Review-Kong:Skull Island

Kong: Skull Island is the latest movie featuring the legendary character King Kong. The movie takes place in 1973 right after the withdrawal from Vietnam.  Bill Randa (John Goodman) arranges a team of scientists and soldiers to travel to a mysterious island for research. The leader of the military escort is Preston Packard (Samuel L Jackson), a lifetime soldier that welcomes another tour of duty. Randa also hired tracker James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) and reporter Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) to lend their expertise on the journey. Once arriving to the island, they soon realize danger is all around them. This movie is amazing and a great addition to the monster genre. There are so many different layers that this movie brings. The comparison between Vietnam and Skull Island is very noticeable.  Also, the theme of powerful men blindly leading other people into war runs throughout the film. Packard's character has a Captain Ahab/Moby Dick relationship to Kong and underscores an inability to find peace. Jackson's performance is outstanding as well as John C. Reilly in the film. Reilly's performance as Hank Marlow, a fighter pilot that has been on Skull Island since World War II, is Oscar worthy in my opinion. There is a lot of good action scenes and was well directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts. I definitely recommend people to watch this movie (wait through the credits when you do).

Rating: 8.9 out of 10

Double Review-Fifty Shades of Grey and 50 Shades Darker

There is a book that you may have heard of before called Fifty Shades of Grey.  I didn't read the book that the movies were based on. I watched them back to back recently, which is the reason for the double review.

Fifty Shades of Grey-The movie centers around a college student named Anastasia Steele(played by Dakota Johnson) and a billionaire named Christian Grey(played by Jamie Dornan). From the opening scene of the movie, it lets you know it is textbook good girl meets bad boy story. Well, in this story, the bad boy has a woman that he gets intimate with sign a sexual contract(in case you didn't hear about that part before). He does part of that for control and fear of intimacy. This movie poses this question: Can the curiosity between two different types of people result in love or heartbreak?  The problem is it doesn't do a good job to give us a reason to find out the answer. The script doesn't give us anywhere to go. The little bit of a trip it gives wasn't that enjoyable. I had no idea why characters did anything in the film. The dialogue was pretty bad. There was no texture to it at all. For example, Christian said to Anastasia"You're biting your lip again" when they just showed us on camera that she was doing that. That's partially to do with directing too. I didn't really care for either one of these characters, especially Christian. He had a creepy stalker vibe going on throughout the movie. That would be fine if it was a drama suspense thriller but it's not. Anyone else that would have displayed that type of behavior would have been arrested by now. This is what Bruce Wayne might have turn out to be if he didn't have the fighting crime thing to keep him occupied. Last, but not least, the main actors showed no chemistry at all. Which leads me to...

Fifty Shades Darker-Fifty Shades Darker is like the people involved in making these films heard the criticism of the first movie and corrected them. Script was better and so was the dialogue. The chemistry between the main actors was so much better in this film. You can actually believe there is something between these two characters that is genuine. The only issue I had with the film was two dramatic parts of the film felt forced to move the story along.

So, in summary, I didn't like the first one but liked the second one. If you watch to second one, there is something a little bit after the credits starts. Just remember that the theme of the films is not for everybody.

Fifty Shades of Grey: 7.1 out of 10

Fifty Shades Darker: 8.2 out of 10

Review- John Wick: Chapter 2

The first John Wick film, which came out in 2014, is hyper kinetic movie with simplistic story of a grieving ex hitman out for revenge. John Wick: Chapter 2 begins literally where the first one left off. The opening scene features a task John Wick (Keanu Reeves) needs to finish to return to a peaceful retirement (think of bumper cars during that scene). John's second retirement is brief as a blood oath with Santino(Riccardo Scamarcio) brings him in for one more hit. The ramifications of the hit will be felt not only in John's life but in the whole criminal underworld as well. John Wick: Chapter 2 delivers on great action scenes and a decent plot. The movie does pay homage to different action movies throughout, including a very noticeable nod towards Enter the Dragon. There are also scenes between actors that will remind you for another films, most notably the scene with Reeves and his Matrix co-star Laurence Fishburne. I definitely recommend seeing this movie,especially if you like the first one.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Biggest movie disappointments (that I've seen) in 2016

Biggest movie disappointments(that I've seen) in 2016

Movies/shows I geeked out to in 2016

Movies/shows I geeked out to in 2016

Top 10 movies (that I've seen) in 2016

 

Top 10 movies (that I've seen) in 2016

Funny movies for election day

I know everyone is ready for the election to be over. Here's a few movie choices that will make you laugh at the process.

1. The Campaign-2012

Will Ferrell Vs Zach Galifianakis in political absurdity about what people would do to win. I love this movie and it works on so many different levels. The link for my full review is up above if you click on the title.

2. Bulworth
Warren Beatty plays a senator that has put a contract out on his own life. During the time waiting for his life to end, he starts speaking the truth to whomever will listen. This movie delivers the "what if politicians spoke the truth" and "what if politicians listened to the people" angles pretty well throughout. Speaking of listening to the people....

3. Idiocracy

Luke Wilson plays Joe, a person with fairly average intelligent, who signs up for a government hibernation project. When the project goes awry, Joe comes out of hibernation in the year 2505 being the smartest person in the world(due to the effects of many years of reality TV). It comes from the creative mind Mike Judge, who directed Office Space, which is another movie I love.

Check these movie out if you get a chance.