Movie Review: The Butterfly Effect (2004)

Time travel! Good? Bad? Which do you think it’d be if it actually existed? Keep that question in mind as you read through this review. I can at least for sure say that I find the subject intriguing and love when I find a movie/TV-show/video game about it that actually looks somewhat good. So let’s review one that I have been interested in seeing for quite some time.

Ladies and gentlemen… “The Butterfly Effect”.

Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher) is a young man who used to get total blackouts to get through terrible events in his life. Through his life he also wrote in journals to try to piece everything together. Now as a young adult when he revisits these journals he finds out he can change his past. Not gonna lie to you guys, that idea is intriguing as all hell. And I do think they did a pretty good job at handling it. Buuuut, it wasn’t as good as it could have been. At one point he is jumping back and forth in time so much that it just becomes kind of distracting and even a bit annoying. However I really liked the ending, it’s both thought provoking and kind of tragic. Now, I watched the Director’s Cut of the movie, so if anyone wants to discuss the differences and the overall movie, message me. Sorry, got side-tracked! The plot, um yeah, pretty good.

The characters in this movie are a bit of this and a bit of that what they are. You see, as Evan jumps around and alters his past, he changes everyone else’s lives as well, so they’re personalities might change a ton. The only one who never really changes is Evan and I thought he was a pretty good character. Ashton Kutcher gives a good performance as him. I didn’t expect an Oscar Worthy performance from the guy, but I never thought he’d be bad. He did a good enough job as him. Amy Smart is pretty good too, playing his love interest/girlfriend/friend in this movie. Best actor in this movie though, Elden Henson. Yeah, Foggy from the “Daredevil” series. He was fucking great in the movie.  Also, there is an actor I never noticed in this movie and that was Logan Lerman. He played the 7 year old version of Evan. When I looked up thism ovie on the internet after I was like “Okay, hmmm… HOLY SHIT Logan Lerman!?”.

The score for the movie was done by Michael Suby and it was actually really good. It managed to create tension, but it also managed to create some sadness, both very well at the right times. It was an overall good score, nothing else to say. Though I can say that I like the inclusion of the song “Stop Crying Your Heart Out” by Oasis, that was pretty cool of the people who worked on the movie.

This movie was both written and directed by Eric Bress & J. Mackye Gruber who both made “Final Destiantion 2” together (I notice that we are in “good” hands). However, this movie had a little more brains than “Final Destination”, even if this movie could get rather stupid at times. Also, I forgot to mention this in the “Characters/Acting” part of the review, but this movie created a character that really deserves the “Dickhead of the Year” award. I think you know who I mean if you’ve seen this movie. And no, it’s not Eric Stoltz even though he plays a terrible man in this movie. The visual effects that we get when Evan travels through time are also pretty great, it’s like reality is falling apart and I think it looks great.

This movie has gotten some very mixed reception to say the least. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 33% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 30/100 (Ouch). Roger Ebert gave the movie 2,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,7/10.

“The Butterfly Effect” is a movie that is reaching for greatness and is actually pretty close to reaching it it. But at a point our hero is jumping back and forth so much that it becomes annoying and stupid. But the plot was overall pretty good, the acting is really good, the music is great, the directing is really good, the visual effects are really good and the ending (that I got) was also really good. Time for my final score. *Swoosh*. My final score for “The Butterfly Effect” is an 8,95/10. I think it’s worth buying.

“The Butterfly Effect” is now reviewed.

And now, let’s all take a moment since this was the first movie I ever added to my watchlist when I first joined imdb. Butterfly Effect, January 2013 – August 2015.

Series Review: The Beast (2009)

Hello and welcome back to this corpse known as “Series Reviews” where as the title states, I review TV series. I wanna do more of these, it’s just that it takes a while to finish a season of a show (or an entire show) and I am also really lazy and dumb and I am sorry, please forgive me. With that out of the way, let’s review a short-lived show.

Ladies and gentlemen… “The Beast”.

“The Beast” follows veteran FBI agent Charles Barker (Patrick Swayze, R.I.P) as he unwillingly takes on a new and young partner named Ellis Dove (Travis Fimmel). Thing is though that he doesn’t know that Ellis was recruited as a sort of double agent to investigate Barker and his activities. You see, Barker isn’t your typical by-the-books agent, he does everything his way and is suspected of some shady shit. So throughout the show we get to see both how these two solve cases as the undercover agents that they are, but we also see Ellis question his loyalties. And while we have seen similar things before, maybe this show could still do it in an original way. But it didn’t. While the plot offers a few pretty decent twists throughout, it never really feels original or even that engaging. I didn’t completely hate, I mean like I said, there were a few decent twists every now and then. It was also pretty entertaining to see how our heroes would solve these cases every episode. However I feel like the episodes could be a little slow at times. There are so much potential for the plot to be something truly great, but there are almost an equal amount of stuff holding it back which is a shame.

