movie taco: november 2014

8/11/2019 Movie Taco: November 2014

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MOCKINGJAYPART1

HE NEWBATMOBILE,PAULRUDDASANT-MAN,AGENTSOF S.H.I.E.L.D SEASON2PLUS

MASSIVEWINTER

PREVIEW

GONEGIRLBIGHERO6EXODUS

BIRDMAN& MORE


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2 Movie Taco Magazine November 2014


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Movie Taco Magazine www.buzzhub.info 3

REVIEWS

04 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA

TURTLES

06 THE CONGRESS

08 HECTOR & THE SEARCH FOR

HAPPINESS

FEATURES

10 MOCKINGJAY PART 1

14 GONE GIRL

18 EXODUS: GODS & KINGS

20 BIG HERO 6

22 BIRDMAN

23 THE JUDGE/KINGSMAN: THE

SECRET SERVICE

24 THIS MONTH IN DC

26 THIS MONTH IN MARVEL

FROM THE EDITORWelcome to this months Taco.

On the cover is the stunning JenniferLawrence, reprising her role as KatnissEverdeen and appearing on our cover forthe fourth time in three years as the char-acter!Inside weve got the inside scoop onMockingjay Part 1, the penultimate film inthe record-breaking franchise.

Also in our Winter Preview: David FinchersGone Girl, Ridley Scotts Exodus, DavidDobkins The Judge, Disneys Big Hero 6,Michael Keaton in Birdman and much more!

Join us next month for an entire issuededicated to the epic final chapter of PeterJacksons Hobbit trilogy- its going to bespectacular!


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Doctor! I had a horrible dream last night. I was sitting in a large, dark air-conditioned

room. There are hundreds of families around me- mothers, fathers, children of 7 and

teenagers of 17. On a large bright screen in front of us was shown a series of multico-

loured images, many involving model-turned-actress Megan Fox pretending to be a

journalist, some featuring large talking turtles with weapons. I dont understand this

dream, but it was truly, truly terrifying. What do I do? Can you give me a prescription?

Sadly, that wasnt a dream at all. That was what I really spent my morning doing, and

it was undoubtedly one of the most painful experiences of my time as a film reviewer.

This reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the popular franchise which I thankfully

was not exposed to as a child and hence have no nostalgic relationship with, is pro-

REPTILIANREBOOT

TEENAGE MUTANTNINJA TURTLES

REVIEWS


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An even greater waste

of time that any of

(Michael) Bays recent

directorial features!

duced by Michael Bay, which sort of tells

you everything you need to know aboutit. In fact, this is a substantially more

boring film and an even greater waste of

time than most of Bays recent directorial

features (the bad-but-not-this-bad Age of

Extinction included). Director-wise, this is

the work of Jonathan Liebesman, the man

who brought us such modern classics as

Wrath of the Titans, Battle: Los Angeles

and the Bay-produced Texas Chainsaw

reboot that NOBODY saw. What does he

bring to the table here? I dont know,

maybe a sickening sense of misogyny

and gruesome violence inherited from

his Grand Mentor Michael Bay? After

all, TMNT is (lets hope) intended as a

childrens property, yet this film features

so much graphic violence and so many

jokes about Megan Foxs ass that it at

times borders on an R rating. Oh yeah,

Megan Fox is in this film! Along with

Johnny Knoxville who (perhaps thank-fully) barely registers as the voice of one

of the horrifically animated CGI Turtles,

she is one of the main signs pointing to

why this could never, ever be in any waya good film. The problem with Megan Fox

is, and has always been, that she is not an

actress- she is a model who Michael Bay

wanted to dress up and film, and decided

that sticking her in a couple of Summer

sci-fi blockbusters was just the way to

go about doing it without being called

a pervert! It would be nice to say she

tries her best, but it would be a fat lie.

She doesnt try at all. She just shows up,

flicks her hair back and forth, acts REAL

SEXY without actually appearing in any

sex scenes (and believe me, if the MPAA

werent around, THERE WOULD BE SEX

SCENES IN THIS MOVIE) and gets leered

at by the director, the audience and, sadly,

Will Arnett.

WILL ARNETT? WHAT ON EARTH IS

THE INCREDIBLY TALENTED STAR OF

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT AND THEINCREASINGLY POOR DECISIONS OF

TODD MARGARET (which I rewatched

as a pallet clenser following my TMNT

ordeal) DOING IN THIS AWFUL FILM?The answer: paying for his childrens

college funds, I suspect. Also, WILLIAM

FICHTNER? IS THAT YOU? WHY IN THE

NAME OF GOD ARE YOU FIGHTING THAT

CGI TURTLES? The answer: to buy a yacht

in Greece.

The Transformers films are easy to mock

because they try to be EPIC. This is easier

to hate because it doesnt even try. As

Edge of Tomorrow and Guardians of the

Galaxy have shown us, its completely

possible to make a good, well-acted film

that is also buckets of fun and full of

great action. TMNT is a complete mess,

and all involved (even the talented folk)

should be ashamed of themselves.

