Jeff Daniels – Spinning Platters

Film Review: Steve Jobs

Sorkin, Boyle get the Job(s) done with fast-paced drama

Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) argues with his daughter Lisa (Perla Haney-Jardine) just before the iMac launch…

Perhaps no picture has been more anticipated here in the tech capital of the Bay Area than the Aaron Sorkin-penned and Danny Boyle-directed biopic of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, based on Walter Isaacson’s best-selling 2011 biography of the same name. Sorkin and Boyle, with their similar frenetic writing and directing styles (think The Social Network meets Slumdog Millionaire) prove to be the ideal team to dramatize the life of the Peninsula-raised inventor, entrepreneur, original tech titan, and icon. Indeed, their picture lives up to expectations, succeeding as both a fascinating character study, and as a historical dramatization of seminal events that took place here in the Bay Area, but ultimately touched the entire world.

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Film Review: The Martian

Scott captures our imagination with riveting survival story

Abandoned astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) checks out his Martian surroundings.

No movie better exemplifies Kurt Vonnegut’s assertion that “science is magic that works” than Ridley Scott’s engaging new film The Martian. Based on Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, Scott’s picture is less a fantastical science fiction story like his Alien or Blade Runner, and more a pure and utterly gripping survival story, in the vein of pictures like Castaway or even 127 Hours. Only here, our hero isn’t trapped somewhere with the luxury of oxygen like a canyon in Utah or a remote tropical island, but years away from any human help, alone in outer space, on the inhospitable planet Mars.

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Film Review: Dumb and Dumber To

Better late than never? Maybe not this time.

Why is Dumb and Dumber To disappointing?… Is it because the new movie has six writers instead of three like the original? Is it because the 90’s style of humor just isn’t funny anymore? Or is it that Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels just don’t carry the same onscreen charm they did twenty years ago? None of the above (well, maybe the first one). The best aspect of Dumb and Dumber To, the highly anticipated (and worry-inducing) sequel to the Farrelly brothers’ classic side-splitting 1994 comedy, is seeing the Carrey-Daniels duo back on screen together. The worst aspect is that Peter and Bob Farrelly lost sight of their own character creations, making them more mean-spirited now rather than the lovable dimwits they were before. Dumb and Dumber To isn’t without its funny moments, and there are a few nuggets, but twenty years should have yielded a more loyal and clever return to the world of Harry and Lloyd.

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Click to Reveal Spoilers: Questions About What Happened in Rian Johnson’s “Looper”

looper-bruce-willis_612x408 — I’ve warned you. Put this post down! Don’t you dare read it before seeing the movie!

Please don’t read this post until you’ve already seen Rian Johnson’s excellent film, Looper. I’m about to spoil the heck out of it. There are some lingering questions about this movie (most of them crazy theories) that I want to discuss with someone, so I’m asking you, the Internet, to discuss it with me. If you click to read more, I’m going to assume you’ve seen it. Click below to reveal spoilers. Continue reading “Click to Reveal Spoilers: Questions About What Happened in Rian Johnson’s “Looper””