A Fresh Perspective: Man of Steel (2013)

Hello All,

Before we begin, I’d like to remind everyone that I have a poll up for a few more days. It’s a one question yes or no answer, so if you have five seconds feel free to contribute. Poll is here http://goo.gl/NEaJLh. Thank You.

Okay, so March Break turned out to be much more exhausting than I expected. So much so that I even didn’t get a chance to see Young Messiah, and it’s looking like I might miss it all together. So, with that in mind, I’ve decided to switch my viewpoint from one religious icon to another. In this case it’s Superman, and the film is the much divided Man of Steel.

I have to admit, I haven’t watched it since I saw it the only time in theatres back in 2013. All I could tell you at the time was that (Spoilers) Superman killed Zod, and that was the only reason I liked that movie. Truth be told, I loathe Superman. I really fucking do. But truth be told I thought the movie was good. It was only later on when I saw other reviews point out the apparently many flaws it had, that I started rethinking my decision. My conclusion, I actually didn’t remember that much of the movie, which to me I never consider a good thing.

So today I have decided to introduce a new type of post. One for films that aren’t really retro, but qualify for a complete series. So it’s time for me to gain a new perspective on: Man of Steel.

This intro was written before I saw the film, and everything after this will be written after viewing it.

Plot Summary - After being sent to earth from the dying planet of Krypton, Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) must defend his new home from the last of the Kryptonians, ruled over by General Zod (Michael Shannon.)

Pros - The film is visually cool, as it manages to have it’s own style separate from that of other Superman films. The action scenes, while a touch chaotic, are intense and thrilling and keeps you on the edge of your seat. The ideas that are here story wise have some interesting elements to them as well.

Cons - The rest of the film is a goddamn hot mess. The characters are bland and uninteresting, as you really don’t get to know anybody. It’s an exposition nightmare as most of the scenes are people talking about things instead of doing them. The plot is overstretched and makes little to no sense, and there are plot holes all over the goddamn place. It has a bloated as hell running time as the film just tends to drag itself on and on without an end in sight. Narratively it can’t focus, as large chunks of the beginning of the film just jump around all over the goddamn place. I think I now know why I haven’t watched this film in three fucking years.

Final Score - 2/10

I’m sorry, but this is the kind of filmmaking that bugs the shit out of me. All spectacle no pay off, big ideas that are horribly stretched out so thin they lose all meaning. Jesus christ why did I do this to myself? Oh yeah, I remember now……..

Next: Batman Vs. Superman Dawn of Justice - I’m seeing it tomorrow actually, god help me.

Until then, I’ll see you folks at the movies.

Movie Review: The Little Prince (2016)

Hello All,

So this is a bit of an awkward review for me for two very different reasons. One: Anyone whose reading from the states in hopes seeing next week, you’re unfortunately going to have to wait a little bit longer as literally right before I left to go see the movie, it was announced that Paramount had dropped the film from its distribution list. You can read more about that here:

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/little-prince-paramount-distribution-1201728743/.

The second awkward thing about this review for me is that I’ve never actually read the original book. I grew up in mostly english speaking parts of the country and I can honestly say I’ve never even actually seen a physical copy of the book. In fact, and I’m 95% sure of this, I learned of the little prince from an episode of futurama. I didn’t get the chance to actually read the full book but I did read a quick plot summary admittedly after the movie. So, how was the movie that I knew nothing of going in? Let’s find out together shall we?

Plot Summary - A little girl (Mackenzie Foy) and her over controlling mother (Rachel McAdams) move in next store to an aviator (Jeff Bridges.) When the girl and the aviator start to become friends, he starts telling her his story of a time he met a little prince (Riley Osborne) in the desert, and was told the story of how he got there.

Pros - The voice casting is phenomenally well done. There’s a lot of people in this film and they’re all really good in their roles. The animation is really good too as it switches back and forth between cgi and stop motion animation. The story between the aviator and the girl is a sweet and charming one, that admittedly had me shedding a few manly tears in the theatre.

