Movie Review: Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

If you follow my blog, you know I very rarely review movies that have a more “normal” setting. I usually do action/sci-fi/western/etc. movies. Not that I have anything against there “normal” movies. I like thsoe a lot. Like “The Full Monty (1997), that movie is great. So for once, you see a “normal” movie here. Only that it is hard to call this movie “normal” since it got nominated for 8 Oscars. But enough jibber-jabber about that stuff.

Males and females…”Silver Linings Playbook”!

The story is set in the town of Philadelphia and follows former teacher Pat Solatano Jr. (Bradley Cooper. And by former it means that he got fired after he had been put in a prison/mental health clinic after he had assaulted the lover of his wife. Why? Well since Pat and his wife Nikki (Brea Bee) were still married and Pat caught the two lovers fucking in the shower. So he assaulted and almost killed him. But circa 8 months later he gets released and have to live with his parents Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro) and Dolores (Jacki Weaver). One day when he’s out for a jog he meets hiw old friend Ronnie (John Ortiz). Ronnie invites Pat for dinner with him and his wife Veronica (Julia Stiles). At that dinner he meets a young woman named Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), who is a friend of Ronnie and Veronica. They have a strange conversation of medication and mental illness. After that, Pat follows Tiffany home, she offers him sex, he declines. The following day they meet while Pat is out for a jog again. And after that the movie follows how their so called “relationship” evolves and they grow into friends…and maybe even more. I gotta say, the story was better than I expected. Sure, it’s not much at first sight, but as the movie goes on, it adds more meat to the bone. Also, Pat is diagnosed bipolar. Just good to mention for the story.

The characters are all fucked up in their respective ways…all of them, even the non-diagnosed ones. But htat is what makes them so unique and entertaining to watch. I honestly fucking love the character of Tiffany! Not only is she strange and greatly written, Jennifer Lawrence makes her even better with her slightly hyper style of acting and odd accent. Also, Pat is great since he is so complex yet so simple. Bradley Cooper delivered him with pitch perfect delivery, I am now convinced he is a good actor and not just a cheesier version of Face from “The A-Team”. All the characters are great to watch since they’re all so well acted. Hell, even Chris Tucker’s character was good (I am surprised since…Chris Tucker). Great characters/acting.

The music is really good. It is a mix of a few licensed songs and a few original tracks by the masterful Danny Elfman (The Simpsons, Nightmare Before Christmas). The licensed songs fit perfectly with this strange movie. The only musician I could recognize was the one of THe White Stripes with their good song “Hello Operator”. All other licensed songs are good as well of course with muscians like Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra.

I have to say that David O. Russell did a good job with the directing of this. He made it not only look good, but have a certain type of energy that would be needed for this type of movie.

Reception for this movie was overall good. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 92% rating and certified it fresh. Metacritic gave it an 81/100 score. Mr. Roger Ebert gave this movie 3,5/4 stars, called Russell’s screenplay “ingenious” and said this lovely thing:

“so good, it could almost be a terrific old classic” 

imdb.com got the rating of 7,9 on this movie.
Like I said, this movie was nominated for 8 Oscars and won 1. Here is the Win: “Best Leading Actress” (Jennifer Lawrence).
And here are the other nominations: Best motion picture of the year, Best Leading Actor (Bradley Cooper), Best supporting actor (Robert De Niro), Best supporting actress (Jacki Weaver), Best achievement in directing (David O. Russell), Best adapted screenplay, Best achievement in film editing.

I have given my opinions on the few aspects on the movie that I usually give. So I am ready to give a score. This movie gets a 9,74/10. This movie is excellent and should be watched by you people…DO IT, DAMN IT!!!

“Silver Linings Playbook” is now reviewed.

Excelsior.

I’m back, b*tch*s!

I am sorry, ignore the title…I was bored when I made it a few seconds ago. So now it is time for another regular post thingy of doom. So are you ready? Because if you’re not, then you can leave now. Simple as that!

Easter has come and gone. But I honestly did nothing during that time more than eat, sleep, play games, watch movies and just be a lazy fucker that no one likes. Okay, my dog still loves me, but that is a different story. I got some candy (not that much, but frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn). I also got some great food thanks to my great mom who made some excellent food. She is a pretty good chef I have to say.

I don’t remember if I have mentioned this so I’m doing it anyway. After my grandma (mother’s side) passed away recently, we got to look through her old apartment for stuff we might’ve wanted. I found myself a small leather bag of old international coins, some cool pins and a toy revolver. I was especially happy about the revolver since…well you know I am a western-nut.

