Film Review-Gone Girl and Fury

Gone Girl

On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne’s wife, Amy, vanishes from their home, apparently taken during a home invasion while Nick was absent.  The initial search turns into a manhunt of unexpectedly monumental proportions.  And when evidence emerges hinting at problems, emotional and physical, between Amy and Nick, Nick becomes suspect number one.  Where did Amy go? Was she taken or did she run away? Is she even still alive?  Nick search for both his wife and answers leads him down an unexpected path unearthing a mystery that maybe no one can fully solve.

As I said above, since Guardians of the Galaxy, most movies haven’t really been able to impress me so much.  For the most part they’ve just been time killers with lots of potential not being met.  But along comes Gone Girl, which has become one of the best reviewed films of the year and is kicking serious ass at the box office, and man do I have to agree with the hype.  If you’re a fan of director David Fincher and especially his last couple of directorial ventures, The Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, then you will love this one as well.  The editing, the cinematography, the pacing, all feels expertly crafted into a film that doesn’t even feel like it’s 2.5 hour run time (and that’s tough to master).  He and screenwriter Gillian Flynn (who wrote the Gone Girl novel) craft a mystery that instantly injects you with interest and turns it into a  rapid fire, quick witted character piece that you don’t want to end.  Also helping big time is the cast of the film.  Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike are excellent in their roles, able to be both equally charming and lovable and also despicable and downright scary at times.  Should you  hate Nick once flashbacks into his roller coaster marriage begin playing on screen or love him for being an asshole who is trying his best to find his wife and make things right.  Say what you will about the man being cast as the next Batman (judgment reserved on my end for now) but he does a great job in this role.  Pike is amazingly beautiful and every bit as lovable and hateable as her husband.  Her thoughts on their marriage told largely through montage and her narraration and haunting and inspiring.  On a side note, a lot of Rosamund Pike’s look and dialogue made me for some reason think she would make a good Motoko Kusinagi in a live action Ghost in the Shell film.  And since she has some ass kicking skills as seen in her turn as a bad guy in Die Another Day, I think it would be a good choice.  But that’s just me, getting back on track lol.  The rest of the cast is solid from Neil Patrick Harris’s creepy ex boyfriend of Amy’s (think Barney from How I Met Your Mother with a ginormous dose of creeper), to Carrie Coon’s sister of Nick who is possible the best twin sibling ever lol.  Kim Dickens and (surprisingly enough) Tyler Perry also give great turns as the authoritative figure and lawyer respectively, trying to help Nick figure out what the hell is going on.  I had not read the Gone Girl book before seeing the film, still haven’t, and im kind of glad I didn’t.  This movie was knocked right out of the park in my mind.  No explosions, no action, just a great mystery and expert dialogue driving a great mystery toward a surprising conclusion (if it hasn’t been spoiled for you already that’s amazing but I will keep mum).  Gone Girl was an amazing movie to check out and is my first big hit of the fall.  This could be the movie to top this year for me so far (damn you David Fincher for making movies that make Top 3 list for the year hard to create lol)

9.5/10

Fury

Germany 1945.  As Allied forces push into the final phase of WWII, they are met by the greatest and most brutal of the remaining Nazi opposition.  Sitting right in the middle of it is the tank known as Fury and her crew of battle hardened soldiers.  When a rookie is thrust into their company at the last minute, the crew of the Fury show him the horrors of war and just how far they are willing to go to stay alive…even at the cost of their own humanity. 

When it comes to war films, I don’t think I have seen a lot of them centered on Tank warfare.  In this respect, Fury is actually pretty good.  The action set pieces featuring the Fury in battle with divisions of superior armor and fire power German tanks is exciting and nerve wracking at the same time.  Just watching the Fury crew work this tank to get shots off as quickly as possible is great stuff, especially when tensions are high and you wonder if they will kill each other before the Germans do.  The final battle of the film is pretty much what you’d expect but still cudos to the tactical strategies involved in pulling it off.

Aside from that, Fury was just incredibly depressing.  It’s the “War is Hell” story ive seen a few times and don’t really care for.  Unlike say Saving Private Ryan, there’s not much to like about this cast, pushed to the brink with their sanity about to snap.  Which is sad cause it is a solid cast in this film with Brad Pitt bringing a darker, edgier version of Aldo Raine from Inglorious Bastards to the table, same accent and brutality, minus the jokes and wit.  You get the sense of a strong brotherhood, that’s well done, but how they behave and act outside of combat was just unsettling.  Logan Lerman again has the role of the newbie who cries every few minutes of the first half before becoming a battle hardened killer like the rest of his crew, especially when pushed as far as he is by his Captain and the rest of his team (Shia LaBeouf, Michael Pena and Jon Berthal).  In the end though, it’s pretty by the numbers and it could be obvious from the trailers as to how the story will end.  Impressive tank combat is worth checking out but what happens outside of the tank isn’t anything that hasn’t been done before and (as true as it is in the history books) isn’t anymore enjoyable to observe.

6/10

I’ll try and get some more reviews in once I see some more films but right now I’m just waiting for Interstellar and Big Hero 6 in a couple of weeks.  Those two you can be sure I’ll review ASAP (along with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1) Man I cant wait for it to be November lol.