zac efron

Film Review: EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE (USA 2019) ***

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Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile Poster
Trailer

A courtroom frenzy ensues and sweeps 1970s America when a young single mother meets Ted Bundy.

Director:

Joe Berlinger

Writers:

Elizabeth Kendall (based on the book “The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy” by), Michael Werwie

Stars:

Lily Collins, Zac Efron, Angela Sarafyan

Director Joe Berlinger is no stranger to the serial killer genre nor even to the Ted Bundy killings.  Ted Bundy is one of the most infamous American serial killers in history, being extremely charming and good-looking while committing unspeakable violent acts with the women he has killed.  Berlinger has made the 1997 doc PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS and lately CONVERSATIONS WITH A KILLER: THE TED BUNDY TAPES.  In his latest film, EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE, the Ted Bundy story is told from a different perspective, from the point of view of one of the women charmed by him, who fell in love with him and visited him in prison while all the time believing in his innocence.  This woman is Liz (Lily Collins) who is finally forced to let him go at the end of the film.

The words of them film’s title are the exact words of Judge Edward Coward (played with sarcastic relish by John Malkovich), himself charmed by the killer while sentencing the man right after the trial.  Throughout the film, Berlinger never admits to Bundy’s guilt though there are a few instances (the evil sensed by a dog; his look while having sex; his look while being pushed beyond the limit) of a possibility.  If one had not known the history that Bundy had admitted his guilt and has since been executed in the electric chair, the film would attest his  innocence and how wrongful his arrest was.  Such is the story-teeing ability of Berlinger.

The film unfolds like a love story.  Bundy and Liz meet at a bar. It is love at first sight.  He takes Liz on as a girlfriend and lover despite she being a single mother.  When arrested, Bundy insists on his innocence.  Liz believes in him and supports him all the way despite contrary advice given her by her best friend. 

Berlinger wants to show that Bundy can charm both his women as well as the audience,  Zac Efron playing Bundy does just that and a marvellous job.  In fact Efron bears an uncanny resemblance to the real Ted Bundy.

The film’s lighter side has Bundy defending himself in court after firing his lawyer.  He pokes fun at the American Justice System while also putting down the politics of Florida.  These are the only parts that Berlinger glorifies Bundy as a kind of folk hero.

At the end of the film, Bundy still persists his innocence.  Though the man was to confess to his 30 or so killings before his execution, nothing of this fact is mentioned anywhere in the film, not even at the end credits.  The film should be seen in conjunction with CONVERSATIONS WITH A KILLER, Berlinger’s doc on Bundy to get a fuller picture of the story.  

EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE, a Netflix original movie as well as CONVERSATIONS are both currently streaming on Netflix.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtXEcBz3Go0

Film Review: THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (USA 2017) ****

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The Greatest Showman Poster
Trailer

Inspired by the imagination of P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman is an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business and tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.

Director:

Michael Gracey

Writers:

Jenny Bicks (screenplay by), Bill Condon (screenplay by) | 1 more credit »

Stars:

Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron |

 

Films about circuses have been popular having taken many different genres form blockbuster (Cecil. B. Demille’s THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH) to cheap 1966 horror (CIRCUS OF FEAR).  THE GREATEST SHOWMAN aims at being both a biopic and a musical.

Hugh Jackman is a shoo-in for the role of singing P.T. Barnum, obtaining a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a musical or comedy in the process.  Heart-throb Zac Ephron also eases into musical mode as smooth as in three HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL films.  He plays Barnum’s friend and business partner..

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN is a true musical at heart.  Within the first 10 minutes, there are two songs performed already.  The film also boasts to be an original musical, not to be confused with “BARNUM” that played on Broadway decades back.  The songs are catchy with “This is Me”, largely performed by the bearded lady nominated for the Best Song Golden Globe.  But the other songs (by the guys who wrote LALA LAND) are just as catchy (there have been few musicals these days with all good songs) with others just as good, if not better than “This is Me”.  The choreography is also quite spectacular, and one cannot complain that there is not a full all out musical.  It is a feel-good movie, so those wanting hard drama and musical-haters, be advised to stay away.

The story contains two romances, between P.T. Barnum and Charity (Michelle Williams) and the other between Phillip Carlyle (Ephron) and Anne Wheeler (Zendaya), the acrobat and trapeze artist.  The romantic chemistry is not all there, though Barnum’s and Charity’s is more believable.