I got a bunch of good games during and after my birthday. The game after the birhthday I bought. The ones I got for my birthday were; Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, Spec Ops: The Line and the last one that I don’t care too much about anymore…Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII. The one I bought a few weeks after on the other hand I do care about, since it’s recent in my mind and actually good…Darksiders 2. Yeah.

I have nothin’ more…so let’s get to ze random facts:

I love vampire related movies and stuff. But Twilight make me sick in my stomach. VAMPIRES SHOULD NOT FUCKING SPARKLE DAMN IT!

I love arguing with people and also discussing with them (they are different, discussing is calm, arguing usually means yelling at each other).

My favorite video game console is te Playstation 2. It’s the one I grew up with and will keep playing for as long as I can.

 

I am done here for now. 

Bye people!

Village People in The Navy

Just watch it, I love it,,,you should love it

Movie Review: 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Getting tired of seeing westerns appear on the blog? Don’t worry, it won’t stop for a good while. Anyway, old westerns are great. Ever seen “The Dollars Trilogy” (“For A Fistful of Dollars” “For A Few Dollars More” “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”)? No? Then you’ve missed out on something. But then there are the old western classics that somehow get remade. A prime example is the classic “The Lone Ranger” which got remade into the 2013 piece of shit. Then we have this thing. Based on a 1957 movie by the same name it has gotten its fair share of success. But what does this western loving reviewer think?

Cowboys and cowgirls…”3:10 to Yuma”.

The story is set in the old west. It follows rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale). His farm got attacked by a bunch of guys who want money from him. A day or so later he gets robbed of his and his sons’ horses by a gang led by Ben Wade (Russell Crowe). Some time later he catches Wade in a saloon with the help of some lawmen. He also agrees to take Wade to a train that’ll take him to a prison in Yuma where he will be hung…as long as the lawmen pay Evans 200 dollars. So they set out on an adventure to get Wade to Yuma, for Dan to get his money to pay to keep his farm alive and escape the rest of Wade’s gang which at the time of Wade being captured is led by outlaw Charlie Prince (Ben Foster). Dan also gets closer to his son William (Logan Lerman). What makes this story a lot more interesting is hte fact that throughout the journey, Evans starts more and more to empathize with Wade and they become almost, just almost like friends. Don’t get me wrong, the story was interesting from the beginning, but that part just gives the movie a lot more depth and a little more of an edge than it would have had without it.

I gotta say, for a western…this movie has A LOT of character depth. Especially in the character of Ben Wade. He is cold, intelligent, calculating, charming and even a bit funny. And Russell Crowe delivers it with such pitch perfect acting that I see it as Oscar worthy. Another great character thing was Charlie Prince. He was a little like Wade…cold, calculating and charming. And it all worked out thanks to Ben Foster’s excellent performance. One last thing I have to mention when it comes to the character/acting department is my opinion on Logan Lerman as William…he was fucking excellent. He was okay in Percy Jackson, but this was also circa 2 years before that and he gave a great performance…I was honestly surprised by it. Great job, Logan!

The music is your typical western fair, only with a little more edge. And by that they manage to use the guitar even better for a western soundtrack than most movies. So yeah…I love it. Also it has to be good, it got nominated for a fucking Oscar…yeah, the soundtrack. So the music in “3:10 to Yuma” is some of the best I’ve heard in any movie.

One thing I have to mention, no doubts is that this movie looks fucking excellent. Long wide takes and beautifully filmed. That is all.

Time for the segament “Gunfights” that I mention in all-ish my western reviews. I talk about the gunfight(s) of the movie. And how are the ones in “3:10 to Yuma”? They are tough as nails and really good. Sure, they are not as satisfying and entertaining as in “Tombstone”, but they are still good. I mean, they at least beat the ones in “Maverick” by a long shot. They are all very well choreographed and work excellently in the movie’s favor.

The reception for this movie was just…good. Nothing else to say. Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 88% rating and certified it “Fresh”. Metacritic liked it and gave it 76/100. Roger Ebert gave this movie 4/4 stars and say this in the process:

“James Mangold‘s “3:10 to Yuma” restores the wounded heart of the Western and rescues it from the morass of pointless violence. The Western in its glory days was often a morality play, a story about humanist values penetrating the lawless anarchy of the frontier. It still follows that tradition in films like Eastwood’s “Unforgiven,” but the audience’s appetite for morality plays and Westerns seems to be fading. Here the quality of the acting, and the thought behind the film, make it seem like a vanguard of something new, even though it’s a remake of a good movie 50 years old.”

