Tuesday, November 16, 2010

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)=
-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)= 
*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)=
-Effects(out of 4)= 4
-Character Developement(out of 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

Friday, October 22, 2010

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
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

Thursday, October 14, 2010

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
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

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

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
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- Late Registration

Kanye West opened his career with 'The Collage Dropout', one of the best rap albums to ever come out, the best album in 2004, the best rap album to come out since 'The Eminem Show', and the first album since 'The Slim Shady LP' that was created by a rookie, but seemed like it was created by a legend, in 2006, his second album 'Late Registration' came out, but did it reach the same legendary standards as 'The College Dropout?'

Late Registration is Kanye's sophomore album, so you'd think that it would be better than his rookie album, but unfortunately, comparing to his rookie album, the album had simpler rhymes, was less meaningful, and had more weak tracks, but at the same time, there was a large group of tracks on Late Registration that can compare to some of the tracks on The College Dropout.

Late Registration opened with a track called ''Heard Em' Say' which had too much of a piano interference in the beat, but was still worthy to be a good track, the second track was one of my favorites, it was called 'Touch the Sky' and it was full of lyrical, and rhythmic energy, the third track 'Gold Digger' was the first single of the album, it was good, but it did not live up to the aggressiveness, the lyrical strength, and the rhythmic feeling that was in his last album's first single 'Jesus Walks' which was Kanye at his best.

The album has some tracks that can compare to his last album, as I mentioned, Touch The Sky was one of them, there was also 'Diamonds from Sierra Leone' which was strong lyrically, and rhythmly, another very strong track on the album was the 'Diamonds from Sierra Leone' remix, which featured Jay-Z, who was a strong addition to the song.

The Album's worst tracks include the same errors heard in the last album, but in this album the errors played a bigger role, there were slow tracks, such as 'Drive Slow' and the disappointing 'Hay Momma', there were weak rhythmic tracks such as 'Crack Music' and 'Gone', and there were some weak lyrical tracks as well, such as 'We Major' or 'Roses', there are probably some negative comments on some other tracks as well, but the difference between the tracks I mentioned and the tracks I did not mention is that the tracks I did not mentioned where good, but with some flaws.

Late Registration was a disappointment to me, it had too many flaws and errors to compare to The College Dropout, but at the same time, it was still good enough to be considered as a 'good' album.

Album Rating:-
-Lyrics(out of 8)= 6
-Content(out of 8)= 5
-Flow(out of 8)= 6
-Rhythm (out of 8)= 7
-Beats(out of 8)= 6
Total Rating(out of 40)= 30
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

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Album Review: Kanye West- The Collage Dropout

Rap went through a tough time in the 2004-2008 era, it was dying, and at one point it was almost dead, why? Eminem was on hiatus after releasing the mediocre Encore, Jay-Z and 50 Cent both released music that I wish never came out, and repetitive rappers who have little talent took the spot light, only very few rappers during that era where actually good, rappers like Game, and T.I both gave rap strong enough pushes to keep it going for a short while, and then there is Kanye West, the man who was the reason why rap was still alive during that rough era, but was Kanye good from the beginning? I'd say yes, his first album 'The Collage Dropout' was one of the best albums of the 2000s, the best album to come out in 2004, and the second greatest Kanye album after 2007's 'Graduation'.

Kanye's first album opened with 'We Don't Care' a track which was lyrically genius, and had a beat and rhythm to compliment the lyrics, the second song on the album 'All Falls Down' was strong, in both lyrics, and the beat, but it did not do a excellent job rythemly, the third song 'Spaceship' was passable, the lyrics where good enough, the beat was slow, and the rhythm was also really slow, which gave this song a boring feel.

The album has many highlights, many tracks that where strongly memorable, such as my favorite track on the album, which was a track where Kanye openly explains his faith in the music industry, called 'Jesus Walks' a song that can easily be defined as a masterpiece, another track 'Get em' High' was the second best on the album, which was acceptable lyrically, but the beat and rhythm easily made up for it.

The College Dropout featured a few weak tracks, such as 'Family Business' a slow track lyrically, and rythemly, or 'Last Call' a mixed track, which went as long as twelve minutes, the problem with that is that the song was too long.

The Collage Dropout is definitely an album which surpasses most of the 'talent' in the 2004-2008 era, it was extremely successful in almost every aspect thinkable for music, and overall, it was a strong enough to keep rap alive until Kanye's next album came out.


