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latenightentertainer-blog · 8 years ago

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Best Movies of Hollywood In 2017 So Far?

John Wick: Chapter Two Hey guys!! whats up? I was thinking why not share my opinion online for the best movies of 2017 so far or maybe later we discuss the upcoming movies in fact the most awaited ones. So here are some cool movies to talk about and some others we are waiting till we say good bye to 2017.

The Lego Batman Movie

A little plastic bat fights the forces of evil in this mad, hilarious comic-book pastiche

The breakout star of 2014’s 'The Lego Movie' now gets his own action-packed, completely batshit superhero spinoff. The first Lego film was a real surprise: what could have been a lazy cash-in turned out to be sweet, funny and fiendishly original in the way it acknowledged and celebrated its own artificiality. And one of the film’s highlights was its take on Batman: a self-involved millionaire playboy who dresses in black body armour to fight crime and chase chicks. The inept egomaniac is a time-honoured comedy archetype – think Jack Sparrow, Daffy Duck or Donald Trump – but thanks to razor-sharp writing and Will Arnett’s snarling, impossible-to-hate vocal performance, this Batman felt fresh and fun.

Happily, the same goes for his solo debut, a ferociously paced, wildly silly pastiche of those comic-book blockbusters we’re all getting a bit sick of. The plot may draw on another creaky comic cliché – Batman inadvertently adopts adorable orphan Robin (Michael Cera) and has no idea what to do with him – but ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ is so jam-packed with ideas, asides and barmy cameos (Lego Bane! Lego Marlon Brando! Lego gremlins!) that there’s barely time to notice. Some of it might go over kids’ heads – there’s a running gag about ‘Jerry Maguire’ that will bemuse anyone under 35 – but they will lap up the frenetic action and slapstick.

Like its predecessor, ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ also manages to find an emotional centre among all this mayhem. Batman may be outwardly invincible, but deep down he’s a lonely, abrasive soul, refusing to admit to The Joker (Zach Galifianakis) that their adversarial relationship is special (‘I like to fight around’). His quest to discover the meaning of friendship and family proves borderline cheesy but ultimately rather affecting, and makes ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ feel like more than just another hectic pop-culture pastiche.

John Wick: Chapter Two

Keanu Reeves is back as the savage but sensitive hitman in this wildly enjoyable and ridiculous action flick

Before you get funny, no, they haven’t come for his cat this time. Keanu Reeves is back as the taciturn ex-assassin prone to murderous rages: 2014’s ‘John Wick’ saw him taking on the Russian mobsters who killed his dog (it reminded him of his dead wife, so he was all upset). But now it turns out John’s unsanctioned rampage broke the laws that all hired killers follow, and he’ll have to face the consequences. The ensuing hijinks will take him from New York to Rome and back again, staying one step ahead of his former colleagues.

‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ opens with a movie projected on a wall, as our hero races past an outdoor screening of a silent slapstick comedy. It’s an unsubtle but appropriate image: none of this is meant to be taken too seriously, just sit back and enjoy the stunts, the speed, the style. Reeves has more than a touch of Buster Keaton about him too, staying stony-faced as he blasts, karate-kicks and throat-punches his way through literally hundreds of faceless underworld goons.

And what a stupendously entertaining ride it is. Director and former stuntman Chad Stahelski is back in the director’s chair, and he knows his craft inside out: every punch lands hard, every gunshot roars like thunder. Neon-lit and gloomy, the film is lovely to look at – think Nicolas Winding Refn without the pretension. The humour is charmingly self-deprecating – a series of adversarial grunt-offs between Reeves and fellow assassin Cassian (Common) are a highlight – and the testosterone-heavy supporting cast is terrific: Laurence Fishburne, Franco Nero, Ian McShane, ‘Warriors’ legend David Patrick Kelly and even Peter Serafinowicz all grab their moment in the spotlight. But it’s Keanu’s film, and he’s a joy to watch: loose, long-limbed and achingly cool in a three-piece black suit, he makes mass murder look completely effortless.

Logan

In what may be his final film as Wolverine, Hugh Jackman takes it deeper and darker in an appropriately apocalyptic superhero movie

America lies on the brink of ruin in this bleak and bruising comic-book road movie. It’s 2029 and Logan aka James Howlett aka The Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is working as a limo driver in El Paso, Texas, occasionally hopping over the Mexican border to deliver much-needed pharmaceuticals to his Alzheimer's-stricken former mentor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). The mutant race has been all but wiped out thanks to a combination of shady government interference and Charles's own inability to control his powers. But when Logan is tasked with looking after Laura (Dafne Keen), the first mutant child born in decades, he's forced to make a decision: keep running, or gear up for one final stand.

Jackman has repeatedly suggested that 'Logan' will mark his farewell to a character he's been tied to for 17 years and seven films. If so, it's a fitting swansong: in stark contrast to most Marvel movies, particularly last year's peppy but pointless 'X-Men: Apocalypse', this feels more like a wake than a party. The colours are muted, all rust-red and glowering grey, and the themes are weighty: loss, ageing and deep, almost unbearable regret. We're never given a full picture of how the world got so messed up, just glimpses of institutional brutality and corporate power, of ordinary people ground under the heel of an increasingly uncaring system. Given that the film went into production well before the earth-shaking events of November 2016, it all feels frighteningly prescient.

