DAMIEN RILEY, world musician and performer

Author: Damien Riley

  • Stoker

    When a movie moves slowly it succeeds with me only if at least one of two things exist: 1) There is a twist at the end that makes those slow events meaningful. This is the “Oh!!!! Now I get it” effect. One forgets about the slow wait because the payoff is worth it. Or,
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    the tone of the movie is pleasant or engaging in some way. This is the “I am so drawn into this movie” effect. In other words, the viewer is transfixed so the slow pace is enjoyable. There may be spoilers from this point. “Stoker” moves slowly and continues that way until the end in a way is neither pleasurable nor instrumental in leading up to a twist. For me, that’s how this movie lost points, it dragged on for no good reason.

    Looking around on the web, I saw this movie has achieved a sort of cult following. It is watchable but none of it is clever, ingenious or, in my opinion, otherwise worthy of cult status. There is likely a backstory someone has sketched out but it’s not worth exploring. It’s referred to as “modern gothic” in tweets and reviews. I call it “modern potential for a good movie.” We have the ancient question of whether killers and hunters are born or made.

    We are forced to draw the conclusion that some people have orgasms after being under murder victims. That’s right, you heard correctly. Some people end up insane for no good reason. Perhaps murderous tendencies are genetic. It may intensify when your mother doesn’t care about you. Despite the slowness and enough belt to hang itself, “Stoker” has a great cast and may be worth someone’s time. For that reason I gave it the rating I did: 2 1/2 stars. It’s not a total bomb. It could have been much better. I’d be interested in hearing from fans of this movie.

  • The Peanuts Movie

    Lucy pulling the football then Charlie Brown yelling “AAAAARGH!” Sally pining over Linus. Woodstock dancing to Schroeder’s jazz piano … it’s all there and the other stuff I didn’t mention. The 2015 incarnation of Peanuts is brought in a 3D animation format by Blue Sky Studios. This is the studio that brought us “Rio,” “Ice Age,” “Epic,” and more. They are becoming an artistic force in modern pop culture. “The Peanuts Movie” follows suit with those other movies. I’m a tough audience member to please because I have studied Charles Schultz and his work for many years. He’s a guy who applied for a job at a syndicate with his cartoons, was rejected, then years later bought the syndicate with proceeds of his cartoons. His is a success story. I think people like the Peanuts cartoons because they can relate with Charlie Brown. There’s even a song about him. He can’t seem to get anything right but he never gives up and in the end, everyone sees him as a good old guy.

    Most everyone around my age (46) give or take a couple decades knows what the Peanuts are. I’ve found here and there my 10 year old students do not. For that reason I am so glad this amazing film has been released by Blue Sky Studios. It has all the gags and life lessons of the early 70’s cartoons and the newspaper cartoons that started much earlier. There is a great song by Megan Trainor “Better When I’m Dancing.” All the music is good in fact. My favorite parts are the Snoopy vs. Red Baron “dogfight” scenes. They really pay tribute to the moody colors used in the original cartoon while spiffing it up with 2015 animation. I won’t try to describe what they do exactly with the animation but some of it is hand drawn and some is computer generated. It works well and preserves the humanity of the 70’s cartoons. I’ve been giving out a lot of perfect scores lately and this one is no exception. That’s a good thing. I loved it, take your kids.

  • Sicario

    Quick review on this one, after seeing it last night, it’s a winner with my wife and I for sure. Emily Blunt plays an idealistic fBI agent looking to make a change in the drug war. She gets recruited by a high officer played by Josh Brolin and a mysterious character played by Benicio del Toro. Incidentally, this role may be my favorite of his entire career.

    There’s a lot going on here. It has already been labeled on the internet as “not for the faint of heart.” That may be somewhat of an exaggeration. If you can handle “Breaking Bad” you can handle “Sicario.” I’ll keep all spoilers out. Like “Traffic” you find out what is going on with the border drug trafficking. You also will probably walk out not feeling happy and good. At the same time you’ll be closer to knowing the stuff that really goes on down there.

