BIRDS OF PREY AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN Review

If one wants to talk about how much Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn doesn't care about precedent the movie could essentially be boiled down to a story about a girl, Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, seeking out a diamond for a guy (a fantastically eccentric Ewan McGregor). No matter what you thought (or didn’t think) of 2016's Suicide Squad it would seem that at the very least the majority would agree that Robbie’s Harley Quinn was a highlight. With that, Robbie both brings us and takes on the Birds of Prey story while continuing to carry on Quinn's arc in a manner that is respectful to a character that hasn't always had the most respect for herself. While the film may take its title from the DC Comics team that made its debut in 1996 and originated from a partnership between Black Canary AKA Dinah Lance (played here by Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Barbara Gordon AKA Batgirl (who is not in the film), this is mostly a spin-off of that aforementioned David Ayer flick centering on Harley Quinn and the trials she faces as she moves past being more than just the Joker's girlfriend to becoming her own person whereas the project as a whole seemingly serves as Robbie's opportunity to champion the formation of the more traditional "Birds of Prey" line-up so that they might earn their own spin-off. So yes, this is touted as Birds of Prey AND the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, but while Black Canary, Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) get their formidable introductions one would be mistaken were they to expect anything more than introductions to these new characters. That said, writer Christina Hodson (Bumblebee) and director Cathy Yan (Dead Pigs) take this combination of different DC elements and characters and create in Birds of Prey an energetic, vibrant, violent and all-around ambitious yet very playful production where the tone of the film and the world in which it exists are completely representative of the main character anchoring all of the story and action beats. Yes, this is the same Gotham City in which Ben Affleck's Batman once roamed, but as seen through the eyes of a crazed former psychologist who wants to blaze her own trail Gotham City possesses a more manic zeal that Yan stylizes to the hilt even when the Guy Ritchie-like narrative becomes muddled in moments. It is in this fresh and enthusiastic-feeling direction that Birds of Prey really comes together as Yan, despite not having the time to fully flesh out each of the individual members of this femme force, delivers a thoroughly entertaining and endearingly practical movie that doesn't upend expectations as much as it throws them out the window completely; giving the audience something wholly unexpected to experience yet completely satisfying in ways they probably didn't know they were ready for.

GEMINI MAN Review

There are few things more disappointing than a movie that moots the charisma of Will Smith. And yet, somehow, Ang Lee's Gemini Man manages to not only do this, but do so as the film literally doubles the amount Smith while equally subduing the level of charm the movie star typically brings. Gemini Man is a science project of a movie in which Lee once again tries to make a case for the practice of utilizing higher frame rates as opposed to the traditional 24 frames per second, which is pretty much how all movies have been shot since moving pictures and sound collided. As with his previous feature, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, the filmmaker shot Gemini Man at 120 frames per second and though only a handful of theaters in North America will be able to show the film in this intended format Lee continues to insist this is the way of the future of cinema or more appropriately-the next step in salvaging the theater-going experience. To this point, Lee's intentions are obviously admirable as he is experimenting in these techniques to try and enhance the immersiveness of the theatrical experience and it might even be further to this point that Lee has tried to implement such techniques through as generic a genre thriller as Gemini Man, but despite the technology (and this is something Lee should have learned on Billy Lynn) the level at which an audience is immersed in a film and the experience of movie-going as a whole is still rooted in the basics of story and character. That's not to say the core concept of Gemini Man doesn't have potential-films cut from the same cloth such as Looper, Minority Report or even The Terminator to a certain extent have all succeeded in different ways while more or less using the same tools-but here, the premise seems to simply be an excuse to try these new advancements in the field of filmmaking; essentially making Gemini Man a crapshoot of a movie that will help the film industry figure out what works and what doesn't. Furthermore, in the age of properties and brands being bigger than old school movie stars Will Smith is still arguably still one of the biggest celebrities if not movie stars on the planet still as well as being one of the most charming and likable personalities to boot, but in Gemini Man all of that presence and personality is squandered in a movie uninterested in who Smith's character is. Gemini Man ultimately feels less like a step forward in any aspect of its production and more like a regression in the ability of Lee to tell a compelling story with or without all the bells and whistles.

