joshuadrake-91275's Reviews

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

10/10

The Force Awakens is a definitive return to the epic Star Wars saga. Fans will be pleased.

16 December 2015

Warning: Spoilers

Here's my review of the latest installment in the STAR WARS saga, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens or Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Yes, Episode VII, even though Revenge of the Sith was supposed to be the last STAR WARS theatrically released movie. Where do you go from here? Disney buys Lucasfilm, announces new trilogy, Episode VII is released. This is a 2015 film directed, written and produced by J.J Abrams (who directed Star Trek '09, Star Trek Into Darkness and M:I-III).

Now, the plot of this movie is this: The Force Awakens is set approximately 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, where the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire have become the Resistance and the First Order, respectively, and follows new leads Finn, Rey, and Poe Dameron alongside characters returning from previous Star Wars films and what do you know? They have to fight Kylo Ren, who is the leader of the First Order.

What I thought of this movie? I really, really enjoyed this movie. I'm going to keep this short and sweet because this movie will be released on Friday, but the acting was amazing. Harrison Ford as Han Solo, he's still amazing as this character and I was impressed. Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia was wonderful in the part as always in the original trilogy. It was great seeing Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2-D2 (once again played by Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker). The new characters are played by newcomer Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac. I liked the characters of Poe, Finn and Rey, they were amazing characters.

Nothing feels forced in this movie at all. Not even the direction and tone. J.J. Abrams did a wonderful job directing this film. The script is fantastic. Michael Ardnt, Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan all did a good job putting the movie's screenplay together. The visual effects are just brilliant, like I said, nothing feels forced. Some of the effects are practical, but there is not a whole use of CGI, which I appreciated. The score composed once again by John Williams was very awesome and I still get excited whenever I hear the Star Wars theme.

The action is insane. This movie had a $200 million dollar budget and knew how to use it and bring it to life on screen. You have the cool space battles on new planets, stormtroopers, even a scene where the Millennium Falcon is being chased by the other ships. There is some comedy in here and it was great. The ending, I don't want to spoil, but you have to see the movie to see what it is.

I forgot to mention Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker. I was a little worried that he was going to turn over and join the Dark Side, but I was amazed that he didn't. He's in this movie, but not that much. I hope he gets more screen time in Episode VIII, coming out in 2017, and in Episode IX, coming in 2019. Again, this movie was amazing. A masterpiece. One of my best films and most anticipated movies of this year that people said would suck, was amazing.

This movie was excellent and I had fun with this movie. I can't wait to see this movie again. Everything was amazing, but I do have a few nitpicks, but overall, I enjoyed this movie.

I know it's going to be plenty of people who's going to criticize this movie when it comes out, but I don't care. I thought I never say something like this, but I hope this movie makes over a billion dollars.

My rating: 10/10 - Epictastic, a masterpiece and an excellent return to the Star Wars movie franchise.

The Force Awakens is a definitive return to the epic Star Wars saga and fans will be pleased, but some fans will hate this movie.

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)

6/10

My least-favorite of the Hunger Games movie, but still enjoyable if only for the action and superb acting.

7 October 2015

Well, I have done the first two so I decided to go on and review the other two films in the Hunger Games franchise.

Here is my review of THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY - PART 1.

The story continues to follow Katniss Everdeen; having twice survived the Hunger Games, Katniss finds herself in District 13. Under the leadership of President Coin and the advice of her trusted friends, Katniss reluctantly becomes the symbol of a mass rebellion against the Capitol and fights to save Peeta and a nation moved by her courage.

Now, what I think of this movie. The reason why I am so confused is because I don't hate this movie, but I will say that this might be my least-favorite of the HG movies.

This movie has gotten some unfair hate from critics and fans for " lack of action and for splitting the novel into two separate adaptations.", but it has gotten some nice reviews for the acting.

The acting is strong here again. You have all of the cast members returning including Jennifer Lawrence, who is still attractive as Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne. The rest of the cast includes Julianne Moore as President Coin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Evan Ross, Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy, Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket, Julianne Moore as President Alma Coin, Donald Sutherland as President Coriolanus Snow, Stanley Tucci, Jeffrey Wright, Sam Claflin and Natalie Dormer, who I think is beautiful and I have recently seen her in the movie "Rush".

The action is sort of lacking in this film because it's in two parts, but this is only the first part so what do you expect? I can't wait for Part 2, it's gonna be packed with action. The music is composed once again by James Newton Howard and the soundtrack is awesome with songs from Coldplay and Imagine Dragons.

The script is not that strong, but it's still okay for this film and I really do like that this film is setting up the epic finale, setting up the end, but I think this movie could have used a lot more action.

The costume and production design is really not horrible either and I give credit to the franchise for being awesome, but it's so messed up that this is the lowest-rated film in this series, as it has a rating of 65% on Rotten Tomatoes and the general consensus is: "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 sets up the franchise finale with a penultimate chapter loaded with solid performances and smart political subtext, though it comes up short on the action front." and in it's own way, it is stupid but it's also really not that bad.

The visual effects and action sequences are good as well, so, overall, with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, I both love it and hate it. I like the acting, script, score, soundtrack, visuals, production techniques, but I hate some of the scenes and the lack of action.

6/10.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

10/10

An excellent movie adaptation of a very good book .

5 October 2015

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a 2011 Swedish-American mystery thriller film based on the novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson. This film adaptation was directed by David Fincher and written by Steven Zaillian. Starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.

Mikael Blomkvist is a financial journalist who has been convicted of libel after writing and publishing an article about billionaire financier Hans-Erik Wennerström, that was proved in court to have faulty evidence. After Blomkvist resigns from his position at Millennium Magazine, he is approached by Henrik Vanger for his assistance. Vanger asks him to officially write his memoirs, but to unofficially investigate the dissaperance of his niece, Harriet Vanger, that occurred over 40 years ago. Salander is a ward of the state due to a declaration of incompetence. As Blomkvist begins to investigate the massive Vanger family he realizes he has need for assistance, thus prompting Henrik Vanger to hire Salandar. As the two investigate deeper and deeper into the history of the Vanger family they discover secrets about more than they ever expected.

I liked this movie. The direction by David Fincher was very executed, there were times where I thought that the movie was a little slow or boring but it is David Fincher directing this. The script sticks a little more closer to the original source material that was written by the author Steig Larsson, but the screenplay is written by Steve Zaillian.

The musical score is composed by Trent Renzor and Atticus Ross, who won an Oscar for the 2010 film, "The Social Network", also starred Mara and directed by David Fincher, who also directed another one of my crime thriller favorites, "Seven", starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman and the opening title sequence just blew me away, I could not believe that the title sequence alone told me what kind of film this was going to be and looking at the trailer itself, I remembered what kind of film this was.

The acting is superb. Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomkvist and he does a good job with the role, but he feels like he's acting like James Bond in a few scenes. Stellan Skarsgaard and Yorick van Wagnengian as the antagonists of the two main characters are just creepy. Robin Wright Penn was really good as Erika Berger. I liked the rest of the cast too, especially Joely Richardson and Christopher Plummer.

Now, let me talk about Rooney Mara, who plays the girl with the dragon tattoo herself, Lisbeth Salander. I like Rooney Mara and her sister Kate as actresses and I have not seen Rooney Mara in "The Social Network", but I will say that she was kind of bad in the Freddy Krueger remake as Nancy, but I will defend her and say that she tried. Mara, as Lisbeth, is really good and she's better than Noomi Rapace, who played Lisbeth in the original trilogy, but Rooney Mara, she poured everything into this role, from getting piercings, getting the tattoos put on her, and even kissing James Bond himself, Daniel Craig. She deserved to win that Oscar and I am so upset that she didn't get it.

I would definitely be interested in seeing the other two novels be directed by Fincher and starred Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig as the two main characters, but I still have to read the other two books in the series.

