Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001)

Hello there, my friends! And welcome to this very special review! Why is it special? Because in honor of “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them” coming out in November, I have decided to talk about the “Harry Potter” movies here on the blog. I wasn’t sure in what style I would it in however, so I held a little poll on twitter (Follow me @TheMarckoguy) where I asked if people would prefer separate reviews for each movie or if they wanted a ranked list. And after a few days with I think 12 votes, the separate reviews option won. So here we are… talking about the first one in the series. Oh dear, 8 movies before mid-November, while also doing Month of Spooks… Jeez Louise.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”!

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) leads a pretty shit life. He lives with his outright mean aunt (Fiona Shaw) and uncle (Richard Griffiths, R.I.P) and their dickhead son, Dudley (Harry Melling). But one night, Harry gets a visit from Rubeus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), a huge man who tells Harry that he’s a wizard, and will get to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he will learn all sorts of awesome magic-releated stuff. And it’s through his experiences at Hogwarts that he learns about who he really is, and what that means for the wizarding world around him. There he also meets his new best friends, Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson). And from all of this we get an incredibly imaginative and very well realized world and story that I find very interesting and entertaining. Yeah, the plot of this movie is good and sets up this universe very well. The only problem might be that it meanders a bit at times which slows the pacing down. It’s not too bad, like with some movies, but I definitely noticed it. So yeah, great plot, but not the best pacing.

The characters here are so interesting, well-developed, and entertaining. And a lot of this I think comes down to the aboslutely terrific casting. Seriously, they nailed the casting for these characters so damn well. Daniel Radcliffe was perfect as Harry Potter, perfectly nailing the whole oblivious to this huge wizarding world that he was born into. For someone who was so young at the time, his performance was really good. Ruper Grint was really good as Ron, perfectly capturing this not too bright, but still lovable and charming personality. Emma Watson was really good as Hermione, even if she could come off a bit bitchy in her performance. Like she was a know-it-all with a little bit of snark in her voice… anybody who’s seen the movie knows what I’m talking about. Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid was just perfect, any time he was on screen I wanted to give him a hug, that lovable oaf. The rest of the cast was pretty great too, with actors like Richard Harris (R.I.P), Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman (R.I.P), Tom Felton, John Hurt, Ian Hart, John Cleese, and so many more. Yeah, I love ’em all.

The original score for the movie was composed by the one and only John Williams (AKA god with a conductor’s baton). And the music he created for the movie has lived on for so many years, and once someone heears it they know what it’s from. And it just sounds so great. Seriously, when I sat down to watch the movie in preparation for this review, the music gave me goosebumps. It was so awesome. Really, all the music in the movie is nothing short of fantastic.

Based on the book by J.K. Rowling, this movie was brought to life by director Chris Columbus (Not the Italian explorer who rediscovered America), the man who also directed the first two “Home Alone” movies. And he did a fantastic job with the directing this movie. Everything is well shot and overall well done. The sets are also fantastic, combined with some of the practical costumes and makeup that are used throughout. There is also CGI in this movie which for the most part looks pretty good. Some bits don’t hold up as well now, such as the Quidditch game, which has some pretty outdated CGI. Seriously, go back and watch the Quidditch match and tell me with a straight face that it looks fucking flawless. You can’t, it’s impossible. So yeah, that distracted a bit. But otehr than that, the CG holds up pretty well. And seeing some of the speels and stuff being used in the movie is pretty fun. I also love the wizarding world itself, there are so many cool details to it that make it all so unique and interesting.

This movie has been well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 80% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 64/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 4/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,5/10. The movie was also nominated for 3 Oscars in the categories of Best Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score. 

“Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is not a perfect movie. I would also say that it was a struggle to review it when I have such nostalgic feelings about it. But I powered through. The plot is interesting, the characters are great, the acting is great, the music is fantastic, the directing is good, and it’s just really fun. However the pacing at times isn’t that great and there are some effects that don’t really hold up. So now it’s time for my final score. ALOHOMORA! *Unlocks chest, opens it and finds envelope with result*. My final score for “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is a 9,11/10. So it’s not perfect, but it’s definitely worth buying.

My review of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” is now completed.

One down, seven to go…

 

Officially Announcing The Month of Spooks 2016!

