becomes a man. This film's power comes from this honesty that would not have been possible by filming it in a normal way. One can notice subtle details about life that changed as we watch this movie. The story itself is good with the normal tropes of growing up but it does feel disjointed as we don't see everything these characters go through (the totality of their life). Some interesting characters just disappear from the film and life of the characters without many mentions later in an unrealistic way which is disappointing from a movie that prides itself on realism. The dialog and acting is realistic and phenomenal. This film is impressive and unique for what it set out to do: film every year for 12 years.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

A beautiful quirky film

[8/10 · 15 January 2015]

This is a Wes Anderson film through and through. It exudes his quirky style that makes the film feel surreal and whimsical. The film is about a concierge greatly played by Ralph Fiennes and his friend/ lobby boy (who is charmingly played by Tony Revolori) who experience crazy and preposterous adventures. The cast is amazingly large and popular and almost every single character has at least one good moment/ line to shine. This movie is fast paced going from location to location, each more different than the last. The dialog reflects the rest of the movie as funny, quirky and memorable. Everything in this film is perfect. From the intentionally detailed scenes to the quirky symmetrical camera angles, everything gives the film an innocent dreamlike quality that few films even hope to achieve. I really hope this film wins the Oscar this year, it needs the publicity that this movie sorely lacked at the beginning of the year. More people have to see this pristine film.

Seven Samurai (1954)

A great and epic poem

[9/10 · 1 October 2013]

Seven Samurai is a great action movie. It has the plot of all of our modern team action flicks such as The Avengers, Ocean's Eleven and MacGruber (just the top of my head). The heroes are a team that slowly forms during the first half of the film and the second part of the film is some form of a "heist" movie with the planning of traps and strategies, with some very intense action scenes between the "graceful" samurai and the bandits. The samurai are really the stars of the show: interesting and fleshed out characters that you really love during the course of the film. The relationships between the characters are also interesting. It's true that this film is quite daunting: black and white, quite long (you can see it in two times, there is an intermission even though it has a bigger emotional impact if you stay with the samurai for the whole film straight) and subtitled. But the trip is worth it, you will not forget this classic ode to the ancient and legendary samurai.