First Trailer for BIRDS OF PREY Starring Margot Robbie

One of the few highlights of 2016's Suicide Squad were a handful of the performances, namely Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. Robbie's performance made her feel tailor-made for the part and her portrayal was one of the few things that made that film come alive. There was no question we'd be seeing her character again, but in what incarnation and capacity was uncertain. David Ayer's Suicide Squad made nearly $750 million worldwide, but the shake-ups in the DC Extended Universe that occurred post-Suicide Squad left a lot up for debate as to where planned projects might end up and what characters might make it through to the next phase of Warner Brothers' plans for their cinematic universe of caped crusaders. Enter Birds of Prey, a movie that will continue the story of Harley Quinn after the events of Suicide Squad, but a movie that will also arrive in the DCEU after audiences have just experienced Aquaman and Shazam which, as you might already know, present quite a different atmosphere than anything done under Zack Snyder's guidance. Directed by Cathy Yan who only has one previous feature under her belt (2018's Sundance stand-out, Dead Pigs, a satire which reportedly blends drama and comedy well) and written by Christina Hodson (Bumblebee), the film has been pretty secretive as far as plot or story is concerned with much of the speculation coming from the cast of characters known to be involved. Speaking of that cast, what is known so far is that joining Robbie will be Jurnee Smollett-Bell playing Black Canary, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Helena Bertinelli AKA Huntress and Rosie Perez as Gotham City detective Renee Montoya who are on a mission to save Ella Jay Basco's Cassandra Cain (one of the original Batgirls) from baddies Victor Zsasz and Black Mask as played by Chris Messina and Ewan McGregor. Though Harley Quinn has always been associated with Joker since her inception on the nineties Batman animated series, Birds of Prey will see her break loose of Leto's interpretation (keep in mind this has nothing to do with the Joaquin Phoenix film opening this week) and as can be seen in this first, official trailer both Robbie and Harley Quinn herself seem to be having a blast without having to be tied down to a man. It's hard to be all in on this one given the fantastic (fantabulous?) trailer for Suicide Squad which ended up being a rather disappointing film, but other than the title character and producing studio/distributor this film doesn't seem to have much in common with that one. Here's to our cautious optimism being rewarded when Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Miss Harley Quinn opens on February 7, 2020.

First Trailer for Ang Lee's GEMINI MAN Starring Will Smith

Paramount Pictures has released the first trailer for Ang Lee's latest directorial effort, Gemini Man, a sci-fi thriller that employs Will Smith as an assassin tasked with hunting down his younger self-a clone. While the premise may sound more than a little familiar (Looper anyone?) and it's not a great sign that the screenplay is credited to at least seven individuals this is still an Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, The Ice Storm) production and for that reason alone is worthy of some attention. Lee, who last won an Oscar for his directing effort on 2012's visually stunning Life of PI had a rough time with his follow-up in 2016's war drama, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. The filmmaker, who has always been known to push the technological limits, shot that film completely in 4K and at 120 frames-per-second, but unlike PI (at least during it's theatrical run) the film made no cultural impact and even less of a box office impact as the $40 million production barely made it past $30 million at the worldwide box office. With Gemini Man, Lee enters into a more straightforward genre picture and with a double dose of one of our most charismatic stars as Smith is pulling double duty in portraying both the younger and older versions of himself (unlike Looper) as Lee is using de-aging VFX to portray the 50-year-old Smith hunting down his 23-year-old self. All of this said, the trailer looks a little more bland than I was hoping given the team involved and the story they're telling, but the action looks to be executed in a top notch fashion (as it should coming from the guy who made Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) even if trailer trope of using a sad cover song-especially a song like “Forever Young”-really puts into perspective how kind of "behind the current" this trailer makes the movie feel despite the fact it's undoubtedly on the cutting edge of technology. Here's to hoping this is just a bad piece of marketing rather than a true indication of the final product. Gemini Man also stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong, Douglas Hodge, and opens on October 11th, 2019.

