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The Family (2013)
Surprisingly Enjoyable mafia movie
The Family is a dark comedy starring Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer about a mafia boss (Robert De Niro) who has turned rat and not his family is under witness protection in Europe. The movie opens with them coming into a new town they have clearly been moved around a lot based on their interactions about the new town. As the movie progresses you realize that they truly are a mafia family you see this is many ways from Michelle Pfeiffer blowing up a convenience story where the locals were talking trash about her in French. Their son starts taking over the schools underground getting favors selling cigarettes and the like. Their daughter beats a boy to a pulp with a retro tennis racket when he is too forward sliding her dress strap down her shoulder. There is a constant back and forth between De Niro and Tommy Lee Jones who is in charge of his witness protection De Niro is constantly testing his boundaries much to Jones' dismay. This reaches a climax when De Niro is invited to a local film club screening good fellas and starts telling the audience stories of his mob days under the pretense that they are things he witnessed not perpetrated. The movie was very enjoyable and very darkly funny. On to Action, Acting, Story, and Humor I replaced visuals with humor for this one because there weren't many visuals other than the beautiful French countryside. Action there is enough here to keep the viewers attention although I feel that you will get more enjoyment out of the family dynamic and humor. Acting, is very good but I would expect no less from the likes of De Niro Pfeiffer and Jones. They did a fantastic job casting De Niro's son John D'Leo he really looked like he could be De Niro's son. The story was interesting and fun to watch, the antics the family gets into are quite entertaining. Humor is in this movie through out but it is quite dark but not so dark as to make it impossible to enjoy. Overall Action 3 out of 5 Stars it had good action but that wasn't the focus of this film Acting 4 out of 5 Stars it was really good but not academy award good Story 5 out of 5 Stars I really enjoyed the story because it was almost like the story picking up at the end of good fellas and it was interesting watching the transition from Mafioso to stay at home dad. Humor 4 out of 5 Stars I found the humor right up my alley and very enjoyable Final Judgment 16 out of 25 very enjoyable if you like mobster's dark humor and De Niro
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)
If you want a good laugh at an awkward story and dialog this is for you
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is Hollywood's most recent attempt at another twilight style movie. Mortal Instruments is a series of books released in the late 2000's. I have to say right off the bat I really didn't like this movie it had awful dialog akin to what you might expect from a cheap Sci-Fi original. The beginning of the movie was super rushed putting the viewer in the thick of it before they really knew what was going on. Early on in the movie, and I am talking like 15 minutes in clary the main characters mother is kidnapped. When clary gets back to the apartment she has to run from a Rottweiler that transforms into what I can only describe as a demon octopus with a Rottweiler head. Clary then proceeds to blow up her kitchen to kill the demon octopus only to have it put itself back together where upon Jace arrives and kills the beast. Clary exclaims, "What was that?" Jace says, "You wouldn't believe mean if I told you" Clary replies, "try me," Jace then says, "It was a demon!" Clary says, "No I can't believe that." My problem with that scene and dialog is that you just got chased by a Rottweiler that transformed before your eyes into a demon octopus then get blown up and put its self back together. If that's not a demon what the hell is? As the story progresses you feel even less of a connection to the characters and the movie has several attempted twist moments all of which the view sees coming a mile away. Any way on to the Action, Acting, Story, and Visuals starting with action; I suppose you could say that this movie has good action but stupidity ruins it. Example one the group is getting chased by demons clary magically freezes them in air then the characters try to sneak by them before turning around and waiting for them to get unfrozen so they can fight them. Dafuq? That doesn't make any sense and then it makes character deaths completely useless because the viewer is like who even was that that just died. Acting was really bad but that could have been because the dialog was so bad it was impossible to act well. Story I am not sure if the books are good but the overall story I gathered from the movie was really poor and a little creepy incest wise. Visuals, there was nothing new here standard CGI demons that didn't look very realistic. Overall Action 3 out of 5 Stars Acting 2 out of 5 Stars I blame this on the dialog the movie actually had a few solid actors in it. Here's to you Jared Harris and Lena Headey. Story 2 out of 5 Stars poor explanations and I really didn't care about any of the characters. Visuals 2 out of 5 Stars standard lack luster CGI effects. Final Judgment 9 out of 25 Stars
wow you were worse than Spike Lee's Oldboy that's saying something.
Oldboy (2013)
Leave Oldboy alone it should have remained Korean it doesn't work in an American setting
Spike Lee's adaptation of Oldboy by Korean director Chan-wook Park is I must say terrible but I say this with a small caveat. If you have seen the original don't bother with the Americanized version you will only leave frustrated. Now keeping that in mind if you haven't seen the original or hate subtitles go ahead and watch Spike Lee's adaptation. The story of Oldboy is about a man who is kidnapped and imprisoned in a hotel like room for 20 years for no apparent reason. Now the room is a standard hotel room amenity wise he has a toilet, a shower, a desk, chair, bed, and a window with 2 rotating images every twelve hours a day light view of a farm and a nighttime view of a farm. Joe the main character played by Josh Brolin Is kept there for 20 years now here is one of the major differences that I didn't appreciate. In the original the Joe character is fed the same dumplings and rice every meal for his entire imprisonment where as Spike Lee's Joe gets gas station burritos and all manner of other food in addition to his dumplings. This may seem like a minute difference to harp on and normally I would agree but the dumplings end up functioning as a major aspect of the story. That is how Joe finds the confinement facility when he gets out because he ate nothing but the same dumplings for 20 years he goes to every Chinese restaurant in town trying their dumplings till he finds the right one. Now in Spike Lees he does the same thing but it just doesn't have the right feel and having Joe eat other food even if it is every now and then makes it feel like a lesser sentence than the original. Moving on the subject of the imprisonment there was one change I actually really felt added a lot I wont describe it but here it is has to do with the mice. You will know what I am talking about if you watch the Spike Lee version. Spike Lees version was host to a few more major changes that I felt totally ruined the movie. In the original there was a strong hypnotism element that they chose to exclude in the American version because they thought American audiences wouldn't buy into the hypnosis. I found this truly appalling the idea of the movie is that this guy gets kidnapped and held against his will in a creepy hotel sort of prison and you think I am going to believe that but be like wait there is hypnosis that's ridiculous NO WAY. Also the removal of the hypnosis drastically alters the story in my opinion. Spike Lee made some other alterations to the villain's back-story, which also had a major effect because it is directly involved in why Joe was imprisoned. Any way enough of my gripes, lets get to the Action, Acting, Story, and Visuals. Starting with action the Oldboy story has solid action it's got a whole lot of fights including one in a parking structure, which I found very enjoyable. Acting was very solid I am a big fan of Josh Brolin he is very good at disappearing into the character and overall has great acting chops. Elizabeth Olsen was a girl named Marie who ends up being Joe's love interest/partner, which is a key part in the movie Olsen, did a great job acting but there was just zero chemistry between the two actors. Sharlto Copley who plays the villain did a fantastically nuanced creepy performance I really enjoyed all his screen time other than his back story. Story I already addressed I love the original story because it is so odd and interesting to think about but with Spike Lee's changes I feel it ends up looking like a cop out. A lot of the changes I felt were made because the film makers didn't think that American audiences could handle it; which is fine in my opinion but then don't make the movie. Visuals were very striking I enjoyed a few it was a lot less stylized than the original which I really didn't like. One last thing before my Overall there is a two flash back sequences of Joe's time at a private school, which I found laughably bad. They were totally unrealistic and poorly done they made the school seem like it belonged in an American Pie movie rather than an adaptation of a Korean film. Overall Action 3 out of 5 stars Acting 4 out of 5 stars Story 2 out of 5 stars original 5 out of 5 but with the changes the story fell apart Visuals 2 out of 5 stars not nearly as striking as the original Final Judgment 11 out of 25 stars full fail not worth your time
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Thor Smashes Back with a Great Sequel
Thor: Dark World is a sequel to not only the original Thor but also the Avengers. Thor: Dark World picks up right as avengers finished so Thor is back in Asgard with Loki in tow they imprison him then time passes and Thor has brought order back to the nine realms. But the real story begins when Malekith played by Christopher Eccleston reawakens. They explain his back-story with some quick exposition in the very beginning. He and his ship of dark elves are attempting to awaken and control an ancient artifact so they can plunge the nine realms into eternal darkness. Suffice it to say Thor is not interested in the idea of eternal darkness so he sets about stopping it with the help of an unlikely ally. Now with my assessment of Thor: Dark Worlds Action, Acting, Story, and Visuals. Starting with action now if you have seen the original you know there was minimal action there were about 3-5 action sequences in the whole movie. Thor: Dark World quickly fixes that almost every scene is action packed leading up to a fantastic final fight between Thor and Malekith involving worm holes between the realms. So during the final fight they are tackling and hitting each other through wormholes which was a fantastic way to break up the possible monotony of the standard "THOR SMASH" which is pretty hard to avoid when making a movie about a character whose main weapon is a hammer. So the final fight is definitely something to look forward to incredibly enjoyable and surprisingly funny. Next the acting, it was very solid good performances all around although Tom Hiddleston really stole the show as Loki delightfully smarmy and smart-alecky throwing witty verbal barbs at Thor when ever they share the screen. The back and forth between Hemsworth and Hiddleston is incredibly enjoyable. I feel I must commend the writers for almost all the Marvel comic movies they do a fantastic job inject humor into their movies in a way that feels very natural and rather than distracting from the story in fact add another layer. Story wise the movie is torn straight from the marvel comics I am almost 100% sure 90% of the world had no idea who Malekith the Betrayer was before this movie. Yet they did a great job introducing him and he proved a very worthy adversary for the mighty thunder god. The story followed a fairly standard story arc although there were a few I didn't see that coming moments. Visually this film was incredible the special effects are getting so good now days that you rarely see a big movie with sub par effects. OVERALL Action 5 out of 5 Stars Acting 4 ½ out of 5 Stars the half is for Hiddleston Story 3 out of 5 Stars it was pretty standard story line with a few surprises Visuals 4 out of 5 Stars standard visuals good though
The Best Man Holiday (2013)
Best Man holiday... get your Kleenex ready *spoilers*
The Best Man Holiday is a sequel to The Best Man 1999, which centered on actors Lance (Morris Chestnut) and Mia (Monica Calhouns) wedding. Where Harper (Taye Diggs) is Lance's best man in that movie it surfaced that Harper had written a book about the couple as well as their friends from college. In the book harpers character sleeps with Mia's character when Lance puts two and two together he is furious the wedding almost doesn't happen. But he ends up forgiving Mia because he had cheated on her several times before. Any way The Best Man Holiday is based 15 years after the events of Best Man. In The Best Man Holiday Lance and Harper are not friends they are polite but that is only because they have mutual friends you get the impression harper hasn't seen Mia or Lance in years. Harper is on hard times his wife is pregnant he has lost his job and hasn't written anything good in years. So when he gets Mia's invite he sees it as an opportunity to get the inside scoop on Lances biography. Hilarity ensues for the next 40 minutes while the whole gang gets back together at Lances mansion for the holidays. Then there is a sudden shift and the movie that was advertised as a comedy changes completely. There is a major bomb shell dropped on the audience and from there on out there are very few jokes mostly tears up until the end of the movie. Alright now on to the individual characteristics acting was good very emotional and believable performances from each of the actors the movie really thrives off the group dynamic and the s@*t talk between the men and women. Cinematography is pretty standard nothing new just your basic romantic dramedy. Story wise it doesn't feel like the movie gives you the story that they advertised. This movie was marketed as a laugh out loud comedy and it was until about 40 minutes in then it did a screaming 180 towards drama and tears. It was a strong albeit cliché story but I left the movie feeling sadder than uplifted as I usually feel after a good comedy. Overall if you want a cliché story with some good bits of humor but an overarching feeling of sadness this is for you.
Elysium (2013)
Blomkamp does it again gritty dystopian future.
Elysium is director Neil Blomkamp's most recent foray into sci fi. The movie Mr. Blomkamp is really known for is District 9 another very gritty real feeling scifi movie. So Elysium is not too much off course for Blomkamp. But that is not a negative because if Blomkamp is good at one thing it is making gritty very real feeling sci fi stories that seem to almost have been ripped from an alternate dimension. Matt Damon is Blomkamps leading man in Elysium as Max, a likable orphan who has had a spotty past with crime but is now living the straight life. The movie picks up with Max being an adult working a factory job earth is a wasteland ruled by gangs and corporate robots. The corporate robots are controlled by the exceedingly rich who live in Elysium a space station utopia where everyone looks young and beautiful. The residents of Elysium never have any health problems because their superior technology. Which leads a lot of the poor people on earth with serious diseases to seek out the cartels that will try to smuggle them to Elysium so they can use the first aid machines to fix their problems. I do not want to give any spoilers so from here on out I will rate the action, story, visuals, and acting.
As far as action goes it doesn't get much better there is plenty max fights robots and mercenary's using a wide variety of guns as well as his Exosuit. So if action is your bag this movie has it in spades. The story is also a good it is simple but effective and can double as a commentary on our own growing chasm between classes. It is an exceedingly interesting idea that we would use up earth so the extremely wealthy would build a utopia in space so I very much enjoyed the story line. Visual wise Blomkamp always does a great job the visuals are incredible super realistic which just lends it self to the believability of the story and world. Finally the acting I found the acting incredibly enjoyable Matt Damon had a strong performance as max who starts out slightly selfish but comes around to be the poor man with the heart of gold. Then Jodie Foster did a great job as a political viper trying to maneuver and wriggle her way to the top of Elysium's social and political food chain. But my favorite was Sharlto Copley as Kruger an ex Special Forces man contracted to the higher ups in Elysium to take care of problems or issues on earth. He really pulls off the Special Forces type as well as this crazy creepiness underneath the whole performance overall he was incredible as the bad guy very menacing. Overall if you enjoy dystopian future movies this is for you. Action 4 out of 5 stars Story 3 out of 5 stars Visuals 5 out of 5 stars Acting 5 out of 5 stars