Category Archives: movies

movies

Thought: I am upset that “Drive” was ignored for “Best Picture” nomination for the Oscars, watched it last night…

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In my Top 15 Best 2011  films list, I picked, “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, as my favorite no. 1 movie of that year. Well I think I changed my mind, and I plan on doing a little revision of that list and change it a little bit. I finally got to see, “Drive” last night, the new Ryan Gosling movie. The film impressed me so much that I now think it’s the best movie of that year. I thought the film was “Best Picture” worthy for the Osars for sure, and it got snubbed, big time. Albert Brooks was also snubbed for, “Best Supporting Actor”.

Ryan Gosling, (star of films like “The Notebook” and “Blue Valentine”) plays an un-named, Driver, who works as a stuntman for movies, he works for a car garage, and he’s also a getaway driver. His car garage owner, Shannon, borrows money from mobster boss, Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks), to buy the Driver a stock car to start up a race. The Driver starts to fall in love with his next door neighbor in his apartment building, a woman named, Irene, who lives alone with her son while her husband is in prison. The film focuses on the Driver, trying his best to protect Irene from dangerous mobsters who are trying to get at her, just to get to him.

Some people are saying the pacing to this movie is slow and boring, but I didn’t think it was. I thought the acting by the cast of this movie was pretty realistic. The characters in this film, actually felt human and real. Ryan’s character, the Driver, may seem like an ordinary and friendly guy at first, you’ll start to see that he’s no ordinary guy. He can become violent and has a bad temper, when messed with. Ryan does an excellent job playing a person with a bad temper, you certainly don’t want to mess with him when he’s mad.

I was most impressed with the action scenes in this film. You know how in most popcorn action movies, the action scenes are almost always fun and exciting? Well in this film, the action scenes will scare the shit out of you and they are quite disturbing, and graphic. Watch this film in surround sound and turn it up loud, the sound is pretty killer with this film.

I was also most impressed with the performance of Albert Brooks, he played a great badguy. The Driver was considered a hero, Albert played the evil mob boss. Albert Brooks should have gotten some type of award nod for his performance of this film. His performance was brilliant and Oscar worthy.

I was blown away with this movie. I wished I saw it in theater. There’s probably going to be a sequel to this movie and I’ll be sure to see the sequel in theater if they decide to do one. This was one of the best new action movies I’ve seen in a long time. I’m going to be watching this movie repeatedly on DVD. Glad I bought it.

Kev

movies

Film Review: The Grey

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Starring: Liam Neeson

Directed by: Joe Carnahan

Today, I decided to hit the mall to check out, “The Grey”, finally. I’ve been looking forward to this film for a long while and it’s finally here. Before the film, I went to shop around. I picked up three movies on DVD, they are: “Drive”, “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”, and “Warrior”. I also picked up the first two “Walking Dead”, books from the Comic Depot store. Since I’ve been watching the “Walking Dead” religiously on AMC, I figure it’s time to finally start reading the books.

On with my review of, “The Grey”:

Plot/synopsis: John Ottway (Liam Neeson) is a wolf hunter, who works in Alaska. An oil drilling team is threatened by the wolves. On the last day of the job, John gets ready to fly back home with the drilling team, and Alaska is in the middle of a huge blizzard. The plane tries to fly through the blizzard and crashes in the middle of nowhere. The team must try their best to survive, from a dangerous pack of wolves that are all over the place. 

I did like this movie a lot. It was fun, entertaining, thrilling, and scary, all at the same time, however, there were a few little disappointments. I’ll explain that a little later in this film review, but I want to talk about what I liked about it first. Liam Neeson was the only big name star in this film. The rest of the cast were unknown actors. I thought the cinematography was brilliant, it was a very dark movie. I thought the film was acted by the cast very well. The film was also action packed, violent and can get gory at times too.

It’s a survival movie. It will remind you of the movie, “Alive”, big time. When I was watching this movie, at times, I thought I was watching that movie, “Alive”, that starred Ethan Hawke. Back to “The Grey”, the film had different emotions and feelings. It had a little bit of comedy and enjoyable stuff to lighten up the audience after the dark stuff going on. Plus, there are some emotional and sad scenes too, mixed in with the scary & dark scenes.

Liam Neeson’s acting is great like always. I’ve admired his acting for years and been a fan of his for a long time. Ever since Liam’s wife, Natasha passed away, the guy kept working on films like crazy. He’s a workhorse for sure, and the man is on fire. This is his best new role, yet!

