Note: Major, major spoilers of the midseason finale follow. You have been warned.
We have made it to the midseason finale, and I'm expecting some fireworks. Let's see just how everything played out. The show starts off with Durant, Huntington, Brigham, and President Grant in a meeting room discussing the paths that the railroads are planning on taking. Brigham produces the map showing that the Central Pacific has lied about their plans, and that they will be bypassing Salt Lake City. The president declares that a decision will be made as to where the railroads will meet and form their terminus, and it will happen before any of them leave Salt Lake City.
We then see Huntington attempting to get Cullen to lie to the president about their progress, so that they can get the advantage against Durant. Durant also comes to Cullen and attempts to get him to return to the Union Pacific, and help him get the advantage. Then, to make things even worse for Cullen, Brigham tells Cullen that he knows where his family is, and will tell him where to find his wife and son if he agrees to make sure the railroads pass through Salt Lake City.
After thinking it over, Cullen tells Brigham that he will do as he asks, and Brigham tells him where his family is. But then in the meeting, Cullen goes against his word, and shuts down all three plans, saying that the way to decide this is with a race to Ogden, where the coal fields will go to the victor. President Grant agrees, and so the race is on, which will pick up in the next half of the season next year.
Meanwhile, there were two other storylines going on before the big ending to the episode (more on that in a bit). Eva is struggling to get control of the girls at the whorehouse, and Josie has gotten in with Johnny (Mickey's cousin) and is trying to become the new Madame. Josie steals the money Eva has been hiding, in an attempt to get control, and Eva calls her out on it. Eva then threatens Josie at gunpoint, gets the money back, and tells Josie to leave. However, Josie says it isn't her that will be leaving, but that Eva will be the one leaving. Eva doesn't even think twice and shoots Josie in the guts, letting her die on the floor before telling one of the other girls to clean up the mess.
The other storyline is with Thor and Phineas, as the Swede has now convinced Phineas that he is to ascend as the new head of the Mormons, and that he must rise up and take his rightful place. And so Phineas goes to his father, and stabs him multiple times, until his father stops fighting and his body goes limp on his desk, bleeding out massively. Phineas then proclaims that the Lion has passed, and he has been anointed the new Lion, until his father rises up and shows that he is not dead, and exposes Phineas as a traitor. Seeing this play out, the Swede does what he does best, and leaves before it can be found out that he was the mastermind of the whole plan. And then we get the big payoff at the end of the episode.
Cullen goes to see what has happened, telling the Mormons that it was Thor Gundersen that they need to find. And then someone says that he had been inquiring about the outcast Hatch family, which is Cullen's wife and child. Cullen takes off immediately and is racing across the countryside when we see Naomi and her son, playing in the field, and nearby on horseback, the Swede sits atop his horse, watching them with a menacing look on his face. And that is how it ends.
We get some glimpses of the next season, as there are a few scenes showing Thor attempting to get at Naomi inside the house, and of Cullen showing up. And then we see the two of them fighting in a stream in the woods, and so it looks like the epic showdown that we have all been waiting for will be happening sooner rather than later, as it appears we will get closure on the Swede and Cullen as soon as the show comes back on next year.
Okay, so there was a lot going on here, and I feel that everything played out like it should. I thought it was very interesting to see everything coming down to a decision that Cullen alone was going to have to make, and instead of picking a true side and making one person very happy, he instead kind of screwed over everyone. He is staying with the Central Pacific, and will help Huntington try to win the race, as I think that his distaste for Durant runs too deep and so he would not return to help him after all they have been through. He really had no allegiance to Brigham, and so it didn't really surprise me that he did what he had to do to find his wife and son.
I also found it very interesting that the Swede's plan blew up in his face, and so now he has to improvise a bit, and has sped up his plan to find Cullen's family. I think that this will ultimately be his demise, as I think that he is just flying by the seat of his pants, and Cullen is coming for him. Unlike many times in the past, I think this time the Swede has gone too far, and Cullen will not be letting him off the hook as he has done before. I think we will see the final showdown between these two early in the second half of the season, and then we will get to see who wins the race to Ogden in the final episodes of the series.
I'm not sure if I'm okay with this outcome. I know that the whole show has been about Cullen finishing this railroad (or whichever railroad he is working for), and his priorities have changed a bit along the way, but I have always felt that the underlying thing was him and Thor Gundersen. I feel like the final episode of the series needs to be their epic conclusion, but it looks like that will be happening before the end of the series, unless something changes. I will reserve full judgment on this until I see how things play out (a loooooooooong year from now), but for now I feel satisfied with where they left off and a little sad with where they left off as well. I guess that is to be expected though, as I have had conflicting feelings about this show since I started watching it a couple of years ago.
The midseason finale did what it was supposed to, in the end. It gave us a good cliff hanger, so that we can spend the next year wondering what is going to happen, and it set up the final push as we head to the end of the series. Even though I'm not completely sure I like how things are going to play out, as least things appear to be heading to a logical and final conclusion, and so I will just leave it at that for now. Maybe a year from now, I will be writing about how the show had the perfect ending, and all my doubts were all for naught.
My rating for the episode is 7.5/10
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
TV Show - Hell on Wheels, Season 5, episodes 4-6
Note: There will be major spoilers for the above mentioned episodes.
So, I have gotten behind a bit on writing up my recap/reviews of Hell on Wheels, so I'm going to try to make up for it in one post here. I am not going to provide the rundown of the full episodes as I have done with the first three episodes of the season, but will just give some overview and my thoughts on the last three episodes.
In episode 4, we see the Chinese staging a strike after the white men that almost killed Chang, and did kill one of his men, are set free. Chang is not happy about this, and so he sets forth a list of demands that need to be met before the Chinese will go back to work. This causes Cullen to take matters into his own hands and withholds the Chinese trains brining in food, thinking that hunger will get them back to work. Chang instead decides to gather up a posse and take the food by force, but Cullen and Tao work out an agreement to get the men back to work by sending their dead back to their homeland to be buried, as is their tradition.
This episode fell really flat for me, as there was a lot of buildup for pretty much nothing. You thought that maybe we were going to get some big showdown at the end, but instead it came to a crashing halt before anything could happen. I'm sure this is better in the long run, as no blood was shed, but I just feel like the point could have been gotten across without such a waste of an episode. There were some other minor things going on in the episode, but on the whole, it just felt like a throw away episode to me that really didn't add anything to the overarching story.
Episode 5, however, made up for the shortcomings of episode 4. In episode 5, we see Cullen warning Chang not to deal with Thor Gundersen, because he is bad news. Chang looks to be making amends with Cullen throughout the episode, and even shows Cullen that the Swede has been hiding guns in the rice that Chang has been getting for Thor and the other Mormons. This causes a big confrontation between Cullen and Thor, and also Phineas Young, where Cullen is trying to get the Swede to tell him where the guns are hidden, but they are nowhere to be found. Cullen then realizes too late that he has been tricked by the Swede and Chang, and rushes back to town to find that Tao has been killed by a white man, and that the only witnesses are Chinese, and so the man will not be able to be tried, just like the other white men that had been set free.
This was, in my opinion, one of the best overall episodes of the whole series. The show flew by, with not a scene wasted, and we got some really nice scenes that felt like they were overdue. Cullen going after Thor, and Phineas protecting him, was a wonderful scene. And then the realization that Cullen had been played the whole time by Chang as well, it just reminded us and Cullen that he can't let his guard down no matter what. This episode really upped the intensity of the season and made some of the slower moments in earlier episodes well worth the wait to get to this.
Episode 6 fell somewhere in between the other two episodes above. Mei is attempting to take her father's body back to their homeland, and Cullen gets dragged into helping her, as he is also making his way to San Francisco to try to get a new translator, since Mei is leaving. While trying to cross the river, Cullen's coach gets capsized, and Tao's body goes floating down the river. Mei continues to search for the body, with Cullen reluctantly following behind, and when they find the body, Cullen convinces Mei that they should just bury the body there, since there is no way they can get the body to San Francisco without their coach. Mei decides to go back with Cullen and continue to be his translator, and when they get back to town, they find out that Brigham Young has found out that the Central Pacific is not going to pass through Salt Lake City, as Huntington had promised. Cullen must leave immediately to go to the meeting with both railroads, and President Grant, in Salt Lake City.