Album Rating:-

-Lyrics(out of 8)= 8
-Content(out of 8)= 7
-Flow(out of 8)= 7
-Rhythm (out of 8)= 7
-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

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Album Review: Eminem- The Slim Shady EP

We all know that Eminem started his career with Infinite, but when did he start with his 'Slim Shady' career? If someone says 'the Slim Shady LP' then that means that they were wrong, Eminem's Slim Shady character was introduced back in 1997, in an 8 track EP called 'The Slim Shady EP'.

'The Slim Shady EP' was the first appearance of Eminem's Slim Shady character, the EP explains the origin, and style of Slim Shady and it also tells the world that there will be no limits on the intensity of his lyrics.

There was allot of potential on the Slim Shady EP, because it's Eminem's EP, it goes into a much darker direction, and it's something that nobody has ever tried, but did it live up to its potential? I'm gonna say yes.

The Slim Shady EP was generally very different from many hip-hop EPs or albums, it described Slim Shady with heavy details, and finds the most entertaining way to do it, it opens with a one minute skit that describes how Slim Shady was created, the skit was good, but I think that it could have had more detail and creativity, the second track 'Low, Down, Dirty' let's people in the messed up lyrical style of Slim Shady, it also was one of the best songs on the album, 'Just Don't Give a F_ck' was a classic, it tells everyone that he will keep rapping with his intense and violent lyrics, whether they like it or not 'No One is Iller' featured D12, It was another great track about the album, and it explains that there is nobody with Iller lyrics than Slim Shady.

The worst tracks on the album are probably 'If I Had' which was very repetitive and boring, 'Murder, Murder' was okay, it was dark and intense, but at the same time it was slow, another error of this EP is the length, it's only 8 tracks, which make the errors seem bigger than they really are.

The Slim Shady EP is an excellent introduction to Slim Shady, Eminem developed and improved his skills lyrically and creatively in this EP, despite a few minor errors, the music in the Slim Shady EP makes Eminem sound like he was rapping for a long time, it also got Eminem to a level where he can be compared to rappers like Tupac or Dr. Dre.

Album Rating:-

-Lyrics(out of 8)= 7
-Content(out of 8)= 6
-Flow(out of 8)= 7
-Rhythm (out of 8)= 7
-Beats(out of 8)= 6
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

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Movie Review: Batman Begins

It's amazing on how much Hollywood depends on remakes and reboots, especially with movies that came out in the 80s, or movie franchises that reached their lowest, the 80s group include 'Clash of the Titans', 'The Karate Kid', and 'Dinner for Schmucks', as for movie franchises, there will be 'Superman' or 'Spider-Man' reboots, but what popularized remakes? Which movie franchise was bad enough to press a 'restart' button, that answer is easy: Batman, after two embracing movies that included nipple-costumes, bad acting, and weak characters, Warner Bros. decided to restart the entire series, which was better than ending the franchise or making another sequel, because 'restarting' a series can open up new doors, or lead the franchise into more success, and that's what Batman Begins did.

This new Batman movie went to a different direction, it was darker, and more realistic then any other super-hero movies I've ever seen, which lead to allot of great ideas for the movie, some of those ideas include the plot and events of the movie, the plot is about Bruce Wayne becoming Batman, which seems like a simple plot, but it's events actually more confusing then I thought, there are multiple flashback scenes, some during Wayne's childhood about how he developed his fear of bats, and some during the time when Bruce Wayne was in the beginning of his adult years, developing his skills and facing his fears, both of those flashback events, perfectly built the character, the environment around him, and why he became Batman, however, all of those flashback events in the movie lead to some confusion and made the story seem a bit slow.

As I mentioned, Batman Begins was targeted to go to a more realistic direction, which means that the 'Batmobile' does not look like a sports car, the villains are not cartoonish, and there are no predictable action scenes, Batman Begins gave us darker and more realistic villains, action scenes that give me a 'thriller' feeling, and a Batmobile that actually looked protective and something that someone who's saving people would drive, Batman Begins did it all, which gave Batman begins a more positive and likable feel.

Batman Begins is one of the best super-hero movies to come out, having a few minor flaws, Batman Begins has allot to appreciate, and allot to enjoy, it gave me more thrills then most other super-hero movies to come out, and that's one of the many major reasons why Batman Begins is a work of art.


