Crítica - Luke Cage (Netflix)

Me sorprenden muchísimo las declaraciones del señor Quentin Tarantino del otro día. No porque proclamara a los cuatro vientos que le ponía la cruz a esta serie por su falta de fidelidad con el material fuente, después de asegurar que nunca dirigiría una película de cómics por miedo al fandom. No. Es por criticar precisamente la falta de sentimiento exploit en la adaptación. Y es que no me prodigo yo precisamente en el blaxploitation setentero, aunque tampoco soy lo que se dice un neófito, pero encuentro precisamente en la no-tan-marcada herencia de la exageración hortera del Black Power la miga de la última serie Netflix/Marvel.

No tiene la profundidad emocional ni los personajes tan gigantescos que ofrece Daredevil (¡que vaya si ha acusado la marcha de Drew Goddard!) ni la embriagadora ambientación de Jessica Jones, pero emana personalidad, carisma y simpleza a raudales. La mitad del cast es de serie B, el protagonista es todo carisma y poquito talento, el personaje de Mahershala Ali es chirriante cuanto menos y la trama, a la par que obvia, bebe quizás demasiado del esquema de la primera temporada del diablo rojo de Hell's Kitchen. Pero hay una honestidad en esta serie, un compromiso y, sobre todo, un sentido del pragmatismo que la coloca por detrás de Daredevil S01 como la mejor temporada (la propia naturaleza de los crossover invita a esta distinción sobre "mejor serie") fruto del hermanamiento entre la empresa del ratón Mickey, Marvel y el servicio de streaming. 

Sabe lo que tiene entre manos, sabe que la profundidad emocional no es su objetivo, que la historia debe tener carisma, ser hortera, desenfadada, no perder el ritmo y, desde luego, no da lugar a piruetas narrativas. Y es que, como ya he mencionado, el personaje de Cottonmouth puede recordar a más de un infame y olvidable narcotraficante de la serie B más que al bueno de Wilson Fisk, pero ojo cuidado con los Killgrave de turno, que tienen que durar 13 episodios montando planes.

Mahershala Ali como Cottonmouth, el villano de la función

En cierto modo, y salvando las distancias, me recuerda a cuando sacó Darabont su adaptación de L.A. Noir y a cómo se la crucificó por plana, además de lloverle las comparaciones con Boardwalk Empire. La de Winter es de mis series favoritas, no voy a negarlo, pero donde esta se presentaba como un caldero de deconstrucciones trágicas al más puro estilo Coppola, la de la AMC era una taza de expresso pulp, muy edulcorado y con estilo y narices, aun contando con un reparto muy inferior. Era debatir entre peras y chirimoyas, pero una cosa estaba clara, quizás Mob City hubiera sido incluso peor si hubiera apostado por el terreno que pisaba la HBO con la serie de Winter, pero hizo un muy buen producto yendo a lo suyo, con su apuesta reverencialmente pulp, sin, como se suele decir, "mearse fuera del tiesto". Y en ese terreno se mueve Luke Cage, una serie que sale muy bien parada de la comparación con las dos últimas entregas que tuvimos en este universo.

Tom Cruise Movies Universe

There's so much said about how wonderful is Marvel or Star Wars universe. All of you argue and claim there's a beauty on the way they connect every line and every story in something as hard as movies, with all this production companies issues with management, budget and cast aging. But how many movies did they release? 6? 12? Bah. Rookies...

What if I tell you there's an universe composed by 38 movies so far? Yeah! That's right. Before all of this prequels, sequels and reboots fever, it was and elaborated line about a guy whose descendants went to different wars and he comes form an insecure teen to an army lawyer and finally saved the world against aliens to be cloned by those same aliens. An epic story about a boy during centuries, better told than Highlander and more passionate than Gone with the wind. This is Tom Cruise story.

Imagine a story about a boy whose grandfather, Claus von Stauffenberg, was a former nazi who almost betrayed Hitler during WWII. After he died, Tom (let's just call him Tom as we don't have a name) was given in adoption to a man (who already had adopted a boy with autism), and ended losing his legs in Vietnam and becoming nuts. This boy had a second adoption and he got a rich and healthy family with a beautiful and expensive egg glass. 

