Mark Wahlberg – Spinning Platters

Film Review: “Uncharted”

Uncharted is a lot more fun when operating via video game controller

Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) and Victor Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) search for a better movie.

The video game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was released in November, 2007 for the Playstation console. It was an immediate hit, spawning four main series sequels and a handful of spin-offs. When Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was released in 2009, chatter about a film adaptation began to take shape, since the series began earning fame for its cinematic presentation, and Among Thieves is widely considered by many to be among the best video games of all time (including me). Alas, we finally have the Uncharted film adaptation we’ve waited over a decade for, and it’s, well, meh. Much of the plot turns, action set pieces, and dialogue is inspired by, if not directly taken from, the video game series. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The film also pays fan service by sprinkling a handful of easter eggs (and a special cameo) throughout. All of this adds up to a moderately entertaining action adventure, but the best thrills are few and far between, and don’t measure up to the iconic gameplay.

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Film Review: All the Money in the World

All the money can’t buy happiness in Scott’s tense new thriller

Gail (Michelle Williams) waits to speak with her ex-father-in-law.

There’s no such thing as bad publicity, the saying goes, and so director Ridley Scott’s new film All the Money in the World had already captivated the public interest months before its release today. As most readers are probably aware, the bad publicity here was the revelation back in October that the film’s original lead, Kevin Spacey, had sexually harassed actor Anthony Rapp when he was 14. Spacey controversially apologized, but the damage was done; in early November, Scott and the film’s production team made the extraordinary decision to reshoot all Spacey’s scenes with a new actor, just three weeks before the film’s scheduled opening.
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Film Review: Transformers: The Last Knight

This movie goes for Big Dumb Fun, and is certainly big and dumb

Sir Anthony Hopkins about to chew some scenery in Transformers: The Last Knight

A few years back, I wrote a “live blog” of Transformers 4: I Can’t Remember the Subtitle, the first in the Michael Bay x Hasbro series of films to star Mark Wahlberg. It was a pretty silly movie, but looked amazing in IMAX 3-D, as many scenes were shot natively with IMAX 3-D cameras. This time around, nearly every shot in the final film comes from IMAX 3-D cameras, so of course I had to head out to the theater to provide another Transformers live blog!

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Film Review: Patriots Day

Flawed but well executed, third Berg/Wahlberg collaboration is worth seeing

Boston police officer Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg, center) assists FBI Special Agent Rick DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon, l.) and Police Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman, r.) with their investigation.

The third time may be the charm for director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg, who collaborated on two previous films (Deepwater Horizon and Lone Survivor) with middling results. Patriots Day, their new film, is definitely the best of the trio, although it’s not without its problems. Another film based on a true story, Patriots Day recounts the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 and the investigation and manhunt that immediately followed. Working from a script based on the 2015 book Boston Strong: A City’s Triumph Over Tragedy, Berg and a quartet of screenwriters manage to bring the recent and familiar story alive without glorifying or exploiting the tragedy or the bombers, who are secondary characters here, serving only the plot.
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Film Review: Daddy’s Home

You won’t want to go home to this Daddy

Brad (Will Ferrell, left) tries to find common ground with Dusty (Mark Wahlberg, r.), his wife’s ex-husband and the father of Brad’s step-children.

Back in 2010, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg starred in a middling buddy cop movie called The Other Guys, which at least had the benefit of being directed by Adam McKay, who directed Ferrell in the well-received Anchorman movies, and is currently garnering deserved praise for the very smart and very funny The Big Short. McKay’s early, relatively innocuous effort pairing Ferrell and Wahlberg, however, looks like the Hamlet of movie comedies compared to the newest film featuring the duo, a lazy, paint-by-numbers, dispiriting picture called Daddy’s Home.

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Film Review: Transformers Age of Extinction

None of this makes any sense, but damn it looks fantastic!

Did he say "you're entering a world of pain?" He should have. — Did he say “you’re entering a world of pain?” He should have.

Transformers Age of Extinction, aka Transformers 4, is basically a tech demo for the IMAX 3D format. Only seconds into the nearly 3-hour movie, many in the audience were gasping with awe. Are movies supposed to look this amazing? And when they do, can we forgive basically everything else about them? Follow along as I “live blog” Transformers 4: Age of Extinction. (I’ve left out spoilers, and made up most of the times since I didn’t actually write this in the movie.) Continue reading “Film Review: Transformers Age of Extinction”

SF Sketchfest Review: Set List: Comedy Without a Net on 2/8/2014

setListLogoFinal2

Set List: Comedy Without a Net was my last show of Sketchfest and my hopes were high. The show is an improve stand-up show where the comedians have to do a stand up routine based on random and weird topics that are projected on a screen behind them. I decided to go because it sounded like an opportunity to witness greatness and tragedy. Which worked out perfectly because that’s exactly what we got. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Set List: Comedy Without a Net on 2/8/2014”

SF Sketchfest Review: Comedy Film Nerds Podcast on 1/25/2014

comedy film nerds

While preparing to go to the live Comedy Films Nerds show at Punchline today I came to the strange realization that I’ve been listening to the podcast for three years. Almost every episode. So you can say that I feel like I know the podcast hosts Graham Elwood and Chris Mancini and I was a bit apprehensive about how it would feel watching instead of listening to the action. Podcasts feel so personal, making you feel like the comedians are talking straight to you. But could it still feel like that in a theater full of people? I was about to find out. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Comedy Film Nerds Podcast on 1/25/2014”

Film Review: 2 Guns

Quote for the poster: This movie will blow away your expectations!

Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg steal a bit more money than they were expecting in 2 Guns.

There are two reviews I can write about the new Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg vehicle, 2 Guns. The first is for people who have not seen the trailer or read a synopsis. These people are going to be rewarded by a movie with some true surprises, well-hidden character twists, and an all-star cast doing good work. The second is for people who have seen the film’s marketing. For them, I expect the experience to be terrible, as they already know the answers to all the questions the film asks. For them, and this “them” unfortunately included me, it’ll create anger for a ruined experience. Continue reading “Film Review: 2 Guns”

Film Review: Pain & Gain

Anthony Mackie, Mark Wahlberg and Duane Johnson in Pain & Gain

When you hear the phrase “Directed by Michael Bay,” you probably think of some if not all of the following things: giant robots, massive explosions, military hardware, unnecessarily scantily clad and impossibly thin women and an insane amount of quick edits. You probably don’t think “passion project.” But that’s what we get here. In order to say yes to directing Transformers 4 for Paramount, Bay insisted that he be given the opportunity to make this “small budget” film ($25 million) based on a series of articles from the Miami New Times that document the exploits of the so-called Sun Gym Gang. The real story is brutal, full of twists and turns, and more than a little weird. So how would this translate into a Michael Bay picture? Continue reading “Film Review: Pain & Gain”