*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
31- 35= 4 Stars
36- 40= 5 Stars

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Movie Review: Grown Ups

Ever since last year, Hollywood was lacking the amount, and quality of comedy movies, I don't know if the problem was with movies like the lukewarm '17 Again', or the slow and boring 'Funny People', but 2009 lacked comedy quality, it also lacked movie quality in general, as for this year, which was a redeeming year for movies in general, still lacked the amount of direct comedy movies, the only comedy movies that is considered 'direct' this year was 'Grown Ups' which stars the 1991 Saturday Night Live cast, but did it live up with its expectations? Did it deserve to be the only direct comedy to come out this summer? And more importantly, was it entertaining enough to be a comedy worth watching?


Grown Ups has a very simple plot, which is okay for only direct comedy movies, which is about five men who where friends as children, gathering together due to their basketball coach's death, and meeting each other's families for the first time.

As I mentioned, Grown Ups had a simple plot, which Is okay for direct comedy movies because people don't want comedies to have any twists in the plot, comedies are made to make people laugh, but allot of comedies try their best to get themselves a simple plot, but then end up messing up throughout the entire movie, but thankfully, that was not the case with Grown Ups, which came strong on most of its expectations.

Grown Ups had allot of jokes, there where funny jokes, and unfunny jokes, but the majority of jokes in the movie where funny, jokes such as Rob Schneider's character's wife commenting on one of the songs played in a restaurant, Kevin James' character's son being breast fed at 48 months(4 years), all the kids saying that they want to get wasted, after Adam Sandler's character 'explains' what wasted means, and allot more great jokes in the movie, as for the unfunny jokes there was Arrow Roulette which was funny the first time, then unfunny the second, Adam Sandler's character telling his Nanny to study was a bit funny, but got repetitive, also Kevin James' character putting the KFC bucket on his head was very unfunny, but other than those few bad jokes there is really nothing to worry about in the movie.

Grown Ups is generally a very strong movie, despite some repetitive and unfunny jokes, the movie is the best comedy I've seen since 2008, it gave me what I wanted in a comedy m, which is just a simple plot with allot of funny jokes, it reached and maybe surpassed all my expectations, and it redeemed the comedy genre after an entire year and a half that had very few, but boring comedies.

*Movie Rating:-

-Acting(out of 6)= 5
-Story(out of 8)= 7
-Plot(out of 8)= 7
-Actions(out of 6)= 5
-Effects(out of 4)= 3
-Character Developement(out of 8)= 6
*Overall 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

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Movie Review: The Expendables


Every once in a while we see a movie which has a huge all-star cast, in 2002 there was 'Catch Me if You Can' which was directed by Spielberg , and stared Decaprio, and Hanks, this year we had 'Grown Ups' a comedy that had the classic Saturday Night Live cast, starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, and Chris Rock, another movie this year had a huge cast, which was 'Clash of the Titans' which starred Sam Worthington, Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, and Liam Nelson, but none of the all-star casted movie had as big of a cast as 'The Expendables', which brought together Sylvester Stallone from the Rocky Movies, Jason Statham from the Crank and Transporter movies, Jet Li from The Forbidden Kingdome and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Mickey Rourke from Sin City and Iron Man 2, Terry Crews from Get Smart and Terminator Salvation, Arnold Shwartzenager from the Terminator movies, and Bruce Willis from the Die Hard movies, but now, they all came together to form 'the Expendables' a movie that could easily be defined as one of the best movies of the year.


The Expendables is a pure action movie about a group of mercenaries that get paid allot of money to kill a Mexican dictator, but in Mexico, Stallone's character 'Barny Ross' meets a Mexican rebel and falls in love with her, so Ross and his group have to go save her, the interesting thing about the story is that there are two storylines that end up having the same climax, which was one of the most appreciated things in the movie.

As I mentioned, the Expendables is a pure action movie, meaning that by easily seeing the trailer or reading the plot summery, the viewer can easily know that this movie is packed with action, speaking of the action, it did not disappoint, there where allot of mind blowing action scenes that where all unique in their own way, each action scene gave us something new, something that made it better than the last, but I have to admit, my favorite action scene was one near the end, the movie's climax, that scene was probably one of the most entertaining action scenes I've seen in movie history.