This episode was more about continuing to develop the relationship between Mei and Cullen than it was to advance the story, and I think that is good, as the relationship has taken on some sort of weird dynamics. You can't really tell if they are attracted to each other, or if Cullen just looks at Mei more like a father/daughter relationship, and so the episode tries to develop that relationship a little better. In the end, we get the setup for the last episode of the year, before we get the final 7 episodes next year which will end the series. I'm anxious to see how this half of the season ends, as I'm expecting some big things to happen to leave us all hanging until next year, but we will see just what happens. The last episode is on tomorrow night, and so I will try to get back to my recap formula for the final episode after I get a chance to watch it.
My ratings for episode 4 is 6/10, episode 5 is 9.5/10, and episode 6 is 8/10
So, I have gotten behind a bit on writing up my recap/reviews of Hell on Wheels, so I'm going to try to make up for it in one post here. I am not going to provide the rundown of the full episodes as I have done with the first three episodes of the season, but will just give some overview and my thoughts on the last three episodes.
In episode 4, we see the Chinese staging a strike after the white men that almost killed Chang, and did kill one of his men, are set free. Chang is not happy about this, and so he sets forth a list of demands that need to be met before the Chinese will go back to work. This causes Cullen to take matters into his own hands and withholds the Chinese trains brining in food, thinking that hunger will get them back to work. Chang instead decides to gather up a posse and take the food by force, but Cullen and Tao work out an agreement to get the men back to work by sending their dead back to their homeland to be buried, as is their tradition.
This episode fell really flat for me, as there was a lot of buildup for pretty much nothing. You thought that maybe we were going to get some big showdown at the end, but instead it came to a crashing halt before anything could happen. I'm sure this is better in the long run, as no blood was shed, but I just feel like the point could have been gotten across without such a waste of an episode. There were some other minor things going on in the episode, but on the whole, it just felt like a throw away episode to me that really didn't add anything to the overarching story.
Episode 5, however, made up for the shortcomings of episode 4. In episode 5, we see Cullen warning Chang not to deal with Thor Gundersen, because he is bad news. Chang looks to be making amends with Cullen throughout the episode, and even shows Cullen that the Swede has been hiding guns in the rice that Chang has been getting for Thor and the other Mormons. This causes a big confrontation between Cullen and Thor, and also Phineas Young, where Cullen is trying to get the Swede to tell him where the guns are hidden, but they are nowhere to be found. Cullen then realizes too late that he has been tricked by the Swede and Chang, and rushes back to town to find that Tao has been killed by a white man, and that the only witnesses are Chinese, and so the man will not be able to be tried, just like the other white men that had been set free.
This was, in my opinion, one of the best overall episodes of the whole series. The show flew by, with not a scene wasted, and we got some really nice scenes that felt like they were overdue. Cullen going after Thor, and Phineas protecting him, was a wonderful scene. And then the realization that Cullen had been played the whole time by Chang as well, it just reminded us and Cullen that he can't let his guard down no matter what. This episode really upped the intensity of the season and made some of the slower moments in earlier episodes well worth the wait to get to this.
Episode 6 fell somewhere in between the other two episodes above. Mei is attempting to take her father's body back to their homeland, and Cullen gets dragged into helping her, as he is also making his way to San Francisco to try to get a new translator, since Mei is leaving. While trying to cross the river, Cullen's coach gets capsized, and Tao's body goes floating down the river. Mei continues to search for the body, with Cullen reluctantly following behind, and when they find the body, Cullen convinces Mei that they should just bury the body there, since there is no way they can get the body to San Francisco without their coach. Mei decides to go back with Cullen and continue to be his translator, and when they get back to town, they find out that Brigham Young has found out that the Central Pacific is not going to pass through Salt Lake City, as Huntington had promised. Cullen must leave immediately to go to the meeting with both railroads, and President Grant, in Salt Lake City.
This episode was more about continuing to develop the relationship between Mei and Cullen than it was to advance the story, and I think that is good, as the relationship has taken on some sort of weird dynamics. You can't really tell if they are attracted to each other, or if Cullen just looks at Mei more like a father/daughter relationship, and so the episode tries to develop that relationship a little better. In the end, we get the setup for the last episode of the year, before we get the final 7 episodes next year which will end the series. I'm anxious to see how this half of the season ends, as I'm expecting some big things to happen to leave us all hanging until next year, but we will see just what happens. The last episode is on tomorrow night, and so I will try to get back to my recap formula for the final episode after I get a chance to watch it.
My ratings for episode 4 is 6/10, episode 5 is 9.5/10, and episode 6 is 8/10
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Movie - American Ultra
Note: There may be some minor spoilers throughout, but I will attempt to keep them at a minimum.
American Ultra is a hard movie to place into a specific category. It's part action movie, part stoner comedy, part love story, and a whole lot of other stuff all wrapped into one. I personally love it when a movie is willing to take a risk and try to do something different, and American Ultra does exactly that. The problem with taking a risk, is that sometimes you are going to succeed and sometimes you are going to fail, and I felt that this movie did a little bit of both, but mostly succeeded in what it wanted to accomplish.
The story follows Mike (played by Jesse Eisenberg), a down on his luck, unmotivated, stoner that works at a convenience store, and spends his free time with his girlfriend Phoebe (played by Kristen Stewart) and getting high. He also is a very paranoid and anxious person, so much so that he can't leave town because he goes into anxiety fits that cause him to throw up. He is trying to find the perfect time to propose to his girlfriend, when the movie takes a huge turn and you find out that Mike is actually a retired asset for the CIA, whose memory has been erased and replaced with new memories to forget about his past. When the CIA decides to terminate the asset, a.k.a. Mike, the agent that got him into program to begin with (played by Connie Britton) decides to activate him in an attempt to save his life. A series of events then begins to play out where Mike is trying to come to grips with his new found abilities and trying to figure out just what happened to him, while he also tries to save his girlfriend and get out alive.
First of all, the performances by all cast members is pretty spot on for what the movie is. At times the movie can be a bit over the top, but in a good way, and the actors make it all seem believable. Jesse's role in particular is a difficult role to pull off, as Mike is torn between the only memories that he has, which is getting high and messing up everything, and the new found abilities that he has, which come out by instinct as he needs them, and Jesse pulls it off perfectly. I know that Kristen Stewart gets a lot of flack, mainly because she was in the Twilight movies, but I felt that she did a very good job as well, especially in some of the more intimate scenes with Mike, as you really are pulling for them as a couple and their relationship feels very real, if not more than a little bit messed up.
I think the biggest problem I have for the movie is the marketing. I didn't know a lot about the movie before last week, right before it was coming out, and the trailers made it feel like a comedy first, and an action movie second, but I feel that the comedy really took a back seat. If anything, it was a romance movie first (move like True Romance than say, any movie with Kate Hudson in it), then an action movie second, and comedy came in a distant third. I don't mean to say that there weren't any funny parts, or that they were trying to be funny and it misfired, but more that the comedy aspect was just used sparingly and only as appropriate. When I watched the trailer, I thought dark comedy like Zombieland (another fantastic Jesse Eisenberg movie), but it didn't approach anywhere near the comedy level that was in that movie. I just wonder if better marketing as to what the movie really is at its core would have served its box office numbers a little better, as it didn't fair very well over the weekend.
Overall, I think that American Ultra is a gritty, mostly original film, that dared to think outside of the box, and I don't think it will find the audience that it deserves. I think those that come across it will either get it, and will think the movie was fantastic, or they won't see just what the movie was trying to do, and will pass over it and not give it a second thought. I was in the first group, as I think that this type of movie is what we need more of at the box office. I enjoy watching Marvel movies and sequels to big blockbusters as much as the next guy, but I also want to see something I haven't seen before, and American Ultra did exactly that. While not a perfect movie, it is still very solid, and hits all the notes it was trying to hit.
My rating for the movie is 8/10
American Ultra is a hard movie to place into a specific category. It's part action movie, part stoner comedy, part love story, and a whole lot of other stuff all wrapped into one. I personally love it when a movie is willing to take a risk and try to do something different, and American Ultra does exactly that. The problem with taking a risk, is that sometimes you are going to succeed and sometimes you are going to fail, and I felt that this movie did a little bit of both, but mostly succeeded in what it wanted to accomplish.
The story follows Mike (played by Jesse Eisenberg), a down on his luck, unmotivated, stoner that works at a convenience store, and spends his free time with his girlfriend Phoebe (played by Kristen Stewart) and getting high. He also is a very paranoid and anxious person, so much so that he can't leave town because he goes into anxiety fits that cause him to throw up. He is trying to find the perfect time to propose to his girlfriend, when the movie takes a huge turn and you find out that Mike is actually a retired asset for the CIA, whose memory has been erased and replaced with new memories to forget about his past. When the CIA decides to terminate the asset, a.k.a. Mike, the agent that got him into program to begin with (played by Connie Britton) decides to activate him in an attempt to save his life. A series of events then begins to play out where Mike is trying to come to grips with his new found abilities and trying to figure out just what happened to him, while he also tries to save his girlfriend and get out alive.
