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Birdman (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Movie Review (2014)

birdman (2014) drama movie poster
Birdman stars Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, and Emma Stone. This film is about a man who used to be really famous for playing a super hero called Birdman, that man is Michael Keaton. He since become rather washed-up, his public image isn’t very strong anymore, and he scrambles the fun together to put on this play. He’s directing it, he’s writing it, and he’s watching it, all crumble around him.
But it’s not just about that play, it’s about existence, it’s about one’s place in real life, it’s about how you view your own life, it’s about duality, it’s about film critics, it’s about family life, it’s about drinking, it’s about special effect blockbuster. This movie is about everything, and it is one of the best movie I’ve ever seen in my life.
I’ve been waiting all year for a movie like this, a movie that I can sit down and go, “Oh my gosh, this is why I watch movies and talk about them.” This is why I go to movie theater, for movies like Birdman.
A lot of people are focusing on the way of the movie was filmed. It’s made to look as if it is one continues shot. A clever editing technique and a really long take and some really skilled actors accomplished that. For that reason, the entire movie feels like it has this veracity, this unpredictability about it, with just mere by its drum only score, which also feels as if it was made up in the moment. The score is very jazzy, it’s feel like off the cuff, it’s feel unpredictable similar to the film.
Michael Keaton plays Emma Watson’s father in the movie, and they have a very estrange relationship, she’s had problem from the past, she’s dealing with one side of her feeling one way and the other side of her feeling in other.
Edward Norton plays a replacement actor who comes in the last minutes who feels like he owns the theater, he just wants to take over this play. He’s also dealing with the fact that he feels as if he pretending in real life, and when he is acting, he feels as if he’s home.
Throughout the movie, Keaton’s character literally hears the voice of Birdman in his head, telling him to do certain things. He ignores it and sometime he’s able to actually respond to it and sometime even see him. And he might just have mysterious powers of some kind which he can use telepathy to move things. This movie is weird !
What I’m getting at is almost every character in this movie is dealing with an intense psychological issue of some kind that make them feel split as if they are two halves in one. The movie also touches so much on life existence, what your place in the world is, what your here to do, the movie is filled with brilliant metaphor imagery that instill thoughts and emotions into your brain as you watch the movie, that no character is speaking, there’s no exposition that can say these things to you. These things are told through brilliant film making and excellent writing.
I got to give a mega praise to these actors. Keaton pose off the best performance of his entire career. Edward Norton is the best he’s been in years. Emma Stone is maybe the best she’s ever been. Naomi Watts is also terrific. All of the acting in the movie, even Zach Galifianakis, is perfect. These guys hit all of these tough marks throughout this very long takes and I got to give major admiration for that.
I love some action movies, I love some big fun entertainment movies, but I also respect art film like this that are really trying to be art. A film that has so much thought provoking emotions behind it and so much to say about humanity and relationship, and also the movie business. It was a flawless movie. I have not one problem with Birdman.
This movie is what I’ve been waiting for, a movie that feels like an experience, a movie that I never ever forget how I felt sitting in that theater, a movie that I can truly say is a masterpiece.



Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Writers: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (screenplay), Nicolas Giacobone (screenplay)
Stars: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone
Duration: 119 min
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Nightcrawler Movie Review (2014)

nightcrawler (2014) crime movie poster
Nightcrawler stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a man who is looking for a job. When he come across this kind of unknown profession, people who tried to get to crime scenes as soon as possible to get footage to themselves to the news, he gets really good at it. In fact, he gets too good at it, and eventually he gets way to good at it to the point where he himself is committing crimes. This is a movie about an insane, possibly psychopath, who’s extremely good at appearing like an awesome human being until you get to know him.
I was really excited to see this movie, not just because a lot of people buzzing about Jake Gyllenhaal performance, but I was starting to hear things about the screenplay. A lot of people I know told me that the screenplay was one of the best, and for that reason I was pumped when the movie started, and I’m just as pumped to talk about it now, cause this movie blew me away.
Jake Gyllenhaal gives probably the best performance in his entire life in this movie. He is a gaunt looking man, he lost a lot of weight for this role.
Let’s not focus on the weight loss though, that’s an easy way to get noticed sometime. Let’s focus on how he actually performs in this movie. I did not see Jake Gyllenhaal, I saw a character, I saw a different person, and when you don’t see the actor, that is a performance that’s worthy of an Oscar nomination.
I think he’s an actor that is making such good choices right now, movies like Prisoners (2013) and Zodiac (2007), and Nightcrawler confirms to me that this guy is just a genius actor.
And yes, the screenplay of this movie is absolutely magnetic. There are so many different dialogue scene which you can not stop focusing on these characters, particularly this journalist, because he is just so good as this guy who is becoming so obsessed with the idea of capturing the perfect crime on film and making money doing so by selling it to news channels. And as you watch that obsession take over him, you start to see him turn into what in my opinion is a psychopath.
I mean in all honesty, I was trying to figured out who’s the antagonist that Nightcrawler was until I realize that might be Jake Gyllenhaal. He might actually be the main villain of his on movie and yet you want to root for him somehow because the script is so well written that you actually get to that point where you are rooting for someone who’s doing terrible things. And it’s because you’re able to understand his character’s brain you’re starting to figure out how this guy works, and how the clock ticks in the place up there, and you’re really start to understand him as a person. And that’s why his performance works so well and why this screenplay is so good, because it’s so focus on character. And because of that this movie is endlessly watchable.
It’s a great looking movie too. The streets of LA have not look this good since probably Drive (2011). I’m not comparing to say that Drive is a better film, but Nightcrawler is a movie that so focus on its character and you’ll able to understand his obsession so well despite the fact that you know in your head this is not something I would ever want to do. You able to understand the obsession because of his performance, because of the excellent script and because of how well this movie shot.
I’ve never really been a fan of the news, I don’t like the news. Because as a person, I’m one of the people who looks at a shot on the news and says, how did they get that? What exactly was happening behind that camera? Because I do that with normal movies. It’s always bothered me in seeing this movie confirmed to me why it has bothered me. I don’t like the news for this reason, because this movie so accurately describes the seedy underworld of the evening news.
The writing was off the charge, the acting was explosive, the directing was very good. It could have been a little better. I can see if someone like Fincher or Spielberg had his hand on this movie, it would've been slightly more intense, but I will say that this movie has probably the most suspenseful finale I've seen all year. The last twenty minutes of this movie were absolutely nail biting.