As for the cast, each member did an excellent job in the movie, which gave excellent character development, and it made the characters allot funner to watch, although I must admit, I was disappointed with the little screen time that Schwarzenegger, Willis, and Rourke had, that lead to weak character development for Willis' and Schwarzenegger's characters, and mild character development for Rourke's character.

The Expendables is generally one of the best action movies to come out, the story was strong, the acting was excellent, and the action scenes where incredible, I think the Expendables could have been a perfect movie if it wasn't for the character development issues, but even with this issue, the Expendables is still one of the best action movies I've ever seen, so with my closing comments I have to say: well done Stallone, for bringing some of the best action movie stars together to make one of the best action movies of all-time

*Movie Rating:-

-Acting(out of 6)= 6
-Story(out of 8)= 7
-Plot(out of 8)= 8
-Actions(out of 6)= 6
-Effects(out of 4)= 4
-Character Developement(out of 8)= 5
*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
31- 35= 4 Stars
36- 40= 5 Stars

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Movie Review: 3:10 To Yuma

2007, a year full of excellent and terrible movies, the excellent movies stand out to be remakes, adoptions, and fresh ideas, the adoptions are 'The Simpsons Movie', 'Transformers' 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' and 'I Am Legend', the fresh idea is 'The Number 23' and the remake is '3:10 to Yuma' which was easily the best movie of the year, and a perfect way to end a year full of successes and struggles.


3:10 to Yuma is a western movie, with a very entertain story about a rancher in desperate need for money, named Dan Evens, but in order to get that money, Dan has to help the law transport a criminal named Ben Wade to a train which will go to a prison in Yuma. My question about the story is if it lived up to what I expected? I'd say it diddent, it surpassed each and every one of them, the story gave us very strong wild-west style action, allot of thrills, many great and strong emotion, and very powerful characters.

Unlike many movies, each and every character has a personality very different from the other, one reason is the cast's performance, I can't think of anyone who did a bad job acting in this movie, but there is still such thing as the best actors in the movie, actors such as Christian Bale or Russell Crowe had some of the best performances anyone has ever seen in a movie, other than that, Logan Lerman proved himself to be an excellent actor, Ben Foster and Dallas Roberts did mind-blowing jobs in the movie, also, the whole cast needs to be thanked for making their characters seem realistic as possible.

The movie had many great thrilling wild-west themed action scenes, throughout most the movie, especially the second half, the action was incredibly realistic, and completely fitted in with the wild-west theme, but I do have to admit that in the first half of the movie the first action scene looked fake, and there where one or two scenes where the action happened randomly.

3:10 to Yuma is easily the best movie of 2007 and one of the best movies of all-time, it fell a bit short on very small arias, but otherwise, 3:10 to Yuma shines out to bring back the Wild West genre, and will forever be known as one of the most appreciated movies of all-time.

*Movie Rating:-

-Acting(out of 6)= 6
-Story(out of 8)= 8
-Plot(out of 8)= 7
-Actions(out of 6)= 5
-Effects(out of 4)= 3
-Character Developement(out of 8)= 8
*Overall Rating(out of 40)= 37
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

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets


In movies, it's usually hard to tell if the second installment will be better than the first, there was Spider-Man 2, Shrek 2, Toy Story 2, , Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and the Dark Knight which stand out as movies that surpassed the quality of the first installment, movies like Iron Man 2 are as good as the first installment, and movies like Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Night in the Museum: Battle of the Smithtoniens, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen all either lacked or did not reach the quality of the first installment, now for book adoptions, we got a second Lord of the Rings and second Narnia which were better than the first, then there is New Mood, which was a lacking movie, lacked the quality of the first Twilight movie, which ironically also lacked quality, anyway this review is about the second Harry Potter movie, 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' and the point that I'm making is based on one question 'does Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets surpass the quality of the Sorcerer's Stone?'


Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets goes deeper into the world of Harry Potter, as well as the life Tom Riddle, AKA Lord Voldemort, but generally speaking, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is about many things, it had many sub plots, such as the new defense against the dark arts teacher, Harry questioning whether he belongs to Gryffindor or Slytherin, prejudice of pureblood wizards, and the main plot, which is about a snake-like monster terrorizing the school, which people be leave, came from the Chamber of Secrets, as a book, it's easy to keep all of those sub-plots work with the main plot, but with movies however, it's very different, it won't work, and it did not work with this one, which is a perfect reason, aside from the movie being slow and easily predictable on why Christopher Columbus should keep things different in the movie.

