Michelle Williams | Geekscape

Geekscape Movie Reviews: All the Money in the World

by MCDaveJanuary 2, 2018

With the worldwide phenomena of the #MeToo movement engrossing every walk of life, Hollywood was no exception to the unmasking of workplace sexual harassment claims. One unexpected casualty of the movement was Kevin Spacey, a veteran actor with a stunning resume, who faces multiple accusations of unwanted sexual advances. Consequently, director Ridley Scott felt compelled to do the unthinkable with his new film All the Money in the World. A mere six weeks before its official release, Scott recast Academy Award Winner Christopher Plummer in Spacey’s role and re-shot 22 scenes in 9 days with the committed aide of his cast and crew members. But how much of an effect would all of these 11th-hour changes have on the overall quality of the film? Truth be told, these last-minute edits are the least of the movie’s issues.

All the Money tells the unbelievable true story of oilman John Paul Getty (Plummer), the world’s richest man, who refuses to pony up a $17 million cash-ransom demanded by the kidnappers of his 16 year-old grandson Paul (Charlie Plummer, no relation) in 1973 Italy. But when Paul’s mother, Gail (Michelle Williams), pleas desperately for Getty’s assistance, he enlists the services of personal advisor and ex-CIA agent Fletcher Chase (Mark Wahlberg) to take care of matters “as quickly and inexpensively as possible”. Pressed for time as Paul’s abductors make it clear that they aren’t afraid to kill the teen if necessary, Gail and Chase try to scheme a way to cut a deal.

There’s a more interesting story embedded somewhere within this broadly told screenplay from David Scarpa. But instead, All the Money muddles its focus and emerges as a thinly-elaborated and thrill-less bout of factual exhaustion. Widely outstretched to nearly 135 minutes of uninspiring and occasionally agonizing narrative, Michelle Williams and Christopher Plummer deliver effort-saving performances that are but twinkles of starlight in a dark and empty void of crumbling deficiencies. The film’s two most-prominent characters, Gail and Getty, become lost in a sea of meaningless subplots. The lengthy amount of attention given to the kidnappers and their prisoner, Paul, lacks the required tension needed to justify its overwhelming inclusion. Moreover, Mark Wahlberg is so noticeably miscast that it’s difficult to tell whether his designed character arc is poorly scripted, terribly acted, or a disastrous combination of both. Either way, this bitter and cold real-life story lacks a genuine purpose. It fails as a suspenseful thriller, it underwhelms as a cheaply-explored character study, and it by no means engages the viewer emotionally. You will find some brilliant examples of skilled acting and a few strong moments of direction sprinkled throughout the film, yet there’s very little else to be found inside of Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World.

Grade: 2.5/5

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Geekscape Movie Reviews: Manchester by the Sea

by MCDaveDecember 8, 2016

After the bitter back and forth battle between Kenneth Lonergan and Fox Searchlight Pictures over the final cut of his last film, no one would blame the director from stepping away from the film industry all together. Yet, Lonergan’s powerful storytelling and vision are far too impressive to keep him sidelined for too long as he returns with the heavy-hitting Oscar-bound drama, Manchester by the Sea. Whispers of awards season recognition continue to follow this Sundance Film Festival selection and they don’t appear to be dying down anytime soon as Manchester by the Sea prepares for the long road to the Academy Awards.

Lee Chandler (Affleck) is an embittered apartment complex handyman living in the Boston area. But after receiving word that his brother has passed away from heart complications, Lee travels back to his hometown of Manchester and soon learns that he’s been willed as the new legal guardian to his teenage nephew (Lucas Hedges). While the teen wishes to remain in Manchester, Lee struggles to come to grips with past events that prompted him to uproot his entire life in the first place.

