Kingsman: The Secret Service

Harry Hart (Colin Firth) is a master secret agent with class who recruits Eggsy (Taron Egerton) as a potential new Kingsman. When Eggsy was a child, his father was a Kingsman who sacrificed his life for the cause; to which Harry now feels guilt and keeps a watchful eye over Eggsy during the recruitment process. While keeping one eye on Eggsy, Harry and his team, including: trainer Merlin (Mark Strong) and Arthur (Michael Caine) begin an investigation on internet billionaire Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) and what he might have to do with the disappearance of V.I.P.'s from all over the world.

With Eggsy's story playing out somewhat like Men In Black, we are treated to multiple scenes where Eggsy faces off with other potential Kingsman in training; showing off Eggsy's unorthodox thinking and skill during various tests that the Kingsman throw his way. Whittling down the recruits through the testing, the scenes never really provide any thrill or excitement as you know that Eggsy will make it far into the training (or else, why have him in the movie?).

On the other side of the film, Harry and the veteran Kingsman begin to infiltrate the lifestyle of Valentine after academic professor James Arnold (Mark Hamill) goes missing and a rescue attempt on the professor fails. Harry begins to uncover a plot set in motion by Valentine to use an online app to control the world population and tries to prevent Valentine's Bond-like plot from occurring.

Co-writer/director Matthew Vaughn continues the job he did with Kick-Ass, though to a lesser degree in my opinion. Kingsman: The Secret Service is fun, but is bogged down by not being as fun as it wants to be and running a course that REALLY is similar with the plotline of Men In Black infused with heavy doses of the James Bond franchise. Eggsy's training sequences, to me, bogged the film down as I expected the training to be more and less by the book.

Colin Firth does a really good job as Harry, the spy with great dress sense and deadly skills to boot. Samuel L. Jackson is also having fun with his fashionable outfits (and hats) and a lisp for no other reason than it just seems funny. Main character Taron Egerton does a fine, if less impactful performance as Eggsy. He is able to help the movie continue onward, but certainly falls behind the acting of Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson. For me, though, the standout was Mark Strong's Merlin who comes across as a character with warmth and humor, but is also able to get in on the action when the time requires him to.

Kingsman: The Secret Service is fun, though not as much fun as it wants to be. Overall, you could do much worse and with the talent involved, there is something in the film that most people can find enjoyable.

6.8/10

Avengers: Age of Ultron

The Avengers assemble....again.

After the events of the first Avengers film and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Age of Ultron finds the titular heroes in Europe in an attempt to retrieve Loki's scepter. Though successful in their mission, The Avengers come across Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen) who prove to be successful antagonists to the team.

Once back on their home soil, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) discover within the scepter lies artificial intelligence. Keeping this secret from the rest of the team, Tony and Bruce try to complete the Ultron defense program. Unforeseen side effects from this tampering, though, create Ultron (James Spader) who becomes fully aware and sets about on a path to destroy all humans with the help of Pietro and Wanda.

Coupled with Ultron's plan of total destruction, The Avengers begin to fracture at the lack of trust and communication. After an attempt to stop Ultron in Africa fails, the team sets about on a second-act downward spiral at Clint Barton's (Jeremy Renner) house to try and get the team back together and reformulate a plan to stop Ultron.Tony, Bruce and Clint along with Thor, (Chris Hemsworth) Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) re-evaluate with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and reassemble The Avengers.

This film tries to go darker than the first, yet comes across jumbled and in need of another pass by the editors. While trying to couple The Avengers along with Pietro and Wanda along with Ultron, some characters get lost in the shuffle while others move to the forefront. This is both good and bad.

On the good side, Natasha sees a relationship begin to form with Bruce. It was nice to see the one female hero be strong and the only person that has a chance to calm Bruce when the Hulk is released (not meant to be perverted in any way). Though the relationship seems to begin out of nowhere, and the time needed to make their growing bond not there, it was nice to see an attempt be made for the human characters.

Along with that, Clint Barton actually gets the most humanistic role in the film. Instead of being a supporting player to the marquee names of The Avengers, we get to see Clint's personal life; including having a family. Even though, like listed above, not enough time is delegated to fully immersing the audience into Clint's life, the seeds have been laid if the filmmakers wanted to showcase Clint's personal life and history. Clint also gets the best speech in the film; near the end, Clint is trying to instill confidence into a character and Jeremy Renner's delivery along with the well-written speech create a satisfying moment.

On the other end of the spectrum, Thor ends up taking a backseat in the film. After the events in Africa, Thor takes off to meet with Dr. Eric Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) about nightmarish visions that Wanda put into Thor's head. This sequence comes off as rushed and feels like it was either written at the last minute or the editor had a fun time chopping the sequence down.

Though it may seem like I am being more negative than positive about the film, that isn't the case. What Avengers: Age of Ultron has is an entertaining mess of a film. The climax is the exact same as the first Avengers film (large scale destruction, heroes fighting multiple CGI enemies, etc.) yet was more entertaining to me. The rest of the film was solid if somewhat scattershot with trying to provide enough screen time for old and new characters along with telling a cohesive story  and trying to appease all audiences. With so much going on in the film, it would be almost impossible to tell a story without it feeling like a jumbled mess.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is a jumbled mess, but a solidly entertaining jumbled mess.

6.8/10

RIP: David R. Ellis

I heard about this story a few hours ago, and really haven't seen much in the way about this story. Director David R. Ellis has passed away at 60 years old. As this is still recent news, as of this writing, details are obviously sketchy and no known cause of death has been reported at this time.

