Caro the Movie Critic

Denzel doing what he does best...being cool, well, with a gun. Denzel Washington is an actor who always looks for flawed characters and cool characters that have different characteristics relevant to himself, to other characters, and to the service of the plot. Lately, he has been hit-or-miss, but when he is a hit, he's about a home run. Flight was a great movie about a struggling alcoholic pilot trying to quit but also hides his guilt because people look up to him. 2 Guns  was a little silly, but he played another cop with experienced intuition. However, he is playing a guy that is from the TV show and is so calculated and intricate that he times his kills. This movie is also calculated into guessing who this guy is plus the explosions. Washington plays Robert McCall, a well-respected worker at Home Mart, a home improvement store. Every night he goes out to a diner taking a book to read and one night, a young girl named Alina (Chlöe Grace Moretz) asks McCall whether the man ...

Colin Farrell and his horse. Time travel and romance. It is odd how many Hollywood studios want to re-create both science fiction and romantic genres especially simultaneously. But, in this film, however, there's no substance because all it is trying to do is inhabit these characters in different settings but not organize the story and it becomes scattered pieces of the script all over the floor and the filmmakers said to themselves, "Ah! We have a good cast. Let's make the movie!" In 1916, an infant boy growing up to become Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) is a thief raised by a supernatural demon posed as the gangster Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe). He is marked by death by Soames when he wants to leave. He is rescued by a guardian angel, a white horse. When he arrives in Florida, he is encouraged to steal at one mansion. He is witnessed by Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay). Beverly asks him whether if he is robbing the place and he replies affirmatively but, he c...

He kinda does look like Beavis and the box-troll on the right looks like Butthead. Once upon a time I read Oliver Twist  in middle school and when I read it, it was a marvelous adventure of the undertakings of how Oliver sees the outside world and discovers new people that he grows fond of. When I saw this film, I was reminded of the book, but subtract almost every other human with trolls; box-trolls. It is sort of a ridiculous name to call another species because simply trolls are wearing boxes, duh! I have seen two very good animated movies this year, but, this movie is  shockingly boring and very simple-minded for an animated film. When fiendish exterminator Archibald Snatcher (Sir Ben Kingsley) reports that a little child has been taking by little creatures called the Box-trollers to Lord Portley-Rind (Jared Harris), Portley-Rind sends Snatcher to eliminate all the trolls when he is warned that he may steal all of Cheesebridge's, the town's, cheese. Snatcher wants to...

Justin Long and Michael Parks having a discussion. It's extremely difficult to make a very satisfying horror film that has a balance between gross-out substances and idyllic humor. The only film I can think of that can make me laugh out loud in this genre is the Mel Brooks-directed Young Frankenstein . A film that can almost make me literally roll on the floor laughing. But, this movie is overly ambitious of what Kevin Smith, the director, is trying to show us, it ultimately fails a film that does not deliver the scares nor the laughs. The movie starts off pretty well as podcasters Wallace Bryton and Teddy Craft (Justin Long and Haley Joel Osment) are recording a bit for their show as the laugh over a video of a kid, nicknamed "The Kill Bill Kid", cutting off his own leg accidentally. Wallace makes it to Canada and meets one of the people working at the airport and makes a lame joke about Canada. He travels to the kid's family home and they are upset because the...

What is in that maze? Solving a maze can be exhausting mentally depending on the level of difficulty the supplier has displayed for the challenger. Easy, intermediate, difficult...it does not matter because you either enjoy or get frustrated with the challenge of solving a maze. But, remember The Shining ? It will be nightmarish when you play a game where you are inside a maze at night and don't know whether or not you will get out. Hey, maybe it could be just a normal maze or maze full of tricks? However, another YA adaptation has come on-screen and while it starts out superbly, the energy level deflates when knowing what the whole story is about. Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) wakes up in a rusted elevator called The Box , what a simple name to call that elevator. When he ascends to the top, he is surrounded and greeted by other boys in a grassy area called The Glade where it is also surrounded by gray, thick walls. Thomas does not remember anything that has happened to him but...

