I Am The Wiz Film Club

Wiz HIGHLY RECOMMENDS Suzume I try to make sure not to curse in my reviews: it's just kind of lame and it never really gets the point across most times. But I have to do it with this movie because it's the only way to emphasize my points succinctly enough: From animation to visuals to the emotional story, Suzume is fucking beautiful. The film starts as a fun action adventure road trip film with a...

Wiz RECOMMENDS Star Trek: Insurrection An improvement from the last two "Next Generation" films, Star Trek: Insurrection seems like it takes some of the best elements of the best "original series" films and inject it into this crew. What are those elements? Humor and action. Both Generations and First Contact seemed to be a little too serious, including having a scowling Picard and a Riker that se...

Zero and Wiz DO NOT RECOMMEND The Conjuring If The Conjuring has made me think of one thing after watching, it's the use of the term "Based on a true story" when it comes to describing a film. For this to really work with that, you would need to have definitive proof that the events in this film actually happened. That means everything from the demon that possesses the mother to the visions to the...

Wiz RECOMMENDS The Others The Others leaves me in a bit of a critical quandary: I can recognize that the film has some really good, even fantastic, elements that speak of a higher quality than most films. The first is, undoubtedly, the performance of Nicole Kidman. Her performance as Grace shows the paranoia, unsettled nature and, by the end, what she truly is. Kidman embodies this performance thr...

Wiz RECOMMENDS Star Trek: First Contact One of the things I liked about the movies based on the original Star Trek series is that the films largely didn't require you to be that familiar with the crew originally. I came into watching the films with zero experience with the original cast and came out enjoying 2/3's of the films that were made from that cast. Going into Star Trek: First Contact , it...

Zero and Wiz RECOMMEND Zombieland Zombieland, the hit horror-comedy from the 2010s, is all about rules. Whether it's the main character spouting his rules on how to survive or the rules the movie implements to the story itself, the film's main question is usually whether to follow them or not. And that's both a blessing and a curse for the film: It's good because it can use its self referential na...

Wiz RECOMMENDS The Cabin in the Woods After watching The Cabin in the Woods , there was one thing I found interesting after the credits: that it not only lampooned the tropes of its genre in a different way, but that it did so as a matter of reverence, not of scorn. Then again, this isn't new for the horror genre. Films like Scream have not only poked fun at the genre, but also celebrated it. Whic...

Wiz RECOMMENDS Star Trek: Generations Continuing a franchise with a brand new cast can be a risky gambit: people get comfortable with the standard players even though they may tire of them. What does Star Trek: Generations do? Create a bridge between the two. Starting the film with three of the original players was a nice touch which gets to showcase, one last time, how three of the crew members i...

Zero and Wiz RECOMMEND Young Frankenstein Yes yes, it's not a surprise that Young Frankenstein is a funny movie. Ever since it originally released, it's considered one of the best comedies to come out of the Hollywood system when it comes to satires. With that, this isn't a shock. What was surprising when watching the film was how well Mel Brooks shot the film to give it that distinct feel of a Un...

Wiz RECOMMENDS Tim Burton's Corpse Bride Since it is an animated movie...and Tim Burton's attached...the question has to be asked: is Corpse Bride better than The Nightmare Before Christmas ? My answer is no, honestly. And even though that is the case, I still think if you are a fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas (which many of you are), you should give Corpse Bride a shot. The film is surprisi...

Wiz RECOMMENDS Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Ending the six film arc of the adventures of Kirk, Spock and the crew of the USS Enterprise, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the closest to reaching the quality of what Wrath of Khan had. Which shouldn't be too much of a surprise: this film is directed by the person who oversaw Khan . The film does an excellent job mixing different ty...

Zero and Wiz RECOMMEND Sicario Sicario does many things right: it has intense action sequences that bookend a meaty plot about finding justice in a business where it always feels dirty. But the one thing that the film does so very well: evoking a feeling of being a pawn on a chess board where you're not quite sure you are actually playing chess. Kate, played by Emily Blunt, is an idealistic pe...

