The Journeys of June

The Purge

Watching the trailer and viral videos of this film, you would believe that this would be the most viciously violent you would ever see. However, The Purge, surprisingly, compared to most violent movies, is sort of quiet, which it does brilliantly by having the most heinous acts implied and not revealing graphics, making the movie feel like it's blood drenched with savageness. I appreciated how maturely this movie was handled, with showing how the more times this event is performed the crazier people get. Great movie.

 

  

Man of Steel

 

 

Best Film of June. Michael Shannon took the Zod character to more depth than the cartoony performance of Terence Stamp. Laurence Fishburne was great, but I'm not sure why he came off as a editor for TMZ, instead of looking the part of a well respected newspaper company. Lose the earring, dude. Amy Adams has nothing on Margot Kidder. Then again, I can't really blame Adams'.  It just seems like anything with Christopher Nolan or Zack Snyder has poorly written female characters: Rachel Dawes, Catwoman (primarily just ruined by Anne Hathaway without assistance), and every woman in Sucker Punch. Although, the Faora character, played by Antje Traue was amazing; a lot of the time, outshines Shannon's Zod. Didn't realize that was her from Pandorum.

 

World War Z  

 

   

 

World War B. B for Bullshit. Brad Pitt is one of the few A list actors who can take on roles with leaving out their celebrity appeal, but this movie is all Brad Pitt, the celebrity. I hate when people take a lucrative sub genre like zombies and just take advantage of it just to throw out some crap like this.  It was like they kept getting confused whether they were the undead version of zombies or the infected '28 days later' style zombies.There's a poster with Pitt's character with a automatic weapon strapped over his back. He never really used any weapons at all. He really didn't do anything but go from country to country and say 'I need answers. I need answers. My family. My wife.'. Nothing. I thought I was going in to see an insane, Troy version, zombie ass kicking Brad Pitt. Wait. Where's the gore in this. Oh, it's Pg-13. Now, to think of it, has there ever been a Pg13 zombie flick. This movie missed out on the most important part of zombie movies, the human element. People are evil, when facing chaotic times. Zombies aren't the monsters in zombie movies. It's the depths human nature goes to survive, cope. And will someone please show Marc Forster where the zoom out button on the camera is. He showed the same fault in Quantom of Solace. During the action scenes, he's just too up close on the actors. Awful, irritating piece of trash, but I do enjoy seeing James Badge Dale get more roles.

May in Review

Iron Man 3

 Disappointed by the first two Iron Man film's, I would never have thought of seeing a third film. Then I hear Shane Black signs on as director. That, along with a convincing trailer, I'm in. Iron Man 3 is the best Iron Man film, but it still suffers, greatly, from the same problems in the majority of summer films. Weak child actor, a pointless character, and out of nowhere anxiety attack shenanigans. I hate when child actors are given roles that you would never see a real child say or do, especially when that child actor isn't any good to begin with. Rebecca Hall was totally pointless. I understand if you wanted to make the events from Avengers feel like such an impact on Tony Stark's life, but tossing in some cheap anxiety attacks, which were displayed in more of a humorous way than dramatic, was a terrible choice for this character. Great Summer flick- Just an observation, one of the sets look as if they were taken right off of Uncharted. Also curious about if they used the Mandarin the way they did, including the casting of Ben Kingsley, was to not disrupt Chinese box office revenue.

                                                          The Great Gatsby

One word. Horrible. Great performances with mediocre visuals, so some style and no substance at all. Actually, I'm being to kind on the visuals. One of character's mansion looked very flat, like a cardboard cut out. Every time I tried giving the film a shot, Jay Z music kept bugging my ears. I guess it didn't me hearing modern day music in a period piece like Django Unchained because of the way Tarantino shot the film, but The Great Gatsby is definitely a filmed period piece. It completely takes you out of the movie.

Star Trek Into the Darkness

   Star Trek Into the Darkness reactions, bad or good, should be a wake up call for J.J. Abrams with his nature of secrecy becoming consequential to his entire story. Much like M. Night Shyamalan with his love of twists. Although, unlike twists, marketing films with secrecy can be damaging to your box office in take. I think if this movie had marketed who the real villain is, it would be doing way better. Benedict Cumbercatch was amazing. Chris Pine and Karl Urban both stepped up their performances from the last installment. Zachary Quinto was good but written more comically, something like Terminator, which Arnold did a better job of handling it and keeping the role serious, but it doesn't work well with Spock. Fun movie.

