The nerds continue on with their month looking at the films of Wes Anderson as they discuss his 2007 film, The Darjeeling Limited. They talk about what makes the film such a pleasant experience along with some of their favorite moments. Are Raul and Brad turning into your local hipsters who are in love with the films of Anderson? Listen to find out all about that!
I’m Luis Garcia, an up and coming filmmaker, screenwriter, podcast host, and now a new writer for The Nerd Corps. I have a lot of views when talking about movies but the biggest concerns always reach the question of “Was the movie enjoyable to watch once, let alone multiple times?” and if an action movie “Does it reach the level of holy *bleep* of stunt choreography?”
It’s been quite a while since I was able to attend a new movie in the theaters. But thankfully my first time back since 2020 was to watch Henry Golding lead “Snake Eyes: G.I Origins”, and since I personally like his last roles, I was excited to head to the theater and see his latest film.
The 2021 film is based on one of the Hasbro’s G.I Joe characters, Snake Eyes, G.I Joe being a franchise based on military styled world organization built on stopping the big bads of the world all while being a secret. Snake Eyes is a fan favorite, if you’re into the G.I Joe’s you’d be able to see why. He is a man with a complicated past and a future being built on fixing the past’s consequences. Since this character is a fan favorite, it wasn’t a surprise to ultimately get a solo film based on his story, and who better to get than the ever growing Henry Golding to play the lead.
Snake Eyes, directed by Robert Schwentke, brings forth a new aspect that usually isn’t included in modern american made films dealing with martial art oriented stories. This movie bring an balanced mix by having the superhero structure, like a DC or Marvel movie would have, but doesn’t just go with brute strength in the action. Being a film that has Kenji Tanigaki, Bryan Sloyer, Kimani Ray Smith, and Travis Wong as stunt choreographers, it’s an platter to fill a fight choreography enthusiast’s stomach, not to mention having Henry Golding showing his fighting abilities. In addition, having people like Iko Uwais and Andrew Koji in the cast, who are known for being from the martial arts world and bringing that into the industry adds bonus points to go watch this film. Now this movie isn’t perfection, not that anything could reach such a level if you want to reach all types of audiences, but if you are looking for a movie that will have action, is enjoyable to watch and you can go to see with friends or family, Snake Eyes: G.I Origins is a great watch.
Henry Golding has been growing since appearing in as a lead role in the feature film Crazy Rich Asians, which was a major box office success. Since then gaining role after role he’s caught the attention of many viewers, although majority of them have been dramas, up until now he hasn’t gotten a role in the action genre.
For this film he had to learn to adapt to taking some hits, while also given some, as he’s mentioned;
“You have to DRILL those fight scenes until you both can do it with your eyes closed.”
-Henry Golding, ET Canada Interview
Like I’ve mentioned, Golding’s majority of filmography stem from the drama genre, sometimes mixed in with some comedy. Switching from these two very distinct areas to action might be shown in an actor’s choice of performance, yet Golding transitions his skills smoothly, having his top game be shown in dialogue while also having any intense dialogue in a scene that has to have a lot of movement. Although, sometimes learning new skills can be hard when trying them alone, thankfully he had great people having his back in learning his new skills, such as his co-star Andrew Koji.
Koji comes from a background of martial arts, as well as in the film industry. He’s currently starring in a cinemax show called Warrior, which if not familiar was thought up by nun other than Bruce Lee himself. Sadly Lee could not take it into production but it’s safe to say his idea is in the right hands, not only having incredible people working on it but passionate martial artists.
Like any other form of relationship, one between stars is important as it can be a telling on screen by the audience whether or not actors get along, and both Golding’s and Koji’s chemistry is out of this world. One could be fooled to think that characters had a past in real life or in the case of Golding and Koji they would be believed to be actual close “siblings”. When you see them bonding, talking or fighting together they mix incredibly well. This is important, especially when acting and doing fighting scenes together as one needs to trust the other when potentially gaining contact in a hit, or when characters need to fight together to make it look like they each know what the other may be thinking without any lines or little indications. Snake Eyes does an incredible job working in it’s fight scenes, which are an important aspect in this film. Both actors, if not all the characters, move a scene with smoothness, as to be expected especially when they spent days, evening and nights working on the steps together.
Of course not only talking about the actors who do the steps we also have to talk about the person behind the steps, the one who created it, Kenji Tanigaki. If your not familiar with Mr. Tanigaki, hes Donnie Yen’s “right hand man” as Golding described it, as well as having worked with Jackie Chan, just to place two names to his level in stunt choreography. The cast described working with Mr. Tanigaki as a nice experience yet pushing one’s limits, not only learning from the very best but being taught proper forms in real life martial arts. I describe this movie as an American made film structure while having proper and more realistic fights than what we would see in other items such as DC or Marvel movies. Not to discredit their work in stunts, but their use of it to show fights is a little downgrade when comparing it to this film. Normally a hero would use their superhuman powers, or brute strength and so on but with this hero film we get the technique that is true to what the real world has used.
