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Freedom Writers (2007)
Freedom to Not Watch This Movie
Freedom Writers(2007)
Mrs. Gruwell(Swank) is a new teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. She is from a good neighborhood and is shocked when she sees the quality of the students at Long Beach. Mrs. Gruwell is dedicated to her job though, and will stop at nothing to turn the school around. This was based on a true story.
Freedom Writers has poor character development. Mrs. Gruwell just barely avoids being the perfect girl. Her problems are just that she is a little dorky and her marriage runs into few tiny problems while at Long Beach. Steve Gruwell(Glenn) is even less developed that Mrs. Gruwell, as he is just a role filler. The main problem of the characters is the students. They act as just one group, and not as individuals. The film never takes any times to show us in depth any of their problems. There's the guy that has problems with his dad, the guy that saw his friend get shot, and the girl that has problems with her dad, but that's as far as they go. Also, the students change way too quickly and put their problems behind them pretty easily.
It's interesting that Freedom Writers is based on a true story, but the execution on bringing the story to film was done poorly. Most of the time it's either predictable or melodramatic. The saddest part of it is that they try to make it dramatic when they read Anne Frank's Diary. It could almost be called copyright infringement. Going into the movie you know everything is going to turn out alright, but the film doesn't even try to put us in doubt. There are barely any obstacles put in the freedom writers dream of becoming fine, outstanding citizens. We have the vice principal that doesn't approve of what Ms.Gruwell is doing, but that's the biggest obstacle in their path. Also, the ending is watching the freedom writers type their story and a small argument on whether Mrs. Gruwell can teach the students in their Junior and Senior years. Fascinating.
The directing of Freedom Writers is bad because the director never creates an effective atmosphere. We never really feel the pain that the students are going through. The lighting is very bland and never helps create a mood. He never uses the right shots to maximize the setting's potential. The cinematography is also bad, as it appears they could've filmed this on a cheap camera and film. When you have 35mm film looking like 16mm film, you know something's wrong. The music is overdone and melodramatic, but with the quality of the writing it would be hard to avoid. On the upside, we do have some pretty good songs that fit the film perfectly. I will also say though it is obvious they tried to make a good movie.
The actual acting of Freedom Writers is OK, but the casting was terrible. The students of the film are supposed to be 14/15, but we have actors that are 20 to 27 years old playing them. I did a little research into this and the youngest of the actors was seventeen years old. This makes many lines come off as extremely camping. We one actor says,"Even though I have only lived a short fourteen years, I have seen many things." It makes you think the next line coming is " When I was twenty two years old, I changed my identity to a fourteen year old, because having been held back eight years was too embarrassing."
BAKED FRESH BOTTOM LINE 3/10
Pros: Songs Interesting that it's based off a true story They tried! :)
Cons: Character Development Poor execution of story Directing Music Casting
Rating Information PG-13 1. Violent Content a. fights break out 2. Language a. Some cursing
Cast
Hillary Swank - Mrs. Gruwell
Patrick Dempsey - Scott Casey
Scott Glenn - Steve Gruwell
April Hernandez - Eva Benitez
Directed by: Richard LaGravenese
Review Written by: Kenny Stice
Hancock (2008)
Review: Hancock (2007)
Hancock
Will Smith is the king of the fourth of July weekend, which has led to him receiving the nickname Mr. July. Will Smith's first fourth of July weekend movie was Independence Day. After its success other movies like Men In Black 1 and 2 and Wild Wild West were also released on July 4th. So, is Hancock a worthy addition to Smith's Fourth of July movies, or is it another July 4th failure like Transformers?
Hancock(Smith) is one of only two superheroes left in the world. He is hated by the public because he leaves millions of dollars in damage after stopping a crime. After he saves the life of Ray Embrey(Bateman), they enter a partnership to help fix Hancock's image with the public. They send Hancock to prison so the public can miss him. After the crime rate soars, Hancock leaves prison a changed man. He cleans up the crime, but starts to enter a risky relationship with Mary Embrey(Theron). He will then learn about his past and his possibilities for the future.
