Movie Review: 25th Hour (2002)

If you didn’t know, I love Edward Norton. He is not only a fantastic actor…but he also donates a good amount of money to charity and let’s face it…he is one handsome son of a bitch. He have pulled out some great performances in movies like “Fight Club” and “American History X” (in which he was amazing). He is one of those actors that never is bad…NEVER! It is the movie that is bad, not him! HE IS NEVER BAD YOU MOTHERFUC…hmm, sorry about that, I had a fanboy rage moment there. So we are taking a look at one of his lesser known movies.

Dudes and chicks…”25th Hour”.

Montgomery Brogan (Edward Norton) is not at his highest point in life. Why? Because he is going to jail in 24 hours. For what you may ask. And I can tell you he is going in for drug dealing. In 24 hours he will serve a seven year long sentence. During these last hours he kind of re-evaluates his life. He wants to set a few things straight before he ends up in the joint for seven years. He got busted because someone probably ratted him out and he thinks it might be his girlfriend Naturelle (Rosario Dawson). But during these last hours he also have a few drinks with his friends Jacob (Philip Seymour Hoffman, R.I.P) and Frank (Barry Pepper). I am not going further than this with the story explanation for one reason: This story is too easy to spoil and is too interesting to spoil. It is a story that I think you should experience yourself. It is emotional, it is gripping and it is deep and makes you think about what’s right and wrong…trust me.

The characters are…people. People who have been through some shit. First up is Montgomery (out of those I wish to shortly analyze). A man who ended up on the wrong side of the law. An intelligent man who could have gotten a great job but didn’t have a too good start of life. Next up is Jacob. A teacher who got a lot on his mind at the time. His best friend is going to jail, one of his students (Anna Paquin) shows interest in him and tries to get a higher grade. And finally up on the table is Frank…he is for the most part a partying, drunk stock broker who like Jacob is a little confused since his best friend Monty is going to prison. In general…the characters in this movie are incredibly realistic and incredibly well acted. Still…that is not too much of a surprise when you have people Like Edward Norton and Philip Seymour Hoffman as some of your main actors. In general…I found them incredibly interesting to watch.

The music is damn good. The bits of original score by Terence Blanchard are magnificent, really expressing the feel of depression, sadness and a little isolation that the movie wants to show. And I fucking love that stuff. The score is near perfection (not gonna sit here and try to explain why I said “near perfection”). There are a few licensed songs as well but…I didn’t really give a shit about them. They were decent enough I guess.

I have nothing really to mention in the “General Stuff” section. Maybe I can mention that it is based on a novel by David Benioff. There, I mentioned it. Now go away.

Reception for “25th hour” was overall good. Rotten Tomatoes has a 78% rating for it and a “Fresh” Certification. Metacritic has given this movie a 67/100 score. Roger Ebert himself gave this 4/4 stars and put it on his “Great movies list”. The score for the movie on imdb.com is 7,7/10.

“25th Hour” is an intelligent, compelling, gripping and overall fantastic movie. My final score for it is a 9,76/10. This movie is worth a buy. Wait…worth a buy!? I command you to buy it! How do I do that? With the “SEAL OF APPROVAL” of course!

Review of “25th Hour” is now done.

I wonder what I would do with my last 24 hours…

Movie Review: The Wedding Singer (1998)

Adam Sandler, love or hate the guy. He has made some missteps during his 20+ year long career. A few of those include movies like “Jack & Jill” and “That’s my Boy”. But he has made some generally decent ones like “Bedtime Stories” and “Funny People” (take note I haven’t seen “Punch, Drunk, Love” yet). But today we are looking at something slightly different. Something that has gotten average ratings.

Ladies and Gentlemen…”The Wedding Singer”.

Robbie (Adam Sandler) is a wedding singer (Roll credits). He is one of the more popular ones. Soon he is going to get married himself…problem is his fiancée (Angela Featherstone) left him at the altar on the special day. And that puts him in a deep depression. While on the other end on the spectrum we have Robbie’s good friend Julia (Drew Barrymore) who wants to get married while her fiancé Glenn (Matthew Glave) is not too caring about it (at first). So after a few things involving the depression and Robbie trying to get back to work he realises something…he might have a small thing for Julia. So we see his struggle with trying to deal with his feelings for Julia while she looks all happy that she is gonna get married. Now this story sounds all sappy and cliché and boring and all that fun shit…and it is. But it is so fun to watch since it is not as stupid as a lot of Sandler’s other movies and not as lame as most romantic comedies. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and found it not only easy to follow, but also somewhat sweet and fun.