Hello there, ladies and gents, boys and girls, other descriptive words and phrases… how are y’all doing? I hope you are all ready for this little post right here! If you aren’t, take a deep breath and say to yourself “I am ready for this shit” a few times. All good? Okay, here we go!

So as you can tell, I am officially announcing the Month of Spooks! But then I hear someone saying “BUT MARKUUUUUS, you announced this in your 200 followers post!”. And yes you’re right, person who I may or may not have made up. I did more or less announce it in my “200 followers” post (#ShamelessPlug). But I did also say in the very same post that I would be making a special post where I talked a little more about this stuff. So I thought that now was a good a time as any. For those who might not be 100% aware of this thing, let me fill in your blanks. The Month of Spooks is a concept I loosely came up with last year since it was October and I dedicated it to reviewing horror movies. And back then I really half-assed it, since I started in the middle of the month and never really made it all officially official. So now I have decided to make it slightly more officially official by announcing it ahead of the month itself and adding a twist to it… I’m not the only person who’s gonna write under the Month of Spooks title/banner. That’s right, I want some guest bloggers to join in for this dumb thing. Not like a full-on blogathon with hundreds of people… but I’d at least like to have some people joining in to write something for this. And to tell the truth, I already have one person ready for it. And that certain someone is Zoë from The Sporadic Chronicles of a Beginner Blogger (Sidenote: If you aren’t following her already, go do it. She makes some pretty awesome stuff). I don’t know what she’s gonna make, but I’m sure it’ll be great. And that’s when I hear someone saying “BUT MAAAARKUUUUUS, how do I join in on this stupid thing?”. Here’s how:
1. Go to twitter,com/TheMarckoguy.
2. Send me a tweet that says something like “Hey, I want to join the Month of Spooks”.
3. I’ll then DM you to start a chain of messages between us.
4. We have a conversation about the Month of Spooks.
5. You make a post at some point in October.
6. The Month of Spooks ends.

Sounds simple enough, right? “BUT MAAAARKUUUUUUS, what do I do if I don’t have twitter?” that possibly imagined person says. Well, you’re shit out of luck. Just kidding, sort of. We might be able to figure something out in the comments of this post. But still, how many bloggers don’t have twitter… almost feels like a necessity. That banner up there is also not like any final design that I want you to use. I just made it to have something to put at the top of this post. I can however say that there are a few hints to what posts I might do in there… you figure out which thing is what. Again, that’s just a slapped together banner for this post (with those hints in it that I mentioned).

So yeah… that’s my announcement. I hope to get some cool bloggers involved in this stuff. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a podcast or two on board for this too. Like I said, hit me up on twitter and we’ll make some spooks! BOO!
Have a good one!

Series Review: Mr. Robot – Season 2 (2016)

It’s finally time. The review of the second season of a show of which I reviewed the first season long ago. Wow, that was a mouthful! But yeah, I did actually review the first the first season of this show last year. And I fucking loved it. So there was of course a lot of hype for the second season. And I was also excited to get to share my thoughts on the season with you guys. So now that we’re finally here… let’s go. But I also want to warn you that there will be some spoilers for season 1 in here, so if you haven’t seen all of that yet… maybe stop reading this.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you… “Mr. Robot” season 2.

After the big 5/9 hack we find Elliot (Rami Malek) trying to come to terms with his mental health issues of course manifested themselves in a few different ways last time we saw him. We also follow him as both he and the other members of Fsociety try to cope with everything that happened after the big hack. And I’m not gonna say much more because really, this is a plot best experienced. That’s right, I thought it was great. With the show already being pretty twisty and turny, it gets even more so since this season has an even bigger focus on mental health. And seriously, this shit has even more twists and turns than the first season. This season even fucks with the audiences more than the first season which I actually kind of loved. The mystery is great, the drama is great, everything is great. It’s tense, dramatic, and just fantastic.