First of all, the performances by all cast members is pretty spot on for what the movie is. At times the movie can be a bit over the top, but in a good way, and the actors make it all seem believable. Jesse's role in particular is a difficult role to pull off, as Mike is torn between the only memories that he has, which is getting high and messing up everything, and the new found abilities that he has, which come out by instinct as he needs them, and Jesse pulls it off perfectly. I know that Kristen Stewart gets a lot of flack, mainly because she was in the Twilight movies, but I felt that she did a very good job as well, especially in some of the more intimate scenes with Mike, as you really are pulling for them as a couple and their relationship feels very real, if not more than a little bit messed up.
I think the biggest problem I have for the movie is the marketing. I didn't know a lot about the movie before last week, right before it was coming out, and the trailers made it feel like a comedy first, and an action movie second, but I feel that the comedy really took a back seat. If anything, it was a romance movie first (move like True Romance than say, any movie with Kate Hudson in it), then an action movie second, and comedy came in a distant third. I don't mean to say that there weren't any funny parts, or that they were trying to be funny and it misfired, but more that the comedy aspect was just used sparingly and only as appropriate. When I watched the trailer, I thought dark comedy like Zombieland (another fantastic Jesse Eisenberg movie), but it didn't approach anywhere near the comedy level that was in that movie. I just wonder if better marketing as to what the movie really is at its core would have served its box office numbers a little better, as it didn't fair very well over the weekend.
Overall, I think that American Ultra is a gritty, mostly original film, that dared to think outside of the box, and I don't think it will find the audience that it deserves. I think those that come across it will either get it, and will think the movie was fantastic, or they won't see just what the movie was trying to do, and will pass over it and not give it a second thought. I was in the first group, as I think that this type of movie is what we need more of at the box office. I enjoy watching Marvel movies and sequels to big blockbusters as much as the next guy, but I also want to see something I haven't seen before, and American Ultra did exactly that. While not a perfect movie, it is still very solid, and hits all the notes it was trying to hit.
My rating for the movie is 8/10
Friday, August 21, 2015
Movie - Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
Note: There may be some minor spoilers throughout, but I will try to keep them at a minimum.
I've been wanting to catch this one since it came out, but I have been super busy lately. However, I finally got a chance to go catch it this afternoon. I am a big fan of the franchise, and I am one of the few people who thinks very highly of Tom Cruise. I think he is a fantastic actor, and there haven't been many of his movies that I haven't liked. But enough about that, on to the review.
So the new Mission Impossible picks up a year after the events in Ghost Protocol (which was fantastic, btw). We see Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) trying to stop a plane from taking off, which has some nuclear warheads on it, and the big stunt that has been talked about so much in all the advertising comes at you right out of the gate. I watched a behind the scenes thing on that scene, and that just makes me respect Tom and his willingness to go all-in on a role even more. We also get to see Alec Baldwin's character and Jeremy Renner's character, in a courtroom arguing about the IMF, as Alec wants the IMF shut down, and Jeremy tries to explain how the IMF is tantamount to the safety of the nation. In the end, Alec's argument holds up with the judges, and they are ordered to disband the IMF immediately and bring all the agents in.
As Ethan attempts to get his new assignment, he finds out that the IMF has been compromised, and that a rogue nation known as the Syndicate has discovered his identity and he is taken hostage. During his escape, we are introduced to a new character to the story, a woman who was meant to torture Ethan for information, who instead helps him escape, but then says that she must stay on and lets him go free. The rest of the movie deals with Ethan and his friends/teammates attempting to find out who runs the Syndicate and to take them down, while getting the IMF reinstated.
Some of the main characters from the other films are back, such as Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames, and they all do their part, but in the end, this is the Tom Cruise show. And Tom is doing what he does best. He is convincing as the guy who sees every angle to every situation, and he is still convincing as an action star, whether it's riding a motorcycle in a high speed chase or holding his breath underwater long enough to switch out a computer chip. Tom is starting to get older, but it certainly doesn't show in this film, as I feel that he hasn't missed a step.
As far as twists and turns go, none of the films will ever hold up to the original, which I would almost argue did too many to the point of confusion, but the film leaves you guessing on a lot of points. Who is this new woman and which side is she on? Will they be able to get the IMF reinstated, or will they have to go rogue themselves to continue to do what is right? Will Ethan's attempts at revenge cost him the friendships that he has with the other characters? The movie handles all of these things well, and in the end gives you closure on all of them, and in a sensible way that makes complete sense and leaves the audience with a satisfied feeling as the credits role.
Is Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation the best film in the franchise? I don't know if I would go that far, but I would certainly say that it has every right to carry the name. I was a big fan of the first one, and Ghost Protocol, but I would at least put this one in the conversation with those two. I would have to see the movie again before I could really pick out a favorite, but the fact that it is in the conversation tells me that they did everything right. After seeing it, I am anxious to see if they make another one, and look forward to it if they do. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is a smart, action-filled blockbuster, and I would suggest it to anyone that wants to spend a couple of hours losing themselves in a good movie.
My rating for the movie is 8.5/10
I've been wanting to catch this one since it came out, but I have been super busy lately. However, I finally got a chance to go catch it this afternoon. I am a big fan of the franchise, and I am one of the few people who thinks very highly of Tom Cruise. I think he is a fantastic actor, and there haven't been many of his movies that I haven't liked. But enough about that, on to the review.
So the new Mission Impossible picks up a year after the events in Ghost Protocol (which was fantastic, btw). We see Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) trying to stop a plane from taking off, which has some nuclear warheads on it, and the big stunt that has been talked about so much in all the advertising comes at you right out of the gate. I watched a behind the scenes thing on that scene, and that just makes me respect Tom and his willingness to go all-in on a role even more. We also get to see Alec Baldwin's character and Jeremy Renner's character, in a courtroom arguing about the IMF, as Alec wants the IMF shut down, and Jeremy tries to explain how the IMF is tantamount to the safety of the nation. In the end, Alec's argument holds up with the judges, and they are ordered to disband the IMF immediately and bring all the agents in.
As Ethan attempts to get his new assignment, he finds out that the IMF has been compromised, and that a rogue nation known as the Syndicate has discovered his identity and he is taken hostage. During his escape, we are introduced to a new character to the story, a woman who was meant to torture Ethan for information, who instead helps him escape, but then says that she must stay on and lets him go free. The rest of the movie deals with Ethan and his friends/teammates attempting to find out who runs the Syndicate and to take them down, while getting the IMF reinstated.
Some of the main characters from the other films are back, such as Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames, and they all do their part, but in the end, this is the Tom Cruise show. And Tom is doing what he does best. He is convincing as the guy who sees every angle to every situation, and he is still convincing as an action star, whether it's riding a motorcycle in a high speed chase or holding his breath underwater long enough to switch out a computer chip. Tom is starting to get older, but it certainly doesn't show in this film, as I feel that he hasn't missed a step.
As far as twists and turns go, none of the films will ever hold up to the original, which I would almost argue did too many to the point of confusion, but the film leaves you guessing on a lot of points. Who is this new woman and which side is she on? Will they be able to get the IMF reinstated, or will they have to go rogue themselves to continue to do what is right? Will Ethan's attempts at revenge cost him the friendships that he has with the other characters? The movie handles all of these things well, and in the end gives you closure on all of them, and in a sensible way that makes complete sense and leaves the audience with a satisfied feeling as the credits role.
Is Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation the best film in the franchise? I don't know if I would go that far, but I would certainly say that it has every right to carry the name. I was a big fan of the first one, and Ghost Protocol, but I would at least put this one in the conversation with those two. I would have to see the movie again before I could really pick out a favorite, but the fact that it is in the conversation tells me that they did everything right. After seeing it, I am anxious to see if they make another one, and look forward to it if they do. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is a smart, action-filled blockbuster, and I would suggest it to anyone that wants to spend a couple of hours losing themselves in a good movie.
My rating for the movie is 8.5/10
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Movie - Trainwreck
Note: This review may contain some spoilers, but I will try to keep them at a minimum.