What really helps the show stand out a little more is Patrick Swayze. And I’m not saying that simply becuase I have been a fan of him for a long time, I am saying it because he was legitimately good in this show. This is most definitely the most rugged and dark I have ever seen him. While he isn’t the typical “Charming Mr. Swayze” in this show, he still has some charm to him in the show. Not gonna lie, this might be the best performance I have ever seen form the guy, and I fucking loved him in “Ghost”. Next up is Travis Fimmel who I know stars in the show “Vikings” which I will see at some point. He will also be in the upcoming “Warcraft” movie which is kind of fun. Anyway, how was he in the show? Eh, he was fine. He never really impressed me, but he was also never bad. He was good enough. I did however really like how well he and Swayze played off of eachother. They had pretty good chemistry. Every other actor were pretty good in the show too. Also, Lou Diamond Phillips showed up in an episode. Fun to see that guy still get work.

The music was done by a man named W.G. Snuffy Walden (Pffffft, hahahaha!). And it was decent. Nothing I haven’t really heard before, but it was also not bad. It was good, it worked for the show, that’s it. Although I did really like the opening theme, that I thought was really good.

While I haven’t really truly praised the show for anything yet, let’s give it some props. The cinematography for the show was really good. It gave the show a dark and gritty look that really benefited it. I also really liked some of the writing in the show, it was really well done. The parts I liked were either smart & insightful or darkly funny. And the action in the show was pretty good too I suppose.

The show actually got some pretty good reviews over it’s short run but never really had a lot of watchers. But overall it got pretty mixed reception. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 59% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 51/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 8,0/10.

“The Beast” is a show that had tons of potential to be great, but never really reached those heights. It had an okay plot, good characters/acting, decent music, good directing & cinematography, good action and some pretty solid writing at times. Although the show moves a little slowly at times. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “The Beast” is a 7,98/10. While not great, it’s still worth a watch.

Review for “The Beast” is completed.

I miss Patrick Swayze…

Movie Review: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

You alread know I love westerns, I have said it more times than one would like to hear about it. But those that you know I love (A.K.A. the ones I have reviewed/mentioned) are mainly your typical romanticized westerns, rather than a more serious and dramatic look at those times. So I am curious to see what I would think of a more serious and dramatic western. Where am I going with this? I am reviewing one of those today.

Ladies and gents… “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (What a mouthful).

This is one of those plots that has a climax that is impossible to spoil. Why? Because it is in hte fucking title! Sorry, didn’t wanna be mean, let’s just talk about the plot. Ever since he was a child, Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) has idolized the outlaw Jesse James (Brad Pitt). So when he joins his game at the age of 19, he of course finds it great. But over the years he starts to become more and more bitter about Jesse and eventually kind of resents him. Which of course leads to the event in the title of the movie, the murder of Jesse James as carried out by Robert Ford. And even basically knowing how it was gonna end, I was still riveted by the story. As the nerd that I am, I knew a lot about this with the whole Ford killing James and Ford’s eventual fate, but I was still stunned how well it was presented in this movie. What I liked about the story is how it never favored anyone and made them look like the good guy or the bad guy, everyone was in a more neutral space. The plot also hit me very hard with how emotional it could get and by how shocking it could be at times. And while I won’t compare it to “American History X”, it still had the effect on me as when I first watched that movie. And I love that feeling, when a movie manages to hit you very hard in every way possible.

The characters are all very entertaining to watch, but they also feel like they could be real people. Brad Pitt is fantastic as Jesse James, giving one of the best (in my opinion) performances of his career. Casey Affleck was also pretty fucking great in the movie. But I have also never seen him give a bad performance. We also got a fantastic supporting cast, all who give great performances, let me round ’em up. Sam Shepard, Mary-Lousie Parker, Sam Rockwell, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Schneider, this is a great cast and it was used perfectly. Everybody gets time to shine and I love it.

The score for the movie was done by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis and it might be one of the best ones I have ever heard. It manages to create a sense of dramatic tension while also being very emotional. It really manages to fit into every category perfectly. It is really the definition of a perfect score that not only fits the movie it’s used in, but also turns out to be overall fantastic.

