Writing Movie “WRONGS” By Jim West Captain Marvel Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck Written by Nicole Perlman, Meg LeFauve, Anna Boden, Kevin Fleck, Geneva Robertson-Dworet An origin film has quite a lot to accomplish story wise in its runtime.  It must introduce the hero, show them before they were a hero, what event or tragedy created them, and what challenge they must face both internally and externally to be able to complete their journey to becoming a hero.  What typically bogs down origin stories is either the mishandling of the hero’s journey, or the lack of a flaw… Continue reading

Writing Movie “WRONGS” By Jim West   Cold Pursuit Directed by Hans Petter Moland Written by Frank Baldwin Based upon a Norwegian Film, In Order of Disappearance (2014), this film translates well with the same director helming the American remake.  Liam Neeson turns in a subdued performance as a father of a grown son who gets murdered by drug dealers, and takes his revenge by killing them one by one.  This black comedy action film has a few surprising laughable moments by way of how people get taken out, but ultimately the film feels a bit flat and lacking of… Continue reading

Writing Movie “WRONGS” By Jim West GLASS Directed by M. Night Shyamalan Written by M. Night Shyamalan Unbreakable (2000) was a film that blended the thriller and superhero genres masterfully.  Since that film M. Night Shyamalan has had his hits and mostly misses at the box office.  Then in 2016, he surprised many with his film Split.  The ending of that film bridged Unbreakable to the events that unfold in Glass.   Bruce Willis reprises his role as David Dunn.  A man with superhuman strength and toughness.  Samuel L Jackson is back as the evil mastermind, Mr. Glass.  James McAvoy gets… Continue reading

Writing Movie “WRONGS” By Jim West Bumblebee Directed by Travis Knight Written by Christina Hodson For years Michael Bay has brought us the big explosions, huge CGI spectacles, and thread bare storylines that have summed up what the Transformers franchise has been about for over a decade.  Shia LaBeouf led us through the boy meets his car / transformer back in 2007.  Now over a decade later we get a film dedicated to the yellow Transformer full of heart, Bumblebee.  This time we get set back in the 1980’s (trend right now for Hollywood films so pay attention Wonder Woman,… Continue reading

Writing Movie “WRONGS” By Jim West Aquaman Directed by James Wan Written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Will Beall, Geoff Johns, and James Wan DC has had a hard go at trying to catch up to the juggernaut that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).  With flops in Batman V. Superman, Suicide Squad, and Justice League they had some lifeblood pumped back in their veins with Wonder Woman and now Aquaman serves the DC Universe well by essentially taking the dark characters and even darker film tones and trading it in for colorful and vibrant characters and scenery.  It would be… Continue reading

Writing Movie “WRONGS” By Jim West Widows Directed by Steve McQueen Written by Gillian Flynn and Steve McQueen This film has it all.  A solid director and a fantastic cast with Liam Neeson, Viola Davis, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall (he steals perhaps the best scenes in the film), Daniel Kaluuya, and Michelle Rodriguez.  Yet it seems this film with such a great premise and cast falls apart due to only what I can deduce as a horrible decision in editing. Here comes the spoilers. This film immediately thrusts you into the lives of wives of criminals.  We see them getting… Continue reading

Writing Movie “WRONGS” By Jim West   Creed 2 Directed by Steven Caple Jr Written by Sylvester Stallone, Juel Taylor, Sascha Penn, and Cheo Hodari Coker   Sylvester Stallone has time and time again shown audiences why Rocky is the pinnacle of sports dramas and the bar that other films should meet or exceed.  This film covers a lot of ground story wise and the four writers on this film did a phenomenal job of giving each and every character their moment to shine.  The classic training montages are there, and the fall and rise of a hero of the… Continue reading

Writing Movie “WRONGS” By Jim West   Overlord Directed by Julius Avery Written by Billy Ray and Mark L Smith   Two talented writers, an up and coming director, and produced by J.J. Abrams?  You would think this would be a Grand Slam of an action horror film set during World War II.  Instead this is a one watch solid effort with really nothing to improve upon the simple straightforward war horror story.  I was pleasantly surprised there were minimal clichés and tropes of the horror genre.  It is an okay film whose plot is stronger than the end result… Continue reading

Writing Movie “WRONGS” By Jim West Mandy Directed by Panos Cosmatos Written by Panos Cosmatos and Aaron Stewart-Ahn With all of the rave reviews out there I wonder did they see the same film I did.  Sure Nic Cage is your typical Nic Cage, but nothing on display here would be anything I would rave about.  The director also created the story, and this story is not at all unique in the slightest.  In fact it borrow so heavily from other cult classics that it is much like a Frankenstein of parts of better films with better stories to tell.… Continue reading

Writing Movie “WRONGS” By Jim West Bad Times at the El Royale Directed by Drew Goddard Written by Drew Goddard Films told from various perspective and even edited to put things out of sequence can be very neat and raise suspense at times.  Take the 90’s classic Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino or the modern classic film Dunkirk by Christopher Nolan.  These films use this to their advantages.  This film however makes perhaps its biggest mistake by not taking notes from these mentioned films. Here comes the spoilers. The film opens with a odd mix of people arriving to the… Continue reading