The characters are basically cardboard cutouts for this type of movie with the exception of Sandler and Barrymore…mainly because they are Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. BUT even though most other characters are cardboard cutouts I did find them entertaining to watch. They were well acted and had some decent enough writing. And the chemistry between Sandler and Barrymore was honestly really good, it was probably one of the best parts of the movie.

The music in this movie is something else…and by that I mean it is a soundtrack I love. Why? It is based on 80’s rock/pop/stuff music…and I love that shit. There was a crap-ton of songs I recognized in this movie and I always find it amuzing when that type of stuff happens. There were a few original tracks here and there…but it was nothing special (not calling it bad). Soooooo yeah…the music was good.

I don’t really have much to say here. The movie is set in the 80’s, so it means you will see a lot of old haircuts and cars and other scary things. This movie also has an awesome scene featuring Billy Idol…yeah.

Reception for the movie wasn’t too shabby. Rotten Tomatoes currently has a 67% rating for it. Metacritic has the score of 59/100. Roger Ebert didn’t seem to enjoy this movie considering he gave it a 1/4 star rating. imdb.com has given this the score of 6,8/10.

I have given one or two opinions of mine about the movie and I am ready to hand out my score for it. “The Wedding Singer” gets an inofficially official rating of 8,56/10 and a recommendation to add it to you DVD/Blu-Ray/VHS collection. It is not the most original or best comedy ever…but it is entertaining enough to warrant a buy.

“The Wedding Singer” is now reviewed.

I honestly have nothing good to end this with.

John Barrowman’s new Album – You Raise me Up

John Barrowman’s new Album – You Raise me Up

Actor/Singer John Barrowman (Most known as Captain Jack Harkness in “Doctor Who” and “Torchwood”) has released a new album. And I recommend that you listen to it. Whether it be on spotify/itunes/anywhere. It is a good album with some good songs. REcently Barrowman has been seen playing Malcolm Merlyn on the hit action series “Arrow”. 

Movie Review: Elephant (2003)

Tragedies happen all the time, whether they are big or small. It could be something like your goldfish dying or something as big as mass murder. While the first one might be very tragic to some people (particularly little kids), it is something that is easy to face and understand. The latter one however is something that will always be a riddle to me and society. How could anyone go ahead and do something like that and be completely emotionless about it? Well, that is something that we’ll never properly find out. Today we are taking a look at a movie that has something to do with it.

Boys and girls…”Elephant”.

It’s a day like any other in the fictional Watt High School in Portland, Oregon. Students are studying, jocks are being assholes and the bitchy girls are being…you get it. Everything is like it usually is. We get to follow a bunch of students and their views of different parts during the day. For example, one scene you might see it from the perspective of the chracter John (John Robinson), and then you might see the very same scene from the perspective of his pal Eli (Elias McConnell). And while it is all fine and dandy at the school, something far worse is being planned in the background by two young men. Now…I didn’t give too many details in the story bit, and that is because there are so many things that are too interesting in this story that you need to see for yourself. That is all I have to say.

The characters of “Elephant” are basically your typical High school students. And I don’t mean that in the sense that they are like in every High school comedy ever…because they’re not. All characters are portrayed very realistically and therefore are incredibly interesting to watch. They are not these stereotypical stereotypes that you usually see in movies. they are basically actual people/students/youths. And I am very pleased with that considering none of these actors had anything major in their resumé up until this. Their performances are excellent.