Cons - It’s not a straightforward adaptation of the book, more the story of a child reading the book for the first time and the experiences that come with it. Anyone not familiar with the source material might find it a bit perplexing to follow, and anyone who knows the story might not be happy that they leave out a few characters from the book. There’s also a scene in the third act, that basically sort of acts as an extension of the original story, which I thought was okay, but original book fans may not be okay with. There’s also a bit of an unbalance as to which characters get how much screen time.

Final Score - 8/10

Overall I think that this is a really good movie, but how much of it you’ll understand versus how much you’ll enjoy depends on your knowledge of the source material.

Next: The Young Messiah - I do work the next five days in a row, so I’m not 100% sure when I’ll be able to see this one.

Before I go, I just wanted to remind people about the poll I started yesterday. To clarify, it’s a poll asking whether I should get a twitter account that will be used for both the blog and my twitch channel.

The Poll is Here, I’d love to have your input: http://goo.gl/NEaJLh

The 150th review is coming up soon, I have a few ideas floating around as to what to do for it. Stay tuned.

Until then, I’ll see you folks at the movies.

Movie Review: 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

Hello All,

Okay, I’m just going to throw this out there: I fucking hated the first Cloverfield movie. It was a stupid, shaky, handheld horror movie, that came out at a time when we had a lot of them and they all sucked. So when the trailer for this quite literally popped out of the blue, I was extremely hesitant at first. The moment I realized they were ditching the original’s concept of filming altogether, I honestly got on board just because of that alone. As I started learning a bit more about it, I decided to give it a look when it came out. Honestly, after The Brothers Grimsby review before (which you should totally read after this one okay self promotion moment over sorry) I was just down for anything that didn’t look like complete shit. So how did a sequel to a movie I hated turn out? Let’s find out together shall we?

Plot Summary - When Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) packs her things and leaves home after an argument with her boyfriend, she get’s into a car accident and wakes up in the care of a man named Howard (John Goodman). He tells her that she’s safe in his underground bunker after the world as fallen into an apocalypse. Together with fellow bunker mate Emmet (John Gallagher Jr.), they begin to found out more about their mysterious, and begin to question what his true intentions are for the end of the world.

Pros - The cast is extraordinarily good in this film. I can’t say I’m too familiar with John Goodman work, but in this he just nails it. At times a relatable human, other times an intense psychopath, he just owns the role perfectly. Mary as Michelle has probably one the best written character arcs I’ve seen in a long time, and John as Emmet is just the perfect middle man between the two of them as he slowly wins you over during the course of the movie. The plot and the pacing is great too, as it manages to feel like everything is happening at just the right time, while also keeping you invested in what’s going on in the scene. I went to see this with a friend of mine, and he was literally on the edge of his seat so many times. Everything feels like it’s happening naturally, nothing seems out of place or forced. There are a lot of elements in play too that tie everything up in such a creative way. The film is shot well too, as they know when to make the situation looks either intense, or lighthearted enough, without going overboard with either. It does help making the film really fucking intense, which it also does in spades.

Cons - Honestly, I just hope that if I give this film a 10, no one thinks I did entirely to make a dumb joke.

Final Score - 10/10

Truth be told, it might not quite be my favourite so far of the year, but I did enjoy it a lot and I honestly do recommend you see this when you can.

Next: The Little Prince - I’m hoping to get to this one tomorrow. In the meantime, I have a question to ask.

I mentioned in the last post about some ideas in my head, the first step to this is see about expanding the brand a little bit. I’m going to go in baby steps though, so I figure I’d start with a basic question: Should I make a twitter account for both the blog and my twitch account?

You can answer that by simply following this link here: http://goo.gl/NEaJLh

I’ll try and check it within a week, unless I don’t think I got enough answers then I’ll leave it up longer. I’ll be sure to post the results and keep you folks updated.

Until then, I’ll see you folks at the movies.

Movie Review: The Brothers Grimsby (2016)

Hello All,

It’s nearing the end of the week before March Break here, so I will be quite busy during that week. With that in mind, I decided today to try and knock out one of the two anticipated films: Sacha Baron Cohen’s “The Brothers Grimsby.” It basically came down to a coin flip between that and 10 Cloverfield Lane. Having now seen the film I can safely say that I’m glad I got it out of the way now, because hopefully seeing 10 Cloverfield Lane will help me forget most of what I saw in this movie. Yeah, that coin flip really didn’t work out in my favor today. Why? Let’s find out together shall we?