THE HOLLARS Review

John is Jim and Jim is John and in his new movie, The Hollars, John is simply John. We're talking about John Krasinksi of course who parlayed his likable everyman gig on The Office for nine seasons into a brand all its own with which he will now try to both break (13 Hours) and embrace (The Hollars). In Krasinski's second directorial effort what we have is your standard tale of a white man who's been given little if nothing to overcome in this society other than his own emotions and how he deals with such emotional conflicts when his mother falls ill in the small town he ran away from long ago. It is in returning to this not only small town, but the man's hometown that we know our protagonist will learn lessons that might help him deal with his mental constipation. Naturally, there is a cast of quirky family members who are designed to be specific in certain ways, but just broad enough in others so that we may all find someone to relate them to in our own families. In venturing back to his homestead John with the titular last name rather than Krasinski comes to learn things about his parents and his other family members that he'd never been privy to before; intimate and mostly ugly details he doesn't necessarily want to know or see, but as something of the family savior he finds it his responsibility to try and put them back together. It is in this idea, this story arc that The Hollars attempts to differentiate itself from this genre of defeated middle aged men returning to their roots to remember who they really are by reminding themselves of where they came from. It is in this idea that the one who fled to search for more is the one who fled not wholly out of ambition, but also from the pressures imbued upon them by their clan. In The Hollars, John is the only character whose life is fairly average-he really has little to complain about aside from the fact he may not be where he imagined himself professionally at this point, but otherwise he lives in New York City and has a rich/hip girlfriend in Rebecca (Anna Kendrick) who is expecting their first child. The guy more or less has his stuff together sans a few emotional shortcomings, but it is in these emotional shortcomings that the crisis drives him to some interesting and introspective places that are hinted at through his re-connections with his hometown, but that Krasinski brushes over too broadly for them to really resonate instead resorting to genre cliché's to round out his movie.

SWISS ARMY MAN Review

Swiss Army Man is an odd film. One should know that first and foremost. When seeing the quotes on the posters or other marketing material that claim, "you've never seen a movie like this," you should take that to heart. Sure, I get it, you've probably heard that countless times before, but if you continue to read such quotes you'll get reassurance that such hyperbole is accurate when discussing Swiss Army Man. It is in this wholly unique fashion that the film naturally finds its own identity, but also finds a way to convey what is essentially an existential crisis by our main character, Hank, played by Paul Dano. Of course, when the film opens and we meet Dano's character as he attempts to kill himself by hanging we don't know any of this. We assume, given the writings we glean on pieces of trash floating in the water, that Hank is the lone survivor of some type of sea-faring accident and that he has more or less reached his breaking point. It is as he readies himself to step off a cooler with the noose around his neck that he notices a body has washed ashore. Though this body belongs to Daniel Radcliffe it is clear the soul inside has long since gone on to greener pastures. For Hank though, this body he eventually deems Manny is his saving grace. It becomes apparent almost immediately that directors and screenwriters Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as Daniels) enter into Hank's personal reality and are insistent on not letting us out of such a world until they have made a clear statement on each individuals own necessary version of sanity. We all need a different kind of rational to deal with our different set of circumstances. When it comes to Hank we have a very fractured and uncomfortable human being who, as we discover more about him, comes to be this man that doesn't feel he meets the basic standards of normal that society requires. While Swiss Army Man may feel like and project to be an outlandish buddy movie of sorts between a man who at first glance likely belongs in an insane asylum and a corpse the movie certainly has bigger ideas in its head than the fart jokes that have made up much of the conversation around it.

First Trailer for SWISS ARMY MAN Starring Daniel Radcliffe

If there was one film that made the most noise out of Sundance earlier this year for the strangest reason it would definitely have been Swiss Army Man which became a popular topic for featuring Daniel Radcliffe as a farting corpse. That's right, Harry Potter himself is dead and yet consistently flatulent. Still, there had to be more to the film than this, right? It seemed some thought so while others didn't as Swiss Army Man proved to be one of the more divisive films of the 2016 festival, but that didn't stop A24 from picking up the distribution rights for the film and today the studio has delivered the first look at the film to the rest of the public and I have to say-I'm extremely intrigued. The way in which writer/directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert have utilized the role of Radcliffe's corpse seems to be a wholly unique take on what I expected after simply hearing bits of the synopsis earlier this year. This utilization looks to make much of the adventure Paul Dano's character is on a largely metaphorical one, but nonetheless the cinematography looks gorgeous as the island aesthetic with the rich blues and greens seems to have been beautifully exploited. Manchester Orchestra also composed the score for the film and we hear bits and pieces of that in this first trailer that also adds a layer of a different and distinctive tone to this comedy/drama. Radcliffe's character even interacts with the soundtrack at one point in the trailer and so I can't wait to see how far the Daniels push things with this peculiar, but completely individual movie. Swiss Army Man also stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and opens in what I presume to be limited release on June 17th, 2016.

