Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

*Insert comment about Marvel movies here*. Hmmmm *Insert comment about my love for the first “Guardians” movie here*. Hmmmm. Let’s get into it!

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s… “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”!

Set shortly after the first movie, we find Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), and Groot (Vin Diesel) out on another adventure. During their shenanigans they run into Ego (Kurt Russell), an incredibly powerful man claiming to be Peter’s dad. And now we have our favorite intergalactic a-holes in another fast-paced and entertaining journey. But not only does the plot give us a fun space adventure, but it also gives us a pretty engaging plot filled with some surprising emotion and lots of heart. Ego entering the world not only gives further weight to Star-Lord’s arc, but it also helps expand the Marvel universe quite a bit. So yeah, the plot here is really good.

The characters in this movie are colorful, extremely entertaining, and all get a bit of character development. They all also have amazing chemistry with each other, but that should come as no surprise. Chris Pratt is once again awesome as Peter Quill, but not only is he the charming and funny rogue from the first movie, he also gets some really solid development with Ego entering the picture and giving us a really interesting look into Peter’s origin/heritage. Zoe Saldana is once again really good as Gamora, this tough warrior woman that may or may not have something going on with Peter. Dave Bautista was surprisingly good in the first movie, and he gets even more good stuff to work with here. That’s right, he was great. A tough and hilarious badass that we learn more about in the movie. Bradley Cooper is once again amazing as the voice of Rocket, he works really well as a gun-toting asshole raccoon. Baby Groot, firstly… holy shit, he is fucking adorable! Secondly, he could’ve turned out to be just this cute thing that only took part in silly slapstick, but they actually do some good stuff with him in the movie. Not really gonna comment about Vin Diesel’s performance, because I don’t know what can be said about it. Karen Gillan returns as Gamora’s sister Nebula and the development she gets in the movie is really solid and her performance was really good. They also give more space to Kraglin played by Sean Gunn, and he’s good in the movie. Michael Rooker also returns as blue badass Yondu and yeah, he’s awesome. He also gets some mroe development which makes him an even more interesting character. Now, onto the new guys! Kurt Russell as Ego, what is there to say… He’s Kurt fuckin’ Russell, he’s awesome in the role! He’s old and wise and very Kurt Russell-y. I also really like what they did with him in the movie, they did some stuff with him I didn’t really expect. Pom Klementieff plays Mantis, the gang’s new friend/Ego’s assistant, and she’s really good in the role. We also get Elizabeth Debicki as the high priestess Ayesha who I will not say too much about, but she was good in the role. And finally we briefly get Sylvester Stallone as the leader of the Ravagers. While his appearance was brief, he was really good. The entire cast was really good. Next!

The score for the movie was composed by Tyler Bates and it was fine. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, but it’s not that memorable or great. It’s your typical superhero/action movie score. Now, with this being a “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie, it of course has a soundtrack that we have to talk about. Not only are the songs in the soundtrack good on their own, but they’re used very well in the movie and makes some scenes even better.

Like the first “Guardians”, this was directed by James Gunn. And once again he fucking nailed it. His shots are very well done and his directing has a very energetic and fun feel to it. It really makes both action and talking scenes quite entertaining to watch. Speaking of action, this movie has plenty of it and god damn, all of it is incredibly fun. The visual effects too are great. Sure, there’s a fuckload of CGI in the movie, but I never found it distracting, it all blended with the pratical humans very well. And the comedy in this movie is fucking hilarious, I laughed a lot throughout the movie. There’s also a huge amount of easter eggs and cameos spread throughout the runtime. Some in the main movie, some in the 5 credits scenes. Yes, 5… and they’re all good. Some set stuff up and some are just there for shits and giggles. Have fun finding them all.

This movie very recently came out, so these scores can change quite quickly. But on Rotten Tomatoes it has an 87% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 66/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 8,2/10.

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” is a worthy successor the the original surprise hit. I think I still prefer the first movie, but this is till quite great. It has a really good plot, great characters, great performances, fantastic music, great directing, hilarious humor, and really good visual effects. Time for my final score. *Showtime, a-holes*. My final score for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” is a 9,87/10. Which of course means that it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” is now completed.