It got an imdb rating of 7,8/10.

Now that I have thrown out my opinions on the parts of story, characters/acting, music and other general bullshit that is to dicuss, I am rewarding “3:10 to Yuma” with a 9,70/10 and a reccomendation to add this to your collection as soon as possible! This movie is a must see for western fans and film buffs alike. IT is also very possible for a normal person to like it too. And as I said before in the review, major cred to Russell Crowe in this who is Oscar worthy.

Now the review in done, my friends!

Bang bang, bang bang bang…oh sorry, I was playing with this here revolver and…Bye.

Movie Review: The Raid – Redemption (2011)

Action movies have lost their edge lately. Whatever happened to movies like “Die Hard” and “Terminator 2: Judgement Day”? Action movies these days don’t really have that many good action scenes (Looking at you “A Good Day to Die Hard”!). The only ones these days are like The “Bourne” trilogy and “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol”, yet they don’t satisfy my need for ultimate badass action. Around a month back I heard about this movie called “The Raid” and how it brought back the badassery to action movies. I was of course a bit skeptical at first, but then finally decided to give it a go.

Dear people…”The Raid”.

So this is set in Jakarta, Indonesia and follows a S.W.A.T team that is going to infiltrate a building. And not just any old building, oh no! It is a 30 story building that is the base of operations of a mob boss and his bigger than you’d imagine crew. The S.W.A.T team is going to try to take this mob boss and his crew down. That is essentially the story in a nutshell. And they don’t really build too much upon it. The only story things they add is that the majority of the S.W.A.T team gets killed and a few captured/tortured. Based on that story stuff it is not much more that happens. And that is a shame because there is so much potential this movie had when it comes to the story elements. They had the foundation of the house, but didn’t really build anything upon it.

The characters are honestly kind of…meh. Woaw, put down the fucking pitchforks and hear me out! There are only like 3 characters in this entire thing that you actually might give a damn about, yet that does not help them. They are not really interesting. Also the majority of the characters in this are basically characters from any FPS-game ever…in other words they are only there to die. So the characters are not much to take a look at.

The music…is a big clusterfuck of different types of songs. Yet they are surprisingly good. For what they are used for, they work out perfectly. These songs are pretty good, but you forget about them pretty easily. So yeah, music is good but forgettable.

What this movie lacks in story and character development it makes up for in action. This movie got some of the best action scenes in recent years. Not only are the shoot-outs pretty cool, but the martial art scenes…oh god the martial art scenes. The martial art scenes in this movie are probably the best I’ve ever seen! Note that I haven’t seen “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” yet. The martial arts in this movie are called “pencak silat” and is like this movie, of Indonesian origin. They look great and is not ruined by constant cuts and unnecessary shaky-cam. This is how fight scenes should be done, take notice Hollywood! Also it is fun to mention that the director is not Indonesian…he is Welsh (and for you nitwits out there who don’t know anything about other nationalities it means he is from Wales, UK). Although he currently resides in Indonesia.

Recpetion for “The Raid – Redemption” was overall great. Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 85% rating and it is certified “Fresh”. Metacritic finally agreed to a movie being good and gave it a 73/100. One fairly surprising score was Roger Ebert who gave it a 1/4 stars. Here is what the hell he said:

“the Welsh director, Gareth Evans, knows there’s a fanboy audience for his formula, in which special effects amp up the mayhem in senseless carnage.”

He aminly complained on the lack of character depth/development. “The Raid” got a 7,6/10 rating on imdb.com

So based on my relatively low opinions on this movie I will finally give it a rating. I’ll give it an 8,3/10. This movie may lack story and character depth, but it sure as hell is entertaining. I suggest you rent it and watch it with a few buddies (or yourself if you want). This movie is still a hell of a good time. And if you want to buy it, fine by me. But my suggestion is to rent it.

Review of “The Raid – Redemption” is done.

I sure hope the sequel builds upon the foundations at least. Oh right, em…bye!

