Reviews

Both Matt Damon and Ridley Scott had been stuck in some sort of slump in recent years, and some wondered if ether would set their storied careers back on track. With Damon being thought of as a has been star, and with Scott being woefully inconsistent with his recent projects, I'm pleased to say that The Martian brings two greats of the film industry back into the forefront.

The premise of this film starts off almost immediately. Botanist Mark Watney(Damon) is thought to be dead after a violent Mars storm rumbles its way into the NASA research base that Watney and his crew are conducting their scientific mission. Only he is still alive, and must find a way to not only contact his crew, but figure out how he is going to survive for the 4 years it will take for NASA to come back with an extraction team. So within the first 5 minutes of this film, we are thrown right into the thick of Mark Watney's desperate fight for survival.

Some people who have seen this film have basically stated that The Martian is just Apollo 13 meets Cast Away. While this film does do a fantastic job of distinguishing itself from other survival stories, it is mainly Apollo 13 meets Cast away, only its on Mars and Tom Hanks is no where to be found. But what separates The Martian from many other survival stories, is how warm hearted and humorous this film is. So many other films like this are dull, depressing and sometimes void of all hope till the vary end, when an opportunity arises for the protagonist to want to save their lives. From start to finish, Mark Watney has this drive inside him, that even in the most seemingly hopeless situations, he finds a way to crack a joke, and to stay positive at all times.

Matt Damon is absolutely brilliant. The Martian is easily his finest role since The Departed. You constantly laugh at his jokes, you are rooting for him to make it home, and you feel for him when he is starting to break down and go through his emotions. Most importantly, you care about his character and because of this, the audience gets sucked right on in for the ride. They become fully committed and invested into what is unfolding before their eyes and what is unfolding is one of the best Sci-Fi films of the year and one of Ridley Scott's best work in a long, long time.

Besides Damon's amazing performance, The Martian boasts a loaded cast of A-listers. Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Jeff Daniels, Jessica Chastain, Micheal Pena and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Ejiofor in particular reminds all of us, why he was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor and I have no doubt that he will one day, walk away with that award in the future. Not one actor gave a bad performance, not one. Every character was likable, even the CEO of NASA (Daniels) who is supposed to be the corporate boss we are all supposed to hate, we end up understanding why he makes the decisions he does throughout, and the film makes us think about what we would do if we had to make the difficult decisions that he is responsible for in his position.

Lastly, the visuals, because my goodness, what a well shot, well crafted and gorgeous film this is. I would love to find out where this film was shot because if they aren't on an actual set piece somewhere on earth, then the CGI in The Martian is absolutely breathtaking. This, besides Mad Max: Fury Road, is by far the most stunningly beautiful movie of the year. So many times I was in awe of how majestic the sand blew i the wind, or how the sun reflected off of Damon's helmet, or even how something so simple as a close up shot of a budding plant screams of magic and life. Simply put, you will feel like you never blinked the entire 2 hours and 40 minutes of run time.

The Martian is a return to form for two aging greats in Hollywood. Its easily the best Sci-Fi film of 2015 and arguably the best in the past 3 years. The CGI was crisp and amazing, the cast was incredible, all with fantastic and memorable performances, the story although extremely basic, has more meat and weight to it then most survival stories. The Martian is an absolute must see, without any shadow of doubt, and when you walk out, you will be begging to come back and see it again.

Another movie that confirms that George Lucas has clearly lost it. I'm going to be blunt. This is one of the worst animated movies that I have ever had the displeasure of seeing, and I feel terrible that I took my daughter to see it for her first movie in theaters.

First off it doesn't matter that this is aimed at kids. When the parents are checking their watches wondering when this movie is going to end, this movie has downright failed. So to start, this movies poster has an automatic red-flag "from the mind of George Lucas" that instantly will keep many viewers away as we all know of the infamous Lucas Blunders.

Lucas was the screen writer and honestly this story makes even less sense then The Phantom Menace. The story is so awfully bad that you will not care about any of the characters at all and many parents will check out of the film halfway through.