Overall, I'm giving The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a perfect score of 10 out of 10, it does have some things I hated, but I still think this was a really good interesting and entertaining film. This is the definition of an excellent movie adaptation of a very good book directed by one of the greatest directors of all time, David Fincher with an awesome screenplay, musical score and superb acting from everyone including the two powerhouse performances from Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.

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Transformers (2007)

9/10

The Autobots rises!

29 September 2015

I do my film review of the TRANSFORMERS movie franchise and I am going to start with the first installment of the franchise, released in 2007.

The film follows Sam Witwicky, a teenager who gets caught up in a war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, two factions of alien robots who can disguise themselves by transforming into everyday machinery.

The Autobots intend to use the AllSpark, the object that created their robotic race, in an attempt to rebuild Cybertron and end the war while the Decepticons desire control of the AllSpark with the intention of using it to build an army by giving life to the machines of Earth.

The film was developed in 2003 and the film went into production in 2006 and it was released on July 3, 2007 and the film was really amazing when I first saw the feature film and I was impress to see the Transformers on screen and I really did not know what they were until I went online and found out more about them.

The CGI and action sequences were amazing and the Autobots and the Decepticons were really created well with the help of computer-generated imagery and the final fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron is my favorite action sequence in the Transformers film released in 2007.

My favorite Transformer characters are Optimus Prime, Bumbleebee, Jazz and Ratchet. Peter Cullen does the voice of Optimus Prime and he does a great job. Mark Ryan does a really great job as Bumblebee. "Family Matters" actor Darius McCrary plays Jazz. Robert Foxxworthy plays Ratchet and they are both amazing in their performances. Hugo Weaving from V FOR VENDETTA and THE MATRIX TRILOGY does a really great job and it is amazing to hear him as Megatron.

The human characters are also great. Shia LaBeouf is really good as the lead, while Megan Fox is really hot and is amazing and she was the right choice to play the love interest of Shia LaBeouf and the two on-screen together is really amazing in this film. Tyrese Gibson is real cool. Josh Duhamel is really amazing too. Jon Voight, Anthony Anderson and Rachael Taylor plays their parts really amazing in their performances and the screen time they have.

Steve Jablonsky's score is really amazing in this film and I really enjoyed Linkin Park's song, "What I've Done" and I loved the music video and their other two songs from the other two films, "New Divide" and "Iridescent" in Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon and the song by Imagine Dragons from Age of Extinction is called "Battle Cry". I liked that song, too.

Overall, TRANSFORMERS is a perfect movie by all means and I am giving this a 9 out of 10.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

10/10

The best TRANSFORMERS movie ever made!

29 September 2015

Warning: Spoilers

This is a review of TRANSFORMERS: Age of Extinction, but this is going to be a review filled with only a few spoilers because i don't want to spoil too much.

After the destructive battle in Chicago, the human race no longer trust the Transformers. Under the order of government official Harold Attinger (played by Kelsey Grammar), the military forces are tasked to exterminate all of the Transformers, including the Autobots and Decepticons. As a result, the Autobots have gone into hiding, never to be seen again.

Five years later after the last film, a mechanic named Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg), purchases a rusty semi-truck, intending to sell it's parts for money to help his daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz) for college. But when they discover the truck is really the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, both Cade and Tessa bring the government, Decepticons and Autobots on them.

Meanwhile, humans and a man named Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) have created artificial Transformers of their own, but the newly-developed robots gain self-awareness and turned against the humans, this is caused by the Decepticon named Megatron, who is now called "Galvatron" (voiced by Frank Welker). With swelled ranks, the Decepticons plot to purge the Earth into extinction.

Now, Cade, Tessa and her boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor) and Optimus must band with the remaining Autobots and face the Decepticons once more and awaken the ancient Dinobots to save their home.

This movie has been called the worst-reviewed film of the Transformers film series, receiving only an 18% on RottenTomatoes.com and I am not going to say "Screw this movie" at all, but I will say that this is the one movie that should have gotten a lot of more nice things to say about it and hell, I have even read reviews on IMDb by users, saying that it's good, bad or just have mixed opinions on this film.

I liked this movie. I was sad that we did not have Shia LaBeouf in this one, but I like Mark Wahlberg as his character. His story is easy to understand because he does not have a lot of money, his daughter wants to do what she want to do and he is trying to invent something that will help her through college.

Nicola Peltz as the daughter, you want to know what I think about her? She is hot. She is a little complainer over things in the movie, but she is hot and her performance is not as bad as critics said. Jack Reynor as the boyfriend is amazing and he does a real good job and he is not bad as critics said.

Stanley Tucci is funny and serious as his character and he was really amazing and fantastic in his role. Kelsey Grammar is the movie's antagonist and he is just someone that you want to see killed at first.

***SPOILER ALERT!*** There is one scene at the end of the film is when Kelsey Grammar's character tries to kill Mark Wahlberg's character and he says to him that "It takes patience to make a man. The patience to watch and wait to protect all of us quietly for God and our country without any recognition at all!" and Optimus Prime says, "Cade!" and then Grammar's character says, "There are no good aliens or bad aliens, Yeager. It's just us and them! And you chose the Autobots over the humans!" and Optimus just takes him out and I watched that scene and that was cool.

The one criticism is that the film is almost three hours long - 165 minutes long - I will say it's long, but that is enough for me. It's as long as it should be, because, Hello! It's a Michael Bay movie. And in a Michael Bay film, you have CGI, lens flares and a lot of explosions in this film.

The CGI and the music is really cool and it is fantastic to see on screen and it was really fantastic to see Optimus Prime, Lockdown, Bumblebee and all of the Autobots and new Decepticons are really amazing. The script is written by Ehren Krueger and some of the acting is just dreadful in a few areas, but the rest of it is really cool and amazing in this damn movie.

I hope that the next TRANSFORMERRS film is better and an amazing film than this movie, which will be released in 2016, the three main actors has signed on to do three films and I would love to see more of Mark Wahlberg, Jack Reynor and Nicola Peltz.

Overall, I love TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION and if you were one of the people who hated this film the first time, just watch it again and you will find a great experience watching this.

10/10.

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Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

8/10

I don't get why people hate this movie!

29 September 2015

After the box office success and almost critically panned Transformers film that was REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, that was released in 2009, Paramount Pictures announced that they would be releasing future films in the Transformers saga.

The third film was titled DARK OF THE MOON and the film was released in the summer movie season of 2011. The film was the last film to have Shia LaBeouf in the film as Sam Witwicky and the end of the original trilogy of films.

The film is set three years after the events of the 2009 film, with the Autobots, during the collaboration with the NEST (Networked Elements: Supporters and Transformers) military force, discovering a hidden alien technology in possession of humans, which had been found by Apollo 11 on the years earlier. However, the Decepticons unveil a plan use the technology to enslave humanity in order to restore Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers.

The story was a really good story and it took inspiration from a novel called Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday, written by Alan Dean Foster. The novel was a prequel to the 2007 film, TRANSFORMERS. Due to the critically panned REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, the Twins were cut out of "Dark of the Moon".

The acting is just amazing, but can get dreadful. Shia LaBeouf plays Sam Witwicky one last time and he does a great job. Megan Fox was originally signed on to play Mikaela Banes in the third film, and Patrick Dempsey's character Dylan Gould was to be the employer of Fox's character, but she was fired, instead Victoria Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley plays Carly Spencer and she does a great job.

She is not as good as Fox but considering the shoes that she had to fill, she could have been a hell of a lot worse. Josh Duhamel, Kevin Dunn, Julie White and the rest of the cast are great in their performances, especially Tyrese Gibson, who was also in another 2011 film, Fast Five, which I previously reviewed.

The CGI is amazing and the action is so fantastic in this film and the best part is at the end of the film, and it was so long but I enjoyed it and the film is 154 minute long feature film.