Hello, Winter! I wonder what it's like to train dolphins or become a marine biologist. Watching the dolphins or whales perform any tricks in front of an audience is exhilarating. Personally, I have been to SeaWorld and a few aquatic shows. I also rode a dolphin which was once-in-a-lifetime experience. The only factor that I did not insert into my mind was how silky a dolphin's layer of skin felt. It literally felt like soft sheets. I do recommend riding a dolphin or watching the shows. But, also, going into these movies, I never get excited for these movies as they do not get quite exciting as we delve into the dolphin's or whale's story. I liked Free Willy as a kid, but never liked the sequels. However, I was surprised by the result of this latest sequel as the first movie was a good experience. The second movie proves that its predecessor was not a fluke. Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) is now an integral employee at the Clearwater Marine aquarium, a more improved and re...

Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini (in his final role). Crime thrillers have been considered as one of the most unpredictable genres, but one of the most exciting genres due to the interesting characters and how the filmmakers and writers guide their fates. However, the story becomes the most powerful component of the whole project as the audience wants to be entertained and shocked simultaneously because sometimes, our favorite characters do not make it out alive. The Departed, Heat, The Town  had some fantastic characters that have a guilty backstory as to why the characters are in a vulnerable state. This movie is somewhat different but has predictable crime thriller elements, but, nevertheless, thanks to some strong performances, it is a solid crime thriller. Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) plays a bartender at a Brooklyn bar called Cousin Marv's. It is a drop bar that holds all the collection money from all other mob businesses, but, specifically in this story, the Chechen mafia....

Taraji P. Henson in a vulnerable state of mind. Do you feel safe or do you feel unsafe when alone in the house or when you and your family are vulnerable? I almost see the same premise about every year or 2 years depending on the different actors. The movie that started it all in my opinion is Fatal Attraction starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close. Two thirds of the movie was simply dangerous and exciting, but it turns to a slasher movie near the end and it left me unsatisfied. Every movie is just the same clichéd story and I'm afraid, the price of admission to go see this movie is not worth it. Criminal Colin Evans (Idris Elba) is denied parole after the judge and the chairman of the board claims that he is a violent offender and will get the families of the five women in an uproar if he is freed. Colin is being taken back to prison in a van when he appears to have a nosebleed. But, here comes the cliché when a bad guy tricks a high ranking officer, the villain picks up a...

They are celebrating. Woo-hoo! "Inspired by a true story." I don't know how many sports films has that phrase, but I personally think there are way too many sports movies, but most of them range from pretty good to a great masterpiece. The pretty good movies are Remember the Titans , Friday Night Lights , Miracle ,  Rudy and Rush. The great masterpieces are Raging Bull , The Fighter , and Hoosiers.  However, it seems to me that these "inspirational sports films" takes a toll to become overly sentimental instead of showing us what these players really go through. This movie becomes more of a overly sentimental fantasy than a true realistic sports film. The movie takes place in 2003 in De La Salle High School where the De La Salle Spartans are playing their rivals, Pittsburgh High School. Coach Bob Ladouceur (Jim Caviezel) delivers a pep talk stating that "the streak was never their goal" meaning that they have won 150 straight games which is unbel...

Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, I mean, The November Man.  Pierce Brosnan was the 90s-early 2000s James Bond. The only film that I really liked out of his four films was his first Bond film, Goldeneye . He presented a suave presence to the iconic character that seemed a little too proper and also while during the action sequences, he seemed that he was not as vulnerable or wounded as Daniel Craig's Bond. In his resumé, he had a few interesting films like The Tailor of Panama,  El Matador and The Thomas Crown Affair remake that had some of the same character developments but in better-acquainted story lines. But, in his latest movie, the film has some interesting elements in the spy-thriller genre. Unfortunately, the film just has some lugubrious and dumb clichés that is just too hard to resist noticing to conclusively enjoy the picture. Brosnan plays CIA veteran Peter Devereaux who retires to Switzerland after a mission goes wrong as his partner and protégé David Mason (Lu...