Gifted

WARNING: POLITICAL DISCUSSION/OPINIONS BELOW (also, mild spoilers)

The phrase "This won't win Oscars" is usually considered to be very bad. However, in this case I mean it in a good way. It won't win Oscars because it's the antithesis to liberal Hollywood. It's probably the most consevative, libertarain film I've ever seen. The message of the movie is one with which I agree: "Education should be the responsibility of the parent or legal guardian of the child, not the government." This also shows how public schools will victim blame. There is one part where one of the main characters is defending a boy who is being picked on. What does the school do? They blame her for stepping in and let the bully get away consequence free because the girl "shattered his ego." (I'm dead serious.) It also shows how sometimes public schools will shame and blame a child for being more intelligent than their peers because "You're not giving them a chance to catch up, you're making them feel inferior, you should hide your gifts, etc."   Essentially it shows how public schools are just nicer prisons for children. Chris Evans does a fantastic job. He deserves an Oscar, as does everyone involved. This will never win, let alone be nominated, because Hollywood is full of liberals, and this is the opposite of a message they're trying to shove down our throats. There's one part where Chris Evans' character has reached a breaking point. His deathstare alone deserves an Oscar. Octavia Spencer, as always, does a fantastic job. She says her lines with such passion, and at times I thought "I'd hate to be the person she's yelling at in this situation. She's not even yelling at me and I'm terrified." Child actors can be hit-or-miss and the young actress in this film does a great job. Hopefully she goes on to do other things in the industry, because she got this role down pat. She's incredibly talented. Marc Webb did an awesome job with this film, and needs a Best Director Oscar. It's still too early in the year to tell if this will be on my top 10 list come the end of 2017, but it's extremely likely. I very rarely have such strong, positive opinions about a film, but every once in a while a film comes along that moves me and makes me feel emotion. This is one of them.

Grade: A+     10/10    5/5 stars

The Dark Tower

I don't know what movie the critics saw, but it obviously wasn't this one, because there's no way this deserves an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes. This was awesome! At times the plot could be a little confusing, but the parts I understood, I loved! I don't know what the critics' problem with Matthew McConaughey is in this movie. He was really good. He managed to ham it up without hamming it up too much. He was a fun villain without becoming a charicature. Idris Elba as always, is fantastic! He manages to be serious and brooding, but also adds a bit of comedy to the role when appropriate. (Psst, DC, cast him as Jon Stewart in  the next Green Lantern movie. Hint hint) My one problem was that the editing was off continuity-wise sometimes. Specifically, for the actor Tom Taylor. I'm assuming he hit puberty part way through production, because for the first half of the film, his voice is high, and then all of a sudden out of nowehere his voice gets deep in the second half. They should have gone back and redubbed the first half. The action sequences are awesome! My jaw dropped! They're fast paced and don't have the "slow mo shot" cliche that so many films do nowadays. Without spoiling anything, I will say that if you read a lot of Stephen King's other books, you'll see some Easter Eggs. (Some are blink-and-you'll-miss-it). Ignore the critics and decide for yourself.

Grade: B.   8/10     4/5 stars

Happy 4th Anniversary to the day I started this blog. (although technically it was yesterday. Thanks for reminding me, Facebook Memories) Since I started it, I have had 8,351 pageviews. Holy. Cow! I did NOT think I would even make it past the 1,000 mark at this point. It started out as just this little hobby for myself. A place for me to express my personal thoughts on films I'd recently seen. I started more for me, and a few immediate friends and family. I didn't think anyone other then them would actually read the darn thing. The fact that in 4 years it has grown from a cute little blog that only my friends and family read, to where it is now at the point where complete strangers are now reading it. (Even people from outside the US. Holy smokes.) According to the traffic stats, the biggest source that most of you have accessed the link is from  Facebook, which makes sense, since that's where most of my interaction is by posting the non-review content such as trailers, posters, and my thoughts on various bits of film news.

 But let's take a look at the stats of the pageviews by country:
US: 84
Ireland: 4
UK: 3
Russia: 2
Austraila: 1
Canada: 1
Germany: 1

I now have people viewing this from around the globe! Wow! i didn't even think it would make it outside the US! This is truly a great honor for me, and I feel so overwhelmed.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Ignore the critics! This movie is absoultely phenomenal! There are very few movies where I leave the theater thinking "I want to go see this a couple more times." When this hits the discount theater I'm going to see it again! This is a sci-fi movie with a classic "Flash Gordan" kind of feel. It's a fast-paced, super fiun thrill ride. And the visuals are spectacular! It's the most visually impressive movie since "Avatar!" The two main characters were very reminiscent of Han Solo and Leia, especially with their flirtatious love-hate relationship. It also had fast-paced witty dialogue. If you're a fan of Star Wars or even Star Trek, this is definetly worth  a watch. It's a shame this isn't doing so well at the box office. Hopefully it makes its money back, because I want a sequel to this, darn it! (Which, again, "I want a sequel" is something I very rarely say after movies. They have to be really good for me to say that.) The only thing that could have improved this movie is there were a couple of parts that were unneccessary from a plot standpoint and were just there to pad the runtime. I guess those parts are the movie equivalant of commericals so that you can go to the restroom and get concession refills without missing anything important. Even though this isn't doing so well, I'm hoping it finds a cult following on Bluray.
Grade: A-    9/10    4/5 stars