Awesome, more music for my playlists!

Movie Review: Eye in the Sky (2016)

As time goes on humans are continuing to look for new and interesting ways to kill each other. One of the most interesting toys that humans have come up with is the drone. A machine flying high in the sky to fire missiles so you die. Okay, they can be used for non-lethal surveillance as well, but we all know that those things are capable of highly destructive killing.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Eye in the Sky”.

Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) is a colonel within the UK military and she’s been tasked with leading a drone operation to take out a group of terrorists located in Kenya. However the operation runs into quite a problem when a little girl is in the so-called kill zone. This triggers a tough discussion about what should be done. Should they strike, should they not? Can they somehow minimize collateral damage? This plot was pretty fucking great. There’s a lot of layers to the plot, with the political aspects of politicians/military making a drone strike and it potentially killing a girl plus other people who might be unlucky enough to be near. But there’s not only the political angle to it, but also an overall moral dilemma for the people piloting the drone. What I also appreciated was the fact that it didn’t just go for the typical “military are heroes stopping the bad terrorists” approach, but it’s actually being more grey in it’s approach. It’s also in general really suspenseful, with the tension rising more and more throughout the entire thing. At one point it also got me a bit emotional… just thought I’d mention that. So yeah, this plot is pretty fucking great.

The characters in this were all fleshed out enough that I would not only find them pretty interesting, but I also cared about them. Helen Mirren is great, playing this woman who has to try to stay calm while also calling the shots in this difficult operation. Aaron Paul is terrific as the drone pilot, starting as just your average guy controlling a big metal thing in the sky to at one point giving us some of that emotion that he’s known for. Phoebe Fox plays Aaron Paul’s co-pilot and she’s great in the role. Alan Rickman (may he rest in peace) is great as a general that is involved in this whole ordeal. We also got Barkhad Abdi as one of the military’s allies located in Kenya, and he was really great in the role. All teh actors did really well in this movie.

The score for the movie was composed by Paul Hepker & Mark Kilian and it was great. The score was intense, dramatic, and fit the movie very well, perfectly adding to the tension/excitement of certain scenes.

This movie was directed by Gavin Hood (who also has a small role in the movie) and I would say that he did a pretty damn good job. The shots do look great, but what I love most about his direction is how taut it is. Even in moments where nothing really happens, he finds some way to make it really tense. In lesser hands this would’ve had a bunch of unnecessary action scenes so the audience won’t get “bored”, but Hood managed to hold my attention with very little. There are barely any gunshots in this war movie, but it’s still incredibly tense.

This movie has been well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 95% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 73/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,3/10.

“Eye in the Sky” is a fantastic political war thriller. It has a great plot, really good characters, fantastic performances, great music, and great directing. Time for my final score. *Clears throat*. My final score for “Eye in the Sky” is a 9,89/10. This of course means that it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Eye in the Sky” is now completed.

Great job, mr. Hood… now I know that “X-Men Origins” being bad wasn’t your fault!

The Great Villain Blogathon 2017: The T-1000 from Terminator 2

Hello there, ladies and gentlemen of the internet. Today I am giving you a different kind of post. It’s not a review, it’s not me talking about a new trailer, and it’s not me talking about music that I like. Today I am giving you all my entry for The Great Villain Blogathon (2017 edition) which is hosted by Ruth from Silver Screenings, Karen from Shadows & Satin, and Kristina from Speakeasy. So this blogathon, as you could probably tell from the title of it, is about the great cinematic villains. I was of course intrigued by this, especially since I’ve partaken in other blogathons hosted by some of these people before. But also because I like villains… as long as they’re not shit, of course. So, without further ado, here it is… my entry for the Great Villain Blogathon!

And I guess I should say this right now: Potential spoilers for all the “Terminator” movies coming up. Because I feel like I can’t properly talk about this guy without comparing him and his shenanigans to the other movies… so yeah… spoiler alert.

Ladies and gentlemen… The T-1000 from “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”!