10 CLOVERFIELD LANE Review

I feel deeply conflicted after walking out of 10 Cloverfield Lane largely due to the fact it doesn't seem to need the word "Cloverfield" in the title. The fact this "distant relative" of a sequel to the 2008 monster movie came out of circumstances that didn't necessarily create it for the purposes of being what it has become becomes a bigger deal the further one gets into the experience of watching the film and the further it gets away from being anything having to do with Cloverfield. If anything, this film is more of a pseudo sequel if you're a fan of the original and go in hoping for more of the same. Rather, gone is the handheld technique that defined the first film and gone are the monsters (for the most part) that made the film and that handheld technique so noteworthy. Instead, what we are given here is a different type of monster movie; one that excels and propels itself forward based solely on the character interactions and lack of awareness from the circumstances in which these characters come. It is the peeling back of these layers that not only reveal to the audience who each of the three main characters might be, but also the revealing of each's true agenda to one another that makes the proceedings completely enrapturing. 10 Cloverfield Lane sustains such momentum for much of its 100-minute running time due to the fact it is a generally great piece of tension-filled filmmaking that elicits grand gestures of horror and the types of thoughts that come with finding one's self in such situations as typically presented in the thriller/horror genre. It is in the last act, the last fifteen minutes or so that the film stumbles in attempting to connect the dots and make this little film about three separate individuals more than it needed to be. Maybe I'm simply not satisfied by the answers the film chooses to provide for all of the mysteries that were laid out from the get-go and yet the answers provided in the more contained spaces of the film felt satisfactory whereas when the film attempted to expand its horizons things didn't feel as natural as they should. There was certainly a better way to create reason for having the word "Cloverfield" in the title, but it is this inorganic last act that knocks 10 Cloverfield Lane down from something great to a cog in the franchise machine, if not a shiny cog at the very least.

First Trailer for 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE Takes Audiences by Surprise

Apparently some folks were treated to a trailer for a Cloverfield sequel that no one knew was happening in front of their 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi screenings last night, but I wasn't one of them. While I did see the first trailer for Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising in front of Ride Along 2 that doesn't seem to have made its way online yet (though I expect it at any minute) I would have loved to have been surprised by the fact this earnest-seeming trailer would actually turn out to be a "blood relative" of the mystery box movie that used this same tactic eight years ago. While I am more a passive fan of the original rather than one of those who place it among the great monster movies of all time I am still excited at the prospect of what this new movie brings. Taking over for original helmer Matt Reeves is Dan Trachtenberg, who gained attention for his short film Portal: No Escape. Originally going under the title Valencia, what we now know as 10 Cloverfield Lane was written by Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken, and Whiplash writer/director Damien Chazelle. In the trailer things start out cheerily enough as we are introduced to what are supposedly the only three actors in the film: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr., and John Goodman before it creepily peels back the layers to reveal a more hostile environment than initially expected and an unknown truth about the outside world. What secrets this movie holds I'm sure it will keep close to its chest as I doubt we'll even get another trailer given the film opens in less than two months. Going the opposite route of overexposure consider me hooked by the mystery of it all. 10 Cloverfield Lane opens March 11th, 2016. Hit the jump to check out the trailer.

KILL THE MESSENGER Review

Kill the Messenger is a true tragedy. A discussion, a meditation on the human life and the countless directions it could go according to the mind that is guiding it. It is a story that takes on the model of what its main character goes through reinforcing the difficulty with which he experiences in trying to follow the guiding light he caught a glimpse of as a child. Despite what else might go on in his life Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner) is an idealistic journalist who believes in the power of his profession. He is a man held to the virtues of his responsibilities to the American public and, as he should, takes that responsibility seriously. He is as ambitious as he needs to be in wanting to crack the one big story that might break his career wide open and send him from the bowels of the San Jose Mercury News to the big leagues of the The Los Angeles Times or Washington Post though these ambitions never feel as important as his need to produce quality. What the film tells of more than it does necessarily follow the plot of the story Webb is investigating is the role of man in our society when he plays with the powers that be. What is wrong with our government if we are not allowed to question them without repercussion? In this case the repercussion is that of Webb becoming the story, his credibility called into question, rather than what he'd actually investigated and reported on being the story or point of focus. It is as much a commentary on the integrity of investigative journalism and how it has devolved into what we have today (the 24-hour news cycle on roids) as it is an interesting take on the state of our country which promises and promotes freedom, but will devour you if you take those liberties to a certain extent. Kill the Messenger is an engaging film, one reminiscent of those 1970's Robert Redford films (namely All the President's Men) taking the paranoid political thriller and transcending even that genre classification because of the real life weight the story holds. It is a film that I was thoroughly engrossed in from the way in which it developed Renner's character, giving us more of who this man was than simply a hungry reporter, without allowing the film to become bogged down in details. It is as thoroughly engrossing as it is heartbreaking and as it comes to its conclusion it reveals itself to be truly that.

