This buddy cop film takes an odd turn after the very first scene and continues to twist down an odd road.  Shane Black directs this comedy action film with two of the most amazing actors alive, Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe.  When I first saw the trailer for this film, I thought it was going to be awful and similar to other screwball comedies that use big name actors to gain an audience.   On top of that, Iron Man 3 is my least favorite Marvel movie so far and it was directed by Shane Black.  I hated it so much that I puked four times after the screening, but that's another story all together.

Throughout this film, the comedy continues to deliver as you ponder whether you are supposed to laugh at certain scenes or not.  Most of the jokes revolve around drugs, sex, and violence.  This one is not for the kiddos!  The comedy strides around the style of Rush Hour, but it is much more sophisticated and content-based.  Crowe and Gosling have surprisingly different roles than their usual drama-based characters and they play it so well.  The plot starts off with a sort of character analysis of the two "detectives" who are eventually forced to team up and find a missing girl.  The plot is very complex and at times hard to follow, but if I watch it again I will probably be able to catch everything I missed.

The best part of this film is the period piece aspect.  The set looks like it was revitalized straight from Saturday Night Fever.  The costuming gives us an authentic look at the seventies drab that used to be considered fashionable.  Gosling's impressive mustache portrays the detail of the film's setting and time period without distracting us from the plot too much.  With such a complex plot, Black does a good job of subtly bringing us back in time without forcing afros and disco balls in our face the whole time.  The music also brings us back into the seventies throughout the film.  Overall, this is basically a fantastically weird period piece and character study taking place in the seventies.

The Bottom Line:  Shane Black brings us back in time with two prominent studio actors to solve a titillating mystery.

Score: 9.0/10 

Image credit: ​http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/1462462004/The%20Nice%20Guys_Side%20A.jpeg

From the directors of Tangled and Wreck-it Ralph comes this animated film about a world comprised of animals.  The animals are divided by certain characteristics and the story is about the struggle to break their stereotyped features.  This is all coming from the studio that brought us the hit movie, Frozen.  Unlike Frozen, this is the most diverse animated film I have ever seen.  Its definitely the most diverse animated film from Disney, featuring all sorts of animals with different backgrounds.  That is funny to say about a movie that does not have any humans whatsoever.

One of the reasons I love the medium of film is because it is an object of the arts.  In my opinion, fine arts are used to spread culture.  Zootopia is a clear example of how culture is spread through cinema.  When the writers create a message about diversity and equality, the film comes out with a deeper meaning.  Zootopia not only struggles with race equality, but also sex equality.  Ginnifer Goodwin (Walk the Line) acts as a symbol for women through her character, Judy Hopps.  Hopps is an adorable bunny who is tired of being seen as prey.  She sees all hunting animals as evil, and believes that they see all of the weaker animals as wimpy and easy targets.  These ideologies are heavy-handed throughout the film, which starts to become preachy.  Everyone in the film is wrong with their judgement of others.  Personally I liked the use of diversity and the message of Zootopia, but the message was so deeply entrenched in the film that I could not feel entertained in any way.  Its as though Disney is trying to create something that will engrain itself into the minds of the youth.  The ideologies portrayed in the film are agreeable, but overall I felt brainwashed by the end.  To me, cinema needs to walk a fine line between message and fun.  It is easy for us to forget a film without both of these traits.  If something is fun to watch but leaves me without any afterthoughts, then I no longer have any feelings for the film when the lights come back on.  However if a film is too much like a sermon, then I eventually tune out the jargon and feel a disconnect from the screen.  Zootopia acted as too much of a sermon and started to annoy me because I was tired of listening.  I should not have to feel so downtrodden after a Disney film, especially when it points out everything that I am seeing in the news nowadays.  I left without much afterthought, but rather the thought that big studio cinema is no longer the same because of how modern society is evolving.  That being said, Zootopia is a very creative and intelligent film that serves as a good start to a more diverse Disney studio.

The Bottom Line:  While being the most diverse Disney film yet, Zootopia struggles with subtlety and enjoyment.