“Terminator 2: Judgment Day”, the 1991 sequel to the 1984 hit movie “The Terminator”. Not only did it have to be a good sequel (which is hard enough), but it had to try to live up to one of the most revolutionary movies of 1980s. It wasn’t an easy task, but James Cameron was willing to tackle it. And god damn, the crazy son of a bitch actually succeeded. To quickly get my thoughts out of the way: “Terminator 2” > “The Terminator”. Now, let’s talk about the villains. In the first movie you had Arnold playing the villain, a T-800 Terminator sent back to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). He was big, tough, and kind of scary at times. The T-800 was one relentless bastard that was intimidating as it with great determination followed Sarah Connor around. So how do you improve on that? Well, by having the villain be made of liquid metal of course. Instead of having a bulky robot with skin wrapped around it, you’d have something that could change it’s shape into anything of a similar mass.

He’s one deceptive fucker.

Sure, Arnold-bot was intimidating, but at least he had a bulky body that you could most likely destroy. But how the hell does one take out a thing that can turn into liquid and also morph itself into various shapes? One of it’s favorite tricks being to morph it’s arms into blades.

That’s what you get for drinking right out of the package, Todd.

And since he’s made from liquid metal, bullets don’t really do anything do him. Okay, they stagger him for a little bit, but he just regenerates. Since there’s no blood or actual machinery inside him, he can’t get hurt by conventional weaponry. Not even a point blank headshot from a Winchester 1887 shotgun. Just take a look at the picture below.

Now that’s what I call a splitting headache!

So we have a near indestuctible liquid metal Terminator that will not stop until it finishes it’s job. That sounds great enough on it’s own, but what really makes this character as memorable as it is is the performance. The T-1000 in “Terminator 2” is played by Robert Patrick, and he is aboslutely fantastic in the role. Sure, as a liquid metal organism he doesn’t need to show much emotion, but the cold killer gaze combined with his stiff yet fluid body movements is what makes him great in the role. And he compltely sells the action scenes. In the first movie you had Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) protecting Sarah Connor, but since he was human, he and the Terminator could never properly fight. However, since we now have a T-800 protecting Sarah and John, and a T-1000 chasing them, we get a pretty interesting dynamic. We get two Terminators, one older model and one newer, much deadlier model, fighting to the death. And it’s awesome!

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

“The Terminator” had the lumbering danger of the Arnold-bot. “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” had the sexy mediocrity of the T-X. “Terminator: Salvation” had… what did that have, can someone please remind me? And “Terminator: Genisys” had something, I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know. But none of them is as memorable or as terrifying as the liquid metal badass that is the revolutionary T-1000 from “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” played by the great Robert Patrick.

I’d like to hear from you guys, what are your thoughts on the T-1000? And what are your thoughts on the “Terminator” movies in general? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments. And also, huge thanks to Ruth, Karen, and Kristina for allowing me to partake in this. I had fun, especially because it gave me an excuse to rewatch “Terminator 2”. I suggest you go give these lovely people a follow if you haven’t already… because they’re pretty cool.
Have a good one!

“Kingsman: The Golden Circle” trailer!

Another interesting trailer has been released. Let’s talk about it!

So we have finally gotten a trailer for “Kingsman: The Golden Circle”, the sequel to the surprisingly awesome “Kingsman: The Secret Service” from 2015. To quickly recap that movie: Eggsy (Taron Egerton) is a troubled young man that gets recruited by a man named Harry Hart (Colin Firth) to potentially join the Kingsmen, a super secret James Bond-ish organization of dapper spies. And there’s a villain played by Samuel L. Jackson and awesome action and humor ensues. It was a great movie. So what’s going on in this one then? Well it seems like the base of the Kingsmen gets blown to kingdom come. So Eggsy, Merlin (Mark Strong), and Roxy (Sophie Cookson) will have to team up with the Statesmen, the American version of the Kingsmen, to stop this movie’s villain (Julianne Moore). And we see some plot and some really cool action, to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”. Oh and, spoiler for the first “Kingsman” coming up.
At the end of the trailer we find out that Harry Hart is alive despite being presumed dead at the end of the first movie. So what do I think? Well, this looks like a lot of fun. Not sure if this will be able to live up to the first movie, but I am at least sure that it will be one hell of a good time. “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” is set to be released in late September of this year.

