DAMIEN RILEY, world musician and performer

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  • The Green Inferno (2013)

    “I can smell it. My God, I can smell my friend being cooked.” -Lars

    Some cannibal footage is Nat Geo, other is embarrassingly faked, and yet other footage is so well done it’s scary. “The Green Inferno” is a cannibal movie done so well, Nat Geo may purchase clips for its nature show.

    The Green Inferno (2013)
    Cast
    Lorenza Izzo

    as Justine

    Ariel Levy

    as Alejandro

    Daryl Sabara

    as Lars

    Directed by
    Eli Roth
    Written by
    Guillermo Amoedo, Eli Roth
    Other Info

    Adventure, Horror
    Rated R
    1h 40min

    We are all such idealists after we graduate from high school. People often enlist in the Peace Corps when they want to make a difference. And there are those “groups” at colleges. Remember those how hand out leaflets and say things like “Don’t think, ACT?” This film starts out on a college campus where a group of activists are recruiting fresh meat.

    The leader is intense and so are his followers. They want to stop illegal cutting down of trees in the rainforest. Basically, a group of college kids end up getting on a plane to protest the illegal cutting down of trees. They have an impact but the true plot is what happens when they are captured by a tribe of cannibals.

    It’s amazing and scary to watch the scenes at this point. Much attention to detail has gone into making the viewer believe these people are being sauteed and eaten. Justine (Laura Izzo) does a great job as the protagonist. She learns some hard lessons as a result of going on the trip. There are others that didn’t make it who may or may not have learned lessons as well.

    This is a graphic, bloody, unapologetic film. There were times I got chills of fear but I never could turn my eyes away. This film took a lot of work to make happen. The cannibals seem like real cannibals. The director did a really good job assembling them and getting them to tell their part of the story through acting. It’s a truly great horror movie. I recommend it!

  • Days of Heaven (1978)

    Your eyes… Your ears… Your senses… will be overwhelmed. In 1910, a Chicago steel worker accidentally kills his supervisor and flees to the Texas panhandle with his girlfriend and little sister to work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer. Listen to me act out my review below :) OR just continue reading below that.

    A love triangle, a swarm of locusts, a hellish fire—Malick captures it all with dreamlike authenticity, creating at once a timeless American idyll and a gritty evocation of turn-of-the-century labor.

    Days of Heaven (1978)
    PG | 1h 34min | Drama, Romance | 6 October 1978 (USA)

    A hot-tempered farm laborer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.
    Director: Terrence Malick
    Writer: Terrence Malick
    Stars: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard

    This is a nice little story with spectacular cinematography. It’s a piece of American art in cinema that stays with you after the closing credits have run. There is a little here about a lot of things: liberty, justice, wealth, poverty, and the American way to happiness. This has been called the best reviewed film in history. Will I be in that camp? Wait and see. Let me tell you a bit about this director: Terrence Malick. This director is one of the most interesting ones I’ve yet to learn about. He found his way after 18 by attending Harvard. That’s not your average college folks. To get his undergrad degree he must have shown discipline and fortitude. After that as time neared the 1970’s he decided to make short films and eventually graduated from a film school. Now, Harvard and film school don’r automatically make a great director but in this case, they did. He directed “Badlands” with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Like “Days of Heaven” this film deals with the gatekeepers that prevent certain people from achieving the American Dream. It also deals with infatuation, evil, drive, manipulation, and murder. But we’ll save “Badlands” for another day.

    Now, let’s take a look at a few of the actors and the characters they play. Richard Gere plays Bill. He’s the one you have to hake up your mind whether he’s a criminal, evil, or just a desperate man trying to survive. Shoveling coal, he gets in an argument with his boss and accidentally kills him. After that he takes his girlfriend and girlfriend’s sister on the run for he knows he will be executed if caught.

    In the new town, we see more of Abby, played by Brooke Adams. Incidentally, it was really educational for me as a reviewer to see her in this film. I knew her face so well from many films but did not realize just HOW many. The long list includes Monk (tv), Man on Fire, and may more. She does a great job with a complex character. She has to fake love a landowner she knows is dying in order to get inheritance for her boyfriend (Gere), and sister. It’s a mess and it only gets worse. Still, it raises so many questions about what is fair when people are so low they can never be rich.

    Sam Shepard, may his poetic soul RIP, plays the landowner. I think you will agree that just these three actors with a good story and amazing cinematography will be worth the watching. It is. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and recommend it to you with a 9/10 score.

  • Sing

    Sing is animals, music, bright colors, a cute story, and … did I say animals? You can’t rate this one for anyone above 12 but it gets full stars for anyone below. I guess if you’re 13 or over and are still a child at heart, you’ll rate it highly too.

    Sing

    Sing

    “A koala named Buster Moon has one final chance to restore his theater to its former glory by producing the world’s greatest singing competition.” -IMDB

    Cast

    Matthew McConaughey Buster Moon (voice)
    Reese Witherspoon Rosita (voice)
    Seth MacFarlane Mike (voice)
    Scarlett Johansson Ash (voice)

    Directed by

    Garth Jennings, Christophe Lourdelet

    Written by

    Garth Jennings

    Other Info

    Animation, Comedy, Drama, Family, Music
    PG
    Wed 21 Dec 2016 UTC
    108min
    IMDB Rating: 7.3

    “The Koala takes the cheese … Hi hoe the merry-O …” Anyway, the Koala is the ringleader of this movie. He is starting a variety show with all the unknown talent in the city. His mother once performed in a local theater that she owned but now he is trying to do it on his own to impress her.

    Koalas are cute in the wild but I wouldn’t have picked this one to be the centerpiece of this movie. The other animated creatures are much more pleasing to the eye than he is. Still, he does a good job putting everything together in his quest to make everything work.

