Movie Review: The Social Network

Facebook, a social-networking website that can simply be defined as internet-changing, thanks to its uses which include posting pictures, videos, status updates and more, all these uses made contact between friends, family, and even enemies much easier, but how did it all start? And where did the idea come from? The Social Network is a movie that answers those questions and some other questions about Facebook that may be on people's minds, but in order for the answers to be delivered, the Social Network has to be an entertaining and deep movie.

The Social Network is a movie about Facebook, but not only Facebook, it goes into the creation of Facebook and the early legal issues faced with the company, so basically the movie had to be deep and at the same time understandable, and as a result, it was strongly understandable for most of the movie, but I felt that the movie should have been deeper.

The Social Network has a unique style, the entire movie is actually being told by Mark Zuckerburg, Eduardo Savarin, The Winklevoss Brothers, the and loyars, the movie mainly takes place in an office, where they are dealing with two legal issues, one of them with Savarin, and the other with the Winklevoss brother, each main event in the movie starts by one of those people either explaining something, or reading a paper, and to be honest that style of directing is strongly appreciated.

Another thing to love about the movie is the acting, Jessie Isenberg shows us how flexible can he be by portraying Mark Zuckerburg, Andrew Garfield did an excellent job emotionally in the role of Eduardo Savarin, Justin Timberlake was surprisingly good as Sean Parker, and Brenda Song did a strong job as a paranoid girlfriend, by playing Eduardo Savarin's girlfriend, Christy Lee.

The movie could have easily been a once in a lifetime movie, but there were a few shortcomings in the movie, such as the lack of depth in some parts, some parts being strongly exaggerated, the rushed ending, and the slow and boring start.

The Social Network was overall a very strong movie, it had a few shortcomings, but even with the shortcomings, the movie gives a strong amount of details about the rise of Facebook and some of its early legal problems in a very entertaining style.

*Movie Rating:-

-Acting(out of 6)= 6 
-Story(out of 8)= 6
-Plot(out of 8)= 7
-Actions(out of 6)= 4
-Effects(out of 4)= 4
-Character Developement(out of 8)= 8 
*Overall Rating(out of 40)= 35
4 Stars

*Rating System:
0-7= 0 Stars
8-14= 1 Star
15-21= 2 Stars

22-30= 3 Stars

30-35= 4 Stars
36-40= 5 Stars

Movie Review: RED

How many star stunned movies where there this year? There was Grown Ups, which had a legendary comedy cast, but not legendary comedy quality, there was also The Expendables, which was a strong action movie that had a cast to match the quality of the movie, there was Due Date, which was the best comedy of the year, and now there is a new member of this group called RED, which brings together a legendary action cast starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malcovich, and Helen Merrin, but is RED as good as the other star stunned movies this year?

RED is about a retired CIA agent named Frank Moses, who is filed for assassination due to knowing valuable secrets about the CIA, so he brings back his old team in order to survive, and to stop the CIAs plans to assassinate Moses and his team, but in order to do that, they need break into the CIA's top secret headquarters and try to uncover one of the biggest cover-ups in CIA and US government history.

First of all, RED had a story that gave it allot of potential to be a great action movie, but what would potential be if the movie didn't live up to it? The answer is simple, the movie would be in many factors weak if it did not live up to it's potential, and that problem went with RED, it had allot of potential to be a great movie, but it unfortionetly wasn't.

RED is mainly divided to two halfs, the first half, which goes through the first hour of the movie, was very weak, the action was really nothing special, they only scored two or three jokes out of twenty or twenty five jokes, and the story felt like it was going nowhere, but the second half of the movie, which goes through the second hour of the movie, was very entertaining, the action was huge, most of the jokes where pulled off strongly, and the story actually felt like it was building up, therefore making the action seem more reasonable, making the characters develop in a stronger pattern, and it generally lifted the movie into going into a more positive direction.

RED was one of those movies that are commented on doing "too little too late" because the second half of the movie actually felt like it was going somewhere, unlike the first half of the movie which tried too hard to entertain by putting in allot of action that was familiar in allot of movies, and a handful of unfunny jokes, so overall I think the movie would be considered as a passable movie compared to all the movies out there, but compared to the talent that is has on set, it should have done allot better than what it did.