The music by Steve Jablonsky is fantastic and much more cool and amazing was Linkin Park's song at the end of this movie.

Overall, TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON is not the best Transformers film, but it could have been worse.

8/10.

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

9/10

I don't hate this one! My second favorite in the series!

29 September 2015

Following the success of the first TRANSFORMERS, a sequel was announced for a summer 2009 release, but had to go through a lot before it was released and the Writers' Strike was one of them and the film received almost negative reviews from critics.

The plot revolves around Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), who is caught in the war between two factions of alien robots, the Autobots and the Decepticons. Sam is having hallucinatory episodes of Cybertronian symbols, and is being hunted by the Decepticons under the orders of an ancient Decepticon named The Fallen (Tony Todd), who seeks to get revenge on Earth by finding and activating a machine that would provide the Decepticons with an energon source, destroying the Sun and all life on Earth in the process.

The story is very incoherent, but I still watch this movie and like I said, this movie had a lot to go through before being released and I am not going to talk about this movie. My god, man. I can't hate this movie.

If there is one thing I hate about this movie, that is a scene where Optimus Prime is killed by Megatron and I did feel some emotion in the scene, but I almost cried because he was killed and did not come back into this film until before the end credits come on and when he comes back, it is okay, but I just did wish they did not kill him off in the middle portion of the film.

The visual effects on the Transformers are really amazing as hell and it was fantastic, but the CGI on the Fallen is a little off, but it is really amazing. The musical score by Steve Jablonsky is really amazing and the score is just fantastic as hell, especially with the other Transformers films and the scary movie remakes produced by Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, this includes the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday THE 13th remakes. The acting is amazing. Shia LaBeouf once again plays Sam Witwicky and he does an amazing job. Megan Fox is really hot and cool as Mikaela Banes and this would be her last TRANSFORMERS film, and I would have loved to have seen her play that character in the third film. Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson are cool in their roles, too. John Turturro is really funny, but there are scenes that the humor is taken way too far in this film.

Isabel Lucas as Alice is creepy and hot in the screen time that she has. The other person, Ramon Rodriguez is funny as hell as Leo in this film and I would have liked to have seen him in the third film as well.

This would be the last film to be distributed by DreamWorks Pictures as Paramount Pictures distributed future films in the franchise.

Overall, with TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, I love and hate this film and that's pretty much it. I give it a 5 out of 10 because I have the two-disc DVD and I watched the special features and even the documentary and I felt sorry for the filmmakers and cast doing this film, but they made one hell of a sequel. Critics should have gave this movie a lot of critical praise for this movie.

This is Michael Bay's worst reviewed films along with Pearl Harbor, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Bad Boys II.

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X-Men (2000)

8/10

Very underrated X-Men movie! But starts the franchise off strong!

24 September 2015

I am doing a superhero franchise review and it is X-MEN.

In 1994, 20th Century Fox and producer Prawan Singh bought the film rights to the X-Men. Andrew Kevin Walker was hired to write and James Cameron expressed interest in directing. Eventually, Bryan Singer signed on to direct in July 1996. Thought not a fan of the comic-books, Singer was fascinated by the analogies of prejudice and discrimination it offered.

John Logan, Joss Whedon, Ed Solomon, Christopher McQuarrie and David Hayter wrote the script, with Hayter receiving sole credit. Production began in September 1999 in Toronto, Canado and ended in March 2000.

The film was released on July 14, 2000 to positive reviews and critical success and spawned a reemergence of superhero films and it would prove to movie studios that superhero films could succeed.

The film introduces us to Wolverine and Rogue into the conflict between Professor Xavier's X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants, led by Magneto. Magneto intends to mutate world leaders at a United Nations summit with a machine he has built, to bring about acceptance of mutant kind, but Xavoer realizes this forced mutation will only result in their deaths.

Hugh Jackman was the perfect choice of Wolverine and this film would lead him into being in the sequels and two spin-offs and other movies including Van Helsing and Prisoners. Patrick Stewart plays Professor X and Ian McKellen plays Magneto and they were also really good casting choices.

Anna Paquin was the perfect choice to play Rogue / Marie and this would lead her into playing in "True Blood" as the main character, which ended in 2014 and my 25-year-old sister watches the show, but I don't. Famke Janssen and the rest of the cast were all cast perfectly in this film as their roles.

The action sequences were amazing and there is less CGI in this film because some of the visual effects are really amazing and this film only had a $75 million dollar budget and I really liked the way this movie turned out and the story is not action-packed, but I will say it is really amazing, but there is just one major flaw: This was 2000 and it did not make me feel any emotion for the characters, except for Wolverine and Rogue.

The musical score is really good and I think Michael Kamen did a really good job with his X-Men theme. But, I like John Ottman's X-MEN theme in the next film.

Overall, I like X-MEN, but the one thing that had me confused is that the story is not action-packed enough and it does not make me feel any emotion for the characters, except for Wolverine and Rogue. X-MEN is the reason why we have superhero films today like Batman Begins, Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Man of Steel, 300, Blade, Watchmen and of course, both The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

8/10.

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Batman & Robin (1997)

2/10

Stupid movie!

23 September 2015

BATMAN & ROBIN is horrible and this is not gonna be an in-depth review. Instead this is gonna be very short.

The story is stupid and insane and I tried to understand it, but I just couldn't after watching a couple of times. The acting is just dreadful including George Clooney as Batman / Bruce Wayne, but the only performance kind of worth mentioning is Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth.

The music is stupid and it does not feel like an action movie musical score. The pacing and editing is as stupid as the story of this film. The tone is way too light-hearted and the film is not very dark at all. This film was after BATMAN FOREVER was released in 1995. The direction stinks and Joel Schumacher should be ashamed of himself and is really stupid.

The costumes and visual effects and just crazy and out of control and is way too intense in this film, especially the Batman, Batgirl and Robin costume.

Overall, I hate BATMAN & ROBIN and I give it a 2 out of 10 because Michael Gough really tried to save this movie, but there is no saving this film at all.

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Batman Forever (1995)

7/10

It's not horrible

23 September 2015

BATMAN FOREVER is okay and this is short.

The film's story is okay, but it is very stupid as heck, also the direction is confusing but I love the story and direction. The costumes are really great in this film and this film is not as bad as critics said it is, but I miss the dark tone of Batman and Batman Returns.

The acting can get really stupid at times, but I really love this movie. Val Kilmer tried to be good as Batman / Bruce Wayne, but Michael Keaton and Christian Bale's Batman / Bruce Wayne versions are both satisfying and amazing. Nicole Kidman was also as the love interest. Tommy Lee Jones is good as Two-Face, but Aaron Eckhart in THE DARK KNIGHT as Harvey Dent / Two-Face is really dark and great. The rest of the cast is really good.

The pacing is a little crazy, but really cool and fantastic and I love the film as much as I like the other films, with the exception of BATMAN & ROBIN. The music is really amazing and fantastic, but could have been a little bit better.

Overall, I love this film and it is so amazing, but very confusing. 6/10.

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Batman Returns (1992)

10/10

Excellent Batman film!

23 September 2015

BATMAN RETURNS is really amazing.

The tone is really dark and intense and this had a very parental backlash from critics because the violence was so dark, but now in the superhero film genre, they still do light hearted films, but keep the dark and gritty tone in films.

The acting and action scenes are really cool and I really love both of those. Michael Keaton returns as Batman / Bruce Wayne for his second and last time and I could not have think of anyone else. The rest of the actors are really cool and the film is just amazingly well done.

The visuals, music, editing, story and pacing are very good in this film and I am very pleased with the final results, but it was not that dark and violent. Overall, BATMAN RETURNS gets an 10 out of 10, while there are some flaws, I still love this movie.

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Batman (1989)

10/10

Loved Batman '89

23 September 2015

This is gonna be short.

