Gone Girl (2014) Movie Review

Review by Brandon Fu
Directed by: David Fincher
Rated: R (for a scene of bloody violence, some strong sexual content/nudity, and language)

Gone Girl(2014) is directed by David Fincher and is based off of the book of the same name, and tells the story of Nick Dunne(Ben Affleck), a bar owner and loving husband who reports his wife,  Amy (Rosamund Pike), missing. The media goes crazy, and as the police investigation goes on, it becomes more and more clear that Nick might be the killer. His life plunges into a game of catchup and who-did-it, and everybody begins to ask the question of if Nick killed his wife.

Let's get this out of the way. This movie is dark. Really dark. Don't see it on the first or rather a lot of dates. It will scare you/scar you and your partner.

After seeing this movie, it became clear to me that David Fincher still has an impenetrable line-up of movies. From Se7en to Fight Club and Social Network, it is abundantly clear that Fincher is among the elite in Hollywood directors. Along with his take on extreme violence and gore, he brings with it a dark undertone and a color palate of mostly blues and grays that seems as though he has sucked the life out of the movie.

Apart from Fincher, the rest of the movie is great. Ben Affleck turns in a great performance as a shocked husband who wants his wife back, and this role better assures that he will play Batman well. But the best acting performance by far in this movie is: Rosamund Pike. She is AMAZING. The only thing I knew about Rosamund Pike before this movie was that she was a Bond Girl, from twenty years ago nevertheless. Out of all the acting roles of this year, for an actress, she is by far THE BEST OF THE YEAR. She is methodical, cynical, calculating, and scary. Another surprising turn in this movie was Tyler Perry, who plays Nick Dunne's lawyer. Never in a thousand years would you hear me say "Man, I wish there was more Tyler Perry." He was one of the best parts of the movie, and he gave the movie an uptick in attitude whenever he came on screen. But with all these amazing performances, there was one performance that was severely miscast: Neil Patrick Harris. NPH plays Amy Dunne's former lover and now creeper, and detracts from the movie heavily. Throughout the movie, he never striked me as a creeper or rapist, and it is very sad to see this in a movie with such great acting performances.

Another problem with the movie is the length. It is SO long. Almost three hours. I had to pee at one point but I didn't because of the intensity of the situation. But at the height of all the excitement, it just ends. Very abruptly. The movie is so long and so methodical that when it ends, it leaves you with this weird feeling of disappointment.

Gone Girl (2014) is an amazing long film with many great acting performances, but one bad one, and will live as a movie to never take your wife to. Definitely one of the best movies of the year.

4.3/5

Fury (2014) Review

Review By Brandon Fu
Directed by David Ayer
Rated: R(for strong sequences of war violence, some grisly images, and language throughout)

Fury tells the story of a tank crew during WWII, and the experiences they have killing Nazis and leading troop movement during the war. The crew includes Brad Pitt, the captain, Michael Peña, the navigator, Shia LeBeouf, the religious guy, Jon Bernthal, the massive asshole, and Logan Lerman, the new guy.

Let's get this out of the way. The scenes in which there were tanks and they were fighting were actually super cool. Tracer shots, explosions, the whole lot. With all this violence comes gore. You actually see some pretty gruesome stuff, so this movie is not for the soft-stomached. The movie gives you a peak into the life of a WWII tank crew, with all the communication and camaraderie.

This movie is pretty much first day hazing for Lerman's character. In reality, the tank is just a box full of assholes who treat the young/new guy as shit, especially Jon Bernthal's character. In the end, they do accept him, but this movie probably lasts 1-2 days, so it doesn't really make sense to have a first day haze and then be all accepting the day after. The movie tries to make up shit treatment of its main character by having them say an inspiring quote or action, but it really doesn't shield the fact that the tank of soldiers is just a tank full of shitty, but responsible  people.

The acting performances were actually pretty good. Everybody was sellable as WWII vets, except for Lerman's character of course. Shia LeBeouf was actually pretty good, and if there was a role to redeem is horrible public image, it would be this one. But, there is one problem, and its the writing. Right in the middle of action, a random character will just start  monologuing and you wonder why they haven't been killed. It's those type of things that take you out of the movie and question the genuine quality of a movie. Another aspect of the movie that was bad was the pacing. IT IS HORRIBLE. If you watch this movie, and you get to around the middle, you will notice the movie hits you in the face with an overwhelmingly amount of SLOW. I swear to you I checked my watch three times during this part of the movie, only to realize that the one scene took up almost half the movie.