*Movie Rating:-

-Acting(out of 6)= 5

-Story(out of 8)= 4

-Plot(out of 8)= 4

-Actions(out of 6)= 4

-Effects(out of 4)=  4

-Character Developement(out of 8)=  4

*Overall Rating(out of 40)=  25

3 Stars

*Rating System:

0-7= 0 Stars

8-14= 1 Star

15-21= 2 Stars

22-30= 3 Stars

30-35= 4 Stars
36-40= 5 Stars

Movie Review: Due Date

Travel movies, better known as road trip movies, are movies that include people traveling from one destination to another in order to make it to a certain event or reach a certain goal, but are these movies successful? There was The Book of Eli, which was a fairly good movie, a second would be Are We There Yet, a funny, yet stupid movie, there was also Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, a movie that fails to reach almost everything needed to be a good movie, so based on these three examples, it's hard to judge if road trip movies are generally good or bad based, so I think the decision should be left to whether 'Due Date' was a good or bad movie.

Due Date has a fairly simple, but funny plot, it's about an uptight architect named Peter Highman, who gets on the no-fly list of an airline, so he travels with travels with an idiotic actor wannabe named Ethan Chase, in order to get to LA in time to see the birth of his child, but the chances of that happening decreases, due to Ethan getting himself and Peter in trouble.

The story is very entertaining, because it has something that movies did not have for a long time, which is having two characters who are the complete opposite of each other, which resulted to the main characters of this movie getting into allot of hilarious situations, such as Ethan accidentally shooting Peter on the leg, Ethan crashing on the car door which trying to help Peter after shooting him on the leg, Ethan constantly asking Peter questions, and at one point questions about his wife, if there was a possibility that she cheated on him, and fusing that question with going to the Zoo, Ethan getting him and Peter in trouble in the border of Mexico, and allot more hilarious situations.

Other than being very funny, the movie showed allot of emotion towards Peter and Ethan, because while knowing Ethan screws up allot, people feel bad for him, and it's kind of heartwarming that Peter always finds a way to forgive him no matter what he does, also the fact that Ethan is dedicated to his promise that no matter how much of an idiot he is, and no matter how mean Peter is to him, shows that he is a better friend then allot of people in this world.

The movie did have some very minor setbacks, such as the fact that some jokes where repeated two or three times, some predictable jokes, and some jokes that where seen in other movies, but other than those minor twitches there is really nothing to worry about.

Due Date was a movie that I would recommend to anyone, it does have some small errors, but at the same time it has allot of things that are expected in a road trip movie, whether it's a good story, great character and acting performances, allot of great jokes, some heavily driven emotion, a little action, and a few great sights to see, so basically what I'm trying to say is that Due Date has a rare feeling that can make a person laugh and at the same time feel bad about something, which is a very rare feeling to have in a comedy, and the main reason on why this movie is entertaining.

*Movie Rating:-

-Acting(out of 6)= 6
-Story(out of 8)= 7

-Plot(out of 8)= 6

-Actions(out of 6)= 5 

-Effects(out of 4)= 4

-Character Developement(out of 8)= 8 

*Overall Rating(out of 40)= 36

5 Stars

*Rating System:

0-7= 0 Stars

8-14= 1 Star

15-21= 2 Stars

22-30= 3 Stars

30-35= 4 Stars
36-40= 5 Stars

Album Review: Akon- Trouble

Akon, one of the most talented artist of the 21st century, he started off as one of the best, but then suddenly became one of the most overrated after releasing 'Freedom', a repetitive, materialistic, and overall disappointing album, but that's not what this review is about, this review is about Akon's debut album 'Trouble' which was easily one of the most unique and entertaining albums of 2004.

Trouble is Akon's first album, and it's his second best album after 'Konviced', it opens Akon's career in the most unique musical style, by fusing R'n'B, West Coast Hip-Hop, and Reggae and that may be considered as one of the album's major highlights, because when I see an artist start there career with something new and unique, and more importantly deliver, I know that artist will be remembered for a while.

Trouble had some of Akon's best tracks, for example, there was 'Locked Up', which has a strong beat, a great R'n'B feeling, and and a smooth west coast rhythm, another very strong track was 'Gangsta' a track that shows us some of Akon's best lyrical skills, 'Ghetto' and 'Lonely' are two perfect examples of Akon's most emotional tracks, 'When The Time's Right' had a very strong west coast feeling, and 'Journey' was a very powerful fusion between Reggae, Hip-Hop, and R'n'B.