First Trailer for KILL THE MESSENGER

I don't mind seeing Jeremy Renner take on the blockbuster and franchise roles that he's kept busy with since breaking out six years ago, but after his underwhelming showing in last years much-hyped American Hustle it is good to see the actor getting back to basics and playing someone like Gary Webb in a tough, gritty procedural like Kill the Messenger. The film is based on the true story of Webb, a journalist who stumbles on leads that take him to the beginning of the crack epidemic in America and the theories of conspiracy that go along with it. The trailer plays to the beats of films we've seen before about noble acts, where the main character sacrifices what is important to him for the greater importance of those he can inform but it looks to be executed with keen precision and high-caliber acting here. Adapted from Webb's book by Peter Landesman (Parkland) and directed by Michael Cuesta (Six Feet Under, Dexter, Homeland) this serves the kind of unnerving performance Renner can deliver a la The Hurt Locker and The Town. There is much to like on display here, but more than anything I'm looking forward to how Cuesta captures the specific tone of this genre and if the globe-trotting investigation aspects feel like something fresh. I'm intrigued if not by the inherently engaging story and truths it uncovered, but for the caliber of the cast they have recruited here to support Renner in what he no doubt hopes to be a definitive role that cements his leading man status. Kill the Messenger also stars Rosemarie DeWitt, Ray Liotta, Barry Pepper, Michael Sheen, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Oliver Platt, Andy Garcia, Tim Blake Nelson, Robert Patrick, Michael Kenneth Williams, Paz Vega and opens October 10th.

THE SPECTACULAR NOW Review

If there will be one positive thing remembered about the summer movie season of 2013 it will certainly be the number of coming-of-age tales that were released and received with generally positive criticisms. Beginning with the late April release of Mud and continuing into the heart of the season with both The Way, Way Back and The Kings of Summer (which I missed in theaters, but have heard nothing but great things about and can't wait to catch when it hits home video) and continuing into the final stretch we now have The Spectacular Now. Each of these films have a certain approach to the nostalgia of crossing the threshold from childhood to real maturity, but none of them likely hit you in the heart the way The Spectacular Now does. Naturally, this is a safe assumption as it is the only one of the films I've seen that deals with the budding relationship between two high schoolers and seniors nonetheless. Still, while Mud and The Way, Way Back took a hard look at their central figures finding themselves and realizing who they wanted to be while allowing them to take a step back and evaluate what they need to do to get to where they'd like to be, The Spectacular Now does this by having its young couple help each other accomplish these goals and overcome the obstacles in their way. Director James Ponsoldt who also made last years overlooked, but well-received Smashed again directs his film with such an honest touch and feeling of authenticity that paints a clear picture of who these characters are and why they have become the people they are when we meet them. This touch of truthfulness runs through every word and action that occurs in the film and while the freewheeling, almost improvised tone Ponsoldt implies certainly contributes to how well we are able to accept everything and admire the film for not attempting to glam up what are essentially extremely personal situations it is the lead performances from Miles Teller (Footloose) and Shailene Woodley (The Descendants) that solidify the heart of the film and how well it connects with its audience. It isn't the heart-wrenching, consistently moving film I expected it to be a la The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but it is a well made coming-of-age story that contains performances convincing us we've seen the beginnings of true love.