What I didn’t like about the film? Well, the film was a bit too predictable, especially the ending. I saw the ending happening ever since the movie started. I won’t spoil it for you, but you’ll probably figure it out anyway. Ask yourself this, does the film end with a happy ending?

Another thing, is this story line with the wolves. In real life, I’m sure the wolves don’t attack people and eat people alive. Wolves are actually afraid of people. In this film, they made the wolves look like evil monsters, when in real life, they are actually innocent animals. It’s just a movie, I guess. The wolves were done in CGI, of course. If they made the wolves a little more realistic and not make them like monsters, then the film would have been a little better.

Other than that, I did like the film a lot, there were just a few little things in it that should have been better.

Score for “The Grey” = *** (3 stars as in “Good”)

Kev

movies, music

Report: Lisa Marie Presley wants to make a new movie on Elvis???

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While Lisa Marie just opened a new exhibit at Graceland in Memphis, Tenn., Lisa Marie brought up the idea that she wants to make a new film on her father’s life. She didn’t quite say if it’ll either be a biopic film or just a documentary. She said she’s not happy with all the Hollywood films that was made on Elvis. She says all the films about Elvis failed to capture the truth about  Elvis’s past.

The new exhibit she just opened, mostly focuses on her life as a baby. She wants to show people what it is like living with him, growing up.

More on the story, here.

There’s been too many Elvis movies over the years, and I happen to agree with her, that most of them were garbage. Hollywood needs to make a good Elvis biopic, down the road. I’m sure they will make another one sometime in the future.

You gotta feel bad for Lisa though, that she isn’t able to see her father today.

Kev

movies

Report: Adam Sandler is set to star in “Candyland” movie, while Hasbro is in negotiations with Universal to switch film to Sony instead…

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I used to be a big Adam Sandler fan, but I lost interest in the guy because his movie choices as of late has been really weird. I stopped watching Adam Sandler movies after “Punch Drunk Love” in 2002. “Punch Drunk Love” was a great movie, it was his best performance, but everything else he did after that film, what happened to him? I loved all of Adam’s comedies in the 90’s. I loved, “Billy Madison”, “Happy Gilmore”, “The Waterboy”, “Big Daddy” was good, and so was, “Anger Management”. Most of his new movie roles have been garbage lately and I have no interest in seeing, “Jack and Jill”.

He’s still a good guy and funny as hell, but I wish he would get back to choosing good movies again and him agreeing to do, “Candyland”, is even more questionable.

The Hollywood Reporter, reports.

I used to play the “Candyland”, board game a lot when I was a kid. I won’t judge the movie when not seeing the trailer yet though.

Kev

movies

Cool Video: “The Cold Light of Day” trailer is here!!!

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The “Man of Steel” star Henry Cavill is creating a lot of buzz in the movie industry lately. He starred in the epic Greek mythology movie, “Immortals”, which was a great film and here’s Henry next action movie. It’s called, “The Cold Light of Day”. The film also stars, Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver. This looks to be a fun action film even if it’s PG-13 rated. I guess you can add this film to the list of my most anticipated movies of 2012. I’m definitely there to see this movie.

See the trailer here at AICN.

Kev

movies

Report: India bans release of “Dragon Tattoo” because Fincher refused to cut scenes…

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India has banned the release of, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” because David Fincher refused to cut three scenes that they wanted out of the film. There was a love making scene between Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, a lesbian scene, and the rape scene. The film was originally scheduled to premiere in India on Feb. 10th.

The Hollywood Reporter reports.

Another example of censorship! This is Fincher’s work, and he shouldn’t have to be told how to make his movies. Fincher did the right thing telling India to fuck off. Imagine what the film would be like without those three scenes? If those three scenes weren’t in the film, then the film would bomb in India.

Those three scenes they wanted out were the big part of the “Dragon Tattoo” story. All the sex and the rape were the huge part of Lisbeth Salander’s character. If those things weren’t a part of this film at all, then the film wouldn’t have mattered.

I’m siding with Fincher on this one.

Kev

movies, TV

Big snubs for the Oscars 2012, I can think of a few…

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We’re talking about “snubs”. Who’ve been left off the nomination lists, of who you think should have made it?

I can think of a few snubs, big time:

– Mel Gibson for Best Actor “The Beaver”

– Nick Nolte for Best Supporting Actor “Warrior”

That’s it. I’m sure Mel was considered for a nomination, but due to his troubled past, it might create some controversy if they gave him something, but his personal life should be kept away from his film career. Mel should have made it.

Kev

movies, TV

Report: Rooney Mara gets Oscar nomination for Best Actress!!!!