Director: Dan Gilroy
Writer: Dan Gilroy
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton
Duration: 117 min
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The Equalizer Movie Review (2014)

the equalizer (2014) movie poster
The Equalizer is directed by Antoine Fuqua and stars Denzel Washington. This project went between a lot of different hands before it’s finally landed into the lap of Antoine Fuqua. Originally Nicholas Winding Refn was going to direct this movie, which is not very surprising because a lot of his trade mark violence in his movie.
Chloe Grace Moretz plays a young prostitute in this movie and Denzel Washington is a man with a mysterious past. He often meets her at this diner, kind of watches over her and eventually decides to protect her when some evil man beat her up.
This brings his mysterious past back into forth and he’s on a mission to find all of the Russian gang and take them out. While people are getting nailed and beaten until they can’t even move anymore, Denzel Washington is the one thing that carry this movie along and give it the credibility that it’s deserved.
It’s a fun movie with a pretty strong villain, and see them both in their act was some of my favorite parts of this movie. In fact, my favorite scene in this movie is a very intense conversation with both of them in a restaurant.
Some people are going to be really turned up by the over the top violence in this movie because it’s not really handled with much reason. In the past where films like Drive (2011) have violent and it was in there and it felt like actually it has something to do with the character of the driver that he have like this strange past which he’s trying to withhold this psychotic insane part of him, Denzel Washington’s character of The Equalizer seems fairly sane. And so some of the things that he does, some of the sore or home alone, feel like just there for entertainment value and sometime some of the trap I thought became a little over the top and maybe even a little unnecessary.
My main issue with this movie is there are just too many side plots. There is the character of Chloe Grace Moretz who shows up for a while, kind of just to get Denzel Washington back into his evil world again and then just disappear for the entire movie. And then there is one Denzel trying to help to lose weight so he can become a security guard. And whilst some of these characters come back in to the play at certain parts, a lot of it just feels like added back just to give the audience some sympathy for Denzel’s character when he’s doing some of those horrifically violent things he does. There is also like really random scene with Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo that feels like could just be removed from the movie entirely.
That being said, I did have a good time watching this movie because Denzel Washington as I said, sells every scene he’s in. He makes the violent fun to watch. He also sells the really serious moments. You’ll really buy that this altered gentleman can really kill all those people and do a really good job at it.
Overall, I did enjoy watching this movie because as a character I found him extremely compelling and of course Denzel made it endlessly watchable. That being said, you don’t really learn that much of his character and I was expecting to learn more about him but he’s a blank slate throughout the entire film from beginning to end so that did disappoint me.
Denzel was great, the action was fun although it’s basically like Saw combining with Home Alone, and it’s a little over the top. The story has a lot of hole in it, and there is a lot of added back but I still did enjoy watching this movie.



Director: Antoine Fuqua
Writers: Richard Wenk, Michael Sloan (television series)
Stars: Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloe Grace Moretz
Duration: 132 min
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Ouija Movie Review (2014)

ouija (2014) horror movie poster
Ouija is the new horror movie about board game and it’s produced by Michael Bay. That’s mean it’s going to be great.
So someone’s best friend dies and everyone think that she’s committed suicide. However, there’s more to the story than people are realizing, and most of it seems to be revolving around this Ouija board. Her friends find this thing and decided to use it to try to get in contact with their deceased friend, and then everything goes wrong.
As I said, Michael Bay produced this movie. He produced the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), the remake of The Amityville Horror (2005), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), the remake of The Hitcher (2007), The Unborn (2009), Friday the 13th (2009), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010).
After reading those titles, would it really shock you that much if I told you this movie sucked? Well, it sucked.
Watching this movie, I tried to get in the mindset of the writer, what were they thinking, and I mean that in the serious way.
While the movie is called Ouija, so obviously we have to have some Ouija board playing in the movie, right? Yea, we do. So how many time do you think we tangibly make these characters play the Ouija board before everyone calls BS on them because so much weird crap in that thing. Probably like 3 or 4 times. Okay, so we have like 3 or 4 Ouija board sessions in this movie right?
So, what’s going to happen when they’re not playing the Ouija board? They’ll talk about Ouija board, they’ll think about it, and we’ll have shots about it, they’ll go to school and their jobs, and they’ll just kind of do craps when they’re not playing the Ouija board. That’s what the movie feels like. In fact, I learned that a large portions of this was re-shot. Which make a lot of sense, because what’s certain thing come to life in this movie about what’s actually going on below the surface about what “this thing” actually wants? None of the movie make sense anymore.
So there are great twists in the movie where you begin to look back in the movie, rethink the entire thing, and that’s an awesome and very smart thing that a writer can do. When he turns the table on you and the rest of the movie still make sense. The twists in this movie cheat more than a dumb bully in school. The entire film doesn’t make sense anymore once you actually learn what’s happening. I want to explain about the twists but it would be a spoiler.
That being said though this isn’t an obnoxiously bad horror film, you can sit and probably watch this movie, you’ll be bored, it wont be very entertaining, but it’s not going to make you hate yourself. It’s actually a nice looking movie, it’s well shot, it’s a sleek looking picture for the most part.
The screenplay is so stupid though, there are so many laughable lines between these characters that by the way, are just the most disposable horror characters on the face of the earth.
The best part of this movie is like the opening ten minutes. The rest of the movie after that is just like a downhill ride into oblivion. It’s a stupid movie that is barely scary. It’s a bunch of loud noises. The only time I even jumped in this movie was when somebody was there and it was their friend, the light turned on and then a loud boom noise. Well, it’s not scary, it’s not fun, it’s not enjoyable, and it’s not frightening in the least. It’s just a sound effect.
I do not regret the decision I made before I saw Ouija. I purchased a ticket for John Wick (2014) and walked into Ouija instead because I knew I had to see Ouija. And I wanted to support John Wick, not this movie. Seriously, go see John Wick. I saw it. It’s amazing. That movie deserve your support, not this.



Director: Stiles White
Writers: Juliet Snowden (screenplay), Stiles White (screenplay)
Stars: Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto, Daren Kagasoff
Duration: 89 min

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Left Behind Movie Review (2014)

left behind (2014) movie poster
Left Behind is directed by Vic Armstrong, the stuntman from the Indiana Jones movies, and stars Nicolas Cage, Chad Michael Murray, Lea Thompson, and Cassi Thomson.
A sudden epidemic seems to be spreading across the entire earth. People are vanishing in the thin air, no one knows where these people went. Nicholas Cage plays a pilot trying to land his plane to get his daughter who is on the ground searching for her family and Chad Michael Murray is like a really handy man who did something sometime, people respect him, he’s up on the plane too.
And guys, this film is one the worst movies I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Now look, I sat in a deserted empty theater through out this entire movie despite one who walked out in first twenty minutes.
Let’s talk a bit about Nicholas Cage, the man is an enigma. Some people actually view him as a religious experience. This year he’s started in Joe (2013), a movie I thought was terrific, and I thought he was excellent in that movie. And I was like, “Yes, Nicholas Cage is back.”
And now he’s in this movie which is in my opinion the worst movie he’s ever been in. Now let me explain it to you, because I’m not just going to say this movie is bad, he’s terrible, they’re terrible. I’m going to explain to you why this movie is awful.
There are theatrical releases, and then straight to DVD and blu ray, and then television, and somewhere under there is Left Behind. I’m serious. This movie is not even good enough for television.
I’m talking about the way its directed, the screenplay and the acting. Even the musical score for this movie is awful, it’s like 1995 drum kits combined with orchestrations, it’s the worst musical score of the year.
Now, Vic Armstrong is the best stuntman ever. He did a lot of the stunts in Indiana Jones movies. I have so much respect for that man in regards to that. However, as a director of actors and a composer of scenes, he is not.
If I was forced to direct the screenplay that I saw in this movie, I swear to you on my life, I would say no as soon as I finish reading the script. Every actor feels fake, every dialogue feels forced, all of the conversations do not feel real at all.
In regards the way scenes are constructed, it’s incompetent. There’s a motorcycle scene towards the end of the film, where the female lead finds a motorcycle and apparently she can ride motorcycle. We have no idea she’s ever done it before, but she just does it perfectly. Throughout this entire scene, all we get are wide shots from behind. There is not one single close up insert of the actress on the motorcycle. They can’t even take some of their budget to use a pulley system to pull the motorcycle so they can get a close up of her to try to tell that she is on the motorcycle, whose the stunt-woman the entire time. And that’s the way this film was directed, lazily.
There isn’t an inspired moment in this movie. No one in this movie is intense. Everyone just feels like they’re moshing along through an epidemic disaster that spreading across the entire world. Not one bit of suspense was in this movie. It was so incredibly godawful that I wanted to leave twenty minutes in, and yet I stayed because I viewed it as a rite of passage. I was like, I’m going to watch this movie as a rite of passage, so in the end of the year I can say that Left Behind not only one of the worst movie I’ve ever seen, it’s a movie that I sat through.
There isn’t a single moment that is worthy of you watching it. I’m telling you, it’s not even funny bad.
It really honestly is one of the worst movie I’ve ever seen in my life. I hated it, it was terrible. Nicholas Cage, I love you man… but why?