David R. Ellis never made it to the A-List of directors, but made films that gained small, cult-like audiences. After making Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco in 1996, David R. Ellis really broke through with 2003's Final Destination 2. Though not my personal favorite of the Final Destination franchise, it is almost unanimously considered one of the best in the Final Destination series. Once this film hit, David R. Ellis kept his level of success consistent through the rest of his life.

After making the small, yet appreciated, Cellular, David R. Ellis gained prominence by directing the internet-hyped Snakes on a Plane. Though the film failed to meet the almost-impossible anticipation, the film did open number 1 at the box office and turned a small profit. Along with that, the film is infamously known for the classic line delivered by Samuel L. Jackson "I've had it with these mother fuckin' snakes on this mother fuckin' plane."

Afterwards, David R. Ellis made 'Asylum' before he returned to the Final Destination franchise with 'The Final Destination'. Panned by most, and considered to be one of the worst of the franchise, David R. Ellis made the horror/comedy Shark Night 3D. The film was a small success, though never really ascertained the cult status as some of his prior films.

David R. Ellis passed away in Johannesburg, South Africa where he was scheduled to film the movie 'Kite' with his 'Snakes on a Plane star Samuel L. Jackson. I was never David R. Ellis' biggest fan, but I did appreciate some of the films he brought to the screen and feel that he had many more films to offer before his untimely passing.

Django Unchained

As the holidays come to a close, I bring you the most heart-warming film of the holiday season.

Obviously, there is plenty of sarcasm to that statement, but also, this is a story about a man looking to reunite with his true love. The man I speak of is Django, (Jamie Foxx) a slave who has been separated from his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington).

German dentist-turned bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) finds Django deep in Texas and recruits him to help hunt down the Brittle Brothers. As Django has seen the Brittle Brothers and Dr. Schultz hasn't, Django proves to be useful. In return for Django's help, Dr. Schultz offers to train Django to be a bounty hunter, make him a free man and ultimately, help Django reunite with his wife.

After dispatching of the Brittle Brothers, Dr. Schultz makes good on his word. Dr. Schultz and Django are able to locate the whereabouts of Broomhilda. It is revealed that Broomhilda is owned by Calvin Candie, (Leonardo DiCaprio) a sadistic plantation owner who specializes in mandingo fighting at his plantation: Candie Land. Dr. Schultz and Django pose as men looking to buy a mandingo fighter from Calvin and hope to have Broomhilda thrown into the deal as well. The plan seems to sit well with everyone except for Calvin's house slave, Stephen, (Samuel L. Jackson) who does not trust Dr. Schultz or Django and might be one step ahead of our titular heroes.

Now, a lot of controversy has surrounded this movie regarding the use of the word "nigger". I wholeheartedly hate racism, and truly do not believe someone should be oppressed just due to their skin color. As Quentin Tarantino has set this movie in 1858/9, there are obvious reasons to believe that black men and woman would be referred to by this word. The word itself is not thrown out gratuitously and not there as shock value for the audience. The characters who utter this word use it as their normal speech. This is obviously not America's proudest moment in history, but it still is a chapter in the American history books.

Getting passed the elephant in the room, this is one of Quentin Tarantino's best movies. The film is filled with humor that (most of the time) hits the area it was aiming for. When not laughing, the violence in this film might turn some people away. Myself, I was actually glad to see blood squibs used instead of gaudy CGI blood (I'm looking at you The Departed and Expendables franchise). Granted some might think that the blood flow in this film may be excessive, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing actual blood fly. Maybe it was the fact it seemed like Paul Verhooven circa 1990 had filmed the more violent scenes? I don't know, but I enjoyed it immensely.

Two performances really stand out in this film. First, Christoph Waltz's Dr. King Schultz is a nice guy and a man of his word. In essence, Dr. Schultz is the nice guy version of Colonel Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds. He's charming when he needs to be and cold-blooded when the situation calls for it. Even more impressive, though, is Samuel L. Jackson's Stephen. What initially starts out as spoof of this type of role, turns much more complex. Stephen really is smarter than Calvin Candie and knows it. He has worked so long at Candie Land, that he is faithful to Calvin and would do anything to protect Calvin's interests and the interests of Candie Land.

The major issue I had with this film, and the only reason it is not my favorite film of the year comes from the editing, mostly regarding the ending. Django Unchained is a leisurely-paced film and moves from one scene to the next when it feels like it. The results of this leaves a lot of fat on the film. Most of the unnecessary scenes are entertaining and don't drag the film down much, but the scene involving Jonah Hill stood out as the first scene that should have been cut. This is an overly-long scene that doesn't add anything to the film (especially how it is placed into the middle of an action scene) and is there only for humorous reasons.

Besides that scene, the last 15-20 minutes of this movie finds Quentin Tarantino's script wandering aimlessly in search for an ending. Django is placed into an almost impossible situation to escape from. Once that is resolved, we are treated to Django being put into a situation that hasn't been mentioned before with a bunch of characters we haven't met (including an awful cameo by QT himself). Django then needs to get out of this situation and wrap up the remaining story threads. I am not sure how Quentin could have ended the movie, but I really wish he chose a different way then what he went with.

Overall, this is one of the year's best and shouldn't be missed just because of the controversy. See the movie and judge for yourself.

8.1/10