Crime | Joy Reviews Movies

I think I can officially say I’m a Daniel Radcliffe fan. Just in the last, what?, 3-6 months, I have watched and loved the entire Harry Potter series, Swiss Army Man, and now, Imperium. He’s a phenomenal actor that has fit all three of his roles in these films to a tee. I feel that we’ll see more and more of his versatility as he stars in more varied films.

Imperium was something I was intrigued by from the get-go because I was thinking it would be something akin to American History X (you know, with Edward Norton) and I mean, I wasn’t completely wrong, but I wasn’t completely right, either. It was tense from the first minute to the final climax. It built the perfect amount of suspense and kept me on my toes precisely when it needed to. I wasn’t expecting to see Toni Collette in a role like this, but lo and behold, I did – and am I ever glad I did! She was really great. I am a fan of hers from the TV series, The United States of Tara (she plays a woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder, you should check it out if you haven’t before)!

I don’t want to say that Imperium doesn’t quite… measure upt to the aforementioned American History X, but I will say it didn’t carry the same weight. I don’t think it’ll be regarded as a cult classic the way that AHX is and has been. It’s currently sitting at 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I think that’s an accurate approval rating, if not a little bit generous. If I had to rate it numerically, I’d give it at least a 75% based on Radcliffe’s performance alone.

I’m looking forward to more performances like this one from Daniel Radcliffe in the future!

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I love Quentin Tarantino, I really do, but man… 3 hours and 7 minutes is a long-ass time for a movie that’s like, 90% dialogue. That’s not to say I lost interest, because I didn’t. I knew what was coming… that Tarantino ending. The payout I was waiting for. If I stopped 2 hours in and abandoned the trek, it’d all be for naught. So you best believe that I toughed it out.

Nothing about The Hateful Eight was boring – Tarantino doesn’t do boring. It’s dark, it’s unrealistic, it’s gory (at times)… it’s everything I’ve come to expect from a movie directed by the Tarantines himself. You’ve got a roster of A-list stars who are typical of his movies – Samuel L. Jackson (True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained and now, The Hateful Eight), Walton Goggins (Django Unchained), Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill). Tarantino loves to build a relationship with his stars and reuse them again and again. He also added Kurt Russell to the roster, as well as Channing Tatum, who surprised me by doing a decent job!

The overuse of the n-word doesn’t particularly agree with me. I get that he’s trying to be historically accurate of the time period the film is set in, but it was juuuust a bit excessive at 65 (I didn’t count myself, though, so I could definitely be wrong) utterances.

To be honest, it wasn’t my favourite Tarantino film… not by a long shot… but I did enjoy it. It was interesting, it was a bloodbath (as is his modus operandi), and it was thrilling, at least at the end. Solid watch! Solid watch.

Joy Reviews Movies

Browsing Category Crime

Imperium (2016)

The Hateful Eight (2015)