“Begin Again” — movie review | |
Today’s review is for the 2013 musical-drama “Begin Again“. The movie stars Keira Knightley as Gretta James, a songwriter who has recently broken up with her boyfriend, Adam Levine as Dave Kohl, Gretta’s ex-boyfriend and a recently “hit” musician who cheats on Gretta, Mark Ruffalo as Dan Mulligan, a music producer who “discovers” Gretta in a dive-bar on an open mic night, Catherine Keener as Miriam Hart, Dan’s estranged wife – who cheated on him, (sensing a pattern here?), Hailee Steinfeld as Violet Mulligan, Dan and Miriam’s teenage daughter, James Corden as Steve, Gretta’s best friend from England, who has also moved to New York City to seek his fortune, CeeLo Green as Troublegum, a successful rapper who was discovered by Dan and who supports / funds Gretta’s (and Dan’s) album, and Mos Def (credited as Yasiin Bey) as Saul, Dan’s long-time business partner, who has pushed Dan out of their business because he (Dan) turned into an alcoholic flake. | |
The movie starts with an interesting (but confusing) sequence of Gretta singing and then flashes back to Dan hearing her sing. This produces the most interesting (to me) scene in the movie where instruments begin to play themselves (much like the mop-cleaning-the-laboratory scene in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice“) and we get a feeling for what a “gifted” music producer must hear / feel when he is helping to create a “sound” / song. I’d never seen this done this way before. Normally, we see producers sliding knobs on a big panel and voila – a hit single. This was (to me) a truer window into creativity. | |
Anyway, Gretta and Dan agree to make an album in NYC and most of the rest of the movie revolves around that. And, it works! The characters are fleshed out and there is a progression / growth across Dan, Gretta, Miriam (the wife), Dave (the cheating boyfriend), Violet (Dan’s daughter) and Steve (though he’s more in the background). Spoiler Alert: the movie ends with one person forgiving an “ex” and starting over together, and one person moving on and starting over on their own. Hence, “Begin Again“. | |
So, I already said the movie worked for me. The two other questions I normally ask / answer are: Was it any good? And, was it entertaining? The answer to both is yes. I will say, I’m not a big Adam Levine fan. I’ve seen him as some kind of music coach on TV and I guess he used to be the lead singer in a band at some point. In any case, while his acting was okay, I didn’t think much of his singing performance(s). Truth be told, I was surprised by Keira’s singing, which was much better than I thought it was going to be. Not that I would ever pay money to hear her sing on an album, but as part of the movie performance, I thought she was pretty good. I will add I felt Knightly looks (sadly) a bit anorexic in this film. I don’t know if it was “just” makeup or if it was really her, but while she is almost always slim, her cheeks were positively hollow in a few closeups. It was more frightening than attractive (IMHO). Again, nothing to do with acting or talent, just a comment… | |
I thought Ruffalo basically steals the movie. He carried the weight and most of the humor of the movie and he did it well. Between his roles as the Hulk and some of the other films I’ve seen him in, I’m really becoming a fan. Steinfeld (the actor who played the daughter) and CeeLo Green were both very good in their respective roles, too. | |
Final recommendation: Strong. A little bit of full disclosure here: I re-watched the BBC and movie version of “Pride & Prejudice” and was discussing Keira Knightley with my sister over the weekend. I’m trying to get her to read the novel. She said how much she loves Knightley and that this (“Begin Again“) is one of her favorite movies of all time. We both agreed about the bar / music “imagination” scene being great and I told her: “Now I have to go back and re-watch the movie.” The movie is rated “R” for language, but I did not find it egregiously so nor particularly offensive. | |
Dear Readers: My apologies for not following up with a review (here) after my initial viewing last year. To tell the truth, over the last 18 months, I’ve probably watched over 100 movies which I’ve not reviewed due to “life getting in the way.” That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it… I guess I’ll just have to re-watch them and get on with the reviews. (Darn!) | |
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On This Day In: | |
2019 | The Opening Step |
Day 17/18: That Didn’t Take Long | |
2018 | I’ll Trade You… |
2017 | Luv Me Some Meat Loaf |
2016 | Unless Your Name Is #AmnestyDon |
2015 | A Tentative First Step |
2014 | Making People |
2013 | On Reading Books |
2012 | On America |
2011 | Shiver, Me Timbers! |
2010 | Fiduciary Breakdown |
Posts Tagged ‘Hulk’
The City Is Our Studio
Posted in Movie Review, Movies, Reviews, tagged Adam Levine, Begin Again -- movie review, Catherine Keener, CeeLo Green, Dan Mulligan, Dave Kohl, Gretta James, Hailee Steinfeld, Hulk, James Corden, Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Miriam Hart, Mos Def, New York City, Pride & Prejudice, Strong Movie Recommendation, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Troublegum, Violet Mulligan, Yasiin Bey on September 15, 2020| Leave a Comment »
CA3: Civil War
Posted in Movie Review, Movies, tagged Ant Man / Giant Man, Avengers, Captain America, Captain America (3): Civil War - movie review, Doctor Strange, Highly Recommended Movie, Hulk, Iron Man, Must See Movie, Spider-Man, Spiderman, The Black Panther, The Guardians Of The Galaxy, Thor on May 28, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Captain America: Civil War (2016) – movie review | |
Okay! Last night I finally got around to seeing the latest Marvel Comics movie: Captain America (3): Civil War. Actually, this is more accurately titled Avengers 3 (Lite). “Lite” in the sense there are no sightings of Thor or the Hulk. | |