I went into Trainwreck with some really low expectations. I really know nothing about Amy Schumer, I like Bill Hader but he is a bit hit and miss with me, and I don't think that Judd Apatow has made a really good movie since The 40 Year Old Virgin (I know that Knocked Up was well received, but I was never a real fan). I can honestly say, however, that I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. It was funny when it needed to be, it was serious when it needed to be, and I think that it hit both aspects very well. It was an overall well done romantic comedy.
Let's first start with Amy Schumer. There is a lot of talk about her lately, but I have not actually seen her in anything prior to this movie. I personally thought that she was extremely funny throughout the movie. Her character was a bit over the top, as were most of the other characters, but I think this was done to show her many flaws, thus the name of the movie. Her character truly was a trainwreck. She was messed up in all sorts of ways, and didn't think that she deserved anything to go right for her at any point in her life. So when things did start to go her way, she would push the people in her life away and put up a wall, telling herself that she didn't need anyone and it was better off this way.
The rest of the main cast was good, but none of them really stood out. Bill Hader was fine, but he wasn't anything extraordinary, but his character didn't really need to be. But where the movie really excelled was in the cameos. Lebron James was a big part of the marketing for the movie, and the scenes he was in were very good and memorable. There were several other cameos, including Matthew Broderick and Marv Albert in a really funny intervention scene, but the real winner here was John Cena. John Cena, as his wrestling personality, is a cheesy, cornball actor that plays to kids, but his character in this movie was the complete opposite. He really only had two scenes in the movie, and I can promise you that if you take nothing else away from this movie, those two scenes will stick with you long after the credits roll. They were by far the two best scenes in the whole movie.
Outside of the acting, the story was nothing special and nothing new. In fact, I kept waiting and hoping for something out of the ordinary to happen, but it just never happened. If you have seen one of any hundred other romantic comedies in your life, you already know how this one is going to play out, but the movie does a good job of telling the story, even if there is nothing there to blow you away. The movie seemed to know what it was, and so it really pushed the comedy, and only let the story play out as it needed to so that the audience can have closure at the end.
If I can say nothing else about Trainwreck, I will say that it feels more real than other romantic comedies. By this, I mean that the situations these characters get in throughout the movie is very adult, and never finds a reason to try to sit down in that PG-13 area that most romantic comedies feel the need to put themselves in. I personally think this was a huge plus for the movie. There is nothing I can't stand more than when a movie is just trying to pander to its intended audience, instead of just letting the movie go where it should go. Trainwreck does not let itself give in to anything, and I can assume that is why it wasn't found by a larger audience at the box office. If you are looking for an adult romantic comedy, that will genuinely make you laugh out loud on more than one occasion, than Trainwreck is the perfect movie for you.
My rating for Trainwreck is 8/10
I went into Trainwreck with some really low expectations. I really know nothing about Amy Schumer, I like Bill Hader but he is a bit hit and miss with me, and I don't think that Judd Apatow has made a really good movie since The 40 Year Old Virgin (I know that Knocked Up was well received, but I was never a real fan). I can honestly say, however, that I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. It was funny when it needed to be, it was serious when it needed to be, and I think that it hit both aspects very well. It was an overall well done romantic comedy.
Let's first start with Amy Schumer. There is a lot of talk about her lately, but I have not actually seen her in anything prior to this movie. I personally thought that she was extremely funny throughout the movie. Her character was a bit over the top, as were most of the other characters, but I think this was done to show her many flaws, thus the name of the movie. Her character truly was a trainwreck. She was messed up in all sorts of ways, and didn't think that she deserved anything to go right for her at any point in her life. So when things did start to go her way, she would push the people in her life away and put up a wall, telling herself that she didn't need anyone and it was better off this way.
The rest of the main cast was good, but none of them really stood out. Bill Hader was fine, but he wasn't anything extraordinary, but his character didn't really need to be. But where the movie really excelled was in the cameos. Lebron James was a big part of the marketing for the movie, and the scenes he was in were very good and memorable. There were several other cameos, including Matthew Broderick and Marv Albert in a really funny intervention scene, but the real winner here was John Cena. John Cena, as his wrestling personality, is a cheesy, cornball actor that plays to kids, but his character in this movie was the complete opposite. He really only had two scenes in the movie, and I can promise you that if you take nothing else away from this movie, those two scenes will stick with you long after the credits roll. They were by far the two best scenes in the whole movie.
Outside of the acting, the story was nothing special and nothing new. In fact, I kept waiting and hoping for something out of the ordinary to happen, but it just never happened. If you have seen one of any hundred other romantic comedies in your life, you already know how this one is going to play out, but the movie does a good job of telling the story, even if there is nothing there to blow you away. The movie seemed to know what it was, and so it really pushed the comedy, and only let the story play out as it needed to so that the audience can have closure at the end.
If I can say nothing else about Trainwreck, I will say that it feels more real than other romantic comedies. By this, I mean that the situations these characters get in throughout the movie is very adult, and never finds a reason to try to sit down in that PG-13 area that most romantic comedies feel the need to put themselves in. I personally think this was a huge plus for the movie. There is nothing I can't stand more than when a movie is just trying to pander to its intended audience, instead of just letting the movie go where it should go. Trainwreck does not let itself give in to anything, and I can assume that is why it wasn't found by a larger audience at the box office. If you are looking for an adult romantic comedy, that will genuinely make you laugh out loud on more than one occasion, than Trainwreck is the perfect movie for you.
My rating for Trainwreck is 8/10
Sunday, August 2, 2015
TV Show - Hell on Wheels, Season 5, episode 3
Note: This article will contain major spoilers of the above mentioned episode.
At the beginning of the episode, we see a flashback of how Mae and her father came to America, after their village was attacked. We see Mae disguising herself to be a boy, and then we get a brief glimpse of what happened leading up to her and her father coming to work for the railroad.
We then see her trying to go to work, but Cullen makes her take a sick day. Later, he and Fong discuss what is going on, and Cullen says that Mae will not be coming back to work. Fong then tries to explain to Cullen that this will cause people to ask questions, which he fears will lead everyone to figuring out the secret. Cullen then goes and discusses this with Mae, who tells him that she was supposed to be made to marry a Chinese royal, and that she would then belong to him. This causes Cullen to reconsider, and lets Mae get back to work, only under the assumed male name that she has chosen.
We also get to see Cullen's new engine at work, which has put three of the railroad men out of a job. They try to offer these men a new job working with the Chinese men, that pays significantly less, and they don't take to kindly to it. As they become more and more bitter throughout the episode, it finally culminates in them attacking Chang, and hanging one of his men. They attempt to hang Chang as well, but Fong and Cullen save him. This causes Chang to ask Huntington for justice, and they attempt to get a trial for the men, but due to some laws in California, they will not allow there to be a trial, which makes Chang question just what is justice in America.
The other thing of note during the episode is a lot more details about what Thor is up to. He is buying rice by the crate from Chang, but he says he wants to triple his order next time. Chang questions his motives, but Thor tells him it is none of his business and they work out a deal. We also see Thor telling Brigham Young's son that there appears to be something wrong in the accounting books, and that he thinks he made an error, or his father is not sending him all the money that he is supposed to be sending. This causes Brigham's son to become very irate at his father, and asks Thor for help, which we can only assume was his plan all along. He is the Swede after all.
Not as much going on in this episode as there was in the last episode, but they are still fleshing out everything that happened during that episode. I'm very glad to see where things are headed with Thor Gunderson, as it is starting to become more clear just what his motives are. I think the rice is to hide the guns he has been stockpiling, and gaining the trust of Brigham's son will basically give him full control over the Mormons. By also making them bitter over having to shovel all the snow, it should be easy for him to turn the Mormons on the railroad in the near future, and thus make Cullen's life more miserable.
I also thought it was very interesting that they had Fong and Cullen save Chang's life, and it will be interesting to see where this goes. I like to think that there will be no love lost between them all, but there should at least be some sort of respect. I look forward to seeing what they do with this new dynamic, and how it will shape up in the near future. I also am really liking the character development they are doing with Mae, and it makes me wonder where her storyline is headed as well.
Overall, I thought the episode was as solid as the first two, maybe even more so, as we are really starting to see where the story is headed. I think there are a lot of angles that are working at the moment, and I'm very interested to see where we go from here. There is a slow build going on in the background with Thor, and that is just the way I like it. I think they are doing a very good job of keeping his character flying under the radar, while he is working his angle, and Cullen is too distracted with the other stuff that is going on to see just what he is planning. I can see things going a few different ways, and I like the prospects of all of them.
My rating for the episode - 8/10
At the beginning of the episode, we see a flashback of how Mae and her father came to America, after their village was attacked. We see Mae disguising herself to be a boy, and then we get a brief glimpse of what happened leading up to her and her father coming to work for the railroad.