This Harry Potter movie suffers from the same issues as the last one, such as being too similar to the book, Richard Harris, a childish feeling, but however, in this movie, there are more errors, such as childish humor, a disappointing battle scene between Harry and the Basilisk, a few new, and poorly developed characters, and some repetitivity, but otherwise, the acting and most of the character development is excellent, especially Dobby, a perfectly developed house elf, as for the main three, they continue to develop perfectly as well as most of the cast that where there in the first one.

The Chamber of Secrets is the second straight 'good' potter movie, it has many moments and thrills, but it still does suffer from the first one's mistakes and it also suffered from a few other mistakes as well, and if were expecting Prisoner of Azkaban to be good, then those errors and mistakes need to be fixed.

*Movie Rating:-

-Acting(out of 6)= 4
-Story(out of 8)= 5
-Plot(out of 8)= 6
-Actions(out of 6)= 3
-Effects(out of 4)= 3
-Character Developement(out of 8)= 5
*Overall Rating(out of 40)= 26
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

Monday, September 6, 2010

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

There are many book adoptions coming out, some good, some mixed, and some bad, but the best adoptions, and my favorites, are the Harry Potter movies, each movie was either as good, or an improvement comparing to it's proceeder, each movie brought every new character to life and made them huge movie icons, but when did this series start? Was the first potter movie as good, much worse, or better than all the others? All the answers are here in this review.

The first Harry Potter movie, follows the book closely, but however, it followed it too closely that the movie felt very slow in some parts, as well as very predictable in many other parts, which is a major reason why book adoptions should not follow the books exactly, anyway, this potter movie is about Harry's first year in Hogwarts, the time when he thought when he was 'just Harry', the time when he was discovering that he was famous, and when he discovers that the man who killed his parents, the darkest wizard who ever lived, 'Lord Voldemort' is regaining his power, all these ideas put into development in this movie was excellent, which leads us into the climax, which is the introduction of the excitement of this series, when Harry discovers that Voldemort was near him this whole time, that Voldemort wanted the Sorcerer's stone to regain his full power, this one scene started the entire conflict between Harry and Voldemort.

Most characters where developed perfectly in the movie, as well as strongly portrayed by the cast, especially the big three, which where Harry, Ron, and Herminie, who where all played perfectly by Denial Radcliff, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson, back in there rookie years as actors, but however, there was one poorly developed and poorly played character , Albus Dumbledore, who was the Headmaster of Hogwarts, who was played by Richard Harris, who made Dumbledore look like an old man who was numerous diseases, and in the books, Dumbledore does not have numerous diseases.

The movie did an excellent job in portraying bravery, and emotion, it did a perfect job in showing every emotion, but unfortionetly, and those emotions are covered up by the movie's childish mood.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was an enjoyable movie, with a few errors which were minor and major, such as Richard Harris, who was a major error, the movie being predictable and too similar to the book, which is an error between being minor or major, and the childish mood in the movie, which is a minor error, but otherwise, we see a very strong effort in Character Development, emotion, themes, and plot.


*Movie Rating:-

-Acting(out of 6)= 4
-Story(out of 8)= 6
-Plot(out of 8)= 6
-Actions(out of 6)= 4
-Effects(out of 4)= 3
-Character Developement(out of 8)= 7
*Overall Rating(out of 40)= 30
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

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Movie Review: Catch Me if You Can

Catch Me if You Can, one of the many movies that had an all-star cast and crew, along with 'The Expendables', a movie which I have not seen yet, 'Clash of the Titans' a movie which had an incredible cast, but unfortionetly it did not reach it's expectations, or 'Topic Thunder' a movie which went much higher than I expected , and now there is 'Catch me if You Can' which is directed by the legendary director Steven Spielberg who gave us 'Jaws', 'E.T', 'Gremlins', the 'Indiana Jones' movies, and the first two 'Jurassic Park movies, it stars Leonardo Decaprio, years before he was in 'Shutter Island', or the greatest movie ever seen, better known as 'Inception', and it also stars Tom Hanks, the man who did the voice of Woody in the Story Movies, and stared in the 2009 movie 'Angels and Demons', alone they where big in movies, but together, in a movie which ironically did not include Comedy, Action, or Special Effects, they did an excellent job.