Hancock's characters start off promising, but don't go anywhere after the first act. Hancock is a very unique led obviously, as the movie bears his name. After the first act though, he's done changing and becomes Mr.Perfect. Ray Embrey is a man trying to change the world, but is currently failing. I think a lot of us can sympathize with the guy. Mary Embrey is the one of the worst developed characters and she hurt the movie the most. Her character doesn't go anywhere and there is nothing special about her. The same goes for her child. Hancock has terrible, last second villains. They barely ever speak, and worst of all, they're just regular people with guns.
Hancock's plot had promise, but the execution was terrible. The structure is the worst that I've seen in a long time. The first act tries to do too much, while the second and third act is stretched to make the movie long enough. The movie also switches genres from a light hearted action/comedy to a serious drama. The first act, the action/comedy, was fun to watch and made it look as though this was going to be one of the best movies of the summer. The second act came though, and it switched to being a drama. There is a nice twist, but it isn't well made enough to be called good drama, and wasn't very entertaining. Hancock has a terrible ending. The climax is an easily won battle in a hospital, but that isn't the worst. The resonance at the end was stupid and one of the most illogical things ever seen on film. Hancock puts a heart on the moon for Ray and Mary. Did he use the blood of humans to paint it, since buying paint would cost at least two billion dollars? Did he enslave NASA workers to paint it, since if only he did it, it would take at least five years? Are Ray and Mary really that stupid they need someone to tell them there's a big heart on the moon?
Hancock has a very bland setting. The city apparently has a very high crime rate, but it seems as though everything is going just dandy. Batman has Gotham City. Spider-Man has New York City. Hancock has just another run of your mill city. The prison was a very boring place and it wasn't even a very scary one. The hospital was a terrible setting for the ending.
Hancock has bad directing, mainly because of the action scenes. They are filmed very poorly because the director moves the camera around very fast to try and create an atmosphere, but it does the exact opposite. He never creates an effective atmosphere, and never uses the right shots to maximize the setting's potential, if there's any. Hancock has OK cinematography. It doesn't take away from the film, but not as good as Iron Man or The Dark Knight(basing it off the trailer). Hancock has bad music. The action music barely adds anything to the movie, and the dramatic music is overdone and takes you out of the story.
Hancock actually has good acting. Will Smith is always a good lead, and he doesn't mess up. He has good chemistry with the other actors and always brings his own style to the role. Will Smith is also great with body language, which is he has shown in Pursuit of Happiness, I Am Legend, and Hancock. Jason Bateman does a good job with his role and was the perfect person to play the part. Charlize Theron is the weakest of the three actors, but she's still OK.
So, Hancock isn't as good as Men in Black or Independence Day, but it's better than Wild Wild West.
BAKED FRESH FILM BOTTOM LINE 4/10
Pros: Acting First Act Nice Twist
Cons: Character Development Structure Switches genres Action scenes filmed poorly/ rest of directing Music Setting
Rating Information PG-13 1. Sci-fi Action and Violence a. Hancock fighting crime 2. Language a. One F-Bomb and other cursing
Cast
Will Smith - John Hancock
Jason Bateman - Ray Embrey
Charlize Theron - Mary Embrey
Directed by: Peter Berg
Review Written by: Kenny Stice
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
Prince Nauda, an exiled elf, tries to take control of the human world by controlling the Golden Army. To do this, he will need all three sections of the crown that controls the Golden Army. He steals the first from an auction, kills his father to get the second, and must hunt down his sister to get the third. Hellboy and his team of outcasts have to clean up the monsters that Nauda leaves behind, while tracking down Nauda before he controls the indestructible Golden Army.
