Winter's Bone

2010 - 1/5

So here’s a movie trying to piggy-back on J Law’s current success; even though it came out a couple years before The Hunger Games.

This wasn’t exactly on my “to-see” list. I just needed to watch a movie that I’d be able to stare at blankly for 1.5-2 hours. For whatever reason, I got the feeling that this movie would fit the bill. Because of the mood I was in, that’s pretty much what I got from it.

Its obviously an independent movie because it was made to look gritty, yet artsy at the same time. I think the movie tried to have a dark undertone to it, but there wasn’t a whole lot of substance to it. It was one-note; there weren’t any ups and downs. I think the director played it safe and kept the plot level which meant that nothing exciting actually happened.

I have no problems with the acting. If anything, the acting was the movies strongest suit. There were times in which I thought that the director showed up in some small town in America and started filming the people.

Some things I read on IMDB and thought I’d share:
-It was a total bore with no climax.
-The film just kind of drags on for 100 minutes and then ends. It's not a poorly made film by any means, it just begs the question why anyone would bother to create it in the first place.

Bonus review:
The Poker House : 2008 – 0.4/5

Right from the start, a serious and tense tone had been set through the narration and the musical score. And that’s pretty much where it ended. As the movie went on, the narration became a bit of a bore, and there was something about the music that I didn’t like. It was too sleazy (it sounded like something you’d hear in a porno).

The acting from the younger people was better than the older people. Thankfully, the younger actors (mainly Agnes) had more screen time. I knew Agnes’s mom looked familiar, but I would have never guessed it was Selma Blair! She did an okay job, but again, Jennifer Lawrence and Chloe Grace Moretz were the better actors in this movie.

I felt as if this movie was shorter than it should have been and it felt a bit rushed. I also think that there were a lot of parts that were irrelevant to the plot. From what I get, it was a day-in-the-life kind of movie, but the director added a bunch of characters that were unnecessary.

I knew this movie was trying to pull some sort of sad, angry, worried, sick, ect. emotion out of me, but I didn’t feel a thing; there was just something that didn’t click. It’s not a movie I’d watch again, and I don’t mean because of it’s subject matter.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

2013 - 2.5/5

I had finished listening to the audio book a couple days before I watched the movie. With regards to the book, I thought the first half was on the boring side and drawn out, while the second half was a bit rushed and not as intense as the first book. I didn’t know how it would translate on screen, but I think the movie was better.

The pace of the movie was well done, and I didn’t feel as if it dragged as much as the book. Each time I think about what wasn’t added into the movie from the book, I’d quickly realize that it wasn’t necessary. I think that this time around, compared to the first, the director did a good job adding what was needed and leaving out the unnecessary parts.

There wasn’t a lot of character development for the new characters though, but at the end of the day, the story is about Katniss and Peeta, so it wasn’t a huge factor that was detrimental to the story. It was something that could be easily overlooked.

Overall, it was and wasn’t as good as the first. It wasn’t as good because the first was the plot was something new to me. It was better because I think the director for this made it so it flowed better than the first.

***SPOILER ALERT***
There was one particular part that when put on screen, turned out to be super silly/cheesy: the fog cloud. When Katniss first touched the fog, it made a loud sizzle noise. I rolled my eyes. It was too weird to buy. And the book explained how the water helped (a bit more than the movie showed), so when she went into the water and noticed it helped, it was just awkward!

The Beach

2000 - 4/5

"Never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar, never cease to be polite, and never outstay your welcome" – Richard.

I was a teen when I first saw this movie in 2000. I’ve watched it a couple times since then and every time, I’ve loved it. The opening scene with the voiceover narration draws you in and sets the tone for the rest of the movie. The music choices for the movie were oh-so fitting. I loved it enough that I went and bought the soundtrack, and I still listen to the songs to this day 14 years later.

The thing about DiCaprio is that you can watch any of his several movies and always think that he’s done an amazing job. This statement fully applies to this movie. A young DiCaprio is so good in this film. His looks, his acting, his everything embodies the character of Richard, a young American grasping for the unknown… to find his piece of paradise.

As for the other actors, they fit the bill, but nothing that stood out as much as DiCaprio. With that being said, I do want to mention that I immediately recognized Daffy; it took a couple seconds to clue in that it was Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold from Once Upon A Time.

Overall, I think it was a solid movie with a great plot, good script, good acting and the most amazing cinematography! I’m dying to go to Thailand and the rest of South East Asian more than ever! Hopefully 2015 ;) :D

My TV Show Reviews

Click HERE to see some TV shows that I've reviewed. :)

Movies On Netflix

I thought I'd add a blog post about which movies that are on Netflix that I'd recommend you watch:

(most will have links to my reviews; if it doesn't have a link, that just means that I haven't gotten around to writing one, but you should watch it)

Requiem For A Dream

Black Swan

Moneyball

Drive

Rounders

Bourne Identity

Fast Five

Jack Reacher

Cocaine Cowboys

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Clueless

Bridesmaids

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Zack & Miri Make A Porno

Our Idiot Brother

21 Jump Street

Rio

Non-Stop

2014 - 0/5

I, for whatever reason went into this movie thinking it could actually be good. It could be different. There was hope. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I had high expectations for this movie or anything, I’m just saying that I had the idea in my brain that it wouldn’t be bad. If I had to sum up this movie in one sentence, it would be the following:
When you have to make everyone, and I mean EVERYONE seem suspicious, that just means that the writer wasn’t capable of creating a solid storyline to elude viewers from the actual person without adding several other people that seemed shady.

