Now You See Me

I'm always up for a good movie that makes you think and has cool effects and out of the ordinary things. I went into this movie expecting all those things, and it only partly delivered. My girlfriend and I were pretty excited about this one, but we didn't really know what to expect. All we knew was that it was about magicians, and they were doing some pretty cool stuff. It tends to happen a lot, when you see a movie trailer and it looks fantastic, but it turns out that all the cool and fun parts were all in the trailer, and not much else happens in the movie.

Don't get me wrong, it was definitely an enjoyable film. The group of magicians called themselves The Four Horseman. Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, and Dave Franco are these four magicians. One thing that caught my eye was that Jesse Eisenberg was a very smart and intelligent talker, like we saw in "The Social Network." He is able to talk very quickly and just silence everyone around him. That is one of the only things that I can really remember enjoying in the movie. Woody Harrelson's character was pretty comedic, but he seems to always be like that.

This movie just seemed to go downhill for me. It started out on a high level, getting us to know the characters and their different unique abilities, and then seeing what they are capable as they all join together and form The Four Horseman. As seen in the previews, they rob a bank which is across the world. Something like that is pretty crazy sounding, and would make anybody interested in seeing how that is done. The movie was full of twists and was meant to make you guess what would happen next, but for me, I wasn't really shocked or surprised by anything. I feel like I could have written this movie myself. The ending seemed too obvious, and as we got further into the movie, not much seemed to be happening. There wasn't any cool magic tricks or anything. It just seemed to wrap itself up pretty quick and call it good.

Not really one I need to see again, but I think if someone is more into magic and maybe even supernatural kind of things, it would be enjoyed a little more.

Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino has done it again. The crazy filmmaker has managed to get all of the categories for a movie, (Action, Violence, Language, Crude Humor and Remarks, Comedy, Drama) everything into this movie. But, that seems to be how all of his movies are.
This is a western type movie, that has a lot to do with slavery. Blacks are sold and purchased to whites for whatever the whites may want. Leonardo Dicaprio is a wealthy slave trader type person. He is first introduced in the film with 2 black men fighting each other very brutally. The movie uses the word Nigger a million times. The movie can be very uncomfortable to watch.
Jamie Foxx is our main character. I wouldn't really call him a hero, seeing as how the movie is very brutal and doesn't really have good things to say about white people or black people. But, he is a slave and ends up being purchased  by Christoph Waltz's character, who is a bounty hunter. He buys Foxx to help track down 3 men. It is later discovered that Dicaprio has Foxx's wife and she is being mistreated. So Foxx uses his new bounty hunter and fighting skills to go and save her.
So, it is good to see some of the slavery being handled and stopped in the film, but the whole movie is rough, and they really overdid it on, well, everything, but mainly the violence. People would be shot in the leg and it would explode. People would get shot in the head, and there would be a fountain of blood.
All in all, maybe worth a watch once, but I personally don't need to see it again.

World War Z

I have seen many zombie movies in my time, yes I am talking like I am old and have had a long life of zombie watching. But now-a-days, zombies are very big in the entertainment industry, along with vampires and other monsters. It seems like there is always something going on with zombies somewhere. All these movies that are about the undead always have different ways of portraying them, whether it is a scary, gruesome thriller like "Dawn of the Dead," or a comedic love story with still the regular attributes of a zombie, like "Warm Bodies." World War Z is one of the best movies about the undead I have ever seen. I loved everything about it, from the cast to every piece of the storyline. They cause stress and fright while watching them, but movies that make you involved and make you wonder what life would be like if something like what the movie is showing was going on in real life are very entertaining to watch, for me anyway.
So, I didn't know anything about this story when I saw the first trailer for it, or even when I actually went to the movie. It is originally a novel by Max Brooks. I don't know how well the movie matched the book or anything, but I guess that's okay because I am not reviewing a book am I?
So back to the movie, in my opinion, this film has portrayed zombies in the best way possible. Yes, all movies about zombies do a pretty good job, and do a lot of the same things- walking slowly kind of hunched over, limping, moaning, and when they catch a scent or a glimpse of someone who is not dead, they snap and do whatever they can to catch that person and....eat them. It is always the same, but World War Z puts a little more into it. When we first see a zombie attack, Brad Pitt, who is the main character, watches as the poor man changes into one himself. Pitt counts 12 seconds from the time being bitten to becoming one of the undead. I have never seen it happen that fast, and I think that is good, the disease is something that seems to be taking over the world and it is very serious and seems to be happening very fast, so I think the change from human to zombie should be farely quick. Another thing is- in other movies, we don't get to see a lot of when zombie attacks first start happening. When the movie starts, we are put right into the middle of the zombie apocalypse. World War Z, like all the rest, doesn't show a place of origin or when things started happening, but it does show zombies attacking what looks like a brand new area for them, and we see huge swarms of them running through the cities and attacking as they go, and it looks they just do that and movie across the globe, which I thought was creepy and cool to see.