Were all going to die someday. Our time

on Earth is limited. Please dont make

the mistake I did. Please dont waste yourprecious time staring at images of talking

Turtles- especially these talking Turtles!


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THE

CONGRESS

Very much a film of two halves, Waltz with Bashir director Ari Folmans futuristic satire The Congress getsextremely close to being a great film several times, but almost always fails to reach the theoretical finish

line. Robin Wright stars as Robin Wright, a version of herself (where she would be in her career right now

if House of Cards didnt exist) who lives with her two children, vaguely disabled son Aaron and a smart but

underdeveloped daughter (Kodi Smit-McPhee and Sami Gayle). Her agent (the great Harvey Keitel) sets her

up a meeting with the boss of Miramount Studios (Danny Houston), who proposes that she sell her image to

the studio, who will digitally add her to films of their choosing for the next 20 years. She reluctantly agrees.

Meanwhile, we see her taking Aaron to a specialist (Paul Giamatti) to is treating his gradual loss of hearing

and sight. The fairly complicated but incredibly gripping first 40 minutes set up to looks to be a very interest-

ing send-up of modern Hollywoods reliance on CGI and treatment of older actresses. As soon as Wright is

scanned by the studio and we prepare to see what they use her image for, however, Folman sticks a 20 Years

Later card on the screen and we jump forward to the now-dystopian world, where Wright is about to enterThe Animated Zone. Needless to say, the rest of the film is animated, and whilst enjoyable and beautifully

designed, lets down the promising- and superior- first act.


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Wright is undeniably one of the strongest actresses of her generation, and without her the film would be even more

confused than it already is. Keitel does a good job when onscreen, but his lack of involvement in the animated portion

sees his character disappear unfortunately soon. The live-action part of the film is surprisingly well directed and shot,

considering Folmans clear preference for animation. And what animation he uses! Surreal to the most minute detail,

the landscapes through which Animated Robin Wright walks- the backgrounds filled with caricatures of Tom Cruise

and David Bowie, and Tex Avery-inspired contortionists- are a delight to behold, but while the animated section is

filled with subtext and commentary on capitalism and the inevitable merging of the entertainment and pharmaceuti-

cal industries, it seriously lacks the emotional depth of the first act.

When Wrights animator, voiced by Jon Hamm, turns up, the script begins to lose its way and fails to recover even

when Wright returns to the real world and visits Giamattis now-elderly character.

The Congress is as confused about its structure as its protagonist is about her life. Promising us a well-made satire

but ending up a mess of magic-pill-taking and Gilliam-esque nonsense, Ari Folmans film is undoubtedly worth seeing,

but a disappointing result for what was such a promising concept.


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HECTOR & THE SEARCH

FOR HAPPINESSMarketed as a feel-good comedy adventure starring likeable, funny everyman Simon Pegg, this adapta-ion of Franois Lelords Le voyage dHector ou la recherche de bonheur (yup, us neither) is directed by

Peter Chelsom, the man who brought us the OK Serendipity and the it-plays-to-an-audience-so-lets-not-judge Hannah Montana: The Movie. Pegg is shockingly miscast as Hector, a viciously arrogant andentitled pig of a man who takes his WONDERFUL LIFE in London, living in a beautiful apparent withbeautiful girlfriend Rosamund Pike completely for granted- and unlike in most films, where were sup-posed to roll our eyes as his ignorance and wish him to see sense- the audience is supposed to take

his for granted to. Hence, it is surprising that one of the first observations on happiness that psy-hiatrist Hector makes on his world trip of enlightenment ( la Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love) is thatwealth brings happiness, and I am not wealthy. Stop lying, Hector! You are bloody wealthy! He makeshis keen remark whilst sitting across from a charming Chinese girl played by Ming Zhao. The next day,

Hector finds out that she is in fact a prostitute and sees her being beaten by a pimp. His reaction? Hewrites Happiness is sometimes not knowing the whole story and walks off. Why should this wealthy,uccessful English man have to burden himself with getting involved in someones horrible life? Maybe

because he slept with her the night before? Hum? Yeah?

After a trip to a photogenic monastery in the Chinese mountains, where Pegg is filmed next to someolourful flags in a scene straight out of a Nikon commercial, Hector heads to Africa. Just Africa, becauses we all know, Africa is nothing but a small country! When in Africa, he does several things. Firstly, he

enters his Hotels lobby and instead of striking up conversation with any of the several black people inhe room, starts talking to Jean Renos sole white guy- a drug lord. He later is kidnapped by a war lordnd remains in his cell for 25 minutes of screentime in a portion of the film the studio would rather notnclude in the marketing, and eats the mysterious, rare African delicacy that is Sweet Potato Stew. Theilm clearly doesnt intend to be racist, and actually seems to be trying hard NOT to be. For the most

part, it fails.

Hector and the Search for Happiness makes Ben Stillers glossy Walter Mitty look like Dawn of thePlanet of the Apes. Its not without merit- Christopher Plummer pops up towards the end and is a lot of

un- but one leaves it feeling that they should have been paid to watch this broadly offensive two-hourommercial, rather than the other way around!