Whats worse is when the kids even start to hate the characters. My daughter whispered in my ear, I really don't like the dumb sister, someone that you are supposed to care about. But what truly makes this film awful is the music. I truly believe that Lucas looked on Google for the most popular pop songs in recent years and just threw them in to be based into the story. Songs like I Say Hey, Makes You Stronger and several Lady Gaga songs.

All out of place, all telling you the obvious feelings that the characters are going through, even though people aren't that stupid and we can tell when a character is upset or happy. It just insults the viewers intelligence constantly. Then they have old songs like Bob Marley's Three Little Birds, but they absolutely butcher it to death!

This film has character clichés to max, awful story telling, disturbing animation, an absolutely dreadful song list and overall this is the worst movie of 2015 so far.

Its a good thing some directors actually listen to their fans on certain subjects for once. You might actually get a really good result of a film. Like if Paul Anderson listened to fans on how to make a Resident Evil movie or Bay in how to make a Transformers movie, we might actually get movies that are worth watching and this is one of them.

This is what the first film should have been. You can completely skip the first movie which was a complete mess with some of the most unlikable idiotic people in movie history. You have a great premise and you reduce it to a one house slasher flick. Lame. Been there done that. Its funny cause after, me and my friends were saying how cool it would be if they showed the survivors trying to survive the night. No joke I actually said that the scenario that should happen was a couples car breaks down before they can get home and it happens!!! I was shocked and happy that they would do this story.

The film shows how the rich and poor act during the purge and what exactly goes on during Purge night. This time you actually have characters that you care about and you care if they make it out or not, some of the acting is cheesy and a little over the top but it doesn't really take away from the movie at all. The action sequences were well done, and the story is simple enough to understand and if you go into this movie with your brain turned off you will enjoy this movie from start to finish.

Sometimes there were pacing problems and sometimes the story tried to be a little more intelligent then it actually was but overall the Purge Anarchy is a fun action, survival film that has some memorable moments and is worth the 10 dollars that you will pay to see it.

8 out of 10

This was seriously one of the most boring movies i have ever seen. Aaron Taylor Johnson proved that he cannot act a serious role. Part of good monster films in general is when you care about the characters which when Cranston left the film, the human element took a nose dive. Apparently Ford is the only nuclear bomb guy in the whole damn army, the soldiers assigned to protect the nuke, know nothing about it and Olsen is basically a broom stick with a head. Godzilla is a guest star in his own damn movie and even the final fight, they kept cutting away from the monster fight, which was highly annoying. Now i would have been fine with this had i given a crap about any of the characters that remained in the film, but i don't and every time they cut away to see what Ford is doing i was rolling my eyes.

I don't ask for Pacific Rim amount of action, but Godzilla needed much more action, even 10 mins extra screen time would have made this a better film. Pacific Rim had fun with itself and never took itself too seriously and although some characters were uninteresting, what made me care about Pacific Rim when the monsters were away was Idris Elba, proving that had the human element focused on Cranston, the human part would have been much more interesting.

And before you say "well most early Godzilla films only had Godzilla in it for 20 mins". Newsflash This isn't the 1960's and 70's. CGI has far advanced and even if Godzilla is only in the film for 15 mins, it could have been much better, instead they cut away just as he is about to fight the MUTO, the first time was acceptable, but by the time number 3 came around me and many of my friends were getting frustrated.

Like man of steel Godzilla is dull, depressing, unfun and soulless. Hopefully Godzilla 2 is far superior, and i do give this film credit for getting Godzilla back in the limelight, but for how much this movie was hyped, the payoff was poor. I give the movie a 6 out of 10, but if you want a fun monster movie go see Pacific Rim.

This "movie" is for people who have the lowest standards, as it is an absolute waste of time. This film, like the first one is a parody of recently released horror films. Well this movie is not a parody, because parody requires some level of intelligence and cunning wit. This "film" has none of that.

