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Reviews
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Beauty & the Kevin Kline
Okay.
I'm a huge fan of Kevin Kline.
With that being said, he was the star of this film. He held it all together and if he wasn't present in the cast the movie would have fallen apart completely.
I haven't seen the movie yet but guys, it's Kevin Kline. I mean, he was in Wild Wild West AND No Strings Attached. Go see this movie. Pay $14 at AMC to see it IMAX 3D. I know I will. For Kevin.
Thanks, guys.
Into the Wild (2007)
My favorite movie. Ever.
Other than the scenery from Atlanta to Alaska, this movie is beautiful. The story of this young man, Christopher Johnson McCandless, giving up all of his money and possessions to simply live in the wild is both touching and inspiring. The ditching of communication so suddenly with his family is not an inspiring part of his story, but the journey he goes through and the people that shape his life change his feelings towards how he left and really make him think about what he was doing. Ever since watching this movie (and reading this book) I've come to study all about this man, learn everything that is out there to learn, and even ace 2 projects and a test on him. This movie ultimately shaped my life and made me think about the simplicity of living and how much we take for granted.
Watch this movie. Sean Penn did an excellent job directing this picture. He himself is an amazing actor, but I believe this is his best direction. Emile Hirsch not only looks just like the young McCandless, but really did an outstanding job portraying him. Going from dorky-but-lovable Matthew Kidman in "The Girl Next Door" to confused transcendentalist Chris McCandless in this movie really pushed him up to my top 10 favorite actors.
The scenery is beautiful, shot in each state that Chris traveled to. The soundtrack is another thing that makes this movie so beautiful. Eddie Vedder did a perfect job producing a sound that makes you feel something when listening to it. Even now when I just simply put in my earbuds and look out my car window I reflect on Chris McCandless's story and wonder what life would be like living like that.
This movie was truly inspiring and will most likely remain my favorite movie for years to come. 10/10. Beautiful.
Man of Steel (2013)
Even for those who aren't Superman fans
I'm going to start off by saying that I am mostly a Marvel fan. My favorite superhero's consist of DeadPool, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and some others. However, I am not completely biased towards Marvel. DC Comics doesn't exactly have the "coolest" collection of comic book super heroes, but they do have some good ones, including Batman, Green Arrow, and DeathStroke.
I am not a Superman fan. At all. I do not care for the over exaggerated love story between he and the indecisive Lois Lane. I find his invincibility to be a little boring to watch when he simply fights a bald man in a suit (aka, Lex Luthor). When the commercials for Man of Steel first started airing, I was not convinced. I do like Zach Snyder's work, but not enough to be convinced to go and watch a Superman film. Then I saw that it was being produced by Syncopy, whom we all know is the infamous, awesome story telling, Batman series directing, Christopher Nolan. When I noticed that he was on board with the project, my attitude towards it went from "not interested" to "maybe when it comes to DVD".
Man of Steel came out over the Father's Day weekend, and as a gift to my father, I took him to see it because he thought it looked "worth it". I was going into the theater with very low expectations. When I came out, I smiled. I spent my money well. For a Superman movie, this was done very well! I'm not a fan of Superman, but I enjoyed this film! The dialogue was well set, the scene changes were a little awkward, but not enough to destroy the plot, and the origin story was well told.
Now the fight scenes, well, they made the movie to me. The story was good, but it dragged on a little and made the movie feel as if it was 3 hours long. Once the fighting came around, though, the movie went from a 4 to a 7 in my rating. They were long scenes! Well directed and played out, and definitely awesome! I would probably say that the fight scenes are either on par with or a little better than The Avengers fight scenes. They were just fantastic!
So, for someone who doesn't really care too much for DC, and who isn't a fan of Superman in the slightest to go see a Superman movie and come out thinking it was enjoyable and worth the money, then that should be a little sign for anyone who is debating whether or not to go and see this film. Check it out! I'm sure a local theater may have a $6 evening rate. If not, $10 is still a decent price to check this movie out. If you're still on the fence, I'd definitely recommend watching it upon its DVD release. It was very well done.
The Last Airbender (2010)
The LAST Airbender. It better be!
I don't consider myself picky when it comes to movies. I usually find a thing or two that I like about a movie whether it's terrible or not. But this
I mean wow. As an avid fan of the show and someone who could easily sit and watch episodes over and over again, I tried to be fair and give it a chance. Obviously, no live-action film could come close to the magnificence of the cartoon, but there are ways to pull it off and at least do it justice. This movie has hardly any theatrical merit. It could be considered a Twilight of moviedom—minus the fanbase.