The music is almost non-existent. Not to say there is no music at all, ’cause there is some…keyword here is “some”. There is not so much music here mostly to build atmosphere and set up everything…and I love that. When it comes to movies it is not all about WHAT music you have but rather WHEN and WHERE to use music. Often using no music makes scenes a little more “real” in a sense. Although the music they do use in the movie is reallt good. I mean, how can they go wrong when one of the songs they use is the classic “Für Elise” by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Now for my “general stuff” section I basically only have one thing to mention. If you watch this movie you will notice that it takes a handful of inspirations from The Columbine High school massacre…and that might anger some people considering it is one of the most tragic events in recent history. But this movie is not here to justify the shooting, it is not even 100% about that time…it is just taking it for some inspiration. And I know I might make it sound like I am trying to make it all light-hearted, but I’m not. I am just saying it is not about the Columbine shooting. And it doesn’t try to glorify this type of shit, it’s not action…it is drama, god damn it! IT is not overblown, it is realistic!

Reception for “Elephant” as far as my research can find was not too shabby. Rotten Tomatoes got a 72% positive rating. Metacritic has 70/100 as score on this movie. And while I couldn’t find any perfect quote for this by Mr. Roger Ebert, I can at least tell you he gave this movie 4/4 stars. imdb.com has the score of 7,2/10 on this movie.

“Elephant” is a movie that is dark, realistic and overall great. It always keeps me on edge, is filmed in a very unique way and has some great performances up its sleeve. I am giving this movie my personal rating of 9,67/10 and the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”

This movie is not to be missed. I highly recommend it if you love good movies. And it won’t take up as much of your time as most of these Hollywood blockbusters…I mean it is only 88 minutes long.

Review of “Elephant” is now done.

I think this is one of the few movies that show Gus Van Sant still got it in him.

Movie Review: Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Just so you all know…I love dark comedies. They offer something different. Not your typical sitcom type of humor but something that goes even further. Dark comedy often go on the edge of “sick” or “fucking weird”. And that is kind of why I love that stuff. It often makes me laugh in a way that is neither over-the-top nor sarcastic. These movies are different and that is why I love them. If you remember, I reviewed the movie “In Bruges”. Well that director made another movie…this is that one.

My fellow psychopaths…”Seven Psychopaths”.

Screenwriter Marty (Colin Farrell) is struggling. His problem is that he can’t figure out what type of psychopaths he want for his screenplay/movie “Seven Psychopaths” (Roll credits). His girlfriend Kaya (Abbie Cornish) leaves him and his friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) steals mobster Charlie’s (Woody Harrelson) dog. So basically Marty and his new friend Hans (Christopher Walken) gets dragged into Billy’s shit. And through the movie we see how Marty works his script back and forth and what types of psychopaths are in this. Now I am not gonna say more because this story, while simple, is highly entertaining. I am not kidding, you need to go into this movie for the most part blind to get the most enjoyment out of it. Kinda like me. But this movie got some of the most fun things I have ever experienced in the movie. But it is not only funny but also got a few tragic moments here and there. And that mix is something Martin McDonagh is a professional at. Don’t believe me? Go watch “In Bruges” and then come back! But this is still awesome. May not be the most advanced and deep of stories…but it is not always the concept that is the most important…it is the execution. And the execution for “Seven Psychopaths” is fantastic.

Now the characters…they are fucking awesome. Incredibly well-written, incredibly well-acted and just plain hilarious. Sure, some are tragic…but still well-written. The characters are basically the glue of this movie…and the casting of the actors. And I can happily say that everything on that aspect worked out perfectly. Especially Sam Rockwell, I mean, damn! He really stole the show here (Take note I haven’t seen “Moon”). The casting for everyone was fantastic and couldn’t have been better. It jsut kinda felt weird that Woody Harrelson wasn’t as much of a weirdo as I expected him to be…but I am not disappointed. This movie had chracters that I just loved.

The music was really good. It was based as far as I know only on licensed tracks. But these tracks were really good. I have no complaints on them. Moving on!

Like I said before…this movie is really funny. I think I laughed more to this than most comedy-comedies out there…and this is a dark-crime-comedy. And msot of these laughs I have to be honest came from Sam Rockwell…that guy just fucking rocked this movie and stole every scene…not kidding.

The reception for “Seven Psychopaths” has been overall good. Rotten Tomatoes has the score of 83% positive reviews and it has gotten a “Fresh” certification. Metacritic holds the lowest score for this movie out of the big review aggitators with a wopping 66/100. Roger Ebert gave this movie 3,5/4 stars saying something like

“Walken sometimes leans toward self-parody, but here his performance has a delicate, contained strangeness. All of the actors are good, and Farrell wisely allows the showier performances to circle around him. Like any screenwriter — like Tarantino, for example, who is possibly McDonagh’s inspiration here — he brings these people into being and stands back in amazement.”