I don't want to talk to much about it, but one last thing, which you can get from just watching the trailer. These zombies are being shown climbing each other, making towers with their bodies, and reaching humans no matter where they are. There is a giant wall that you would think nobody could ever reach over, but these zombies get so determined that they are running up each other and scaling hundreds of feet in the air. And when there are thousands of them, it just keeps going and there really isn't any stopping them.
The zombies make creepy noises that we haven't really ever heard, and the movie shows different kinds of dangers of being in a world where there are millions of dead people walking around trying to eat you.
Definitely worth a watch, or maybe see it twice. I'm ready to see it twice, I enjoyed every minute of it. The story was absolutely perfect, very well written. Everything clicked and nothing was left out. Brad Pitt did fantastic and deserves to be recognized for this film, and he is.

Drive

Watched "Drive" for the second time a few nights ago. I don't know why, but I think this movie is freaking awesome. Ryan Gosling is way cool, and he pulls off this character really well. In "Drive", Ryan Gosling is a, wait for it, driver. Anybody, but it seems to usually be criminals, can use his services. In the beginning, he shows up outside what looks like a warehouse of some type and just waits outside. We hear him explain what he does: "If I drive for you, you give me a time and a place and I give you a 5 minute window. Anything that happens in those 5 minutes I'm yours, no matter what. I don't sit in while you're running it down, I don't carry a gun. I drive."

The story is of this Driver, who does these jobs, but is also a mechanic in a small garage. He just lives in a low rent apartment and just does this for his life. He notices he has a new neighbor, and becomes interested in her, but pretty much keeps it to himself. He sees her and her son having trouble with their car, and he helps and gets them home. She ends up taking her car into the shop where he works, and gives her a ride home because they need to keep her car. He ends up showing her and her son a good time and they grow closer. They see each other more and more. One day, she gets a call, and is told her husband is being released from prison. The Driver just backs off. He ends up finding this man nearly beaten to death, with his son terrified and hiding. The Driver comforts the boy, having gotten very close with him. Turns out this man was told to do a job, and is refusing, so he is getting beaten. The Driver decides to help him, and do the job so his family will be safe, and the women he grew to love doesn't have to live in this kind of life.

Anybody who has seen "Drive" will probably agree it is a great film, but it is also very brutal. The violence is pretty graphic, and it makes me cringe in some scenes. It seems to kind of surprise you. The movie is very calm and a little slow moving in some parts, and then all of a sudden somebody has a shower rod rammed inside him. It's usually pretty quick, but they weren't shy to show the viewer what is happening. The movie does contain a little nudity. Ryan Gosling goes into a strip club to talk to a man who works there to get information. It doesn't focus on anything, but occasionally you see a woman in the background who is topless. There are no sexual scenes or anything, just this quick scene in the strip club. Sadly, there is quite a bit of language. Ron Pearlman, who you may also know as "Hellboy", is the main bad guy/criminal in the movie, and he is just dropping swear words right and left. And so are a lot of the people he is working with.

The movie seems to be based in the 80's, with the music especially. With artists College, Kavisnski, and   Desire. The music is very good though. I have grown to really like these artists. The whole movie seems to have an older look to it. It is filmed in Los Angeles, California, and that is where the movie takes place as well. It is based on a novel called "The Driver" by James Sallis. It is also known for being much like a car chase film also called "The Driver" made by Walter Hill. With a cast that may not be very well known, it is still a fantastic movie. It was voted the best movie of 2011, earned 4 Independent Spirit Awards, and Golden Globe Nominee Albert Brooks won Best Supporting Actor.
"Drive" is an awesome movie, and everybody needs to see it at least once. I need to get my parents to make an acception for an R rated movie. It is fantastic.

