Movie Reviews

Frozen (2013)

Frozen-characters

Directors:

Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee

Starring:

Kristen Bell

Josh Gad

Idina Menzel

Jonathan Groff

Plot:

Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna’s sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.

Review:

What is it with kids movies and making me sob like a little girl? It wasn’t quiet Pixar’s Up opening but it still had me in tears. Great story, love me some fairy tales. Glad that the ending wasn’t the predictable prince saves the day. I actually thought it might end up being Elsa saving the day but I liked that Anna ended up saving herself.

I am totally buying this and, I think, if my daughter ends up choosing this movie to watch every day forever I’d be ok with that.

5/5

Homefront (2013)

Homefront_2013_dvd

Director:

Gary Fleder

Starring:

Jason Statham

James Franco

Winona Ryder

Plot:

A former DEA agent moves his family to a quiet town, where he soon tangles with a local meth druglord.

Review:

I will never understand directors that cast Jason Statham and then don’t showcase his talents. Yeah there’s action but with all the quick cuts and shaky cam who the hell knows what’s going on? It’s infuriating. The man can fight and he looks good fighting, but do you let people see that? No. You do so many cuts and shake so much that you end up just getting the vague idea that a fight has happened.

I’m over exaggerating, but just a little.

You’ve hired a choreographer and an action star fucking use them!

When you watch a fight do you bounce around from place to place in seconds? No. You find a place with a good view and watch as the fight happens. Why can’t movies do that? Every time there are copious amounts of quick cuts and shaky cam I’m taken out of the movie and get pissed off.

Anyway back to the movie.

The story was bad, the whole romantic story line just disappeared with no resolution. James Franco wasn’t as crazy as I thought he was going to be but he was probably the best part of the movie. I really don’t think Winona Ryder needed to be in the movie, she was just an extra character and her parts could have been given to someone else.

This was an adaption from a book which I haven’t read. Maybe the book makes more sense, maybe they had to cut out a lot for time. Whatever the case this movie did not work for me.

1.5/5

Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013)

the butler

Director:

Lee Daniels

Starring:

Forest Whitaker

Oprah Winfrey

Plot:

As Cecil Gaines serves eight presidents during his tenure as a butler at the White House, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, and other major events affect this man’s life, family, and American society.

Review:

First off, who names a film and puts their own name in the title?

This was a feel good movie that had me crying through the last third of it. He just wanted to support his family? Why couldn’t his son see that? Why couldn’t he see that his son had grown up and changed? So much bitterness, but it all turned out good in the end.

4/5

The Raid 2 (2014)

The-raid-2-final-fight

Director:

Gareth Evans

Starring:

Iko Uwais

Yayan Ruhian

Arifin Putra

Plot:

Only a short time after the first raid, Rama goes undercover with the thugs of Jakarta and plans to bring down the syndicate and uncover the corruption within his police force.

Review:

First off have you seen The Raid? I mean the original? If you’ve answered no to that question than I’m going to need you to stop reading and immediately go buy it, not rent, buy it. Watch it then come back and thank me for introducing you to quite possibly the best action movie ever.

If you’ve already watched The Raid, then unless you happen to be watching it while you’re reading my blog, you probably want to watch it again now that you’ve been reminded of it.

Okay since we’ve all watched The Raid I will move on to my review of the sequel.

At 150 minutes it’s considerably longer than the first movie, even with that length there isn’t much down time. I wouldn’t say the story is very complicated, it’s an action movie you should never go to an action movie and expect a complicated story. That’s not to say that there aren’t any action movies with complicated story lines, I just mean that the majority are pretty basic.

What makes this series awesome is the action and how it is shot. Gareth Evans knows how to showcase skilled fighters and display their talents on the screen. There’s shaky cam but not to the point where the action is obscured. That’s because all of his actors can kick ass, it’s not stunt people doing the fight scenes, so there are nowhere near as many quick cuts. In fact I believe there were a number of long cuts, which considering all that was going on I’m sure it was very difficult to accomplish.

My only complaint, and it’s not much of a complaint, is that it might have been just a little bit too long. I don’t know which fight scene I would cut out though.

4.5/5

Monsters University (2013)

monsters-university-alternate-opening

Director:

Dan Scanlon

Starring:

Billy Crystal

John Goodman

Steve Buscemi

Plot:

A look at the relationship between Mike and Sulley during their days at Monsters University — when they weren’t necessarily the best of friends.

Review:

I hate prequels. I already know what’s going to happen so why bother?

Having said that, I did not hate this movie. It was actually really cute. Liked the ending and the fact that it didn’t end with them winning the games.

Nathan Fillion plays a great cocky asshole and the monster that was the dean would scare the shit out of me if I ever saw it in real life.

Still wasn’t the best Pixar movie I’ve seen. Better than Brave, but not on par with their best movies.

3/5