We then see her trying to go to work, but Cullen makes her take a sick day. Later, he and Fong discuss what is going on, and Cullen says that Mae will not be coming back to work. Fong then tries to explain to Cullen that this will cause people to ask questions, which he fears will lead everyone to figuring out the secret. Cullen then goes and discusses this with Mae, who tells him that she was supposed to be made to marry a Chinese royal, and that she would then belong to him. This causes Cullen to reconsider, and lets Mae get back to work, only under the assumed male name that she has chosen.
We also get to see Cullen's new engine at work, which has put three of the railroad men out of a job. They try to offer these men a new job working with the Chinese men, that pays significantly less, and they don't take to kindly to it. As they become more and more bitter throughout the episode, it finally culminates in them attacking Chang, and hanging one of his men. They attempt to hang Chang as well, but Fong and Cullen save him. This causes Chang to ask Huntington for justice, and they attempt to get a trial for the men, but due to some laws in California, they will not allow there to be a trial, which makes Chang question just what is justice in America.
The other thing of note during the episode is a lot more details about what Thor is up to. He is buying rice by the crate from Chang, but he says he wants to triple his order next time. Chang questions his motives, but Thor tells him it is none of his business and they work out a deal. We also see Thor telling Brigham Young's son that there appears to be something wrong in the accounting books, and that he thinks he made an error, or his father is not sending him all the money that he is supposed to be sending. This causes Brigham's son to become very irate at his father, and asks Thor for help, which we can only assume was his plan all along. He is the Swede after all.
Not as much going on in this episode as there was in the last episode, but they are still fleshing out everything that happened during that episode. I'm very glad to see where things are headed with Thor Gunderson, as it is starting to become more clear just what his motives are. I think the rice is to hide the guns he has been stockpiling, and gaining the trust of Brigham's son will basically give him full control over the Mormons. By also making them bitter over having to shovel all the snow, it should be easy for him to turn the Mormons on the railroad in the near future, and thus make Cullen's life more miserable.
I also thought it was very interesting that they had Fong and Cullen save Chang's life, and it will be interesting to see where this goes. I like to think that there will be no love lost between them all, but there should at least be some sort of respect. I look forward to seeing what they do with this new dynamic, and how it will shape up in the near future. I also am really liking the character development they are doing with Mae, and it makes me wonder where her storyline is headed as well.
Overall, I thought the episode was as solid as the first two, maybe even more so, as we are really starting to see where the story is headed. I think there are a lot of angles that are working at the moment, and I'm very interested to see where we go from here. There is a slow build going on in the background with Thor, and that is just the way I like it. I think they are doing a very good job of keeping his character flying under the radar, while he is working his angle, and Cullen is too distracted with the other stuff that is going on to see just what he is planning. I can see things going a few different ways, and I like the prospects of all of them.
My rating for the episode - 8/10
Friday, July 31, 2015
TV Show - Hell on Wheels, Season 5, Episode 2
Note: This article will contain major spoilers of the above mentioned episode.
Episode 2 picks up with Cullen falling down a mountain, along with the son of the man who took a beating for Cullen's actions in the first episode. We then see a pretty intense scene play out where Cullen is trying to save Fong's son from falling off the side of the mountain, only to fail after attaching a rope to himself and the boy. We see the frayed end of the rope, showing us that the boy has fallen, and then the opening credits come on. The episode then goes back to two days prior and we get to see the actions that led to this intense scene.
Cullen is trying to get a translator, but Chang is unwilling to help Cullen, who in turn tells Chang that if he wants to send a message, he can send it to him directly. We also see Fong telling his son to stay away from the "white man" Bohannon. We then cut to a scene in which Cullen is explaining that he can gain a few extra inches of track a day if they can transport an engine that has been deemed inoperable. To accomplish this, however, Cullen will need to get the Chinese men working on the railroad to build a sled to transport it. The Chinese men have no idea what Cullen is trying to say to them, so Fong's son chimes in and explains what needs done, and so Cullen takes the boy on to be his translator as they transport the engine over the mountain.
Meanwhile, Thor Gunderson and the Mormons are given the task of digging out snow, which their leader, the son of Brigham Young himself, is unhappy about. Thor plays the devil's advocate and tries to explain to him that this is a test from God and that he will be successful. After a few days, one of the Mormons gets frostbite and loses a few toes, and so Brigham's son sends a telegram asking for more supplies, which is denied. Once again, Thor weasels his way in and works out a way to get new boots for the other Mormons, so that he can gain the trust of Brigham's son.
Back on the mountain, the brake on the sled is shattered and Fong's son comes up with a solution, to tie chains to the nearby trees to work as the brake for the sled. This seems to impress Cullen, and the two seem to start to form a bond. During the ordeal, Fong's son also gets trampled by some horses, and Cullen points out how tough the boy is, and in a conversation they discuss being soldier's in their own separate wars. The next day, the boy is coughing up blood, and while Cullen tries to help him by redressing the wounds, we make a very interesting discovery. Fong's son is not a son after all, but is instead his daughter, who has been posing as a boy to continue working on the railroad. Cullen tells the girl to stay in the tent and take a sick day, and then leaves to try to sort out how he feels about this new discovery.
As Cullen continues to guide the sled, Fong's daughter comes out and sees that they have attached one of the chains to a dead tree, but before she can stop them from pushing the sled, the tree shatters and the sled is cruising down the mountain. Cullen and the girl try to stop the sled, but they both get thrown down the mountain, and then we see the opening scene play out a gain, with some differences to make things make more sense this time around. We also see that Fong's daughter realizes that they are both going to fall, so she cuts the rope and falls of her own accord instead of dragging Cullen down with her.
Cullen realizes what has happened, and so he goes looking for the girl. He finds her, and since the snow was so deep, she has only suffered minor wounds, and the two have another moment together, and we find out that the girl's name is Mae, but that Cullen must continue to call her Fong. He agrees, and then helps her back to town, where he tells Fong that his son saved his life today.
So, there was a lot going on in this episode, and I was very impressed with how it all played out. I thought they did a good job of fleshing out the Mae character, and letting us see how Cullen adjusted to finding out that he was a she, and then how he decided to keep their secret between them. I think that this is because he almost feels a fatherly connection with the girl, and is trying to protect her, like he feels that he couldn't protect his own wife and son, whom we do not see any mention of in this episode.
I also liked how they handled the Mormon story and we got to see a little more of what "The Swede" is doing. While gaining the trust of those around him so that he can personally benefit and (likely) later stab them in the back is nothing new, I don't know that anyone makes it as enjoyable as Thor Gunderson. We know what he is doing, but at the same time, if we were in the young boy's shoes, we would be doing the same thing. I'm very excited to see where the storylines will meet, and we will get to see (likely) a big face off between Cullen and Thor whenever he fully enacts whatever crazy plan he has in mind this time. It really makes me excited for the next episode, to see where they go next.
If the first episode of the season was just a warm up, this episode picked it up a couple of gears and really took the season in a good direction. We have lots of things up in the air, and only six more episodes to go before we get to the half way mark of the season, when the show will be off for another year. With the pacing of this episode, I feel like the next six episodes are going to clip along at a nice pace as well, and things are going to get exciting fast. We still didn't see what is going on with the other railroad, but as long as they continue to develop what is going on with the current railroad, I am okay with that until they get into the second leg of the season next year, when they will hopefully tie up all the loose ends and give everyone the endings they deserve.
My rating for the episode - 8/10
Episode 2 picks up with Cullen falling down a mountain, along with the son of the man who took a beating for Cullen's actions in the first episode. We then see a pretty intense scene play out where Cullen is trying to save Fong's son from falling off the side of the mountain, only to fail after attaching a rope to himself and the boy. We see the frayed end of the rope, showing us that the boy has fallen, and then the opening credits come on. The episode then goes back to two days prior and we get to see the actions that led to this intense scene.
Cullen is trying to get a translator, but Chang is unwilling to help Cullen, who in turn tells Chang that if he wants to send a message, he can send it to him directly. We also see Fong telling his son to stay away from the "white man" Bohannon. We then cut to a scene in which Cullen is explaining that he can gain a few extra inches of track a day if they can transport an engine that has been deemed inoperable. To accomplish this, however, Cullen will need to get the Chinese men working on the railroad to build a sled to transport it. The Chinese men have no idea what Cullen is trying to say to them, so Fong's son chimes in and explains what needs done, and so Cullen takes the boy on to be his translator as they transport the engine over the mountain.