And finally imdb.com has the score of 7,2/10.

I have given this movie a lot of credit…for good reasons. This movie is awesome. I am giving this movie a score of 9,72/10 and the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”

It is hilarious, it got some tragic moments and some really great performances. This movie is really great.

“Seven Psychopaths” is now reviewed.

Four, five six, wait…where is number seve…OH SHIT!

Mike Oldfield – Nuclear

The song featured in the E3 2014 trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Fucking beautiful if you ask me.
I am honestly hyped for the game.

Joe Satriani – Crowd Chant

Joe Satriani – Crowd Chant

This song is so fucking cool. nuff said.

Movie Review: Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

We all love Morgan Freeman. He is not only a great actor, he is also the man with the golden voice! He has played in some really great movies. The “Dark Knight” trilogy, “Shawshank Redemption” and many more. But these are more modern examples. So how was he back in the day? Today we are taking a look at one of the earlier but still well known Morgan Freeman movies.

Daisies and Donalds (Bonus point if you get the reference)…”Driving Miss Daisy”!

This movie follows Daisy Werthan (Jessica Tandy) who after trying to drive to the store one day crashes the car and ends up sitting in her house doing nothing almost every day. But after a while, her son Boolie (Dan Aykroyd) convinces her to finally get a new driver. Sure, she is hesitant and not happy about the situation, but she agrees. She hires a man whom her son recommended. This man is the African-American man Hoke Colburn (Morgan Freeman). Like I said, at first she is hesitant, but over the years these strats bonding. And that is the basic premise. Doesn’t sound all too interesting? Don’t worry, the execution makes it all so much more entertaining. They get put in some interesting situations (and by interesting I don’t mean like “Collateral” form of interesting). What carries the movie for the most part is what I am gonna mention in the next segment. Oh wait, I can mention one more thing here, a lot of things that have with the story are kinda fun to watch, trust me. Also, this takes place through a lot of years and that is pretty damn cool!

Now…here is what carries the movie. The characters are what carries this movie. They are not only well written, but also incredibly well acted. Especially on the sides of Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman (And that is improtant since they are what the movie is mainly about). Their chemistry is really great and gives us one of the most entertaining team-ups (Couldn’t find a better word…sorry) in movie history. Their dialogues were great. I was also happily surprised the really good performance we get from Dan Aykroyd in this movie (Take note that I have only seen him in “Blues Brothers and Ghost Busters and that doesn’t say much about him). He is really good.

The music by Hans Zimmer…I fucking love it. It is not only serious and beautiful at times, but it can also be delightfully light hearted at times and just make me happy. I have nothing else on this part.

Ony my so called “extras” bit here I really have no words to use. Sorry.

The reception for “Driving Miss Daisy” was overall good. Critics and people seemed to like this movie. Rotten Tomatoes currently has the score of 81% positive reviews. Metacritic has 81/100 on it. Roger Ebert gave this movie a 4/4 star rating and said this lovely thing:

“Driving Miss Daisy is a film of great love and patience, telling a story that takes 25 years to unfold, exploring its characters as few films take the time to do.”

On imdb.com this movie has a 7,4/10 rating. This movie won 4 Oscars. Best Picture, Best Leading Actress, Best screenplay from already existing medium and best makeup. It was also nominated on five more things. But I’m only gonna mention two of them. Best Leading Actor (Morgan Freeman) and Best supporting Actor (Dan Aykroyd).

I liked the story execution, characters/acting, the fantasticly nice music by Hans Zimmer and for the msot part everything. If anything I have nothing negative to say and that might be a negative thing in itself. Still, this movie gets a 9,11/10. However it does not get the “Seal of Approval”. Just trust me. It is however worth a buy if you like most types of movies like me. But if you’re looking for something extremely exciting…you will not like this movie. But still, it is a great movie that I recommend.

“Driving Miss Daisy” is now reviewed.

I wish I would get to hear Morgan Freeman read this in his voice.

