Annie Review (2014)

Annie

  Well, I was really not excited about writing this review or seeing this movie. Surprisingly, it was even lower than my expectations.

  What should have been a fun family film, was a long-winded, badly acted, unnecessary remake of the original (which I have never seen).

  It was boring, predictable. It tried so hard to get you to feel something and you just don't. Jamie Fox was probably the saving grace of this film, but Cameron Diaz's performance is so bad that it doesn't even matter. 

  The singing was decent, but again, Jamie Fox was the saving grace with arguably the best voice. 

  Overall, this generic excuse for a movie is not worth your time and should have never been made. 1 out of 5 stars. (Hate It)

Taken 3 Review (2015)

Taken 3

  January isn't officially here until a terrible movie hits the theater. That movie, is Taken 3. 

  Like most trilogies, the first one is good, the second one is okay, and the third one is terrible. Taken 3 doesn't stray from this formula.   

  Not only does it take forever for Liam Neeson to even start killing people, but even when he does it's still incredibly boring. The plot is overly predictable, the 31 year old, college student daughter is still annoying, the villains still have stupid motivations. I was literally laughing at how they used every synonym in the book to describe kidnapping, other than kidnapped. She was taken, grabbed, snatched, captured. Then we have Liam Neeson blowing up in cars (twice) and the next scene he's walking away without a scratch on his face. 

  There is sooo much wrong with this movie that I could write fourteen page paper. If only I could hire Liam Neeson to get back the money taken from me at the box office. Seriously. I really hope it does ends here. 1 out of 5 stars. (Hate It)

 

Selma Review (2014)

Selma

  If you were planning to see Taken 3 this week, do yourself a favor and see Selma instead. Similar to 2012's Lincoln, this film chooses to focus on a singular event in Luther's life, the right for black American's to vote. I'd never realized how much we as a people can take voting for granted.  If anyone proves that our voices really do have a say in our future, it is Martin Luther King.

  What I really liked about Selma, was that it really humanizes King while at the same time showing us how much of an inspiration he was. It is a timely piece that brutally paints the true colors of systematic racism and how we as a people have a part to play in that.

  David Oyelowo does an excellent job encompassing the life of Martin Luther King. He definitely deserves his nomination and future roles as good as this one.

  Selma is a deeply moving biopic that everyone should see. 5 out of 5 stars! (A Must See)

How To Train Your Dragon 2 Review (2014)

How To Train Your Dragon 2 

  As a huge fan of the first How To Train Your Dragon, I had very high expectations for this one. Did it meet them? Not quite, but that doesn't mean it's terrible necessarily.

  The animation is absolutely lovely, the expressions on their faces, the shots of the dragons in flight. It was really impressive and fit like a dream with the beautiful score.
  While stylistically it was equally as good as the first movie, the storyline wasn't as good. It felt like the creators couldn't really think up something interesting and so they decided to have Hiccup discover an island of dragon catchers who are led by an evil viking who has an army of dragons under brain control. If that wasn't random enough, Hiccup meets his mother who left them for 20 years to go rescue abused dragons. Try to justify that one.

  There are moments in the film that are really touching and then there are moments that feel long-winded because not much is happening. I think I would have preferred the creators not make this movie since the first one was one of my favorite animations. 1.5 out of 5 stars. (Skip It)

Big Eyes Review (2014)

Big Eyes

  I'm not usually a fan of Tim Burton movies, but Big Eyes grabbed me from the start. Something about the charming 50's really provides a vibrant tone to a colorful story about an artist who is pressured into giving her husband all the credit for her work.

   I do believe that this is the first time I've really felt an emotional connection with one of Burton's films. Sure, the material is still very eccentric, but it's probably the least "strange" film that he's ever made.

   Amy Adam's gives us a beautiful, layered performance. She isn't over the top, she isn't pretentious. She makes a quiet impression that really moves and is great in contrast to her flashy, over the top husband played by Christoph Waltz. 

  I really enjoyed how this film shows how one little lie can can poison your very being. While the pacing is a bit off beat, perhaps purposely, Big Eyes has Oscar written all over it. Really good film, 4 out of 5 stars. (It's Great)

The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies Review (2014)

The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies

  I didn't go into this movie with high expectations because, well, they made a 3 hour movie out of the last 40 pages of the book. If we're all honest, we'll admit that those last 40 pages were pretty boring. 

  When the film started, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it! And not for the reasons you might be expecting.

  Martin Freeman should win an award for best facial expression ever. He makes Bilbo such a likeable character and really nails that loveable, possessed, loyal, thief. Luke Evans and Richard Armitage also do a great job in their roles. Thorin's character arc is super engaging and Armitage does excellent at making it believable. 

  Now here are my gropes. There is this character called Alfrid in the film (the villager with the unibrow) that is meant to be there for comic relief and ends up with more screen time than Bilbo. Anyway, this guy changes the entire mood of the movie as we go from him being incredibly stupid to a death scene in one take. He gives this lightness to the film that really took me out of it and had me laughing at parts that weren't supposed to be funny. The execution of certain scenes took themselves so seriously and could have been avoided so easily that they were honestly just laughable. 

  I can't say that this made the movie bad, because I enjoyed laughing my head off, but if I had tried to take it seriously, I would have probably just felt like those parts were stupid. 

  As you can see, I have mixed feelings for this film. I'd have to give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars. (Watch If Free)

Exodus: Gods and Kings Reveiw (2014)

Exodus: Gods and Kings

 

  This film was a very mixed bag for me. While the cinematography, battle sequences, and scale of the sets were all extraordinary, you could just feel the bitter Atheism of Ridley Scott through his work. You could feel it as he made God a whiny, demanding, 11 year old, blonde, British boy. You could feel it as he attributes every single one of the plagues to science except for the death of the first born because of course God gets the credit for killing the children. You could feel it as he made Moses's character act like a barbaric, entitled, schizophrenic who hit his head a little too hard on a rock before seeing God and the burning bush. 

   Blasphemy aside, when you take away the very core of the Moses story, it loses all of the things that make it a great story in the first place. The best, most emotional parts were the ones accurate to the bible, like the last plague. Scott tried so hard for the red sea parting to look naturalistic that it ended up being just unsatisfying and anticlimactic in light of the rest of the story. It also bothered me that Ramases used a line from Gladiator twice. "He sleeps so well because he's loved" I get that it's the same director, but really? 

  It was a technically solid film, but it could have been sooo much better. The white-washed cast was very distracting (as much as I love the actors). It really took me out of the story. On top of all that, it didn't seem like the film focused enough on the horrors of being a Hebrew slave. If anything, I sympathized more with the Egyptians. I wanted to feel that intense motivation to free the Jews and it falls flat in it's delivery. A lot of potential, but it is ultimately uninspiring. I don't know what audience Scott was trying to market this film too. Bible readers who don't read the bible? 2 out of 5 stars. (It's Okay)