Movie Review: Drive (2011)

You guys know what is rare to find in movies these days? Good car scenes. And by that I don’t only mean car chases, I mean driving parts in general. Sure we have the “Fast and the Furious” franchise for the car chases, but that don’t satsify the “normal driving” parts. And “normal driving” parts are usually difficult to find if you want good ones. And good storytelling is not rare to find, but sometimes you need something that is both subtle and got something action-y. So then I heard about this movie called “Drive”. So I got curious and watched it a month or two later. So is “Drive” any good? Let’s find out!

P.S. I saw this movie first time a few years back, this review is based on me re-watching the movie now as I am older and understand shit even better.

Drivers and Driverettes…Well…Drive.

The story is set in Los Angeles and follows a guy called “Driver” (Ryan Gosling). Yes he is called Driver (or kid) in the movie, his real name is never revealed. He is a stunt guy at a movie studio, you know doing all the car crashing and what-not. He is also a mechanic at a workshop owned by his friend and boss Shannon (Bryan Cranston). He also lives a third life as a getaway driver. “There’s a hundred-thousand streets in this city. You don’t need to know the route. You give me a time and a place, I give you a five minute window. Anything happens in that five minutes and I’m yours. No matter what. Anything happens a minute either side of that and you’re on your own. Do you understand?” That is the first quote we hear not only when he does his getaway driver thingy but also the first quote in the entire fucking movie. One day he meets and befriends his new neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son Benicio (Kaden Leos). Irene’s husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) is in jail. Throughout the movie he does a fair amount of driving, he gets a lot tighter with Irene & Benicio, gets signed (by the help of Shannon) for racing by a man named Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) and ends up in more shit than he originally intended to. The reason this review have been fairly restricted so far is that it is so difficult to not start going on about the entire story in the movie because that would be spoilers. The reason it is so difficult not to spoil is since the story is one of the best in movie history (in my opinion of course). I love it so much that I just want to get into a full discussion about it. But I can’t, this is a spoiler free blog. But yeah, I love the story. Also, the people who went into this and expected a “Fast & Furious”-esque movie will be sorely disappointed.

The characters in Drive are more flawed than a lot of characters I have seen. But that is what makes them so damn good! They have nothing that makes you think “OMG BEST CHARACTER EVER!”. However, you may like them and that is good. ’cause I know I liked them a lot even if some of them (Albert Brooks & Ron Perlman) were total dicks. One character that you’ll most likely actually like is Shannon, he is just trying to make money while also being very nice and a father figure for Driver. He is justbeinghimself and not being a dick in the process. The characters in this movie are so fucking well acted that I don’t mind if they are dicks or flawed or anything. The most well acted (my opinion acting up again) here is honestly Ryan Gosling as Driver, what a great performance! He delivers the character of Driver in such a quiet and cold manor that it can not be ignored on how great it is.

The music I didn’t care too much for at first. Not saying it is bad, just saying it is not my main cup of tea. It is a sorta techno-pop-stuff genre, but I can’t set my finger on it to 100%. It’s hard what to call it. Maybe I should just call the style…DRIVE. So yeah, good music.

Like I said on the story part is that this is not a hard boiled “Fast & Furious” movie like some people might think. This movie relies more on subtlety and philosophy and symbolism to do it’s talking. Also, this movie is beautifully filmed. It just looks amazing!

Reception for Drive was pretty much only good. For example, it won the “Best Director’s” or what it is called award from the Cannes Film Festival. It got a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 93% and is certified “Fresh”. And for once, Metacritic has a good score for a movie, the movie got a 78/100 there. Roger Ebert gave the movie a 3,5/4 stars and named it his “7th favorite movie of 2011”. To quote him:

“Here is a movie with respect for writing, acting, and craft. It has respect for knowledgeable moviegoers.”

The imdb rating for the movie at the time of this review is a 7,8/10. Damn.

So based on my weird opinions on “Drive”, I am giving the movie a 9,99/10. This movie is at the time of this review, my new favorite movie with “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” falling not far behind. I think it’s not only worth checking out, I also think that you should buy this movie if you haven’t. Please, do it NOW!!!

I reviewed “Drive”, my new favorite movie.

See you later!

Movie Review: In Bruges (2008)

British people…I love you guys. You are both awesome and weird at the same time. First, your different dialects sound so odd and just great. My favorite accent from you guys is honestly Scottish. Irish is pretty cool too. You also have a tendency to make really good movies…too bad more than a fistful of them are not the most of them are the most well known. But I guess not all movies can be as popular as “Harry Potter”. And that is a little bit of a shame. But some actually get slightly more known (but never get up to “HP” levels). Today we are taking a look at such a movie. A movie featuring crime, drama and dark humor.