Movie Review: Casino Royale (2006)

James Bond is probably the longest living movie franchise right now. The first one came in 1962 and they have just kepy coming. Sure, they switched the actor every now and then, but that was to make sure the character didn’t look too old. To be completely honest I haven’t seen that many Bond movies. I think I have seen like…three prior to this. Back to the subject…this movie. The Bond “reboot” if you will that got incredibly popular and had critics very pleased. But what did this guy right here think about it? This guy who has been skeptic about Daniel Craig as Agent 007.

Bonds and Bondettes…”Casino Royale”.

The story follows MI6 agent James Bond (Daniel Craig). He has recently become a so called “00-agent” (A.K.A an agent with license to kill). But after getting this little rank he is sent on a special mission by his boss, M (Judi Dench). This mission is to enter a high stakes poker game at a casino and stop the bad guy known as Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen). Le Chiffre is a man who works with illegal arms dealing. If he doesn’t win, Le Chiffre will get money to fund his empire even more and continue his wepons dealing. But doing so is easier said than done when Le Chiffre is a so called mathematical genius. Another thing that troubles everything is that as any Bond movie, there are a lot of people who will try to kill Mr. Bond. But Bond is not entirely alone. He gets help from the beautiful finance woman Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) whom he develops feelings for. Now what I like about this story is not the main layout. but the execution. It is incredibly well made and just perfectly executed. It is perfectly paced. Director Martin Campbell has created a seamless balance of dialogue, action and poker games. The basics are good…but the execution is even better.

The characters…surprisingly I like them. They are well written and well acted. I was very happily surprised with Daniel Craig’s performance as Bond. I actually liked him and thought he fit. I was doubting that fact a for good two years before I saw this movie. He didn’t seem like the typical Bond guy…but he pulled it off. And Judi Dench was of course good since well…she is Judi Dench, let’s just say that. I also liked that they made Bond a very human and even somewhat relatable character that showed that he is not just this immortal badass killing machine…but that he is a mortal human with flaws. And that is something I loved.

The music…oh god the music. Sure, that phrase doesn’t say much since every Bond movie has good music. But the music in this is just fantastic. The score by David Arnold is perfect. But of course…since it’s a Bond movie we have to see how good the opening song is. And in “Casino Royale” it is honestly one of the best songs I have ever heard…but that’s just me. Great soundtrack!

This movie got some of the coolest shtos I have seen in an action movie. Not just for the action scenes, but in general. This movie is shot in such a way that it always is interesting, even in what would have been really boring scenes. Also…the action in this movie is honestly fucking amazing. And unlike most modern action movies, they don’t cut every fucking second…they actually show what’s going on. And that is something I love!

The reception for “Casino Royale” was just great. A lot of it was aimed at Craig’s performance as Bond. On Metacritic this movie has the score of 81/100. On Rotten Tomatoes it has the incredible score of 95% and is certified “Fresh”. Roger Ebert gave this movie a 4/4 star rating saying

 “Craig makes a superb Bond … who gives the sense of a hard man, wounded by life and his job, who nevertheless cares about people and right and wrong,”

This movie got a score of 8,0/10 on imdb.com yet is strangely enough not on the “Top 250” list.

I liked the story, characters, music, direction, action and all that good stuff in this movie. So I am giving this movie the score of 9,56/10 and the SEAL OF APPROVAL!

This movie is worth a buy. Wait…worth a buy…what the hell am I saying!? It is almost mandatory that you buy it! This movie is great. But yeah, I definitely recommend this movie to lovers of movie lovers/action lovers/anyone.

Review of “Casino Royale” is done.

I’m back, baby!

Hello again

Hello everyone. I’m sorry that I haven’t been the most active here the last couple of weeks. But I will explain to you why. 

I have had a pretty good amount of tests recently that have taken up a good amount of my time (Because you always have to study, ya know). But that is about to be over. I have a test I will have to re-do on wednesday because I kinda failed it the first time. Another reason I have been kinda inactive is because I have been playing a good amount of Watch Dogs. And I can honestly say I am digging it a lot so far…hope it stays that way to the end. And I am also a lazy dick…sorry about that.

There you have my explanations to why I have been a little inactive on the blog for a while. Hope to get back on track now that school is almsot over for this semester. 

See ya!