What are your thoughts? Are you excited about “Kingsman: The Golden Circle”? And what are your thoughts on the first movie? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments!
Have a good one and enjoy the trailer!

Movie Review: Stake Land (2011)

Vampires. Creatures that have been used in fiction more times than I can count. Sometimes they’re scary, sometimes they’re sexy, sometimes they suck (Looking at you “Twilight”, also, pun intended). What I’m trying to say is that vampires are very versatile things that you can utilize all kinds of ways in movies/TV/books/games.

Ladies and gents, welcome to… “Stake Land”.

After his family gets killed by a vicious vampire, Martin (Connor Paolo) finds himself teamed up with a mysterious man called Mister (Nick Damici). And these two set out to travel through the vampire infested United States to get to a potentially safe place called New Eden. I have to say that I was a bit surprised by the plot of this movie. While at first it just seems like a straightforward road trip movie featuring vampires, it soon shows it’s true colors. Seeing our main two work together trying to survive is really interesting, and I found myself really invested in their journey. This concept could’ve turned out really lazy and bad, but it was handled really well.

The characters in this movie are all very well fleshed out and I found them really interesting. Nick Damici was really good as Mister, playing him as the mostly silent badass. Connor Paolo was great as Martin, perfectly playing this damaged yet still somewhat hopeful young man. Kelly McGillis plays a nun that our heroes meets along the way and she was really good. Danielle Harrisplays a woman that Mister and Martin meets on their journey and she was really good in her role. Michael Cerveris plays a crazy cultist in the movie and he was really good. We also got Sean Nelson as another guy that our heroes meets in the movie and he was really good. All the performances were really good.

The score was composed by Jeff Grace and holy shit it was fantastic! It was haunting, it was dramatic, and it was quite eerie. Sure, at a few points it did sound like Nick Cave’s and Warren Ellis’ score for “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”, but I didn’t actually mind too much… probably because I fucking love the score for that movie. But those parts did still sounds different enough to not bother me too much. And the bits that didn’t sound like the score from that other movie, they were quite awesome.

This movie was directed by Jim Mickle and he did a pretty damn good job. The shots look great and his direction overall feels very tense and uneasy, which helps add to the already eerie atmosphere. It’s also quite impressive considering the small budget they had. Now, I can’t find any exact numbers, but considering it’s an independent horror movie made by a then pretty much unknown director I can only assume that the budget wasn’t that big. But despite that it manages to have some pretty badass makeup effects, props, and various other effects.

This movie has been pretty well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 75% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 66/100. Roger Ebert gave it 3/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,5/10.

“Stake Land” is an extremely impressive indie vampire film. It has a great plot, good characters, really good performances, great music, great directing, and great effects. Time for my final score. *Stabs vampire in it’s heart*. My final score for “Stake Land” is a 9,56/10. This of course means it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Stake Land” is now completed.

You could say that for the characters there was a lot… at stake…

Movie Review: Soldier (1998)

Space… The final frontier. And that’s it, no more “Star Trek” for you. You’re instead getting a different type of space thing!

Ladies and gentlemen… “Soldier”.

In the not too distant a future, an aging soldier (Kurt Russell) finds himself abandoned by his superiors, now having to live in a colony on a distant planet. And soon he finds himself having to defend his new home when genetically engineered super soldiers attack. So yeah, this plot isn’t original or very engaging. It has a lot of familiar elements. Bit of “Shane”, bit of “Universal Soldier”, bit of other things I can’t think of right now. So yeah, not very original, but it’s executed decently enough to be considered passable.