Though the film traces how American showman P. T. Barnum became the founder of the circus that became the famous traveling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, there are also subplots like the romance as well as the diversion of the employment of famous Swedish singer Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson) who almost destroys both his business and his marriage.  Her singing performance is astonishing though Loren Alfred provides Lind’s singing voice.  Ferguson lip syncs and fakes it quite well.

The film side steps certain points, like how Barnum suddenly obtained all the circus animals.  The business aspect of the circus is only briefly mentioned in passing.  It is quite hard to believe that the circus made it this big with so few acts and with no clowns at all in the film.

Director Gracey seems fond of emphasizing the fact of equality among performers.  The protests in each visiting town of the residents against the circus ‘freaks’ finally conclude with a huge fire that destroys the circus building.  In Demille’s THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, it was a train crash that almost destroyed the circus, here compared to the big fire. 

The film should have more circus acts on screen time, so the audience can really feel the atmosphere of a circus.  What is clearly missing in this circus film is the excitement and danger of a circus.  Still, THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, though is not the greatest show in 2017 still makes appropriate Christmas entertainment.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXCTMGYUg9A

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TIFF 2017 Movie Review: THE DISASTER ARTIST (USA 2017)

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2017. Go to TIFF 2017 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

The Disaster Artist Poster
Trailer

A behind-the-scenes look at the making of Tommy Wiseau‘s The Room (2003).

Director:

James Franco

Writers:

Scott Neustadter (screenplay), Michael H. Weber (screenplay) | 

Stars:

Alison Brie, Zac Efron, James Franco

James Franco and friends appear in this uneven tribute to eccentric filmmaker Tommy Wiseau (played by James) and his friend, actor Greg Sestero (played by brother Dave), whose notoriously awful film The Room has become one of the most beloved cult classics of all time. (I have never heard of it though.)

Since its release in 2003, The Room has captivated cult audiences on the midnight movie circuit with its discombobulated plot, discordant performances, and inexplicable dialogue.

Drawing on the memoir of the same name, Franco chronicles the making of The Room as recalled by Greg. The incredulous script supervisor is played by friend Seth Roger. Other celebrity friends of the Franco’s like Zac Ephron also appear.

The Franco/ Rogen/Goldberg troupe has an uncanny sense of humour, and the humour and timing works magnificently at times. The film ends with a split screen of the shots of the actual ROOM side-by-side of this movie. A so-so movie but with a few good laughs!

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qab3TMg42k

 

THE DISASTER ARTIST

 

Film Review: BAYWATCH (USA 2017)

festreviews 2017 movies, movie, Movie Review , , , , , , ,

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

baywatch.jpgDevoted lifeguard Mitch Buchanan butts heads with a brash new recruit. Together, they uncover a local criminal plot that threatens the future of the Bay.

Director: Seth Gordon

Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario, Priyanka Chopra

 BAYWATCH is the latest edition of films based on a successful TV series that has very little to do with the series – like the JUMP STREET films. But it the marketing works. BAYWATCH is a modern re-working of a popular TV series of the same name. It cost $40 million to make and is estimated to gross $45 million the opening American long weekend.

BAYWATCH is an action-comedy film directed by Seth Gordon (HORRIBLE BOSSES) starring with Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron with a list of general unknowns Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach, Jon Bass, Ilfenesh Hadera, Priyanka Chopra and Indian actress Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the villain. David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson are present with cameos and excellent ones, coming as neat surprises in the film.
The film concerns Mitch Buchannon (Johnson), the gung-ho leader of the elite Baywatch lifeguard squad. He believes he is making a different in the world, clashing with the local police as he outdoes his duties by trying to stop drug trafficking at the same time. Matt Brody (Efron), a washed-up pro athlete is brought in as the new face of the organization. However, when a dead body is recovered from the ocean, the two must put aside their personal differences and work with their team to stop a criminal mastermind’s drug trafficking operation. Mitch gets relieved of his post while Matt ends up saving the day with the help of Mitch’s crew. The film is at least smart enough not to make any preachy statement, but just let the comedy/action takes its course.