I love BATMAN and this is the reason why I love the film. Jack Nicholson plays Joker and he is really amazing. Michael Keaton plays Bruce Wayne and Batman and he could not have been any better. Tim Burton's direction is just simply dark and gritty. Christopher Nolan would do this for his BATMAN trilogy, released from 2005 to 2012.

The rest of the acting is really amazing including Billy Dee Williams and Kim Basinger. The screenplay and story stays true to the comics as well as the movie. The theme by Danny Elfman is one of the most memorable themes along with his theme for "THE SIMPSONS" is really cool and fantastic.

The story of the film follows the comic nicely and I think it is really cool. The film is the best BATMAN ever, along with Christopher Nolan's DARK KNIGHT trilogy and it is really amazing and fantastic. The Batmobile and the Batsuit is really amazing and fantastic. The production designs are great as well and I give credit to Anton Furst, who also designed the poster.

The editing is very amazing and the film is really well shot and very fantastic and credit goes to Roger Pratt and this film's run time goes by quickly and I have no problem watching both Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger's Jokers because there is no comparison between the two. Just like Joker, Christian Bale, Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer are the only three best Batman's on the screen ,at least until next year, when Ben Affleck plays the part in BATMAN vs. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE.

Overall, this is why I love BATMAN and it is definitely giving a 10 out of 10 because there are no major flaws.

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X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

7/10

Not bad, just confusing as hell

23 September 2015

The production of "X3: The Last Stand" was considered production hell. Let me break it down for you.

Bryan Singer initially intended to shoot the film back-to-back with a fourth film, though he left in 2004 to direct "Superman Returns". Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg were hired the following month in 2004. Joss Whedon's "Astonishing X-Men" story called "Gifted", featuring a mutant cure was suggested for the primary story. Matthew Vaughn came on board as director in February 2005, but left due to the rushed production schedule and family issues.

Other film directors included Joss Whedon, Rob Bowman, who directed the 2005 spin-off film to Daredevil, ELEKTRA, Alex Proyas, who directed "I, Robot" and Zack Snyder was also approached, but was already directing the 2006 film "300", but they all turned the offer down and eventually Brett Ratner was hired as directed, filming began in 2005 and the film was released in the summer movie season of 2006.

In this sequel, a pharmaceutical company has developed a suppressor of the mutant gene, provoking controversy in the mutant community. Magneto declares war on the humans and retrieves his own weapon: Phoenix, who is the resurrected former X-Men leader, Jean Grey. A final battle between the X-Men and the Brotherhood ensues, and Wolverine must accept that in order to stop Grey, he will have to kill her.

I don't mind a good amount of the story, but there are moments where I said, "Okay, what the heck is really going on?" and it is really amazing and stupid at the same time. The movie's plot is confusing in a few areas, but I love some of the plot. The acting is amazing and all of the main actors return with new members. Vinnie Jones plays Juggernaut and he does not even have a lot of screen time and the way they did his character is just sad. Eric Dane is good as Multiple Man in the screen time he has. Ellen Page as Kitty Pride / Shadowcat and she was really amazing for this part and she would play the part in "X-Men: Days of Future Past".

Hugh Jackman does a good job as Wolverine and he is great. Famke Janssen as Jean Grey / Phoenix is really amazing and I felt that she should have won an Oscar for this film, but did not and that is just sad.

The music by John Powell is really amazing and I think she does a really great job and it is the best musical score from him that I have heard, along with his musical score for Shrek and both Agent Cody Banks films.

The visual effects and action scenes are really amazing in this film and my favorite action sequence is at the end, but when Wolverine killed Jean Grey, it almost had me crying first time I saw this film, but I love this film. The scene where Jean Grey / Phoenix kills Professor X really wanted me to cry, but I just felt emotion through the entire sequence.

Overall, X-MEN: THE LAST STAND does a few things right, but it is just outweighed by flaws, but I would also say that I would be lying if I said that it was not enjoyable.

6 out of 10.

This is the first few X-MEN films and I will return to the X-MEN film series, soon with the other X-MEN films in the X-MEN film series.

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X2 (2003)

9/10

Good job, Bryan Singer!

23 September 2015

Development for the sequel to X-MEN came after the first film and production began immediately and that film lead to a series of superhero films being released and a sequel to the first film titled, X2: X-MEN UNITED.

David Hayter and Zak Penn wrote separate scripts, combining what they felt to be the best elements of both scripts into one screenplay.

Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris were eventually hired for rewrite work, changing characterizations of Beast, Angel and Lady Deathstrike. Sentinels and the Danger Room were set to appear before being deleted because of budget concerns.

Filming began in June 2002 and ended that November of the same year. Most of the filming took place at Vancouver Film Studios, the largest production facility outside of Los Angeles in North America. Production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas adapted similar designs by John Myhre from the previous film.

The idea to have Jean Grey sacrifice herself at the end and to be resurrected in a third installment was highly secretive. Singer did not tell Famke Janssen until midway through filming. The film was released on May 2nd, 2003 to critical praise by critics and fans, saying that this film is the best film in the X-Men series.

I loved this film and it was really amazing to see and it was really fantastic to look at these characters and it was really fantastic. In the sequel, Colonel William Stryker brainwashes and questions the imprisoned Magneto about Professor Xavier's mutant-locating machine, Cerebro. Stryker attacks the X-Mansion and brainwashes Xavier into locating every mutant on the planet to kill them. The X-Men must team up with the Brotherhood and prevent Stryker's worldwide genocide, but eventually, in the end, Jean Grey, a leader of the X-Men sacrifices herself to save her friends.

The story is more action-packed in this film and keeps me interested and makes me feel emotion for the characters and I am giving credit to Bryan Singer, Zak Penn, Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris and David Hayter and they all did really good job writing one heck of a sequel to the 2000 film and is really fantastic as hell.

The actors are still shining as they did in the previous film. Brian Cox plays Stryker and he is the villain that you just want to hate. Kelly Hu plays Lady Deathstrike and she does good in the screen time that she has, but also, I will say that Aaron Stanford as Pyro is amazing and he would play Pyro in the next film.

The CGI, action sequences and music are all really great and fantastic this time around and John Ottman's score is really music and my favorite action sequence is Wolverine and Deathstryke's fight scene is really amazing.

Overall, I love this film and it is one of the best superhero films and it is amazing to see this sequel every once in a while and it was fantastic.

9/10.

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The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)

6/10

An okay sequel!

23 September 2015

The film follows Bella Swan as Edward Cullen leaves Forks, Washington with his family after a conflict with his brother Jasper Cullen trying to kill Bella on her 18th birthday. Bella starts being depressed for months after her unexpected breakup with Edward. However, her dad decides to send her back to her mom until she starts spending time with her friends and develops a strong relationship with Jacob Black.

That is just the main premise of the story, but there is more to this movie's confusing and incoherent plot.

I'm not going to cry like a little girl over this film but I hate this movie. It's a sequel based on a book of the same name by Stephanie Meyer and I thought it would interest me but after watching this film with my sister LeeAnn, I just walked out my room in disgust and a lot of angry.

The plot is confusing as heck because it's really dumb and not a good idea. A lot of critics put down this movie which I am glad they did because this movie does not deserve to have universal critical acclaim and it's not really good at all. The plot is slowly paced and it's very long -- being at 130 freaking minutes long -- I will not watch The Twilight Saga: NEW MOON ever again in my life. I read the book and it's okay. I loved the book version, but once I watched the movie, I just found myself saying, "What in the heck did I just watch?". That is exactly how much I hate this movie.

The one part of "NEW MOON" that really got me mad is when Kristen Stewart's character, Bella Swan, is screaming in her sleep after Edward leaves (because she misses him) throughout the whole darn movie. That is just stupid and what an outrageous idea. By the time she finally stopped screaming, I was really ready for this movie to end quickly, but i had to see more of this slow-paced movie. Her screaming, it definitely drove me crazy.

