Review: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Guest review by Emmanuel Giakoumakis.

There aren’t many directors who are worthy of the notoriety of Martin Scorsese. The list of awards and the mark he has made on pop culture is remarkable; as such The Wolf of Wall Street is sure to add to his list of accolades.

My initial response to the trailers was to score the film to the classic story of Gordon Gecko (Wall Street, 1987). A film which received nowhere near the reception that Scorsese’s masterpiece has received and nowhere near the amount of recognition that both films deserve but I soon realised after considering the director’s past work that it was much more similar to something else I’ve seen. The film I couldn’t help but liken it to was Goodfellas, another remarkably true story whose protagonist shared a similar fate.

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The Best Films of 2013

Luke Miksa's: The Negative Space Bar

2013 was a pretty fantastic year for cinema — as long as you look past onset of blockbuster/superhero fatigue, often ridiculous Australian release schedules for smaller films (aka Stupid Australian Release Schedules), and a strange fascination with the apocalypse arriving a year too late. But I kid; for every annoyance, the medium produces many things to be excited about. I’m keeping this positive!

Let’s get down to it:

Missing the cut: The Wolverine, The Way Way Back, Side Effects, The Kings of Summer

I havn’t seen these (mainly due to Stupid Australian Release Schedules) but I’d probably dig them: The Wolf of Wall Street, Her, Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska, Dallas Buyers Club, 12 Years a Slave, Short Term 12

Cloud Atlas was released in Australia in 2013 (Stupid Australian Release Schedules), but for the sake of this list it will be treated as a 2012 film.

10. Captain Phillips

The second-most intense film of the year (number one is below), which is made more so due to the fact that the incredible events depicted in Captain Phillips actually happened (sans the Hollywood artistic license). Tom Hanks knocks this role out of the water with an incredibly strong showing, and his performance in the final scenes left me in shocked silence for a while. Director Paul Greengrass knocked this one up a notch, even with his visceral, shaky-shaky handheld style (which I’m generally not a fan of).

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1 Comment

by Luke Miksa on January 14, 2014 • Permalink

Posted in Film Reviews, Lists

Tagged American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Drinking Buddies, Gravity, Movies, Pacific Rim, Rush, The Spectacular Now, The World's End, This is the End, You're Next

Posted by Luke Miksa on January 14, 2014

https://sorryimlate.com/2014/01/14/the-best-films-of-2013/

In Celebration of the Release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug…

Thorin-Oakenshield-Meme

The Best Part of 2013 was…

…when this tweet about The Spectacular Now (also about cats) was favourited by the film’s co-screenwriter and executive producer Michael H. Weber:

So I’m sitting down before The Spectacular Meow when someone tells me it’s actually called Spectacular NOW and there’s no cats in it!! #Dang

— Luke Miksa (@SorryImLateLM) August 10, 2013

The man that was responsible for one of my favourite films of the year happened to like one of the dumbest things I’ve ever written. Things that make you go…

Boom

Trailer Talk: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Behold the new theatrical trailer for the upcoming sequel to director Marc Webb‘s (WEBB!!) mediocre 2012 franchise re-start, The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

The trailer opens with Spidey (Andrew Garfield) in free-fall, much like Chev Chelios at the end of Crank. Unlike Chelios — even though they are both chemically enhanced — Spider-Man swings away at the vital moment to thwart crime instead of hitting the pavement.

Honestly, the trailer looks fantastic. Now that they have done away with telling the origin story (once again!), we can start dwelling on the character of Peter Parker and the action of the film. My only concern is the addition of too many new characters and plots; which, if you remember, is what made Spider-Man 3 such an overblown and underwhelming event.

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3 Comments

by Luke Miksa on December 7, 2013 • Permalink

Posted in Trailer Talk

Tagged Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Marc Webb, Marvel, Movies, Spider-Man, Trailers

Posted by Luke Miksa on December 7, 2013

https://sorryimlate.com/2013/12/07/trailer-talk-the-amazing-spider-man-2/

The Biggest Problem with ‘Man of Steel’

Luke Miksa's: The Negative Space Bar

As Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel hit Australian home video this week, I got to reminiscing on how disappointed I was when I viewed it on its theatrical release.

I will gladly admit to being a tremendous Superman fan — possessive even — but I am generally not the kind of person to kick up a fuss when someone comes along and changes aspects to a long-standing character (especially a character with the 75-year legacy of Superman). Changes keep things fresh, and different artists are always going to have different perspectives and visions. I’m hip to this, and I enjoy seeing various interpretations.

I don’t need to warn you about MASSIVE SPOILERS from now on, do I?

The makers of Man of Steel made many changes: Perry White is black. Jimmy Olson is female. Lois Lane deciphers Clark Kent’s secret identity almost immediately. Superman is actually forced to kill as a last resort (which is kind of a big deal). All of these are fairly drastic changes, but I applaud them because they are either intriguing or they positively add to the narrative.

But there is still something that bugs me, and I’ve narrowed it down to this guy: