Fair Game

If you LOVE politics then this is a good movie to see.

If you HATE politics, then you will not like this movie.

Chances are you have never heard of this movie.  It had a limited release a few weeks ago and was released to most theaters this past weekend.  The movie is “inspired” by true events.  Isn’t every movie “inspired” by true events?  Please refer to the list below as I prove my point.

Inception-we all dream. “Inspired by true events”

Harry Potter-we all know a kid named Harry. “Inspired by true events”

Batman-bats exist. man exist. “Inspired by true events”

I think if you claim that a movie is “inspired by true events”, then you should have to at least try to follow some truth.  I just saw the movie Unstoppable.  I went home and read the “true” story.  It was a completely different story.  The only thing in common was the train.

Anyway, back to Fair Game.  This movie is about Valerie Plame, a CIA agent who is exposed as being a spy. Who exposes her you might ask? THE GOVERNMENT! Oh the drama! Oh the conspiracy! Bush lied! Like we haven’t heard that before.

With that being said, it is a really interesting movie.  This is a hard-core liberal movie, but I really enjoyed it.  Sure all the facts are not true, but some of it is true and yeah, Valerie Plame got put in a tough position she didn’t deserve.

Valerie Plame is palyed by Naomi Watts.  You know, The Ring actress, King Kong actress.  She is an awesome actress.  She played this role extremely well.  Sean Penn plays her husband, Joe Wilson. He is a great actor also.  2 great actors+Government Conspiracy=Good Movie.

I loved this movie.  I eat up politics. (Can you even say that….eat up politics???)  The more politics the better.  Throw in a little conspiracy here and there and I am there!  The movie felt long at times, but all in all was a pretty interesting movie.   It got me asking some questions.  Why did we go to Iraq? How did the intelligence get so messed up in the CIA?

Go see the movie. But maybe wait till the dollars…I don’t think it will be in the normal theaters for long.

The Next Three Days

This movie came out the same day as Harry Potter.  I don’t know why anyone would release a movie the same weekend as the juggernaut Harry Potter, but they did.  This movie will fail at the box office, living in the shadow of Harry Potter. It’s a shame too because this was a pretty decent movie. 

The movie is about a lady/wife/mother who is convicted of murdering her boss and is sentenced to life in prison.  However, her husband believe she is wrongly convicted and does everything he can to break her out of prison. 

It is a pretty cool movie, but I will never watch it again.   It had a really interesting story but took a little while to develop.  However, it definitely keeps your attention the entire way through.  The movie is good because you are constantly asking yourself different questions the entire movie.

I wish the writers would have called me though because I would have made the ending ten times better.

Give me a call and I’ll tell you how it SHOULD have ended.

Good movie.  Short review.  It’s a fun movie and definitely won’t disappoint.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Wow. People. Wow.

I have grown up with good ol’ Harry Potter. I remember being a boy and loving the books. I remember going to the midnight book releases and getting as much Harry Potter as I could get.   So call me terrible, but I remember having a huge trial of faith as I was preparing to leave for my mission.  The 7^th book was going to come out two months after my “date of availability to serve.”  I remember filling in the blank spot, marking my date of availability, praying so hard that I would leave after the 7th book came out.  I was blessed and left a week after the release.  I loved the 7^th book.  So now on to the movie….

Dark.  This movie is the darkest movie of them all.  It is amazing that you can go from happy Hogwarts in book one, to death, death, death in book/movie seven.  I think this is why I loved the movie so much.  I get sick of the happy endings, the happy times, the happy music.  Life isn’t always happy. Especially as a wizard.  I loved how dark it was and loved that it was so terribly sad.  So if you don’t like sad movies, just stay home.(ha who am I kidding? Like this blog post is going to keep you from seeing Harry Potter. Right.)

The trailers are quite deceiving.  Many of the movie trailers that you have seen are not actually in the movie.  Don’t expect much action in this movie.  There is enough action to move the plot along, but you could tell that the director is saving the big action scenes for the end.  If you have read the books, you know how much action comes at the end.  The next movie is going to be insane! This movie set up the story perfectly to give us the conclusion of a lifetime come next summer! Mark your calendars!

I couldn’t help but saying to myself that this movie is not really a “kid” movie.  There is a lot of death.  I don’t think kids will really like it.  That’s just my opinion though.   There was a huge controversy before this movie came out when people heard there was going to be a couple nude scenes, and for all your guys’ sake I will set the record straight.  There is one “nude” scene, if you can even call it that.   It’s all CGI and it’s really dark and you don’t see anything.  If you watched Avatar where there were hundreds of naked blue people the whole time, you can handle this.  If Avatar offended you , then yeah you might be squirmy for the three second scene.  It’s your call.

All in all, I came out of this movie just in awe.  I love Harry Potter.  I wish Harry Potter were a real person.  I think we’d be friends.  He flies on broomsticks, and I use brooms to clean bathrooms.  I think we have a lot in common and could make great buds.  I got the chills multiple times during the movie.   The end is near people.  What a great way to start such a monumental ending of the greatest series of books ever written.  Harry Potter has changed the world.  Enjoy it guys! The end is near!!!!!

**PS…if you are not at the midnight showing right now, it may be wise to brush up on your Harry Potter knowledge.   This movie may be a little hard to follow if you are not familiar with the seventh book and it’s predecessors.  It starts where the story left off. They make no attempt to explain what’s going on or what has gone on in previous books.

UNSTOPPABLE

Unstoppable is probably the perfect word to describe my movie going experience this week.  On Wednesday I saw Megamind. Thursday I saw Inception (4^th time). Friday I saw Skyline. Saturday I saw Unstoppable.  I have a prediction of what I will see Sunday too…..my credit card bill through the roof!  I see too many movies.  I do it for you people. I do it for you.