Meanwhile, Thor Gunderson and the Mormons are given the task of digging out snow, which their leader, the son of Brigham Young himself, is unhappy about. Thor plays the devil's advocate and tries to explain to him that this is a test from God and that he will be successful. After a few days, one of the Mormons gets frostbite and loses a few toes, and so Brigham's son sends a telegram asking for more supplies, which is denied. Once again, Thor weasels his way in and works out a way to get new boots for the other Mormons, so that he can gain the trust of Brigham's son.
Back on the mountain, the brake on the sled is shattered and Fong's son comes up with a solution, to tie chains to the nearby trees to work as the brake for the sled. This seems to impress Cullen, and the two seem to start to form a bond. During the ordeal, Fong's son also gets trampled by some horses, and Cullen points out how tough the boy is, and in a conversation they discuss being soldier's in their own separate wars. The next day, the boy is coughing up blood, and while Cullen tries to help him by redressing the wounds, we make a very interesting discovery. Fong's son is not a son after all, but is instead his daughter, who has been posing as a boy to continue working on the railroad. Cullen tells the girl to stay in the tent and take a sick day, and then leaves to try to sort out how he feels about this new discovery.
As Cullen continues to guide the sled, Fong's daughter comes out and sees that they have attached one of the chains to a dead tree, but before she can stop them from pushing the sled, the tree shatters and the sled is cruising down the mountain. Cullen and the girl try to stop the sled, but they both get thrown down the mountain, and then we see the opening scene play out a gain, with some differences to make things make more sense this time around. We also see that Fong's daughter realizes that they are both going to fall, so she cuts the rope and falls of her own accord instead of dragging Cullen down with her.
Cullen realizes what has happened, and so he goes looking for the girl. He finds her, and since the snow was so deep, she has only suffered minor wounds, and the two have another moment together, and we find out that the girl's name is Mae, but that Cullen must continue to call her Fong. He agrees, and then helps her back to town, where he tells Fong that his son saved his life today.
So, there was a lot going on in this episode, and I was very impressed with how it all played out. I thought they did a good job of fleshing out the Mae character, and letting us see how Cullen adjusted to finding out that he was a she, and then how he decided to keep their secret between them. I think that this is because he almost feels a fatherly connection with the girl, and is trying to protect her, like he feels that he couldn't protect his own wife and son, whom we do not see any mention of in this episode.
I also liked how they handled the Mormon story and we got to see a little more of what "The Swede" is doing. While gaining the trust of those around him so that he can personally benefit and (likely) later stab them in the back is nothing new, I don't know that anyone makes it as enjoyable as Thor Gunderson. We know what he is doing, but at the same time, if we were in the young boy's shoes, we would be doing the same thing. I'm very excited to see where the storylines will meet, and we will get to see (likely) a big face off between Cullen and Thor whenever he fully enacts whatever crazy plan he has in mind this time. It really makes me excited for the next episode, to see where they go next.
If the first episode of the season was just a warm up, this episode picked it up a couple of gears and really took the season in a good direction. We have lots of things up in the air, and only six more episodes to go before we get to the half way mark of the season, when the show will be off for another year. With the pacing of this episode, I feel like the next six episodes are going to clip along at a nice pace as well, and things are going to get exciting fast. We still didn't see what is going on with the other railroad, but as long as they continue to develop what is going on with the current railroad, I am okay with that until they get into the second leg of the season next year, when they will hopefully tie up all the loose ends and give everyone the endings they deserve.
My rating for the episode - 8/10
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Movie - Ant-Man
Note: As per the usual, there may be spoilers throughout, but I will try to keep them at a minimal.
Ant-Man is the newest Marvel movie to hit theaters, and I think I can safely say that this one is their hardest sell. It's a movie about a comic book superhero that (I'm guessing) nobody really knows, such as Iron Man and Captain America. But over the last several years, Marvel has done a good job of building up the Marvel name as opposed to just focusing on their big brands, and thus they have made some really memorable movies. They have made some that were forgettable as well (I'm looking at you Iron Man 2), but even their worst movies are better than most of the big blockbusters that hit movie theaters, and that is why I think that Ant-Man has turned out to still be a success story.
Ant-Man is about the character Scott Lang (played by Paul Rudd), a thief and criminal who is trying to make amends for his life of crime so that he can be with his daughter, and be someone that she can really look up to. While trying to adjust to this new life, and unfortunately failing, he falls back into his old ways and that is how he comes in contact with the Ant-Man suit, which was planted for him to find by the Ant-Man suit creator, Hank Pym (played by the always fantastic Michael Douglas). The movie then follows along the tried and true Marvel methodology, show Scott adjusting to his new suit and learning how to become the Ant-Man, then introduce the nemesis, in this case Darren Cross (played by the underrated Corey Stoll), and then come to the happy conclusion that all Marvel movies end up doing.
So, let's get to the cast. Paul Rudd plays Scott much like he has played a lot of his other characters throughout the years, and that is the likable yet misguided and charming slacker of sorts. He plays the character as it should be played, and therefore comes off as he is intended to, which is a plus for the movie. The premise of the movie is a bit obscure (a man that can shrink to the size of an insect and can control ants through a communicator he has in his ear), and so it takes a certain touch to keep the mood light and airy, while also making sure that the audience takes the movie serious enough to not laugh it off as too unbelievable. Rudd does this as only he can, and I think that the success of the movie should go to him for the way he brings Scott Lang to the screen.
The supporting character do their parts as well, as Michael Douglas is always a plus in a film and his daughter (Evangeline Lilly) plays the bitter daughter who doesn't understand her father's motives and thinks that he doesn't care when he is just trying to protect her. Corey Stoll does a good job of playing the villain, but I wish that the script would have given him a little more free reign to elevate the character to the likes of, say Jeff Bridges in the first Iron Man. The character comes off much like other villains in recent Marvel movies, and that is that they are just there to keep the movie rolling along as opposed to really fleshing the character out and letting you know the character more like you get to know the heroes.
Everything else about the movie feels safe, and hits all the right notes, but doesn't try to really set itself apart. There are multiple references to the Avenger movies, and there is even a cameo by one of the Avengers in the movie (which may well be the highlight of the movie), but I would like to have seen the movie try to be more of itself and not focus as much on the movies that came before it and the movies that are coming after it. While I do think there needs to be continuity between the movies to make the Marvel Cinematic Universe continue to roll like it does, I think that each movie is good enough to stand on its own and should be treated as such.
The movie was also one of the funnier movies that Marvel has put out. There have always been some humorous parts of the other movies, but this one really took it a step further, and having a comedian as your main star helps to make that possible. Guardians of the Galaxy was a very humorous movies, but I felt that Ant-Man pulled the humor off better than Guardians did, but I think a big part of that falls on Scott's "crew" (led by Michael Pena). They helped a lot in keeping the mood light and allowing for some very funny moments throughout.
While I don't think Ant-Man reinvents the wheel, I do think that it is a solid movie, and is worth taking a look at. If you like the other Marvel movies, than you will like this one as well. While I don't think that Ant-Man was the best movie Marvel has made, I do think that if falls right in the middle of the pack. Ant-Man proves at least one thing, if it proves nothing else. The Marvel machine is not going to be stopping anytime soon, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
My rating for Ant-Man is 7/10
Ant-Man is the newest Marvel movie to hit theaters, and I think I can safely say that this one is their hardest sell. It's a movie about a comic book superhero that (I'm guessing) nobody really knows, such as Iron Man and Captain America. But over the last several years, Marvel has done a good job of building up the Marvel name as opposed to just focusing on their big brands, and thus they have made some really memorable movies. They have made some that were forgettable as well (I'm looking at you Iron Man 2), but even their worst movies are better than most of the big blockbusters that hit movie theaters, and that is why I think that Ant-Man has turned out to still be a success story.
Ant-Man is about the character Scott Lang (played by Paul Rudd), a thief and criminal who is trying to make amends for his life of crime so that he can be with his daughter, and be someone that she can really look up to. While trying to adjust to this new life, and unfortunately failing, he falls back into his old ways and that is how he comes in contact with the Ant-Man suit, which was planted for him to find by the Ant-Man suit creator, Hank Pym (played by the always fantastic Michael Douglas). The movie then follows along the tried and true Marvel methodology, show Scott adjusting to his new suit and learning how to become the Ant-Man, then introduce the nemesis, in this case Darren Cross (played by the underrated Corey Stoll), and then come to the happy conclusion that all Marvel movies end up doing.