Catch Me if You Can is based on a true story, it's about a man named Frank Abagnale, who made millions of dollars by being an Airline co-pilot, a Doctor, and a Loyar, but it was all successful cons and deceptions, then after that, an FBI agent, named Carl Henratty, but Frank, is always one step ahead of Carl, and Carl has to get ahead of Frank in order to arrest him.

The movie's story is entertaining, it's also smart, and shows the rise and fall of a con artist without putting in any action scenes or jokes, it mainly stays in the point, has many smart ideas , has a very strong and interesting script, and keeps the viewers entertained through most the movie.

The movie takes place in the 60s, and the theme of the movie compliments that very well, unlike many other movies that are in the 60s, or TV shows that take place in the 60s, the actors also complement the theme very well, the acting performances where some of the best I've seen.

But unfortionetly, there where a few minor errors, such as the very beginning of the movie, which I felt had nothing to do with the movie, also there where some scenes that where boring, and the fact that the movie sometimes switched from 1963 to 1969 was a bit annoying.

Catch Me if You Can was generally one of the most appreciated movies yet, it keeps the viewer entertained throughout the movie, but with some admitingly slow scenes, the acting was strong, the story and theme where both fantastic, and generally, Catch me if You Can is one of those movies which I won't mind watching time and time again, something that an all-star cast is made of.

 
*Movie Rating:-

-Acting(out of 6)= 6
-Story(out of 8)= 8
-Plot(out of 8)= 8
-Actions(out of 6)= 4
-Effects(out of 4)= 3
-Character Developement(out of 8)= 7
*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
31- 35= 4 Stars
36- 40= 5 Stars

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Movie Review: Shrek The Third

Usually, when movies have sequels that are as good or even better than the original, there is a third movie, but however, the only third movie to surpass the first two movies was 'Toy Story 3', or 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban', as for other movies, the third installment is always rough, how do I know? Just watch 'Batman Forever', one of the worst movies in the 1990s Batman movie series, or Spider-Man 3, a very disappointing and depressing movie, especially comparing to the first two which where incredible, or Pirates of the Caribbean, which had an excellent first installment, and an even better second one, the third one ended up to be unexpectedly mediocre, and now there is Shrek, which had an excellent first two movies, but now with Shrek the Third, I see the complete opposite of an excellent movie, it had various problems which were easy to tell through the movie.


The third Shrek movie is about Shrek, tying to get the last living air to the Far Far Away Kingdome to become king, because he wants to live in his swamp with Fiona, and because his father in-law 'King Harold' has died, there is also a sup-plot in the movie, about the movie's main villain, Prince Charming who wants to become king of far far away, so he invades it, then at the end of the movie, both plots get together to end as one, which is a good idea, but unfortionetly, the plots to begin with where not very entertaining to begin with.

Like always in the Shrek series, there are always a handful of new characters, this movie brought in Captain Hook, Snow White, Cinderella, Repunzul, Merlin, and Artie, unfortionetly, five out of six of those characters, where so poorly developed, and did not really have a big purpose in the movie, the only character that was worth knowing in this movie was Artie, who is the last living air, and Shrek's replacement as king.

There where also allot of unnecessary things in the movie as well, such as Donkey and Puss switching bodies, that was funny, but unnecessary, also, the running joke of Captain Hook always playing a piano was painfully unnecessary, and another unnecessary thing in the movie, was the amount of time everyone waited for Fiona, her mom, and all her princess friends to escape, Fiona's mom headbuted the wall to break long after they were put in the prison cell, while she could have just done it when the guards left.

There where also some painfully bad jokes, especially surrounding Prince Charming, or Fiona's princess friends, allot of the jokes put in where childish, unfunny, and basically nothing compared to the jokes in the first two Shrek movies.

Thankfully, Donkey and Puss where there to save the movie, despite having a few bad or unnecessary jokes, most of jokes they were included in where very funny, such as Puss and Donkey trying to cope with the other person's body, or one of them forgetting that they switched bodies, most of the body switching jokes where unnecessary, but still funny, there were still some funny jokes which included Shrek or the usual fairytale characters, but that was mostly it for the good things in this movie.