War for the Planet of the Apes

A good prequel trilogy! Take that, Star Wars!  Looking at this through the context of the original from 1968, it's hard to know who to root for. The humans in this are horrible to the apes, but you think "Well, they kind of deserve this, because they do the same thing to us in the original." And yet you still sympathize with them. We're rooting for the bad guys and yet...we're not. The motion capture on the apes is amazing! Not since "Avatar" has there been such impressive effects. (Although I may redact that statement after I see "Valerian", but we'll see...) The detail on each ape is exquisite. If it weren't for the apes riding horseback and wielding guns, you would think this was a nature documentary. Woody Harrelson does a great job, although at some points it does feel like a repeat of his character from "The Hunger Games." As far as who to root for, it's hard to decide. Neither side is definitively good or evil. Some of the humans are horrible, but some just want to leave the apes alone, and have the war come to them. Some of the apes are even on the human side. The action sequences in this were way over the top (in a good way.) I honestly don't know how this film could be improved. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Most times I say "I really enjoyed the movie except for this, this and this," but that didn't happen here. The emotion was so well conveyed. It makes you hate your own species and cry over a bunch of CGI Apes. Kind of ridiculous out loud, but it's so well written and acted, I wouldn't be suprised if this gets nominated for a few Oscars when awards season comes around.

Grade: A+    10/10     5/5 stars 

Wish Upon

Ok. This movie isn't great but it doesn't deserve the 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I quite enjoyed it, but it definetely could have been better. Mostly because a lot of the characters were charicatures. You could make a checklist and check each box as the film goes on. "Mean girl" Check. "Bullied main character." Check. "Guy that likes her but she doesn't like." Check. "Guy that doesn't like her but she does like." Check/ "At least one of the main character's parents is dead" Check.  It goes on.  But as far as the actual story goes, it was kind of exciting. It wasn't a "scary" movie, but it was definetly suspenseful. The ways the wishes got twisted to be bad were kind of clever. But this suffers from what almost every horror film suffers from these days: A lazy ending. The ending is just completely random and out of nowhere, to the point where it's kind of laughable. I thought of an ending that would have been much better, and "Twilight Zone" esque. (But I'm not giving spoilers. If you want the spoiler review go to my Youtube channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6cFUtvDg3VYAEWgxtdxYUQ
Overall, I think the movie this reminded me most of was "Drag Me to Hell." Definetly had the same kind of style/story. This had a lot of potential, and while a lot of it was pretty good, it certainly could have been better thought out.
Grade: C   7/10   3/5 stars

Power Rangers

To be honest, I got pretty much what I expected with this movie. I thought at best it would be average, and at worst it would be a dumpster fire, like "Fant4stic". And yeah, it was perfectly average. A lot could have been improved, changed, and taken out, but at the end of the day, I was entertained. I wasn't checking how much runtime was left, or praying for the sweet release of the end credits,  but I wouldn't exactly recommend this film to anybody either. It's entertaining, but not exactly a film I'm clamoring to watch again. The film did suffer from a lot of problems. The chemistry between the 4 leads was awful. The runtime is 2 hours and 15 min, and for a movie called "Power Rangers" and it takes almost 2 hours of that for them to actually become the Power Rangers. Instead, they fill up the time with teen angst and drama. It felt like I was watching a Disney Channel movie or something on Freeform. There was one part where a character supposedly died, but I honestly didn't care because not enough time was spent on their character development. I was indifferent to what happened to these characters. Also, they hired Bryan Cranston, but just like in 2014's "Godzilla," he's barely in it, and his talent is wasted. Bill Hader got more screentime. Bill Hader! I like Bill Hader, but in small incriments. He was in this wasy too much. By far, the best part of the movie was Elizabeth Banks' performance as the villain. She went over-the-top without overdoing it. Just a classic Saturday morning cartoon style villain who enjoys being evil for the sake of being evil. The first half of the movie did give me a sense of deja vu, as it felt a little too much like someone was trying to do a remake of "Chronicle." There are very few times where I praise the score of a movie, but I have to here. I loved the score. It sounded like the soundtrack to "Tron: Legacy." I'm glad I didn't pay to see this in theaters, but it was worth a rent. If you're at Redbox, and this is in stock, and there's nothing else you want to see, it's worth at least one watch.

Grade: C    7/10    3/5 stars