So, let's get to the cast. Paul Rudd plays Scott much like he has played a lot of his other characters throughout the years, and that is the likable yet misguided and charming slacker of sorts. He plays the character as it should be played, and therefore comes off as he is intended to, which is a plus for the movie. The premise of the movie is a bit obscure (a man that can shrink to the size of an insect and can control ants through a communicator he has in his ear), and so it takes a certain touch to keep the mood light and airy, while also making sure that the audience takes the movie serious enough to not laugh it off as too unbelievable. Rudd does this as only he can, and I think that the success of the movie should go to him for the way he brings Scott Lang to the screen.
The supporting character do their parts as well, as Michael Douglas is always a plus in a film and his daughter (Evangeline Lilly) plays the bitter daughter who doesn't understand her father's motives and thinks that he doesn't care when he is just trying to protect her. Corey Stoll does a good job of playing the villain, but I wish that the script would have given him a little more free reign to elevate the character to the likes of, say Jeff Bridges in the first Iron Man. The character comes off much like other villains in recent Marvel movies, and that is that they are just there to keep the movie rolling along as opposed to really fleshing the character out and letting you know the character more like you get to know the heroes.
Everything else about the movie feels safe, and hits all the right notes, but doesn't try to really set itself apart. There are multiple references to the Avenger movies, and there is even a cameo by one of the Avengers in the movie (which may well be the highlight of the movie), but I would like to have seen the movie try to be more of itself and not focus as much on the movies that came before it and the movies that are coming after it. While I do think there needs to be continuity between the movies to make the Marvel Cinematic Universe continue to roll like it does, I think that each movie is good enough to stand on its own and should be treated as such.
The movie was also one of the funnier movies that Marvel has put out. There have always been some humorous parts of the other movies, but this one really took it a step further, and having a comedian as your main star helps to make that possible. Guardians of the Galaxy was a very humorous movies, but I felt that Ant-Man pulled the humor off better than Guardians did, but I think a big part of that falls on Scott's "crew" (led by Michael Pena). They helped a lot in keeping the mood light and allowing for some very funny moments throughout.
While I don't think Ant-Man reinvents the wheel, I do think that it is a solid movie, and is worth taking a look at. If you like the other Marvel movies, than you will like this one as well. While I don't think that Ant-Man was the best movie Marvel has made, I do think that if falls right in the middle of the pack. Ant-Man proves at least one thing, if it proves nothing else. The Marvel machine is not going to be stopping anytime soon, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
My rating for Ant-Man is 7/10
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Movie - Spy
Note: There will be some spoilers throughout, but this is a comedy. You didn't come for the storyline anyway, right?
Spy is a comedy from director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids and The Heat), which stars Melissa McCarthy (also Bridesmaids and The Heat), Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids...wait, is this a Judd Apatow type situation?), Jude Law (uhm...not really much in recent years), and Jason Statham (every action movie that hits the market). The basic premise of the movie is that it is a spoof (of sorts) of all the other spy movies in the world, such as James Bond and...well, I guess mainly just James Bond. But Spy isn't just making fun of spy movies like spoofs that have come before (Naked Gun, Airplane, National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon, etc.), instead it just takes the over the top stereotypes and somewhat ridiculous things that are in the normal movies and just takes them one step further. I felt that every character in the movie was just an exaggerated version of other characters you have seen before, which I will detail a little better below.
So in the movie, Jude Law plays the James Bond type character. Super cool, always in the right place at that right time, super spy that can seem to do no wrong. Even when he sneezes and shoots the man he is trying to get information from in the head, he finds a way to remain cool and still expertly escape without wrinkling his suit.
Melissa McCarthy plays basically the stereotype that she has been cast in every film, and that is the overweight and homely secretary that is the voice in Jude Law's ear, giving him all the information he needs to be successful. I'm not saying that to make it sound bad, because they take that image and exaggerate it throughout the course of the movie to some of the more hilarious moments of the movie (Jude Law: "You look like you have pink eye. Did you scratch your eye while changing the litter box?" Melissa McCarthy: "What? I don't have a cat, why would you think I have a cat?" Jude Law: "I don't know. Why would I say that?").
Rose Byrne just plays a crazy person, who holds up her end of the comedy spectrum when necessary, and also plays the bad guy pretty convincingly when necessary as well. But she keeps her performance subdued and lets the others do most of the heavy lifting.
Which brings me to the highlight of the film, and that is Jason Statham. I have been a fan of Jason Statham since I first saw the movie Snatch, which if you haven't seen, you should go out and watch it right now. Seriously, go right now...I can wait. Are you back? Okay, then I will press on. Jason Statham has become best known for playing the super serious action star, and he has made quite a living for himself doing so (I feel like he has a new movie come out like every other week). In this movie, he takes that same tone and demeanor, and then he delivers some of the most ridiculous lines, which really just amplifies the humor in it. Example: "Nothing kills me. I'm immune to 179 different types of poison. I know because I ingested them all at once when I was deep undercover in an underground poison-ingesting crime ring."
I personally felt that all the characters were near perfect, and really fit the movie well, but I think the movie really suffered from the storyline itself. It was never anything flashy, and it was very predictable. What really kept the movie chugging along was the bevy of one-liners that were strewn throughout the film. The last half hour of the movie, as it came chugging into the finish line, was really the least appealing part of the whole movie, but they had to sum the story up and so the comedy turned into just a half hour, typical action film.
But if you can look past the story, there are some really funny moments in the movie. I'm not the biggest Melissa McCarthy fan in the world, but I do find her to be pretty funny most of the time. She takes this movie on her back and she carries it as far as she can, and she does a good job. I felt that she really came into her own about halfway through the movie, when she was trying to convince Rose Byrne's character that she was hired to be her bodyguard, and that was when the best comedic lines came through for her.
I was never a real fan of Bridesmaids, and I liked The Heat rather well, but I feel that Spy fell somewhere in between the two movies. I would watch the movie again, just to see the scenes with both Melissa McCarthy and Jason Statham in them, as I felt that these two had some really good chemistry, and their styles complemented the other one very well. I felt that the storyline was forgettable, but I imagine that I will take several of the one-liners from the movie and add them into my repertoire where applicable. Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy will be teaming up again to make the reboot of Ghostbusters, and seeing both the comedic performance, and also the action performance, by Melissa McCarthy in Spy leaves me with some high hopes that they will do that franchise the justice it deserves.
My rating for Spy is 7/10
Spy is a comedy from director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids and The Heat), which stars Melissa McCarthy (also Bridesmaids and The Heat), Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids...wait, is this a Judd Apatow type situation?), Jude Law (uhm...not really much in recent years), and Jason Statham (every action movie that hits the market). The basic premise of the movie is that it is a spoof (of sorts) of all the other spy movies in the world, such as James Bond and...well, I guess mainly just James Bond. But Spy isn't just making fun of spy movies like spoofs that have come before (Naked Gun, Airplane, National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon, etc.), instead it just takes the over the top stereotypes and somewhat ridiculous things that are in the normal movies and just takes them one step further. I felt that every character in the movie was just an exaggerated version of other characters you have seen before, which I will detail a little better below.
So in the movie, Jude Law plays the James Bond type character. Super cool, always in the right place at that right time, super spy that can seem to do no wrong. Even when he sneezes and shoots the man he is trying to get information from in the head, he finds a way to remain cool and still expertly escape without wrinkling his suit.
Melissa McCarthy plays basically the stereotype that she has been cast in every film, and that is the overweight and homely secretary that is the voice in Jude Law's ear, giving him all the information he needs to be successful. I'm not saying that to make it sound bad, because they take that image and exaggerate it throughout the course of the movie to some of the more hilarious moments of the movie (Jude Law: "You look like you have pink eye. Did you scratch your eye while changing the litter box?" Melissa McCarthy: "What? I don't have a cat, why would you think I have a cat?" Jude Law: "I don't know. Why would I say that?").
Rose Byrne just plays a crazy person, who holds up her end of the comedy spectrum when necessary, and also plays the bad guy pretty convincingly when necessary as well. But she keeps her performance subdued and lets the others do most of the heavy lifting.
Which brings me to the highlight of the film, and that is Jason Statham. I have been a fan of Jason Statham since I first saw the movie Snatch, which if you haven't seen, you should go out and watch it right now. Seriously, go right now...I can wait. Are you back? Okay, then I will press on. Jason Statham has become best known for playing the super serious action star, and he has made quite a living for himself doing so (I feel like he has a new movie come out like every other week). In this movie, he takes that same tone and demeanor, and then he delivers some of the most ridiculous lines, which really just amplifies the humor in it. Example: "Nothing kills me. I'm immune to 179 different types of poison. I know because I ingested them all at once when I was deep undercover in an underground poison-ingesting crime ring."