They spent a cheap worth of money on this movie and this movie succeeds at the box office? The film cost $50 million dollars to make. Man, that is crazy. If i have to say anything nice about this movie, I will bring up the acting and the music. The music is by far, really good by Alexandre Desplat, who would later go on to compose the final two films in the Harry Potter film franchise, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2".

The acting, from my point of view, falls flat. But I will give credit to Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, and also Dakota Fanning, who plays Jane, while Stewart and Pattinson are playing Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, for a second time. Michael Sheen plays the role of Volturi leader Aro and he is really good and he played the werewolf character, Lucian in "Underworld", "Underworld: Evolution" and "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans". He played that part wonderfully and to see him in a TWILIGHT film is spectacular.

Taylor Lautner plays the role of Jacob Black once again and he does a good job, too, but even then, it's incredibly over the top and he tries way too hard to make Kristen Stewart's character, Bella, like him. I do love the CGI werewolf version of Jacob, but the rest of the CGI is terrible. Some of the dialogue is horrible, but some of it is also really good. The pacing and editing is slow and awkward.

So, overall, I love and hate NEW MOON! I know it has it's fan base and THE TWILIGHT SAGA films does have it's fan base, so if you like this movie, that's fine, because we all have our own opinions.

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The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)

9/10

Greatest TWILIGHT Movie in the series

23 September 2015

The first TWILIGHT film was really good as I said in my review for the first TWILIGHT film. I got to NEW MOON and I said I hated it and it was something that I would never watch again, but now I get into the third film in the Twilight film franchise, ECLIPSE.

I had to say I had mixed feelings when I first saw the trailer for THE TWILIGHT SAGA - ECLIPSE. Do you know how crappy and bad that the story of THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON was? Well, the third film gladly makes up for all of the crappy stuff NEW MOON had in it.

The plot of the movie follows the book nicely. The film follows Bella Swan once again, as she develops awareness of the complications of marrying Edward Cullen. As Victoria draws nearer with a group of newborn vampires, Jacob Black and the rest of the werewolf alliance to destroy her, in turn, to keep Bella safe. While Bella tries to decide who she is, a fight brews and the consequences are paid once Jacob gets hurt. Intent on keeping a compromise with Edward, she vows to keep true to her engagement and marry him.

After the critical response and box office success of NEW MOON, it was announced that in early November 2008, Summit Entertainment announced that they had attained the rights to the remaining books in Stephanie Meyer's book series, TWILIGHT: New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. In February 2009, Summit confirmed that they would begin working on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The director of the second film, Chris Weitz, decided since he was in the post-production phase of NEW MOON would not be directing the film. Instead, David Slade was directing the film, with Melissa Rosenberg returning as the script writer.

The story is not as confusing as the story of NEW MOON was, it is really good. The CGI on the werewolves is a very good improvement over the CGI in NEW MOON. The dialogue is not an issue in this film as it was in the second film. The musical score was not composed by Alexandre Desplat, as he would work on the final two Harry Potter films, instead Howard Shore, composer of The Hobbit trilogy and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, was brought in to compose the film score. The soundtrack is once again amazing with songs like "Heavy Heart." The acting is back and forth, but credit has to be given to the three main actors: Kristen Stewart as Bella is amazing, Taylor Lautner as Jacob is amazing this time around and Robert Pattinson as Edward is once again amazing. The entire original cast returns this time including Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Elizabeth Reaser, Peter Facinelli, Billy Burke and Ashley Greene. Also returning, Dakota Fanning as Jane and she is stunning and very beautiful.

There are new major editions to the cast: Jodelle Ferland plays the role of Bree Tanner, a newly turned vampire. Ferland was in a video game adaptation of Silent Hill, which was released in 2006. Other new cast members included: Julia Jones as Leah Clearwater, Booboo Stewart as Seth Clearwater, Jack Huston as Royce King, Catalina Sandino Moreno as Maria and Xavier Samuel as Riley.

The biggest casting change was the part of Victoria. Since the character was originally played by Rachel Lefevre, Summit Entertainment announced that Bryce Dallas Howard would play the part for the third film. Lefevre was saddened and disappointed by the decision to recast her part. The action sequences is really what makes the movie a stand-out for me and the fight choreography is really good. This movie should have won an Academy Award for best visual effects and best music as far as those two went.

Overall, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE is really good, if not better than the third film.

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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (2011)

10/10

I still love BREAKING DAWN - PART 1!

23 September 2015

Warning: Spoilers

--WARNING! This review contains spoilers, if you haven't seen this film, you may want to before reading this review!-- Well, I have reviewed the first three films in the five-film TWILIGHT franchise, now it's time to continue with THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN. Before you read this review, I recommend you watch the first part of BREAKING DAWN before you read this review.

Now, let's get started.

PLOT THEATRICAL VERSION The first part follows the first half of the last book nicely: It follows Bella and Edward as they get married, have their honeymoon, until they learn that Bella has became pregnant. They return back to Forks and this causes conflict between Jacob Black and Edward Cullen, but they eventually work together to protect her because the wolf pack leader Sam, is against the baby and fearing that every human will be in danger, they try to destroy it.

Bella soon has the baby and names it Renesmee, but she dies soon after. Jacob gets all emotional and attempts to kill the baby, but he imprints on the child instead and tells Edward that he won't kill him.

This leads into a big and intense fight between the Cullens, Jacob and the other werewolves, in which Jacob responds to Sam, "Stop! It's over! If you kill her, you kill me!".

Edward waits until she dies to change Bella into a vampire, in which she turns into a vampire the next day before the film ends.

In a post-credits scene, The Volturi and their leader Aro receives a letter from Carlisle saying that Bella and Renesmee has joined their family, in which replies, "They have something that I want".

The extended version opens a little different than it does in the original theatrical version of the film. It opens with an invitation being sent by Carlisle to Aro and the Volturi about Bella and Edward's wedding, in which he kills a girl in his crew. The rest of the film follows the plot as the original version, but with a few new things.

I'm not gonna say I hate "BREAKING DAWN - PART ONE", but I will say the theatrical version was too short, but the extended version feels like it's 124 minutes long and that's a good thing because I thought that the original version was way too short and it did not focus on the story a lot more.

The extended cut really does give you more story, more character development and an alternate opening that was cut out in fear of an R rating.

One thing that was really cool to see that me and my sister LeeAnn did not see in NEW MOON and ECLIPSE was hearing the werewolves including Leah, Seth, Sam and Jacob talk and when Sam and Jacob argue, he says "I will not kill Bella! I AM THE GRANDSON OF EPHRAIM BLACK! I AM THE GRANDSON OF A CHEAP! I WAS NOT BORN TO FOLLOW YOU OR ANYONE ELSE!".

On top of that, we get to the one thing that almost threw me off and this was the birthing scene. Eventually, the birthing scene had a lot of controversy over because this was the most graphic thing in the book and this is why a lot of fans worried that the film was going to get an R rating, instead of the PG-13 rating, but they managed to show the whole pregnancy scene in the film from Bella's point-of-view. The film did actually get it's PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America.

Now, I get to the story. Out of all of the Twilight movies, BREAKING DAWN's two-part story is the most easiest to follow, but it is also the most emotional and darkest one in the series because the book is so dark and mature. I don't blame this story, but I think it's a very good thing to follow the story because if BREAKING DAWN was not into two parts and was released as a four to five hour long movie, me and my sister LeeAnn, who is a big Twilight and Vampire Diaries fan, would have fallen asleep because the film would have been too long, but as a movie presented in 2 parts, it is interesting and fantastic.

The musical score composed by Carter Burwell is emotionally powerful and memorable and the songs in the movie are really cool to listen to. The only two songs in this film that I like is "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri and "It Will Rain" by Bruno Mars and I did saw the video. It is fantastic.