Overall, Fury is a well acted action movie that portrays a bunch of dicks that treat a new guy like crap. All the performances were on point, and they were actually really good in terms of making me believe that they were assholes. The big problems in this movie are the writing and pacing, as it takes you out of the movie experience by making you check your phone/watch and question the movie in general.

2.5/5

Nightcrawler (2014) Review

Review by: Brandon Fu
Directed by: Dan Gilroy
Rated: R(for violence including graphic images, and language)

Nightcrawler tells the story of Lou Bloom(Jake Gyllenhaal), a nightcrawler, or rather a person who goes around at night filming crime scenes and selling that footage to news stations. Eventually, he becomes so good at his job that he begins to break the law himself.

Let's just put this out there, and state the obvious. Jake Gyllenhaal is incredible. Probably the best movie performance of his career. He plays Lou as if he is a person who has a very systematic way of doing things. Whether it is negotiating prices, filming crime, or just having a conversation, he does not seem human. If creeps the living shit out of me. For some reason you want Lou to succeed, and it is really difficult to differentiate between the good and the bad in this movie. Lou is so weird, and it only elevates Gyllenhaal's performance. I didn't see Jake Gyllenhaal. I saw a guy that creeped the shit out of me. And when I can't differentiate between a character and an actor or actress, that actor or actress should recognized for it(maybe an Oscar?).With all the past movies that Gyllenhaal has done, it is really difficult to understand why he hasn't been recognized by the Academy, except for one nomination. With movies like Zodiac, Source Code, Prisoners, Donnie Darko, and Enemy, Jake Gyllenhaal is definitely one of THE BEST actors and Hollywood and hasn't been properly recognized for it.

The supporting cast in this movie is also great. Bill Paxton plays a rival nightcrawling business owner, and is the antagonist(?). Rene Russo also plays the news director of the channel Lou sells to, and she also did well in this movie. The only performance that was not up to par with the rest was of Riz Ahmed, who plays the assistant to Lou. I'm not saying it was bad, but it was not on the level of what it could have been with that character.

This movie is also shot well. The streets of LA have never looked so good (except for maybe Drive), with bright colors and somehow empty streets.

Overall, Nightcrawler is one of the best movies of the year, and should be nominated for many Oscars, but is only nominated for one(best original screenplay, which is bullshit by the way). Jake Gyllenhaal brings in one of the best performances of the year and of his career. If you haven't seen this movie, you are missing out on one of the best experiences of the last year.

4.75/5

The Imitation Game (2014) Movie Reivew

By Brandon Fu
Rated: PG-13
Directed by: Morten Tyldum

The Imitation Game tells the story of Alan Turing, a mathematician and genius who was employed by the British Army during World War II. The reason for his employment was the cracking of the Nazi Enigma Code, a code used by the Germans for communication, and has 159,000,000,000 different combinations. Him and his team were considered heroes and shortened the length of the war by an estimated two years.

Benedict Cumberbatch delivers an amazing performance as the eccentric Alan Turing, a person who is a pure genius. He is definitely oscar-worthy, and turns in a great performance. The supporting cast was awesome, especially Charles Dance(Known for playing Tywin Lannister in Game Of Thrones), who plays the vicious commanding officer of Alan's Team. However, along with such a great supporting cast, there is one that shines above Charles Dance: Keira Knightley. Before seeing this movie, Keria Knightley was the actress that was always cast as the attractive female lead. Now, she is actually a force to be reckoned with, and will probably get much better projects after this one. Definitely oscar-worthy.

Unlike certain Bio-pics ( ahem *American Sniper*), this movie uses the full potential of the information given to them. You see the emotion that Turing feels when he is constantly shot down. I feel as though they used the full extent of the source material given. On top of this, the invention that he creates in this movie is ENORMOUSLY influential on today's technology. I mean, I wouldn't be able to write this without him(wink wink nudge nudge).

Overall, The Imitation Game is an enormously influential movie, educating watchers on the significance of this man's work. However, this movie does not go without downsides, in which there were certain times that the suspension of disbelief was taken away, and the movie steps out of its knowledge and into a fantasy(which it isn't, but it feels that away). Everybody should watch this to be educated about a hero and a modern genius.

4.6/5

American Sniper (2015) Review

By Brandon Fu
Rated: R
Directed by: Clint Eastwood

American Sniper tells the real life story of Chris Kyle(Bradley Cooper), a US Navy SEAL Sniper who took four tours of Iraq during the Iraq War. He is credited with the most confirmed kills of any other officer, with an astounding 160. Although this movie is oscar-nominated, it does not live up to the hype and greatness of the other nominated films.