Let's start with the characters or, rather, the lack there-of. One of the things that made the cartoon so great was the incredibly complex and well thought-out characterization. Every single character had dimension and depth. As for the movie, not one of the characters even had a personality. They were cardboard cutouts of their animated selves with no drive or purpose. Katara, Sokka, and Aang had no chemistry and were hardly even together during the length of the film. There's absolutely no motivation for either Sokka or Katara to assist Aang and, had your average movie-goer never seen the show, they would have been wondering what on earth they were doing in the movie at all. I didn't get a father-and-son relationship between Zuko and Iroh, which is one of the most important relationships in the entire series, one that eventually changes Zuko for the better. I could hardly see Zuko doing anything for Iroh in the film other than order him around. Momo and Appa got virtually no screen time and every time I got a glimpse of Momo's face I kept thinking "Zaboomafoo." I won't complain about the way either were rendered, as I don't think it really mattered considering the fact that they played no role in the story, anyway. Overall I felt the casting was dreadful. Both Katara and Zuko were too young, in my opinion, but Katara's lack of age could have been compensated by portraying a strong-willed character
something that was never accomplished. None of the characters resembled their animated counterparts: Sokka wasn't sarcastically charming, Katara wasn't determined or motherly, and Aang lacked any and all of his lovable boyish-ness. Zhou was annoying, Iroh had no jolly, old-man qualities, and Fire Lord Ozai? There was absolutely nothing threatening about him at all. I didn't so much mind that he was in it in the first place, but couldn't they have at least made him unapproachable? I felt like I could have walked up and punched him in the face without any repercussions.
The story was botched at best and felt like nothing but a string of events pieced together through basic transitions. It's one thing to stray from the original source for the sake of flow and continuity, but nothing about the story made sense unless you had seen the show, and even then, I was left confused and annoyed when things were switched around without any obvious reasoning. I understand that re-writing eight or nine hours' worth of material into a two-hour movie is a challenge for even the most skilled screenwriter, but it's been done before and could have been done here. My biggest disappointment was the fact that Sozin's comet, the most important aspect of the plot and the driving force for the Aang Gang to defeat the Firelord, was only briefly mentioned at the very end. The fact that this movie left out major plot points, key characters like King Bumi and the Kyoshi warriors, and jumbled around the order of various events is inexcusable. The source material was there; all that needed to be done was to use it and mold it properly. Rather than write the script, M. Night should have hired a screenwriter who actually knew what he was doing.
As for the effects, I can't say much. It's not one of the things I focus on in a movie, even for something that was meant to be heavily influenced by martial arts and elemental magic. I will say that the bending was hideous, and not because of the way the special effects were done. In the original cartoon, every movement corresponded with a reaction; in the film, it took five or ten motions for anything to even happen. Because of this, the bending didn't look natural in any way and came across as pitiful and useless. The fact that the fire benders couldn't shoot fire out of their hands made their bending look much less powerful than it should have been. Perhaps the thing that annoyed me the most was Katara's obvious lack of talent at water bending, a fact that gave the story no benefit and looked more like M. Night just never watched the show.
Since I don't like to totally crush something, I will say a few things I found salvageable about the film. For one thing, I thought the scenery and costumes were decent. They had the look of the show but without much character to them. I liked Yue, who looked a great deal like her character, perhaps the most of any of the actors. The way they did Aang's arrow was kind of cool with all of the detailing, but it could have been a little more visible. The only thing I can say I thought was a nice addition was Zuko's mentioning that his father said he was "like his mother." That was the one and only nice touch. More than anything the first twenty minutes of the film gave me a good laugh as it was clear that the entire movie would be a disaster.
Overall I am sincerely glad I didn't bother to pay money to see this movie and strongly encourage anyone else to avoid it. Spend your money elsewhere, such as purchasing or renting the first season of the show.
The Whitest Kids U'Know (2007)
The best sketch comedy you'll ever see. Period.
Let me start off by saying that I have read all of the reviews and have seen the ranging score go from 1 star to 10 stars. Let me also tell you that the number of 10 stars is significantly higher than the number of 1 stars. This is because this show is truly awesome.
The first time I watched "The Whitest Kids U' Know" it wasn't on television. I was on YouTube and my friend told me to look up this funny video called "Abe Lincoln". Never in my life have I laughed as hard as I did when I saw this sketch. Watching president Lincoln flip out and lose control over a slight comment at the Ford Theater while watching a poor adaptation of Hamlet has never been so funny...and that's because these guys know what they are doing.
Trevor, Zach, Darren, Sam, and Timmy are the 5 funniest guys I have ever seen. There is no possible way that you can hate this show. The sketches and jokes are so far fetched and hilarious that it is almost impossible not to crack a smile. Yes, I do admit that in some sketches they repeat the jokes 'ad nausea', but they are so funny that it just makes the show all the more worth watching.
If you are ever bored, just sitting at home with nothing to do, go onto YouTube and watch a couple of their sketches. I promise you that you'll laugh. The jokes are hilarious, the acting is great, and the sketch comedy is the best I have and you will probably ever see. This show is truly amazing, and will always get a 10/10 from me.