Plot Summary - “Nobby” Butcher (Sacha Baron Cohen) is an English football hooligan from a small town called Grimsby, who's been looking for his little brother for 28 years. When the two are reunited however, his brother Sebastian (Mark Strong) is now MI6’s top agent. When the surprise reunion between the two of them ends up with Sebastian being hunted down as a traitor, the must find the real villains, stop the plot, and reunite as family.

Pros - As a comedy film, there are quite a few funny scenes in the film that poke some real fun as goofy spy moments. As a spy film, there’s a few cool action and chase scenes, and even an unexpected plot twist.

Cons -Mark being the straight man to Sacha’s antics doesn’t feel like two brothers reuniting, it feels like a bad abbott and costello routine most of the time. It’s not that they’re bad, it’s just it’s mostly just painfully unfunny. The rest of the cast is basically wasted, as the film devolves into a lot of gross out comedy. When I say gross out,  I mean GROSS AS A MOTHERFUCKER! I’m just going to tell you a thing that happens in the movie straight up.

The two men have to crawl inside a female elephant, who starts getting fucked by all the male elephants in the herd.

It’s going to take me a lot of booze to wipe that image from my head anytime soon. There’s also scenes in this film that are straight up predictable in terms of both the comedy and the spy stuff. They even end up reusing entire routines from earlier in the movie later on, and they’re mostly not funny. While the spy plot has some interesting moments, the rest of it feel like checklist moments to make fun of that’s been done better in much better movies than this one.

Final Score - 3/10

The few scenes that work are not worth sitting through the rest of it. If you’re a Cohan fan, go nuts. Everyone else, it’s at your own parel.

Next: 10 Cloverfield Lane - It’s looks good. Hated Cloverfield though.

Not going to lie, I was pretty bummed out when I started writing this, then I saw this trailer http://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/watch-spider-man-debuts-in-captain-america-civil-war-trailer/ and suddenly my day got a lot better as a spiderman fan. I can’t wait for this movie now.

Until then, I’m going to watch that trailer sixty more times.

Side Note: I’m tinkering with some new ideas, I’ll either talk about it in the next review or do a separate post about them. Keep checking in for that.

I’ll see you folks at the movies.

Movie Review: London Has Fallen (2016)

Hello All,

Sorry for the wait on this one. I thought I had more time to get this done, but then I learned two very important things recently. One: It’s going to be March break next week, and Two: there are four new movies coming out then. They are: 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Brothers Grimsby, The Little Prince, and The Young Messiah. So yeah, I have a bit of a long week ahead of me. So yeah, let’s get this review done shall we?

Plot Summary - Two years after a drone strike attack on a well known arms dealer, the British Prime Minister has died, and his state funeral brings together all the world's leaders. Just as the leaders arrive, the arms dealer men launches his attack on London, killing several world leaders, but leaving President Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and secret service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) alone in the streets of London, trying to survive.

Pros - The cast is pretty on point in this film, as they seem like they’re taking the material seriously. The action scenes are pretty cool, as there’s also a pretty cool one take shootout that goes down a street. The few there are are also good as well, and they even have the president shooting terrorists, which I’ll admit is a pretty cool thing to see happen.

Cons - Okay, the biggest problem with this film right off the bat, is the execution of it’s premise. Basically, without trying to spoil it, they blow up several key landmarks and somehow manage to completely overrun the city, and the manner in which they did is complete bullshit. They barely answer how they managed to pull it off, and even then it just brings up more questions than answers. I know it’s a movie it doesn’t have to make sense, but at least with the first film suspension of disbelief actually kicked in and plus it was an attack on just one building (mostly) which we have sadly seen far too much of as human beings, so it’s more like a slight exaggeration of true events then the pure fantasy this movie felt like. It’s also a lot more heavy handed with “America Fuck Yeah” theme than the first one, which as a non american can get kind of grating at a certain point. The story is also a lot more cliched this time around, as key scenes are a lot more predictable this time around which ruins your enjoyment of the movie. There’s also a subplot concerning an MI6 Agent Mike knows that adds a total of maybe ten minutes to the movies run time, and she’s the one who answers the biggest question in the movie.

