MINI REVIEWS: Grinch, Hale County, IO, and Old Man

I'm lazy, so I'm bringing these back. LET'S GOOOOOOO!!!!! Also, incredibly sorry for the bad formatting. I just couldn't get it under control.

The Grinch (the version made by the Minions) 

It wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but it still has the same issues that all Illumination films have. Annoying characters, unfunny jokes, the general feel that the film is a product, but that's it. However, it does have some great animation, Benedict Cumberbatch was surprisingly OK, and I have a soft spot for the classic Grinch story, despite this film's questionable methods of storytelling. In the end, I thought this movie made way too many unnecessary changes that I didn't get down with, which is the main reason I disliked it. I was kinda torn between 3 and 4, but I'm just gonna round down because I didn't laugh once and that seems to be the film's one true goal.

Also, avoid the Minion short that's attached to this called "Yellow is the New Black". It's truly the stuff of nightmares.

SCORE: 3/10

Hale County This Morning, This Evening   

Alright, this one isn't so much of a mini-review. This is the first 2019 Oscar-Nominated documentary I've seen, in a year that two of my all-time favorite docs (Won't You Be My Neighbor? and Three Identical Strangers) both got snubbed for no apparent reason. Is Hale County worthy of its nom, however? I'd honestly say yeah. While I don't enjoy it quite as much as the two snubbed ones I mentioned, this is certainly an exceptional documentary.

The aspect I enjoyed the most was easily the cinematography. The filmmakers clearly wanted to deviate from typical shots that you would find in most other documentaries. In particular, this documentary is focused on transporting you into Hale County, Alabama rather than following a linear narrative. There are shots of things that would seem to be pointless to capture, but in the context of the film, feel significant. For example, a 5 minute scene of a kid running around a room, or an extended shot of a deer in the headlights of a car. Every shot is so inventive and feels so purposeful that it really helps you dive into the lives of the people from the area in a way that at least I didn't expect. And that's practically the entire film. It's simple, but it works pretty well for it's purpose. The only thing I wished that they did was give the audience more of a connection to the people of Hale County. I felt like I was there, but I didn't feel like I knew anyone. That may have been purposeful, but I would have preferred to get to know some more people than we did.

Overall, I do recommend Hale County. I watched it on the PBS website, but I don't really know where else it's accessible, because it's about to expire. Nevertheless, I do recommend checking it out if possible.

SCORE: 8/10

IO 

What do you know? The first film of 2019. I appreciate how well they were able to portray a barren, lifeless, emotionless wasteland in this film. Because this was astoundingly boring. Apart from having great cinematography and a great score, just about everything else in IO doesn't work. They had two characters they needed to flesh out, but they couldn't even do that. There wasn't anything interesting about either of them. The dialogue was almost entirely "science talk” and didn't feel like conversations that actual humans would have. Also, at some points, the 20-year-old lead talked like a 4-year-old for most of the run-time and it was so weird. It was just sooooo boring even at 90 minutes and devoid of almost anything salvageable. And it's sad too, because it looked great.

SCORE: 2/10

The Old Man & the Gun

I watched this like a month ago at this point so I'm gonna make it quick. I just wish more of these movies that I've watched would give me stuff to talk about.

The Old Man & the Gun stars Robert Redford as Forrest Tucker, a 70-year-old man with some unusual hobbies: robbing banks and breaking out of prison. Basically, the man spent his entire life from age 15 in-and-out of prisons and he broke out 18 times. One time, he even built a kayak in San Quentin and just rowed away, right in front of the guards. As for the robberies, he would walk up to a cashier, tell them that he'd like to make a deposit, show them a gun that was in his jacket, and walk about with the money given to him. He did the same thing every time and stoles millions of dollars. The funny thing is that every cashier that was interrogated would say the same two things about Forrest: he was nice guy and robbed them with a smile on his face.

Yes, this was real. It legitimately took my family by surprise when I told them that most of the story was true. Forrest Tucker was a real man who broke out of San Quentin with a kayak made by himself. As for the movie, I thought it was fantastic. It does substantially help the film that the real story was as crazy as it is, but even if it didn't have that basis, it would still be an overall well-crafted film with some incredible performances. Robert Redford of course shines as Forrest, the bank robber with a heart of gold. His performance is one of the best of his career and is a nice send-off for him if is really retiring. The film is lightning fast-paced and has a great, short run-time. It’s just a really above average dramedy thriller (ish) that I wish got a lot more attention than it did. And that is all I have to say about that.

SCORE: 9/10

That’s all for today. Maybe I’ll watch something excellent or indescribably terrible in the coming weeks and will motivate me to write another full post. But until then, I hope you enjoyed this.