The characters are about nothing short of messed up. None of them are like “perfect” human beings, they all have something odd about them. Rami Malek once again knocks it out of the park as Elliot, with his performance here actually being even better than in season 1. Speaking of which, congratulations to Malek for winning that Emmy for best actor, definitely well-deserved! Okay, done with that. Christian Slater was great once again in his role. Carly Chaikin was great, Portia Doubleday was great. Basically anyone who was here since the first season… great. We also get a few new additions to the show. Grace Gummer (Sidenote: Daughter of Meryl Streep) plays an agent who tries to solve everything and she’s pretty great in her role. B.D. Wong had a pretty minor appearance in season 1, but his role got a bit bumped up for this season and I am glad because he’s terrific. We also get the surprising addition of Craig Robinson (That’s right, funny guy Craig Robinson). And to give credit where credit is due… he’s really good in his role. I’d argue that every actor this season did a really good/great/fantastic job.

The music this season has been pretty fantastic. Firstly, the original score by Mac Quayle has been pretty great, perfectly building tension and adding to the twisty eeriness of the show. And then there were a lot of licensed tracks in the show, but none of them were distracting or jsut added for the hell of it. All of them helped the show and perfectly the situations they were used in. Yeah, the music this season was pretty great. Sure, I wasn’t personally a fan of every song used, but I can at least acknowledge when a song is used perfectly in a scene.

This show is one of the most uniquely directed/shot television shows that I have ever experienced. Example: One of the things this show does is that instead of having the shot cut off at the scalp of the actors, this show leaves a lot of space above their heads. Gives it all a very unique and interesting visual style. I also have to credit the excellent cinematography by Tod Campbell which looks absolutely stunning and makes for some awesome eye candy. The show is also tightly directed, with most scenes feeling pretty tense and intriguing. Without giving too much away, one of the very last scenes of the finale was one of the most tense scenes that I’ve ever scene on television. My eyes were wide open and my pulse went up. Yeah, it was pretty great. And of course, the writing in the show is phenomenal, but that’s something that I’ve been aware of since the first season.

This season/show has been very well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 94% (100% if you go by “top critics” only) positing rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 8,1/10. And on imdb.com it has a score of 8,7/10 and is ranked #90 on the “Top 250 TV” list.

Guys, the second season of “Mr. Robot” basically took everything that was great about season 1 and made it even better (at least I think so). The plot is fantastic, the characters are great, the acting is phenomenal, the music is fantastic, the directing is terrific, and the cinematography is fantastic. Time for my final score. *Hacks own computer*. My final score for “Mr. Robot” season 2 is a 9,97/10. So of course it gets the one and only “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Mr. Robot” season 2 is now completed.

Not gonna lie, episode 6 might be one of the mindfuckiest and most unique episodes of any show I’ve ever seen.

 

We now have a trailer for “Passengers”

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. I’m back… again. To talk about a recently released trailer… again. So yeah… let’s get into it.

So we now have a trailer for “Passengers”, a sci-fi movie with a focus on romance. It stars Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence as two people who wake up from hypersleep too early on a ship that’s taking them to a distant colony planet. Before I give my thoughts on the trailer itself, let me tell you the interesting story of how/why I have decided to talk about it. Actually it’s a pretty short story, but still. For a long time, my friend Kara (Karathemoviebug on twitter) has hyped this fucker up so much. Whether it was bugging me and the director and the studio about getting the trailer out, or just talking about how “great” the script is. And trust me, this stuff has been going on for some time now. So really, if it wasn’t for Kara, I might not have talked about this thing. So… thanks? Anyway, enough backstory… what are my thoughts? It looks interesting. It kind of looks like a combination between “Sunshine”, “Pandorum”, and “Titanic”. I am not comparing in the sense of quality, but more what it reminds me of. And like I said, this looks interesting. A bit cheesy, but not bad. Of course it stars two actors I love, so that is an immediate draw for me. I also love the scope of this movie, it looks pretty big. Almost like “Titanic”… IN SPACE! I have to admit that the trailer might be showing a bit much, but that is a problem that Sony movies generally have. I mean, remember “Amazing Spider-Man 2″… yeah, that trailer was not in that sense. But yeah… tihs looks like it could be an interesting time. Like I said, main draw are the two stars. But I also like the director, Morten Tyldum, who made the excellent 2011 thriller “Headhunters”. I’m interested to see what he does with a big sci-fi movie. “Passengers” is set to be released around the 20th of December of this year worldwide.

So what are your thoughts? Are you looing forward to “Passengers”? And what’s your favorite space movie that is not “Star Wars” or “Star Trek”? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments.
Have a good one and enjoy the trailer.

