Best of 09 and Decade Coming soon

    We are almost at the end of 2009 and wow the decade! Which means that the best of 09 and the huge best/worst of the decade. I just have a couple movies left to watch that will probably be on my list (District 9, Lord of the rings trilogy) before I can post the Awards. Just a heads up that the smaller reviews called video views are coming as well I have a lot lined up but have been really really busy lately so they have been delayed. All those things plus reviews for the upcoming Sherlock Holmes and District 9 are coming when I get to see them witch hopes to be by the end of boxing weekend.

Christmas Cheer!!!!

Fred

Avatar Review

Avatar

A+

A review by Frederick Cholowski

 

    A quote from James Cameron from the 1998 Oscars seems to be used a lot lately. "I'm king of the world" Cameron yelled expressing all his feelings in one phrase. Man that line is being over used. Unfortunately I must use it, he was king of the world with Titanic in 1998 and now he is king of the world more than a decade later with Avatar the best of 2009 and one of the most immersive and amazing experiences of the decade.

 

    Avatar starts with Jake Sully a former marine whose scientist twin brother just died one day before he was to start his mission on the planet Pandora. Jake replaces him because he is the only other person able to activate his brother's avatar a remote control body with DNA of both humans and the natives the 10 foot Navi. He get's stuck through orders from both ends of the spectrum. One side led by military guru Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and the other led by scientist Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver). One wants to clear the out the Navi for strip mining (and if they don't blow them up) and the other wants to recreate peace with the natives. Well after being the first human to g ain the trust of the Navi he falls in love with the land. He falls in love mostly with the native who is training him Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). This makes him sympathise for the Navi and he ends up being on there side when the epic battle ends up coming.

 

    It's nice to see an action sci-fi film with a great story and developed characters. The whole first part of the movie centers on Jake's and the human's in general relationship with the planet and the Navi. It still manages to entertain and keep you at the edge of your seat the entire time throwing some awesome chase scenes with giant animals etc. All leading up to the epicness that is the war.

 

    As performances go Stephan Lang nails his role as the awesome rough beaten up Colonel who wants nothing but to blow crap up. Worthington is great as Sully as he nails the growth of the character and the emotional parts and goes with the role to places I did not know he was capable of. Sigourney Weaver is good for what she's given. The first scene you see her she's the take no crap rough scientist then she becomes all nice and stuff. Two important character roles that I did not mention earlier but deserve great mention are Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge who is your average corporate d-bag who's in it all for the money and Michelle Rodriquez as Trudy Chacon a military pilot who dose some heroic things to help the Navi.

 

    But my favourite role goes to Zoe Saldana who dose an outstanding job of acting a very emotional character just inside a Navi body. She never makes an appearance in human form and is still dose the best job out of everybody. That to me is impressive.

 

    Well the visuals, two words can describe them. Freaking amazing!!!! The 3D is used in such a way that is not just pop out gimmicky, but it creates this atmosphere an atmosphere that is amazing. While 3D is the best way to see it this is a solid package if you watch it in 2D as well. The visual effects are again freaking amazing and I have never ever seen a more visually stunning experience

 

    Avatar is not just a movie it's an experience. One of the best of the decade. There is a strong script and character development here something that is seriously lacing from a lot of action/Sci-fi this year. The performances are great and the visuals oh the visuals. There Freaking amazing!!!!! As we wind down the year the only film I could consider that I'm going to see that could knock off Avatar from movie of the year is District 9. And even then it has to be really really good

2012 Review

2012

D

 

    This movie sucks. Plain and simple. That's right well I could go on and on about how bad this movie is in the intro to this review but well let's save the fun for the other parts of the review. So let's crank up the crap o meter and look at the pure terribleness that is 2012.

 

    Well where to start oh well I know the movie is 2 and a half hours long!!!! It's not bad enough that the main characters aren't developed at all but apparently we have to care about every body and there mom. Literally! Ok so here are the main characters there is some guy named Jackson Curtus played by Cusack and the main scientist dude named Dr. Adrian Helmsley played by little known Chiwetel Ejiofor. Why am I doing such a shoddy job with the so called "characters" because none of these characters are developed not one. This is where the movie really falls apart when they try to set up characters that you ultimately don't care about. It would be a waste of time for me to write (and you to read for that matter) who you ultimately won't care about and just die anyways.

