The Interview

2014 - 1.9/5

This was ridiculous funny. I can't say this was Seth Rogen's best work; Superbad and Pineapple Express were instant classics. But this one, not one I'd watch again. I saw it once, I enjoyed it once, and that's what it'll remain as.

Franco was funny as usual. His facial expressions, how dumb he was, and everything about him and the character was entertaining. He played the role of Skylark very well.

Can't say I liked the romance between Rogen and the chick.

Tracks

2013 - _/5

There wasn't anything wrong with this movie...per say; but there wasn't anything good with this movie either. It was a bit of a bore. It never really amounted to anything. You're not going to gain anything from watching this movie, but you will lose almost 2 hours of your life.

Double Jeopardy

1999 - 3.8/5

Obviously this movie isn’t 100% accurate, but it came from Hollywood, so what else should we expect… aside from a great movie. When this movie ended, I checked to see how long it was. I did that because the story was so interesting that time just flew by. This isn’t a movie that you’re going to be looking at your watch wondering when it’ll end, like myself, you’ll look at your watch when its done and realize that an hour and 40 minutes have gone by.

Before Libby (Ashley Judd) goes to prison, enough time was spent so the audience buys the relationship between Libby and her husband. Once the “murder” occurs, you sense something fishy happened. I thought Judd did a fantastic job; you felt for her and your dumbfounded that she gets sentenced for something she didn’t do, and you’re on her side and you want her to find, and to be reunited with her son.

It takes 30 minutes before you get to see Tommy Lee Jones (as Travis), but he is worth the wait. This guy was perfect as Libby’s parole officer. The entire time I was rooting for Libby, but it was entertaining seeing that Travis was always right on her heels; he was always one very close step behind.

This movie had great flow, it kept my attention the entire time, it had great acting, and I loved seeing bits of British Columbia. I’d highly recommend this to people if they haven’t already seen it.

Selma

2014 - ?/5

The opportunity came up for me to see this for $7 and 3x the Scene points, so I figured, why not. Typically, a movie like this wouldn't be my cup of tea, so we'll see how this goes.

I knew going into this that it wouldn't be a bad movie, so it could have either been okay or great. It turned out to be just okay. Like I said before, this genre isn't my cup of tea; so I didn't find it incredibly entertaining, but it wasn't a complete bore either.

The Da Vinci Code

2006 - 3.5/5

This was a really good movie. It kept you at the pace of the characters and it had enough mystery to keep you entertained throughout the entire movie. I read the book before I saw the first time it came out, and I followed the movie easily and also liked that I had a bit more information than people who just saw the movie. I didn't like how some of the things were changed from the book when it was made into a movie; I think they could have kept things exactly as they were in the movie and it would have been just as entertaining (if not more for those who read the book).

Brick Mansions

2014 - 0/5

I felt like watching a movie that I could tune out and be entertained by what was on screen at that moment; something to keep my eyes occupied, but not my brain. This movie was just laughable.

The only good things: Paul Walker and parkour.

This movie was like a very distant cousin of the Fast & Furious franchise; a good cop goes bad for a good cause.

It’s as if this was a high school project made to raise awareness about poverty and government corruption.

If only I could tell you all the stereotypes in it.
If only I could tell you how incredibly cheesy it was.
If only I could have taken screenshots of peoples faces.
If only I typed out all the ridiculous things that were said.

Just wanted to mention some of the ridiculousness:
-A tough guy that could take a beating, but needs to rub his wrists after handcuffs are taken off.
-One chick was pretty much wearing a school girl outfit.
-Its raining bullets, but nobody gets hit.
-A Hawaiian bank account (I shit you not!).
-Tremaine having and not having an accent.
-A guy actually said “hee-ya”.
-A guy actually had his elbow way above his head when he was holding a shotgun.

Wild

2014 - 1.5/5

I told my friend what the movie was about and this is what was said right after:
Friend: so it's a movie about a girl who goes for a walk.
Me: yes, based on a shitty book.

What a great way to sell it!

I had always wanted to read the book, and I finally got around to it because I wanted to read it before I saw the movie. The book was terrible. I hated it. At the end of my review for this book, I wrote that I’m really hoping that they change the majority of things when it’s made for the screen. Now that I’ve said that, I don’t want to write a comparison review between the book and the movie. However, the only thing I will say is that it was kind of odd that the step-father and her own sister were left out of the movie.

Because this movie has had a limited release, I’ll add a blurb about the plot:
Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) decided to hike 1000+ kilometers of the Pacific Coast Trail (from the Mexican boarder to the Canadian boarder through California, Oregon and Washington) alone, as a novice, on a whim because her mother had passed away and her marriage was ruined (due to her reckless behaviour). Her decision to go on this hike was rash, and I’m guessing it was for redemption or to get away from all her problems. As the title of the book says, I guess she needed to find herself.

Basically her hike served as a means of telling her story about the issues that came up that lead to her going on this hike in the first place. Her struggle during the hike (emotionally and physically) was lost, which was a shame because there was potential there to make it a gripping movie.

Lets start with the good…
The scenery was beautiful. The cinematography was good, but nothing to boast about.

This movie was pretty much all-things-Reese-Witherspoon. I think she did a good job as Cheryl. She talked the talk (not that the dialogue was great or anything), she walked the walk (pun intended), but I don’t think she really looked the look. Does she deserve an Academy Award? I wouldn’t say so. Does she deserve to be nominated? Maybe, I haven’t really seen a whole lot of other movies this year with female leads.

As for the character herself, she wasn’t likeable at all. She was a bitch to her mother and she ruined her relationship with her husband. I felt no connection to Cheryl; which is fine because obviously I haven’t been through what she’s been through, but that’s not the point. The way I see it, movies like this are supposed to be touching and inspiring. The first thing that comes to mind is The Impossible (2012), the true story about the family that was in Thailand when the tsunami hit. Thankfully, I’ve never been through that, but that was a touching and inspiring movie and I was actually invested in the wellbeing of the family.

When it comes to the bad, there aren’t specifics I can rag on, but that’s only because this movie was very one-note to begin with. It seems like it should be a movie with lots of highs and lows, but it flat-lined. I thought it had some good comedic timing, but to me, it wasn’t as funny as it seemed to be to others in the theatre. It did feel long when it was nearing the end as well. Overall, I didn’t love it, but much to my surprise, I didn’t hate it either.