ONLY GOD FORGIVES - Review

Only God Forgives

Crime/Drama, 2013
1 hour, 30 minutes
Written and Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Rated R

Starring
Ryan Gosling
Vithaya Pansringarm
Kristin Scott Thomas

"Wanna fight?"

Nicholas Winding Refn is known for his stylish and cerebral sense of filmmaking. His big hit, Drive, starring everyone's favorite Ryan Gosling, was something we had never seen. Gripping story, tense action, and pretty much awesome everything, Only God Forgives looked like a spiritual sequel.
It isn't.
Honestly, it's just Nicolas Winding Refn jerking himself off. I've seen a couple of his other movies, like Drive and Valhalla Rising. Yes, they've visually beautiful and minimal on story and dialogue, but this takes it to a whole new level. Like, an annoying level. I really wanted to see something cool here, but there wasn't anything as far as story goes. It's basically a revenge story. Gosling's brother goes batshit crazy for literally no reason whatsoever, and he gets himself killed. So Gosling has to take revenge on the guys who killed his piece-of-shit brother. Gosling's mother gets involved, and then it turns into this fucking crazy Oedipus complex stuff which is kind of weird. But whatever.
So basically the movie is just really slow. Lots of slow walking down long hallways, lots of foreshadowing. It's just slow as hell. It clocks in at a short 90 minutes but feels like 180. There are a few cool scenes. The action is solid and sweet, in particular a really cool fight with Gosling and the bad guy whose name I can't remember. It's easily the highlight of the movie. There's no quick cuts or shaky camerawork. It's a few punches at a single angle, then a cut to another angle with a few more punches, but you actually get to see ALL of the action.
But yeah, overall, the movie is just kind of empty. I didn't feel much exiting the theater, but it looked like it could've been a crazy kind of spiritual sequel to Drive. It isn't. That being said, I didn't completely hate it, so that's something, right?
Also at one point, Gosling gets angry and screams REALLY loudly and his voice gets high pitched and its fucking hilarious. So there's that too.

6/10

PACIFIC RIM - Review

Pacific Rim 

Action/Sci-Fi, 2013
2 hours, 12 minutes
Written by Travis Beacham and Guillermo del Toro
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Rated PG-13

Starring
Charlie Hunnam
Idris Elba
Rinko Kikuchi
Charlie Day
Ron Perlman
Robert Kazinsky
Max Martini


It seems like people like giant robots. The Transformers movies, no matter how awful, gross a fuck-ton of money without fail. But the Transformers movies, last time I checked, kinda suck. Critics don't like them and for the most part it seems as though moviegoers don't like them much either.
So... why isn't anyone going to see Pacific Rim? It's got giant robots fighting giant monsters. Isn't this what the people want? Maybe even a little bit? I know it's been out for a few weeks (because I've been neglecting to write reviews of any sort) but I mean it when I say that this movie deserves your money.
Everything nowadays is a sequel or adaptation. While Pacific Rim may take strong influences from classic monster and giant robot movies, it's surprisingly original. It's got a clever premise and, strong performances, and GORGEOUS visual effects, both practical effects and CGI. The writing itself, the dialogue, is a little cheesy at times, but it's fairly excusable.
So what's a monsters vs. robots movie about? Well, giant monsters called Kaiju burst out of a rift in the Pacific ocean and come and destroy everything in sight. So what do the humans do? Build MASSIVE robots called Jaegers to fight the monster threat. The but no matter how many Kaiju are killed, they keep on coming. Set in 2020, the Kaiju are becoming more powerful, and there are only a handful of operating Jaegers left. The situation has become quite dire. The film itself takes place not at the beginning of the Kaiju threat, but at the end of it. The Jaeger pilots make a desperate run to seal the rift.
While the storytelling is fairly good, the only thing that really holds this back is its writing. Some of the sub-plot points are weak and predictable. Some of the dialogue is kind of cheesy, but it doesn't hold back the movie as a whole.
There isn't a ton else that I have to say about Pacific Rim. It's an excellent summer blockbuster, much better than anything else out as of this moment. If you're looking for anything action-y, don't see Red 2 or RIPD, go see Pacific Rim.
Please do, it's worth your money.

9/10