Director: Vic Armstrong
Writers: Jerry B. Jenkins (based on novel), Tim LaHaye (based on novel)
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Lea Thompson, Chad Michael Murray, Cassi Thomson
Duration: 110 min

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V/H/S: Viral Movie Review (2014)

If you’ve been following the previous two V/H/S films which they basically are a bunch of anthologies and which people watch really creepy VHS tapes and clever film makers coming and make their own short film to be included in this anthology of horror.
I actually enjoyed V/H/S (2012) and V/H/S/2 (2013) quite a bit and even bought them on blu ray. So I was actually excited to see what this new film brought to the table because it takes it into different direction. Where the previous two films were about characters discovering VHS tapes in a house, watching them and they were just really creepy, this one does not have that structure at all.
I suppose it’s more about teenagers who are trying to film viral videos and stuff happens while they’re doing that. Not only is V/H/S: Viral the most disappointing movie I’ve seen in this year, it’s the most maddening. This film is populated with the dumbest, most idiotic characters that you can’t stand to watch more than a couple of minutes, and I watched them for 77 minutes, because as soon as the credits started in this movie, I checked the time and it was 77 minutes long.
The film is a very forced message about the fact that teenagers and young people are becoming obsessed with the internet, that viral marketing campaign and videos of horrible things happening that get tons of views is a terrible thing. I agree with all of that.
But it’s such a forced message in the way the film makers go about trying to tell this tale is so rushed and so jumbled that the message is not only become a gigantic blur, but the film is in conflict with itself. Because there’s a short film in this one that I could not stand.
In fact when it ended, I actually stood up and said, “Fuck this movie, I’m done with this movie.” And I actually have to sit and recollect my thought for a while before I press ‘play’ again, because it’s the most maddening thing I’ve ever seen in a movie. It’s basically a bunch of skater kids who are the most annoying, rude people, they’re sixteen, they’re doing drugs, they’re carrying around guns, they going to Mexico, they like fireworks and throw them at people, and then they spend an entire five minutes just shooting Mexican’s monster people, and it was the most annoying thing I’ve seen in a movie all year.
I don’t want to spoil for you in case you are interested in seeing this movie but the wait ended with such a cop out, don’t waste your time.
The first two shorts are better than that, there is one about a magician and one about a parallel universe, but my problem with those is that none of it actually really relates to the central message of the film that they’re trying to create.
What once was a really cool idea for a franchise that were able to showcase creativity and different director’s talents has become a garbage can for the most crappy ideas I’ve ever seen in a movie in quite some time. This film was so lazy that it even reuse shots from the previous films.
I’m very disappointed in V/H/S: Viral. It’s nowhere near as good as the previous two, it wasn’t even scary. There wasn’t even a single moment in this movie that scare me, but there were plenty that I laughed at how terribly filmed it was. It is a horrible sequel, definitely don’t check out V/H/S: Viral.
I suggest you to definitely avoid this one guys, especially if you’re fan of the first two like I am. I’m very disappointed in this.



Directors: Justin Benson, Gregg Bishop
Writers: Justin Benson, Gregg Bishop
Stars: Emmy Argo, Amanda Baker, Rim Basma
Duration: 97 min
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Dracula Untold Movie Review (2014)

