Movie Review: Gone Girl (2014)

When I go into a two and a half hour movie, I know that for at least a part of it, I'll completely tune out. Gone Girl didn't do that to me when I was watching it. It's about this guy who has to deal with his wife who has gone missing. This movie is fascinating because it does everything right that a movie could do. The acting was excellent. Ben Affleck is so good in this role, that you can literally feel what he feels. You feel the void for the wife who's gone missing mysteriously. Another thing this movie does well is with the way the story flows. There are lots of twists and turns that you don't expect coming. The movie could really end at a couple different points, but it doesn't do that, it keeps going on. This movie is the definition of a three star film, every award that could be given to this film, should be given to this movie. Going into it, I thought it was going to be borderline horror flick, but it's not. It has chilling elements in it, but it doesn't have horror elements in it. I feel obliged to mention Tyler Perry in his role as a lawyer. He's the only minor source of comic relief in this film. I said that this wasn't a horror film, but it has some scenes that are really intense to watch. Especially towards the end, there is blood. Good acting, interesting and complicated story, plus Tyler Perry who's awesome. Three stars.

Movie Review: Ouija (2014)

Sometimes when I watch horror movies, I don't get scared at all by the movie. However, there is still a chance for the movie to be good if everything else (acting, storyline, twists and turns) are successful. Ouija is one of those movies. I really enjoyed watching this movie, admitting of course that the movie is  no way on the path to the Oscars. This film tells the story of this group of friends who are reunited after one of their friends commits suicide. At first, they don't know what happened, but then they start to peace things together, and bit by bit it becomes clear that she found an Ouija board and it possessed her and led to her demise. Yes, the plot is kind of cheesy. The actual movie is pretty entertaining though, I only vaguely recognized one of the male actors, but the movie had some really solid performances inside of it. Not all of the acting was great, some of it was low budget horror acting, the other portion of the acting was pretty fun to watch. Is this movie scary? Yes and no. What is scary? Well, the sound effects are bound to make you jump, it will be silent and then all of a sudden...............WHOOSH. There are some jump scenes that get you for a second, and then you take a look at what it was and you realize that nothing even horror related was the culprit. Often times, this movie overuses these devices, which is disappointing because horror movies that do that usually don't become cult hits later. Does this mean this will never be a cult hit? No, it could absolutely become a movie that has a stronger fan base than box office performance. That's actually really common for horror movies, most people don't like to go to a comfortable movie theater and be scared by things, that doesn't make an enjoyable time for some people. Others don't mind it though. Overall, Ouija lacks some scares, resolves to horror cliches, and the acting is so-so. It does have a good opening segment though. Two stars.

Movie Review: The Butterfly Effect (2004)

I'm reviewing Butterfly Effect for two reasons: 1) To just review the quality of the film, (2 To explain why this movie is brilliant. The Butterfly Effect is a 2004 psychological thriller film starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart. Otherwise known as the two people who's faces are creepily close in the photo above. Kutcher stars as this guy who went through a bunch of dark and traumatic experiences as a kid. Then as an adult, he discovers he can access these memories through these journals he kept, and he can actually inhabit his past self from the present. However, when the memories of the past are changed, the present is effected, and it's mainly not in a positive way. This movie does a great job of showing traumatic experience. This kid literally had a crappy childhood, and the fact of the matter is that no adult seemed to really support him when he was younger. His mother is nice, but none of the events that he personally struggles from involve her stepping in. She's still a good character though. As he starts fixing the past, he goes through a variety of different outcomes for how the present and maybe even the future could be. This movie was criticized when it was released for a lot of reasons. Acting, disturbing scenes, and just way too dramatic made up the negative part of this movie's critque. Overall, Butterfly Effect is a great role from Kutcher (his best maybe?) and offers a theory that is actually real in society today. Three stars.

Movie Review: Magic (1978)

It might seem out of place for me to be reviewing 70s horror movies, but this one is an exception. Anthony Hopkins's first real role in a feature film, found him playing an average Joe who is taken over by his ventriloquist dummy. This movie plays off of ideas that we see all the time in horror movies today. Possessed dolls, possessed people, and most of all: possession. The movie has a pretty simple plot, a guy played by Anthony Hopkins becomes interested in doing ventriloquism. Back in those days, dummy's with oversized eyes were considered to be objects of hobbies. People actually really got into this hobby during the seventies and eighties. However, in 2015, dummies are considered to be really freaking creepy. As he gets more involved with puppetry, he slowly gets taken over by this dummy and becomes murderous. Or is it the puppet? Overwll, Magic is a creepy, but great and well acted film that debuted acclaimed actor Anthony Hopkins. Three stars.

Movie Review: Batman and Robin (1997)

It's interesting, I wasn't expecting that one of the worst movies ever made would be a Batman flick. Now get me straight, I don't completely agree with that statement. However, as a product of film criticism, B&R has been labeled as one of worst films ever made. The plot runs like this, Mr Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is trying to unfreeze his cryogenically frozen wife using diamonds. He then teams up with Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman) and Bane to help him get to the diamonds. Where is Batman and Robin in all this? They both are trying to stop Mr Freeze from freezing all of Gotham City. Is this movie terrible? No, in fact it's not even one of the worst movies I've seen. I think the reason why people dislike these are because they're comparing them to The Dark Knight trilogy. That's a problem, because they are two very different franchises with different tones. The 1990s live action Batman films were supposed to have action and be enjoyable, entertaining, and fun to watch. Dark Knight is a darker version of Batman's story. It's not supposed to be compared to these movies. Alright, so what did I honestly think of this movie? It's not a great movie at all. As JsremyJahns on YouTube says, you can pretty much decipher every scene in this film and find something wrong with it. I completely agree with his statement, this movie is filled with flaws. Not just in the scenes themselves, but with things like logic and screenplay. It's almost like the movie is meant to be a spoof of Batman and Robjn, not an actual adaption of the duo. Batgirl is a character in this movie. I have no problem with gender neutral superheroes and medial role models. However, you can almost literally hear the director trying to make the film gender neutral. Overall, Batman and Robjn is an entertaining film, but it has flaws that deduct from what could have been a more successful film. Two stars.

 

Movie Review: A Time to Kill (1996)

Is it ok to harm someone who has committed an extremely sinful crime? Can crime be punished with more crime? What are the human limits? All of these questions are addressed in A Time to Kill. This is an adaption of a novel by John Grisham. Which means that they will have a star cast. Joel Schumaccer directed this film, and to be honest the film has some really good things and some not so good things. Let's start with the good. The acting in this film is unbelievably good. The role that to me was awesome was Kevin Spacey. He pulls off a southern accent that sounds almost as real as Forrest Gump. Plus, everyone else in the movie is just really intense and they all have good chemistry with one another. Another thing that's good? The storyline. Yeah, a young child's assault is not fun to watch, and the movie does have some really uncomfortable scenes in it. However, the case is a product of the overlying theme in the film which is racism. The story runs like this, a young black girl is assaulted by these two guys who have been drinking. Then the girls dad (Samuel L Jackson) goes after the drunk dudes and kills them on there way to court. This of course sets the stage for another legal storyline. What needs improvement? Only really one thing needs to be changed. It's the length. Here's the thing about length, most movies can use length really well as a means of telling a story. However, some movies take a short-medium sized story and stretch the movie out so they don't have to rush anything. That's the problem with this movie. It takes too long to get going. By the end of the movie, it's all just one big court case anyway, I had myself wondering when this was going to rap up. Overall, A Time to Kill is a very good, but way too long legal thriller. Three stars.