People, movie of today we are taking a look at “In Bruges”.

The story is about the two hitmen Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson). They work for a guy named Harry (Ralph Fiennes). They have been assigned to the small belgian town of Bruges. They have been sent there to await orders of their next job/whatever. Ray is not too happy since he thinks the town is a bit of a “shit-hole”. And Ray is kind of guiltstricken after a job earlier that had gone incredibly wrong. He was supposed to just kill a priest, easy as that! Unfortunately he accidentally also blasts the skull of a little boy as well.  But when he meets a young actress named Chloe (Clémence Poésy) he kind of changes his opinion, just because of him striking up a relationship with her. He also befriends an American dwarf named Jimmy (Jordan Prentice). With his new friendship and relationship he gets new appreciation of life which is good since the horrible situation he had been through made him somewhat suicidal. Ken gets the orders from Harry…and they are not good. Ken is not sure if he can carry out the orders since he have found a nice new chance at life in the fairytale like town of Bruges. So the story through the movie is good, but not flawless (not that anything ever is). For example it feels just a tiny bit slow some times. Fortunately, this movie is only 1 hour and 40 minutes long (if you take away the end credits). But the story works good and the comedy in it is dark…but awesome.

So the characters are flawed as all hell…but I honestly don’t mind. These characters are so odd and unique that they just work out for the best of the movie. I especially love the character of Ray since he is just this easygoing guy who doesn’t wanna do too much in life. Also he has an Irish accent, I mean…Who can’t love that!? Also, I have never thought that I would hear Ralph Fiennes (It’s pronounced Ray Fiennes by the way if you didn’t know) say “Fuck” as much as he does in this fucking movie. Wow…who knew Voldemort could curse like a sailor?

The music in this movie is good. It is a mix of ballads, classic music and just a tiny bit of rock. And the songs in this movie are memorable and honestly good, problem is that I don’t remember the name of them. And that honestly makes me sad since I really liked the soundtrack for “In Bruges”. If you find the soundtrack somewhere (Amazon, ebay, anywhere), please let me know!

This movie is honestly filmed so well that it just hightens the quality of it for me. It just looks really great! That is all.

The reception for “In Bruges” was pretty damn good. It got an 82% rating and is certified “Fresh”. It got a Metacritic score of 67/100 which may not be the best but hey, Metacritic usually holds the lowest scores for anything. Roger Ebert really liked the movie, he gave it 4/4 stars. Here is what he said:

“This film debut by the theater writer and director Martin McDonagh is an endlessly surprising, very dark, human comedy, with a plot that cannot be foreseen but only relished.”

It got an imdb rating of 8,0/10. Yet it is not on the Top 250 list. How?

So I have shown my opinions on the aspects of “In Bruges” and have claculated it to the score of 9,51/10. I really liked this movie, it is filled with great preformances and a story that should not be overlooked.

In Bruges is now reviewed.

See you next time.

Anime Review: Psycho-Pass (2012)

Cyberpunk. Who doesn’t love that!? It is something different than most genres of media. It mixes sci-fi with…a bunch of things. Another good thing that is cyberpunk is the “Ghost in The Shell” franchise. As a fan of cyberpunk stuff and science fiction in general, I love myself a good sci-fi anime every now and then. And suddenly I found this…a sci-fi police show. But how did it hold up for this reviewer? Is it as good as “Ghost in The Shell”? Or is it as shit as “One Piece” (please don’t kill me One Piece fans!)?

Ladies and Gentlemen of varying ages…Psycho-Pass!

The story of our show is set in the 22nd century. People are judged by an odd computer system named “SYBIL”. The story mostly follows the new recruit for an elite police force, her name is Akane Tsunemori. This force looks up different tougher cases, these people don’t go for regular convenience store robberies.Oh no, the are like the “BAU” team from “Criminal Minds”…only more futuristic and not as much focusing on trying to get into to the heads of the criminals. The scanning of the brains is done through the “SYBIL” system. This elite force got special guns that are linked up to their brain and the “SYBIL” system at the same time. And were they to to point their gun at a person, they can scan that persons “Psycho-Pass” (Roll the credits!) and see how clouded their mind is. That clouding is shown by different colors. And I don’t mean that they just use the different colors of the fucking rainbow, oh no. This system is very specific. For example it is not just green, it can also be “swamp green”, “lime green”, etc. A very specific system. And if the person’s Psycho-Pass would be too clouded they would not only have permission to shoot since the basic mode of the gun is a paralyzer, if it is too clouded it will go into lethal mode that will fucking annihilate you. But this team is not just police officers, it is also based on latent criminals called “Enforcers”. And Akane gets interested in a specific Enforcer. The one named Shinya Kougami. The story of “Psycho-Pass” is very different from what you usually see in anime and is one that interests me…a lot. I like it, it’s compelling and fairly complex at some times. I love it.