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THE

WINTER

PREVIEW

2014


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THE CAPWILL FAL

THE HUNGER GAMES:

MOCKINGJAYPART 1


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TOLAdapting the final bookof a young adult seriesinto two films, with amajor cliffhanger atthe end of Part 1, hasinfamously become thenorm in recent years

with David Yates HarryPotter and the DeathlyHallows starting thetrend and The TwilightSaga: Breaking Dawnusing the method some-what less successfullyquality-wise, but finan-cially a great decision

all the same! PeterJackson took it to anoth-er level by first adapt-ing The Hobbit into twofilms, and then decidingmonths before the first


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films release to make three!Lionsgate unsurprisingly decided to take the same route when hiringFrancis Lawrence to adapt Mockingjay (before hed finished shoot-ing last years excellent, phenomenally successful Catching Fire). Theproblem is, fans instantly recognised that Mockingjay is the book inSuzanne Collins trilogy with the least substance, and is by far the leastpopular. Weve yet to see how Lawrence will stretch this story out to 4or so hours, but the previous two films did often feel rushed, and thetrailer for Mockingjay Part 1 gives us a glimpse at the exciting new

areas of Panem Lawrence will be exploring.At the centre of it all is of course Jennifer Lawrence, who within twoyears has become arguably the most popular film star on Earth. KatnissEverdeen becomes, in this film, the titular Mockingjay- a symbol forrebellion across Panem.Returning thespians in the cast include Woody Harrelson, DonaldSutherland, and, in his penultimate film role (Mockingjay Part 2 will behis last) before his tragic death in February, Philip Seymour Hoffman.


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DID YOU R D EY O U

WIFE?


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Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck)s wife Amy (Rosamund Pike)is missing, and everyone thinks he killed her. Thisapparently simple but increasingly more complicatedset-up is the pitch for this adaptation of Gillian Flynns

award-winning, bestselling thriller, one of the yearsmost anticipated films and David Finchers follow-upto 2011s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (also basedon a literary sensation). With a high-calibre cast andFlynn herself writing the screenplay, all signs point inthe direction that Gone Girl will be a huge success withboth audiences and... the Academy?Starring alongside Affleck and Pike are renowned come-dian/song-and-dance man Neil Patrick Harris and not-

so-renowned comedian Tyler Perry, both cast againsttype in the roles of a sinister Amy-obsessive and Nickslawyer respectively.The trailer, accompanied by an excert from Trent Reznorand Atticus Ross score, has heavy The Social Networkvibes, marking a return to form for Fincher after the onlylukewarmly received Dragon Tattoo readaptation.

GONE GIRL


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LETS JUST SE

HOS MOREFFECTIVE ATILLING-

YOU OR ME

EXODUS:

GODS & KINGS


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Ridley Scotts return to Epic Battle Movies sees Christian Bale and Joel Edgertontake the lead roles as Moses and Rhamses in a biblical epic that will potentiallyredefine the genre. Sure we had Noah earlier this year, but that was a small indiedrama when compared to the scale of Scotts film- which also boasts a moreimpressive cast. Aaron Paul, John Turturro, Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley allcontribute to the massiveness. Coincidentally, Kingsley plays a Pharoah (a rolefilled by Turturro in this film) in Shawn Levys Night at the Museum 3, which willgo head to head with Exodus at the US box office!


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BIG HERO 6


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Walt Disney Animations follow-up to last years phonomenally successful Frozen focuseson Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter), a young inventor living in the city of San Fransokyo who

teams up with his super-cuddly pet robot Baymax (30 Rocks Scott Adsit) and a team offriends to defeat a SUPERVILLAIN. This is certainly going to be the new Wreck-It Ralph,but it could it even be the new THE INCREDIBLES???


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BIRDMANMichael Keaton looks like a sure thing for a Best Actor trophy come Oscar night as heplays a washed-up star of a superhero franchise who puts on a one-man Broadway play

n the latest film from director Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu (Babel, Biutiful). Also joiningn the (critically lauded) fun are Edward Norton, Emma Stone and Zach Galifianakis!


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THE JUDGERobert Downey Jr. returns to serious acting opposite Robert Duvall in this two-and-a-half-hour legal drama co-starring Billy Bob Thornton and Vera Farmiga.

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICEKick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn adapts another Mark Millar property in this England-set Bond-esque spy thriller starring Colin Firth, Samuel L Jackson AND MICHAEL CAINE.Ah yes, one of those and Michael Caine films! Then again, Interstellar is one too!


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THE MONTH IN DC

BATMOBILETHE NEW


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THE MONTH IN MARVEL


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S.H.I.E.L.DTHE

IS BACK!


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THE MONTH IN MARVEL


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ANT-MAN


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NTHS ISSUE

PLUS: INHERENT VICE&

MORE IN OUR MASSIVEOSCAR PREVIEW!


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movie taco: november 2014

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