“Resident Evil: Vendetta” trailer

Hello there, ladies and gents of the internet, I hope you are all doing well. Another trailer recently came out, which means that I got something to talk about. So let’s go!

So we now have a trailer for “Resident Evil: Vendetta”, an animated tie-in to the beloved horror game franchise. To be clear, this has nothing to do with the live action movies (blech). This movie is like I said, more of a tiein to the games. And it’s also not the first one. There were actually two that came before it, subtitled “Degeneration” and “Damnation”. If you’re a fan of the games then I think you might enjoy ’em. And if you’re a fan of animated action-thrillers, then I suggest checking them out too because they are actually pretty good if you’re just looking for a good time. Anyway, now that we’re done with the past stuff… let’s get into this main thing itself. So it looks like “Vendetta” will feature at least two stories throughout. First off it is obvious that we like in the previous two animations will follow Leon Scott Kennedy, with Matthew Mercer confirmed to reprise his role as Kennedy. Then we also apparently get to follow Chris Redfield (No voice confirmed) and his team as they go into what looks like the Spencer mansion from the first game to investigate stuff. And that’s about all I could gather from the trailer. No official plot synopsis has been released online which means that we can’t figure shit out. But I will still say that I am pretty excited about this movie, since I am a fan of the games and the first two animated movies. Plus, it’s fun to have both Leon and Chris featured in the movie, since only one has been featured in the previous animations. While no specific date has been set, it has been confirmed that the movie will be out in Spring of 2017.

So what are your thoughts? Are you excited about “Resident Evil: Vendetta”? And are you a fan of the previous animations/games? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments!
Have a good one and enjoy the trailer!

Movie Review: 127 Hours (2010)

Being stuck, something that no one likes to be. Whether it is at work or in a dark room… not very fun. Even worse if you’re stuck all by yourself… yeah.

Disclaimer: I know this thing is based on a true story, but I will not base my review on how perfectly accurate to the real situation it may or may not be, but I will instead judge it as a movie… which it is. Disclaimer over.

Ladies and gentlemen… “127 Hours”.

Aron Ralston (James Franco) is a young, adventurous man. He loves being outdoors, hiking and climbing. But during one of his hikes he falls into a canyon and gets his arm stuck under a boulder. So now he has to survive while also trying to find a way to get the fuck out of there. And from that we get a tense and surprisingly entertaining plot. Yes… entertaining. When watching a movie about a guy trying to survive while being stuck in a claustrophobic location, I don’t expect to be entertianed… but I was. The way this was constructed made it both tense and surprisingly fun. Keep in mind, fun… not funny. We see Ralston being stuck, documenting parts of his ordeal while also reminiscing about his life and family. Yeah, the plot of the movie was very well presented and executed.

The character of Aron Ralston is a pretty interesting one. He’s never made out to be any kind of hero in the movie, despite his impressive survivalist tactics and interesting decisions. He is more of a cocky, yet clever guy who ends up in this shitty situation and has to endure it. So he’s definitely interesting to watch. And James Frnaco was absolutely terrific in the role, perfectly capturing the likable and misforunate Aron. And while there are some supporting performances throughout the movie, none of them really stand out. But they don’t need to stand out since this movie is meant to focus on Aron. And Franco manages to hold our attention very well.

The music in the movie is really good, having a good mix of licensed stuff and original stuff. The original score was composed by A.R. Rahman and has a pretty big focus on acoustic guitar, which actually fits very well with the drama and canyon environment. It’s used very well throughout the movie and sounds pretty great overall.

The movie was directed by Danny Boyle and he did a pretty great job. The directing is very tense and very tight, which works perfectly within the claustrophobic environment that Aron is stuck in. The editing is also really good and the use of different cinematographers for different shots gives the movie a very unique feel, especially since the different styles reflect the few different perspectives we get to experience Aron’s (in lack of a better word) journey. The movie also gives us one of the most difficult to watch scenes I have ever experienced. Thsoe who have seen the movie know what I’m talking about.

This movie has been very well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 93% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 82/100. Roger Ebert gave it 4/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,6/10. The movie was also nominated for 6 Oscars in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor (Franco), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song.