Characters are flawed and just plain great. They are very varied and that is what really works out for them. I especially like the character of Kougami since he is a fairly complex character that can not only be a ruthless Enforcer but also lighthearted and kind at times. So yeah, I like them.

The soundtrack is one that I like, but it is forgettable. It is a mix of techno-based songs that is perfect for the sci-fi aspects. And at other points it uses some more rock based songs that work good for the action parts (and just works with me in general since I love rock music). The dub is good, well done Funimation. Not many names I recognize, but that does not matter since I like it. The original version is good as well.

Animation is made by Production IG who also happened to make everything “Ghost in The Shell” (hence why I have referred to that every now and then). So the animation for “Psycho-Pass” is fucking excellent. It’s smooth and just looks generally great. 

Got nothing special extra to say.

Reception was good. People liked it.

So based on my opinions I am willing to give “Psycho-Pass” a 9,12/10 and a reccomendation to buy it when it is fully available everywhere. 

Another Anime Review for once…wow.

Bye now!

Movie Review: The Blues Brothers (1980)

Have you ever experienced a situation where there is a movie that a friend, parent, spouse, etc. have seen and they ask you if you have seen it, then you say no and they go all crazy like “Oh my god, you haven’t seen that movie!? Have you been hiding uner a rock or something?”. I know I have…more than a few times. And this movie is one example of that. Today we are taking a look at one of the most popular, and expensive movies of the 80’s.

Brothers and sisters…The Blues Brothers.

Set in 1980 (same year as it came out), it follows Jake Blues (John Belushi, R.I.P) as he is released from prison after a 3 year sentence. He is picked up by his taller brother Elwood (Dan Aykroyd). They then go visit the orphanage they were raised on. And that orphanage is in a little bit of a pickle…a financial pickle. They need to pay 5000 dollars to keep it going, of course they don’t have that money. So Jake & Elwood decide to help out by getting the money for the orphanage. And how do they plan to do that exactly? By bringing together their old band again to play at concerts and get the money for that. But first, time to go to Elwood’s apartment. As they are on their way to Elwood’s apartment they not only run the car against red light, they also wreak havoc through an entire fucking mall and get shot at with a god damn bazooka by a mysterious woman (Carrie Fisher) and the next morning she blows the place up with what I assume would be C4. Then it is time to go and bring the band together. But they have to be convinced to leave their new jobs (and by new I mean since the band got split up). And from there on there is a shit-ton of music playing, total chaos and fun that happens getting to that final concert. And during that journey they meet characters that are played by some of the greatest musicians ever played by people like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. And the journey through the movie is just one of the most entertaining I have ever seen. They keep it simple, but that actually works. The only thing that doesn’t make too much sense though is why Carrie Fisher attacks the Brothers and where she gets all her very destructive weaponry from. Otherwise, fun story.

The characters are…flawed to say the least. But that is what makes them so fun to watch, since they are all so god damn unique. They are some of the most entertaining to ever be put on both the big and small screen. They all just..MMM! My favorites probably go to the ones of Jake & Elwood Blues. The brotherly chemistry between them is just prefect and fun to watch. They are pretty much each other’s opposites. One is tall and the other one is John Belushi. Okay there isn’t too much to say on that honestly. If you watch it you will understand.

The music is some of the best in movies. Not only the soundtrack you here in the background sometimes, but also the musical numbers they pull every now and then. This isn’t bleh “High School Musical” bullshit, this my friends…is real music. Ranging from Blues to rock to country to a bunch of styles.

One thing to note before you watch this movie…it is one of the most chaotic ones out there. The brothers create more destruction than humanly possible. There is so much destruction in this movie, but I love that shit in movies…if it’s done right. Another thing worth mentioning is that this movie is based on a couple of characters that Belushi and Aykroyd played/ was known for on “Saturday Night Live”. Always fun to know the origins.