Poor Tom lost his virginity with a prostitute at the same time he was in the middle of period when he started to doubt about studying law. This led him for the first time to the army, and Tom became a pilot as his first job. But that didn't go well, and he finally quit and tried little jobs as waiter or billiard player. During this period he often dreamed about adventure, a lady and a devil portrayed by Tim Curry. Being taught by Paul Newman happened to be such a huge traumatizing experience that he turned into law school. Everything was great for our boy, but firms are not as quiet as it seems and Tom decided to continue his career in the army.

However, problems didn't finish there. An incident with and officer during trial forced him to use his reputation to become and efficient and passionate sport manager. Help me help you. Tom succeeded. He became a great manager. But, unfortunately, that was a very particular skill for the US army to use in an upcoming war again aliens. Knowing that Tom had served his country twice before, he was the perfect man to lead a media campaign to recruit citizens for this war against an army of aliens with the ability of time controlling. Tom happened to result crucial at the end of the war, but enemies were able to access Tom's DNA an they created clones of him after they finally won he war, in order to repair their own control machines. One of these clones took conscience of his own life and blew up the main machine and himself, saving the world.

World was reconstructed and year by year all of Tom's clones died by natural causes. But there was a last adventure for our Tom. One of his grandfathers changed his side from the USA to join and lead a samurai clan. This man was bitten by a vampire after he died in battle and changed his name into Lestat. After the war against the machines, and once the entire world is reconstructed, Lestat was the only one Tom alive and he decided to dedicate his live to the service of the law, as well as our Tom did, so he joined precrime. Once he was in service, searched into police historical files and discovered that his relative, Tom, as well as we worked as an attorney, he also served to a force called IMF once in a wild, as a freelance. He also discovered that, precisely, the succeed of these missions was the main reason why US Government decided to send Tom directly to the field during the war against aliens.

This is the real story about Tom. Remember that this is just a theory. But, what if it isn't? What if Tom Cruise has been kidding with us all of the time and this was a plan already thought back in the 80's? No. Definitely not.

Top 5 Most Overrated Movies

Most of youtube channels or blogs use to make these kind of lists about best movies and most underrated ones. It's easy because there are tons of people just going around social networks prepare to defend their favorite films, and this assertion comes like a gift. And, on the other hand, we have fans of movies so badly rated they put huge effort on convincing everyone else justice has to be made. No dice.

But, what about overrated movies? This is somethig tricky. What do the most of the blogs and youtube channels when they're about to make an overrated movies top list? They pick most prizewinning movies that all of the people use to complain, and that's all. It's much easier just putting followers against the academy, right? However, are we users right indeed? Is actually consensus equal to truth? Definitely not. There's totally something going on with some movies which their sensationalism, pretentious or plot twists really may lift them up to a place they dont't belong. I know this is going to hurt so much, and it's gonna make all of you hate us but, here is our real top5 overrated movies (WATCH OUT, SPOILERS AHEAD):

5. The Sixth Sense

Yes. The best considered M. Night Shyamalan movie is one of the most overrated movies ever. Why? Because of the twist, precisely. All of the movie is based upon the mystery. It's just an horror movie, well shot and decently acted. The only drama that supposely raise it up to the category of great movie it's just a convinient fake trick. Why do the rest of ghosts look like dead (fresh wounds, puking...) and Bruce Willis not only doesn't realise of his wound, he even change clothes several times and, seriously, how the hell does he set a meeting with the child in the first place? Do you expect me to believe that a ghost could have 'accepting his death' as a purpose? Could any of you guys be able to live for weeks with your wife without crossing a word? Not even a 'who was at the phone?' or 'do you want me to prepare dinner?' COME ON! You even met up with her at the restaurant! Worst twist ever. So, it's not bad movie, we just consider it as a fine horror movie.



4. The Spectacular Now
This is probably the lesser-known movie of this list, but a 93% in Rotten Tomatoes make this an obligatory example. Lately, the increasement of blockbusters has, somehow, ended in more and more independent hits. Directors like Jason Reitman, Jonathan Levine or Marc Webb have come from indie field to the most commercial productions just because of this. And, in this particular case, Webb is one of the producers. Let's make it simple, The Spectacular Now is a disease. A disease particularly created from these hits. This movie is nothing but a attempt to transform the most conventional scripts ever made into something fresh and trascendent just by putting on an instagram filter over it, trendy indie cast and somebody with dinking issues. It's something pretty similar to the case of Short Term 12, but in that, Brie Larson totally saves the day.