Manchester by the Sea‘s emotionally-draining and somber story is masterfully complemented with subtle humor that adds a much-needed element of levity. In fact, two of the film’s strongest attributes are writer and director Kenneth Lonergan’s bold script and its collection of extraordinary performances. Casey Affleck’s gut-wrenching turn is an absolute tour-de-force that possesses a quiet sadness which mirrors his character’s scarred past. Understanding the complexities of Lee Chandler clearly takes time to develop but, after all of the pieces are finally in place, there’s no doubt that Affleck’s performance is one of the year’s finest, if not the best. Co-star Michelle Williams isn’t quite given the same attention or screen time as her counterpart, however her deeply emotional work doesn’t go unnoticed. Although it’s safe to anticipate strong runs to the Academy Awards for the aforementioned performers, newcomer Lucas Hedges also impresses with an eye-opening supporting role. All in all, Manchester by the Sea captures its audience with a tender screenplay brought to life by an outstanding ensemble.

Despite its many shining qualities, Lonergan’s effort struggles to sufficiently engage the audience. Manchester feels every bit of its over two hour and fifteen minute running time. The film presents countless lulls that occasionally benefit this character-driven effort, but often stand out as gaps in an otherwise well-crafted story. Furthermore, Kenneth Lonergan’s name is constantly being tossed around the Best Director discussion. To the contrary, Manchester feels like a safely shot and executed feature. Lonergan doesn’t take many risks and, while he should be lauded for piecing together a strong final product, this directorial effort fails to stand out as something spectacular.

Manchester by the Sea deserves to be savored for its wonderful performances and a story that goes surprisingly deep. Yet, the film isn’t always an enjoyable watch. There’s a grim undertone at work and poor pacing doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to sit through. However, when the dust settles, Manchester by the Sea stands apart as a bitter drama that effectively captures a wide array of emotions.

GRADE: 4 out of 5

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Geekscape Movie Reviews: Oz The Great And Powerful

by MCDaveMarch 14, 2013

It’s safe to say that famed director Sam Raimi likes to “dabble”. He burst onto the scene in 1981 with his cult-classic horror film The Evil Dead. Continuing down a similar circuit for over the next 15 years, Raimi tweaked his strictly horror approach with 1998’s well-received crime thriller A Simple Plan starring Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton. From there, the director tried his hand at a sports film (For Love of the Game) and a superhero franchise (Spider-Man). But now, in 2013, Raimi has ventured somewhere very few people have ever gone … somewhere over the rainbow.

Oz the Great and Powerful follows Oscar Diggs (played by James Franco), a small-time circus magician with extremely questionable morals. But when his one true love is proposed to by another man, Oscar is whisked away from Kansas to the Land of Oz where he meets three witches (played by Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz), a monkey named Finley, a “China Doll” and a whole bunch of munchkins who help turn him into a great wizard and an even greater man.

With all due respect to the Late-Great King of Pop, Michael Jackson, director Sam Raimi’s journey to the Land of Oz serves as the most memorable addition since 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. Raimi’s repeated and systematic approach offers moviegoers a friendly reminder of childhood nostalgia without ever breaking much new ground. An over-pouring of visual effects and vibrant imagery make for embellished technological achievements and diluted substance. Hence, Oz the Great and Powerful plays out like a living conundrum. For each of the film’s various glowing aspects, there lurks revisited ideas and flashy visuals. Much like the original journey to Oz that we’re all so familiar with, Raimi pays attention (and homage) to its distant predecessor by molding the entire experience around a wholesome and well-intended “moral to the story”. In doing so, Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful makes for a rather fun and affectionate film.

Although Oz the Great and Powerful can be chalked up as an acceptable prequel, many of the feature’s shortcomings keep the movie straddling the line of mediocrity. While many will and should expect a visual extravaganza, the special effects aren’t all fantastic. The audience’s introduction to “the wicked witch” is a rather big letdown. Visually unappealing and completely unrealistic-looking, the big “reveal” becomes one of the picture’s most notable disappointments. In addition to some faulty visual aspects, Oz the Great and Powerful suffers from an almost unforgivable amount of poorly-acted scenes. Even relatively well regarded cast members such as James Franco and Rachel Weisz deserve an occasional “shame on you”. However, neither of the two disappoint as a much as an immensely miscast Mila Kunis. Despite many blatant flaws, Oz the Great and Powerful utilizes a simple brand of innocent humor and a kind-hearted nature to almost force the audience into a thumbs-up submission.