Hellboy 2 has a decently interesting story, but it could've been better. We're given a reason why a bad guy should fight a good guy, and then the action takes off. The inventive creatures do make it more original. One problem with it is that most of the fights are won too easily. Either the bad guys win without breaking a sweat, or Hellboy wins while cracking jokes and getting angry that he lost his cigar. The movie is clichéd at times, most notable when Hellboy saves the city, but everyone hates him just because he's different. The subplots with the relationships of Hellboy/Liz and Abe/The Princess are interesting because of the men's bad relationship skills. Hellboy 2 has a decent ending, but there's nothing that separates it from the rest of summer blockbusters.
Hellboy 2 has good character development. Hellboy is a like able bad ass, but he doesn't come across as a stereotype. Hellboy ranks on the same level with other heroes like Hancock and The Hulk, but isn't quite as interesting as Iron Man or Indiana Jones. Prince Nauda is one of the best developed villains we've had in a long time. He's a very classy villain, and has redeemable qualities. All of Hellboy's supporting heroes are well developed. They all act very distinctly in action and have their individual quirks.
Hellboy 2's dialogue is acceptable most of the time, but screws up sometimes when the character's try to make jokes. There is some subtext with it, and it rarely states the obvious. Some of the jokes are funny, but most of them fall flat on their face.
Hellboy 2 has very unique settings. The station for the Golden Army is very unique with its grand scale and its entrance way. The troll market is interesting as well, and it is cool how much resemble real world markets, but just with different creatures and much weirder merchandise. The headquarters for the U.S. paranormal defense is much more interesting than most government buildings, with its luxurious rooms and aqua tanks for Abe.
Guillermo Del Toro is a good director and doesn't fail. He uses the right shots to emphasize certain moments or to use the setting to their full potential. He evokes the right atmosphere all the time. He never screws up with the lighting. The cinematography is great. It takes away the feeling that we're watching a film.
The music helps enhance the film sometimes, but fails some of the time. It's usually over the top when it tries to be dramatic in one on one conversations. The sound editing is OK, but never fails like the music. The creature designs are the best part of the movie. All of the creatures are very original. The tooth fairies are creepy little things, and the Earth element monster is menacing in its own way. The creatures are never ridiculous or go over the top with trying to be different. The special effects are amazing and you never once doubt that they are fake.
The acting is acceptable. The cast doesn't give good performances, but they never go wrong. Ron Perlman does a good job of capturing the attitude of his character, but doesn't have too much chemistry with the rest of the cast. No one in the film gives a bad performance, and I think that's good enough for an action flick.
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is one of the better films of 2008 so far. You could skip it, but it is a better movie than Get Smart or Prince Caspian.
BAKED FRESH FILM BOTTOM LINE 7/10
Pros: Character Development Creature Designs Settings Special Effects Directing and Cinematography
Cons: Fights too easily won Clichéd some of the time Music Some of the jokes fall flat on their face
Rating Information PG-13 1. Sci-Fi action and violence A. Fighting 2. Some Language A. Cursing, but it never gets dirty.
Cast
Ron Perlman - Hellboy
Selma Blair - Liz
Luke Goss - Prince Nauda
Doug Jones- Abe Sapien
Directed by: Guillermo Del Toro
Review Written by: Kenneth Stice
Get Smart (2008)
Get Smart
Get Smart
Get Smart is a 2008 summer comedy. It made 38 million in its first weekend and is on track to break 100 million at the box office. After Evan Almighty, pressure was on Steve Carrell to deliver a good movie. So, did he make a comedy worthy of your money, or is this another flop like Evan Almighty?
Maxwell Smart(Carell) is an analyst for the spy group CONTROL. After pressure is put on CONTROL to put down the evil organization known as KAOS, Maxwell is promoted to the rank of agent. His partner is Agent 99(Hathaway) a much better and experienced agent. The two agents must sort out their differences and bring down KAOS until it's too late.