As an action comedy, the film devotes an equal amount effort to both comedy and to the action. The special effects especially the underwater segments (during he fire rescue) are impressive. It is rare when the action and comedy come together. The best and most hilarious segment occurs at the film’s start (which cannot be matched), when the logo BAYWATCH appears on the background accompanied by three synchronized choreographed dolphins after Dwayne Johnson saves some babes on his watch.

Dwayne Johnson has proven himself apt as an actor comfortable in both action and comedy. Zac Efron is however not that funny when portrayed as a victim. He is at his hilarious best (as in the film DIRTY GRANDPA or in NEIGHBOURS) when he is the instigator or the super drunk or drugged up super hunk. This best scene in BAYWATCH is when he punches out his supervisor and when his muscles are flexed doing the obstacle course. Jon Bass is given a lot of screen time doing the funny fat guy. All his antics – the co-ed shower, the beach CPR, the disco dancing are lame. Bass comes across as more annoying than funny. Audiences are not going to be happy paying good money to watch an amateur comedian fail on the screen.

BAYWATCH could have been better for all the effort put in, especially the fantastic special effects on display. Still, it is relatively entertaining, for those not expecting much from an evening at the movies.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDteZ0YrhSU

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Happy Birthday: Zac Efron

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zacefron.jpgZac Efron

Born: October 18, 1987 in San Luis Obispo, California, USA

On why he chose 17 Again: Everything else that was around was either a musical or a high school romance, you know, and this was actually the biggest risk and the biggest challenge. I can relate to playing a kid – I’ve had a first kiss, I’ve had awkward dates, I’ve had fights with my parents… But one thing I’ve never done is gotten into a fight with my teenage daughter.

 

NEIGHBORS
2014
dir. Nicholas Stoller
Stars:
Seth Rogen
Zac Efron		 17 AGAIN Movie Trailer17 Again
dir. Burr Steers
Starring
Zac Efron
Matthew Perry
ME AND ORSON WELLES Movie PosterMe and Orson Welles
dir. Linklater
Starring
Zac Efron
Claire Danes		 MOVIE POSTERNEW YEAR’S EVE
dir. Garry Marshall
Stars:
Sarah Jessica Parker
Jessica Biel

MOVIE POSTERTHE LUCKY ONE
dir. Scott Hicks
Stars:
Zac Efron
Taylor Schilling		 MOVIE POSTERDR. SEUSS THE LORAX
dir. Chris Renaud
Kyle Balda
Stars:
Zac Efron
Taylor Swift

MOVIE POSTERLIBERAL ARTS
2012
dir. Josh Radnor
Stars:
Josh Radnor
Elizabeth Olsen		 MOVIE POSTERTHE PAPERBOY
2012
dir. Lee Daniels
Stars:
Matthew McConaughey
Nicole Kidman

MOVIE POSTERAT ANY PRICE
2013
dir. Ramin Bahrani
Stars:
Dennis Quaid
Zac Efron

TOP ZAC EFRON PHOTOS2011 – See the best of his pictures.

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AND TERESA PALMER – See the best of his pictures.

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Movie Review: Neighbours 2 (USA 2016) ***1/2

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

bad_neighboursNEIGHBOURS 2: SORORITY RISING (USA 2016) ***1/2
Directed by Nicholas Stoller

Starring: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Clara Mamet, Selena Gomez

Review by Gilbert Seah

NEIGHBOURS the Seth Rogen comedy with Zac Efron as a frat neighbour was one of the best comedies of 2014. It featured the funniest sequence in a comedy that year – the Robert De Niro segment in which Efron, Dave Franco and gang all dress up as De Niro to taunt Rogen and wife for calling the cops the night before to lodge a complaint about their party.

NEIGHBOURS 2 has tough shoes to fill. But thanks to good writing from a script credited to 5 writers, the sequel makes it. Jokes like the air bags and the Dean Carol Gladstone character (Lisa Kudrow) from the first film are brought back into the sequel. If a few jokes do not work, one can be sure another couple will in a few minutes. With hardly any time for the audience to take a breather, NEIGHBOURS 2 comes across as intense as the dressed up clown that shows up at a tailgate party, a segment that is almost as funny as the De Niro sequence.