  • The Martian

    Films made from novels are usually great in my opinion. I think screenwriting a story without a famous novel behind it may be fading by convention. “The Martian” is one of those hip cool novel-to-movie examples. I read the first few chapters before seeing the movie. The understated humor and NASA space themes drew me in right away. That and the universal praise of the critics put seeing this one at a high priority.

    “Star Wars” proved a global love for space movies. “Castaway” did the same for survival films. It’s likely “The Martian” draws from both audiences along with readers of the novel. It’s already being given “Blockbuster” status in the press. In the story, a manned mission to Mars goes wrong and an astronaut, thought to be dead, is left behind. He uses his ingenuity and tenacity to survive. The movie is well over 2 hours and I wasn’t bored once. I give this one a perfect 5/5.

  • The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

    3 out of 5 stars. For a director to go from the highly praised insightful drama “Beginners” to the medium rated action film “The Maze Runner” is notable in a career. Wes Ball is one to take note of. In the second film of the franchise, “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials,” he has crafted a film much more busy than the first but lacking any visible moral stance. This is surprising given the strong pro homosexual stance in “Beginners.” It’s a proud film that promoted acceptance of gays and the dreams of others. But back to Maze Runner: I found myself at the end of the first film in the franchise excited to see the next one. It was like the end of a black and white superhero serial tv show. ie; “Don’t miss next week when Buck Rodgers tackles an octopus to save the day!” After watching that, you were more than excited to see what happens! Unfortunately, the second film Scorch Trials didn’t live up to the hype for me.

    The characters were underdeveloped and the story rolled out with a very typical and overused technique. The method is “I know the ending, you don’t. So I will reveal a little more for you each scene but never the whole thing until the end.” A non-example of this technique of storytelling is the Columbo method. In Columbo episodes, we see the killer long before the end. Columbo is the one who discovers clues and we enjoy watching him figure out what we already know. I like his method a lot better. I suppose the “Maze Runner” method only can work when the things revealed are interesting. In the interest of avoiding spoilers I will only say the secrets are contemporary twists and themes. In particular, one of them is currently saturated and overused in film and television. I was surprised to see it used in the storyline. If you prefer to avoid the spoiler, don’t read any further. Spoiler sentence below:

    Kids, there are zombies (yes, it’s true) that bite humans and then the bitten “turn.”

  • Avengers: Age of Ultron

    “Stop using curse words!” This is a recurrent statement in the Avengers. I wonder who this theme of struggling with four letter words is appealing to? Perhaps the fountain of youth is in cursing? Are the youth who this movie is written for the most happy? I have to say, I appreciate a more seasoned focus in a movie that can be enjoyed by 46 year olds as well as those around 8. They still exist do they not? I hardly ever curse and when I do, I don’t feel I have to join a 12 step program. The Avengers is fun and it has amazing effects but you might to a four letter word review in the way its focus is scattered and plot long,

    If a movie is going to be long, let it have killer special effects I say. This film dragged on at times, over developing things that were obvious. Beyond that, the side dramas meant to show the humanity of the Avengers were predictable and out of place. For example, why do Nat and Banner have to get into romantic jabber? If I had to take a pee it would have been during those scenes. Those items aside, there are some amazing effects and it’s cool to watch the Avengers once again bring down the hammer.

    It seems these days that these Marvel movies are wont to pour millions into movies that lack the simple ingredients of good movies. They make money on 3D goers primarily who have low expectations for a story. I’m afraid there was a bit of this here. The movie had several settings and several plots. I would have given a higher score if it had chosen one. Tony Stark had way too much screen time. I don’t know if kids these days know Robert Downey Jr. is 5’5″ and has spent time in jail. He’s a B rate actor that gets too much screen time on the Avengers. The suit is cooler than him yet you’ll get lots of him in Ultron. It was too long but I did have fun with my family. I don’t think I’ll see the next one but many others will, I respect that. I won’t call you a four letter word. There is indeed a fountain of youth and I like to think I live in it. It’s the place where you have your own mind on things and t’s never too far away. I guess in a weird way, this product-placement/formulaic film made me remember that. It comes streaming on Netflix next month.

    This post is partly in response to Stream of Consciousness Sunday.

    In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Forever Young.”