Like I said in the first three reviews of TWILIGHT, the main cast is really phenomenal. The only new introduction in this film was Mackenzie Foy as Renesmee, who would later play in the 2014 film directed by Christopher Nolan, INTERSTELLAR.

Overall, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN - PART 1 does get a little out-of-hand in some areas in the original version, the extended version gets a lot of stuff right and improves on everything from ECLIPSE and the first film.

THEATRICAL / EXTENDED VERSION RATINGS: Because of the short run time and some of the good parts cut out, I'm giving the original version of BREAKING DAWN - PART 1 a 3.9 out of 10 stars.

The extended cut was a lot more great in terms of story, character development, music and pacing, so I will give the extended version of BREAKING DAWN - PART 1 a perfect score of 10 out of 10 stars.

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Furious 6 (2013)

8/10

Not the best one, but could have been worse.

23 September 2015

Fast & Furious 6 is the sequel to Fast Five (2011) and the sixth installment of the FAST & THE FURIOUS franchise. This film was in development by February 2010 as the first film in the series to move away from the underground car-racing theme of the previous films in the series which was considered to have placed a barrier on audience numbers. The film was released on May 24th, 2013 and grossed over $780 million dollars worldwide.

The plot follows Dominic Toretto and his crew who has retired following their successful heist in the fifth film, but remain wanted fugitives until they return to the USA at the end of this film. USS Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs offers to clear their records and allow them to return home in exchange for helping him to take down a skilled mercenary organization led by Owen Shaw, one member of which Toretto's presumed-dead lover Letty Ortiz. They save Letty, but Mia is kidnapped by Shaw's team and this leads into a super-intense conclusion.

The story is really well-thought out, but there are a few flaws but that does not stop this movie from being really good. Some of the dialog does not make any sense, but some of the jokes and dialog by the cast makes a lot of sense in some of the movie really cool. A few lines are also really quotable lines especially with our main antagonist when he reminds Dom and the crew saying, "This code you live by, is the very reason why you weren't even in the game." The action is a little over-the-top but it stills keeps me interested. However, the second car chase in the middle of the film was way too destructive in this film, but I really liked it though. But did you really had to try and kill Letty by throwing her off a tank? No. I will admit, the ending 12 or 14 minute climactic car-chase sequence is pretty awesome with a mix of CGI, pre-visualization, stunt work and live-action footage.

The acting is a little confusing, but I will give credit to our main actors: Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto, Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner, Dwayne Johnson as Luke Hobbs, Michelle Rodriguez as Letty Ortiz, Jordana Brewster as Mia Toretto, Sung Kang and Gal Gadot as Han Seoul-Oh and Gisele Yashar, Tyrese Gibson and Ludicrous as Roman Peace and Tej Parker and of course, Elsa Pataky, Chris Hemsworth's real life wife, as Elena Neves. They all do a good job. John Ortiz returns as Braga and he does a good job, but he is only in the prison scenes. Gina Carano plays Riley and she does a great job as a villain, at the end, but even then she's a mixed-martial arts fighter and her performance is over-the-top in a few areas, but she keeps me interested in her character until she is killed by Letty.

Our villain is British newcomer, Luke Evans as the role of Owen Shaw, the brother of the next villain, who is revealed as Han's killer at the end of this film in a post-credits scene that sets up FURIOUS 7 fantastically as the evil Deckard Shaw, who calls Dominic with a threatening message: "Dominic Toretto, you don't know me. But you're about to." The music is composed by Lucas Vidal and I am confused because I like Brian Tyler's musical score for the other films in the series, even Furious 7. I don't like half of Vidal's score, but I am glad some of Brian Tyler's music is present in this film.

Also, I am very sad to see Gisele die. That part when Gal Gadot's character sacrifices herself to save Sung Kang's character, Han was a little bit over-the-top. Also, we see Han die again and this was shown in Tokyo Drift, the third Fast and Furious film, that was released in 2006.

So, overall, with FAST SIX or FAST & FURIOUS 6, I both love it and hate it. The movie does a few things right, but the whole idea of kidnapping Mia was a little bit crazy, but this is FAST and FURIOUS, so I'll give credit to the director Justin Lin and writer Chris Morgan for coming up with a great climax. I give it a 7.9 out of 10. It's not the best Fast and the Furious film ever, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse. And I do mean worse, I'm referring to the fourth film, simply titled Fast and Furious, which was released in 2009.

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Fast Five (2011)

9/10

My favorite Fast & Furious movie!

23 September 2015

After Fast and Furious was released in 2009, it was announced that Universal Studios would release a fifth film titled Fast Five in 2011, but this time the films would depart from the underground street-racing theme of the previous films and transforms the franchise into a heist action series involving cars. By doing so, they hoped to attract wider with car culture and cars being used as a heavy emphasis.

The plot follows the events of the last film with Dominic being transported to Lompoc Prison, but eventually is saved by Brian O'Conner and his sister, Mia Toretto as they hid in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They plan a heist to steal $100 million dollars from corrupt businessman Hernan Reyes while being pursued by arrest US Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs.

To me, this was the film that transformed this franchise from the underground racing-theme in the previous film to movies that has cars and girls and stuff. This was also the first film that features only one car race and giving more attention to action set pieces such as gun fights, brawls and the heist of $100 million.

The action is top-notch with the climactic car chase at the end of the film, which is the best climax in an action / comedy film ever made and created and I give credit to the director and the script writer for doing this.

The music by Brian Tyler is just memorable and I'm not going to go into too much detail about his musical score for this film because he's also composed music for the fourth and fifth films in the Final Destination series and he has just finished composing music for the upcoming sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron, which hits theaters worldwide next Friday on May 1st, 2015.

Now, I get to the acting. Vin Diesel returns as Dominic Toretto and he is really good. The same can definitely be said for Paul Walker & Jordana Brewster as Brian O'Conner and Mia Toretto. Sung Kang and Gal Gadot as Han Seoul-Oh & Gisele Yashar were wonderfully, especially Gal Gadot, who will be playing Wonder Woman in the upcoming Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is set for release in March of next year.

The film sees the return of Matt Schulze as Vince and he does a great job in the screen time that he has until he dies in the film, which is a sad moment. The film would also see the return of Chris "Ludacris" Bridges as Tej Parker and Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce and they do a very great job and the comedy is just funny and the way they talk is just funny and amazing.

The film introduces three new characters: Hernan Reyes, the main villain, played by Joaquim de Almeida, who does a very good job, but it took me a couple of re-watches to understand what the heck was saying. The second character introduce is Elena Neves, Hobbs' partner and Dominic's second love interest, played by Chris Hemsworth's wife, Elsa Pataky. She is just cool. Finally, the third character who would be introduced was Luke Hobbs, played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and he performs the role fantastically. The fight between Dominic and Hobbs was fantastic and Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson took that scene really seriously.

Overall, I simply love Fast Five. It blends action with comedy so brilliantly and awesome. The drama also works and it is really great. I give it a 9 out of 10, this might be a little bit high, but it definitely works for me.

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The Fast and the Furious (2001)

6/10

Good start to a great action-packed film franchise

23 September 2015

I love FAST AND FURIOUS movies, so I thought, "What if I reviewed these movies?", so I will review each film from the original film to the new film.

So, I begin my second franchise review with the original 2001 film, The Fast and the Furious.

The Fast and the Furious was not only released on June 22, 2001 to financial success and mixed reviews, but it also launched the careers of nearly all of it's stars, including Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, who would later become household names, as well as Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez.

The film is directed by Rob Cohen with a screenplay by David Ayer, who wrote the 2001 film Training Day and co-wrote this film with two other writers including the creator of the franchise, Gary Scott Thompson.

The film follows undercover cop Brian O'Conner who must stop semi-truck hijackers led by criminal and wanted fugitive Dominic Toretto from stealing expensive electronic equipment while developing a relationship with Dominic's sister, Mia Toretto and forming a friendship with Dominic.

