Tag: Violent

The Language Of Life Itself

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What is the meaning of life, there was a point when I would have said love but if this movie is any indication there is plenty of tragedy that makes you wonder is it worth it… this movie is worth seeing without a doubt. “The Language Of Life Itself.”

One name Samuel L. Jackson, though I don’t know whether to say, way to hide the good stuff or I’m warning you, because you know what’s he’s known for, and even if it is a five-minute cameo, the language is going to remain. I sat in the theater having to remind myself that “Life Itself” is a rated R movie because nothing in the trailers prepared me for this which in a way is a Pleasant surprise, though I saw one mother who brought her son, and an old lady yelling at a studio guy about the language she heard.

If this is what the fans of “This Is Us” watch, what have I been missing, the story though is top notch, and the stars that I recognized were awesome but do I call it a love story, a tragedy, a few laughs here and there but like watching The Lion King after Mufasa dies. You should be prepared for the graphic nature and the storytelling within the film and don’t get attached to characters; it will be a tearjerker if you can deal with the pacing and the shock value of the tale. Now with Fandango appeased perhaps a better explanation of the story would be to call it a series because overall the “drama” while great leaves one with a sense of, I whip my head back and forth, though down is a pretty decent direction just saying.

It amazes me what they get away with on screen sometimes, not that I’m one of those people who enjoys whining about how can they do that but when you compare Oscar Isaac’s character of Will to Olivia Wilde’s Abby well you can guess where they knew to draw the line. Again not with the speech though but I think it was toned down in later parts of the movie, or maybe that’s how New Yorker’s talk… but again I’m not trying to play Annie Wilkes from Misery. When you go from tragedy to tragedy, to disaster, to drama and then the ending but which would I be referring to since I counted at least five couples and the movie could have focused on one, not at all I think.

They were all needed though you only tend to focus on one emotion and spoiler alert it ain’t happy because the moment you begin to feel that well, Life Itself can be funny at times, and I do mean that. Only two of all the couples caught my eye but maybe because I have a thing for girls named Olivia, or I have an idea of a specific type of girl as many of my friends have noticed to be fair, plus it was also the end of the movie.

Attempting to stick to the trailer, two young New Yorkers are together, love and marriage expecting their first child and as I said, do not let the promo put a smile on your face if you’re a fan of the first two leads. Honestly, though I genuinely related to Will and not only in name and I know it’s a scary thought if you go and watch the movie but for a man to be in love so much… and that’s only the beginning of the heartbreak; have tissues ready.

I liked Abby too because she grew to become so understanding and with her past, how could she not fall in love with Will; their relationship is what dreams should all be and something I might want for myself someday. Can’t say I had as strong a reaction to Javier and Isabel’s love played by Sergio Peris-Mencheta and Laia Costa, so of course to give it a bit of extra punch you throw Antonio Banderas as Mr. Saccione into the mix. Though the feelings of the two men wanting what was best for Rodrigo (Àlex Monner) brought a lot of emotion and I only wished my father somehow gave that much caring, yeah that hit pretty close to home honestly.

As I have already mentioned the Lion King and laughter in the aftermath and Samuel L. Jackson is only a brief cameo we have Jean Smart as Linda and Isabel Durant playing Shari, but why did I find it so humorous that they could take the tragedy and turn it into a funny, rooting for construct? However alone, not one character truly stood out and compared to the minimal screen time of everyone involved, that’s why the stakes have to know such incredible heights for everyone to give the characters any depth. In a way, it’s like “GTA V” that everyone who sees this movie will find at least one persona to go with and even more so, a chapter to love and trust me that this film will help with this in a way.

Again for me, Will’s family was the best though, in this age of political correctness, I’m sure that someone will have a problem with that, Americans, a fan of Star Wars, I like the theme song, and the women though no worries on the sex front but considering everyone has kids… It’s also worth mentioning about the theme song that I won’t say yet, that it plays a pivotal role in the movie, if I understand anything about Abby’s college stuff, it’s an unreliable narrator or the only true one.

On the Fandango scale I’ll give it a four out of five, so am eight out of ten for inflation, I would definitely see it again now that I’m over the initial shock of the first time around and yes this movie will do that but do This Is Us fans have nerves of steel or what? From this point forward there will be spoilers, so you know, but I do recommend this film and if you don’t care what kids hear or for them to see you cry then bring them along as well.

One of the things that I didn’t like about this movie, well… people talk about trailers telling too much or featuring things that never make an appearance, “Get Out” deer skeleton or “Happy Death Day” In Da Club for examples but Life Itself is nothing like you’re expecting. I think the tragedy scale is set somewhat high I mean if you don’t have the guts to show one person you don’t get extra for traumatizing the audience with the next death, no matter how graphic, quick but it is quite violent. While I appreciate the good sense to break up the movie into chapters, with most stories the sections correlate, and this was more a miniseries of shorts that fulfilled the overall story of one life that is only on camera for five minutes truthfully.

My favorite parts, Will and Abby, the scene where he is attempting to explain that one day together, and you’re wondering, did they divorce, die, get disintegrated by aliens, and Will can’t seem to make up his mind before. Dylan played by Olivia Cooke; you could see her story arc coming from a mile away, and though her ending was somewhat, unfulfilling, she did a terrific job with the character and the small love story. I’ve already talked about the song which was Make You Feel My Love, sung by Bob Dylan and covered by numerous artists and it didn’t get old or repetitive as many times as it was played in “Life Itself” *sigh*.