The characters in the movie, while not the most layered, are entertaining and interesting enough to watch. Kurt Russell plays the character of Todd 3465 very stoically, but not 100% uninterested/dead, For pretty much the entire movie he has a blank facial expression, but if you look into his eyes you can see that there’s rage and fear in there. And by fear I mean fear of failing his superiors. Blank expression but his eyes say everything… that’s some great fuckin’ acting! Jason Scott Lee played one of the next-gen super soldiers and he was really badass. Sean Pertwee played one of the men that Todd gets to know on this strange planet, and he is really good in the role. Connie Nielsen plays Pertwee’s wife in the movie and she’s really good. Jason Isaacs plays the obvious dickbag in the movie and he’s great… he’s just great at playing villainous characters. We also got Gary Busey as one of the superior officers in the movie and unlike most of his other performances, he is not playing a crazy and over-the-top character… he’s playing it very straight and he does a really good job. Yeah, this movie has some really solid performances.

The score for the movie was composed by Joel McNeely and it was really good. His score was fun, exciting, and just fun. I really can’t say much else. It doesn’t do any unique things and it doesn’t make me feel various emotions… it’s just a simple action movie score that sounds good and works for the movie.

This movie was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and I think he actually did a solid job here. The shots look really good and the action scenes are very well handled. My biggest gripe with his directing comes with something that occurs in pretty much all of his films… slow motion. I do think it has a place in movies, but the use of it here is not really that good. For one, it is used at some really baffling moments, and it also looks kind of bad. And like I kind of said, the action here is really good. It’s badass. Speaking of visual things, the effects (for the most part) look great! The sets that they built look awesome and the mix of practical/CGI looks good for the most part. A few of the effects in the movie look a little wonky, but overall the effects in this look really good. There are also quite a lot of references to “Blade Runner” in this movie… just thought I’d mention it.

 

This movie has not been too well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 10% (ouch) positive rating. On Metacritic it doesn’t exist. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,0/10.

“Soldier” is a surprisingly solid action movie. It features an okay plot, pretty good characters, really good performances, really good music, and really good directing. However it loses a few points with the plot being quite bland and the slow motion in this movie being pretty bad. Time for my final score. *Clears throat*. My final score for “Soldier” is an 8,65/10. So while it is flawed, I’d say it’s worth buying!

My review of “Soldier” is now completed.

*Looks at box officer numbers* OUCH! That is kind of sad.

Movie Review: Million Dollar Baby (2004)

Boxing. Two people standing in a small arena, trying to punch the shit out of each other. Yeah, I don’t understand the point of it. That said, I don’t know what the point of any sport’s existence is. Feel free to hate on me for not understanding the appeal/purpose of sports… I don’t care.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Million Dollar Baby”.

Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) is a woman determined on becoming a great boxer, so she starts training at a gym owned by old and hardened boxing trainer Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood). And soon Frankie takes Maggie under his wing to help her become a great boxer. The story follows them as their relationship evolves while they also go through stuff. While the ideas presented at first glance are very basic and familiar from other boxing movies, the execution of said ideas is much better than a lot of other movies in the genre. Seeing their relationship evolve over the two hour runtime is quite fascinating and it makes for a really solid plot that actually delivers a few devastatingly emotional punches (pun intended) at the right times. So yeah, the plot here is pretty great.

The characters in this movie are all fleshed out and quite interesting. Hilary Swank is terrific as Maggie, perfectly playing this determined woman. She wsa believable in the role and I really cared about her. Clint Eastwood is great as Frankie, giving us the perfect blend of classic Eastwood gruffness and relatable vulnerability. Morgan Freeman (AKA god) plays an employee at Frankie’s gym (while also providing the movie’s narration) and he is absolutely terrific in the role. We also get a bunch of great supporting performances from people like Anthony Mackie, Jay Baruchel, Mike Colter, Brían F. O’Byrne, Michael Peña, and Margo Martindale. So this is a pretty stellar cast.

The score for the movie was composed by… Clint Eastwood? Really? *Does more research*. Yeah, Clint Eastwood composed the music for this movie… surprise. Jokes aside, he did a pretty great job with the music. It’s dramatic, it’s emotional, and it just fits the movie perfectly. Good job, Mr. Eastwood.

