Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from February, 2015

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015), R, 0 stars

It's them 10 years from now.  Make it or break it: Time travel comedies can either work or suffer or just sink into one of the worst movies ever. The first movie had a fresh but crazy idea of setting a hot tub as a time-travel portal and it was kind of fun and I kind of enjoyed it. You have to have memorable characters with a witty and funny script and a good or decent story just to pleasant us during the whole run-time. They did about 2 and a half things in the first movie correctly. This sequel, however, is the bane of our existence because there is nothing going on and just substitutes the material and comedy with infantile jokes, disgust and boredom that almost made me walk out of the theater. Yes, I was that close. Well, not as close as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen . Lou (Rob Cordry), Nick (Craig T. Robinson), and Lou's son, Jacob (Clark Duke) are enjoying life in their own ways. Lou is a mogul with his empire and his side band Motley Lou, Nick has become a po...

The 87th Academy Awards Predictions

Who will win? This has been the most interesting awards season in a while because when I saw the nominees, I was not too happy with some of the nominated stuff such as Jake Gyllenhaal being snubbed for Best Actor for  Nightcrawler  or The LEGO Movie not being nominated for Best Animated Feature. Let's move on! However, initially it was a  Boyhood  sweep but  Birdman  has gained momentum. Without further ado, here are my predictions for the MAJOR categories: (Video of my predictions of all categories coming soon.) BEST PICTURE: American Sniper Birdman Boyhood The Grand Budapest Hotel The Imitation Game Selma The Theory of Everything Whiplash Will win, should win:  Boyhood Dark Horse:  The Grand Budapest Hotel  &  Birdman I think  Boyhood  will win slightly over  Birdman , even though the latter was my favorite movie of 2014, because it is a magnificent achievement and a well-acted movie However, I wi...

The Weirdest Best Picture Wins and Best Picture Nominations

Good movie but Dances with Wolves over Goodfellas?!? I have to say that not all Best Picture winners are deserving or deserved to be nominated but a few were good and appreciated but not deserved to be in the top 5 or top 10 of nominated films. However,  people have an affection or admire them as I have admired some that I will address but I don't consider a classic. The only question is do you remember the movies 5 or 10 years later? Well...just speak for yourself. First: here are the 6 weirdest Best Picture wins and the movie I would have voted for: Best Picture (2005): Crash Should have won: Brokeback Mountain Best Picture (1998): Shakespeare in Love Should have won: SAVING PRIVATE RYAN Best Picture (1996): The English Patient Should have won: Fargo Best Picture (1990): Dances with Wolves Should have won: GoodFellas Best Picture (1985): Out of Africa Should have won: The Color Purple Best Picture (1980): Ordinary People Should have won: R...

Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), R, ★1/2

It's getting steamy in the elevator. Wow! It is the movie that everybody, e.g. women, is anticipating for for about a year. Ok, I have heard about the book for a while from a few friends and it has been in the tabloids and Internet for long stretches of time as it was sold globally and when the libraries banned the book and its two sequels. High school libraries: I can understand. College libraries: I think that they are all adults, at least, but some would rather study. However, I understand and do not understand simultaneously as to why the book was a hit with women. It is fantasy mixed with sickness. The movie tries to prove a point to pinpoint the sexy scenes with eroticism, sickness and fantasy. There are a few sexy scenes in an otherwise boring erotic movie. Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) is a journalism major at Vancouver University in Washington. She is on her way to take over for her sick friend and roommate, Kate (Eloise Mumford), to interview the mysterious Chri...

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015), R, ★★★

Colin Firth and Taron Egerton. James Bond has always been a fictional hero in our minds and many studios try to rip them off and most results are abysmal because they fail in execution and get too repetitive with the over-stylized and meaningless violence. However, the plot has to put in some extra juice into the movie to familiarize with the characters and their weapons and try to be entranced by the whole experience. When I saw this movie on the ads, I thought it was going to be another take on Kick-Ass , which I think both films are overbearing and self-indulgent. This movie has too much pep on the violent aspects but this spy movie is entertaining and imaginative and I cannot resist by saying that I had fun with the movie. We see, in the beginning, that Harry Hart, aka Galahad (Colin Firth), threatens to shoot a terrorist for answers and as the terrorist kills one of his comrades, Harry's other two partners, Merlin (Mark Strong) and Lancelot (Jack Davenport) reveal themse...