dracula untold (2014) posterDracula Untold is the right retaining film by Universal starring Luke Evans as Dracula. Luke Evans visits a vampire who turns him into a vampire so that he can have supernatural forces so that he can save his family from these oncoming forces who are threatening to eliminate everyone that he cares about.
The thing about this movie is that it's kind of interesting idea, we haven’t seen a big budget Dracula movie since what? Dracula 2000 (2000)?
The problem with this movie in my opinion is that it takes itself way too seriously. This is an absurd movie. This is a really dumb movie at its core. This movie needs to be dumb, absurd, fun, hilarious, and awesome, but it takes itself so darkly, grimly serious that you can’t sit and have any real enjoyment with this movie. It’s missing out on the awesome pleasures that a movie about a guy who turn himself into Dracula so that he can fight armies should have. We don’t always need a serious adaptation of everything.
And a movie about a guy who climbs a mountain to find a vampire in a cave, to turn him into Dracula, so that he can then turn into an army of bats, and punch people with a bat hand that formed with those bats, that movie needs to be awesome. But this movie is trying so hard to make you cry and care about Dracula and his wife and son. You don’t need that in a movie called Dracula Untold.
What you need is a really good time. And since this movie is so intent on doing the opposite of that, you can’t really have fun with it.
That being said, it’s not an awful looking movie, there are times where the cinematography is really gorgeous. I do like Luke Evans, I think he’s pretty great in The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies (2014), and I thought he was really fun in this movie called No One Lives (2012), which no one really saw. And that film’s tone is the type of vibe I feel this movie was lacking.
Another thing about this movie is it becomes very apparent that they’re just trying to get that PG-13 rating that this movie should not have. A movie with Dracula in its title should be rating R. Because a lot of scene in this movie is filmed beautifully. The cinematography is very nice, some of the sets and production designs are very good. And then as soon as the battle sequences started, it turns into The Hunger Games (2012) movie. It’s shaking all over the place, you can’t tell what’s going on because they have limits. They can’t show certain things, because if they do, they’ll get rated R.
So in all honesty, I’m just tired of these attempts at rebooting classic monster movies like earlier this year I, Frankenstein (2014) which was even worse than this movie.
Luke Evans is fun as a title role, and Sarah Gadon as his wife is great. But the movie is just so darkly grim, that you can’t have any fun with the movie where you should be having a lot of fun with it, and it’s just really uninteresting as a story in all honesty. It doesn’t really work.



Director: Gary Shore
Writers: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless
Stars: Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon
Duration: 92 min
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The Judge Movie Review (2014)


The Judge stars Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall. The film is about a lawyer who is very good at his job, he’s kind of like Jim Carrey from Liar Liar (1997). He represented clients that are usually guilty but he’s really good at maneuvering things to get them out of jail time.
When his mother dies, he’s forced to go back home to visit his estranged family including his father who is never got along, played by Robert Duvall, who is a very successful judge. And when Duvall was accused of a possible murder, Downey then is forced to represent his father which  creates a bit of problem because they hate each other.
I was really looking forward to this movie because I’m a big fan of Robert Downey Jr. not just because he’s Iron Man and he’s great as Iron Man. Some of you kids out there need to check out some of his movie from the 90’s and early 2000’s. The guy is an excellent actor and for that reason I was really excited to see him go to an adult film, it’s rated R, it’s cool to see him in a role that‘s not “Hey, I’m Iron Man!
And of course there is Robert Duvall, I mean he was in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), the guy has been around forever, he’s a fantastic actor.
For those reasons, I was excited to see this movie. And yet I was feeling uncertain about it, that it’s a little melodramatic, it’s a little bit cheesy, it’s a little too over the top. I got to say, walking out of The Judge I was impressed by this movie, not just because it’s fun and interesting movie but it is a 2 hour and 21 minute movie and I was never bored and it didn’t dragged from me. And that was the best part about this movie, that I was actually interested in the story, and that is one of the most important part of a movie. How is the story? Are you into it? Is it cool? Is it different? Is it something new? Is it something original?
There’s nothing terribly original about The Judge, but what I like about it that it’s really does focus a lot on its characters, attempts to flesh them out quite often, and it has a good focus on its story. That is one of the best part of The Judge.
And Downey Jr. is excellent in this movie. It’s really cool to see him in a role as I said, where he just plays an adult man who’s the character is not Iron Man. He’s great as Iron Man, but it’s so cool whenever I get to see him in an actual movie, movie like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) or Zodiac (2007). This guy is an excellent actor. He’s fantastic in the film, it’s one of his better performances I think. And Duvall is also really good. I mean this is one of his better performances I haven't seen in years cause lately he’s been playing like supporting roles where he’s kind of shows up as a cool guy for a few scenes. But in this movie, there are couple of scenes in this movie in particular that are very-very intense.
Also Vincent D'Onofrio is terrific in this movie as well. I always remember him as Edward “Sugar Water” from Men in Black (1997).
That being said, I think there are some merits to the claim about the movie being too cheesy, a little too savvy, and a little too hard stringy, if you know what I mean. There are a few moments in this movie that are took me out of it. For one, before the big case, the night before the big case. Downey Jr. helps Vera Farmiga’s character break into a restaurant so they can eat in there by themselves. I mean that’s breaking and entering. Are you gonna do that? Right before you’re about to defend your father on a life and death murder case? I mean that just seems kind of crazy to me. I mean like a minute later you find that Vera Farmiga owns the place, and so it’s okay that he broke in but that make it even worst because she let him break in and he didn’t know that, and he broke in. It took me out of the movie, I was like you’re a lawyer dude, why are you committing a crime right before your big case? It’s odd, it took me out of the movie.
There are also a lot of really convenient tight wrap moments that are like, “okay, this is a little over the top”.
But I think my main issue with the movie that I was so interested in are the court room scenes, and Downey Jr. and Duvall were so good in those scenes. There wasn’t enough of the court room scenes. It kept retracting to the this really long family conversations and arguments that I was little interested in. And I wanted to see more court room scenes, and I wish that more of the movie actually took place around the case, which I was really invested in.
But the performances in this movie are all very good. It’s a well directed movie, I was interested in the story, and so for that reason I do recommend you to check out The Judge sometime. You might not have to rush out and see it but I do think it’s a totally watchable movie with some really fantastic performances.