                                     Furious. Fast. Drift Fast...Whatever 

Ride of a Lifetime. It's amazing how these movies get better and better as they go along. Just one problem.Amnesia. Amnesia storylines  should be forbidden from all movies.

   Now You See Me

     Louis Leterrier, the master of defying gravity and the laws of physics with Transporter and Transporter 2, showed his true skills with Incredible Hulk. Then falls victim to mediocrity action films like Clash of the Titans. Now You See Me falls in between Hulk and Titans due to strange pacing and having story that's taken way too seriously, which was meant to make this movie seem very smart, which is the real magic trick. Pretty Good film, but suffers from not delivering mindbending filming of illusions, such as Trance does with it's hypnosis theme. Just a simple movie, interesting enough to get some enjoyment from.

APRIL IN REVIEW

EVIL Dead

I have never seen a film so gory. So bloody. So demonic. And be so uninteresting. This straight to dvd- like added to the lack of fun I wanted to experience so badly from this movie.

  Army of Darkness was my introduction into the Evil Dead franchise. I watched this movie about twenty times before realizing it had previous installments. Headed to the nearest blockbuster, I rented Evil Dead and enjoyed it, going on to watch Evil Dead 2 as well.

  When I first saw the trailer for the new Evil Dead, I felt no excitement or disappointment. Then I saw this garbage and wish I had been a little more disappointed enough not to see it. Throwing out lines and putting in certain scenes just because they were in the original were the biggest flaws of this movie. Actually it was the moments that weren't in the original at all that kept me from walking out. 

I was hoping for something like Prometheus, in the same universe as it's predecessors but not a sequel nor remake. Instead it's just another weak update of a great horror movie. Pure Trash.

42

Great Performances all around, even though Harrison Ford went a little too far with his grandpa acting performance. A few corny moments. Pretty Good Biopic.

Trance

  

After seeing Danny Boyle's annoying Slumdog Millionaire and putting up with a trapped and isolated James Franco for 127 Hours , I was beginning to think this director had nothing left, until Trance, an amazing film that looks into the theory of hypnosis which perfectly goes along with Boyle's choice of camera shots, taking you back to the cinematography from Trainspotting. Great movie.

Oblivion

 This movie has better visuals than it does with storytelling. The longest exposition I've ever heard. Once the story start, it turns out to be an okay film but nothing special.    

                                               The Place Beyond the Pines 

An unusually structured movie with a clear view of a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd act and all three acts being very different from the other, which was the major problem with this movie. Act 1 is the actual crime drama, which is the strongest point of the movie. Act 2 switches over to a completely out of the ballpark police corruption storyline that is so cliche, making this the worst portion of the movie. Then the final act is where the story picks back up, however it still does not match the great beginning. I would have like this better if they kept this same type of storytelling but just had better execution with the 2nd and 3rd act. Pretty Good Film that could have been a lot better and for a personal note, add more scenes with Rose Byrne.

                                                                  Pain & Gain

The Best Michael Bay movie since Bad Boys 2. And at his most conserved with small action scenes replaced by an actually well written character driven movie. Wahlberg, Rock and Mackie all do great jobs of bringing these real life criminals on the big screen. This movie is identified as a action comedy genre. But it's more of a drama then anything else. It's the foolish acts of these criminals which is so outrageous that you can do nothing but laugh at them. Best Movie of April even though Bay couldn't resist his usual antics such as female super models working out in a gym with full on makeup.

March in Review

My birthday month. Good month of movies.

                                            Oz The Great and Powerful

James Franco sucks. Over the top performances. Cheesy expressions. It was like he was still doing his hosting job at the Oscars. Compared to Franco, the rest of the cast were pretty decent. The creation of Oz was spectacular. I don't know if it was the fact that Sam Raimi directs or not, but this really feels reminiscent to Army of Darkness. Unlike the meaningful chemistry around Dorothy and her companions, Oz is surrounded by annoying, badly written sidekicks. DECENT FLICK BUT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF ROBERT DOWNEY PLAYED OZ LIKE HE WAS SUPPOSE TO FROM THE START.

                                                         DEAD Man Down

Dead Man Down redefines the revenge, but not in a good way. This movie, although entertaining enough to bare, has the worst revenge story I've ever seen. If it wasn't for the cool opening of a gang of assassins led by Terence Howard, I don't think I would have stuck with film more than ten minutes. What's worse is that this movie doesn't just have one revenge story but two, and it's gets really dull, up until the money shot that involves a truck and house, which is the main reason for seeing this movie. After this movie, no one in film has any idea what to do with Colin Farrell. To be honest, after the one of the biggest bombs of last summer, Total Recall, which starred Farrell, I was really surprised to see this guy still getting work after his constant failures in the mainstream portion, especially when it comes to action films. He seems more fitting for the small screen. OKAY MOVIE, BUT FARRELL SHOULD QUIT WHILE HE'S BEHIND.