This movie was directed by Clint Eastwood and he did a great job. The shots look great and every shot is at the perfect length. Now, since this is a boxing movie we should talk about the boxing scenes. So how are the boxing scenes here? Yeah, they’re pretty great. They’re exciting, intense, and kind of brutal. It all feels quite realistic.

This movie has been very well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 91% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 86/100. Roger Ebert gave it 4/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 8,1/10 and is ranked #202 on the “Top 250” list. The movie won 4 Oscar in the categories of Best picture, Best Actress (Swank), Best supporting actor (Freeman), and Best director. It was also nominated for an additional 3 Oscars in the categories of Best actor (Eastwood), Best adapted screenplay, and Best film editing. 

“Million Dollar Baby” is an absolutely fantastic sports-drama. It has a great plot, great characters, great performances, great music, and great directing. Time for my final score. *Punch*. My final score for “Million Dollar Baby” is a 9,88/10. Which of course means that it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Million Dollar Baby” is now completed.

Is this one of Eastwood’s best films? Hell yes.

Movie Review: 16 Blocks (2006)

Cops. Men and women who have sworn to uphold the law. While they have gotten some shit for bad actions by certain individuals within the profession, I feel like we shouldn’t blame the police force in it’s entirety. While there are some bad apples out there, I’d argue that most cops are good. They exist to keep us safe.

Ladies and gentlemen… “16 Blocks”.

Alcoholic cop Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) has bee ntasked with escorting a man named Eddie Bunker (Yasiin Bey, also known as Mos Def) to a court hearing so he can testify as a witness. However that won’t be as easy as Jack would hope because of some people who don’t want Eddie to testify at the hearing. And from this we get a surprisingly solid plot that I found pretty interesting. Now, the execution isn’t necessarily the best. I was never fully engaged in the story, and there were a couple moments that didn’t really make sense to me. Now, I’m not saying that everything has to make 100% sense, but this was one of those situations where the movie expected me to suspend my disbelief. Sure, I could do it at a few points in the movie, but most times it wasn’t too bad. But there’s a moment/scene in particular that just made no sense at all. So overall the plot is good, but it’s still not great. It doesn’t do anything particularly original and that weird moment I talked about briefly did bug me, but it’s still a better plot than I thought it would be.

The characters in this movie, while not the most fleshed out, are still interesting and pretty entertaining to watch. Bruce Willis is really good as our hero, giving a surprisingly vulnerable performance. That’s right, Bruce Willis is actually ACTING in this movie… something we don’t see too much these days. Yasiin Bey (known at the time as Mos Def) plays Eddie the witness, and he does a surprisingly solid job. Putting a rapper in an acting role can go horribly bad, but this turned out really well. David Morse plays a cop/old friend of Willis’ character, and he is great (like he is in most things). David Zayas is also really good. So yeah, all the actors in this movie did really well.

The music was composed by Klaus Badelt and he did a really good job with it. It’s really well composed, dramatic, and emotional. It’s also tense at times and really helps elevate certain scenes.

This movie was directed by Richard Donner and I think he did a great job. It’s very well shot and the action scenes in this movie are really well handled. But they aren’t the typical big/explosive action scenes, but smaller and a bit more realistic, which I liked. There’s also a fair amount of handheld camerawork in the movie. For the most part it is just fine, but there is one moment pretty early on where it’s just awful. That said, it’s just that one moment and it’s over really quickly. But I did think it was worth noting.

This movie has gotten some mixed reception. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 56% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 63/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,6/10.

“16 Blocks” is a surprisingly good action-drama. It has a good plot, okay characters, really good performances, really good music, and really good directing. However it is quite flawed since there are moments in the plot that do not make any sense, and also a little because of that quick shaky-cam moment. Time for my final score. *Bang*. My final score for “16 Blocks” is an 8,62/10. So while it’s quite flawed, I’d still say that it’s worth buying.

My review of “16 Blocks” is now completed.

Bruce Willis actually acting… wow. Dreams do come true.

Movie Review: Good Will Hunting (1997)

*Insert clever intro that somehow relates to this movie here*.

