Kraven the Hunter (2024)

Honestly, I don't understand why Aaron Taylor-Johnson's abs aren't on the poster. They're definitely the most important feature of J.C. Chandor's Kraven the Hunter. 

While we're talking about it, this is the strangest J.C. Chandor movie. It has a cast like a normal J.C. Chandor movie—ATJ, Alessandro Nivola, Russell Crowe, Fred Hechinger, Ariana DeBose, Christopher Abbott—and they're all pretty great. But then this is a superhero action movie extravaganza slash family drama and not serious at all. In fact, the chief problems with Kraven the Hunter are with the script. The dialogue is terrible, and some of the acting does not make it any better.

But, the action is great and the visual effects are pretty excellent. When Kraven the Hunter is doing action, it's doing a good job. This movie is rated R, and so the fights are bloody and very violent. But this is also very silly even though it wishes to be taken quite seriously at times.

Listen, the thing is, it's just not that bad. I think the critiques of this are unfair. It's a fine Marvel movie. It has a couple good monsters, and it has a fun lead. And other Marvel movies are just as dumb. 

Oscar Nominees 2014: Part 9 of 14

All Is Lost

1 Nomination

• Sound Editing

Director: J.C. Chandor

Cast: Robert Redford

The talk about All Is Lost really centered on Robert Redford's acting. And I have to say that I assumed he was a shoo-in for a nomination. Older actor who never won outright (he was nominated once in 1974 for The Sting but he was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2002), and good reviews! But I think there is a bit of a curse on the person who is named Best Actor by the National Board of Review. I always think of Campbell Scott and how we all thought he was going to be a nominee for Roger Dodger all those years ago, but then it didn't happen either. They don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to such things – it is because they are so early, of course. As for the film, I found All Is Lost difficult, and I am not sure I understand what acting is in cases like these. Acting is certainly doing – I am not confused about that – but how is this doing any more impressive than the things that other actors did in their respective films? So the nomination for Sound Editing is rather a surprise, and I suspect that the love for older actors all ended up in Bruce Dern's camp this year and that explains Robert Redford's omission.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #52 out of 81

Star Trek: into Darkness

1 Nomination

• Visual Effects

Director: J.J. Abrams

Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zoë Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood

I really enjoyed myself at most of the action films this summer – Star Trek, Elysium, Pacific Rim, World War Z. I even liked the Thor sequel. Star Trek was not the best of these, but I am really sold on this entire franchise. I think they are really fun. I like Chris Pine, and I think he is great in the part. But more importantly, I have been watching the old Star Trek movies. In fact, I have watched the first seven of them. They are so good. Well, as anyone who has seen these movies will tell you, the even ones are good; the odd ones mostly don't work very well. My big realization with these old movies (they begin in 1979 and the last one with the old cast is in 1991) is what a great team they are: they all have each other's numbers and have the ability to trade barbs with ease. These films are delightful for precisely this reason. And then there's William Shatner. The original Kirk is just phenomenal. This is the case of a man who knows his role perfectly and always looks as though he is having a whale of a time performing it. I am getting distracted talking about the old franchise when I should be talking about the reboot. In fact, I don't really remember this movie, and since I didn't review it, I suppose I probably won't remember it. It is a vague remake of Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan if I remember correctly, and there are lots of fun and interesting nods in the direction of the original. But Chris Pine is making the role his own, and I am excited to see the next film in the series.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #33 out of 81

Iron Man 3

1 Nomination

• Visual Effects

Director: Shane Black

Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Don Cheadle, Ben Kingsley, James Badge Dale, Rebecca Hall, Jon Favreau, Stephanie Szostak, Paul Bettany, Ty Simpkins, Dale Dickey, Miguel Ferrer

I was kind of drunk when I saw this. And I don't feel the least bit bad about it. This is allegedly the best series in the Avengers group of films – Hulk, Thor, Captain America – but I guess it just doesn't do it for me, or hasn't for a while. The first one was good, but these most recent two (and The Avengers movie) have struck me as incredibly, overwhelmingly smug, insincere, and cynical. I really like Gwyneth Paltrow, and I am happy to see her in these films, but Downey feels like he is phoning it in – everyone loves him and so he simply does not need to try – almost in a Johnny Depp kind of way. My impatience with Downey will probably never reach Depp levels, but these movies are simply not doing anything that interesting. Someone else is planning to destroy the world again. The villain has a dastardly new plan, but the plan simply isn't that great. And I am never worried about whether or not the superhero can save us all. It is just that there aren't any stakes in these films, and if (you might argue) these films are not about things like stakes or plot, but are about enjoying the pleasure of beating bad guys into the ground or laughing at smug jokes or watching explosions, then I will accept your proposal. But if this is so, then we need more beating of bad guys into the ground, and we need more explosions. More more more. Because when these movies are about plot or personal connection or (heaven help us) politics, they just can't carry their weight. Among the other Summer blockbusters this year, Iron Man 3 was out of their league, never quite managing to be special. All of the other big summer movies were better than this tired old thing.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #63 out of 81

Man vs. Ocean Part 4

There have been a bunch of man vs. ocean movies lately: Life of Pi, Kon-Tiki, The Deep. And now comes J.C. Chandor's All Is Lost, about a man on a small yacht (39 feet, says the Wikipedia page) who accidentally loses power and begins to take on water after crashing into an abandoned shipping container (apparently filled with children's shoes). From there our man is alone in the ocean with little hope of rescue.

