reboot

I Ain’t Afraid Of No Ghosts (Ghostbusters 2016 review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

If there’s some strange in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? When there’s something weird, and it don’t look good, who you gonna call? Not Ray Parker Jr., according to this new movie. But maybe it’s progressive enough that it doesn’t matter.

I guess we are about to find out dear readers.

 

 

 

Ghostbusters (2016)

Cast: Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Neil Casey
Director: Paul Feig
released on blu-ray October 11, 2016
******* 7/10

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IMDB: 5.4
Rotten Tomatoes: 72%, Audience Score 55%
The Guardian: ****/*****

 

Paul Feig is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. Known for his involvement in television, Feig created Freaks and Geeks, and directed a number of episodes in other series like The Office, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, and Parks & Recreation. In 2011 he had a breakout directorial role with Bridesmaids. He has since directed The Heat, Spy, and now the Ghostbusters reboot.

Clearly pairing up with Melissa McCarthy has yielded good results for Feig.

Now that I’ve shared that bit of information, I should make it clear that the original Ghostbusters is one of my favourite movies of all time. And I struggled really hard with the idea of it being rebooted. I mean, on the surface I wanted it to succeed because of the incredible number of people who were complaining about it being a female-led reboot, but inside I didn’t because I thought the original should’ve been left alone.

Which was odd for me, because I usually don’t mind when movies get remade. Despite my inner struggle, I finally sat down and watched this movie last week. And it was pretty good.

I don’t want to give away the entire plot of this one, because I think it is a distinct enough story to warrant that protective consideration, but I will mention that the cameos are well placed, in particular the tribute to Harold Ramis at Colombia University. In fact, the gender reversal is decisive and tackles the issues throughout and without overselling the point – Which is that gender shouldn’t matter in a story, in case you’re wondering.

Pros: Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones provide standout performances as the supporting characters of the quartet, and in many ways are far more interesting to watch and take in. The callbacks with the logo, ecto-1 and firehouse are all well placed too.

Cons: Firstly, Feig isn’t as confident with CGI as one hoped, as it comes on a little heavy-handed taking you out of the story quite often. Secondly, Bill Murray’s death seems forced and unnecessary especially given that we know he wanted to “die” if another sequel came about.

Runtime: 1 hour 56 minutes

Points of Interest: The movie is dedicated to Harold Ramis. The ghost Slimer got his name from the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters, but is not named in any of the movies.

Once everything is said and done, Ghostbusters is a good comedy and worthy of the time spent on it. I think it was incredibly premature of the internet to shit all over it, and despite all of the hate spewed against it in initial trailers, these Ghostbusters answer the call.

Ray Parker Jr. wishes he would have gotten the call to return and update on his theme music, but it makes sense that the new Ghostbusters deviate from what came before, without tarnishing it. Fall Out Boy and Missy Elliott do a decent job of riffing off of the classic grammy winning theme song, and I’m not gonna argue with it’s retained catchiness. After all, Ghostbusters is one of my favourite movies of all time and I think it’s a cultural phenomenon. But that’s just a theory.

Tim!

Moonshine (The Transporter Refueled review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Moonshine, white lightning or hooch if you prefer, is one of the ways that we could get alcohol if we want, and in times of great restriction like The Prohibition era, it was probably the best way.

But we don’t really need moonshine anymore, now that there are so many other kinds of alcohol out there, with interesting flavours, and which undergo incredible distillation before being released into the marketplace.

But what the heck does that have to do with this movie review? You’re about to find out.

 

 

 

The Transporter Refueled (2015)
Cast: Ed Skrein, Ray Stevenson, Loan Chabanol, Gabriella Wright, Radivoje Bukvic
Director: Camille Delamarre
released on blu-ray December 8, 2015
*** 3/10

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IMDB: 5.0
Rotten Tomatoes: 17%, Audience Score 32%
The Guardian: **/*****

Camille Delamarre is a French editor and director. This is his second time directing for the big screen and his previous work was the District 13 remake, Brick Mansions, which featured the greatly missed Paul Walker, David Belle, and RZA.

Brick Mansions was rated very poorly, but I personally really enjoyed it. I might be slightly biased as I am huge Paul Walker fanboy, and I’ve never seen the original District 13.

So I had high hopes. But were they misplaced?

Let’s cover the story a bit before I detail my thoughts.

 

It’s 1995 in France, and a group of teenage prostitutes see a van roll up and a man get out, then opens fire on the group. The man, a Russian named Arkady Karasov (Radivoje Bukvic) and his partners, Yuri and Leo Imasova kill many of them, but let one pimp survive to share the story. One of the girls, Anna (Loan Chabanol) is traumatized by what the events.

Meanwhile, Karasov recruits Maissa, one of the previous pimps girls as his own and she gets in his car. Karasov then yells at the other girls to get to work. Anna stands there crying.

Fast forward 15 years and Anna receives a call while eating and tells the other party that the plan is in motion.

We see a group of six thieves coveting a black Audi. The owner, Frank Martin (Ed Skrein) watches and use his phone to open the doors and knock two of them over. The gang leader notices Frank and demands the keys. But Frank disagrees and he disables them all with martials arts. But not before realizing he is now late and driving away quickly.

Frank greets his father Martin Sr. (Ray Stevenson). Martin Sr. tells his son that he late and they start discussing Martin Sr’s retirement. Frank recieves an unlisted phone call, but declines to answer while driving.

Meanwhile, Qiao is waiting in a hotel room with two men for Anna to arrive. The accountant is upset that she is late. When Anna arrives she shoots the accountant and guard almost immediately. They then drop another dead prostitute in the mix, and set the room on fire before leaving.

Frank and his father are having dinner while they discuss what Martin Sr. has planned for the future. We learn that Martin Sr. was likely a spy during this exchange just before Frank gets another call from the unlisted number. This time he answers and Anna asks him about a job. They agree to meet for 2PM the following day.

Karasov is on his yacht with Yuri, Imasova and Maissa who is now his kept woman. They learn that there has been an “accident” with the accountant.

Karasov and Maissa meet with Inspector Bectaoui (Samir Guesmi) who wants Karasov to identify the woman and if she is one of his “hostesses.” Karasov doesn’t like the implication and makes a threat to the inspector before leaving.

Frank meets with Anna and covers his terms. No names, no changing the deal mid transaction, and he cannot know what is being transported. This is for his own protection. Anna agrees and explains he will be transporting her and two packages  which total 104 kilos altogether. This will happen at the Mediterranean Bank in three hours.

 

And that is the end of that, as they say.

Pros: It is incredibly efficient and both the story and action keep up the pace quite well. If you’ve seen the original trilogy, you’ll being entertained, however mindless it is.

Cons: It’s efficient to the point of being sterile and doesn’t live up to previous entries.

Runtime: 96 minutes

Points of Interest: Ed Skrein left Game of Thrones to make this movie. This is not a prequel of how Frank Martin became The Transporter, it’s a retelling. Which is pretty telling I think.

There are so many better action movies out there at this point, that something so methodical and derivative just isn’t going to make a big enough mark. You should probably just drive away from this one.

 

 

 

Moonshine tastes pretty “good” when well made and when you don’t have a lot of options.

But it’s also incredibly powerful and can make you very sick if done wrong.

So why put yourself through that experience, especially when some people make it from car radiators? The Transporter Refueled reminds me of moonshine because it can do the basic trick of being visually interesting and fits the genre, but just isn’t as enjoyable as other offerings. Plus I don’t want anyone to be blinded by this.

See you tomorrow for some wisdom. Please leave comments and thoughts below!

Tim!