This "film" is profoundly stupid, only meant to please the idiots who like this crap and even that is offensive on so many levels. One has to question how a film so awful could even be made, it is that bad, and on top of that, it is not funny, not one bit. I never once laughed, most of the time I was cringing at all the awful one liners and "jokes", or shaking my head with agony and I think I checked my phone watch over 20 times.

I still cant believe that this is the guy who helped create Scary Movie 1 and 2, two of the best parody movies ever, and now he has stooped to levels so low, they rival movies like Grown Ups 2 and Jack and Jill, and honestly id rather go back and watch Jack and Jill cause at least I got a kick out of Al Pacino.

This "movie" is nothing but a classless, soulless, cash grab that should be seen by absolutely no one, it is a complete waste of time, thought and effort....wait no none of those things were even put in to this garbage, the only thing A Haunted House 2 does, is waste a theater slot for a month if that. Worst movie of 2014 By Far!

Going into this film was trying to keep my expectations low, considering it is a kids movie. Or at least thats what I thought it was. I have never been more surprised by a movie then this one! So far this is not just the best animated movie, but the best movie of the year so far(even though its barely Febuary)

Plot: The plot does follow a specific formula, however it doesn't take away from the overall experience that this film provides. The jokes are fresh, funny and completely original, while also providing great cameos to boost and the 3rd act moved me to tears! YES I cried to The Lego Movie!! 10/10

Voice acting: The voice acting is great! Even though some people you can clearly tell is a certain character(Liam Neson and Morgan Freeman) But the people picked are perfect for their roles. 9/10

Animation: I thought the animation at finest was stop motion, but it was something new and innovative and i couldn't describe what animated the directors were using to make the Legos come to life. You will have to see it to believe it. Everything is so colorful and fun loving! While going dark and gloomy at the necessary moments! To me this was the main highlight of the film and it was as if the director was pulling the animating right from his head and putting it on the big screen! Well thats what movie are supposed to do anyways! The level of imagination is limitless! 10/10

Final Verdict: The Lego Movie is a fun filled adventure for the whole family! Kids and adults will love this movie! In my opinion its up there with all of the Disney and Pixar films and i don't see how any film will top this one come Oscar time!! Im calling it now, The Lego Movie will win Best Animated Film of the year and it definitely deserves multiple watches! 10/10

When I fist saw the trailer for this, I was just shaking my head in absolute disbelief. Im thinking to myself that, PIXAR has officially run out of ideas, then I found out that PIXAR had nothing to do with this movie which was a sigh of relief. The trailer for Planes literally got me saying to myself that this is exactly a carbon copy of cars, only its Planes!!! Some originality there! While the first Cars was not universally excepted by audiences and critics alike, it still was a movie that spawned a sequel, had some great performances, had memorable characters, some completely funny moments and overall it was a really memorable film, even if the story had been done over and over. Planes on the other hand, has none of this, it is an exact carbon copy of cars with, sub-par voice acting, no memorable characters, the Same Exact Story as Cars only with minor differences. the only main difference is that the film focuses in the same world on its Planes rather then Cars.

Honestly instead of calling it Cars 2.5, I call it the animated Top Gun. This film not only is a carbon copy of Cars, but blatantly rips off key scenes from Top Gun, like the scene where the planes fly upside down on top of one another, the qualifying scene, the underdog story, minus the 1980s romance and you have Top Gun in a nutshell. There is absolutely nothing going for Planes at all, some want to say its a spin off, but no its nothing but a hilariously horrible, lazy Rip Off of 2 famous films and does absolutely nothing to separate itself from the rest of the pack.

Planes is a prime example of what is wrong with cinema today. It does nothing original, has sub-par voice acting, the animation has been done before and all they did was recycle character models, we all know how the movie will end before it is over, its dull, lazy, unoriginal, its a carbon copy of Cars and combines the Story of Cars and Top Gun, and older audiences will notice the key scenes that took place in Top Gun. Kids will easily find this enjoyable, but I've heard that even some kids did not like this movie. Animated movies should not just be for kids, it should be an original experience that all audiences should enjoy and not just so the kids can enjoy the film while the parent is just thinking "hurry up and end". Planes fails on every level and does absolutely nothing for it to stick out or even warrant a sequel.