I don’t wanna disappoint you, so I’ll talk about the shootouts since this technically is a western movie. They aren’t really the types of shootouts you usually see in westerns, these are smaller and a little more quiet. But they fit very well into it all since this isn’t a big, action-packed western, but more of a drama about characters set in western times. So the movie doesn’t really need shootouts, but the (small) ones in the movie are good and fit well enough.

This movie was written and directed by Andrew Dominik and I think he succeeded in both aspects. The writing is some of the most tight and well-written I have ever experienced in a movie. And the directing is pretty fantastic. The camera movements are fantastic and you see that Dominik has a lot of skill as a director despite only having directed one movie prior to this. I also love the cinematography by Roger Deakins, it looks fantastic (as usual), I especially love the shots they have in the big and open landscapes, they are incredibly beautiful.

This movie has been well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 76% positive rating with a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 68/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,6/10. The movie was also nominated for 2 Oscars in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Affleck) and Best Cinematography. 

“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” is not only a mouthful of a title, but it is also a pretty amazing movie. It has a terrific & emotional story, fantastic characters & performances, fantastic music, great direction, great writing and fantastic cinematography. Time for my final score. *Bang*. My final score for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” is a 9,90/10. It definitely deserves the one and only “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” is now reviewed.

The Assassination of What a Mouthful by Markus.

Movie Review: Mad Max – Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

We are finally here, the final part of my series of “Mad Max” reviews (“Fury Road” not included). It has been a… strange journey to say the least. From the revenge story of “Mad Max” to the vehicular insanity of “The Road Warrior” and now we have the finalé left.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you… “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome”.

Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) is back to be scruffy-looking and badass. This time he stumbles upon a place called Bartertown where he meets the town’s leader called Aunty Entity (Tina Turner). But after some shit hits the fan, he gets exiled into the wasteland and left to die. But then he is taken in with some children who live in a forest/jungle/how-did-that-end-up-there-in-the-sandy-wasteland whom he then teams up with to rebel against Aunty Entity. While I was entertained through the entirety of the movie, I feel like the plot got a little… stupid. I love the first half where he is in Bartertown/Thunderdome, fighting for his life, but when he ends up with the kids it feels like an entirely different movie… and not really in a good way. It started to feel less like a “Mad Max” movie and more like a Steven Spielberg movie. And I was not the biggest fan of how the plot developed, even though it was enjoyable to watch.

I think it’s safe to say that Mel Gibson is fantastic as Max. He nailed it the first two times, and he nailed it here too. I would even say that he got some great character development in this movie, with Max evolving a fair amount as a character which is great to see. I was however worried about the casting of Tina Turner in the movie. Don’t get me wrong, I love her, I think she is a fantastic musician… but since I have never seen her act before I was worried that she would suck. Did she suck? Not really. While she wasn’t as terrible as I thought she might’ve been, she was still not great. Her performance was at a lot of times over-the-top and a little campy, but she was still fine. All other performances on the other hand were pretty great. And since this is a “Mad Max” movie you can expect that everyone have lost their fucking minds and are all very colorful, which is always fun.

The music was done by composer Maurice Jarre. And as per usual it was great, with Jarre showing that he can create pieces of music for all moods a movie wants to show. There were also one or two tracks done/sung by Tina Turner and those were pretty great which is to be expected. All of the music was in fact very well composed and really enjoyable to listen to.

George Miller returns as director, but is this time also joined by George Ogilvie who I have never fuckin’ heard of. No offense to the man, I’m sure he’s a nice guy, I just haven’t heard of him before. Anyway, holy shit this movie looks amazing. Out of all the movies so far, this might be the best looking one out of them all. The cinematography is beautiful and the pans and zooms and overall directing is simply great. It also has some pretty great action scenes. Mainly two of them; The first one is the fight in Thunderdome between Max and a huge, muscular man named Blaster. The second one is the big chase at the end which is typical “Mad Max” badassery. What is a little weird about the movie is that it is the only one in the series (“Fury Road” included) that is rated PG-13. Why the sudden change of age rating, Miller? It doesn’t really take away from the movie, I just find it weird. Answer me, damn it!

This movie has gotten some mixed reception to say the least. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 81% positive rating with a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 80/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 4/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,2/10.

“Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome” is a strange movie. It has an entertaining plot that still derails itself halfway through, but it also has really fun characters/great performances, and excellent soundtrack, terrific directing/cinematography and awesome action. Time for my final score. MAAAAAAAAAAAD MAAAAAAAAAAX! My final score for “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome” is an 8,78/10. I’d still say that it’s worth buying.

