DAMIEN RILEY, world musician and performer

Author: Damien Riley

  • Walt Before Mickey

    “I am working on a new style of animation that I know you will be interested in.” -Walt Disney

    Directed by
    Khoa Le

    Writing Credits
    Arthur L. Bernstein, Armando Gutierrez, Timothy Susanin, Frank Licari

    Cast
    Jodie Sweetin
    as Charlotte Disney
    Jon Heder
    as Roy Disney
    David Henrie
    as Rudy Ising

    Who doesn’t love Disneyland and Mickey Mouse? The mysterious background of the Disney empire is unveiled in the park itself in several exhibits, in books, and other media. Unfortunately it has never graced the silver screen, until now.

    This film is a delight to watch but I can’t say the performances are Oscar worthy. It actually presented like the kid of movie you’d see inside the park about Walt. The lines are delivered in a rote fashion and the characters are not  very developed. All this just goes to show you how powerful Disney’s story is. I enjoyed every minute of it.

    We see into Walt’s early family life. His father was not supportive. Still later on, he did provide a small financial contribution to Walt’s first company. At one point Walt says, “We don’t know anything about business, but we’ll learn.” He and his hired hands do learn things at the school of hard knocks. He is cheated in a scandalous move by none other than the Felix the Cat creator.

    If you ever wondered how Walt Disney got started, this is a good one to go see. Don’t go in expecting an amazing biography but you will see a compelling beginning of a miraculous man’s creative life.

  • Seventh Son

    “Seventh Son” is a masterpiece replete with witches, dragons, shape shifters, “spooks,” creatures, and other engaging remnants from medieval mythology.

    Seventh_Son_Poster

    Seventh Son (2014)
    Cast

    Jeff Bridges as Master Gregory
    Ben Barnes as Tom Ward
    Julianne Moore as Mother Malkin

    Directed by

    Sergei Bodrov

    Written by

    Charles Leavitt, Steven Knight

    Other Info

    Action, Adventure, Fantasy
    Rated PG-13
    1h 24min

    Can witches save the day? I suppose in “Seventh Son” they can try. Our age-old fascination with witches is shown on the big screen here. There is a new concept I hadn’t heard of called the “spook” profession. These are basically witch hunters. They are endowed and recruited through generations to destroy bad witches. Jeff Bridges is a powerful one. Ironically we find he once had a romance with a witch but he is evermore hateful of witches and his occupation is to burn them so they don’t cause cataclysmic trouble.

    And so we have the backdrop for this epic tale. It’s more sorcery than good and evil. We learn that sometimes good witches watch over the land as other times, evil humans do more hard than any evil witch could ever do. This story line requires your full attention so if you’re a “multitasker” as you watch films, you’ll need to set your phone down and take in the foundation of the story which are very interesting indeed.

    Like so many movies these days, it is based on a book. I can’t imagine a book being as visually stunning as this film is. I felt like I was on a swashbuckling roller coaster most the time. The effects didn’t come cheap, the film cost almost 100 million dollars to make. The good news for them is that it did well at the box office earning well above and beyond its costs. I gave this quasi-medieval action, adventure, fantasy a perfect 5 stars. I recommend it!

  • My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2

    “Pull my neck back, I’ll pull yours.” -relatives posing for a photo

    Sequels are rarely good and this one isn’t good at all. Written by comic, Nia Vardalos, it shows a definite need for a writing partner or team. It’s a redo of the gags from the first movie with no real “new” message for the audience. I was shocked to see this film was produced by Tom Hanks. I suppose he thought it would make him money based on the first film in the franchise. I wonder if he visited the set and offerred his advice to the director.

    My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016)
    Cast
    Nia Vardalos

    as Toula

    John Corbett

    as Ian

    Michael Constantine

    as Gus

    Directed by
    Kirk Jones
    Written by
    Nia Vardalos
    Other Info

    Comedy, Romance
    Rated PG-13
    94 min

    The best part of a good date movie is one that makes your wife or girlfriend laugh. There is nothing more satisfying on a movie date than hearing her laugh out loud. There were just a few ties in this film I heard my wife laugh: so there you go. In the first movie, the Greek father showed how Windex was a cure for everything but even Windex can’t save this long movie.

    It’s about another wedding but this time it’s her parents. They find out the wedding was never fully sealed since the priest was not fully ordained, or something like that. There are a lot of significant particulars in this movie that I just didn’t care about. The script goes all over the place and when it seems it’s too far afield, they just crack a joke from the first move assuming that will save the scene. It doesn’t.