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Wow! What a shocker! I didn’t think the Oscars would give “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” any Oscar nods, but they did end up giving Rooney Mara, a nomination for “Best Actress” for which she played, Lisbeth Salander in the film. The film also got a nod for best cinematography, editing, and sound mixing which is pretty cool! I’ve always thought Rooney’s performance in “Girl”, was Oscar worthy ’cause it was such a great performance and so intense. However, though, I don’t think Rooney is going to get the win for this category. The win for “Best Actress” will probably end up going to Michelle Williams, but it would be cool if Rooney got it ’cause she deserves it more than Michelle, in my opinion. I think the only reason Michelle is getting all the credit and recognition is because of Heath Ledger.

As for the other categories, I’m happy with the “Best Picture” selections this year. Noticing that Brad Pitt got two “Best Picture” nominations with “Moneyball”, and “The Tree of Life”. The only movies, I’ve seen out of the “Best Picture” nominations are: “The Help”, “Moneyball”, and “War Horse”, I haven’t seen the other ones. I’m hoping “The Help” will get the Best Picture win but it will probably go to “The Descendants”.

I’m predicting George Clooney will win for Best Actor for “The Descendants” as well. I haven’t seen, “The Descendants” yet, but when the film arrives on DVD, I’ll see it then.

“Actor In a Supporting Role”, I hope Jonah Hill gets the win for that one for “Moneyball” ’cause his performance was really good in that film. “Actress in a Supporting Role”, Octavia Spencer will probably get that win for “The Help”.

“Best Animated Feature”, I haven’t seen any of those films, but my guess that “Rango” would probably get the win. For “Best Director” either Martin Scorsese for “Hugo” and Alexander Payne for “The Descendants” will get the win for that one.

“Best Original Musical Score”, I’m hoping John Williams for “War Horse” will get that one. “Music Original Song”, The Muppets most definitely.

See the full nomination list, here.

Kev

movies

Film Review: Haywire

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Starring: Gina Carano, Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas
Directed By: Steven Soderbergh

So here’s the first film of 2012, that I’ve just seen today. Before the film, I picked up a few video games, I picked a pre-owned copy “Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” and “Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim”. I haven’t started those two video games yet, I am going to wait a while ’cause there are still a few games, I need to play before them. On with my review of, “Haywire”.

Plot/synopsis: Beautiful freelance covert operative Mallory Kane is hired out by her handler to various global entities to perform jobs which governments can’t authorize and heads of state would rather not know about. After a mission to rescue a hostage in Barcelona, Mallory is quickly dispatched on another mission to Dublin. When the operation goes awry and Mallory finds she has been double crossed, she needs to use all of her skills, tricks and abilities to escape an international manhunt, make it back to the United States, protect her family, and exact revenge on those that have betrayed her.

Gina Carano, a sexy MMA Strikeforce fighter, has been getting a lot of popularity in the sport, that she gets a major leading role in a huge action film directed by Steven Soderbergh. Steven Soderbergh is the director of such movies as “Erin Brockovich”, the Oceans trilogy, “Traffic”, “Solaris”, “Contagion”, etc. Sodergh is a director who I’ve admired for a longtime. I’ve seen most of his movies.

This film, “Haywire”, is getting mixed reviews, but I liked this film quite a lot. It told a good plot, and the directing style was pretty unique like Soderbergh’s always is. There have been a lot of actresses starring the leading roles in action films over the years but none of them, really had the athleticism to be considered an action star. Gina Carano is an actual athlete who has it all. She has the sexy looks, a fit body, and she’s also a talented athlete. Gina was perfect for the role and she acted well in the movie too.

The fight scenes she did in this movie, makes you wanting more up ahead. She’ll make you cheer for her as if you’re watching an actual MMA fight which is what the film felt like. During the fight scenes, there was no music playing during the scenes, which is one reason they made it fun. They made her look like a tough badass chick you don’t want to mess with. She made it look like that a man wouldn’t even dare try to pick a fight with a woman, or she’ll kick your ass.

I was also impressed with the supporting cast. We could do without Channing Tatum ’cause I’m not a fan of his acting, but I did like Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, and Bill Paxton being part of the film who all delivered excellent performances.

I think this film is going to be a trilogy ’cause there is more to the story that needs to be told. The ending left open for another movie, of course. I thought it was a fun action flick. My only disappointment was that we need a naked Gina in these films, or show more skin at least. There was a little cleavage here and there, but they only showed them a quick few seconds. If Steven’s goal with these movies is to be sexy as hell, he needs to make her even more sexier for the sequel.

Score for “Haywire” = *** (3 stars as in “Good”)

Kev