Ladies and gents… “Good Will Hunting”.

Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a young and very intelligent man that unfortunately doesn’t live up to his full potential. Instead of using his amazing math skills to become the next Einstein, he works as a janitor while also getting into a lot of trouble during his free time. However when he meets therapist Sean Maguire (Robin William, R.I.P) they soon form a bond and Will’s life starts changing. While the overall arc of the story is fairly predictable, it’s still pretty fucking great. The plot is quite inspiring and does make you think about your life and what can/could be. It’s also very well paced and quite emotional… even made me tear up at one point. So yeah, this movie has a great plot.

The characters in this movie are all very interesting, entertaining, and believable. Matt Damon is great as Will, perfectly portraying this young man that doesn’t really believe in himself despite everyone telling him that he’s a fucking genius. Robin Williams (may he rest in peace) is fantastic as Sean Maguire, perfectly playing this kind man that wants to help this troubled young man. And the bond/chemistry between the two is very believable and makes for some pretty great scenes. Ben Affleck plays Chuckie, Will’s best friend, and he is great in this movie. Minnie Driver plays Skylar, a young woman that Will meets and starts a relationship with and she was great in the role. Stellan Skarsgård plays an MIT professor in the movie and he’s great. Casey Affleck also shows up in the movie as another friend of Will’s and he’s really good in the role. So yeah, there’s a bunch of great performances in this movie!

The score for the movie was composed by the great Danny Elfman and I think he did a really good job. His score for the movie is dramatic and emotional yet somehow still has a fairly light-hearted tone that makes it quite easy to listen to. There was one or two licensed tracks used in the movie too and those were used very well in their respective scenes.

This movie was directed by Gus Van Sant and I think he did a pretty great job. The shots look great and they never longer too long or too briefly on any moment, all the shots are at a perfect length. What’s also fun to note is that this movie was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, which is quite fun because it is very well written. Not only because of the previously mentioned emotional bits, but also because of this movie having a sense of humor. But it’s not just humor for the sake of comic relief, the comedy that’s in this movie feels very natural and it’s overall really funny.

This movie has been very well received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 97% positive rating (100% if you go by “Top critics” only) and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 70/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 8,3/10 and is ranked #108 on the “Top 250” list. The movie won 2 Oscars in the categories of Best supporting actor (Williams) and Best original screenplay. It was also nominated for an additional 7 Oscars in the categories of Best picture, Best actor (Damon), Best supporting actress (Driver), Best director, Best film editing, Best original song, and Best original score.

“Good Will Hunting” is a great movie that tugs at the heartstrings. It has a great plot, really good characters, great performances, great music, and great directing. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “Good Will Hunting” is a 9,88/10. Which means that it gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

My review of “Good Wil Hunting” is now completed.

Took me fucking forever to finally watch and review “Good Will Hunting”… HOW’D YOU LIKE THEM APPLES!?

We have a trailer for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”!!!

Star Wars, nothing but Star Wars, give me those Star Wars, don’t let them end! Oh, hello there. Trailer time!

So as you have seen all over the internet, it’s seriously impossible to miss, we now have a trailer for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”, the next installment in this amazing religio- I mean franchise. So if you haven’t seen “The Force Awakens” (you fucking cave dweller), some spoilers coming up. Okay? 3, 2, 1, go! So this seems to pick up right after the moment at the end of “The Force Awakens” where Rey (Daisy Ridley) has found Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) on that big rock in the middle of fucking nowhere. And she seems to be training with him and there’s some space battles and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) looks really pissed and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) is still the most handsome man in the galaxy. Oh, and the trailer ends with a really ominous line that I think will be really interesting to see elaborated upon when the movie comes out. So what did I think? It was a cool trailer for a movie that I would’ve watched regardless because it’s motherfucking “Star Wars”! So yeah, I’m pretty fucking excited for this! “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” is set to come out around christmas of this year.

What are your thoughts? Are you excited about “The Last Jedi”? And what did you think about “The Force Awakens”? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments!
Have a good one and enjoy the trailer!