    Props to Woody Harrelson though who plays the only interesting character in the whole movie. He plays Charlie a guy who has found out through all government conspiracy that this is going to happen. He is ultimately insane and pretty funny. Unfortunately he dies within the first hour.

 

    I swear there is no plot to this film. I bet this film took half an hour to write. It's like the writers said how can we make this film longer before we get to the next big repetitive action scene. I swear they "miraculously" escape 4 different plains/cars well the world is exploding behind them. Wow just wow. Trust me when I say this there are so many scenes that make you ask the question didn't I just see this 30 minutes ago? And god it just gets worse!

 

    I also swear that there are no characters in this film. As mentioned earlier the main characters are not developed. But the huge problem with this film is that they again make you care about characters that we see for about 10 minutes and then they die. Yay! Ya its bad.

 

    I could go on and on about how bad this film in but lets just say this. DO NOT GO SEE THIS FILM. IT SUCKS!! Evan for the special effects, there not even the best. Ya it's again that bad.

 

    

New Features

Summer is now over school is in session and I'm really busy. This also means that the movie count goes way down. With this a new feature is coming called video opinions. They are short reviews on older movies with scores of don't touch, rental, high rental, and buy. Also full reviews of all the Star Wars films are coming (just cuz) and maybe a fall preview (James Cameron's Avatar woo!). So stay tuned...

Summer Movie Awards 2009

Summer movie awards 2009

Another summer has come and gone and that means it is time to look back at the summer season and pick our favourite films from the mega season. This summer has been telling in many aspects from what people have been watching (cough cough big dumb action films) to the doping movie sales. So let’s look back on the 2009 summer series with the summer movie awards. (Note I have not scene all of the movies in the summer library including District 9 and Inglorious Bastards so do not flame me if your movie is not on the list.)

Best special effects
Winner: Transformers ROTF
Sigh Transformers 2 sigh yes it was disappointing and overall sort of bad but what saved this film from pure terribleness are the special effects. Michal Bay can do that enough said.
Runner up: G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra

Best Sci-Fi Film
Star Trek
Summer’s best Sci-fi is far and away Star Trek. The reboot needed to be great for the thinning out franchise to connect with a wide audience again and it hit the ball out of the park. Great effects, a good story that could go any where in the sequels to come and wonderful performances. Star Trek proved to be better than the Star Wars 1 and 2.
Runner Up: Terminator Salvation

Best Action Film:
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
While not close to being as good as the book it is based on (witch none of these films are) it was definitely better than all other action films of the summer. It was also the best Harry Potter Movie to date with good character development and a great middle chunk makes it far and beyond the best action movie of the summer.
Runner Up: (sigh) G.I. Joe rise of Cobra

Most overlooked/underrated film
Terminator Salvation
While not a masterpiece or even a great film Terminator did not deserve the press it got. IT GOT CRAPED ON!!!!! It was actually a good film but unfortunately no one saw it and most of the audience didn’t like it!! What!
Runner up Public Enemies

Best reboot
Star Trek
What more could be said it was a great reboot to a dead franchise. Nuff said
Runner up Terminator salvation
Best animated film
Up
No competition in this category. While not as good as last years Walle Up provided Pixar’s darkest movie ever with some really sad moments. Along with the sadness came the laughs though as UP provided also some really funny moments. Pixar is the best yet a gain and the second movie in two years to enter my top three computer animated movies of all time.

Worst film and most disappointing film
G force
Hey its guinea pigs what you expect. That’s what I was trying to tell myself well watching this film. But hey it’s Jerry Bruckheimer I have expectations!! Mind you... Anyways the movie sucks and boring and that is final.
Runner up Transformers ROTF

BEST FILM OF THE SUMMER
This is it the best of the best witch film takes top honour as best film of the summer

Nominees Public Enemies
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Star Trek
Up

And the winner is...


