Tag: cinema

Pain and Gain review

Director:
Michael Bay
Cast:
Mark Wahlberg
Dwayne Johnson
Anthony Mackie
Tony Shalhoub
Ed Harris
Rated: R

This is certainly a step up for Director Michael Bay from “Transformers.”

“Pain and Gain” follows Daniel Lugo, played by Mark Wahlberg. Lugo is a steroid-using muscle trainer at a gym who, after attending a convention which tells the audience to be a “doer,” decides to do something to make himself get all the wealth and glory that he thinks he deserves.

Lugo eventually gets fellow trainer Adrian, played by Anthony Mackie, and ex-prisoner- turned-devout-Christian Paul Doyle, played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, to assist him in a rather crazy plan. The three execute a scheme to abduct a wealthy man named Victor Kershaw, played by Tony Shalhoub, who goes to the gym where they work. The three end up pulling off the kidnapping, however things don’t go so well from there as the three are just plain stupid.

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Oblivion review

Director:
Joseph Kosinski
Cast:
Tom Cruise
Morgan Freeman
Olga Kurylenko
Andrea Riseborough
Rated: PG-13

Tom Cruise’s latest blockbuster is about a simple guy named Jack. OK, there’s more too it.

Jack is a man working as part of a two person crew that is on Earth decades into the future.

The film informs that many years ago, the Earth came under attack and that while humanity ultimately prevailed, the population still had to leave the planet because of the war’s destruction. Jack works with his partner, Victoria (Riseborough), to repair drones and do mop up work as well as collect fuel for humanity’s new home.

One day, though, Jack finds a survivor named Julia (Kurylenko) from a space ship crash, this leads to questions of why a ship would crash land now. More mysteries rise when both Jack and Julia are captured by a group of other humans led by a man named Beech (Freeman) who informs Jack that the life he’s been living maybe something else entirely.

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Evil Dead review

“Evil Dead,” is the remake of the 1981 film “The Evil Dead,” that was originally directed by Sam Raimi. The film follows the characters Mia, played by Jane Levy, and David, played by Shiloh Fernandez, as well as three of their friends. The five go to a cabin in the middle of the woods to help Mia break a drug addiction. There, they discover an old book, which is the Book of the Dead from the original series, yet, is never referred to by its actual name here.

After one of the characters reads a few of the passages, an evil demon is released who possesses Mia, and the rest of the characters are put through a gruesome series of events.

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Olympus Has Fallen review

Director:
Antoine Fuqua
Cast:
Gerard Butler
Aaron Eckhart
Dylan McDermott
Morgan Freeman
Rated: R

This movie is like a patriotic overload.

“Olympus Has Fallen” follows the story of a United States Secret Service named Mike Banning (Butler), who, after a terrible accident is demoted to a guard at the treasury department. Meanwhile, an attack is set in motion by a group of terrorists who capture the president, played by Eckhart, and take over the building creating a hostage situation.

Because the president and much of the cabinet is taken hostage, the speaker of the house, played by Morgan Freeman becomes acting president and the only one who manages to get inside to fight back is Banning.

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The Incredible Burt Wonderstone review

“The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” is a film that has a lot of comedic heavy hitters and yet it all goes wrong so fast.

The film follows the story of the title character played by Steve Carell. Burt Wonderstone is a Las Vegas magician who puts on a show with his friend Anton Marvelton, played by Steve Buscemi, and finds a great deal of success. For a good number of years, things go well for Burt, however as time goes on people grow tired of the show and the theater becomes more and more empty.

Meanwhile, a new magician named Steve Gray, played by Jim Carrey, comes onto the scene and does more extreme tricks and daring stunts. The film sets its plot around Wonderstone having to get his career back on track and outdo Steve Gray.

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Jack the Giant Slayer review

Director:
Bryan Singer
Cast:
Nicholas Hoult
Eleanor Tomlinson
Ewan McGregor
Stanley Tucci
Ian McShane
Rated: PG-13

“Jack the Giant Slayer” is another retelling of classic fairytales, a genre which has picked up steam the last few years.

In this adaption, Jack (Hoult) ends up getting some beans through a series of events.

What’s different in this version is that an evil aid to the King, Roderick (Tucci), wants the beans because they lead to the beanstalk which has access to the giant’s kingdom in the sky. Roderick has a plan to use the giants to take over the kingdom, however, before he can thrust his plan in to motion, Jack gets a hold of the beans.

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A Good Day to Die Hard review

Director:
John Moore
Cast:
Bruce Willis
Jai Courtney
Sebastian Koch
Yuliya Snigir
Radivoje Bukvic
Rated: R

I don’t know if I want to hear Yippee Kay Ye any more.

“A Good Day to Die Hard” takes place some unknown amount of time after the fourth film. In this one, John McClane (Willis) finds out that his son Jack (Courtney) is in trouble in Russia. John decides to travel over to find out if he can somehow help his son in any way. What he finds out is that his son is actually a CIA agent working a major case.

Through a wild course of events, John becomes involved with the operation his son is working on and the two have to work together to bring down a large organization of terrorists.

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January 2013 Mini-Reviews

Texas Chainsaw 3D – 1 out of 5
This movie to me, basically ruins the lore of the original film from 1974. They give the Sawyer family, the psychopaths all of this backstory and history that just doesn’t blend with what the original film did. The only reason I didn’t give this a 0.5 is because at the very least they tried something a little different, the problem is that what they tried was just bad.

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Warm Bodies review

Director:
Jonathan Levine
Cast:
Nicholas Hoult
Teresa Palmer
Analeigh Tipton
Rob Corddry
Rated: PG-13

“Warm Bodies” is your basic modern day re-telling of “Romeo and Juliet,” except in this case, Romeo happens to be a zombie.

The film follows the character “R,” played by Nicholas Hoult who starred in the 2011 film “X-Men First Class.” R is a zombie who knows his name started with the letter “r” but can’t remember anything after that. On the outside, R is just an average zombie slumping around an airport in an post-apocalyptic future. However, on the inside R is able to give a monologue of what’s going on and provides the movie a narration.

Eventually, through a chance encounter, R meets a survivalist named Julie, played by Teresa Palmer. She is with a group looking for supplies. This meeting happens to be love at first sight for R as the encounter restarts his heart. Because of this, R saves Julie and Julie begins to learn that R is slowly coming back to life.

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Top 10 Best Movies of 2012

1. Argo
It was difficult putting this above “Lincoln,” however I think that “Argo” really was ahead in a few ways. It’s intense, it’s funny, it’s interesting and it is very well put together by director Ben Affleck. “Argo” was a really nice follow up to “The Town” and shows that Affleck can take on different sorts of films and pull them off. I was really impressed with the acting, the portrayal of Hollywood and especially the exciting climax.

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