Expendables 2

Last Friday, I saw Expendables 2. I was very pleased with this movie. I never saw the first one in the theater, but I saw it on Netflix and decided to give it a try. It was okay, the second movie is far better in my opinion.

As we all know, Expendables is a movie that brings all the action heroes into one film, and shows us what they all do and what they are all known for. You have Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgreen, Bruce Willis, Terry Crews, and Randy Couture. The first movie also had Micky Rourke, but he is not in the second movie. They also Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Liam Hemsworth,, and Chuck Norris in this second one. Arnold made an appearance in the first movie, but was not really a main character. He has a bigger role in this second movie. So all these actors in one movie, sounds too good to be true. And this movie definitely delivered. 

What I loved about this movie was there was barely any swearing at all, no nudity or sexual behavior at all, and was just full of action. Pretty bloody and violent, but totally awesome. The action was way better than first movie. A lot of the fight scenes and action scenes were shaky-cam, and it was a little ridiculous to watch. You have Jet Li and Jason Statham, fantastic fighters, and you look forward to seeing them in action, but you barely get to see anything. The camera was just all over the place. In this movie, everything is much more visible and looks very awesome. I was very happy to see this. The fighting was just so cool in every scene. You have these huge guys, and I never realized how huge Terry Crews is until I saw this movie, but they just go through and beat the crap out of everybody they come across. 

Another great thing about the movie is a lot of these actors have movies they are well known for, and certain lines they use from the movies. Like when you think of something for Schwarzenegger, there is Terminator. Almost every time you see him, he uses a Terminator line. Multiple times he says "I'll be back," or just "I'm back." In one scene, Arnold and Bruce Willis are next to each other shooting, and Arnold runs out of ammunition, and says "I'm out. I'll Be Back." Bruce Willis just grabs him and says "You've been back enough. I'll be back." And gives him his gun. And as Willis is walking away, Arnold says "Yippi-Kay-Ay" from the Die Hard movies with Bruce Willis. It was pretty funny all around. 

The way they introduced all the characters was very cool. The movie starts out with the original Expendables team just storming this base and just killing everybody and blowing stuff up. In a scene, the team is outnumbered on a small street, and out of nowhere, a gun starts firing and everybody is dead, and then a tank gets blown up, and nobody knows where it came from. Then the smoke clears, and walking down the street, is Chuck Norris. We all know about all the Chuck Norris jokes. They threw one in the movie for kicks. Norris is talking to Stallone and Stallone says "We've heard a lot of things about you. I heard you were bitten by a cobra." And Norris just looks at him and says "Yes. I was. And after 5 days of agonizing pain, the cobra died." So they keep it very humorous. 

Van Damme is the villain of the movie, and his name is Vilain. What a coincidence. But he shows off his fighting that he is known for in almost all of his movies, which is fun to watch. 

So in my opinion, the movie is awesome. I am really wanting to see it again. By far, better than the first one. This one was directed by Simon West, and the first one was directed by Sylvester Stallone. So they both had different ways of doing it. But this one is a must see. 

Neighborhood Watch

The other night, my friend Josh and I went to see the new movie The Watch. The reason I wanted to see it was because it was directed by Akiva Schaffer. You may know him as one of the members of The Lonely Island. And everybody knows Andy Samberg, who is also in The Lonely Island and the movie Hot Rod, which is one of my favorite movies. Akiva also directed Hot Rod, so I was very excited to see The Watch, and see how comedic it was going to be, since Hot Rod is a very funny movie.

So The Watch is about a man named Evan (Ben Stiller) who forms a group called The Neighborhood Watch, after a man is killed in his Costco store. Bob (Vince Vaughn), Franklin (Jonah Hill), and Jamarcus (Richard Ayoade) are the 3 who join Evan in his neighborhood watch. They patrol the streets and watch for trouble. They soon discover that the cause behind all these other murders in the town is.... aliens. So they have to team up and save the rest of the world from the aliens, who want to blow up the earth.