Public Enemies
While not being mentioned before on this list Public Enemies is definitely the best film of the summer. I could rave on and on about the camera work the acting and how superbly engaging this film is but I’m not I’m just going to say that this is the best film of the summer and I recommend it to anyone.

Are Big mindless action movies taking over?

Wow looking at the last couple of weeks at the box office has been discouraging. Not just at the fact that the industry is dropping majorly but that look what's topping it! Big dumb action films! The Biggest grossing film of the year is going to be Transformers ROTF. That's not right! Well I can't control the box office taste this is ridiculous!!! I mean come on people! There are better films such as well Public Enemies and Up(to name a few) that well don't provide the number of explosion that these movies provide but these films provide story and actual characters. Call me weird or old fashion but I like those elements in my feature film!

G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra Review

G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra
B

The second big action blockbuster based on a Hasbro toy is here. G.I. Joe was a toy that spawned an animated show and comic series. Now the enviable movie is here. Can it be a good peace of entertainment or will it fail to do so like its brother Transformers 2?

First of all director Steven Sommers seemes to love CGI. He went crazy with it. It’s used through ought relentlessly. Providing some pretty awesome and may I say Michal Bay quality action scenes. From a car chase in Paris to a ninja sword fight he goes over the top in every scene. There are also a lot of action sequences in G.I. Joe and that for this film is a good thing.

As for the story. It’s actually decent! Not good or great by any means but even a decent story in these movies is great. The story is simple the Joes have to stop the organisation Cobra from (guess what) taking over the world. This is not it though as almost each character has a back story. The most important though is the side plot between the main Joe Duke (Channing Tatum) and one of the main villains Anna /the Baroness (Sienna Miller) who have a very weird relationship.

Performances are good. They all fit there characters pretty well. Sienna Miller’s character the Baroness is by far the best performance but over all the rolls don’t feel off at all.

Overall G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra is a good action film and a better film than its loud brother Transformers 2. Steven Sommers goes balls out with the action and has a way more straight forward and better plot than its predecessors. But that still doesn’t mean the plot is good or great and the characters while mildly developed are not explored enough. I wish in these loud and flashy films would do something more than make stuff go boom. Do something big like the Dark Knight did. But what can I expect it’s entertaining and is going to make more money than I will make in multiple life times. Better than it’s brother and entertaining but still I wish...

G Force Review

G Force
C-
Jerry Brochimmer is back with guinea pigs. You should not expect much from guinea pigs. That saying is true because G force is unfunny, boring and not worth your money.

Well where shall we start there are three secret agent guinea pigs and one secret agent mole. After there first mission they get shut down by the FBI but they all escape to a pet shop. Desperate to find and stop the evil guys plan to (guess what) take over the world they all try to escape the pet shop and prove the FBI wrong.

Ya the story is typical and stupid. It is uninteresting to anyone over ten and even than it’s boring.
As for the characters. The voices and acting are good but the characters are unfunny. The lines they are given are just so stupid and again any one over 10.
The special effects are good but not great. The guinea pigs are well animated and look real the action scenes are ok but not good. That’s disappointing because the director (Hoyt Yetman) has been doing effects for years.

G force is a disappointment but mind you its guinea pigs so what do you expect. Still kid’s movies should appeal to some older people in some way. This one dose not even give you a good laugh or even try to keep you interesting. G Force don’t waste your money.

G.I. Joe the day after impression

G.I. Joe rise of the cobra is here and it's better than transformers 2. The plot line while not particularly good is okay ya it's actually ok. The roles are played out pretty food. Also director Steven Summers dose a great job with the special effects and the action sequences witch are on par with the Michel Bay's scenes.

Harry Potter 6 Review

Harry Potter and the half blood prince (movie)
A-
Harry Potter is back (again) in his sixth year at Hagwarts. In other words the movie adaptation to the sixth book in the wildly popular Harry Potter franchise is here. The question is dose it do justice to the book. Again for the sixth time the answer is no but what this movie dose in 2 and a half hours is great and the best of the movie adaptations.

