Review-Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Beauty and the Beast (2017) is the live action adaptation of the beloved 1991 animated movie of the same name. In the live-action movie, Belle( played by Emma Watson) is a woman whose love of books makes her less than popular with people of her village. Belle lives with her father Maurice(Kevin Kline) and helps her around the shop. When he turns up missing, she searches for him all alone. To save him from imprisonment from the Beast(Dan Stevens), she offers to take her father's place. Meanwhile, Gaston (Luke Evans), whose love for Belle is more for vanity purposes, leads the hunt for her return. The movie, just like the original, deals with inner and outer beauty. Overall, except for running time (a few extra scenes here and there), this movie is just like the original. The only thing I recommend is not to watch the original and the new movie back to back. You'll feel like you watched the same movie twice.

Rating: 8.8 out of 10

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