Get Smart has mediocre character development. Maxwell is a decent lead character, as we know some about his background and personality. Agent 99 is also a decent romantic interest, as she avoids being the perfect girl. The supporting characters are where the movie goes wrong. Siegfried(Stamp) is nothing more than a bad guy that's all evil and has no redeemable qualities. The other bad guys are equally underdeveloped, with the exception of the big guy. The Chief(Arkin) has OK development, and the rest of the agents are underdeveloped.
Get Smart provides laughs, but the story is actually quite terrible. We have our one dimensional bad guys who want to blow up the world, and that's as far as the plot goes. The journey of Smart and Agent 99 has a lot of laughs, especially in one scene where Smart tries to use a mini harpoon gun, and keeps hitting himself. Other funny scenes include a dance off and the journey through a sewer. Get Smart has a terrible ending. It seems way too easily resolved, and everything ends up too perfect. There was one good laugh in it, but that was it for the ending.
Get Smart has bad settings. There's nothing special about them. The headquarters for CONTROL aren't cool the least bit, and the headquarters for KOAS aren't the least bit menacing. The rest of the settings are just your average plane, sewer, building, etc.
Get Smart has bad directing. He doesn't create any kind of atmosphere in the movie. We never get a feeling for the settings, since he doesn't use the right shots. The lighting is bland. The music in Get Smart is OK. It doesn't add anything to the movie, but it never screws up. The same goes for the sound editing.
The acting in Get Smart is equal to the character development. Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway give good performances as the lead characters. They know quite a bit about comedic timing, and they have good chemistry together. There is a useless cameo by Bill Murray. All of the supporting actors give bad performances. Alan Arkin's performance during the ending is terrible. I almost thought that he wanted Maxwell to die because he should've evoked a sense of emergency, but sleep acts in his performance. Overall, Terence Stamp gave the worst performance as Siegfried.
So, I still haven't seen a good Steve Carell movie after The 40 Year Old Virgin. Get Smart is better than Evan Almighty, but that isn't saying much. On an artistic level, Get Smart has only one good thing going for it which is the leads. Get Smart does have a decent amount of laughs though, so that does save it some.
BAKED FRESH BOTTOM LINE 4/10
Pros: Lead characters and actors Has a decent amount of good jokes.
Cons: Supporting actors and characters Story Setting Directing
Cast
Steve Carell - Maxwell Smart
Anne Hathaway - Agent 99
Terence Stamp - Siegfried
Alan Arkin - The Chief
Directed By: Peter Segal
Review Written by: Kenny Stice
Wanted (2008)
Wanted
Wanted
Wanted is one of the biggest blockbusters of 2008. It was based on loosely on the comic book miniseries by Mark Miller. It was directed by Timur Bekmambetov, and this was his first American film after the very popular Russian film series, Night Watch. It made over 50 million in its first week and came in second at the box office.
Wesley Gibson(McAvoy) is a nobody trapped in a boring world. His wife cheats on him, his best friend is a backstabber, and he has a boss that won't get off his back. When an assassin named Fox(Jolie) tries to initiate him into the Fraternity, his life is changed forever. He learns that his father was one of the best assassins in the world, and he must no walk in his footsteps. He leaves his nothing life and joins the Fraternity. He must undergo a grueling initiation, and then hunt down the man that killed his father.
Wanted has decent character development. Wesley Gibson is a three-dimensional main character. He has problems with his drone life, and has a desire to get out of it, but never tries to do anything about it until the assassins come along. He is given unique personality traits like apologizing too much, and this does become funny later in the movie when it becomes sarcastic. Wesley changes a lot in the movie, something that is missing from most action flicks. The problem with the character development is that supporting characters are lacking. Sloan(Freeman) is the leader of the fraternity, and he doesn't become anything more than Morgan's usual Mr.Wise. A secret about him is revealed at the end, but it still doesn't help too much. Fox doesn't become anything more than the awesome assassin. The only thing they did to help develop her was to give her some background information. She could'vie had less development, but she still needed more. Cross, the man who we think is the main enemy, isn't very well developed either. He is in the same boat as Fox. He's given background information, but is rarely seen doing something other than shooting a gun. The other fraternity members don't have any characterization at all, like the Repair Man and the Gunsmith. Some of the characters are even stereotypes, like the mean boss and the snobby girlfriend.