Trouble has very few errors to talk about, the only error I can think of is that Akon sometimes tried too hard to fuse different genres, the only three examples of that error are 'Trouble Nobody', 'Pot of Gold', and 'Show Out' ,which were easily the worst tracks on the album.

Despite having one major error, Trouble was one of the best albums of 2004, and one of the best debut albums of all-time, it had a very different style, and an almost perfect balance between two to three genres, so overall, I think that Trouble is one of those debut albums that starts a career right, and that insures that this artist will be remembered in later generations.

Album Rating:-

-Lyrics(out of 8)= 6

-Content(out of 8)= 6

-Flow(out of 8)= 7

-Rhythm (out of 8)= 7

-Beats(out of 8)= 7

Total Rating(out of 40)= 33

4 Stars

*Rating System:

0- 7= 0 Stars
8- 14= 1 Star
15- 21= 2 Stars
22- 30= 3 Stars
31- 35= 4 Stars
36- 40= 5 Stars

Album Review: Eminem- Infinie

    Back in 1996, Eminem, or in other words 'the greatest rapper who lived' was just an underground rapper, a rapper that was not well known, a rapper who was just trying to jump start his career, a rapper who was triying to make money off his talent, all of those facts about this album lead to a question, which is: did Eminem's first EP manage to jumpstart his career? Based on the music quality, the answer is yes, but based on trying to make money off the album, the answer's no, the album was not advertised well, and it was not sighed to a well known record company, but now, it's easy to find, thanks to his 'The Slim Shad LP' released in 1999.

    Infinite is a 'second level' Eminem album, it goes in the same group with 'Relapse' and 'Eminem Presents: The Re-Up', meaning that it's a good album, but with a few minor flaws, and very few major flaws. Infinite is an EP, that means that it's a short album, it only had 11 tracks, four of those tracks where all in excellent quality, three of those five tracks are uplifting, lyrical, and the best of the album, they are called 'Tonight', 'Never 2 Far', and 'It's Okay', the fourth track goes more into showing off lyrical skills, it's called 'Open Mic', and the fifth is a story telling track called 'Backstabber'.

    As I mentioned, the album has some errors, a few minor, such as the mixed vocal quality, or the weak beats', and one major, such as the length of the album, which caused every error to strongly count in the album, but ironically, even with those errors, there are no bad tracks on the album, the worst tracks are fair, also they are only two tracks, they are 'Jealousy Woes', and '313'.

    Infinite really did well for Eminem, despite a few errors, it gave us the origin of his lyrical skill, it also gave us the origin of his rhythm, and how he started to match the rhythm with his lyrics, overall, Infinite is nowhere near 'classic' status, but it's certainly a historical album.

Album Rating:-

-Lyrics(out of 8)= 7

-Content(out of 8)= 6

-Flow(out of 8)= 5

-Rhythm (out of 8)= 5

-Beats(out of 8)= 6

Total Rating(out of 40)= 29

3 Stars

*Rating System:

0- 7= 0 Stars

8- 14= 1 Star

15- 21= 2 Stars

22- 30= 3 Stars
31- 35= 4 Stars
36- 40= 5 Stars

Movie Review: Jonah Hex

-There are very few movies that are shorter than an hour and a half, 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' lasted an hour and twenty minutes, 'Jurassic Park III' was an hour and twenty five minutes, 'The Simpsons Movie' was an hour and twenty minutes, and all the Shrek movies, were each one lasted for an hour and twenty minutes, but what did all these movies have in common? The answer is simple, they were all short, and they all lacked a certain amount of detail, movies like 'The Simpsons Movie' or the first two Shrek movies where very entertaining, but lacked some detail, movies like 'Jurassic Park III' or 'Shrek Forever After' where both good enough movies, but they both lacked detail, and plot development, and movies like 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' and 'Shrek The Third' lacked character development, plot, detail, and explanations, but what about 'Jonah Hex' a movie that just lasted for an hour and ten minutes, what was it missing? and What were the good and bad elements of the movie?

