Here's two new reviews for y'alls! Enjoy! :wave:
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MR: Zodiac
Wellll, let me start off by saying that I've had this sitting here on the comp for the longest time. Why? Well, honestly, cause I didn't know heads or tails to make of this movie before I saw it. Did it interest me since it came back in March? Yep. Did it look cool? Yep. Did it look interesting? Yep. So why haven't I seen this until now? Because I thought it was one of those movies that, while it interests you a whole lot, you can wait to see. That, and the fact that I've been so busy as of late doesn't help a lot either, haha. Soo, finally, I sat myself down and I watched it. Was it any good? Well, let's just say I regretted not seeing this sooner.
This film was absolutely great. The suspsense, the dramatic parts, and the feel of the journalistic part of it was a great great blend to have on one film. The acting by Jake Gyllenhal (Funny feeling I'm spelling that wrong, haha), Robert Downey, Jr., Mark Ruffalo, and the rest of the impressive cast is very good. The plot was really interesting, and, in this case, the major kudos goes to the director.
What did he do that was so special? Well, in this case, he was a bit of a genius. The directing, itself, was spot on. But that's not the major thing that makes this one director a genius: It's the pacing. Yes, you read right. The pacing is what really makes the movie work. How, you ask? Well, because the film itself is a little over 2 and a 1/2 hours long, in and of itself. The film takes place almost over 3 decades. Add on there's lots of segments with journalism and the press that makes everything boring and drag usually. This film? Not the case. It handles it eloquently, in good fashion, and while it does have those tons of journalism/press investigations scenes that might make people's nerves fire off, this does it in a GREAT fashion. How? By being straightforward, to the point, not wasting time on looking at pointless garbles of info that doesn't have any connection to the ongoing storyline. It gives the details of the larger mystery of the murders surronding the Zodiac case, while also looking at the bigger picture. With this advantage, the film zooms from place to place, date to date, and still keeps your interest and the suspense going. Like the famous phrase goes, the Devil is in the details.
Was this edge of your seat stuff? In some ways, yes. The journey for these characters, especially with Gyllenhall's character, intensifies more and more as the movie goes on, especially as he gets obssessed with it, and you get wrapped in the greater mystery of it all. At the end, you feel like you want to know even more info than what happened, as this is based off a true story that did happen and is still an unsolved crime. As you learn by the end of the film, the murderer has still not been caught, not even in present day. Also, there's just some pieces of humor along the way that makes this even more relatable to everyday people and not just a reenactment of a period in history. Did it drag at times? A bit in the middle, when everyone starts to claim that the case is impossible and the leads are going nowhere, until it picks up again when Gylenhall's character shines again with his continuing obsession with the case. The ending is just a bit redundant as well, as it basically goes around the same exact details as before. However, the good definitely outweighs these minor issues. This just goes to show how the writing, editing, and directing all came together to make a great film.
All in all, I'm not surprised by some major critics already hailing this as a great Oscar candidate for this coming year. This might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's one of the better original films of this year and it does definitely deserve to be seen.
Score: 4.5
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MR: Zodiac
Wellll, let me start off by saying that I've had this sitting here on the comp for the longest time. Why? Well, honestly, cause I didn't know heads or tails to make of this movie before I saw it. Did it interest me since it came back in March? Yep. Did it look cool? Yep. Did it look interesting? Yep. So why haven't I seen this until now? Because I thought it was one of those movies that, while it interests you a whole lot, you can wait to see. That, and the fact that I've been so busy as of late doesn't help a lot either, haha. Soo, finally, I sat myself down and I watched it. Was it any good? Well, let's just say I regretted not seeing this sooner.
This film was absolutely great. The suspsense, the dramatic parts, and the feel of the journalistic part of it was a great great blend to have on one film. The acting by Jake Gyllenhal (Funny feeling I'm spelling that wrong, haha), Robert Downey, Jr., Mark Ruffalo, and the rest of the impressive cast is very good. The plot was really interesting, and, in this case, the major kudos goes to the director.
What did he do that was so special? Well, in this case, he was a bit of a genius. The directing, itself, was spot on. But that's not the major thing that makes this one director a genius: It's the pacing. Yes, you read right. The pacing is what really makes the movie work. How, you ask? Well, because the film itself is a little over 2 and a 1/2 hours long, in and of itself. The film takes place almost over 3 decades. Add on there's lots of segments with journalism and the press that makes everything boring and drag usually. This film? Not the case. It handles it eloquently, in good fashion, and while it does have those tons of journalism/press investigations scenes that might make people's nerves fire off, this does it in a GREAT fashion. How? By being straightforward, to the point, not wasting time on looking at pointless garbles of info that doesn't have any connection to the ongoing storyline. It gives the details of the larger mystery of the murders surronding the Zodiac case, while also looking at the bigger picture. With this advantage, the film zooms from place to place, date to date, and still keeps your interest and the suspense going. Like the famous phrase goes, the Devil is in the details.
Was this edge of your seat stuff? In some ways, yes. The journey for these characters, especially with Gyllenhall's character, intensifies more and more as the movie goes on, especially as he gets obssessed with it, and you get wrapped in the greater mystery of it all. At the end, you feel like you want to know even more info than what happened, as this is based off a true story that did happen and is still an unsolved crime. As you learn by the end of the film, the murderer has still not been caught, not even in present day. Also, there's just some pieces of humor along the way that makes this even more relatable to everyday people and not just a reenactment of a period in history. Did it drag at times? A bit in the middle, when everyone starts to claim that the case is impossible and the leads are going nowhere, until it picks up again when Gylenhall's character shines again with his continuing obsession with the case. The ending is just a bit redundant as well, as it basically goes around the same exact details as before. However, the good definitely outweighs these minor issues. This just goes to show how the writing, editing, and directing all came together to make a great film.
All in all, I'm not surprised by some major critics already hailing this as a great Oscar candidate for this coming year. This might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's one of the better original films of this year and it does definitely deserve to be seen.
Score: 4.5