“Beautiful Boy”

Movie Review by Matthew Schuchman- Two and a Half out of Five ‘Staches.

If you decide to go see “Beautiful Boy” due to name alone, let me assure you; the film has nothing to do with John Lennon or the song of the same name. A harrowing tale of the parents of a young man who shoots up his school, “Beautiful Boy” gets marks for taking a side of a story most people would stay away from. On the other hand, it never really chooses what story it is trying to tell.

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Review- “Bridesmaids”

The ‘Staches review for “Bridesmaids” is running exclusively at, Cinemit.com. Click on the picture above to be taken to the review.

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Sneak Peek Review- “Hesher”

Movie Review by Matthew Schuchman- Two and a Half out of Five ‘Staches.

When someone close to you passes away, you need something or someone to help you through those times. The character of Hesher in the film of the same name is basically the living manifestation of the healing power of heavy metal. What starts off as a fairly funny twist on a”fairy godmother” tale, falls apart as the serious nature of “Hesher” takes over.

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Tribeca Film Festival Review- “Blackthorn”

Movie Review by Matthew Schuchman- Two and a Half out of Five ‘Staches.

As far as anyone knows, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid were killed by the Bolivian police in 1908. The new film “Blackthorn,” takes the position that maybe Butch and Sundance actually got away and follows the story of Cassidy about 20 years later, now going by the name James Blackthorn.

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Sneak Peek Review- “Limitless”

Movie Review by Matthew Schuchman- Two and a Half out of Five ‘Staches.

“Limitless” is a fairly opaque film when it comes to the plot. It feels like it overstays its welcome a little at points and somehow lifted its “style” from films like “Wanted” or “Shoot ‘Em Up,” with less action of course.  Yet, in the end, “Limitless” is still an enjoyable experience with characters you will despise, but still empathize with.

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Sneak Peek Review- “Unknown”

Movie Review by Matthew Schuchman-Two and a Half out of Five ‘Staches.

Some people are still surprised that Liam Neeson has become something of an action star. Yes, he showed us his ass-kicking skills in the thriller “Taken,” but a lot of people forget his true action roots in such classics as “Darkman” and “Krull.” His newest thriller, “Unknown” is being subliminally marketed as, “Taken 2: Liam Kicks More Ass.”  Low and behold, while some ass does receive kicking, “Unknown” is a much more story driven and slow building movie that is decent in the end but has some major flaws and tries its best, not to shock you.

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Sneak Peek Review- “Peep World”

Movie Review by Matthew Schuchman- Two and a Half out of Five ‘Staches.

Just looking at the cast of “Peep World” had me worried I was walking into a disaster.  Michael C. Hall, Rainn Wilson, Sarah Silverman, Ron Rifkin, Judy Greer, Lesley Ann Warren, Taraji P. Henson, Steven Tobolowsky, Alicia Witt, Ben Schwartz, Kate Mara and narration by Lewis Black, to name the main players, and you will recognize a few other faces in there as well.  Large well-known casts usually spell doom unless you are in a Robert Altman film and even then it is not guaranteed things will go well.  While “Peep World” turns out not to be a bad movie, it never really does anything to make you jump out of your seat and praise its name.

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Review- “No Strings Attached”

Movie Review by Matthew Schuchman- Two and a Half out of Five ‘Staches.

Let’s just get this said, right off the bat.  “No Strings Attached” is not the inexplicable and  unwatchable cliché fest I was expecting.  Are parts of the film repetitious and predictable? Absolutely,  but the film is not completely sunk by it and Ashton Kutcher is actually somewhat watchable for the most part.

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Sneak Peek Review- “Tron: Legacy”

Movie Review by Matthew Schuchman- Two and a Half out of Five ‘Staches.

When I was young, I was obsessed with “Tron”.  I would walk into the video store and always ask my mother to rent it for me.  To say I was ecstatic when I heard a sequel was being worked on almost 30 years later, would be false.  While “Tron” created a visual revolution when it came out, the movie was pretty flat.  I did have hope recently though that maybe “Tron: Legacy” would make good use of the 3D fad to create an exciting experience on a visceral level; which it did not.

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Review- “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1”

Movie Review by Matthew Schuchman- Two and a Half out of Five ‘Staches

It has always been hard for me to understand people’s fascination with the world of Harry Potter. I used to chalk it up to the fact that it was at first intended for children.  It is just hard for me to look past things such as a new character being introduced that is named Professor Lupin.  As soon as you throw out the name Lupin there is no surprise for me, I know he is a werewolf before the story tries to not so subtly introduce a running theme of werewolves into the mix.  Now the first half of the epic finale is hitting theaters and for those who have read the books know, the continuous darker tone of the tale is hitting its height, but it still doesn’t help when the same old story arcs and plot holes exist.