The movie had it's comedic moments, but it was very crude. Too crude for my taste. But it was rated R, so I kind of saw it coming, but I still saw it. You never know until you see it. And of course, tons of swearing. Seeing Ben Stiller drop the F-Bomb kind of ruins him for me. But he was still pretty funny in it. I'm usually not a fan of Vince Vaughn, but he was funny. He played a dad who was very protective over his teenage daughter, and beat up some kid who treated her disrespectfully, so that made me like him. And I usually don't like Jonah Hill either, but he had his moments in this movie. I felt the same way when I saw 21 Jump Street. He is a freak, but he has very funny moments.
But definitely the main reason, and the funniest reason to see this movie is Richard Ayoade. Everybody knows him from The IT Crowd. One of the funniest shows I have seen in my life. He is such a funny guy. His character in the movie is exactly the same as in The It Crowd. In The It Crowd, he is dorky nerd who works in the IT department of a big company. He rarely gets any calls for anything, and he just does weird funny things with his friend Roy and other friend Jen. Definitely worth a watch.

I was disappointed to see that it was not like Hot Rod at all. Yes, it was completely different movie, but I was hoping to be equally happy with it. I was hoping Andy Samberg would have an appearance in the movie, and he did, but in a scene that I do not want to talk about...... If you want to see it, see the movie.
But overall, I don't need to see the movie again. Seeing once, having some laughs, was good, but I don't need all the dirty jokes and crude humor.
Hot Rod is a far better movie. Still has a little crude things in it, but it just focuses more on being funny.
The Watch is a one time thing movie.

Spider-Man Films

So ever since The Amazing Spider-Man hit theaters, there has been a competition between the 2 Spider-Man movies. Whether Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield was the better choice for the role, and which of them did a better job. 

Everybody does have their own opinion, but I want to say one thing that is annoying me- IT IS NOT A COMPETITION. So many people need to be reminded that these movies are 2 totally different stories. Yes, we all know the story of Spider-Man, but there are multiple different stories of the character. Of course there pros and cons, like every other movie. Except for Lord of the Rings.

And it seems that most people think that The Amazing Spider-Man is the better movie. I disagree. But that is my opinion. There are multiple stories of Spider-Man, and the first movies didn't really follow a certain comic book theme, which is what I really like about it. Sam Raimi (Director-Spider-Man 1,2, and 3) just took an awesome super hero, and made a fantastic movie. Marc Webb (Director-The Amazing Spider-Man) did a very good job of following a comic book theme. 

So the first Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire, I think, is the better movie. I think a big reason for that is they were the coolest thing ever when I was younger. Spider-Man is the coolest super hero, and when I found out that there was going to be a live action movie, I was so excited. And it was the coolest thing ever when I saw it. At the time, I didn't care about the actors or story or anything, it was just a cool movie. But now, I love Tobey Maguire. I think he plays such a good Peter Parker/Spider-Man. 

When I found out there was going to be another Spider-Man movie, I thought, why? Why would there need to be another movie, the other one was so good. Andrew Garfield also plays a good Peter Parker/Spider-Man, but I didn't think as well. 

In the Amazing Spider-Man, Peter does have a younger look. A look that he seems like he actually belongs in High School. I think that was a nice touch. Also, Spider-Man is not super buff, but he does have amazing strength. Both movies pulled this off really well, but I like the fact that Tobey Maguire worked out and had a good look in the suit and it showed that he had muscles, AND was super strong. Spider-Man is super quick too. One thing I did really like about The Amazing Spider-Man was that he was moving so fast when fighting the Lizard. The Lizard is an awesome villain to have in a movie. He is also very fast, and Spider-Man was constantly dodging his attacks, and that was so cool. Watching him fight really fast, and not stopping was really enjoyable. In Spider-Man 2, his enemy was Doctor Octopus. Spider-Man is constantly moving and dodging the mechanical arms, and that is so awesome too. Both movies show that Spider-Man is really fast and can maneuver incredibly.