                                                         Olympus Has Fallen

Gerard Butler can kick some serious ass. Why isn't this guy a bigger action hero he should, instead of constantly trying to spread himself to romantic comedies, which are all terrible. 300, action, success. The Ugly Truth, rom-com garbage. Law Abiding Citizen,action, success. Playing for Keeps, rom-com, pure garbage. Can we stop with these action movies that try to relive the 90's with the pointless girlfriend component. Radha Mitchell plays Butler's wife, who's a nurse at a hospital only to have some connection to the plot. Why couldn't you just make a staff member of the President. Speaking of pointless, Ashley Judd plays the First Lady. Those enormously, goofy looking cheeks on the face of Judd was more appealing than her performance. Earlier, I would have thought this film would be the biggest misrepresentation of the Secret Service, but after recent current events, I find the absolute desolation of the Secret Service to be somewhat fitting. I didn't like the use of Aaron Eckhart, either the wrong role or just the wrong movie for him. And a couple of times I confused him for a secret service agent. ALONG WITH THE LOVE AFFAIRS OF CGI AND THE CONSTANT USE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG VERY FUN AND ENTERTAINING FLICK.

                                                                GI Joe 2

BEST OF THE MONTH OF MARCH. THE ROCK RULES. Now that I got that out of the way, Bruce Willis has done shit before, Hudson Hawk for example, but the more I think about the last Die Hard and it's ridiculousness of it's plot and title, the more I feel like I'm getting tired of ole' Bruce. Man, that's hard to admit. He just did that movie with such carelessness that it was a distraction for me to see him in this, especially being the person with thee worst written lines in this feature. If Red 2 fails, I don't know where to go from here.

FEBRUARY IN REVIEW

Welcome back, Walter Hill. It's great to see that he hasn't lost his cool, gritty style to action films. And much like Hill's work, Bullet to the Head suffers from a weak plot. Pretty Good Action flick.

Worst Die Hard since Die Hard 2. What were they thinking with slapped together work of garbage. It wasn't hard to tell this installment was just thrown together, with the February release, smaller budget, and being way shorter than all previous Die Hard flicks. The chemistry between Bruce and Jai existed but this movie was so fast moving with it's pointless action scenes, that it was over before they really had a chance to really show off the father and son relationship. So they tarnish this relationship with the typical father, admitting how he's never there for his son, and his son listening from a distance and all of a sudden they're the perfect team. So, they went from John Jr. pointing a gun at his own father, showing that these two had a really violent filled falling out, to being immediately family again without any real conversation going on. TRASH.

Typical haunted house movie, but instead of ghost and demons, it's aliens. About aliens. Are they or were they ever really scary? Maybe if I knew what they would do once your abducted. That whole probing theory is weak. This movie seemed like it was going into a new direction of alien conspiracies. Instead, it's just a that tries to build scares by  making wait and wait until near the end for the big payoff, which is worse. TRASH, FOR HAVING FOOLISH CHARACTERS MORE CONCERNED ABOUT FINANCES THAN A ALIEN INVASION.

He cries, he protects his family, he kicks ass. Best movie of February.

Trailers Trash

When I first got into movies, my main attractions was just going to see teasers and trailers. Watching a countdown clock go down to zero and Pierce Brosnan popping on screen announcing himself as James Bond for the Goldeneye teaser trailer, my cheeks raising so high that they touch my eyeballs and my face red as a strawberry with enjoyment. Most times I would just want to see a movie just because of the trailers of the future movies coming out. Now, it seems like those days are over.

   Movie Trailers, today, are nothing more than a mega commercial trying to sell you multiple products. You rarely hear original trailer music in previews. I've heard Kanye West's Power in so many trailers. I'm sick of Jay Z soundtracks. The worst is when the music isn't even a decent match for the trailer, such as the Clash of the Titans trailer using The Bird and the Worm. When I watch a sword and sandal genre flick, rock music doesn't come into mind. It's like the marketing team is selling the music of these artist more than the movie itself. Also, can we stop with these clips in almost every action movie trailer where someones jumping off a roof and time slows while they're in mid air, which was most likely made famous by The Bourne Ultimatum.