Director: David Dobkin
Writers: Nick Schenk (screenplay), Bill Dubuque (screenplay)
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton
Duration: 141 min
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John Wick Movie Review (2014)

action movie john wick (2014) posterJohn Wick is a new action movie stars Keanu Reeves, and its about an ex hitman who’s brought back into the vault out of his retirement because some people take everything from him and he’s out to get all of those mobsters one at a time and usually through a headshot or some kind.
I've been a fan of Keanu Reeves forever, not just as an actor but I've seen him in interviews and he seems like a really cool, humble, down to earth gentleman. And I like that when an actor does not seem fool themselves, and Keanu Reeves is one of those guys.
I've seen a lot of positive buzz about John Wick and that really got me excited to see an action movie that I was hoping would be a really great one. John Wick is one of the best action movies of the year and quite possibly Keanu Reeve’s best performance. I’m serious.
The stunts in this movie are absolutely mind blowing. Keanu Reeves does most of the stunts by himself, which is such a great thing to see. When you see a long take and you get to see that Keanu Reeves doing some of these things involving driving, fist fighting, gun play, everything that you might imagine an action hero would have to do in a movie, he’s doing it in this one. And its directed by two veterans stuntman (David Leitch and Chad Stahelski).
Recently the movie Left Behind (2014), directed by Vic Armstrong also a veteran stuntman from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and such things like that. A lot of respect for that, but as a director? Nah…
These guys have proven that they can make a really slick looking movie with not just fantastic action scenes but actually with some really great dialogue scenes as well.
Michael Nyqvist, you may remember him from the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) or from Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011), he plays the main villain of this movie, and I thought he was absolutely terrific.
All of the acting in this movie was actually really great. Not only its Keanu Reeves’s best film since The Matrix (1999), it might actually be his best performance. And I’m not just talking about the stunts work, he had some of very emotional scene in this movie that involved a lot of anger and despair. And he does a very great job with all of them. I was really impressed with his work in this movie.
One of the thing I really like about John Wick that its not just a revenge action shot ‘em up. There is actually a lot of interesting world creation going on in this movie. You learn a lot about this underworld of criminals and its like this entire franchise just waiting to happen. And its actually one of those things that sets up the idea of sequel without being incredibly forced like in The Maze Runner (2014), where there was like a few senses at the end that basically went “And there is going to be another one by the way..
There isn't anything like that in John Wick. It’s kind of a movie that you see a man’s potential in regard to a franchise and I would love to see the sequel of this movie. The actions in this film is virtually unrelenting once its started. There are incredible shoot out sequences, fantastic hand to hand combat sequences, and the greatest thing is you can see Keanu Reeve’s face like doing the majority of all of it because this guy is an actor who respect his audience in regards to action movies.
Do you remember all of his stunts he did in Speed (1994) and of course all of 3 Matrix movies. This guy knows how to sell action. It’s a non stop action movie that doesn't letup that actually has a smart script, a really awesome hero, a few great villain. And I got to say this movie contains the best night club scene since Collateral (2004), I’m being honest.
By the end of it, my mouth was kind of dropped a little bit, and I was just like “This is crazy good action”. It’s just so nice to see some directors who understand the action world so well, but they’re actually able to make it look really swift, really sleek, appealing, and get a star who can sell the role.
But I got to stress this isn't just a really good action movie. There’s actually a lot of really great underworld crime world building going on. With some intense conversations and Keanu Reeves and all the actors in this movie, even John Leguizamo was really good. And I’m not a big fan of his.
John Wick is one of the best action movies of the year. It’s Keanu Reeve’s best film since The Matrix, and it might actually be his best performance in my opinion. I think when you judge it simply as an action film, this movie does everything it supposed to do.
Is it ground breaking? Is it mind blowing? No, it’s an action film that understand exactly what its doing and it does it extremely well.



