Blade Runner 2049

Should I Go or Just Say No?

Blade Runner 2049 - Rated R

My rating: 4 stars

The long awaited, requested, and not to be retired sequel to Blade Runner is here.  It has a run time of 2h 43min and at moments feels every minute that long.  Just like the first installment, Blade Runner 2049 is more like an epic in its attempt at in-depth story telling and its sprawling scenic shots.  For me it mostly pulls this off and works well.  Also like the first one there are lots of slower drama moments and action inserted sporadicly here and there (thankfully there is just enough action to keep the blood pumping and should keep audiences engaged).

Blade Runner 2049 stars Ryan Gosling (best known for La La Land, Crazy Stupid Love, and Drive) Jared Leto (best know for Suicide Squad), Robin Wright (best know for The Princess Bride and Forrest Gump), and of course Harrison Ford (best know for Star Wars, Indiana Jones and way to many other great movies to name here…. thats what IMDB is for people.)

This movie was deeper than I thought it was going to be and it really delves into the moral questions of Human vs Robot vs Human Robot or something like that.  I really enjoyed the emotional and tangible struggle that K (Ryan Gosling) goes through and how he deals or does not deal with it.

The graphics where again mind blowing just like the original was when it was made.  There are a couple of scenes in the movie where they edit two scenes together with some amazing CG and these really made me stop and appreciate the art form that it takes to accomplish something like that so seamlessly.

My biggest issue with this movie is it’s length.  I feel it needs to be about 15 minutes shorter, however when it ended I wasn’t quite ready for it to end because the world the movie created was so captivating.  There is just one (ok like 5) too many long panning scenery shots that take up valuable minutes that didn’t really need to be there to move the story along.

This one is a no brainer in the Should I Go or Just Say No question.

Go, Go right now, and then Go again!!

You will probably need to see it at least twice to appreciate everything the movie has to offer anyway.

Marshall

Should I Go or Just Say No

Marshall - PG-13

My rating: 2 1/2 stars

This one is a bit of a difficult one, on one hand there are some wonderful pieces to this and on the other there is just not enough.  Marshall is like Shakespeare for Dummies in that you get some great characters but the story is watered down.  That’s what makes this one so tough for me, the acting is really top notch but the meat and depth of the story being told did not match.

Marshall is a movie about Thurgood Marshall, a central figure in the civil rights movement and a lawyer of prominence whom changed history in the courtroom.  That being said, the movie chose to focus on one of his lesser know cases, and that is where it started to fall apart for me.  Marshall feels the whole time like it is setting up something bigger but never completely gets there.

This movie stars Chadwick Boseman (Best know for 42 and Captain America: Civil War) as Thurgood Marshall, Josh Gad (Best know for Beauty and the Beast 2017 and Pixels) as Sam Friedman who is the co-council for the case involved, Kate Hudson (Best know for Almost Famous, Glee, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) as Eleanor Strubing the plaintiff, Dan Stevens (Best know for Beauty and the Beast 2017 and Downton Abby ) as Loren Willis the racist prosecutor, and James Cromwell (Best known for I Robot, the Green Mile, Space Cowboys, and LA Confidential) as Judge Foster the Judge….duh.

Boseman and Gad really almost have a magical chemistry in this movie that is filtered through their own personal realities and Gad does have character arc and growth.  I would say that they are the main redeeming factors for Marshall.  While Hudson, Stevens, and Cromwell all act their parts brilliantly, there is not enough depth to their characters.  There are too many stereotypes with the other characters.  While that might be the point, Marshall just did not delve deep enough into the history of the time or the characters lives to give much more context other than stereotypes.

So, as always, here is the question I strive to answer, Should I Go or Just Say No?

For Marshall I have to Just Say NO and wait until it is released on DVD or TV.  It is a good movie to see eventually with great acting but for anyone with any knowledge of the civil rights movement this movie will offer nothing new or original.