I thought the trailer for this movie was pretty weak.  I was not really interested in seeing some lame two-hour movie about a runaway train.  The movie boasted big name actor Denzel Washington and I thought he would be the only saving grace to a weak storyline and a weak movie.  I understand the movie was inspired by true events, but I don’t remember hearing much about the true story, so it must not have been that big of a story.  I had little desire to see it, until initial reviews started popping up saying that it was incredible.

AND IT WAS!

Unstoppable was amazing.  This movie was one of the most well done movies of the year.  My heart was beating so fast the entire time.   I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing on the screen as I sat watching the story unfold.  The whole movie really does take place on a train, but it is incredible to me that such a simple plot could be so engaging.  I was not disappointed. Go see it guys, go see it.

Denzel Washington and Chris Pine are amazing in this movie.  They are such good actors and really delivered in this film.   Their story is indeed inspiring; however if you really want this movie ruined for you, look up the true story after you see Unstoppable.  You will be disappointed to find out that there was a lot of drama that was added in order to make the film a hit.  It was well worth embellishing the story though.  I was thoroughly pleased. 

If you like action movies this will not disappoint you.  It is a face-paced movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time. 

Unstoppable is definitely worth seeing this holiday season.  Go! Go! Go!

SKYLINE

Oh brother. Why do they make these kinds of movies? Why?

I trust the filmmaking industry.  I think that it is safe to say that the majority of the time, movies are decently made.  Not every movie is great, but many are just fine.  Then there are movies like The Last Airbender.  I seriously scratched my head and thought to myself, “how”? How can a movie that is so blatantly terrible hit the big screen?  Well my people, it has happened again. A failure has hit the big screen and is attempting to steal your money. Lucky for you, I got your back.

If you want to know what Skyline is about, go look it up on Wikipedia.  I don’t want to write a summary of the movie because it doesn’t deserve a summary.  There are only three things that describe this movie: aliens, death, lame.

I am a fan of alien movies.  I love Signs. Cloverfield is one of my favorite movies.  Skyline looked so intriguing to me.  I heard it was a low budget film, but the previews always caught my eye and I looked forward to November 12 for a long time.  The movie was not screened for critics.  Usually this is a bad sign, but the director said he didn’t want to screen it for critics because he wanted to keep the script a secret.  Yeah I’d want to keep this script a secret too.  It was such a weak script that they should have locked it away and called it a failure before production.

There are three things that carry a movie: a script, actors, and special effects.  I give Skyline a failure in all three areas.  The script was so poorly written.  Everything the characters said was agonizing to listen too.  There was nothing funny, nothing scary, nothing entertaining to listen too.  The acting was also terrible.  This movie was filled with no name actors.  They are “no name” actors for a reason.  They don’t even deserve a name.  They were not passionate about their roles.  There was no hero of the movie and I didn’t even care when a character got eaten every now and then.  When a character got eaten I secretly cheered because it was one less person I had to listen too.  The last failure was the special effects.  The aliens were ok looking, but nothing really original or special about them.  Lame. Lame. Lame.

I will give this movie ONE compliment. The ending.  Cool, sad, not happy ending.  This is not being sarcastic either.  I love sad endings and Skyline delivered on at least an original ending.  People! Save your money or go spend it on something better(like toilet paper).

Keep reading my blog guys! Reviews will still be comin! Spread the word! Help me become the person you know who makes it big and becomes famous!

MEGAMIND

It says a lot when you cry during a movie.  I can’t remember the last time I cried during a movie.  Actually, yes, I can.  I cried while watching Megamind.  It’s not like I was bawling or anything, but I was laughing so hard that tears began falling from my face. This is NOT what I was expecting going into this movie.  I was expecting a lame, animated space movie with big name actors that were hired for the sole purpose to sell this movie. Boy was I wrong.

Megamind was definitely worth the money.  I didn’t find the whole movie funny, but it had enough funny parts to keep my interest.  There is one part in the movie where I was really just embarrassed that I was in a theater because I was laughing like a little child (a strong, manly, good-looking child.) I have to give credit where credit is due though.  Once again, Justin Bieber gets all the credit for making this movie the bomb shizzle.  Let me explain.  I walked into the movie with a poor attitude.  I went for the sole purpose of writing a blog post in my quest for fame. As the previews began, a little boy popped up on the screen. Yes. You guessed it.  There is a Justin Bieber movie coming out. And thank the heavens, it will be in 3D.  I was laughing so hard.  What has this world come to?  Justin Bieber:The Movie.  I was laughing so hard that my mood lightened up in order to prepare me for the amazingness of Megamind. 

Megamind was so cleverly written.  Do not judge this movie by its trailer.  It is way more than just a simple movie between a good superhero and a villain.  I’m not going to give the plot away, but I promise you will not be disappointed.  It’s hard to comment on the “acting” of Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Tina Fey because they weren’t actually in the movie.  I guess I can say that they did a good job “voicing” though.   Will Ferrell was absolutely hilarious and Tina Fey was pretty funny also.

I just want to give some props to the writers.  They are the true talent behind this film.  When you can get a 22 year old to cry because he is laughing so hard, you deserve a standing ovation.  So imagine me giving a standing ovation to the writers.  They don’t give enough credit. 

It’s rare that a movie comes out that has mass appeal.  A movie is either for “grown-ups” or for “children”.  I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure this movie will please most audiences.  What a great way to start of the Fall season of movies.  Go see this movie people.  It’s a good one.

P.S. I didn’t see it in 3D. It makes me sick.

(Hey JB….I’m givin you a standing ovation too.)