Life Itself is masterful storytelling, but it felt more like several great stories that got around to making a good one and is there such a thing as “perfect” anyway, that can be a dirty word too if you think about it. So I’ve done a lot of it myself, trying to untangle it all and if I uttered one final word, it would have to be *ahem* “complicated” which is the truth because what can be more dramatic than The Language Of Life Itself.

Fairytales of The First Purge

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A review brought to you by the word “subtlety,” which this movie has none of and you know it shouldn’t, if the news every day isn’t freaking you out, as this film appears more like a documentary on America *shudders*. “Fairytales of The First Purge.”

Once upon a time in a film far, far away, well as Randy Marsh would say, “I Thought This Was America” and it is, The First Purge pulls no punches and if you’re not looking to be offended black, white or otherwise maybe you should skip this one, because you will be offended. One way or another this movie is meant to rub you in the wrong way but not like Lex Scott Davis as “Nya” and speaking of the cast I can’t say I honestly knew who any of the actors or the actresses were but even without huge names, it’s still so awesome.

However seeing as how this is a prequel to all the other movies in the franchise, is this one came out before The Purge (2013) I don’t believe the franchise would have ever taken off the way that it has. The First Purge is plenty political, some horror and if you want to see a black man honestly save the day without a good white man to be seen you have to check this out though some call it propaganda, I say “truth hurts.” Leave the kiddies and MAGA hats

Fandango gods appeased, okay you want something genuinely controversial, *ahem* The First Purge was probably blacker than Black Panther, now I hear you all booing, being an African-American man from the suburbs what do I know, my grandmother’s house was only Projects adjacent. I’ve never been to Africa and the only time I thought about it was to see what inspired the land of Wakanda, with The First Purge I was brought up with a ton of racially charged movies. A black crime lord is what is going to tick plenty of African-Americans off; this movie has some black on black crime, a killer high off everything and the hero; well, we’ll get to that, no spoilers but get ready.

Now any white people who use the word as I said propaganda has undoubtedly not seen the President and who he supports, if anyone is mad because of that, look in the mirror, and I will show you a racist. I think plenty of people missed the boat when it comes to The First Purge, always too much of something but I don’t think there was enough purging, and that’s one of the points, but I do think this movie is trying to imagine people as better than they are.

At least when the purge first begins, this movie is not meant to be subtle by any means, it’s focus and truly direct, a “This Is America” reference in your face like Childish Gambino and there is no spoon full of sugar, take your medicine. If you bury your head in the sand for all the references this movie displays, it’s still one hell of a ride, if you like guns, your heroes manly, and as was said in the trailer, you’ll see the best and the worst of people.

Long story short, an experiment will take place on Staten Island they call The Purge, residents may leave if they choose but are offered five-thousand dollars to stay and are implanted to make sure. Those who wish to “participate” may earn more, what a way to find out who to purge and two opposite sides of the spectrum, Nya with no money and “Dmitri” played by Y’lan Noel, the rich drug dealer are saying the same thing, “DO NOT PURGE.” We also have “Dr. Updale” played by Marisa Tomei… excuse me for not recognizing her, but who I agree with well her concept even if it was proven wrong, right…

Politics, Horror, action aside, the President is a racist for those of you who don’t know and you see this when Dr. Updale’s theory is disproven and the NFAA steps in, with full KKK, Nazi, and *gasp* cop uniforms, where one man is beaten to death by the police. It gets worse in another scene we see armed white men leaving a church, where they have shot the congregation to death. In one of the lesser gruesome moments, let’s call it a Trump moment when Nya feels the hands of an “unknown” assailant and three guesses as to what he was feeling for, she’ll tell you as she runs away.

Another reason people will hate this movie besides facing themselves is that sometimes you only want to quiet your mind for a bit, but this is The First Purge I’m talking about; you sort of know what you’re about to watch. Show somebody that knows nothing about America and isn’t white, and they might seriously reconsider coming here, which might show how great this country is, if this doesn’t scare them away that’s for sure.

The reason I’ll give The First Purge four stars (Fandango Scale) is because it couldn’t figure out what it truly wanted to be, better than one, lesser than Anarchy, I would tie it with Election Night. If I haven’t given too much away up to this point, prepare for spoilers but movies these days give too much away at this time, but somethings got to me here and there, both great and annoying just saying.

Near the end, the film says, okay you know who’s going to survive let’s have our leading man kill some Nazis and have him be redeemed back with his lady and the community, though you know in the long run they failed as The Purge went nationwide. In ways, this movie will hurt you, but we can’t forget, how the ruling party talks “thoughts and prayers” while Nya and Dmitri show that we must take action. It was ironic that all the guns Dmitri’s crew bought up that the NFAA thought would be used to kill the poor came back when they fought against the goons the NFAA brought in.

A few of my favorite parts, when Dmitri and company helped out “The Three Wiseman” from a KKK raid, and how the citizens themselves would not surrender even when they were out of bullets and were ready for the final attack. The battle of Nya’s building when Dmitri let loose on the Nazis, and Nya with her brother took up arms despite both having failed to kill anybody for the majority of the movie at that point. Who didn’t like the killer prostitutes, that took me back to my days of playing Saints Row: The Third, talk about predictable but yes most of the movie was you have to roll with it, well you might.

You should; you have to if you don’t think we’re approaching these days, hell you might even say we’re there because how are some people punished again but others will believe this movie is punishment enough. For me, I’ve stopped myself from seeing it again a couple of times while I’m out and about, if I want to watch this country descend into madness, I’ll watch the news tonight seriously Fairytales of The First Purge.