Wanted has a good plot. It is structured well, with Wesley not being able to turn back after Act 1, and a great setup for the climax after Act 2. There is even symbolism in the movie with a draw bridge coming apart. It symbolized the end of Wesley's old life. There are many obstacles put in Wesley's path of killing Cross. The screenwriter made sure that becoming a Fraternity member wasn't an easy challenge. Wesley has to suffer through multiple beatings, fighting an expert with knives, and other grueling challenges. There is a great twist in the middle of the movie, which made the movie way better. The ending is very entertaining. It starts off with a big bang that was planted since the beginning of Wesley's life with the Fraternity. There is constant fighting with some very creative kills. There is even a very nice trap set for the lead villain. One problem was that the action was either overdone or illogical in parts. In one scene, Wesley hits a man with a keyboard, and letters fly off spelling a phrase I'm not aloud to repeat. Also, some of the car stunts are stretched too far.
Wanted does have unique settings. Wesley's apartment being next to a train is a good setting because it shows how sad his life is and foreshadows later events. The office is a good place to show how average his life is. The textile mill is a good place to put the Fraternity as it seems true to what the Fraternity is about. The meat packing part of the Fraternity is cool also and makes for a good place to fight. The battle on the train was good for the hot spot of the middle, and it was even better to place to on thin tracks going across two mountains. This leads to much more tension in the battle when the train falls off.
Wanted has a very good director. It was a smart choice to pick a foreign director to get a new perspective on things. There is good lighting. It's bleak in Wesley's apartment, well lit in the office(like all of them), and it is about as dark as it should get The director does a good job of adding to the atmosphere. In the beginning we feel like we're stuck in a suck life. The Fraternity has a gritty, yet stylish feel to it. The music in Wanted is great, and it adds a lot to the atmosphere. We also have a few good rock songs thrown into the mix.
The special effects aren't award winning, but they're good. The train falling off the tracks and cars jumping over each other look believable. The sound editing is good too, with the sounds of bullets hitting people and cars running into each other sounding very real.
The acting is great. Morgan Freeman is always a good actor, although I would like to see him in a different role. James McAvoy played a great lead, reminiscent Edward Norton in Fight Club. Angelina Jolie was the weakest of the group, but she was still believable. She also should'vie been the weakest as she had worse material to work with than McAvoy. The minor actors, like Wesley's best friend, do good jobs.
One Missed Call (2008)
I can't believe I thought this wouldn't suck
***Please, if you have not seen this movie don't vote no on it just because its a bad review.
This movie was so bad. It makes OK movies like The Grudge look like masterpieces. First, the one and only good thing about this movie was it built decent suspense in some parts. That being said, the pay off was horrible. We would always get some bad CGI, a copy off of something that was in another movie(1408 is a clue), or an average death that is filmed horribly just so that the movie won't be R. The character development is THE WORST I have seen in any movie, and thats including all the very low budget horror movies. The detective doesn't have a personality, he's just kind of a machine that spits out dialog. The main character is so stupid, its unbelievable. There have been unintentionally stupid characters throughout time, but none have been so stupid that I had to shake my head at them. The side characters are worse. You just remember them as hot Latin chick, guy friend, and the other friend. Of course, that means you don't care for their deaths. The plot was pretty stupid, they just shove some random crap in their so they could have an ending. When the film ends, it made me mad because they took too long to show credits, so you think something else will happen, but then the credits just roll. And if the screenwriter had a brain, he would know that cell phones aren't scary, its the idea of hearing your own death. But of course, we just have to have a cell phone in every scene, and this ruins what could be some good scares. On one last note, there was a really embarrassing scene that we're supposed to take serious, but you just laugh your head off at the stupidity. Overall, a 3/10