That is just a quick summary. I won't go into too much of the plot, because a lot of people should know what is the main premise of the story in this film and the other Fast and Furious movies. The franchise would later go to move away from the underground street racing plot into a plot much more cooler with the heist of $100 million dollars, gun fights and brawls and the movie that would change this franchise and bring new life into it would be the fifth entry in the series, released in April of 2011, Fast Five.

The story is just really cool and amazing, but is not Oscar worthy, but the dialogue is the movie can get a little weak on a few occasions, but not throughout the whole darn movie.

The action is just top-notch and the car chases in this film is as intense and action-packed as they would be later on in the franchise. My favorite car chase is at the beginning of the film and at the end of the film involving Dominic and Brian driving.

The acting is just dreadful, but not all of it is. I will give credit to Vin Diesel, who plays Dominic Toretto and he pulls it off wonderfully, but while it's not Oscar worthy, he does show emotion, drama and laughter into his character. Michelle Rodriguez as Letty Ortiz, is great in this film and she would remain in that part for the other films and she would play in James Cameron's groundbreaking special-effects extravaganza Avatar and in the 2002 action-horror / zombie movie film based on the survival video game, Resident Evil.

The other two that also does a great job is definitely Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster, who plays Brian O'Conner and Mia Toretto, and they do a very decent good job with the material written for them and they have such a great chemistry on the screen.

Dominic Toretto's team members are just good. The actors who play the people in his crew is just incredible, with the exception of Matt Schulze as Vince.

The music and soundtrack is really cool and Ja Rule is in this film, playing the role of Edwin and he provides music on the soundtrack.

Overall, The first and original FAST AND THE FURIOUS is really good, but can get a little confusing in a few areas. I give it a 6 out of 10. It's not the best score, but certainly not the worst. This film is worth the watch and worth buying on DVD and Blu-Ray or watching on basic cable and Video on Demand or Xfinity Streampix.

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2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

7/10

Not the best Fast and Furious movie, but definitely not the worst...

23 September 2015

Following the financial box office success of the first film, a sequel to The Fast and the Furious was announced for a summer June 2003 release and production would start quickly.

The story picks up amazingly where the first film left off. After allowing fugitive Dominic Toretto to evade arrest, former LAPD officer Brian O'Conner finds himself on the run from the FBI and leaves Los Angeles to start a new life. He goes to Miami, where he wins races every night, but eventually is caught by the police. The police decides to let him go if he does one last mission to help bring Miami-based drug lord Carter Verone done with the help of his childhood friend Roman Pearce and undercover U.S. Custom Service agent Monica Fuentes as well as two other friends named Tej and Suki.

I won't talk about this movie, saying that I had, but this is the one Fast and Furious film that critics took the wrong way.

Story: The story is good, but it is not Oscar worthy and very cool and to bring a childhood friend into the story is just great.

Music and editing: The music is cool by David Arnold, but I like the rap-oriented soundtrack and following Will Smith, Ludicrous, who is in the film, has four songs on the soundtrack including my personal favorite, "Act a Fool". I love that song and I like the video. The editing can get a little awkward but I also love what they do with this film. I just wish this film could have been longer.

Action: There are car chases and the first car chase at the beginning of the film is FREAKING AWESOME! The first car chase involves four characters driving: Brian O'Conner, Suki, Orange Julius and Slap Jack, played by Michael Ealy, who does not have a lot of screen time, but is really good in this film and he would later play in other films including About Last Night, Think Like A Man 1 & 2 and Underworld: Awakening.

Acting: The last thing I will bring up is the acting. Paul Walker returns as Brian O'Conner, without Vin Diesel, who was working on another film, xXx (2003) at the time. He plays the part brilliantly and his performance was his best. Ludicrous is a new addition as Tej and he brings a lot in with the screen time his character his. Devon Aoki as Suki, she also does a good job with the dialogue written for her, especially in the first car chase where she says, "Bend over, boy." The screen time she has is not a lot, but she pulls off one heck of a performance. I will bring up Eva Mendes as Monica Fuentes and she does a great job, but she's not in the film that much. Cole Hauser as Verone Carter is just dreadful, but he's also really good. The last person I will have to mention is Tyrese Gibson as Roman Pearce. He is just incredible, but the writers put way too much personality in his character, which I like and he and Ludicrous would later play in the later Fast and Furious films: Fast Five, which released in April of 2011, Fast & Furious, which released in 2013 during the summer movie season with other films including World War Z, Star Trek Into Darkness, The Wolverine, Frozen, Prisoners and other summer or fall movies of that year and Furious 7, the newest entry in the series which came out this year.

Overall, I love and hate 2 Fast 2 Furious. While I like the story, music, editing, action and some of the acting, I can't stand Cole Hauser as Verone Carter. But I still think this is a watchable film.

I give 2 Fast 2 Furious a 7.4 out of 10, not the best score, but definitely not the worst.

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The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

7/10

More enjoyable, but still not better than the original, but not the worst.

23 September 2015

Following the box-office financial success of 2 Fast 2 Furious, another sequel was already planned for a release in the summer of 2006. So now I move on to the third film, but is chronologically the sixth film in the series as it is the film to take place before Furious 7, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift".

I won't explain the whole plot, but here is a quick summary: A teenager named Sean Boswell becomes a major competitor in the world of drift racing after moving in with his father in Tokyo to avoid a jail sentence in America.

The story is a little bit incoherent, but this is "The Fast and the Furious", so I will keep this review very short.

Needless to say, I love "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift". It has a great story, great action, a good musical score and darn good performances from the cast.

The action is really top-notch. The car chases was very intense and much reckless this time around because this had some reckless behavior in this film, so this is why the movies have a PG-13 rating. This film did have a scene where a character named Han-Seoul Oh dies in a car crash, which we see again in the later two films, "Fast and Furious 6", which was released in 2013 and "Furious 7" in 2015. But in the sixth film, it was revealed that Owen Shaw's brother, Deckard Shaw, killed him and blew up his car. That was just sad and a little scary to see.

The car chase at the beginning of the film was a little disturbing to watch because after the two boys race each other over a girl, they are all shown with blood on their faces. Han is also shown with blood on his face, but that doesn't stop me from liking or reviewing this movie.

The acting is really great. Lucas Black plays the role of Sean Boswell, the main character, and Black would play the part of Sean Boswell in the seventh film in the film franchise, Furious 7. Bow Wow plays the role of Twinkie and he does an okay performance, but he is also in the seventh film using archival footage.

Sung Kang plays the role of Han Seoul-Oh and he would play that role for the next three films in the franchise. He does an incredible job with the dialog written for him.

Nathalie Kelley plays the role of Neela, who is Takashi's boyfriend, but has romantic feelings for Lucas Black's character and she does a darn good job in her performance. Brian Tee as Takashi / Drift King just drove me crazy. He is the perfect villain and his performance is very dark and serious. Tee as Takashi / Drift King just really creeped me out when the first scene with him shows.

The only character to return from the previous entry, which was the first film, titled The Fast and the Furious, which was released in June of 2001 is Dominic Toretto, played by Vin Diesel as he agreed to make a cameo in the film in exchange for Universal's ownership to the rights to his Chronices of Riddick franchise and character, in lieu of financial payment. The musical score composed by Brian Tyler is just amazing and he would compose music for the fourth film, titled Fast & Furious, the fifth film, titled Fast Five and the seventh installment, which is just titled Furious 7. He blends the musical instruments together in this spectacular musical score.

The direction by Justin Lin was bad but I really liked it and the script was written by Christopher Morgan and he really does an incredible job with an amazing dialog and is very cool.

Overall, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is as good if not better than the first film, while there are some major flaws, it is still enjoyable and I still think this is watchable. For people who liked the first two and hated this one, watch it again and you will find a darn good story.