I have finally reviewed the final part in the “Mad Max” trilogy (A.K.A. “Beyond Thunderdome”).

Who runs Bartertown?

Movie Review: Headhunters (2011)

Hello guys. I am sorry that it’s been a while. I wanted to give you a review earlier this weekend but I was away and couldn’t do anything about it. But now that I am home I have watched a movie and sat my butt down to review it. You know what the fun part of it is? It comes from Norway, the country my dad is from, it is also our neighboring country.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Headhunters”.

Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) is a short man, but he still got a pretty great life. He is an accomplished headhunter and thief. He also got a beautiful wife (Synnøve Macody Lund) and a very expensive house. One day he tries to steal a very valuable painting from former mercenary Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). And then a game of cat and mouse starts where Brown has to go on the run. And I was intrigued the whole way through. This is an action-thriller with an incredibly suspenseful and really well-told plot. While most action-thrillers these days rely on big action set-pieces and bare-bones storytelling, but “Headhunters” manages to create a compelling plot that had me interested through all of it. It also has some pretty good twists to offer.

The characters (despite the strange situation they’re in) all fell like very real people. You feel like they have gone through life in very different ways and they never feel fake. And the acting in the movie is pretty fucking great as well. Aksel Hennie is great as Roger Brown, showing himself as a man terrified for his life yet still maintaining a sense of calm. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was also pretty great in the movie, playing a pretty intimidating man/villain. Really, all the acting was pretty great, but can you expect anything less from a movie that stars Max Manus and Jamie Lannister?

The music for the movie was composed by Trond Bjerknæs and Jeppe Kaas and it was really good. I wouldn’t call it anything unique or new, but I woiuld still say that it’s really good and fits the movie very well. It’s your typical action-thriller style of score, but it’s still good. It doesn’t bring the movie down simply because of it being similar to other scores that we have heard.

This is a great looking movie. The shots look fantastic and you know what? Whenever there is action in the movie, it is all practical, no CGI. Sure, there might have been some CG at some point, but I sure as shit didn’t notice any. That is especially impressive when it comes to one scene in particular that made me go “Is he seriously d- he is seriously doing that… shit”. A lot of praise to the people who made the movie for that. Thank you, Morten Tyldum for directing it as well as you did. Also, if you didn’t know, this movie is based on the book of the same name by Jo Nesbø who my parents have recommended a lot of times so I should probably read one or two or… all of his books. Because now I am very curious about them.

This movie has been well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 92% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 72/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,6/10.

“Headhunters” is a very odd thriller… and I love that. The story is intriguing and suspenseful, the acting is great, the music is good, the directing is great, the action is great and I just had an overall great time with it. Time for my final score. FAEN! My final score for “Headhunters” is a 9,88/10. I think it’s worthy of the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

“Headhunters” is now reviewed.

No heads are being hunted, what a disappointment…

Movie Review: Schindler’s List (1993)

 

If everything looks dark it might be impossible to see something good. But remember that even if everything looks dark, there is still a light waiting to pierce through and help you through the darkness. Never give up hope, it might be what saves you one day.

Ladies and gentlemen, for the final day of summer I present to you… “Schindler’s List”.

In this movie we follow industrialist and ladies man Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) who starts getting concerned about his Jewish after seeing what the nazis do to them. And I’m not gonna lie, it was quite riveting. I was engaged and invested in this story throughout the entire three hour runtime. Rarely has a movie that long been able to keep my attention and be this interesting. The story is dark, beautiful and even a little bit scary. The shit that happened back then, the dark side of humanity, that is what scares me. But it also showed the kindness and courage people might show during these harsh times and that is what makes this plot so fantastic.

When the characters start feeling like real people in these terrible times, that is when you know you got some great characters. A lot of it comes from the excellent writing, but most of it comes from the fantastic performances. This is definitely the best I have ever seen Liam Neeson, he really disappeared into this man and he was no longer Liam Neeson to me, he was Oskar Schindler. Ben Kingsley also did a phenomenal job as Schindler’s Jewish bookkeeper. And Ralph Fiennes (Pronounced Ray Fines, by the way) was pretty amazing as well, playing a major douchebag who at a lot of times is conflicted about what he’s doing. Every actor in the movie was pretty great and no single performance in the movie stood out as “bad” or even “mediocre”.