Now I could go on about that particular area in this film but I also want to share my thoughts on the other actors, specifically the actresses. Snake Eyes doesn’t fall short to show the lethality of women, as we can see how badass they can be having Akiko, Sen, Baroness, and Scarlett all on screen. Akiko, played by Haruka Abe, is the head of security for the Arashikage clan and is a big face for this film. She is a major character that helps Snake Eyes figure himself out, as well as being there for Tommy(Koji’s character) helping him on their missions. She wields a staff that doubles as kendo sticks, using them as her primary choice. She brings forth the character’s emotional ties towards Snake Eyes and Tommy throughout the movie from the caution with Snake Eyes in the beginning and Tommy’s leaving in the end. Although the film isn’t oriented around her I would say she is on equal footing with Golding and Koji. Now we have 3 characters that have smaller scenes that still show their power, Sen (played by Eri Ishida) who is the Arashikage clan leader and grandmother of Tommy, she has fewer scenes where she shows her abilities taking out enemies with only a sensu which is a foldable paper fan. If that isn’t what we call badass I don’t know what is. Next we have both Baroness, played by Úrsula Corberó, and Scarlett, played by Samara Weaving, who are major characters from the original material of G.I Joe. Although they have minimal appearances in the overall film their presence is made very clear and their fighting scenes are good nonetheless. And to mention, although it isn’t Weaving’s first rodeo in a major film coming from her award winning Ready or Not feature film, it is Corberó’s first feature film. It was surprising to know, especially after seeing her performance as Baroness in this movie. Her character, while only showing up a good amount of times, was sold to me and the want to see more of the her story and her appearance grows.
Now although I love my sweets first, coming from a filmmaker’s background I must bring some critiques into the this. While the choreography was amazing, the camera work lacked not that it failed but more so that certain shot choices took away from scenes. During a majority of the action scenes I believe Robert Schwentke, who directed this film, chose some shots that caused the scene to lose some of its traction, specifically talking about the shaking and what I imagine to be hand held camera shots during the fights. I’m not against using “shaky cam” for shots but when it’s longer than a few seconds in an already high movement frame its a cause for motion sickness, whether you are prone easily to it or not. It was included in what I would call dancing the line of abusing it, it’s not abusing it but it is very close. Aside from that particular camera critique, some dialogue was lose ended, I don’t blame the actors and actresses for how they delivered the line, they did the best they could with what they had. Yet some lines were at the point of not making sense or just unnecessary. Of course some are a thing of context, others I would say were written in a first pass and never looked at again.
Of course these are of my own personal experiences and could be completely fine for other viewers so I would advise to take it with a grain of salt if you haven’t already viewed the movie. Overall it is these two simple things that caused little problems for me.
Nun the less I enjoyed Snake Eyes: G.I Joe Origins and do recommend you go watch the film. It not only is a step forward for Asian representation in superhero films, not to mention the upcoming of Shang Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings but overall a great way of introducing old characters to a new generation. I will definitely be watching this movie once it arrives on VOD. But don’t take my word for it go watch it, let me know what you think, till next time, peace.
The newest installment from the DC Universe brings out one of its best films from the “horribly beautiful mind” of director James Gunn.
We have a new DC film in cinemas and on HBO Max and it is the highly anticipated Suicide Squad film from director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Super). The bad guys are back to save the world from other bad guys. We are introduced to some new faces and are greeted with the return of some familiar faces. Of course, we all remember the last Suicide Squad film and all that went down during that production. Not to get stuck in the past, but James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is the definitive film about the rag tag group of bad guys!
The Suicide Squad stars a huge ensemble cast of Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Sylvester Stallone, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and Peter Capaldi. We have new faces like Peacemaker (Cena), Bloodsport (Elba), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), King Shark (Stallone), and Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian). While we have new faces we are also treated to some familiar ones from the prior Suicide Squad film like Kinnaman’s Rick Flag, Harley Quinn (Robbie), Captain Boomerang (Courtney), and Amanda Waller played by the incredible Viola Davis. This time the group is being sent to fight the villain Starro as it plans to terrorize a fictional Latin American country from the control of Peter Capaldi’s The Thinker.