So obviously that’s my biggest issue with this movie: everyone was made out to be suspicious. Sure you can say that it keeps you guessing right till the end, but what’s the point in thinking its any person he encounters every time he talks to them. He’s overly suspicious of everyone for no good reason. Everyone from the pilot, to copilot, to all the flight attendants, to the majority of the passengers. The only person that wasn’t suspicious was the little girl.

Another thing that really annoyed me about this movie was the Muslim guy, Dr. Fahim Nassir. Since 9/11 Muslim people have been stereotyped like there’s no tomorrow. So in a movie about some sort of threat on a plane, there HAD TO BE a Middle-Eastern-looking fella. There HAD TO BE. Even if he was made to “look good” because he was a doctor and Bill (Liam Neeson) never suspected him as the threat. It just HAD TO BE ADDED. PATHETIC!!!

I may not be the most credible person to say this, but if you’ve seen one of Liam Neesons films, you’ve seen them all. I’ve seen (unfortunately) Taken… and well, that’s actually it. But I don’t need to see any of his other movies to know that he’s a type-casted actor that will always play the washed out someone role who has to save someone’s life.

Here are some things I read on IMDB that I wanted to share:
This flight should have been cancelled.
Raise your seats to the full upright position and grab your barf bags ladies and gentlemen.
Plot as thin as the air at 30,000 feet.

***SPOILER ALERT***

So in the end it just turns out to be some all-American guy that was US military and for some stupid reason (9/11 centered) believes that killing innocent people is the way to rectify his fathers death. And frankly, I don’t even remember why Zack White was in on it (the money I guess?).

One thing I have yet to piece together is that Tom Bowen sends a text to the air marshal that was sitting in economy saying that he knows what he has in his briefcase. At first we think it’s the coke, but then we find out it’s a bomb. Perhaps I missed this part, but why did the air marshal guy have the bomb in the first place?

When Tom Bowen asked for a light before Bill even entered the airport, I knew it was him.

Lastly, “free flights for everyone for a year”… suuuuure, lets make that something to calm everyone down.

American Hustle

2013 - 1/5

I’ve heard good and bad about this movie. I came to the conclusion that I should watch it and see where I fall on that spectrum. The movie had a lot of hype and big name actors, and that’s why I decided to watch it. Looking back, I should have gone with the advice of my 2 close friends who told me not to watch it.

I can’t help but draw some parallels to The Wolf Of Wall Street, with regards to the con-man aspect. This movie was one note. I watched it to the end hoping that there would be ups and downs, but sadly that’s not what I got.

I liked how the director chose to show you a scene then rewind to explain how it got there. I thought that was a good way to keep the viewer interested. However, with that being said, I can’t personally say that I was drawn into the movie as much as I think I should have been. The content wasn’t the most entertaining thing, it couldn’t keep my interest.

There were several parts in which I found myself laughing at what I was watching; and not because it was meant to be funny – it was pathetic. I didn’t know how else to react, so I just laughed. I only realized that this movie is classified as a Comedy after I watched it. Knowing this now, again, I’ll say that I laughed not because it was genuinely funny, but because I didn’t know what to think.

As for the acting, I was told that Jennifer Lawrence was in it for about 15 minutes. Well, she wasn’t a main character, but when she was on screen, she was one of the non-boring characters. Albeit, I don’t think I truly believed her in that role, but she did just fine with it.

Christian Bale was so bland. There was nothing about his performance that left me in awe of his talent. Same goes with Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and pretty much everyone else. The actors were fine, the characters were terrible.

I don’t know why Robert DeNiro keeps accepting roles that would make him look like a tough guy (in this movie, a head mobster). Yes, he was badass back in the day, and I think people are trying to hold onto that nostalgia so badly that he gets casted and only ends up making a 5 minute cameo that really amounts to nothing.

I didn’t care for any of the characters or their outcomes because the plot was going nowhere. I felt as if the director tried to keep adding all these extra characters and extra subplots to the story to keep the movie rolling, but the movie only touched on one point each time and moved on.

Overall, there wasn’t much substance that really made me want to write a review. Granted, I did, but that’s more so because I haven’t really written a decent review in a while. As for the ending, being a con-man movie, it should have had a really good ending, but it turned out to be a so-what ending.

Other movies that David O. Russell directed that I've seen:

Silver Linings Playbook

The Fighter

I Heart Huckabees

Three Kings

Last Vegas

2013 - 1/5

I can’t shrug the feeling that this was made for an older audience. Yes, I’m thinking what you’re thinking. The Hangover, Seniors Edition.

I liked how the movie started with the 4 kids as friends when they were young. It wasn’t that long of a scene, but it established exactly what it needed to. I wouldn’t have minded if it was longer either, but realistically, it didn’t need to be.

I thought the grouping of Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman and Michael Douglas (and the other guy) was great! They looked like people that would be friends so that was an easy pill to swallow. I have no qualms with the acting. Where this movie suffers though, is pretty much everything else.

The script and storyline were as weak as the old men themselves. A few hours after the movie I remembered that I had watched it. It sucks because there was actually a great premise to work with, but the movie had no substance. The dialogue could have been really funny and it could have had some really good one liners, but it fell flat.

I give it a 1 for the actors, young and old. That is all.