Basically if you have seen Cars or Top Gun you have seen Planes, save your money, and if your kids want to see it, just make up excuses and stall for RedBox. Planes is one of the most forgettable animated films out there.

1 out of 10

Sandler's first sequel, is even lazier, dumber, and even less funny then I could have imagined. It's worse than most comedy sequels, and worse then most movies period. It's worse than Grown Ups, for heaven's sake! There's no plot, none, zip, nada. Characters and gags are set up without payoff much like in Jack and Jill. Almost every attempt at a joke falls flat. Anyone who wants to make a comedy should watch Grown Ups 2 as an example of one that does almost everything wrong and what to and what not to do when directing and making a mainstream comedy.

Almost every joke in this movie is pointless, absolutely pointless. The movie's first joke: a deer wanders into Sandler's house where it pees in Sandler's face. In a movie that had actual though: this would happen not just because a deer peeing on a man is funny, but for some reason that has a point, maybe to show that the family had moved out of the city and into the country. There is no point, none and only the dumbest of the audience will find this amusing.

Grown Ups 2 is worse then the first and is a close 2nd as the worst Sandler movie ever made, nothing in this movie had a point, there is no plot, the whole movie and setup basically everything was lazy and Rob Schneider may have actually made one of his best decisions ever by skipping out on not only one of the worst sequels ever but one of the worst comedies I've seen in a long, long time. 1 out of 10. Skip this movie and go see Pacific Rim or read a book or go outside, Do Anything!! Just Avoid this movie.

When the trailer for After Earth showed, I thought to myself "Hey this could be a good movie". I should have seen the warning signs from the get go. This movie is easily one of M. Nights worst movies, and honestly I cant help but feel this might be his last.

Some people are blindly defending his movie for the sake that Will Smith is in it, and he can do no wrong. Trust me, this movie proves he can. His role in the movie is almost pointless, instead of having a father/son duo adventure, he is injured in the crash and has to sit in the ship and guide Jaden throughout the entire movie, basically taking Will Smith out of a Will Smith movie, and on top of that his performance is so stiff and wooden, that you wonder if he is reading off cue cards.

Speaking of performances, Jaden gives out one of the worst of 2013 by far. The movie should not have been based around him at all. His lines are bad, his acting is stiff, and his emotions are non existent. Jaden is a rising star, but this does nothing to help his cause, however this movie made Will Smith look bad so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.

The story is also a major downfall. It is so predictable, it looks like a 10 year old wrote it, I'm literally calling every scene as it unfolds, the pacing was bad, the ending was underwhelming and predictable, and this movie does nothing that any other Sci-Fi movie hasn't done in the past. But its not all bad, I actually liked the effects as they were rally beautiful at times, however unless you are Avatar, where the effects are so groundbreaking that it hides a generic story, special effects cannot save a movie alone, as was the case here.

After Earth is the latest setback in M. Night's once promising career, a man that once had everything going for him, now might not even be allowed to direct cinema anymore. I'm now starting to believe that he stole the script for the 6th Sense, cause I still cant accept the fact that the same guy who directed this and Last Airbender, directed such a classic. People don't like to listen to critics, but honestly this is a time where you should. This movie was all around bad, with some decent effects and nothing more. People save your $10.50 o however much you would pay to see this, and ether avoid this movie altogether or red box it, by no means does this "movie" deserve your hard earned cash.

Score: 2 out of 10 (avoids a 1 from having some good effects)

I work at a movie theater so I see almost all movies come and go. I've seen good ones bad ones and downright awful ones come through. I was able to get through Jack and Jill and was able to even handle Gigli and Bucky Larson, but this movie finally did it for me, its the First movie I've ever walked out of. I lost exactly 48 mins of my life and I will never get it back! I can honestly say without a doubt, this is the worst movie I've ever seen!!! Battlefield Earth looked like Citizen Kane compared to this "film" if you can even call it that.