Score: 8.7/10

Image credit: http://img.lum.dolimg.com/v1/images/movie_poster_zootopia_866a1bf2.jpeg

With many great films under his belt, I have come to expect near-perfection in Tarantino's films.  Proud to say that he is my favorite director of all time, I am always astonished with his direction.  The Hateful Eight is another film that astonishes me because of its cast and style.  Taking on a great task of creating a 70mm roadshow film in the modern day, Tarantino creates another movie that exceeds many of my expectations.  However, I will say that in my opinion it is not one of his strongest films.  Clocking in at three hours and seven minutes, the movie moved along quite quickly but never hit a climax that could compare to his previous films.

The first half of the film displays Tarantino's skill at bringing out great performances from his directing and writing.  All of the characters clearly have some hidden background that are brought to the forefront of the film.  As with every Tarantino movie, the audience is forced through a tense buildup until the second half of the film where everything will be revealed.  That being said, the first half of the film showed off a brilliant script that was well-crafted by Tarantino himself.  Yet, the second half of the film fell short in my opinion with its overly-dramatized violence.  Of course violence is a crucial aspect of Tarantino's other films, but this one did not have the plot support to go along with the violence.  Rather, the backstory of the characters falls a bit short of what I was expecting and hoping for.  Nonetheless, the actors do their part in bringing justice to the screen.  Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, and Tim Roth really shine while acting out a very well-written script.  
In the script, race issues are directly tackled in a setting that occurs right after the end of the Civil War.  As with Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight tackles slavery and the racial power struggle.  Furthermore, Tarantino adds sexism into the mix with Daisy Domergue's character played by Jennifer Jason Leigh.  The development of Leigh's character and Jackson's character twists around different power positions for both women and African-Americans in the post-Civil War society.  Without any spoilers, you can expect a lot of violence that is used to sort out these social matters.  

With this film, I must include the technical aspects which were truly superb.  Starting off with the camerawork, Tarantino truly revives the 70mm format with the wide shots at the beginning of the film.  The landscape is spectacular and reminiscent of old western films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  I assume that trying to capture a blizzard on camera can be awfully hard, but the screen is often filled with snow and great winds that made me feel happy to be in the theater in the middle of winter.  With that being said, all of the camerawork is what should be expected in a Tarantino film.  Another great expectation from a Tarantino film is a deep music score.  Once again, Ennio Morricone delivers exactly what Tarantino needs for The Hateful Eight.  This is a dramatic score that has a very small western aspect to it.  More than feeling like a western score, the music feels like a very subtle but hard-hitting score that works perfectly for Quentin.

The Bottom Line:  Tarantino delivers another great film that is technically astonishing with familiar acting but falls a bit short in its overall plot-line.   

​Score: 9.3/10

Right when I saw that Ian McKellen was starring in this film, I was sold.  However, what I saw was not exactly what I expected.  McKellen brings a fresh look at an aged Sherlock Holmes that I ended up enjoying, even though some of the story felt cluttered.  Possibly, this cluttered story might add to a view of the aging Holmes.

Without Ian McKellen's acting, this film may not have been quite as enjoyable.  If any other actor spend 60% of the time lying in a bed and reminiscing on past memories, I probably would have gotten bored at the half hour mark.  Somehow, even at age 76 McKellen is capable of being Sherlock Holmes.  Of course, he portrays the annoyingly witty side of Sherlock, but also masters the compassionate side of the character.

The one part of this film that felt wrong to me was the timeline.  Of course, Sherlock Holmes films are going to be a bit cluttered to reveal the mysteries involved.  Yet this one just felt a bit too cluttered.  The scene jumps from past to present so oddly that I felt lost after a while.  Aside from the time jumps, there are three different stories going on at once (one involving Japan, one involving a woman from Holmes's past, and one involving Sherlock's caretakers).  The film has interesting mysteries, yet they all collide towards the end creating a material mesh.

The Bottom Line: This film brings a new look at Sherlock Holmes as an aging man played by the ever-so-great Ian McKellen, yet comes out a bit jumbled towards the end.

Score: 9/10