Sam Raimi’s broad perspective on filmmaking helps make for an enjoyable return to the Land of Oz. Even though Oz the Great and Powerful will never come close to standing up to the towering effect of the original, Raimi wins over the moviegoer by serving up a reminiscent and similar enough story. While I would normally suggest waiting for DVD for a film of this standing, most of its visual mastery warrants a trip to the big screen. If you’re up for the prolonged 130 minute journey, then take a chance with Oz the Great and Powerful.

GRADE: 3/5

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SDCC 2012: One Geek’s Journey Through The Madness Of Comic-Con (Part I)

by Scott AlminianaJuly 18, 2012

San Diego Comic-Con 2012 is now over and I’ve been trying to get back to some semblance of a life, which has proved to be mildly difficult to do. See, this was only my second time ever going to SDCC. My first time was back in 2010 when I went for a single day. This time I was able to get my geek on for the entirety of SDCC thanks to Geekscape. Let me just say that going from one day to every day is a giant leap. To say that my ass was beat by Sunday would be an understatement. Regardless, it was still one hell of a ride. I’ve decided to just break down my experience into one article as opposed to doing multiple articles. It’s mainly due to the fact that some of the panels I went to were more entertaining than others and therefore

Preview Night: Myself and Shawn Madden arrived into the heart of Whale’s Vagina at around 2 pm. We made our way over to the Hyatt where Shawn was staying with Mr. London and Geekscape’s own Rarity cosplaying brony, Shane O’hare. Once the luggage was dropped off I headed over to the convention center to pick up my badge. Seeing as it was only 3 pm and the floor didn’t open until 6 pm, Shawn and I decided to head into the Gaslamp District and grab some lunch and check things out. Lionsgate was going to show a free screening of Dredd later that night so we went by the theater to see if there was a line forming yet. There wasn’t so we went to TGIFriday’s for happy hour. After some much needed 1/2 priced appetizers and a long island iced tea (I was on vacation, don’t judge me) we headed back by the theater and found that there was a line forming but it was still early so we weren’t too worried. We killed some time until 6 pm rolled around, at which point I headed back to the convention center to check out Preview night while Shawn decided he would go grab us a prime spot in the line for the movie.

Upon setting foot on the convention floor my first thought was “where the hell is the Geekscape booth?” I knew it was booth #3919 but I had no idea where that was. Luckily, SDCC has giant banners hanging above the aisles letting you know what aisle number you’re on. Unlucky for me though was the fact that the floor was packed with people trying to get their hands on all the exclusives available. It was mass chaos on the floor with people pushing and shoving trying to get around, it was a nightmare. After what seemed like an eternity I finally found my way to Geekscape’s home for the duration of SDCC met some of the other writers for the site. It was good to finally put faces to names for the first time and after pleasantries had been made I decided to leave the madness of Preview Night behind me and head back to the theater to meet up with Shawn. It was 7:30 pm by the time I got there and a small but decent sized line had started to form. We had a good place in line for the movie…or so I thought.

Lionsgate had been advertising this free screening of Dredd all over twitter for at least a week but what they failed to advertise was the fact that it was press screening of the movie and that seating was super limited. This was a fact no one in line knew until about 9:30 that night when a second line started forming next to the one we were waiting in. To say that the whole thing was a giant clusterfuck and was horrible organized would be a huge understatement. Needless to say, after they let in every member of the press only about 20 people from our line were let in. Yeah, we waited for about 3 and a half hours only to not get into the movie. Sucks to be us. After we let our geek rage subside we decided to call it a night and get some rest for day one of SDCC.