Directors: David Leitch, Chad Stahelski
Writer: Derek Kolstad (screenplay)
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe
Duration: 101 min

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Gone Girl Movie Review (2014)

gone girl (2014) movie posterGone Girl is directed by David Fincher, stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. This movie is about a guy who’s wife go missing, the mystery surrounding that, the press and the media view of him. Was he involved? Was he not involved? What happened to this girl and where is she?
I was very excited about this movie because David Fincher is one of my favorite director. I mean he will have an actor do the smallest little thing like a hundred times. If you've watched Zodiac (2007) making up, there is a shot where Jake Gyllenhaal tosses a note book onto a car seat. He had him do that one tiny little movement so many times. And that’s why I love David Fincher. He’s a perfectionist.
And what the reason he hired Ben Affleck to play the husband in this movie is because Ben Affleck himself as a person has been under intense media scrutiny in a lot of public harassment for his entire life. So this role is perfect for him and he’s fantastic in this movie. This is one of Ben Affleck’s best performances. Rosamund Pike is also excellent in this movie. This is probably the best work I’ve seen from her, period.
I love Gone Girl. I want to talk to you guys about some really specific reasons as to why this movie affected me so much. For once, the marketing campaign. The marketing campaign for this movie was absolutely brilliant. I barely knew anything going on in this movie. I actually know someone who works for the company that handed all the trailers for this movie directly with David Fincher’s involvement.
Their entire goal was to make people interested in the movie without revealing whole bunch of random things that you don’t need to know until you sit there in that theater and experience the movie for yourself. Fincher cherishes the movie going experience and that is something that I absolutely applaud.
Thank you so much to the marketing team for keeping so much in this movie as secret. Because as the film progress, it continuously surprise me. It got darker and darker, and meaner, and maniacal to the point where my mouth was dropped on a number of occasions and that is where things about this movie that really stuck with me when it ended. Because it really makes you think differently about the way we perceive the media, about the way we perceive the news, and about how we are able to make ourselves think that something is factual just because we read it on the internet, or we saw it on television.
Its so easy to take someone we’ve never met and make them out to be something that they’re not and that some in this movie explored so well was how the news and the media can affect the situation and everyone just thinks that’s what it is, that’s true, and you get to see the behind the scenes at how a person’s life can literally crumble to the ground until there’s nothing left simply based off of a few lies.
Gone Girl is one of the best looking films of the year, without a doubt. What I love so much about this movie is there are so many hidden facets to this story that I knew nothing about that I won’t spoil for anyone because I want you to be able to experience them as well just as I did, without knowing that various twists and turns the story takes do not come off as showy, they come off as “Wow”. That is a great screenplay.
Affleck and Pike are fantastic in this movie but there are two casting choices that I was very skeptical about when I walked in this movie (Tyler Perry and Neil Patrick Harris). And I want to say this right off the bat, Tyler Perry was great in this movie. He was very, very good. Humongous surprise. He plays Ben Affleck’s lawyer in the film. Finally he got a serious role that was not in a grandma outfit, that wasn’t Alex Cross and he did a good job with that.
That being said, Neil Patrick Harris, stuck out like a sore thumb in this movie in my opinion. I think he was completely miscast unfortunately. Gratefully he was not in the movie that much. I think Neil Patrick Harris is a very talented gentlemen. I have nothing against him. I just don’t think he was the right actor for the role he got in the movie. I think he is a vastly talented comedian and performer but in this intense dramatic role that he is given as this guy who obsesses over Rosamund Pike since high school, didn’t really work for me.
Besides that, I think this is one of the best movie of the year. It just the story that is so dark and rude. You see the truth in a lot of things that are portrayed in this movie. You know that things like this happen every day and that is what so shocking about it.
So I’m going to start doing this and you guys should too. Next time you see a headline on the news or internet or whatever, take it with a grain of salt because you never quite know what’s going on behind the scenes.
I love this movie, definitely check it out. It sneaks up on you, its dramatically powerful, it’s wonderfully acted.



Director: David Fincher
Writers: Gillian Flynn (screenplay), Gillian Flynn (novel)
Stars: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris
Duration: 149 min
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Fury Movie Review (2014)