Clint Eastwood has been in kind of a dry spell lately. He has directed incredible films like Gran Torino and Million Dollar Baby, but his last couple of movies were piss pour. Jersey Boys was a letdown, and the oscar-hungry movie J. Edgar was just bait for the Academy to nominate Leo Decaprio. Thankfully, the dry spell is over, but with a semi-decent movie that doesn't explore as many themes as it could have.

Bradley Cooper turns in the best performance of his career. It is definitely his most difficult role, as he augments his voice to a deep Texan accent. But, his role in this movie is the only one that we really care about. This is detrimental due to the cast of characters that were are introduced to that have NO backstory, and therefore watching them doesn't really bring any emotion. This includes Sienna Miller as Taya Kyle.

As for the rest of the movie, there is so much more room for improvement. The movie sets up this idea of PTSD and insecurity, but is not explored AT ALL. At a certain point it is just a movie about a person going from tour to tour.

Now, there is a lot of flame about the movie saying that it falsely represents Chris Kyle as a human being. But, what I'm saying is that the movie is not bad for portraying Chris Kyle wrong, but rather I am frustrated with this movie because it could have been so much better. And for that reason, the rating American Sniper gets is:

3/5

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Review

By Brandon Fu
Rated: R
Directed by: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Absolutely tied with Whiplash for the best movie of 2014. It is amazing, and it is real.

Birdman tells the story of Riggan Thompson(Michael Keaton), a former super hero actor who is out to prove himself as a good actor by putting on a broadway play, starring himself, and written and directed by himself. He is accompanied by his lawyer Jake (Zach Galifianakis), daughter (Emma Stone), and a supporting actor(Ed Norton).

Birdman makes fun of everything about Hollywood. Riggan, who has done a whole trilogy of films for this superhero, actually wants to prove himself as a great actor, similar to today's Michael Keaton. It mocks movie critics (ironic, yes), and is able to make us ponder if this guy has TELEPATHIC ABILITIES.

Inarritu is a prophet, along with his screenwriter and director of photography. After a while of watching this movie, you realize that there hasn't been a single cut or break. No cuts. It is made to look like it is one shot, but is actually 6-7 minute shots that are pieced together through clever editing. The fact that these shots are so long only elevates the ability of the actors and actresses, and further shows their prowess.

The acting in this movie is nothing short of amazing. Keaton kills it, and properly shows a torn apart man who is able trying to regain recognition. Oscar-worthy, definitely. Another great performance in this movie was Edward Norton. He properly portrayed an actor who is completely full of himself and vain. His performance made me despise him, which means his acting was good enough to make me think that way. Also Oscar-worthy.

There's nothing more to say. Definitely one of the best movies of the year, with great performances and the mockery of the acting business.

5/5

Whiplash (2014) Review

By Brandon Fu
Rated: R (for language)

Directed by: Damien Chazelle

This movie is the best of 2014. Hands down.

Everything in this movie is near perfection. Whiplash (2014) tells the story of Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller), an aspiring drummer who wants to be one of the greats. In this process, he is given a window into one of the best jazz groups in the country. There he meets Terrence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), a hot headed conductor who pushes Andrew beyond his limits.

The only two words that came out of my mouth after was "Holy shit." Miles Teller is amazing. Before this movie, I always saw Miles Teller as the guy who gets drunk in those teen party movies. But after this movie, everything has changed. He properly delivers the aspiring drummer attitude. This role seemed to fit him like a glove, because apparently, Teller drummed since he was thirteen, and happened to look like he was nineteen. He met his ceiling, and was able to break through it. Now, he is an acting force. Very excited what else he has to offer.

But who was better then Miles Teller? J. K. Simmons. This stuff was oscar material, definitely. Every word that came out of his mouth was interesting to listen to. Every subtle movement, every tiny detail, was thought out. Terrence Fletcher flattens and stomps on Andrew Neiman, and J.K. Simmons can easily pull it off. He had so many quick comebacks and insults that it seemed like this role was made for him. Imagine Jay Jonah Jameson from Spiderman, a role that J. K. Simmons has played, with a shaved head, but a lot more gritty and mean. That would be Terrence Fletcher, and it is INCREDIBLE. The tension between Neiman and Fletcher make for a very satisfying finale, and it had me at the edge of my seat. 

Honestly, if you haven't watched this, you are missing out. It's nothing short of breathtaking.

5/5