Day One: First stop was booth 1515 to pick up a 50 Shades of Grey button for a friend back east. Why they were giving out 50 Shades buttons at SDCC I have no idea but picked one up I did *Yoda voice*. After that I did some wandering around the floor and took buku photos of everything. Then I made my way to the Geekscape booth to say my hellos and meet up with Eric Diaz and our friend Noah. While waiting in the booth I did manage to snap a pic of Katniss Everdeen as she attempted to assassinate Jonathan. Luckily for Jonathan’s sake, brony extraordinaire Shane O’Hare was close by and able to use his magical pony powers to defeat Katniss and save Jonathan’s life. True story.

Most of my day was spent wandering around the convention floor and taking a shit load of pictures like a Japanese tourist at Disneyland. I even made an impulse buy that I am in no way shape or form ashamed of despite the fact that perhaps I should be. What was that impulse buy you ask? It was a Wampa hat of course! You know, because every person really needs their own Wampa hat. All I’ve got to say about this is that I think I look absolutely fabulous in it and that it will keep my noggin warm the next time I find myself on the frozen tundra of Hoth.

There was a press conference for Disney that afternoon that I was fortunate enough to attend. It consisted of 3 seperate Q&A press conferences for Frankenweenie, Oz: The Great and Powerful, and Wreck-It Ralph. First up was Frankenweenie with Tim Burton there to answer questions about his latest stop-motion movie. Burton said that this movie was something that was very near and dear to his heart and he was very glad to be able to return to it and expand on his original idea. When asked what it was like to walk out onto the stage at Hall H and feel the love from the huge crowd, “It’s amazing you know, I wish my family treated me that way. I walk in the door and no one says anything, so it’s nice for a change to get that sorta thing (laughs). I remember coming here back in the late 70’s when it was at the Holiday Inn. It’s amazing what it’s turned into.”

Next up was the press conference for Oz: The Great and Powerful. It featured director Sam Raimi and stars Mila Kunis and Michelle Williams. Let me just say that I’m usually not one to get star-struck but when I saw these two beautiful women walk on stage I instantly fell in love twice. My jaw damn near hit the floor but being as I was about 10 feet from them I had to forcibly keep my jaw closed and make sure I didn’t start drooling. Yeah, they are that gorgeous in the real world. This was a good press conference in which some good questions were asked. When asked what it was like to step into the world of a beloved classic Rami had one of the single greatest responses I’ve heard. “We all love The Wizard of Oz movie but we were careful to respect it. But really ours is a different story, it’s a story that leads up to The Wizard of Oz. It’s a story about how the wizard came from Kansas to the land of Oz and how a slightly selfish became a slightly more selfless man. And its the story of how he became the Wizard. It’s a fantastic story that answers that question… It’s not really a remaking The Wizard of Oz, so it’s not really something we had a problem we had to deal with.”

The final panel of the day was for Wreck-It Ralph and was just a lot of fun. John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman were in attendance and both of them just hilarious. Naturally video games were a hot topic through out this press conference. When asked what their favourite games were growing up Reilly’s answer was “I am dating myself by saying this but I was the test audience for Space Invaders. I spent a lot of money on Space Invaders.” Silverman loved Pitfall, Joust, and was big on Centipede. Everyone was eager to know how hard it was to get video game companies to license out their characters and as it turns out most of them were all too eager to let their characters be used in the movie. Wreck-It Ralph just reminds me so much of my youth and I can’t wait for this one to come out.

My first day at SDCC may have been over but the was just beginning. Thursday night was the Geekscape party that we co-hosted along with Stan Lee’s Comikaze, I’d tell you all about it but then Jonathan would have to kill me. All I can say is that I saw a Predator crumping, Dark Helmet win the costume contest, and that I saw Geekscape’s own Shawn Madden get in a break-dance battle with the red Power Ranger. I’m not making that up, that really happened!

Come back tomorrow for part II and find out where my journey through SDCC lead me next.