    Unfortunately, I feel this is another “bait and switch” ad campaign. We have been seeing the ads for this film mysteriously simply titled Sing. We saw the pig swooning and dancing with maracas in the grocery story for months. The fact of the matter is, most of the whopping 65 musical routines are very short and they don’t ring many bells. I say that as compared to the stellar Trolls that came out this year where the song number is less but the music is more well-known. I think hiring Justin Timberlake to direct the music on that one paid off.

    As I was arguing some of my criticism to my 11-year-old daughter, she reminded me, “It’s a kid’s movie Dad.” I will leave that magnanimous wisdom with you. Does it matter the story is thin and the characters underdeveloped? I say no and the sound of kids laughing and clapping at the closing credits drove that home with me. I recommend this only after you have seen Trolls, a much better animated music based film. But after that, it’s definitely a thumbs up with me.

  • Deadpool

    Title: Deadpool
    Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy
    MPAA Rating: R
    Year: 2016
    Director: Tim Miller, known for “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.”
    Top Billed Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller
    Brief Synopsis: A former military dynamo turned reckless mercenary is transformed into having a superpower.
    My Word to the Wise: Add another film to the Marvel superhero franchise. It mocks formulas but is formulaic to a fault. As far as Marvel films go, this is more fun than they are usually allowed to be. It’s definitely fun but not what I had imagined. The reviews made it seem like something apart from Marvel, it’s not.

    Spoilers may follow in the rest of this review.

    Ryan Reynolds does a good enough job in this Marvel film that sets out to be more gritty than the rest. He’s delivering jokes almost from credits to credits. It’s funny, for a while. I don’t mean to judge like a puritan, because I ‘aint one fo sho, but it seems like the producers wanted nudity, excessive blood, and reckless profanity throughout this movie, that appeals mostly to teenage boys. It’s so obvious they’re doing it you almost expect Deadpool to address the age group in one of his asides. By the way, there are many asides which is new for these movies.

    I would like to see Deadpool take on Iron Man. This is partially because I never liked the Iron Man’s false bravado. I know the audience would root for Deadpool because, quite frankly, he way more crazy. I went into this movie not knowing how locked in to Stan Lee and the gang it was. The reviews I read seemed to hint at a superhero outside of the commercial loop. I saw that in about the first 1/3 of the movie. After they explain how Deadpool came to be, it because just another Marvel/X-Men/Avengers for me. They act like they are making fun of the genre with clever writing but Deadpool is just a slightly different incarnation. I hope I’m not bumming anyone out who wants to see it. It is certainly a lot of fun as any Marvel film is. Many buckets of fake blood gave their lives for this film and there’s a lot of nude scenes. I don’t recall seeing those in a Marvel film before. Trust me, I’m not complaining, just being real.

    The teenage boys, ages 11-19 will love this film. The older ones will be mildly entertained. Based on the ratings out there in the strongholds: Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB, it’s a “great film.” I suppose I agree with them. There’s a lot more on my mind bout this film but I’ll let it come out in comments on other people’s reviews. I really wanted to love this movie but after all the hoopla and watching it, I just like it. I have a platonic relationship with it. Will I see it again? Probably not. It has nothing on an intellectual level I’m afraid. Because it tried too hard to make fun of a genre that it was itself (it didn’t seem to know that) it lost a star. I have movies that “try.” Because I felt the R rating was sought out of indifference for the ten boys who make up the main audience, it lost another star. It’s definitely worth seeing though and damn funny at times. In closing though, I do not feel it lives up to the hype it’s receiving as “something different” in a superhero movie.

    A lot of my friends loved this movie. Whether you agree or disagree with my appraisal, please let me know in the comments.

  • Weekly Roundup

    These are the movies I reviewed last week on my blog. Get ready for the whopping 2 films I reviewed last week! One is actually a tv Miniseries. They are both quite good, earning high recommendations from me. Check them out if you have the chance.

  • Nocturnal Animals

    It’s a rural crime thriller where Michael Shannon plays the detective in a dusty desert town. But that’s just one part. The other half is something else. That’s right, a movie within a book … or something like that.

    Nocturnal Animals

    Nocturnal Animals

    “A wealthy art gallery owner receives a draft of her ex-husband’s new novel, and once she starts reading it she just cannot put it down.” -IMDB

    Cast

    Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson

    Directed by

    Tom Ford

    Written by

    Tom Ford, Austin Wright

    Other Info

    Drama, Thriller
    R
    Fri 09 Dec 2016 UTC
    116min
    IMDB Rating: 7.5

    I like weird films when they come together well. This one does as good as could be expected. The real fin is the world Michael Shannon’s character inhabits. He’s a man on a mission and he’ll do whatever is needed to see justice is enforced. Gyllenhaal is a character in the same story. He’s a sort of “softie” in a hellish situation. In this film, the unthinkable happens to him and he’s forced to deal with it. This is a brutal situation, did I mention that?

    Amy Adams character is almost reclusive. She has a job and friends it seems so she probably isn’t a reclusive in all truth. Still, she sits and READS and feels the things that no one should feel. I don’t even think she should feel them. But this is a vengeance film. It’s not the kind you’d think but it is vengeance just the same. If all is fair in love and war, then how about crime on a deserted road? Perhaps the title is the hey, I’m not saying that. I am saying you’ll have to make up your mind. It’s the age-old question of what makes us moral creatures, or are we? Are some among us so cold that they could do these things and do these creatures continue unaffected.

    In the end, in love and war, should we step aside and ask second guess ourselves? The truth is so brutal, maybe we shouldn’t. Maybe we’re all nocturnal animals? This is something to think about when you see this film.