It's also, with the arguable exception of 'Watchmen', the most unremittingly violent superhero movie to date: throats are torn out, skulls shattered and limbs sliced as Logan and Laura cut a bloody course through the American heartland, on the trail of a mutant sanctuary that may not even exist. Jackman is all growl and gristle, the character's lovable grouchiness turned to outright rage. But Stewart is the film's faltering heart, as a man reeling from the destruction of everything he worked a lifetime to build.

The beat-em-up finale is frustratingly illogical, offering nothing we haven't already seen. The script can be heavy-handed, too, cementing its neo-western credentials by incorporating Alan Ladd's iconic farewell speech from the 1950s western 'Shane', twice. But overall, 'Logan' is something rather special: a moving and mournful story of life at the end of the line, and the perfect blockbuster for these embittered times.

Certain Women

Kelly Reichardt brings a delicate touch to a trio of Montana-set stories dominated by complex women and starring Kristen Stewart and Michelle Williams

A slow-burn, low-key indie drama made up of three tales linked by geography and the inner lives of its female characters, ‘Certain Women’ feels almost like a summary of writer-director Kelly Reichardt’s films so far. Another intimate, intensely felt story of American life on the fringes, the new film has the sweeping Midwestern landscapes of ‘Meek’s Cutoff’, the aching loneliness of ‘Wendy and Lucy’ and the shaggy-bearded men of ‘Old Joy’. Adapted from short stories by Maile Meloy, ‘Certain Women’ also has a strong whiff of Raymond Carver about it: three precise, emotionally direct tales of promise and despair.

The setting is Montana in winter, where the Rocky Mountains roll down into the dry, open plains. In the first and funniest story, a lawyer (Laura Dern) has to deal with a client on the verge of losing his mind; in the drily observational second tale, a wife and mother (Michelle Williams) meets an elderly man (René Auberjonois) about buying some vintage sandstone, and has to cope with her husband’s tactlessness. But its the final story that hits the hardest, as an isolated horse trainer (extraordinary newcomer Lily Gladstone) wanders into a night class on education law and promptly falls in love, or something like it, with the teacher (Kristen Stewart).

‘Certain Women’ moves, as all Reichardt’s films do, at a languid pace, and a handful of characters – notably Williams’s – could have been a little more developed. But it's hard to recall a movie with such a precise, immersive sense of place, and the very specific mood that comes with it: stunningly photographed on celluloid in shades of brown and grey, the screen is filled with sprawling ranges, huge skies, wide open prairies. The stories themselves are intimate by comparison, and it’s from this meeting of ‘small’ lives and grand vistas that ‘Certain Women’ draws its strength.

Elle

Dutch provocateur Paul Verhoeven gets back to basics with a nutso  rape-revenge script and the fearless Isabelle Huppert.

At the start of 'Elle', the final credit to appear in the darkness (over the sounds of fucking) tells us that we’re about to watch a Paul Verhoeven film. Really? Call it a delicious redundancy. 'Elle' might just be the most Verhoeveny film yet, due to its willingness to push buttons, explore transgressive territory and take constant delight in venturing where the vast majority of filmmakers would fear to tread even lightly. This is, after all, the man who gave us 'Basic Instinct' and 'Showgirls'.

Adapted by David Birke from the novel by Philippe Djian, 'Elle' has an ace up its sleeve in the form of Isabelle Huppert, who gives a fierce (and impeccably dressed) performance as Michele, a video-game–company founder living in Paris. Those midcoital moans we heard? Michele is being raped in her living room by a ski-masked assailant. Already, her life’s been hard: she’s the daughter of a notorious mass murderer. Perhaps growing up despised by the media and the public is part of why she does not respond conventionally to her attacker but begins to seek him out, in a challenging story that will surely upset a lot of people (not that Verhoeven minds).

'Elle' is really at least three films at once: First, there’s the comedy of manners involving Michele’s adult son, mother, ex-husband and their respective other halves. A dinner party plays out exquisitely, with many tiny moments to cherish, not least Michele forgetting – or bitchily pretending to forget – the name of her Liza Minnelli–esque mom’s latest boy toy. At other moments, 'Elle' plays like a sophisticated thriller, the mystery of the masked attacker shifting and reshaping itself as we share in Michele’s heightened state of cool appraisal, scanning every man onscreen to figure out whether he might be the one.

But it’s the third film, a complex psychological portrait of an unusual woman, that might be the most alluring. As it progresses, 'Elle' takes a deep dive into dangerous territory that could be viewed as toxic misogyny or a disturbing provocation. The sheer brilliance and mastery of Huppert’s controlled, multifaceted performance will help to rally support to the latter perspective. Whatever your take, it’s a movie that will inspire debate for decades to come.

#best movies #hollywood top ten #best movie #mtv #oscars #grammys #emmys #batman #lego #logan

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libidomechanica · 5 years ago

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Untitled Poem # 7616

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