3. A Beatiful Mind

Seriously, I've got to say this: I really do like the twist in this movie. I do. It's not actually smart but at least is early. The main issue with this film is that, what's told in it, could have been said in one minute. Just a minute of a guy (I'd rather have a biographer) sitting in front you saying: here's the story of John Nash, smart guy, mathematician, who made up friends and that almost cost him his sanity ad his marriage. And that's all. The second half of this movie is one of the most boring things I've ever seen. It's just a encore of the first half, but now you're sure he's crazy. Precursor of a whole generation of a-holes writing their math problems on the window. Just for that, it deserves to be the first one in our list, but let's move forward.




2. Intouchables

What the hell happened with this movie?! Seriously. The corny story of paralized man who's affraid of facing life and gets encouraged by an stereotyped joker. How many times we've seen this? A hundred? Thousands? I don't know. Has this movie better shots? Has this movie better jokes? Is this fresh or original? Really, there's nothing here but the same old cheesy overcoming story. I'm amazed by how many people can still laugh about the 'My-Fair-Lady-situation'. There's even a 'enjoying-life' montage with Nina Simone's 'Feeling Good'. 8,6 on IMDB. Guys...I mean, both actors make a good performance...but...are you serious?


Honorable Mentions
Although they're not bad enough to be on this list, or simply they're not as good considered and rated as the other 5, there're two movies that has to be mention, at least. There's an issue with the 'He's been dead all of the time' or 'He's making everything up' plot twist that obligates the script writer to be so carefull about the transition to that. Shutter Island just doesn't achieve this mission. Even being adapted from a Dennis Lehane novel, which is often translated into good movies. But in this particular case, it remains the feeling of being too easy just saying that he's completely nuts in a matter of seconds, using a blackboard as we, the audience, were supposed to be shocked by that fact, but the truth is we all have been considering it for the hall of the movie, but we refused to believed the writer was so lazy.

The other mention goes to Hatchiko. A movie just based in making dog-owners cry by the impossible chance that you're dog gives a shit about you. Yes, I recognize I cried like a baby, but that doesn't make the movie good at all. Because of they manipulate you, it doesn't mean what they're telling you is actually something powerful. Think about A Serbian Film. Just because you feel sick of seeing a fat guy raping a newborn doesn't mean the film is doing a great job. I could record myself killing your mother and that's not gonna make a good horror movie. No. Hatchiko is definitely a piece of shit.




1. Fight Club
That's it. Fight Club is one of those kind of movies ruined by their endings. But in this particular case, it's not just the ending. From the moment we realise Edward Norton is actually Tyler Durden, movie starts to fall apart and it doesn't stop. Firstly, we all got it from the moment Bonham Carter's character say his name is Tyler Durden. We're not stupid, we don't need a 9 minutes exposition. Seriously, the revelation montage, the voice-over, the whole travelling moment to the diferent Fight Club franchises is ridiculous, is for real dummies. No one is so stupid to need all of that explanation. Besides that, garage scene is horrible. What a way of destroying the movie! Is this something meta? Is Fincher trying to make an example out of the movie? Is it all about making a great movie and blasting it as an anarchy symbolism? For the record, according to David Fincher, if you shoot yourself in your ganglia, you don't die AND all of your multiple personalities die inmediately. Deal with it psychologists!

Top 5 Found Footage Horror Movies

Here we are! Summer is about to finish and it seems it's the best time to keep our promise of talking here about Horror Movies (as we mentioned it in our 'Who we are' section). There's something about found footage movies that make everyone talk about it, as it is in a bad way or a good one. Many fans see this 'new' genre like something positive as makes easier to emphatize with characters and a very good approach to the experience. However, lots of critics and purists just complain about how companies just draw upon this new technique as it does not requiere a very good cinematography and photograpy skills. Also, this implies that they can be done on ridiculous budgets. The best example for that is the 'Paranormal Activity' saga, which take advantage on how easy are some audience to scare and the low budget require for release on chapter every year.

BUT, there's still hope. Found footage movies can be good and we've got the proves for that, movies that really understood what this was all about, and yes, THERE'S A SEQUEL ON OUR LIST. Amazing, huh? Life can be wonderful (in this case, horrifying).

