Tag: Drama

REVIEW: ‘Captain Phillips’

Oscar season is starting early this year as “Captain Phillips” will more than likely be nominated for an award or two.

“Phillips” is a dramatization that recreates the events of a ship hijacking that took place in Spring 2009. The movie follows the title character, Captain Richard Phillips, who is in command of the United States ship Maersk Alabama. During the time it was sailing near the coast of Africa, the ship was boarded by four armed Somali pirates and was taken over.

During the ordeal, Phillips was eventually taken hostage by the pirates in a lifeboat.

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Gravity review

Director:
Alfonso Cuaron
Cast:
Sandra Bullock
George Clooney
Ed Harris
Rated: PG-13

Like most kids growing up, I thought about the idea of becoming an astronaut, this movie makes me happy I never followed through with that.

“Gravity” takes place in the Earth’s orbit, following the story of a NASA shuttle crew doing repair work. The crew includes an engineer named Ryan (Bullock) and a veteran astronaut named Matt (Clooney).

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Don Jon review

Director:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Cast:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Scarlett Johansson
Julianne Moore
Tony Danza
Rated: R

Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes his directing debut in “Don Jon” and pulls it off just about perfectly.

“Don Jon” is the nickname given to the title character. Jon is a young man living in New Jersey who has developed a routine which he follows every week. Jon goes to the night clubs, sleeps with women, attends church and confessional and more often than not ends up watching porn.

That routine becomes shaken up a bit when he meets and starts a relationship with Barbara (Johansson). Jon starts to believe that Barbara could be the right one for him, yet as time goes on he starts questioning the relationship. When he starts taking a college class at the request of Barbara, he meets a woman named Esther (Moore) who ends up helping him a bit with his relationship situation.

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Rush review

Director Ron Howard, whose previous work includes “Apollo 13” and “Frost/Nixon,” returns with “Rush.” The film is a chronicle of a real life rivalry that developed between Formula 1 racers James Hunt, played by Chris Hemsworth and Niki Lauda played by Daniel Bruhl.

The film shows how both drivers got started in the lower ranks of the motorsport and through time worked to become two of the biggest names in the industry. During the 1970s, both men’s private lives are delved into, revealing what else was really driving them. The movie culminates with the 1976 world championship for Formula 1 in which they both compete for the title.

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Prisoners review

Director:
Denis Villeneuve
Cast:
Hugh Jackman
Jake Gyllenhaal
Viola Davis
Terrence Howard
Paul Dano
Rated: R

Hugh Jackman didn’t need any claws to dish out some pain this time around.

“Prisoners” is a movie that takes the audience on a suspenseful and quite uncomfortable ride. Hugh Jackman plays Keller Dover, a midwestern, middle class father who has brought his family over to a friend’s house to celebrate Thanksgiving.

During the festivities, Keller and his friend Franklin’s (Howard) daughters go outside to play before dinner. However, they end up not coming back.

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The Way Way Back review

Directors:
Nat Faxon
Jim Rash
Cast:
Steve Carell
Toni Collette
Sam Rockwell
Liam James
AnnaSophia Robb
Rated: PG-13

Ah, the good ole’ coming of age genre.

“The Way Way Back” follows 14-year-old Duncan (James), a socially awkward teen who is on a summer vacation trip with his mother Pam (Toni Collette) and Pam’s boyfriend Trent (Carell). Duncan doesn’t exactly get along with Trent very well and keeps to himself for much of the start to his summer at a beach house.

The mundane nature of Duncan’s summer comes to a screeching hult, though, when he meets Owen (Rockwell), a man who works at the local water park. Owen is a carefree, fun loving person working with a staff who invites Duncan to get a job at the Water Park as well. Duncan starts working there and it becomes an escape from his less than stellar life at the beach house.

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White House Down review

Let’s get the most obvious thing out right away. This film cannot be reviewed without mentioning “Olympus Has Fallen,” which also had a story where the White House gets taken over by terrorists. I will come out right now and say that “Olympus Has Fallen” is the better movie, it balances having fun and being entertaining while still being somewhat believable. That being said, “White House Down” isn’t bad.

The film follows a low- ranking security agent named Cale, played by Channing Tatum, who is trying to get into the Secret Service to protect the President. The president in the film, James Sawyer, played by Jamie Foxx, is trying to get legislation passed through that could bring peace to the Middle East.

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After Earth review

Director:
M. Night Shyamalan
Cast:
Jaden Smith
Will Smith
Sophie Okonedo
Zoe Kravitz
Rated: PG-13

Well, let’s be happy Jaden is only acting and not rapping.

“After Earth” begins with a large backstory of what happened to the human race. Years into the future, because of environmental problems, humans are forced to abandon the planet. While relocating to another planet, the surviving humans come in contact with aliens and the forces have a conflict. The brave general Cypher (W. Smith) leads them to victory by fighting off monstrous creatures by ghosting, which completely suppresses one’s fear.

Cypher’s son, Kitai (J. Smith) not only tries to live up to his father’s name and become a ranger himself, he still has bad memories of his sister being killed and not being able to help. Cypher and Kitai eventually go on a mission together on a ship but unfortunately it crash lands on a planet and the rest of the crew is killed. Because Cypher’s leg is injured, Kitai has to travel to another piece of the ship that broke apart during the crash to recover a beacon that can save them, however the planet they have landed on is Earth and it has become very dangerous for humans.

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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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Django Unchained review

Director:
Quentin Tarantino
Cast:
Jamie Foxx
Christoph Waltz
Leonardo DiCaprio
Kerry Washington
Samuel L. Jackson
Rated: R

Leonardo DiCaprio should consider playing a villain more often; he’s quite good at it.

“Django Unchained” follows the title character played by Jamie Foxx. At the beginning of the movie Django is a slave being led to an unknown location. However the caravan that he’s in is stopped by a man named King Schultz (Waltz). Schultz, a bounty hunter, ends up freeing Django and asks him in return to help him identify a trio of criminals for their bounties. Django agrees and the two end up working together as a bounty hunting duo.

As the two work together, Django informs Schultz that he has a wife who is still a slave and aims to get her free. The duo discovers that Django’s wife, Broomhilda (Washington), is owned by a rich plantation owner named Calvin Candie (DiCaprio). The heroes then decide to try and get into the plantation and rescue Django’s wife.

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