One thing that did throw everybody off about the first movies was the fact that Peter did not have web shooters, and the webs just came out of his wrists. That is a little weird, but in my opinion, is not a bad move. Sam Raimi just had an idea and ran with it. And in The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter is constantly using his webs. Something that I noticed is that he never seems to run out of webbing. We weren't shown much about his web shooters, so maybe they never did run out, but I did think he used his webs a little too much when fighting the Lizard, and that should've been touched on. 

One of the main reasons why I didn't like The Amazing Spider-Man as much, was it seemed to me that the movie moved really fast. Yes, we all know the story of Spider-Man, but it seemed like some stuff should have been explained anyway. Making his suit, a little more with his web shooters, a lot seemed to be left out to just get to the end of the movie. 

The cast in the first movie was perfect. Tobey Maguire is my hero..... He is a huge dork, but I like the fact that I can laugh at the main character because that's just the way he is. I like how all the main characters were introduced fairly quick in the beginning of the movie. Willem Dafoe is the perfect actor for Norman Osborne/Green Goblin. I had never heard of him before this movie, but he was a cool, creepy guy perfect for the role of the crazy, insane enemy. At the time the movie came out, I thought Kirsten Dunst was a good choice for Mary Jane Watson. I don't think she is a bad choice, but in the third film, Bryce Dallas Howard made an appearance as Gwen Stacey, and I think she would have been a fantastic Mary Jane. I can see her being perfect, how she looked in Terminator Salvation. I had never really heard of James Franco before the movie either, but he plays a good Harry Osborne. Now that I've seen him, I can't see anyone else playing that role. And a huge reason why this cast is so awesome is J.K. Simmons playing J. Jonah Jameson. I think the whole world will agree with me when I say   he was the perfect choice for this role. And he is so funny in the three movies. Definitely a necessary role for the movie. The way he freaks out and is always getting after his employees and every person who comes in to the Daily Bugle, is such great comedy to add to all three movies.

The cast in The Amazing Spider-Man, I think, is so bizarre. Andrew Garfield is a pretty good choice for Peter Parker, but I'm not a huge fan of Emma Stone. She did fairly well as Gwen Stacey, but I still don't like her too much. And what I thought was very strange was Sally Field as Aunt May, and Denis Leary as Captain Stacey. I kind of feel like they don't belong in that movie. They are not who I would ever see being in a Spider-Man movie.

Spider-Man 2 is one of my favorite movies of all time. The story is really good, the action is fantastic, the cast is awesome, Alfred Molina plays a great Otto Octavious. The fight scene with Spider-Man and Dr. Octopus on top of the clock tower and then on the train is so so so cool. It is non-stop and they are going so fast. Spider-Man is just wailing on him and just keeps going. It is so awesome. While he is fighting, he is dodging all the mechanical arms, so it just makes you see how fast and, I guess alert, Spider-Man is. 

I want to talk about Spider-Man 3 for just a minute. The movie could have been done very differently, and there was way too much crammed into one movie. This movie should have been done to stay in sync with the other 2 movies. Sand-Man should have been the main villain, and the only villain in my opinion. I don't think it was necessary to throw in Gwen Stacey, but I liked seeing Eddie Brock, who was played by Topher Grace, who is awesome. Spider-Man should have had Sand-Man as the main villain, with Eddie Brock just kind of being a jerk and causing trouble in small ways throughout the movie, and then ended with the symbiote stuck on Peter's jacket or something, letting us know that the next movie would be with black suited Spider-Man, and Venom. But instead, Avi Arad (Producer; Marvel Studios) totally jumped the gun, and took control from Sam Raimi, and totally butchered the movie. Crammed Gwen Stacey, Eddie Brock/Venom, and Sand-Man into the same movie, and killed off Venom, with no hope of seeing him in a future movie. Everything was thrown into this movie, in which it seems to be to avoid to have to make any more. Which is super lame. I think Sam Raimi would have done things totally different, and it would have been amazing. I did still enjoy the movie, but you can't help but wonder what could have happened if it was done like the other movies. 

So, as you may have noticed, I like the first Spider-Man films, rather than The Amazing Spider-Man. This is just my opinion about the two movies. They are both very enjoyable, and Spider-Man is the coolest super hero of all time.