5. Willow Creek (2013)

This movie basically follows the outline of The Blair Witch Project, which practically started the BOOM (yeah, Cannibal Holocaust...whatever). A small group of people decide to adventure into the woods in order to unsolve an horrofying myth. In this particular case, the group is reduced to a couple, what actually improve the situation and rise the stress, so they have to protect each other. Other winning move is actually something is becoming more and more popular as time goes, and it is giving characters at least 45 minutes to build their situation, emotions and reasons. In other words, create a connection between each other, even if it's based on something so ordinary as a honeymoon, it works. And that's something Bobcat Goldthwait does really good in this movie. But that's not the main reason Willow Creek is ranked as the fifth one instead of The Blair Witch Project. Its succes comes from creating great suspense in something so simple as 15 minutes of a couple recording each other into a tent. At the end, climax is not as good as we could have expected, but it cannot erase what it has already achieved.

4. VHS 2 (2013)

For those who have seen this movie, it's as simply as the short (actually is way longer than a short, but let's consider it a short as this movie is an anthology) Safe Haven directed by Gareth Evans, whom we can also thank for The Raid awesome movies, could make itself an amazing movie. Simply espectacular. That short is something crazy, inspired and with a great taste for bizarre. Besides it, Adam Wingard's short is pretty solid as a mix between a ghost night and surrealist comedy. Also, Eduardo Sanchez makes a very clever flick in Z genre, putting viewers into unbrained POV. Putting them together as a whole movie, it's not so well balanced as it should be, and the tone becomes even more separated between one short and another, but still some of them keep a heart that obviusly love horror legacy.

3. [REC] (2007)

Waiting for Amenabar's Regression and next J.A. Bayona movies, we can say that the main name in spanish horror movies panorama is Jaume Balagueró. Actually, Balagueró crashed in his first tries. Darkness and Fragile, counting with a solid american cast, couldn't end up in an envolving and terrorific story. But, in [REC] he achieved to fright a whole generation in a way no one could before: during the entire movie. Passing the first half of the movie, Balagueró give us a claustrophobic non-stop horror trip situated in these kind of historical spanish building he also used for Sleep Tight. Locked in the building with a bunch of crazy and superhuman zombies (in the sequel they happened to be possesed) movie use screams and on of the best monsters I ever seen to scare us as hell. Such a huge succes was this movie that it had a remake, two sequels (directed by Balagueró itself) and a prequel.

2. Creep (2014)

While in just three days this movie hits theatres, some of us have already the privilege of watching Creep, directed by Patrick Brice. And yes, it's one of the best found footage ever made. Why? Because it doesn't put its effort only in looking creepy (hahahaha TITLE), Brice also give us a reflection about insanity. How far can a person with a mental ilness go? Should we let our pitty act if this person is, in some way, not guilty of his actions? Should we care about him or just run away? These are some of the questions exposed in the film, all situated in an uncomfortable situation. Although there's a few moments when found footage really feels forced and non-sense, those are the moments that you really feel in a true horror movie. But the truth is Creep doesn't need to be a classis standard horror movie, because the amazing Mark Duplass performance is more than enough.

1. VHS (2012)

And here we come to the top of our list! Our pick for the best found footage horror movie goes to the first part of this particular horror saga. Why the first one? Because the level of all of the short is completely amazing, but that's not something that should surprise. There're 5 shorts in this movies, and only with the exception of Radio Silence (and whose short is one the best), the rest of them are citically acclaimed directors. Ti West (House of the Devil), Glenn McQuaid (I Sell the Dead), David Bruckner (The Signal), Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies) and Adam Wingard (You're Next). All of them with great movies on their credits, they don't dissapoint on this anthology where we can find stories such as vampire-succubus horror, road trip thriller, 80's slashers tribute, first Teamviewer horror movie before Unfriended and a fun and creepy haunted house story. Even producers are planning to turn David Bruckner short "Amateur Night" into a 90 minutes movie. To be fair, I have to say that it won't keep you awake at night, but it is incredibly fun.

What do you think abour our list? Do yo miss any other found footage horror movie? Leave a comment below!