Mr. Redford as Our Man

All Is Lost is different from the other movies I mentioned – and indeed unique for this year – in that it has only one character. Robert Redford anchors the movie: is its only character, its only voice. And being alone in the ocean trying to survive he says very little. The fact that he is the only character means we know almost nothing about him.

Who is this man?
Why is he alone?

Who was his family?
To whom would he return?
What does he do for a living?
How long has he been sailing?
What is he doing in the Indian Ocean?

When he writes a letter of goodbye, to whom is he writing?
For what is he apologizing?

In this way, All Is Lost is a mystery as much as it is an adventure story. Because we know nothing about our man, we search his face, his possessions, his every action for answers. Our man, though, is a survivor. That's what he is. Chandor doesn't give us backstory. If our man thinks about his life, his regrets, his loves, we know nothing of it. We see only his face and the things that he does to try to stay afloat, alive, and healthy.

If this is valuable as a kind of pure, ascetic filmmaking (and I think it is), it has its drawbacks, too. The reason I liked Kon-Tiki is because it is about teamwork and sticking it out and dealing with other people in confined spaces. One of the reasons I loved The Deep so much, is that it is a meditation on death and on managing things of which we do not know we are capable. The Deep is also fundamentally about losing other people, about coping with that loss, about getting back to something.  

All Is Lost is about staying alive and nothing else, survival tout court. As I say, this is an awesome, unique way of approaching such a story, but I couldn't identify with our man as much as I would've liked. I wanted to know what he was thinking about. I wanted to be alone with him, the way I was alone with Sandra Bullock in Gravity, the way I was alone with Ólafur Darri Ólafsson in The Deep.

I will say that I like this J.C. Chandor's stuff. I liked Margin Call and I liked this. He has a kind of cinematic austerity and clarity that I really enjoy. I look forward to his next picture.

2012's Nominees: Part 6 of 10

Margin Call

1 Nomination

• Original Screenplay: J.C. Chandor

Director: Chandor

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Zachary Quinto, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci, Penn Badgley.

I really liked this movie! It's also about a bunch of genuinely terrible human beings. A fascinating paradox: in a movie where I genuinely thought nearly all of the people depicted in the film were despicable, I liked a lot of them. Margin Call is a movie about the financial crisis and one (out of many) of the situations that brought about this crisis. And yet... this movie is gripping and interesting; the characters are fascinating, and though the plot is completely predictable, Margin Call (unlike a movie like Fair Game) breathes new life into its historical subject and makes for riveting cinema. The screenplay, by director Chandor, is an absolute marvel. A fully deserved nomination.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #22 out of 66

Beginners

1 Nomination

• Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer (The Last Station)

Director: Mike Mills

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Mélanie Laurent, Plummer, Goran Visnjic, Mary Page Keller, Lou Taylor Pucci.

This movie was not my favorite. I've written about the movie here, so I won't go into that now; I'd rather just talk about Christopher Plummer. Plummer is, as you might recall, amazing in 1965's classic The Sound of Music, and if you've ever seen this musical onstage, it is obvious how absolutely essential Plummer's performance is to that film. He is astounding in that movie. Plummer has, however, only been nominated for the Oscar one other time (very recently for the underwhelming The Last Station). This is after being very notably passed over in 1999 and again in 2001. All that to say: Plummer's win is long overdue, and his performance is excellent, so everyone is delighted to be able to honor him this year.

Will Win: Supporting Actor

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #42 out of 66

Warrior

1 Nomination

• Supporting Actor: Nick Nolte (Affliction, The Prince of Tides)

Director: Gavin O'Connor

Cast: Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo, Kevin Dunn.

I really liked this movie, too! Some of these choices this year are excellent. To begin with Nolte, he is absolutely superb in this movie. He is broken and sad and penitent and ugly. It is a performance awash in self-pity, and I found it brave and completely endearing. I think this is one of my favorite performances of the year. He is so good! O'Connor's direction of this movie is ludicrous, and the script is filled with clichés, but none of that really seemed to matter as I watched this film. The fighting is exciting, Tom Hardy and his acting partners are all excellent, and the sentiments behind the brother-brother and father-son relationships all kept me deeply affected.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #24 out of 66

The Adventures of Tintin

1 Nomination

• Original Score: John Williams (War Horse, Munich, Memoirs of a Geisha, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Catch Me If You Can, Artificial Intelligence: A.I., Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Patriot, Angela's Ashes, Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Sleepers, Nixon, Sabrina, Schindler's List, JFK, Home Alone, Born on the Fourth of July, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Accidental Tourist, Empire of the Sun, The Witches of Eastwick, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The River, Return of the Jedi, E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, Superman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, The Towering Inferno, Tom Sawyer, Cinderella Liberty, Images, The Poseidon Adventure, Fiddler on the Roof, The Reivers, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Valley of the Dolls)
  

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig.

So. Much. Fun. I've talked about this film already here, and at the time I mentioned how delightful Williams's score is, so I don't need to go into that, but what I will go into is how this movie got totally snubbed by the animation branch. I don't care what criteria they are using or what the animation branch has against motion capture, but they cannot seriously believe that any single movie that was nominated for the so-called Best Animated Feature award is better than The Adventures of Tintin, Because that is a joke. Tintin is impeccably directed. The editing, the sound effects, the score, the screenplay, and the cinematography are all superb, and the only reason Tintin isn't nominated for Best Animated Feature is because of politics. And I know, I know, that the Oscars are about politics a lot of the time. I understand that, but Tintin's exclusion is simply indefensible. One nomination is simply not enough for this fantastic film. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #18 out of 66