A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD Review

A Good Day to Die Hard is not a movie, not really. There literally could not have been a script for this mess, but we are inclined to believe there was. That it was written by the same guy who penned the horrible X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Hitman makes it easier to see why this latest film in the now twenty-five year old franchise is nothing more than a few action scenes strung together by corny dialogue that hearkens back to milestones from the earlier films and a storyline that means absolutely nothing and makes almost no sense whatsoever. I've never been particularly invested in these films as the first, the one many consider an action classic, was released the year after I was born and so I was late to catch up on the earlier films until just before the 2007 sequel Live Free or Die Hard. I enjoyed that film well enough and it was directed by Len Wiseman, the guy in charge of the Underworld series and that rough remake of Total Recall last summer whose films always seem more wrapped in style and noise than any type of substance; even that movie had more of a relation to the earlier films than this. Having given the reigns of the fifth installment in the Die Hard franchise to John Moore (Max Payne, The Omen) he has frantically spliced together all the footage he was able to capture of shoot outs and car chases that were filmed for this movie in hopes that it would turn out to be more than just those sequences. Instead, at a brisk hour and a half the film has three major action pieces that come in 30-minute increments that the director hopes will fool the audience into thinking they've received everything they paid for. In reality, there is absolutely nothing about this film that will stick with you. It will disappear from your memory almost immediately with its generic plot and zero character development. It will leave no impression, and honestly that is the best thing we could ask from a movie that stinks this bad.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER Review

The expectations I was holding for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter were likely way too high. I wanted so bad for it to defy all those dismissing it and doubting it as nothing more than a piece of camp without an ounce of intelligence. That is not what the book was, it followed the historical facts down to every detail and was smart enough to justify its ridiculous premise through twists of truth on those real, historical occurrences. The movie on the other hand plays fast and loose with these facts and makes so many amends to its source material it can hardly even be called an adaptation. This might as well have been a slapdash effort thrown together by Robert Rodriguez and pushed off on an amateur director allowing them to get their toes wet on a studio production. Its obvious the studio behind Vampire Hunter doesn't hardly believe in it though and despite a few inspired sequences of intense action the movie ends up feeling more like its villains than the complex icon it has positioned as its protagonist. The film is cold and heartless with hardly an ounce of real human emotion being divulged from the actions taking place on screen. Despite the whole motivation for Linclon's hatred of vampires being the death of his mother you would be hard pressed to find an ounce of real conviction or substance in the character that stage actor Benjamin Walker has brought to the screen. I knew not to expect a carbon copy of what happened in the book, I expected things to be changed and condensed but I did not expect to see something less than a cliff notes version of Seth Grahame-Smith's interesting and much more entertaining novel.

Benjamin Walker portrays our 16th President over a
span of 45 years in the film.

Granted, the whole point of this novel, of its premise was to see our 16th President as an action hero. Still, I didn't think the man who crafted such a brilliantly twisted piece of contradictions that ended up melding so nicely would turn his clearly well researched novel into a standard action flick of a film. That is more or less what we have here though with the twist that Lincoln is in the hot seat to carry out the revenge tale. What is so disappointing about the film is that they don't seem to take advantage of this. Lincoln was clearly a complex individual with a lot of struggles through his life. He really did lose his mother at a young age and it was a devastating loss, he and Mary Todd had four children only one of which survived to adulthood and he is the President who went against the wishes of his cabinet, his people even for the betterment of the country.  This belief in what he knew was right served him well in getting re-elected for that second term and this telling of his story uses his presidency well to justify the cause of such a man in such a position. In the novel he becomes allies early on with a vampire named Henry Sturges played here by Dominic Cooper, one of the few bright spots in the film. Sturges guides a young Lincoln on his monster hunting sprees as Abraham tries to quench his thirst of revenge on the things that took his mother. He also puts him in office so that he can do away with the main source of food vampires thrive on: slaves. It all works very nicely but for some reason Grahame-Smith thought it better that the movie version needed to show Lincoln and Henry at odds with one another while Abraham obtains the coveted title through his own free will. Not only does it make less sense, give the whole point of the premise less credibility but the film fails to even acknowledge key points in his life like that of him winning the election or the birth of his child. They throw in the Gettysburg address and focus on the love story between he and Mary Todd though which I guess is supposed to make up for everything else.

Adam (Rufus Sewell) is a bad vampire who means to
stop Mr. Lincoln.