FIXING ARROW

It's been a while I've not written supid stuff over here such as Rey Harper becoming new Jason Todd in DC tv shows universe. Yeah, all of us have already guess how right I was about it. But, if that was a clever move, I disagree. I'm sure none of us liked the side-kick-changing from Roy to Thea. There's so many bad ideas coming from the writers on this third season that I can't take it any longer. I'm about to explode if the fourth season is going to be as bad as this last one. So, as a deliverance and something becoming regular, I'm about to tell you, all people in the world, but most specifically, CW's Arrow writers, how to fix the show:

1. Release Stephen Amell. Let him laugh, let him joke. Oliver Queen character is a big son of a bitch, but that doesn't exclude charisma, because at the end of the day he's more kind of a rogue. He can be dark, but also fun.

The lovely tie-arrow

2. Most important point: FIRE THAT HORRIBLE FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHER. He/she is terrible, I've seen nothing like this since Reeve's Superman. Character does a lot of unnecesary loop , use the bow on a pretty dumb way and he is fuckin' slow. Besides, that's enough for the tie-arrow wild card.

3. Romantic twist towards Laurel. I could have never imagine my self saying this but the show needs a li'l more romantic issues coming from the main character, and all of that hero-damsel thing doesn't work anymore with Felicity. They've made her silly this third season, she's not the sarcastic cad carachter anymore. Plus, Laurel is now at the same badass level as she is in the comics, now it's time for that weird relationship between her and Oli.

4. NO MORE FLASHBACKS. That's enough. I already know where the Arrow was, who trained him, why he's tormented, how he learned chinese, how he learnt how to torture...OK. Alright. Cause' this season flashbacks have been sooooo slow and soooo boring.

5. Oliver Queen back. And I mean he getting back the money, he adopting again the millionaire handsome alter ego. Let's se some versatility on the charachter.

6. The villain. This point is not so necesary, but the villain has to be again someone who take it personal. Thay've given us a curious and comic looking Ra's with lots of mythology. But the villain-hero conversations were too weak and repetitive. And with this, I come back to the previous point. Because a coming-back Oliver Queen who deals with the Star City (NOT Starling) jet set could find in the path some villains such as racism, corruption and people's hate.

7. And for the last: THE GOATEE!!

Arrow - A Death In The Family

We're about to discover Arrow's cards for the end of this 3rd season and it seems to be related with the repeated plot of Ra's Al Ghul offering Batman to replace him and becaming the new devil's head of The League of the Shadows (League of Assassins here). But, as we all know and supose, Oliver Queen is not gonna accept this, so many more cliffhangers are gonna be shown and left at these last espisodes (because is Arrow, so why are you gonna write intelligent script when you can just drop as many cliffhangers as you can instead). Latest posts of Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen) and Colton Haynes (Roy Harper) sounding so close to farewell (death in the show) and the name of the episode they were filming "3x19: Broken Arrow" let some evident clues of what we can expect to see on this season finale, or proximately at least. 

Many people are debating and throwing theories about who could possibly die in the show. So many of them argue than Cap Lance could be a reasonable choice, taking account that is one replaceable character and, at the same time, his death could be so dramatic for the Team Arrow. BUT BUT BUT. The other day, actress who plays Thea Queen's role (Willa Holland) uploaded a pic of herself on a set test in order to take an scale model of her face, probably for a mask. As we know, Thea is the one the show called Speedy, who is the Green Arrow sidekick's alias in the comics. This fed my theory of Greg Berlanti and the rest of the gang are planning to introducing the arc of Death in the Family. In this arc, Jason Todd, the second Robin, is kidnapped by the Joker and murdered. Batman fall in depression for this and started to feel guilty for not being able to protect him. As time goes by, Todd reappears as a killing vigilante, something alike Punisher in some way, now called Red Hood. Once we know this, WHAT IF? What if...somebody, for example...Malcolm Merlyn, just because he's a son of a bitch, KILL ROY HARPER (o at least let him die, that as we saw in ... which was her name? Christ! you guys know what I mean! The japanese girl from the island!! awgggg... I give up, according to Dathstroke way of thinking Oli killed her and bla bla bla...) and he turns back on the next season as the motherfucking ARSENAL, as we know from the comics. And, at the same time, Thea replace him as a Speedy.

What do you guys think? Sounds as a pretty cool option to me!

SHADO!! That was the goddam name!!