    I never walk out on a movie but when the old mother and father were planning their wedding it really was like fingernails scratching down a chalkboard: irritating. There were a few gags here and there that worked but overall it was a mediocre comedy moving at a snails pace. The angle of having the parents remarry could have been expanded thus making the movie better. Unfortunately the directors were content to show that Greek women do best married with children. It’s also shown that Greek men rely on their wives for too much and nothing really changes even now in modern times. There were a few laughs and it was a light-hearted movie. That only took me as far as to give it 2 stars though. I wouldn’t recommend this film unless you are just in love with the actors. It lacks the charm of the first film in the franchise.

  • Spring

    Small budget films achieve suspense and horror through little or no financial means. That’s one reason I love watching them. “Spring” makes the grade as a love story with a spoonful of creepy … Make that two.

    Spring is a 2014 American romantic science fiction horror film directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.[ The film stars Lou Taylor Pucci and Nadia Hilker. Wikipedia

    I’m in the zone of avoiding spoilers at all costs today. For that reason, this is a short review. Nothing in the film is interesting except the parts that would be spoiled. The girl is well cast, the guy is meh. Oh yes, and those spoilers we won’t mention. It takes place in beautiful Italy, mostly in the streets where slithering things can hide. It’s a romance/horror. Don’t let me spoil anything more for you. I recommend this film.

  • The House on Pine Street

    This film starts out with the cliche haunted house theme. Soon however, the plot picks up. Emily Goss shines in this one. Plus there is some original, scary material here for horror fans.

    The House on Pine Street (2015)
    Cast

    Emily Goss as Jennifer
    Taylor Bottles as Luke
    Cathy Barnett as Meredith

    Directed by

    Aaron Keeling, Austin Keeling

    Written by

    Natalie Jones, Aaron Keeling, Austin Keeling

    Other Info

    Drama, Horror
    Rated PG-13
    1h 51min

    I’m of the opinion that the haunted house theme, while cliche, is a really cool one for a horror movie. The tricks these days is to make it original in some way. “The House on Pine Street” (Pine Street) does that very well. Jennifer (Emily Goss) is pregnant and she and her fiance are moving into the house the the beginning of the film. As she looks around in disapproval, the spooky sounds foreshadow scary events are coming.

    We get the idea they are a new couple moving in to a new life together in the house but as the dialog unravels and strange things start happening, we realize something different about the couple. Jennifer expresses her dislike of the town and the house and Luke (Taylor Bottles) seems very happy there as he tries to get settled in his new job. Incidentally, he is very nice to his mother in law Meredith (Cathy Barnett.) I suppose ou could call him son in law of the year.

    Meredith is a very strong and odd character in the film. She is Jennifer’s mother and this is her home town. There are lots of scares here and there but nothing is really explained and expanded until the last 1/4 of the movie. As a horror movie, it makes the grade. The only thing that put me off a bit was how it took so long for things to start happening. I think they told the backstory too long. I really enjoyed the ending, not what I was expecting at all. I think horror fans will like this film for it’s creepiness. There isn’t much blood or gore but we see what energies in people (and houses) can do, it’s pretty scary.

  • No Country for Old Men (2007)

    No Country for Old Men (2007)
    R | 2h 2min | Crime, Drama, Thriller | 21 November 2007 (USA)
    Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong and more than two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.
    Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
    Writers: Joel Coen (screenplay), Ethan Coen (screenplay) | 1 more credit »
    Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin

    This western could have been many times greater if it didn’t have so much silliness from the Cohen Brothers. I loved Raising Arizona and I recognized way back then that these filmmakers had a gift for dark comedy and slapstick, deadpan humor. Unfortunately, since Fargo I have found their style less interesting. Sometimes the guy getting shot with a silencer ‘aint funny but it means something deep to the plot. I think of There Will Be Blood, not a Cohen film but it feels like a western such as this one. There is very little irony, just a story about a psychopath getting even with the universe. I think this film could have done better with less silly stuff. Having said that, I am a die hard Cohen Brothers fan and I feel like a dick criticizing their work. Nonetheless, I have to in this case.

    It’s a cast of thousands here. Connect the stars. Tommy Lee’s character is wasted on funny local dialect. It’s cool at first but way way overdone. This same Shtick is done much more successfully in Fargo.

    Javier Bardem allegedly spoke no English when he took this role. He did a lot of amazing memorization, if that’s true. He’s scary. He dies everything you expect him to do. Not very impressive but he is liked by most viewers so this is just a little hang up of mine I suppose.

    Short spoiler: The ending scene is completely ridiculous when he pays the kid for a shirt. Huh? I thought this was Lucifer. What are they trying to say? He’s the truly honest one? I didn’t like that scene. Spoiler end.

    As with so many crime thrillers, you have a guy trying to make it to paradise with a satchel of money and he ends up on a dark adventure.

    This is a well made film and certainly entertaining but I found myself wanting more realism in just about every character and plot aspect. As a result, this isn’t my favorite.

    6/10