“127 Hours” is a harrowing but also inspiring movie with a great plot, great acting, great music, and great directing. Time for my final score. AAAHHHHH! My final score for “127 Hours” is a 9,88/10. This of course means it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “127 Hours” is now completed.

Franco is a very talented and likable actor, but it still feels weird saying “Academy Award nominee James Franco”.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead joins “Fargo” season 3

Casting news, something I don’t do unless it is for something that I am genuinely invested in. And since I am writing this, I am of course invested in this shit. So let’s talk about it.

So the talented and beautiful actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, known for “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” and this year’s “10 Cloverfield Lane”, has joined the cast for the third season of “Fargo”. Now, if there’s anybody who’s not aware of what this is… let me get you up to speed, you cave-dweller. “Fargo” is a show from the FX network, created by Noah Hawley and based on the Coen brothers movie of the same name. It’s an anthology series where every season tells a new story with mostly new characters. Got it? Good. So why am I talking about this. Well firstly, Winstead is a very talented actress (who I’ve only seen in those two thigns I mentioned before). And secondly, I love “Fargo”! Some of you might be aware that I have done reviews for the first two seasons (#ShamelessPlug). So I am of course excited to hear about casting news for the upcoming season, especially when it’s about such a talented person joining it. She will apparently be playing a crafty parolee in the new season, so that’ll be interesting since this show has some very colorful characters. Winstead will be joining the already confirmed Ewan McGregor and Carrie Coon. While no specific date has been set, the third season of “Fargo” will be premiering at some point in 2017.

So what are your thoughts? Are you excited about Winstead joining the show? And are you a fan of “Fargo”? Leave any and all answers in the comments.
Have a good one!

Great Music #19

Hey there guys! Time for me to share some good music again! And by good music I mean, I really like it and I’m forcing it into your feeds. Oh well, let’s just get into it!

So for this time we are having a look at something pretty recent. And by that I mean that I missed it when the song itself came out in late August. But I am also somewhat in the clear because this music video came out today (September 16th). I am of course talking about the song “Rivalry” by Australian rock band Airbourne. This is actually the second song they have released this year, with the first being “Breakin’ Outta Hell” which came out in July. You can actually hear the end of that song in the beginning of this music video. I’d even argue that this video is a continuation of the “Breakin’ Outta Hell” lyric video, based on the few shots we get in the beginning of this video. Anyway, what do I think of this song? Well, the title of the post explains it pretty fuckin’ well… it’s great. I mean, if Airbourne’s upcoming album “Breakin’ Outta Hell”, which comes out on September 23rd (#SoExcited), manages to be as great as the first two singles that have been released… Then shit, we’ll have a new contender for my favorite album of the year. Of course, there’s a big chance that Metallia will contend for those heights too later this year, but we won’t know until it’s out. So yeah… A lot of good shit is due to be out this year.

Have a good one and enjoy!

Movie Review: Up in the Air (2009)

Flying, something that we humans can’t naturally do, but for some reason really want to be able to do. So that’s why we place ourselves and other people in giant hunks of metal that can miraculously get into the air.

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s fly… “Up in the Air”.

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is man who works as a corporate downsizing expert, which really is just a fancy way of saying that he fires people for the bosses at their places of employment so that they themselves don’t have to get their hands dirty. And with this comes a good amount of perks, including getting to fly for free(ish) all over the country. He really loves the lifestyle of not really having a home and having to give too much of a damn. However, all of this takes a bit of a turn when he meets Alex (Vera Farmiga), a woman whom he starts a bit of a “casual” relationship with, but it might possibly be going a little further than “casual”. Ryan’s world also gets a little shaken up when he has to take a young, new co-worker (Anna Kendrick) under his wing (plane pun, ladies and gents). Let me tell you this: The marketing for the movie makes it look like your typical romantic comedy, but it really isn’t. I would really describe the movie as a character study of a man who loves to be free, not having to be settled down. And if you go into the movie knowing that, then I think you might enjoy it. And I think that is something that makes the plot of the movie so much better. I was invested in the plot, I really wanted to see what was gonan happen next in Ryan’s life. It was funny, dramatic, heartfelt, and actually a little bittersweet. Yes, there’s romance in the movie… but that’s not techincally the main focus of it all.