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Fast & Furious (2009)

4/10

Not the best, but not the worst either

23 September 2015

After The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, a sequel with Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster returning was put into production and would not be released until April of 2009.

The story sees Dom and his new crew hijacking fuel tankers in the Dominican Republic, but he believes that the police is high on their trail. Meanwhile, Letty is killed in a car accident and this leads into Dominic and Brian coming together once again to find her killer and make him pay.

I'm not gonna say this movie was bad, but I kinda hate and love this movie at the same time. What made the action work previously is the car chases and underground racing, but that is still present here, so I can't blame this movie for not having car chases.

The over-the-top action is just lazy, except for the climactic car chase at the end of the film and the chase between Brian O'Conner and a criminal at the beginning of the film in Los Angeles. I saw previews of this movie online and on TV and I had mixed feelings when I watched this for the very first time.

The music is just cool. I give Brian Tyler a lot of credit, but I don't want to talk about the entire musical score for the film.

The acting is kind of a mixed bag of popcorn and gummy worms for me because some of the actors do their job and some of them does not.

I give credit to the four main actors who play the four main characters even though Michelle Rodriguez does not have a lot of screen time, she does a very good job. The film saw the return of Sung Kang as Han Seoul-Oh and to tell you the truth, he does a great job. Gal Gadot plays Gisele Yashar and she is a new introduction to the film series, but unfortunately, she does not have a lot of screen time either, but does really good.

The villains played by Laz Alonso and John Ortiz are okay, but Laz Alonso was miscast in this film. Nothing against him, but I like him in Stomp the Yard and Jumping the Broom, but this is the only film that I think he did not work. John Ortiz plays Braga in this film and he gives a good decent performance, but even then, it's incredibly over the top.

So, overall, I have mixed feelings about Fast and Furious 4, while I like the music, story, action and some of the acting, I can't get over the fact that the Letty Ortiz character was killed off. I give it a 5 out of 10, because they tried their best and I don't think it's as bad as people say it is.

Now, if the movie would have been 124 minutes long, it would have been fine.

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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012)

8/10

The perfect ending to a good five-film series

23 September 2015

Now, I conclude my franchise review of THE TWILIGHT SAGA with the second part and the fifth and final installment of the film series, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN - PART 2.

I will not explain this movie, but this is a quick summary: The birth of Bella and Edward's child brings conflict between Bella and her lifelong friend Jacob, and an all-out war between the Cullens and the Volturi, but it is not a real fight. It is only a vision.

This film picks up nicely after the last film and is based on the second half of the final book of the same name written by Stephanie Meyer.

The story is really, really cool. From my point of view, this is the best TWILIGHT film ever made and there will never be another film like BREAKING DAWN - PART 2, well, except for THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, THE AVENGERS, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, MAN OF STEEL and CAPTAIN America: THE WINTER SOLDIER. Out of all of the film's stories, the plot is so easy to follow.

I will not explain a whole lot, but I will say that the CGI was great and really fantastic, especially in the last fight scene at the end of the film. The music was really good, in fact, the music during the fight scene was really amazing with the orchestra and choir going full blast.

The dialogue is not bad and this was really amazing because this was a difficult challenge to pull off, but it was really cool.

The acting was really cool especially with Kristen Stewart, MacKenzie Foy, Taylor Lautner, Dakota Fanning, Michael Sheen, Robert Pattinson, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed and the original cast and newcomers that they put into this movie and they do their absolute best.

The editing is a little confusing, but it pays off wonderfully with Ian Slater and Virginia Katz, both editors who worked on this film, put together a really good, entertaining and amazing film that caps of the TWILIGHT SAGA nicely.

Now, I get to the ending. The ending was a little confusing, and the reason why is because it shows a vision that Alice has when she sees Renesmee, as an adult with Jacob, also Bella & Edward meeting with each other. I thought that would set up another TWILIGHT movie if possible, but it's just in this movie because it's in the book.

Overall, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN - PART 2 is a great and satisfying conclusion to the five-film franchise. From the music to the CGI to the acting to the ending, you will not be able to take your eyes of that screen once you see the fight.

It is sad to say that this is the last film in the TWILIGHT SAGA. But I really do hope that they find a way to continue it because my sister LeeAnn really like this feature film. She likes the entire franchise in total and I would love to hear what Stephanie Meyer says about writing another TWILIGHT book or two for Summit Entertainment to make into another film or two.

I give THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN - PART 2 a perfect score of 8 out of 10. It may not win fans over, but it definitely gives you exactly what you want: a stunning conclusion to a great film series.

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The Simpsons Movie (2007)

8/10

"The Simpsons Movie" is a dream come true!

23 September 2015

In the film based on the hit television series created by Matt Groening, Homer must save the world from a catastrophic event that he himself has created. It all begins with Homer, his new pet pig and a leaky sill full of droppings - a combination that triggers a disaster the likes of which Springfield has never experienced. As Marge is outraged by Homer's monumental blunder, a vengeful mob descends on the Simpsons household. The family makes a narrow escape, but is divided by both conflict and location.

As the fates of Springfield and the world hang in the balance, Homer embarks on a personal odyssey of redemption - seeking forgiveness from Marge, the reunion of his splintered family and the salvation of his hometown.

After 25 seasons, 500 and something episodes and a lot of awards and honors (including the Peabody Award, 23 Emmy's (r) and a designation from Time magazine as the best-television show of the twentieth century), The Simpsons was finally made as a feature-length motion picture.

And it's a good thing because it takes a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen format to fully and completely capture the stupidity of Homer Simpson. THE SIMPSONS MOVIE was a long time coming for me because I was expecting to see my favorite TV show on the big screen, so when I first saw this, I thought it would be a disaster, but after watching this on DVD, I actually enjoyed it.

The animation is really good and the dialog is just incredible, especially the one-liners and the other jokes that the eleven screen writers who worked on this script for the film, really brought flavor, width and good storytelling to the screen. David Silverman directed this film and his style is really amazing.

The acting is just both hilarious and emotionally powerful. This goes to Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner as Homer and Marge Simpson, because Homer's famous quotes, "D'oh!" and "Why, you little...!" is in this film and Marge's dialog written for the film is really amazing.

Nancy Cartwright and Yeardley Smith as Bart and Lisa Simpson are just as funny as they are in the cartoon, but Maggie Simpson only says one line of dialog and that is at the end of the film, when they are watching the ending credits and she takes out her pacifier and says, "Sequel?".

Hank Azaria, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille and Harry Shearer plays various characters including Ned Flanders, Milhouse van Houten, Mr. Montogomery Burns, Smithers, Jimbo Jones and other various characters in the film are really entertaining. The only thing that was kind of missing was Mrs. Krapabel, played by the late Marcia Wallace. She has a cameo though at the beginning of the film.

Did I forget to mention the rock band Green Day also has a cameo appearance? They are at the beginning, finishing up the classic theme song composed by Danny Elfman, while the musical score is not composed by Alf Clausen, composer of the TV series, it is composed by Hans Zimmer. The other performance that I did not mention was Albert Brooks as Russ Cargill. He was also very entertaining and quite perfect for the villain.

If there is one thing I can criticize this movie about is Maggie Simpson, because the creators just don't know that this character needs to be able to grow. Stewie Griffin from Family Guy also needs to grow, but having him talk and not allowing to walk and talk is just not enough. I would love to see Maggie talk more.

Overall, THE SIMPSONS MOVIE is one of those TV show to film adaptations that I think needs to be seen by everyone. It is a perfect, well-made movie with memorable quotes, great performances and very good action pieces. I love this movie and I love the series, but I would love to see another SIMPSONS MOVIE on the big screen sometime soon. This is one cartoon movie, along with Shrek, Toy Story, SpongeBob SquarePants, Frozen and any other animated movie that I don't gets enough credit. My rating is definitely an 8 out of 10, I know I am almost close to a 10 out of 10, but 8 out of 10 work

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