Whats wrong with this film? Whats right with this film???? Every single attempt at a joke falls flat on its ass, the "story" is.....no there is no story. Every attempt at a parody fails, and the dialogue is probably the worst I've ever heard ever! His name is Flirty Harry Get it? Cause its Dirty Harry only he is gay! Adrian Brody should have his Oscar taken away after this movie and Rob Schneider should never be allowed to grace the Silver Screen ever again.

But there is one thing this film does right. When the credits roll Thats the upside if you can even make it that far! This movie was only in my theater for a week if that and now I understand why, this is the worst movie of 2013 and possibly the worst movie of the 21st Century. If its still in theaters anywhere Avoid at all costs and if you see it on DVD run away or buy it so you can set it on fire!!!

When I first saw the trailer back in early January, I though this was going to be the dumbest movie ever, especially when I saw who was in it and Im still not over James Francos cornrows, lmao. But when I went to give it a shot this past Monday, I was totally shocked when I left the theater. Spring Breakers is the biggest surprise of 2013, and a damn good surprise at that.

To start with the positives, the characters are the man strong point, which was a surprise, really? Selena Gomez, James Franco(with cornrows), and Venessa Hudgens all steal the show, while Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine also supply strong performances. I was also a huge fan of the lighting and the bright colors when nightfall hit the Florida skies. Also for all you guys who like to think with more then just your head, there are boobies bouncing, butts jiggling and hormones flying throughout from start to finish, so there is no shortage of that. Also the pacing of the movie was fantastic, you never felt like it got boring at any moment. Also the soundtrack fit the movie perfectly.

Now the negatives, the story was simple but kind of dull at points, but honestly that wont matter if you go into this movie with no expectations. However then end finale irked me a bit, to the point where it felt out of place, and was to a degree, out right ridiculous. That was honestly the only downside to this movie, in that it could have ended so much better. The moral of the story is also confusing, to the point where you tell yourself, "Is it telling us to do these things or is it telling us not to do these things on spring break?" But those are to only negatives

In conclusion, this is so far the best movie of 2013, a fresh new take on the whole "teen party" like genre. The movie is not perfect, but it is original and love when people try to attempt something fun, fresh and new, which in the end is what Spring Breakers is. 8 out of 10

After all the crappy remakes, the awful Exorcist movies, and the crummy Paranormal Activity sequels, horror fans can breath a sigh of relief. We have a movie well worth being called a "horror" movie.

The Evil Dead remake is not only the best horror movie of the past 20 years, but probably the best Remake ever. Everything was done with perfection, the atmosphere, the music, the performances, the pace of the story, everything! Now most people are wondering, "Is it scary?". Well its not only scary, its absolutely terrifying!!! I had nightmares after I watched this movie!! Trust me it is scary as hell!! A classic in the horror genre!

Granted the only thing I didn't like about it, is that Bruce Campbell didn't at least make a cameo appearance, like as a gas station worker or some hitchhiker or something, but honestly thats the only problem I had! It stayed faithful to the original and doesn't do anything to the originals story, all it does is modernize it.

Now the movie isn't perfect, and it wont win Oscars or anything like that, but for all horror fans and people who just want to be scared, this movie does all of you justice and WILL scare you!!