James Gunn constructs one of the most entertaining and thematically interesting interpretations of comic book characters. I loved our new heroes but I especially liked the care and development they had like Polka-Dot Man and Ratcatcher 2. The film never stops being unapologetically a James Gunn film from the beginning. It is filled with incredible soundtrack choices, witty comedy, and some strong gorey visuals. Nearly everyone stands out with their performances with my personal favorites being David Dastmalchian and Viola Davis. Everything just works out so well to create an entertaining and weird film from the creative body of work of James Gunn. One would hope that Gunn will return for another installment after he gets done with his work on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 but for now we have an HBO Max Peacemaker series to look forward to. Whatever we get after this, I am sure it will be just as good or better than this film. DC has found itself another gem in this movie!
Watch The Suicide Squad in cinemas or on HBO Max right now.
The Green Knight is exemplary in every way possible under the incredible direction of David Lowery as he creates one of if not the best film of this year.
It is safe to say that 2020 provided us some of our worst moments. It was a time that was met with a lot of sorrow, grief, and uncertainty about our lives. In the movie space, we saw many delays while some of our most anticipated films were moved to streaming services while theaters remained shut down. There was something else that we got in 2020 that really made us realize that 2021 was going to be worth the wait. I remember seeing that first trailer for David Lowery’s The Green Knight and I was amazed at what was shown. Immediately I was beyond excited to watch Dev Patel play Gawain and the visuals of the trailer propelled my excitement to the moon, but the summer came along and no news about the film came forward so we had to imagine that it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later on before the year ended, we received news that the film would release in July 2021. My anticipation for this film kept building and building for what I imagined would be a good Arthurian motion picture. Fast forward to the present, I went to my local movie theater (following COVID guidelines) to finally watch this movie and I was giddy with excitement to finally sit down and set my eyes on the film.
The film stars Dev Patel as Gawain the nephew of King Arthur as he sets on a quest to find and face The Green Knight that tests his courage to become a noble knight of the roundtable. The film is written, produced, edited, and directed by David Lowery (A Ghost Story, Pete’s Dragon, The Old Man & The Gun) based on the anonymous poem Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. The film also stars Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Sarita Choudhury, Sean Harris, and Ralph Ineson.
David Lowery’s The Green Knight meets all expectations and blows them out of the water. A concise and reflective film about the struggle between expectations and our quest to be who we want to be. David Lowery’s love and patience for the source material shows throughout the movie paired alongside its exquisite cinematography by Andrew Droz Palermo. Along with its beautiful and moving cinematography, it is Daniel Hart’s groundbreaking score that helps create the atmosphere of our very contemplative and somber film. Dev Patel works wonders as Sir Gawain and truly captures every scene he is in. Him along with the supporting cast like Alicia Vikander’s two characters excel in the acting department.
The Green Knight is special and so far the best film to be released this year. The film takes its epic story to create a very patient film that speaks beyond its structure. Whether it is its daunting scenes of doubt in Gawain or its various moments that challenges the nobility of what it means to be someone as important as a Knight. We constantly are looking at the film hoping to see what Gawain will do to redeem himself and become the man he is set to be. The Arthurian world of David Lowery’s film is magical and never disappoints you throughout this quest of Gawain as we patiently watch a masterclass in filmmaking and storytelling.
Watch The Green Knight in theaters right now.
The newest M. Night Shyamalan film crashes and burns with its interesting concept of the horrors of aging at a beach stuck in accelerated time.
M. Night is back with another film since his 2019 effort, Glass. This time he is back in theaters with his new thriller, Old. The film stars an ensemble cast of Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Kreips, Rufus Sewel, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Eliza Scanlen, Aaron Pierre, Embeth Davidtz, and Emun Elliott. There are quite some familiar faces in here and quite the range of actors within the film. One would think that this means that M. Night is about to lead us into a wild ride of a film especially after watching that trailer. You are not wrong if that is what you were hoping, but this wild ride is nothing to write home about.
The film looks at various families who leave on a tropical vacation, and while there are invited into a secluded beach where time seems to be accelerating throughout the day. This is a really interesting concept but its execution just lacks overall throughout the film. The presentation is interesting but the cinematography is so jarring that it makes it really hard to follow what is going on at times. While some performances are better than others overall it feels like direction is being met. Some performances feel very forced or just fall flat. The problems of this film really feel as if it falls on the script and direction. Of course, the film features another irresponsible portrayal of mental illness by M. Night that seems to be his norm by now that needs to stop already. It is really hard to pull something out of this that is not the thematic conversation being had by an interesting concept thought up by M. Night.
The film excels at bringing up these feelings of anxiety and panic because of situations that our characters are put in that are out of their control. We see many characters react certain ways towards each other or themselves. Our characters are stuck and just cannot move back because they are being forced to move forward without some solutions or comfort about their current situation. Of course, it feels all too reminiscent of our lives since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. For that, I commend M. Night on having that conversation throughout the film that gave it its emotional backbone.
Old is playing theaters at the moment and has no VOD release date at the moment.
The Nerd Corps 