-Jonah Hex is a movie that takes place in the wild west, it has a very strong revenge type theme that strongly glamorizes revenge, which is one error in the movie, another error was the very weak and simple plot, about a former US solder named Jonah Hex hunting down Quinton Turnbul, a man who killed Hex's family after the civil war.

-Other than the plot and theme, Jonah Hex suffers from a list full of errors and problems ,a few where due to the extremely short length of the movie, such as the lack of details and explanations, or the lack of characterization, there where also some script related errors in the movie, one perfect example was during a scene where Jonah Hex is in a bar and someone with a knife asks him "what happened to your face" then Hex shoots him on the chest and says "cut myself shaving, what happened to yours?", another obvious error in the movie was the awful acting skills of Megan Fox, who had a strongly negative effect on the movie's quality, also there was one error in the movie which made it seem unrealistic, which included some of the action scenes having weapons that where too modern for the wild west era.

- Despite the many errors of the movie, Jonah Hex did have some light, such as the acting performance of Josh Brawlin, which was one of two reasons why the movie wasn't a complete failure; the second reason was because of some good action scenes early in the movie.

-Basically the only ups in the movie where Josh Brawlin's performance and some of the action, but other than that, Jonah Hex was a perfect example of a movie that can easily be defined as a joke, it had a handful of scripting errors, the action was very unrealistic, it was too short to even count as a full-length movie, and to make it worse, Megan Fox was part of the cast, so as you can see here, Jonah Hex is the perfect candidate for the worst movie of 2010 and will be remembered as one of the worst movies of all-time.
 
*Movie Rating:-

-Acting(out of 6)= 2
-Story(out of 8)= 0
-Plot(out of 8)= 0
-Actions(out of 6)= 1
-Effects(out of 4)= 2
-Character Developement(out of 8)= 1
*Overall Rating(out of 40)= 6
0 Stars



*Rating System:
0- 7= 0 Stars
8- 14= 1 Star
15- 21= 2 Stars
22- 30= 3 Stars
31- 35= 4 Stars
36- 40= 5 Stars

Album Review: Kanye West- Graduation

In the 2004-2007 hip-hop era, Kanye West had some of the best moments of his career, in 2004 he recorded 'The College Dropout', one of the best hip-hop albums of the 2000s, in the same year he recorded his best track 'Jesus Walks', which was part of the album, in 2005 he released 'Late Registration' which was a good album, but quiet comparing to his first album, and in 2007 he recorded his best album 'Graduation' which is the album that I will be reviewing right now.


'Graduation' is Kanye's last and shortest album on his 'Dropout Bear' trilogy, it featured only 15 tracks, but still managed to bring Kanye to the next level, opening with 'Good Morning' which fell short from being Kanye's best track but was still up there as one of his best, the second track 'Champion' was probably the weakest track on the album, which was weak in pretty much every factor except for the rhythm, the third track 'Stronger' was the best track on the album, it's no 'Jesus Walks' but it still manages to strongly entertain.

The best tracks where as I mentioned 'Stronger' and 'Good Morning' but there was still a handful of tracks that are not far behind, such as 'Big Brother', a heartwarming Jay-Z tribute, 'Homecoming' were had Kanye raps about going back to Chicago, 'Flashing Lights' was Kanye's take on fame, 'Good Life' was Kanye bragging about how good his life is, but at the same time being sarcastic about some points, and 'The Glory' had Kanye rapping about his rise to fame.

The album has a few errors, there were some weak tracks like 'Champion', and 'I Wonder' but another error in the album was the lack of guest appearances, despite having Lil Wayne, T-Pain, and Young Jeezy, the album was still missing Jay-Z and a few other artists who were in Kanye's other albums.

Graduation was Kanye's best album, it had the 'Collage Dropout' lyrical skills, and the 'Late Registration' rhythmic feeling, both together to create an album which has a perfect balance between lyrics and rhythm, despite a few minor shortcomings, Graduation could easily count as Kanye's best album.



*Album Rating:-

-Lyrics(out of 8)= 8
-Content(out of 8)= 7
-Flow(out of 8)= 6
-Rhythm (out of 8)= 8
-Beats(out of 8)= 7
Total Rating(out of 40)= 36
5 Stars

*Rating System:
0- 7= 0 Stars
8- 14= 1 Star
15- 21= 2 Stars
22- 30= 3 Stars
31- 35= 4 Stars
36- 40= 5 Stars