So I was Toronto Film Festival
I... movies!
One of them I saw was the new Cory Finley movie, "Bad Education"
The film stars Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney and they're both great
This is the same director as
Thoroughbreds in 2017 although
this time, he doesn't have a writing credit.
I really enjoyed Thoroughbreds, but this is a very different film
This one has a lot more polish and production value
But it comes at the expense of the personality
Thoroughbreds is a movie that--aside from some derivative soundtrack choices
felt very unique.
And while Bad Education is still a very well-presented and entertaining film...
it doesn't really stick out as much in terms of a memorable experience.
The movie is a true story about the largest public school embezzlement scandal in the U.S.
The characters are really fun to watch
and it's even more fun to watch everything kind of implode upon itself
This is a very solid and well-made professional movie
It's well shot. It's well acted. It has good music.
So check this one out whenever you can
and I'm giving it a seven out of ten.
Another film I saw was Ford v Ferrari
directed by James Mangold
He's the same director as Logan, 3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line, et cetera.
In terms of directing, this movie was pretty great
There's no real flaws that stick out to me in that sense
There are a lot of exhilarating driving sequences
The camera work was all very professional and you can really feel the budget in the production value
The performances were great--especially that of Christian Bale
Him and Matt Damon's character played off of each other very well
It was always fun to watch them interact on screen
Although it didn't happen as often as I would have expected
Now this movie is two-and-a-half hours long and I'm not sure I feel as though it was entirely justified
If every aspect of the film is amazing and it's entertaining throughout
Then the longer, the better!
But much of it was just a really cookie-cutter, clichéd, overly-pandering
inaccessible Oscar-bait movie.
There are things I really like about the presentation
but stretching out a story that's predictable at every turn isn't really that interesting to me
Some of the presented conflicts felt really cheesy
Some of the characters feel incredibly cartoonish
One of them was so annoyingly one-dimensional, it felt as though he would have worked better in a Robert Rodriguez kids' movie
Unfortunately, there's often a trade off with professional and high-production-value films
where many of the aspects wind up feeling
as though the movie was just created soulessly in a factory
At the end of the day, this movie's kind of forgettable
It was an enjoyable experience to watch it in theaters
and if you're going to watch it anyway, then choose that over the home video release
But it's not one that I'll be rushing back to at any point in time.
I don't think I'm ever going to see it again, really
It'll likely be nominated for some Oscars and I'm sure a lot of people will really enjoy it
Anyway, check this one out, if you want, but don't expect a masterpiece
and I'm giving this one a six out of ten.
Another film I saw was "Crazy World"
the new Wakaliwood "supa action movie!"
For those of you not aware, there is an action movie studio in the slums of Uganda
making some pretty entertaining movies.
I've got the double-feature Blu-ray for "Who Killed Captain Alex" and "Bad Black"
and I would suggest you check those out because they are loads of fun!
Now, obviously, the budgets on these films are incredibly low
but what makes them entertaining is just how wacky and ridiculous they are
Their films are narrated over top of with what they call a "video joker"
So VJ EMMIE essentially acts as a hype man that is talking about the film and also kind of making fun of it
as it's happening
They've got a really great sense of humor and it makes it a perfect experience to watch with friends
The films that you'd buy from them come with the VJ EMMIE narration,
but what was crazy was that at TIFF, they actually had him doing it live
It was a wild experience and a perfect addition to the "Midnight Madness" programming
Thank you, Peter Kuplowski for getting that setup, because it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime event
I actually went into a bit more detail over what the live experience was like in this "Sardonicast" episode
that will be linked in the description and at the end of the video
It's at the 8:38 mark, but I'll just time stamp it in the link, I guess
Anyway, definitely check this one out, as it is an absolute blast to watch
You can also buy "Who Killed Captain Alex" and "Bad Black" from their website
I'm not really sure how to give this a number out of ten.
It's kind of a meme movie in that sense.
I can't seem to find it on IMDB,
so whenever that gets create, I'll rate it a ten there
I mean, I love it and I don't know what to rate it, so...
why not?
I've got one more of these TIFF videos coming for ya
and a bunch of other videos I'm working on
My 2007 list, a commentary track... thing, a bunch of stuff
So stay tuned. Thank you! Buh-bye!