war movie fury (2014) posterFury is written and directed by David Ayer and stars Brad Pitt as the leader of a tank crew in World War II, were going against other German tanks, which is depicted in this movie by no means an easy job. Its hard, its brutal, it’s a really tough life to live.
Logan Lerman plays a clerk that was pushed into his position because they simply did not have any other soldier to be there. This movie is about how Brat Pitt trains Logan Lerman and about he has to learn to be someone he is not.
David Ayer is a very good director and writer, but he has made some not so great movies in the past, this year is Sabotage (2014). This movie definitely makes up for that. This is a hard hitting look at World War II with another great Nazis killing performance by Brad Pitt. He’s not quite full on lieutenant Aldo Raine from Inglourious Basterds (2009) in this movie, but he definitely has some of that in him. He has this gruff, uncompromising composer about himself that really sells for this role. He does a great job.
And Logan Lerman gets possibly the best performance in his career so far –certainly better than Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010). He was excellent in this movie.
You know who else in this movie I have to give a credit? Shia LaBeouf was great in this movie. And I say that because he gets so much public pressed because
of weird things he's been doing. But look, as an actor, he’s doing a really good job in this movie and I have to give him credit for that. Michael Peña and Jon Bernthal also awesome in this movie.
It’s a well shot movie, I was really impressed with the way David Ayer lands this movie, because it wasn't handheld like his previous film. It’s a very locked down, smooth and fluid picture and it all looks really good.
That being said, I didn't really feel that much for the characters in this movie, I didn't feel very attached to them and so when the amazing action sequences were happening, I was just very entertain by the film making and not so much worried for their survival.
By far the biggest thing I can recommend about this movie is the action. Its very well done, its extremely realistic, it does not seem fake at all. And the comradery amongst these guys and the actors performances were so good.
I just didn't really care that much about the characters and I didn't really feel the movie had that much substances behind it. Even though it was trying to reach for a moral religious message especially in the last shot, I didn't really feel that the movie reach that, and I felt that its overstepping.
I would say check this movie out in theater simply for the sound design alone. You’ll really feel like you’re in World War II, and those theater speaker are definitely help with that.


Director: David Ayer
Writer: David Ayer
Stars: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Jon Bernthal
Duration: 133 min
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Annabelle Movie Review (2014)

annabelle horror movie poster

Annabelle is about the doll from The Conjuring. Its about how it ended up in that creepy office of creepy stuff in that movie and what happened before the family that first encountered that thing. This movie is directed by John R. Leonetti, the director of photography of The Conjuring (2013), Mortal Kombat (1995), and director of Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997). He also directed Butterfly Effect 2 (2006).
So, everyone who watched the trailer of Annabelle, must think that its actually looks like a good horror movie. It’s a spin-off of The Conjuring, The Conjuring was awesome, and the director is also director of photography of Insidious (2010), and Insidious Chapter 2 (2013), so its going to be awesome. Well, it’s not ! This movie is a fail.
In my opinion, The Conjuring is one of the best horror movie so far this decade. I love Insidious, and I thought Insidious 2 is pretty good. So there is no real reason why I shouldn't want to like this movie, and I do want to like this movie but the movie is filled and populated with the idiotic characters that are so dumb, that you just can’t care about them at all.
Its such a predictable Scary Movie 2 because you have this sweet loving couple —you know, they have a baby on the way, everything is perfect, they’re smiling all the time, he’s a doctor, they have tons of money, they are so wonderful and happy together— and of course they get this “doll”.
Who in the hell would bring this thing into their house. I was just waiting for some character to come into the scene and be like “Dude, why do you have that doll?” That is the creepiest looking doll I have ever seen in my life. Who in the world would put that in their babies room, right over their carriage. No one in their right mind would ever have that doll.
But it’s a horror film okay? Its meant to scare you. Does it scare you? I think there are some moment, if you’re more of a lightweight when it comes to scary movies, this movie will have you crap in your pants. Its jump scare after jump scare.
But with this movie the scare were so obvious, there is a really wide shot with the character sitting on a couch and over on the left side of the frame is an open doorway you can see down a hall. You know something will walk by the hall. You just know its going to happen, whatever obviously about to happen and it will happen. Because there’s not that much suspense building in the actual film making in the construction up the scary scenes.
There’s a ton of sound effects that are supposed to make you feel as if something scary is happening but the film making doesn't work hand in hand with that, because it was so obvious whenever scare was about to take place. There’s only one or two affected moments in this movie particularly an elevator staircase sequence that I actually thought was really cool. Beside that the scares in this movie just didn't scare me at all. The characters were dull, wooden and lifeless. I didn't give a crap about anyone in this movie, they were the stupidest horror characters ever.
Hey you should probably call the police honey, because there was a scream next door,” and he's like “No, they’re just want us to come over and look, they wouldn't want us to call police, I’ll go and check by myself.” If you hear a scream next door and all the light in the house go out, of course you call the police. You don’t go there by yourself.
Another dumb moment is when the lead woman is talking to a police officer about his investigation into a murder. Two people were murdered by a cult in the area, she asked the officer, “Did you look into the cult?” and he goes, “Why would you want me to investigate the cult?”. I don’t know! Maybe because they murdered two people right next door of the women and then came in her house and tried to kill her too? Maybe that’s why you should investigate the cult.
This movie is really dumb, I’m sorry. This movie had some scary moments, it had some creepy moments, it was slightly better directed then some other horror films out there. But it's a really dumb movie with predictable scares that was just kind of boring in all honesty. Annabelle was a very disappointing movie, it is not even close to being as good as The Conjuring.
So, if you guys did see The Conjuring, what did you think about that movie? Do you agree with me that its a pretty damn good horror film? And if you do decide to see Annabelle, what do you think about that one too?


Director: John R. Leonetti
Writer: Gary Dauberman
Stars: Ward Horton, Annabelle Wallis, Alfre Woodard
Duration: 99 min
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