Finally everyone in the wizard world knows that Voldemort is back and in full force. He has also crossed over into the muggle world where he and his gang of death eaters are creating mayhem. Meanwhile Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermionie (Emma Watson) have returned to Hogwarts for a sixth year. There is quiddich and romance in the air. But also of course Harry is following Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) with plans on retrieving a memory from Horris Slugmore (Jim Broadbent) to help destroy Voldemort.

For what he crams into 2 and a half hours director David Yates dose a great job of getting the most important parts of the book. It although has its problems. The ending is rushed. (Spoilers) The Horcox search and the death of Dumbledore is way to short all of this happens in about 30 min. They could have cut out the very unnecessary action scene in the middle that was not in the book to make the ending longer and better.

One of the biggest and best parts of this film is the character development. The writers did a wonderful job of developing characters that have not been fleshed out before. Examples of this are Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright) and Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) who see the spot light a lot in this film. The best performance acting wise is Jim Broadbent as Professor Slughorn who fits the role perfectly and is really funny.

Overall Harry Potter and the Half blood prince is a great film and the best of the Harry Potter adaptations. The ending is rushed but overall it is deffinetly a movie worth seeing.

Public Enemies Review

Public Enemies
A+

John Dillinger one of if not the most famous bank robber ever. Based on the book written by Bryan Burrough and on actual events Public Enemies deals with the effect of John Dillinger in the great depression.

John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) is a bank robber who is popular with the public. It is the great depression and the cops and FBI are only state wide making it easy for the gangsters and bank robbers to escape with out really getting nodiced. With some conviction from the government starts a nation wide war on crime. At the head of the Dillinger hunt is Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) a head agent in the FBI. Dillinger gets in to a relationship with a young woman named Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) who becomes the one person he really cares about.

The story is true to its roots in history. My only complaint is that the beginning is slow but through out the film it gets quicker and it’s a very minor complaint. From the beginning of the movie it had its teeth in me and it never let go.

The way this film is shot is amazing. Well some complain it was shot in HD I did not notice as to me the movies feel was very very 30s. There are a few shootouts and they are all perfectly executed.

Johnny Depp is amazing in this film. He truly captures the role of John Dillinger perfectly and there would be no one else who could do the role quite like him. Christian Bale is well Christian Bale the gruff sort of good guy. Witch is a great thing. His acting style is perfect for the role but he is outshined again this time by Johnny Depp. Marion Cotillard is really good and plays Dillinger’s love interest well. The one complaint is they could have used Depp and Bale on screen at the same time more often but again it is a very mild complaint and it’s only a complaint because they are magic in a bottle together.

Public Enemies is an excellent film that only has a few very minor quibbles here and there. The story, the way it was shot and the acting all in one superb package make this one so far the movie of the summer.

Transformers 2 Review

Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen
C-

Michal Bay is back with Transformers ROTF the sequel to the 2007s extremely popular Transformers movie. Witch means more explosions and robot on robot action. But can they fix the major problems of the last film?

Well one thing they haven’t fixed is the story. It is horrible. Really horrible. The story at some points is so dumb it dose not make sense. So I’m not going to give it any more credit than it’s good giant robots (auto bots) trying to stop evil robots (deceptions) from destroying the sun and Sam Witwiky (Shia LaBuf) is the only one who can help the autobots stop them. Ya it’s really bad.

One thing they have improved is the action. It’s no longer confusing. You can actually tell what is going on. You can tell that Michal Bay got a lot of money for special effects because the special effects are even better than the first by far.

As for the acting it is okay and that is stretching it. Shia LeBeuf is well Shia LeBeuf and that’s ok but that’s as far as it goes. Megan Fox seems bored in this role and I would not blame her as she is basically there for eye candy. The other human roles are good but if not annoying and sometimes unnecessary. The robots all perfectly done except for two autobots who are so annoying with offending unnessisary jokes.

Well Transformers ROTF is an okay film. The story sucks and the acting needs improvement but the action and special effects managed to keep me entertained. Michal Bay films are improving maybe next time he will follow through with a good story and actual characters you care about.