Black or White (2015), PG-13, ★★1/2

Kevin Costner and Jillian Estell. In today's standards in America, whenever there is a case regarding a black person, a Latino, an Asian, etc, there is always going to be the matter of raising what racial equality is in relevance to the people involved from the minority. Right now, there has been a few more cases involving black and white communities going either in a ruckus or standing firm to their communities and sticking to their own judgments. I cannot say whether or not they do is fair and I cannot be judgmental to their decisions. It is entirely about freedom of speech and their rights. However, this is a relevant movie regarding to today's society as it tries to balance the views of stereotyping and racism into a small situation but even though it has some good elements and chemistry, the movie is ruined by conventional courtroom-drama antics and a terrible climax. Elliot Anderson (Kevin Costner) is widowed after his wife has been killed in a car crash. He is home...

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015), PG, ★★★

Spongebob and the gang are back. Even though kids are delighted to hear and see on the ads and tv spots that Spongebob Squarepants are on the big screen, older people such as myself could either care less about what they are up to or we could relive our childhood memories and see what they are up to. I have read comments recently regarding the new Spongebob episodes and interest has been steadily declining and the creators are running out of fresh ideas. It may look like that the show has been derailing a bit, but because of this sequel, this movie may generate the show's momentum and, yes, this is a better movie than I thought it would be. Spongebob Squarepants (voiced by Tom Kenny) is doing his normal routine, liking everybody and everything he does and going to work at The Krusty Krab. Mr Krabs' nemesis, Plankton (Mr. Lawrence), tries to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula. But, once again, Spongebob, Patrick and Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) defeat him as his robot runs ...

Jupiter Ascending (2015), PG-13, ★

Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis. I'm going to say right off the bat that the title sounds like a title to a pornographic video. All right, that's clear and out of the way. Directors always want to elevate the style of science fiction films. Let me re-phrase. Directors try very hard to make the next science fiction classic with more realistic special effects and memorable characters. However, they try to put too much emphasis, nowadays, on the look of space and all the colorful planets and what-not over the story which tries to make sense. Audiences want memorable characters, a great story and fantastic visual effects. From this movie, we have barely one out of three and I emphasize barely because it's the Wachowskis and they've made better movies than this. Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) is a janitor in Chicago who hates her work and her life, however, she is not ambitious to do anything else about it. Three intergalactic bounty hunters, Falque, Razo and Ibis (Spencer...

Seventh Son (2015), PG-13, 0 stars

Jeff Bridges is stopping Ben Barnes to prevent him from ruining his career.  Oh, well, too late! Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore and Ben Barnes have to be embarrassed with this movie being in their filmographies for the rest of their careers because this movie does not seem to care whether or not this plays like a movie. Anyway, these sword-and-sorcery movies I tend to avoid because they are all the same and they bore me with these mythical creatures and sorcery language but I gave this movie a chance because of the three actors involved and I'm afraid to say that this was one of the most boring experiences I have had of going to the movies. I felt like I was comatose while having nightmares of images of this movie playing over and over. What is this movie about? Well, Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore) was imprisoned and then she escapes to taunt Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges), the local village's Spook (what, in that context, is a Spook?). Anyway, Malkin is on the loose while t...

The Top 5 Super Bowl Ads of 2015 (Super Bowl XLIX)

This year's batch of Super Bowl ads were good, however, there were more ads that had a message about something than ads with humor. I felt that there should be more balance but with more funny commercials next year. Nevertheless, I thought the Super Bowl game was great, possibly, one of the best games ever because both teams, The New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, played extremely well with the game ending with The Patriots winning 28-24 earning their fourth Super Bowl title. So, here are my 5 favorite Super Bowl ads of 2015 along with a few honorable mentions: 5. Fiat At first, I thought we were going to get a Pfizer or a Viagra Super Bowl commercial. It would've still been funny. But, since I get that this was in Italy and it was building up to the product regarding the car, Fiat, then they will get consumers to rush to get a Fiat. 4. Snickers The Brady Bunch+Danny Trejo+Steve Buscemi and you got a Robert Rodriguez crossover with The Brady Bunch. ...

Project Almanac (2015), PG-13, ★★

Cool! A time machine! Have you wondered whenever you regret something or want to alternate an event in your life to create a better future or maybe pull a prank on someone who deserves to be? Yes, but I will not reveal which I would to undertake. Anyway, these time travel movies seem to factor the essence of fun for somebody to experience: The Back to the Future trilogy is a prime example because you care about the characters and want them to be happy but you have to change a few things. This movie is sort of similar to that. They try to change things for the better but it also has some consequences. The director wanted to set in a decent story for the better but his method of shaky-cam and found footage was consequential, distracting and a tad nauseous that I had a little headache after the movie was over. David Raskin (Jonny Weston) is a high school senior who is videotaping an experiment for a scholarship at MIT with the help of his sister, Christina (Ginny Gardner), who is fo...