Reception on “The Blues Brothers” was mixed. There has been a lot of criticizm surrounding the fact that the plot is very simple and it relies a little too much on car chases. It got an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is certified fresh on that site. Roger Ebert gave it 3/4 stars and while I couldn’t find a direct quote from him describing the movie I have found a few comments that mention that is was “fun”, “energetic” and that the carchases were “incredible”. It got an 8,0/10 on imdb.com but is strangely enough not ranked among the Top 250 list.

So based on my opinions on the different aspects of “The Blues Brothers”, I think I am willing to give it a score. My score will be a 9,23/10. It is one of the most entertaining movies of all time and is perfect if you ever have a movie night with friends. I love this movie and I hope you will too.

“The Blues Brothers” is at last reviewed.

I’ll see you another time.

Movie Review: Maverick (1994)

 

As you may have noticed, I love westerns. I’m gonna admit, they are my favorite type of movies. There are a lot of great ones out there. Then there are the not so good ones like “The Lone Ranger (2013)” and “Jonah Hex (2010)”. A lot of times you can see a few re-occuring themes in the good ones, yet it is so good. But then you have some of the more different ones that mix in comedy or Quentin Fucking Tarantino. The movie of today we are looking at contains one of those things, and no it is not the latter of the two. This is a more comedic take on the western genre.

Sirs and ma’ams, the poker playing western comedy…Maverick.

This movie is as you may have realized, during the wild west. It follows a man named Bret Maverick (Mel Gibson) who is stuck, with his ass on a horse, his neck in a noose that is attached to an old tree. He has been put there by a gang led by a man simply called Angel (Alfred Molina). When Angel and his gang leaves, they leave a present for Maverick and the horse…a bunch of motherfucking rattlesnakes. So from that point we get Maverick narrating combined with a long-ass flashback to what the hell got him into that situation. It is mainly because of Maverick wanting to get to a poker tournament with a price of half a million dollars and an entry fee of 25 grand that gets him into a lot of comedic situations that leads up to the point at the beginning. A lot of these situations involve an attractive young woman by the name of Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster) and a Marshall named Zane Cooper (James Garner). While the main story is simple enough to follow and the situations are fun to experience through the movie, a lot of times it doesn’t make sense. It is just too weird sometimes. Also, Maverick mostly gets out of these situations with the help of some dumb luck. Also, this movie uses a lot of twists that make no sense and are not the most clever ones to exist. I mean, a lot of these twists are just unnecessary and could have been left out.

The characters are just, awesome! They are unique and just a hell of a good time to watch. They are all horribly flawed and sometimes somewhat douchey…but I don’t fucking care! This is a simple western, we don’t come here to get complex characters, we come to get entertained! And entertainment is most certainly what we get. There is nothing else to say.

Music is for the most part your typical western stuff…in other words good. But there are a few songs that are not even possible to be existing during this time period. And those are a few country songs. But the fact that they are used are still pretty clever since there are a handful of country musicians acting in this movie. Good job Maverick, you clever movie.

Just to mention, Maverick himself in this movie is a little bit of a coward. But he still does more to help than some characters do. Also there is one of the most awesome scenes ever in this when Maverick is in a bank that gets robbed by Danny Glover and his crew. Why is that awesome? Because when Danny Glover looks at Maverick he has this look like “I recognize you, but how? Nah”. It is just a clever nod to them being a team in the “Lethal Weapon” Movies.

Time for my western movie segment called “Gunfights” where I give my opinion on the gunfights in the movies since westerns tend to have those. And they were okay, nothing special. Fun, but a little shallow. They weren’t “Tombstone” quality, but they worked I guess.

Reception for “Maverick” was overall…not bad. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 74% rating. Metacritic doesn’t even know what this movie is. Roger Ebert gave it 3/4 stars. He gave it a neat quote to go with it:

“The first lighthearted, laugh-oriented family Western in a long time, and one of the nice things about it is, it doesn’t feel the need to justify its existence. It acts like it’s the most natural thing in the world to be a Western.”

It got the score of 7,0/10 on imdb.com

So overall, “Maverick” wasn’t bad. It was highly entertaining and is perfect popcorn material. Just make sure you don’t choke on it when laughing at the funny parts (which are fairly plenty). I am giving “Maverick” an 8/10. It is very entertaining and is worth a watch.

Wow, I just reviewed a western that wasn’t too well known.

Later.