That Grahame-Smith adapted his own book into this resulting screenplay gives me the feeling he had some serious pressure on him to turn the promising title into the most standard of fare so as the studio wouldn't be at too much of a risk. If you're gonna do it though, go all out. In what is the most disappointing aspect of the transition from page to screen is the fact the author felt it necessary to culminate all of the vampire enemies Lincoln has in the book to one bad guy inparticular. While Rufus Sewell is more than capable of handling these duties it came off as just another piece of evidence that the qualities so commendable about the book were squandered here. As Adam, Sewell is the leader of his kind and is a wealthy plantation owner in the south that has a certain intertwining history with Lincoln's mentor Henry. While Lincoln becomes rather good at his vampire killing skills he naturally gains some recognition by their head honcho. That Lincoln becomes President leads Adam to instigate the Civil War as he knows Lincoln is out to rid the country of the undead. This all fits into place nicely and director Timur Bekmambetov takes advantage of the action pieces by staging inventive and different fight scenes but he falls flat on the stuff that happens inbetween. Any scenes containing dialogue are rushed and feel more like chopped together bits of a montage rather than one coherent film. He literally caused the editor to fade out of every scene even if it was a few minutes long. The tone is way off which makes you wonder how he pulled off a nice piece of cheeky filmmaking like Wanted a few years ago. If he would have applied the same tone to this film as he did that one we would have at least been watching a film that has style and purpose. Instead what we have been served is a film floating on the promises of its great name. It thinks it can get away with not being that great, being absolutely standard because of the time period and people it involves mashed up with something as crazy as bloodthirsty vampires. Too bad it's not fooling anyone.

Will (Anthony Mackie) and Abe try to stop the blood-
suckers on their way to Gettysburg.

I hate to think that I only disliked the film so much because of the fact I read the book, but I have no doubt that certainly added to my disappointment. Still, even if I had not given the book a chance I feel that the end result would not have lived up to my optimistic expectations for it. Though critics and audiences alike seemed to dismiss it I rather enjoyed Dark Shadows earlier this summer. Directed by Vampire Hunter's big name producer Tim Burton and also scripted by Grahame-Smith I found it to be funny and entertaining with a nice twist on the vampire lore. I expected to enjoy this twist on it much more, but unfortunately I can't even recommend this to those who aren't familiar with the source material. That hurts because I wanted so bad to be proven right by the naysayers who laughed at the trailers for this. I thought I "got it" and with the author behind the movie version I believed it stood a chance of getting a fine interpretation. A fine enough cast has been assembled as with the aforementioned Cooper as well as the likes of Anthony Mackie and Jimmi Simpson playing Abe's lifelong friends Will and Speed. Mary Elizabeth Winstead turns in a passable performane as Mrs. Lincoln though her filmography only drags down the credibility I was hoping the film would carry (except for you Scott Pilgrim, you were great no matter what). Is it worth spending two hours on? Probably not unless you just want to see Bekmambetov's well staged action pieces, but it certainly isn't worth shelling out extra bucks for 3D or large screen formats. It takes about as much advantage of these aspects as it does the fact it has Abraham Lincoln killing vampires. Not much.

 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER Review

The expectations I was holding for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter were likely way too high. I wanted so bad for it to defy all those dismissing it and doubting it as nothing more than a piece of camp without an ounce of intelligence. That is not what the book was, it followed the historical facts down to every detail and was smart enough to justify its ridiculous premise through twists of truth on those real, historical occurrences. The movie on the other hand plays fast and loose with these facts and makes so many amends to its source material it can hardly even be called an adaptation. This might as well have been a slapdash effort thrown together by Robert Rodriguez and pushed off on an amateur director allowing them to get their toes wet on a studio production. Its obvious the studio behind Vampire Hunter doesn't hardly believe in it though and despite a few inspired sequences of intense action the movie ends up feeling more like its villains than the complex icon it has positioned as its protagonist. The film is cold and heartless with hardly an ounce of real human emotion being divulged from the actions taking place on screen. Despite the whole motivation for Linclon's hatred of vampires being the death of his mother you would be hard pressed to find an ounce of real conviction or substance in the character that stage actor Benjamin Walker has brought to the screen. I knew not to expect a carbon copy of what happened in the book, I expected things to be changed and condensed but I did not expect to see something less than a cliff notes version of Seth Grahame-Smith's interesting and much more entertaining novel.