Considering that this is a Steven Spielberg movie, one should not be surprised that the score for the movie was done by John Williams. Not that it’s a bad thing at all, Williams is a fantastic composer. Anyway, Williams did it again. He managed to compose a score that made you feel all of the emotions. Especially sadness, a lot of it thanks to violinist Itzhak Perlman helping out in a lot of tracks. The score is really beautiful and perfectly complemented the movie.

Like I said, this movie was directed by the one and only Steven Spielberg. And as always, the movie was incredibly well-directed. A lot of it can also be attributed to the fantastic cinematography by Janusz Kaminski. The movie looks beautiful. Some might call the whole black and white style a gimmick, but I call it beautiful art. I would say that it really improved upon the movie and did a lot to make it even better than it already was. I do also appreciate the selective coloring throughout the movie. If you’ve seen the movie you know what I am talking about. Here is also a fun fact: Kaminski has also provided the cinematography for some other Spielberg movies such as “Saving Private Ryan”, “Minority Report” and “Catch Me if You Can”.

This movie has gotten pretty much universal acclaim (the hilarious part of that statement is that Universal is the studio behind it). On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 96% positive rating (100% if you go by “Top Critics” only) and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 93/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 4/4 stars and put it on his “Great Movies” list. And on imdb.com it has a score of 8,9/10 and is ranked #6 on the “Top 250” list. The movie also won 7 Oscars (Wow) in the categories of Best picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Set Decoration, Best Film Editing and Best Original Score. The movie was also nominated for an additional 5 Oscars in the categories of Best Actor (Neeson), Best Supproting Actor (Fiennes), Best costume design, Best sound and Best makeup. 

“Schindler’s List” is a movie with a beautiful and haunting story, excellent performances, fantastic music and excellent direction & cinematography. Time for my final score. ACHTUNG! My final score for “Schindler’s List” is a 9,89/10. It deserves the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

Finally, “Schindler’s List” is now reviewed.

Wow, 1993 was a great year for Steven Spielberg. Both this and “Jurassic Park”.

 

Top Ten Help

 

Hello people of the internet! Today I am here, not to necessarily give you a review or a countdown. Okay, I am kind of doing the last one but I have a problem; I can’t figure what kind to do. That is why I am here, I want you to give me suggestions on what I can do for a Top 10 or Top however much is necessary. I am seriously out of good ideas for it, so please help me figure this shit out. Any suggestion is good, whether it’d be about movies, tv, music, books, life… anything. Just give me something good, please! I am leaving this task in your hands, so please do it well.

Have a good one.

Movie Review: Ghost (1990)

 

Does love transcend all? That is a question many people ask themselves. Can love for someone be the solitary reason for one’s survival/struggle? Intrepret the situation however the hell you want. Me? I don’t know, haven’t felt true love yet.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Ghost”.

Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze, R.I.P) is a young man with a lot of things going for him. He’s doing well at his job as a banker, he lives with his true love Molly (Demi Moore) and they have a pretty big apartment. Unfortunately he gets murdered one evening. But he also comes back as a ghost and takes the help of a psychic (Whoopi Goldberg) to keep in touch with the world and help Molly from a terrible fate. I know my description sounds a bit off, but I am simply trying to explain it without really spoiling it. Anyway, I really liked the plot. I was a bit skeptic since it seemed like it might become a very melodramatic and sappy plot, but I actually enjoyed it a lot. It had a lot more depth than I thought it would. It also made me tear up at a spot. Let me put it like this, on the outside I shed a tear… but on the inside I cried like a little baby. Good job, “Ghost”.

The characters are interesting and entertaining, that’s the best way I can put it. Patrick Swayze was pretty great in this movie. As a big fan of him I have still been able to see that he hasn’t been that great of an actor, but here he was genuinely good. Demi Moore was pretty great in the movie as well, showing a lot of emotion and simply giving a great performance. Whoopi Goldberg was also really good, she actually gave a great performance in the movie (holy shit). Tony Goldwyn was also great, but I guess you can safely assume such a thing when Tarzan is in the house (Obscure references, ho!). Every actor was in fact great in the movie.

Leave it to Maurice Jarre to create a truly great score for a movie. If you don’t remember, he is the man who was the main composer for the movie “Fearless” which I love. And here he knocked it out of the park again. This score has a lot of emotion behind it, but it also manages to create tension whenever it needs to. It managed to capture all kind of musical feelings it could. He did a great job. I also like how they included the song “Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers, it was really well done.