The characters in this movie are all pretty great. They are all pretty damn flawed and that really helps make them compelling. George Clooney honestly knocks it out of the park as Ryan Bingham, perfectly playing this man who really doesn’t want anything to do with love or marriage or anything like that. Keep in mind, he isn’t an asshole… he just does his job… while also being a little bit of a jerk. Vera Farmiga is great in her role, playing this woman who comes into Bingham’s life and adds a little something to it. Anna Kendrick as the young woman who works with Bingham to learn the job, she’s really good. I haven’t really seen her in anything that made me go “Fuck yes, Anna Kendrick!”. She’s never been bad, but she’s also never really impressed me in any way. But I gotta say that she did a really good job here. As for the rest of the supporting cast… Yeah, it was great. There are a lot of pretty big names within the supporting cast, but none of them get a particularly big role. Biggest of them might be Jason Bateman who plays Bingham’s boss/co-worker, but even then he has a relatively small role. Most actors in this movie only get like one pretty small scene each… but god damn, are those scenes well acted!

The score for the movie was composed by Rolfe Kent and while it wasn’t used too much in the movie, it was really good. It helped elevate the few scenes it was used in. What happened though was that a lot of scenes had licensed tracks by various artists. But that’s okay because the music choices in the movie were pretty great and perfectly worked within the scenes they were used in.

This movie was directed by Jason Reitman, who also made “Juno” and “Thank You For Smoking”, the latter of which being one of my favorie comedies ever. With that said, this movie isn’t a straight-up comedy. This is a drama with comedic bits every now and then. The jokes that are in the movie are really funny, especially a few early on that are pretty dark. But as you probably know by now, I love dark humor. But as for the directing itself, which I should have mentioned first before the genre stuff… yeah, it’s really good. It’s a very well directed movie even if it doesn’t do anything too special in that area. The writing on the other hand… fucking great stuff, I tell ya.

This movie has been well received. On Rotten Tomatoes a 91% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 83/100. Roger Ebert gave it 4/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,4/10. The movie was also nominated for 6 Oscars in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor (Clooney), Best Supporting Actress (Farmiga), Best Supporting Actress (Kendrick), Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

“Up in the Air” is quite a surprisingly great movie. It has an interesting story, great characters, great acting, great music, really good directing, and great writing. Time for my final score. *Cough*. My final score for “Up in the Air” is a 9,87/10. This of course means that it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Up in the Air” is now completed.

And we’re flying through the night away
Far far away
And we’ll fing a place we’d like to stay
Far far away

 

We now have a trailer for “Live by Night”

Hello there, ladies and gentlemen of the internet. I am back once again to talk about a trailer. I know, it happens quite a bit nowadays, but that’s just because so many interesting trailers are coming out. So let’s talk about this one.

As the title of this post tells you, we now have a trailer for “Live by Night”, a movie based on the novel of the same name written by Dennis Lehane. Now, before we get into what this movie is about, let me tell you my specific reasons as to why I decided to talk about this one today. First off, it is a pretty cool trailer. And secondly, it’s based on a book that I have read and absolutely love. Also, that book was written by my favorite author, so I’m of course instantly interested. So I guess you could say that this is a pretty personal thing for me. Now, with all that said… what is this about. “Live by Night” is about Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck), a man who gets into some shit with mobsters and then himself starts truly becoming one. And that’s as vague as I’m gonna keep it, because the story that plays out is pretty phenomenal… in the book at least. Now, do I think this movie looks good? Yes! Ben Affleck is a great actor and director, so I am glad that he’s the one handling this movie. This looks intense, badass, dramatic, and overall good. I would also say that the cast looks pretty great. Though it is kind of weird to have Scott Eastwood as Danny Coughlin, the older brother of Joe Coughlin who’s played by Ben Affleck, who’s about 14 years older than Eastwood. Oh well, whatever. I’m not gonna lie to you guys, I am really excited about this movie. Ben Affleck did a great job directing “Gone Baby Gone”, which was also based on a Dennis Lehane novel. And he’s become better and better as both a director and an actor, so I don’t think I have much to worry about. “Live by Night” is set for a limited US release in December, and then a wide release in January.

So what are you thoughts? Are you looking forward to Ben Affleck’s “Live by Night”? And are you a fan of the original novel? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments.
Have a good one and enjoy the trailer!