Wiz RECOMMENDS The Secret Garden I know what you are thinking: what an odd film to suddenly decide to watch. The Secret Garden , Agnieszka Holland's 1993 adaptation of the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, is honestly a movie that has been forgotten despite that it's considered a great adaptation of a beloved novel and is shot by one of the best cinematographers of all-time: Roger Deakins....

Wiz DOES NOT RECOMMEND Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Before I get to the review, I just want to say that it's interesting how Star Trek ping-pongs between different styles of stories and it still somehow feels right with the series itself. In the past four, we've had artsy and contemplative ( The Motion Picture ), tense revenge film ( Wrath of Khan ), a more standard action drama ( Searc...

Zero and Wiz RECOMMEND Easy Rider Undoubtedly one of the most important independent films ever made, Easy Rider is a film that is in many ways a snapshot of a specific time and place in America as well as a feeling it's youth and "fringe elements" felt. Without the context of the time period however, Easy Rider may feel more like a vibe movie that has a plot 2/3's in. But man, is...

Wiz HIGHLY RECOMMENDS The Straight Story The Straight Story might be the weirdest film David Lynch has ever done. And it's mainly because of what it isn't: weird. I can go on about Lynch's chilling, puzzling masterpiece Mulholland Drive , but I can also spend just as much time gushing over the simplicity and warmth of The Straight Story . The film sounds odd, but not Lynchian odd: Alvi...

Wiz RECOMMENDS Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home The plot to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is patently absurd: Kirk, Spock, Bones and the crew have to time travel to 1986 to take two humpback whales, bring it back to their 23rd century time to...talk to an alien ship that is taking all the water away from Earth and sucking up it's power. Just absolutely ridiculous on the face of it. Should be a la...

Zero and Wiz RECOMMEND Fatal Attraction When you call a film "of it's time", it usually is talked about in its aesthetics. Either it has music that is drenched into the movie from it's time or clothes and hairstyles that remind you of that time. But a film "of it's time" can also describe the time at which society itself thought of certain things or types of people,...

Wiz RECOMMENDS Moonstruck What can be best described as the purest Italian charm offensive ever put on film, Moonstruck is a movie that is made just to make you laugh and smile. The reason is twofold: the great performances and characters. Let's start with the latter: all the characters from the main characters Loretta and Ronny to the supporting and even the ancillary characters are all likab...

Wiz RECOMMENDS Star Trek III: The Search For Spock After three Star Trek films I have come to a realization: I'm a Star Trek fan. The characters are charismatic and interesting. It has a clear and distinct vision. And for someone who likes military on film, Star Trek 's intellectual spin on militarism is surprisingly fun and interesting. But Star Trek III: The Search for Spock continues wh...

Zero and Wiz RECOMMEND Gran Turismo I gotta give Gran Turismo credit: this might be the most interesting of all the video game movie adaptations when it comes to the concept and the story. Instead of it being a straight interpretation of the game, this movie is about a young man who played "Gran Turismo" so well that he enrolled into a contest that led him to be a professional race car d...

The Wiz RECOMMENDS The Hustler I have a confession to make: the only reason I decided to watch this film was because I really wanted to see The Color of Money ...which is a sequel to The Hustler . If it wasn't for that connection, I'd likely would have not watched the film. And honestly, that would be a shame: when watching the film, it's easy to see why Scorsese was so attracted to ma...

Wiz RECOMMENDS Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan The last time I remember a film series get so much better from one film to the next, it was the Harry Potter series when it went from Chamber of Secrets to Prisoner of Azkaban . Save for one issue, everything is a marked improvement from The Motion Picture to Wrath of Khan . There is a good story and plot that is paced real well: there's excitemen...

Zero and Wiz RECOMMEND Tron How is it that video game nerds like Zero and Wiz have yet to see the 1982 film Tron ? That is a mystery to us, to be honest. But for Wiz, this films feels like it's made for people who are specifically nostalgic for games around that time, such as Atari and Arcade games like "Space Invaders" and "Pac-Man". In fact, that's exactly what the mo...

The Wiz RECOMMENDS Stalker (1979) As gorgeous as it is deliberate, Andrei Tarkovsky's science fiction masterpiece is a film that shares the same distinction as films like The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Bruxelles: I'm glad I have finally watched it. I enjoyed Stalker . But it's not quite hitting me the way it hits others. Again, Stalker...