So, the premise is: what happens in the real world when aliens attack the Earth and we’re protected by “super-heroes” and “meta-humans”. The argument is that the “normal” humans (via their politicians) will try to control (regulate) the actions of the super-heroes to “sanction” their efforts to protect humanity. Team Iron Man believes there should be some regulations. Team Captain America believes you can’t trust politicians or governments and super-heroes have to be able to act on their own personal beliefs on what constitutes the best interest of humanity. | |
This is an old argument which does not need a great deal of exposition here. My personal bias is Team CA, but that’s just me. So much for plot, is the movie any good. Yes! This is probably the best “team” movie I’ve seen. The only one which comes close is The Guardians Of The Galaxy. All of the “new” Avengers are present, plus a couple of “new” heroes: Spider-Man, Ant Man / Giant Man, and the Black Panther. A whole bunch of heroes! But they all get their individual moments and nobody gets out-and-out lost. This is mostly because it’s such a LONG movie – almost 3 hours. But the thing is, if the movie had had an intermission, I would not have minded it being longer. There was a ton of action and a whole lot of story. And it all worked together beautifully. | |
If there is one problem with the movie, the bar is now set very high. My prediction: get ready for some troughs. Which will be too bad, because I’m looking forward to new singles (Spider-Man, Ant Man (2), the Black Panther, and, probably most of all, Doctor Strange. If they are even close to this movie, they’ll be pretty good. Only time will tell… | |
Final recommendation: a must see movie if you are a comic book, sci-fi, action / adventure, super-hero movie genre movie-goer (obviously I AM)! This is a must see on the big screen movie!! | |
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On This Day In: | |
2015 | I Resemble That Remark… (5!) |
2014 | The Writer’s Dilemma |
2013 | Just Paying The Rent |
2012 | Remembering… |
2011 | A Little Farther |
Trying To Keep Up
Posted in 2012 Book Review, Book Review, Movies, Reading, Reviews, Science and Learning, Work, tagged 2012 Book Review, Avengers - move review, Captain America, Hulk, Ironman, Nicola Pellow, Recommended Reading, Robert Cailliau, Robert Downey Jr, Thor, Tim Berners-Lee, Tony Stark, Weaving The Web - book review on May 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Sometimes it can be a real effort to keep up with some of the things I’m trying to get across on this site. Generally, I’m just commenting about things I see happening in my life or around me. I try to relate my observations, books I’ve read, movies (and TV) I’ve seen, poetry and music I’ve listened to (mostly what’s moved me). Occasionally, I want to say something, but I’m waiting for something else to happen or for an idea to gel in my head. Sometimes the thing is important, usually it’s trivial – but it ends up being a blog-blocker anyway. | |
A couple of weeks ago, I went to see the Avengers movie. I held off on reviewing it because I wanted to see it a second time (this time in 3D), before I cast anything in stone (or as “stone” as a blog can be). Anyway, I’ve not been able to get around to a second showing, so I’m just going to go ahead with my review of my initial sitting. If you see only one comic book / super-hero movie this year, the Avengers should be it!! | |
This movie has all the great things about a great action movie – heroes, believable villains, action / fights, special effects, reasonable story / plot, and a little romance and something hard to find in most movies – pacing. But most of all this movie has two things: it has humor sprinkled in liberally and it has the HULK! Now if you’ve seen the other two Hulk movies, you’re probably saying, “yeah, right!” Well, I am! Downey (as Tony Stark / Ironman) carries the movie with wit and panache, Thor and Captain America provide the beefcake, and then the HULK shows up to steal the last 20 minutes. | |
Unfortunately for Batman and Spiderman, both to be released later this year – the bar now seems set impossibly high… We’ll see. Bottom line: Highly recommended!! | |
Last night I completed “Weaving The Web” by Tim Berners-Lee (1999©). Now, in case you’ve been living under a rock, TB-L is the man who invented the World Wide Web. He also invented web servers and web browsers. He came up with the ideas and then worked it out with a colleague (Robert Cailliau) and a student intern (Nicola Pellow). This book is the story of what they did and how they did it. It is a story of insight, foresight and individual effort to turn an idea into a grass-roots movement, into a world-wide phenomenon, into the World Wide Web we know today. | |
The book is relatively easy to read and pretty lacking in computer mumbo-jumbo, but it is not read without some effort (or at least some prior understanding of web / computer history). I found TB-L’s ideas about the future of the web (the “semantic web”) to be very interesting and, looking back, I wish he had spent more time explaining it more clearly. As it is, I went on to Google and TED to get more information about it. Having just skimmed the surface, it is obvious this is where the future of information retrieval is going. My challenge (or the challenge for any IT professional) is getting up to speed and grasping more than just the theory behind it. That will require hands-on experience though and other than using my own time, I don’t see how that will happen (at work). | |
Anyway, it’s nice to be able to look ahead and see where the world is going… | |
Bottom line: I highly recommend this book to anyone in technology and anyone who wants to be reasonably well paid in the next 20-30 years. | |
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