Final Score - 3/10

The first one of the year by my count, it has a few interesting moments but overall it’s boring and pointless. I actually left about a minute before it actually finished because believe or not the last scene is in the trailer and I really had to use the washroom. With four new films coming out, you’re better off waiting for one of them instead.

Next: The Brothers Grimsby - Just confirmed while writing this actually, haven’t seen a Sacha Baron Cohen movie since Borat, so what could possibly go wrong (God help me.)

Until then, I’ll see you folks at the movies.

Movie Review: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016)

Hello All,

    I’m blanking on intros at the moment. I’ve had a long day at work and right now I am having a quiet night in. As I said in my last review, I managed to see Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, so let’s get straight to the review now shall we?

Plot Summary - When reporter Kim Baker (Tina Fey) becomes a war correspondent during Operation Enduring Freedom, she finds herself deep in the chaos and freedom of working in a war zone.

Pros - The cast is really good, especially Tina Fey who manages to break from just doing comedies and gives a really good dramatic performance. Hell the whole cast is insanely likeable as none of them feel like caricatures of the type of people you usually see in war movies. The cinematography is good as well, the story is solid, and the soundtrack is really on point.

Cons - It’s a bit slow in the beginning, and if you’re looking a full on action war movie, this is not for you.

Final Score - 8/10

Honestly it’s just a solid, enjoyable film. See it if you can.

Next: London Has Fallen, but I don’t know when.

Until then I’ll see you folks at the movies.

Movie Review: Zootopia (2016)

Hello All,

    I apologize for the lack of updates over the week, I got all three new movies out of the way pretty quickly in the week so I decided to just relax on the reviews for the rest of the week. I did see Olympus Has Fallen, it was okay, would’ve been better as a straight up Die Hard movie. I might end up doing a side by side comparison between it and White House Down later on. I will do London Has Fallen later on in the week due to scheduling conflicts. So in the meantime let’s review the movie that’s 100% Rotten Tomatoes with 92 Reviews at the moment shall we?

Plot Summary - In a world where humans never existed, every modern animals dream is to move to the central city of Zootopia. A modern animal paradise where predator and prey exist in harmony, it is the dream of Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) to become a police officer. The first bunny cop, when she’s given a chance to either solve a case 48 hours or retire, she seeks the help of Fox and hustler Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) to solve the case.

Pros - The animation is fantastic to start. They manage to have a wide variety of animals on screen most of the time, and the world is perfectly built to accommodate all of them. It feels 100% natural, as they even have different parts of the city divided up into different types of environments, which adds to the variety of animation styles, and can allow for some interesting and hilarious moments. The story is really solid too, as it manages to just have the right levels of everything. No scene feels out of place, or tacked on, as it all eventually ties itself all back together. Even the moments that could be considered cliched are done in interesting and different enough ways that you really don’t mind. It even has a smart an interesting message at the center of the film, that while younger kids may not 100% pick up on, will still engage the slightly older ones and especially adults. The humour in it too is nicely balanced between adult and kid jokes, making I’d say 95% - 98% appeal to both groups. The characters are well rounded and likeable, even small characters have interesting traits. There are some really good casting choices in here (fun fact Tommy Chong is in this film, see if you can spot him) and it does allow you to get really invested in the characters. I honestly just enjoyed every moment of this film.

Cons - I got nothing.

Final Score - 10/10

Truthfully, this might be the best film that Disney has made in a while. I honestly enjoyed this movie to death, and I cannot recommend it enough. It’s so far beyond being just a family film that anyone can truly enjoy it and get something out of it.

Next: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot - It’ll probably be tomorrow, and London Has Fallen sometime later this week. If it’s taking too long for that, I might do the side by side comparison with White House Down.

Until then, I’ll see you folks at the movies.