This movie was directed by Jerry Zucker who, HOLY SHIT HE DIRECTED “AIRPLANE”! That is a funny jump, from a hilarious and strange comedy to a love story featuring ghosts. Anyway, he did a great job directing this movie, nothing else to really say here. What I also enjoyed is the fact that this movie manage to capture pretty much every genre without it all feeling totally mish-mashed and terrible. It captures drama, comedy, fantasy, thriller, action… you name it. And I’m genuinely impressed by how well it actually managed to do it.

This movie has been pretty well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 74% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 52/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 2,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,0/10. The movie also won 2 Oscars in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Whoopi Goldberg) and Best Original Screenplay. The movie was also nominated for an additional  3 Oscars in the categories of Best Picture, Best Film Editing and Best Original Score. 

“Ghost” is a movie that surprised me on so many levels. Not only did I actually like the story, but I was even touched deeply by it. I also really enjoyed all the performances (which were great), the score was terrific with the inclusion of “Unchained Melody”, and the directing was good. I also enjoy how it actually made me laugh because of real humor. Time for my final score. BOO! My final score for “Ghost” is a 9,88/10. It gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

“Ghost” is now reviewed.

I guess love does transcend all…

Movie Review: They Live (1988)

 

Anyone else that the tought that we are subconsciously being controlled by everything in our environment? Okay to be fair, I don’t think it’s that bad, but it is an interesting thought.

Ladies and gentlemen… “They Live”.

We follow a drifter named Nada (Roddy Piper, R.I.P) who comes to Los Angeles for food, shelter and work. And while he actually finds that and even a new friend named Frank (Keith David), he also stumbles upon a pair of sunglasses that let’s him see that the earth has been taken over by aliens. He sees that some people actually are aliens in disguise and he sees that signs that to the naked eye look like normal advertisements, actually subconsciously tells us what we should do. I’m not gonna lie, it’s actually really clever. With the setup it could have been incredibly cheesy and even bad, but they pulled it off. It is a clever satire on society combined with an alien invasion movie. I’m not gonna lie, I kinda loved that.

Having a professional wrestler star in your movie is a pretty risky move, but here they actually managed to pull it off. Roddy Piper (Again, R.I.P) is actually really good in the movie. Sure, he’s not Mr. Oscar Worthy, but he’s actually pretty great considering he’s a wrestler. I think a lot of that comes from his overall charm because in this movie he seems like the type of guy you’d want as your friend. Keith David also has a pretty important role in the movie and he’s great. There’s really nothing else to say, he’s Keith David, he’s always great. I also have to mention that those two have pretty good chemistry, not really Mel Gibson/Danny Glover level of chemistry, but still good chemistry.

The score for the movie was done by director John Carpenter and composer Alan Howarth. They have collaborated before on other movies like in “Escape From New York”. And while one might call it cheesy, I still really enjoyed it. It is a strange mish-mash of rock, blues, sci-fi (A.K.A. typical sci-fi music) and synth. Some might call that an awful combination, but I call it awesome.

Like I said, this movie was directed by John Carpenter (Sidenote: For some reason I have watched a fair amount of movies by him recently). And he did a great job, the shots look great and the camera work overall is really solid.  I especially love the shots in black and white which if you didn’t know, are the shots we see when Nada puts on the sunglasses. Those shots I just simply love. And the action in the movie is pretty good too.

This movie has been pretty well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 83% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 52/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,3/10.

“They Live” is a surprisingly clever movie with a story featuring great social commentary. The characters/performances are really good too, the music is really good and the directing is great. Time for my final score. *Cough*. My final score for “They Live” is a 9,88/10. It gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

“They Live” is now reviewed.

I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… And I’m all out of bubblegum.

 

My Favorite Scenes: Spider-Man 3 – Birth of Sandman

What’s going on, guys? So today I felt like bringing this fossil back to life. That’s right, I’m not good at updating the “My Favorite Scenes” series, but finally I am doing it. And todya we are talking about a scene from a movie that people really seem to hate. Before we dive into the scene, let me tell you my quick thoughts on the movie; It’s fine. There is a lot wrong with the movie, but I do still enjoy it a pretty good amount. There, I said it, now let’s talk about this scene. Where the movie was not very good at parts, this scene suddenly comes out of nowhere and goes “I am giving you the feels!” (By the way, I personally hate the term “The feels”). In this scene we see Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), after some kind of accident, becoming Sandman. And when you watch this you will most likely believe that he’s not really a bad guy, but a good guy who did something bad. And that is portrayed perfectly through the directing, the visual effects and the beautiful song by composer Christopher Young. I love this scene so much.
Enjoy!