10/10

The Walking Dead has far surpassed my expectations up to this day and going into season 3 this show has the potential to last 7 or more seasons if the writers play their cards right. That being said this show is easily in the top 5 must watch shows going into the fall. But this show for all its greatness isn't without its flaws, some very minor but some VERY MAJOR. With that out the way lets look back at the first 2 seasons. Season 1 was one of the best opening seasons to a show of all time, it stuck relatively close to the graphic novels and had us clinging to the edge of our seats, then the action died down a bit giving us a chance to relate to the characters and see how they are trying to cope with one another and survive in a zombie infested wasteland. Tear jerking moments like when Rick is reunited with his family and action packed scenes like the tank scene and the last stand at the camp. The story was well written and very accurate that is until the last 2 episodes. While the first 4 episodes were firing on all cylinders the 5th and 6th episodes were highly criticized and panned by die hard fans of the novel(myself included) and the CDC had little to no zombies in it. But looking back at these episodes most people have forgiven them cause it makes sense with season 2. Now any show can have 1 great season but to make that infamous season 2 that so many writers get stuck on is something different and this is where the show starts to show its cracks. Episodes 1 2 and 3 were amazing and kept us on our toes wanting these people to survive. From the Highway scene to the jaw dropping scene where Carl is shot to Shane and Otis fighting to get him medical supplies. This is what people wanted and it seems this show could do no wrong. However then came that period that everyone hated and you know what I'm talking about. The long boring time spent at the farm, did i mention boring? From episodes 4 through 9 was a period that felt more of a filler period then anything else. What most people wanted was to create character development and make us like all of these characters however it only made us hate half of them. Most of the time they were looking for Sophiea and a lot of people were like get on with it already! When they found her zombifiyed and killed he it wasn't the tear jerking reaction it was more of a THANK GOD NOW WE CAN GET ON WITH THE SHOW reaction and that should never happen. Andrea was becoming more of a liability than anything. From constantly complaining about wanting her gun like a spoiled brat. "Its my gun and i want it now!" Is basically what she is saying for 5 straight episodes. Lori is easily one of the weakest characters from her acting like she hates he husband to saying to Shane of your gonna be like that? UMMMMM DIDENT HE TRY TO RAPE YOU LAST SEASON??!! T Dog is basically a non existent character with no story at all. A lot of people hated Dale, but he was a strong character, who kept the group together and saw through Shane and what he was trying to do, he was trying to keep the group together in this time of need so I loved Dale. The love story between Maggie and Glen is so unbelievable its sickening! but The friction between Shane and Rick was tense and awesome at times. Darrell Rick and Shane are easily the strongest characters and really the only likable characters to this point. Once Sophia plot ended we moved on with the show and episodes were slowly getting better and they had some pretty epic parts, from the bar shootout and escape when we saw zombies and were like OMG ZOMBIES YAY!! To deciding what to do with on of the guys who shot at rick. But it wasn't till 18 miles outs AKA the best episode since the fall was when Shane and Ricks tension hit boiling point and then they must run away from loads of zombies. Now the show was epic again. Overtime survivors are killed including Dale who is killed by a walker that Carl AKA the dumbest kid ever, accidentally released, and Shane who rick had to kill cause Shane was about to kill him and his mind was long gone. The season finale was arguably the best in the series with the last stand and the barn to the discovering of the virus inside every survivor the show ended on a vary high note despite more of the same flaws(loris bipolar feelings and Corals dumb comment towards Rick). I have high hopes for this series, but they have to fix 2 major flaws for it top be a must watch like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. 1. Make us like the characters and give them character development and 2. No more boring periods like mid way through season 2. Final verdict Season 1 is a fantastic 9 out of 10 very few season 1 get 10s from me. The only 2 are Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad. Season 2 is a decent 6 out of 10, for its action packed scenes and awesome survival feeling, but drops cause of bad writing, long boring periods and few likable characters. The whole show gets a Solid 7.5 out of 10. This show has loads of potential but HAS to fix these flaws or will never get Elite status looking forward to season 3.

To put this lightly this movie is the worst movie 2012 so far and we aren't even out of February yet!!! It has some of the worst dialog I've ever seen in a movie in a long time. The main guy says "can we put all that stuff behind us?" Heigl responds "thats ancient history like the pyramids"..... WHAT?! I walked out after that, i couldn't take it anymore. The hookers part was not needed at all and I felt that it added an extra load of pointlessness to this movie. The story is constantly jumping around and Katherine Hegli's jersey accent was the worst I've ever heard. Casting for this movie was just all around bad. I did get a few laughs from the grandma but that isn't saying much. Also for fans of the book, lets put it this way a 6 year old writing the script with markers could do a better job then whoever wrote the script for this movie. Bottom line this is already a top pick for some awards, and by that I mean the 2012 razzies. Save you money and avoid. 1 star out of 10