With the fun action scenes in Spider-Man 3, or the smart story, and action scenes in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Shrek the Third is not so different, it has some great jokes, and that was pretty much it, you see, most third installments, or threequels usually have just one or two major positives that saves them from being an entirely bad movie, which makes me hope that 'Iron Man 3' or the third Batman Nolan movie is the same, but I can't help to think that they may turn out mediocre or bad, I know that I should have hope that they would be good, but unfortionetly, Shrek the Third was the last piece of hope I had for a good threequel that was not adapted by a book, or made 11 years after the second movie, so Overall, Shrek the Third was near to being mediocre, but even mediocre is not good enough to make a good threequel for me, or maybe even anyone in that matter.

*Movie Rating:-


-Acting(out of 6)= 4
-Story(out of 8)= 3
-Plot(out of 8)= 3
-Actions(out of 6)= 3
-Effects(out of 4)= 4
-Character Developement(out of 8)= 2
*Overall Rating(out of 40)= 19
2 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

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Movie Review: Shrek 2


By what I've seen in movies, sequels are divided into three groups, the first is when the sequel surpasses it's procedure, the second is when the sequel is about as good as it's procedure, and the third group is when the sequel is not as good as it's procedure, some first group movies include 'Spider-Man 2', 'The Dark Knight', 'Toy Story 2', 'Toy Story 3', 'Terminator 2', and 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest', the second group includes movies like 'Iron Man 2', 'The Mummy Returns', and 'Ice Age: The Meltdown', and of coerce, the 'third group' movies, which seem to be the most common include 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer', 'Men in Black II', 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen', 'Spider-Man 3', 'Night in the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonians', 'Rush Hour 3',and 'Pirates of the Caribbean: at World's End', so as you can see each group contains a group of movies, the third group includes the most though, anyway, where do you think Shrek 2 belongs?


The story follows Shrek and Fiona going to the kingdom of far far away, to get Fiona's parents'' blessing, but Fiona's father, King Harold is not pleased with his daughter marrying an ogre, and wants them to not see each other again, so he gets help from the Fairy God Mother, her son Prince Charming, and a famous ogre killer 'Puss in Boots', in order to get his version of a 'happily ever after'.

Shrek 2 brings in a handful of new characters, such as 'Puss in Boots' who is a famous ogre killer, hired by king Harold to kill Shrek, but later, he joins Shrek and Donkey in their quest to get Fiona's love back, the Fairy God Mother, who is the main villain is introduced in this movie, is a fairy, who gives people there 'happily ever after', and believes that ogres should not live happily ever after, another new character is Prince Charming, who is the second villain in the movie, is the Fairy God Mother's son, who intends to merry Fiona, and another new character is introduced, 'King Harold' who is Fiona's father, and the cause of this whole situation.

The jokes in this movie where mostly hilarious, some better than the jokes in the first Shrek, such as Donkey's version of 'are we there yet', Puss's puppy dogg-ish face, spoofs on many famous cafés and restaurants, the scene when Shrek turns human and three girls become totally interested in him, the scene when Shrek and Fiona return from their honeymoon and Donkey keeps on annoying them, Donkey's Shrek impression, Puss's first appearance with Shrek and Donkey, Prince Charming calling the Big Bad Wolf 'gender confused' and allot more great jokes are found in the movie.

The movie mainly suffers from the same mistakes as the first Shrek, such as the sad scenes with the background music, the ending, and the strong fairytale theme, but otherwise, the Disney Spoofs are very strong, especially the Prince Charming and Fairy God Mother Spoofs, but however they were less than the Disney Spoofs in the first Shrek, and some spoofs may get a bit annoying.

The second Shrek is honestly as good as the first, suffering from the same mistakes, and having the same strong positives, which include a strong story, strong new characters such as Puss in Boots, hilarious jokes, and Disney Spoofs, all of that made Shrek 2 a very easily compared movie to the first Shrek, meaning that it's as good, and that It belongs in the second group of sequels, the group when the sequels are just as good as the originals.

*Movie Rating:-

-Acting(out of 6)= 5
-Story(out of 8)= 7
-Plot(out of 8)= 6
-Actions(out of 6)= 4
-Effects(out of 4)= 4
-Character Developement(out of 8)= 8
*Overall Rating(out of 40)= 34
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