There is no surprise that a lot of background information had to be cut from all the movies that are better explained in the books, but as always we are talking about the movie here, not the book.  This all lends to what is not only a thoroughly confusing fare, but one that feels stretched out for no good reason.  When part 2 arrives and more answers are revealed, things may change, but based on the previous films it really seems that the writers are just throwing things in for fans or not cutting certain unnecessary plot points for fear of a fandom backlash.

A well-known criticism of all the Harry Potter stories up to this point is that each volume of the whole story just deals with Harry and his friend’s stumbling onto the solution to that year’s problem.  They realize far too late that the lesson they were taught in school that year holds the answers to everything.  The story is no different here, but since they are not in school the answers all come from people they happen to conveniently meet for the first time after all these years.  It is amazing how many times Harry has said, “Who’s that?” in the entire series before whomever he is standing next to fills in the blanks.  With the massive amount of new characters that are introduced in this film it leaves the less knowledgable Harry Potter viewers lost and also leads to the egregious under use of some great actors.

Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Peter Mullan, David Ryall and Guy Henry all play very small but pivotal  roles in the film and all but Ifans are pretty much underused or pointless to have mentioned at all.  Bill Nighy is the massive exception to being pointless, but for the amount of time he is in the movie, I almost feel it would have been better to hire a lesser known actor.  Not that Nighy does a bad job, he is fantastic for the small time he is on-screen.  I just don’t know if it is really worth it in the end.  And for the amount of time spent dealing with these new characters, there is even less time spent with the film series’ greatest attributes; Alan Rickman and Michael Gambon.

Of course, it is obvious why Michael Gambon as Dumbledore is not really in the movie, he is dead after all.  But after one scene at the beginning of the movie, Rickman is never to be seen again.  The great pull of these movies for non-Potter fans is the massive cast of truly amazing actors that round out the movie.  I know the story lines are really meant to focus on the three heroes more than anything now but it is still a fact worth mentioning.

After accepting that I won’t be seeing a lot of the ancillary characters as much as Harry, Ron and Hermione, it becomes obvious that the three leads have actually grown a bit as actors.  There performances become  one of the few shining points of the movie.  Rupert Grint as Ron was the only one from the start of the films I thought had his job down right and he just continues to play the part.  Daniel Radcliffe up to this point was a growing actor, but beyond his amazing talent of delivering sarcasm, never really had the chops to carry the film the way he should.  He has improved his skills a great deal this time around and while it is not an award-winning performance, it certainly is very solid.  Finally, Emma Watson has for once dropped this odd habit of delivering lines in her own made up cadence that made one sentence sound like three different thoughts.  Overall, it made up a bit for the long dragged out bore of a film that is presented.

I give a lot of credit to the writers for not shying away from the very dark tones the books took, but at some points the situations led to some very awkward and disturbing scenes.  It was a bold choice  to show a half-naked Harry and Hermione making out (a vision from a dark force that is meant to twist Ron’s mind) but the imagery is ultimately not necessary at all and feels very clumsy and downright silly.  There are some very funny jokes this time around though, mostly provided by Ron and the surprisingly welcome return of Dobby.

Besides the fact that the production companies could make a lot more money out of the franchise by splitting the finale into two parts, there really is a lot of information that has to be jam-packed into a certain time frame to get the story told.   However, what we are left with is a jumbled mess with too much information being thrown at the audience at a rapid pace within a dragging film.  While the answers given in part 2 will help clear things up, part 1 as a stand alone film is a big miss.

I know fans with the knowledge the back story will disagree with my thoughts and that is fine.  So if you are a fan of the books, add a ‘stache or  ‘stache and a half and you will have your final rating.  At the end of the day, it is still tough for me to overlook all the holes in the film.  From very small things, such as; why is Dobby still wearing rags when he told Harry that once he was freed from his master he could change his clothing?  Or much larger ones, such as; why in some situations do the characters easily apparate (a mode of transportation that was heavily used in the previous film) to escape trouble and then other times they just decide not to use the skill and end up hurt or in deeper trouble?  These types of small to large plot holes have run through all the films so far.  I like to pick things apart and when I have picked apart all the Harry Potter films so far, I am left underwhelmed.

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