   I guess it could be worse. Like with the 70's, when you were shown full scenes that went on for almost 10 minutes, such as in the Halloween trailer, where almost a full chase scene was shown. The trailer for Godfather used flash clips, and some were spoilers. However, they did have complete focus on what they were trying to sell. A lot of trailers today just go all over the place and many of them follow the same dull ass formula. Please just focus and sell your movie and not music from popular artist or throwing in clips that are not meant for trailer view.

January in Review

                                                           


                                                      Texas Chainsaw Massacre
     What does Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D have that the other Texas Chainsaw Massacre films don't have? Well, there are no deaths by chainsaw or even a scar by chainsaw in this film. Most of the deaths are brought about by meat cleavers and car crashes. Everything in this movie is just so tender, from Leatherface to every other piece of content in this film. Even the gore is pretty tame for a R rated horror flick, almost like they wanted a Pg-13 rating. First of all, I never found Leatherface appealing as an horror icon. The more they made the more they got away from the ideal chainsaw wielding retard and into a zombie, Jason-like character. This version, which is a so called direct sequel to the original, creates a more sympathizing character with Leatherface. Almost like what they did with Michael Myers in Rob Zombie's remake, with revealing his childhood back story. All the many faults in this movie none are worse than turning this icon into a sobbing creature. Pure Trash!!!

                                     

Wankster Squad

Josh Brolin still playing the stern, dry roles like he usually does. Maybe he felt that he was still trying to play Tommy Lee Jones younger self. Ryan Gosling added swagger to his tone but nothing towards the rest of his performance. Anthony Mackie becomes Blade. Robert Patrick turns into a western, quick drawer. Michael Pena playing the role of "I'm just here for the Mexican jokes". Nick Nolte  playing a drunk police chief. This film is anything but based off a true story. However, the way these actors played their roles and the wackiness of everything else kept this movie from being awful. Sean Penn's character or any other character had any depth at all to make them into at least 2 dimensional characters. So they gave the 50's era a very unrealistic, flashy style. If I could go back in time, I seriously doubt people in that era sounded, looked and dressed like they did in this movie. It's looking more and more like Ruben Fleischer was a one hit wonder with his Zombieland. Okay movie, makes you feel like you just stepped into January, known as the dumping ground for B movies and just play duds.

                                            
Russell Crowe kept this movie from breaking under it's attempt to bring back the film noir genre. Pretty good effort, but few issues kept it from hitting on all cylinders. There's a pointless girlfriend arc storyline with Wahlberg's character that goes nowhere and is the worst part of this movie. Russell Crowe and Jeffrey Wright keep this movie from being anything below decent. Okay.

         
The Last Stand, the title of Arnold Schwarzenegger's new film, which should be his last stand in the movie business. This guy's done. You can see it in his big cracked face. His chunky, out of breadth, slow looking physique, and he's run out of one liners, so he says anything to try to make it sound cool. The failed attempt at a comeback does not mean Arnold no longer has a big fan base anymore. This guy lost his thunder way before he became governor. His last successful film, critically and financially, was True Lies; Eraser was also a big success, financially wise. Then came the slumps: Jingle All the way, Batman and Robin, End of Days, The 6th Day, Collateral Damage and Terminator 3, which I still believe is the weakest installment in the Terminator franchise. Could it be that his appeal was washed away already? And he actually believes that he could go somewhere with this low rate, direct to video garbage. There's hardly any Arnold moments til the near end. If this movie has any saving grace at all, it would every car chasing scene, fantastic. Pure Crap, Kim Ji-Woon, the director chosen for this movie mainly because of his great work on movies like I Saw the Devil, hopefully returns to filming in his country and doesn't become another John Woo.

I enjoy jump scares. Killing all sound and suddenly blasting all sound to create a reaction. If there's a reaction, that's all that matters.Wasn't expecting a fantasy horror, but should have known with Guillermo Del Toro attached to it. Okay movie, hopefully has an unrated dvd release.

Hansel & Gretel would have to be my favorite movie for the month of January. Just entertaining, fun, all I would expect from a movie with a poster like this. Cool flick.

One Question? Where is the action? This is Jason Statham. The most boring Jason Statham movie I've ever seen. Stop hiring Nick Nolte, unless the character is a drunk. Parker is absolutely the wrong movie for Statham. Not saying that without Statham this movie would have been better. Just a small miscast. Jennifer Lopez is terrible and adds nothing to the film. She comes in like 30 minutes into the movie, which you usually do with characters that have meaning. Her intro was just pointless and could have been left out of this whole movie. Michael Chikilis was fun to watch and I wish he had gotten more screen time. Trash.