Movie Review: The Jungle Book

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland










Michael's Movie Grade:B

Review: Quite good film.

This film has a great and really intriguing atmosphere, very likable characters and quite good animation. In the classic Disney way the story allows itself to get dark without really losing it's sense of fun. Kaa is actually quite scary and amazingly well done, though one may question Scarlet Johanson being the voice. Best of all this film can turn from intense to laid back without interrupting the flow of the movie.

The voice acting is quite good, though Scarlet Johanson may have been miscast. Bill Murray was perfect as Ballo, same with Ben Kingsley as Bagheera. Though some will not like it Christopher Walken as King Louie was delightfully weird. Plus Christopher Walken singing I Want to be Like You just makes my day.

However the film does have a few problems. Most of this is because the other wolves and Shere Kahn, both seem quite underdeveloped for the big parts they play here. Also the ending was a change I didn't much care for (not giving it away though).

P.S. I am personally confused by this movie being called the live action Jungle Book, because though Mowgli is in live action, the rest of the characters are animated. In fact with the exception of the live action Mowgli, there is very little other live action in this film. For this reason to me this is an animated film, not a live action one.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: Hardcore Henry

 

Review Written by Michael J. Ruhland



















Michael's Movie Grade: F

Review: This film has some very clever ideas about filmmaking and a new style of action films. However all these ideas fail miserably.

The ideas of doing an action movie in all first person shots and with a main character without dialog sound like good ideas, but are completely wasted here. They simply add nothing and we are left with bland characters, a horrible story, and gore that exists for no reason other than being gory. All of this is horribly handled.

I hope a film in the future will use this style of film making better, but this film stands as a miserably failed experiment.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland
















Michael's Movie Grade:F

Review: Easily the worst superhero movie ever made, and one of the worst films I have ever seen. This film not only earns it's bad reputation, but it's much worse than that reputation could ever make it seem like.

The whole film is somehow both very unpleasant and bland. The dark look of this movie does not make the film seem more serious, but rather just makes it unpleasant without adding anything. This film is even unpleasant to look at (I can't overuse the word unpleasant because that is simply what the film is). Also with all the versions of these characters this is easily the most bland. There is nothing interesting about the characters here and they are devoid of any personality. The only exception to the bland character is Lex Luther. Instead of being bland he was extremely annoying. Every time this character appeared on screen he just irritated me to seemingly no end. Jesse Eisenberg's performance here was bafflingly bad. He is simply a better actor than this performance, and I don't know what he was thinking here. To make it worse the character's motives are horrible. These motives are for an amateurish pseudo-philosophy reason that this film somehow expects us to take seriously. More than anything though this film is unbelievably boring. However the worst thing I can say about this movie is that there is nothing good about it at all.

Horrible, Horrible movie.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland












Michael's Movie Grade:C+

Review: While this is far from a classic, it is a charming film.

There may be more jokes that miss the mark than ones that work, but the ones that do work work quite well. The story also has been done many times before, and nothing new is added here. However stating that it works well here. This film is very unoriginal and may not need to exist but it still has a nice charm, a few good jokes and is quite entertaining.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: The Lady in the Van

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland














Michael's Movie Grade:A-

Review: Fantastic film.

This movie is very well written, touching and funny, but what really makes the film work is Maggie Smith (reprising a role she played on stage and on radio) brilliant performance. She becomes almost consumed with the character, and all you see on screen is that character.

This film's combination of comedy and drama is fantastic. Both the comedy and drama work very well, and neither gets in the way of the other. Instead they complement each other very well.

It is worth noting that this film was written by Alan Bennett, who also wrote the source material. This mostly true story also was based off his own life. His honesty helps make this film work even better.

Overall this is a great movie.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Movie Review: God's Not Dead 2

 

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland


















Michael's Movie Grade:B-

Review: A quite enjoyable movie. What really works in this movie is it's story which is great, and the characters who if underdeveloped were quite likable.  The story does get you to root for the characters. Even if this story seems very familiar to the first film, it offers enough variety to make it not a repeat of that movie.

On the downside the film trying to tie itself to the first one seems really forced. The Newsboys especially feel like they are in this movie because of the first movie and to sing the catchy theme song for the first film. However judging from the scene after the trailer hopefully the next movie will do this better. However this movie is sincere and heartfelt as well as entertaining.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Silent Film of the Month: Duck Soup (1927)

 

Run Time: 17 minutes. Studio: Hal Roach Studios Director: Fred Guiol. Supervising Director: Leo McCarey. Writer: H.M. Walker . Adapted from a skit written by  Arthur Jefferson. Producer: Hal Roach. Main Cast: Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy, Madeline Hurlock,William Austin. Cinematographer: Floyd Jackman


Since I always post these on the first of the month and this month that is April Fools Day, I feel my only option of this installment of Silent Film of the Month is to do a Laurel and Hardy film. This month's film is the first time the boys worked as a team, Duck Soup. This is not the famous Marx Brothers film of the same name, but this film's supervising director, Leo McCarey, directed that Marx Brothers movie. Leo McCarey also directed such film classics as The Awful Truth, and Going My Way. He is also the one often given credit for coming up with the idea to team Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. It is interesting to note that this film was originally going to star Stan Laurel and Syd Crossley. It is unknown why Syd Crossley would be replaced by Oliver Hardy in this film. Syd Crossley's first screen appearance had been in the short film Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde which starred Stan Laurel.

Unlike other comedy teams like The Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, and The Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy first worked together on films. They also both had fairly good solo careers before teaming up. Stan Laurel had worked as both an actor and a director. Oliver Hardy had often times played villains opposite such comic actors as Larry Seamon and Billy West (not the voice actor but a Charlie Chaplin imitator). Though this is the first time they worked as a team, this was not the first time the two had worked together. Both had appeared in the 1921 comedy short The Lucky Dog, but here Stan played the hero, while Ollie played the bad guy. Stan also directed a short called Yes, Yes, Nanette which featured Ollie as an actor.

The story line of this film was based off of a skit written by a British Music Hall comedian named Arthur Jefferson, who was also Stan Laurel's father. In this short Stan and Ollie (played by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, of course) are being pursued by a forest ranger (played by Bob Kortman) . They hide in a house that belongs to a big game hunter. After the boys find that the big game hunter and his servants are out of town, Ollie pretends to be the owner and Stan pretends to be the servant, when some tenants (played by Madeline Hurlock and William Austin) are looking to rent the place. This plot would later be used in a talkie Laurel and Hardy short called Another Fine Mess.

While there would be some better Laurel and Hardy films in the future, this film is still very funny and enjoyable. The intertitles by H.M. Walker are hilarious, and the chemistry between Stan and Ollie is excellent. However I do wish Jimmy Finlayson would have played Colonel Buckshot like he did in the remake as he was very funny there, but James A. Marcus does do a good if not as memorable job. After watching this film it was no wonder the boys went on to as great of careers as they did.

After this film the boys didn't immediately become a full time team. For instance Stan Laurel would appear in the short film Eve's Love Letters without Oliver Hardy and Ollie would appear in short films such as The Honorable Mr. Buggs, No Man's Law, Baby Brother, and Crazy to Act without Stan. They would also appear together in the short Sugar Daddies, where they would not work as a team.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
The Complete Films of Laurel and Hardy by William K. Everson
Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies by Randy Skretvedt