The success of this film lies a great deal on the comedic potential of both Efron and Chloe Grace Moretz. Efron plays the older frat member, now graduated and unable to find a decent job and living space while Moretz plays his younger female version looking to party all the time. Teddy Sanders (Efron) helps her at first in renting her sorority house that just happens to be next to the house that Mac (Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) is selling. But Teddy switches to Mac’s side to help him evict the sisters sorority. It is a fairly simple plot but with plenty of comedy potential, with the setups well staged. Efron has proven his mettle in comedy as in the first NEIGHBOURS and the recent DIRTY GRANDPA. Efron can even be funny in moments demanding the audience to show sympathy for his character. Teddy, for example, shows genuine puzzlement on why eggs get hard whereas pasta gets soft when dunked in boiling water, Moretz, however, has the straighter role. Her character serves to anchor the story. Her sorority sisters, Beth (Dope’s Kiersey Clemons), and Nora (Beanie Feldstein) and other sorority members are left with the task of providing the laughter.

NEIGHBOURS 2 also lifts comedy to a level of political correctness. The gay jokes are largely positive, with Teddy’s best friend, Pete (Franco) coming out and getting married to his new husband. On the female side, the sisterly bond fosters positive feminism while male chauvinism (such as in the depiction of girls as whores in colleges) is frowned upon. There is also a comedic discussion on the difference between a male teen vs. a female teen losing his or her virginity.

While NEIGHBOURS 2 is funny enough, its desperation to top the original is obvious. The film grabs at any opportunity for a joke, even to have didoes dressed as princesses to get a laugh. The result is the film looking a bit ‘all over the place’ compared to the more focused original despite the almost equal high to hit miss laughter ratio.

 

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
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Movie Review: DIRTY GRANDPA (2016)

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

dirty_grandpa.jpgDIRTY GRANDPA (USA 2015) ***1/2
Directed by Dan Mazer

Starring: Zac Efron, Robert DeNiro, Zoey Deutch, Aubrey Plaza

Review by Gilbert Seah

Read Interview with the Art Director Jeremy Woolsey

A party scene has one character saying: “Party till you are pregnant!” Another has a prosthetic penis (an erect one at that) in the face of Zac Efron in bed after the De Niro character admits that ‘naked’ is the best way of sleeping.

If the above offends, stay away from DIRTY GRANDPA – the movie. The film is meant to offend. If the above do not do it, De Niro gets to use the ’N’ word later on in the movie. It is what is expected from the British co-writer Dam Mazer, who penned the BORAT and ALI G. characters with Sacha Baron Cohen. But DIRTY GRANDPA is extremely funny, if not a bit inconsistent in its laughs. But if a few jokes fail, one knows there are more successful ones to offend just around the corner.

But the film has a poor start with the funeral services of Dick Kelly’s (De Niro) wife of 15 years. Cousin Nick’s (Adam Pally) drunken shenanigans (speeches and small talk) are unfunny and a waste of time. His later appearance does more of the same and director Mazer would have done better to edit this character out of the film. Then there is the appearance of Dick’s grandson, Jason (Efron) and his annoying fiancé, Meredith (Julianne Hough). The Meredith character and her scenes are also unfunny at all, though her character is key to the film’s plot. John Phillip’s script could have given her a few funny moments.

The film’s simple plot allows for lots of hilarious distractions. Dick fools his grandson Jason to drive him to Florida for spring break for the sole reason that Dick and his late wife go there every year. But Dick has another agenda up his sleeve. He finally confesses to Jason once there in the film’s funniest line: “I have been faithful for 15 years, and all I want to do now is fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” The two get a chance when they meet two hot chicks Shadia (Zoey Deutch) and Lenore (Aubrey Plaza) on the road.

The film’s funniest parts are nothing less than inspired. At a beach party, there is a ‘Flex Off”, a take off from a ‘Dance-Off’ where Dick and Jason hilariously take on a couple of hunks in the contest. Another exceptionally funny segment is when Jason gets drunk and naked, smokes crack and takes off stoned on a motorbike to a beach where he is mistaken for a child pervert.

Oscar winner De Niro has proven his comedic skills in films like MEET THE PARENTS and THE FAMILY, while Efron has proven himself just as proficient in last year’s NEIGHBOURS. Together, they form a dynamic duo in comedy.

The film’s climax does not involve anything as dramatic as the heroes saving the world but involves the heroes accomplishing an equally daunting task. Dick gets to fuck after 15 years in another very funny segment. If you are prepared not to be offended, DIRTY GRANDPA proves enough filth for the funny bone for the entire 2016.

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

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