I personally felt that all the characters were near perfect, and really fit the movie well, but I think the movie really suffered from the storyline itself. It was never anything flashy, and it was very predictable. What really kept the movie chugging along was the bevy of one-liners that were strewn throughout the film. The last half hour of the movie, as it came chugging into the finish line, was really the least appealing part of the whole movie, but they had to sum the story up and so the comedy turned into just a half hour, typical action film.
But if you can look past the story, there are some really funny moments in the movie. I'm not the biggest Melissa McCarthy fan in the world, but I do find her to be pretty funny most of the time. She takes this movie on her back and she carries it as far as she can, and she does a good job. I felt that she really came into her own about halfway through the movie, when she was trying to convince Rose Byrne's character that she was hired to be her bodyguard, and that was when the best comedic lines came through for her.
I was never a real fan of Bridesmaids, and I liked The Heat rather well, but I feel that Spy fell somewhere in between the two movies. I would watch the movie again, just to see the scenes with both Melissa McCarthy and Jason Statham in them, as I felt that these two had some really good chemistry, and their styles complemented the other one very well. I felt that the storyline was forgettable, but I imagine that I will take several of the one-liners from the movie and add them into my repertoire where applicable. Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy will be teaming up again to make the reboot of Ghostbusters, and seeing both the comedic performance, and also the action performance, by Melissa McCarthy in Spy leaves me with some high hopes that they will do that franchise the justice it deserves.
My rating for Spy is 7/10
Video Game - So Many Me for Xbox One
So Many Me is a puzzle/platformer game for the Xbox One that just came out this last week, and is free for the rest of July for Xbox Live Gold members, which I happen to be. The game follows a little green alien looking guy named Filo (first in, last out, I can only guess pun intended). As soon as you start into the game, you meet Asimov (a bigger green alien looking guy with a sweet mustache?), and he sets up the game letting little Filo know that as he recovers these seeds that are spread throughout the world, he will obtain copies of himself, which he can then turn into blocks to help him traverse the world. There are also other things to obtain, such as little pink bags with smiley faces on them that will give you new costumes that you can outfit the copies with so you can tell them apart, and then there are coins and relics blueprints that you can obtain to make the game a little bit easier as you go (but not THAT much easier, as explained below).
I took a chance on the game (since it was free and all), and instantly I took a liking to the game. I have always been a sucker for puzzle games, and the first few stages of this game were very quick to suck me in and get me hooked. The gameplay is pretty smooth, once you get the hang of the controls, and for the most part, I was able to get little Filo and his clones to do what I wanted them to do. As you gather more of the little clones (Many Mes?), you are able to get some more freedom to how you solve each puzzle and gather all the items scattered throughout the stages.
And that is when things take a dark turn...
The difficulty in the game ramps up rather quickly, and it was very early on (stage 5 or 6 perhaps) that I was finding it nearly impossible to obtain all the items in each stage. And it wasn't that I wasn't seeing how to solve the puzzles to get the items, it was the fact that there is so little cushion in the game for error, that I would spend five minutes or so setting up what I wanted to do, just to get halfway through what I had set up and then getting killed, which would in turn reset everything that I had set up. This can be very frustrating, especially when you have done it five or six times and keep misplacing one of your blocks by fractions of an inch, causing the whole thing to fail. But I persevered, and kept my head down, and kept on plugging, knowing that I was getting closer and closer each time, and eventually I was able to get all the items and move on to the next level.
This trend continued throughout the course of the game, where I would start to think I was finally getting it all under control, and then they would introduce a new mechanic which would just throw a wrench into everything that I had been working towards. Then I would have to start over again with the new power that they had given me, and through trial and error figure out all the ins and outs of the new power while incorporating it into my arsenal of other powers.
As if this wasn't frustrating enough, the boss fights in the game are a trial in patience that even a parent of three kids, such as myself, could never have prepared for. Each step of each boss fight consisted of just simple trial and error mentality until you figured out the exact place to stand, or the exact place to put one of your blocks, once again with little to no cushion for error, until you were finally able to get through the fights. I did think that the fights were clever, and made you use each of your powers in unique ways to take down the bosses, but the feeling that I was never really in full control and the game could just take me out for no good reason, causing me to start the fight all over again, was extremely frustrating to say the least. And the final boss fight in the game, followed by a platforming escape that makes Metroid and Mario look like walks in the park...words cannot express how close I was to just shutting it off and moving on with my life without finishing the game. But as above, I persevered and finished it off and now I have a sense of accomplishment that can only come from going through such a traumatic ordeal...at least as far as video games go.
I feel that I have talked the game down in a bad sort of way, but there were many good aspects of the game throughout as well. The backgrounds, enemies, and the different costumes that you get for your little clones were very colorful and created a beautiful world to look at. The graphics on the game are cartoony, but in a good way, and really bring the characters to life. The dialogue in the game is also very light-hearted and even laugh out loud funny at times, so long as you don't take things too seriously. And the game never does take itself too seriously, and if you can keep that in mind and keep from getting frustrated and breaking your controller, you will find a very enjoyable game that looks like it is aimed at kids, but has something for everyone.
So, for my final thoughts on So Many Me. I think it is a well designed puzzle game, that with some minor tweaks to the difficulty and allowing the player a little more margin for error, would have been a truly great game. I still think that the game is very solid, but the difficulty in collecting all the items and the overall length of the game (I finished the main story mode in around 5 or 6 hours of gameplay, with all items), keep it from being something truly special. If you are a fan of the genre, than I think you will find a lot to like in this cute little game, but if you have little patience and don't care about collecting everything, it would probably be best if you just pass over this one.
My Rating for So Many Me on the Xbox One is 6.5/10
I took a chance on the game (since it was free and all), and instantly I took a liking to the game. I have always been a sucker for puzzle games, and the first few stages of this game were very quick to suck me in and get me hooked. The gameplay is pretty smooth, once you get the hang of the controls, and for the most part, I was able to get little Filo and his clones to do what I wanted them to do. As you gather more of the little clones (Many Mes?), you are able to get some more freedom to how you solve each puzzle and gather all the items scattered throughout the stages.
And that is when things take a dark turn...
The difficulty in the game ramps up rather quickly, and it was very early on (stage 5 or 6 perhaps) that I was finding it nearly impossible to obtain all the items in each stage. And it wasn't that I wasn't seeing how to solve the puzzles to get the items, it was the fact that there is so little cushion in the game for error, that I would spend five minutes or so setting up what I wanted to do, just to get halfway through what I had set up and then getting killed, which would in turn reset everything that I had set up. This can be very frustrating, especially when you have done it five or six times and keep misplacing one of your blocks by fractions of an inch, causing the whole thing to fail. But I persevered, and kept my head down, and kept on plugging, knowing that I was getting closer and closer each time, and eventually I was able to get all the items and move on to the next level.
This trend continued throughout the course of the game, where I would start to think I was finally getting it all under control, and then they would introduce a new mechanic which would just throw a wrench into everything that I had been working towards. Then I would have to start over again with the new power that they had given me, and through trial and error figure out all the ins and outs of the new power while incorporating it into my arsenal of other powers.
As if this wasn't frustrating enough, the boss fights in the game are a trial in patience that even a parent of three kids, such as myself, could never have prepared for. Each step of each boss fight consisted of just simple trial and error mentality until you figured out the exact place to stand, or the exact place to put one of your blocks, once again with little to no cushion for error, until you were finally able to get through the fights. I did think that the fights were clever, and made you use each of your powers in unique ways to take down the bosses, but the feeling that I was never really in full control and the game could just take me out for no good reason, causing me to start the fight all over again, was extremely frustrating to say the least. And the final boss fight in the game, followed by a platforming escape that makes Metroid and Mario look like walks in the park...words cannot express how close I was to just shutting it off and moving on with my life without finishing the game. But as above, I persevered and finished it off and now I have a sense of accomplishment that can only come from going through such a traumatic ordeal...at least as far as video games go.
I feel that I have talked the game down in a bad sort of way, but there were many good aspects of the game throughout as well. The backgrounds, enemies, and the different costumes that you get for your little clones were very colorful and created a beautiful world to look at. The graphics on the game are cartoony, but in a good way, and really bring the characters to life. The dialogue in the game is also very light-hearted and even laugh out loud funny at times, so long as you don't take things too seriously. And the game never does take itself too seriously, and if you can keep that in mind and keep from getting frustrated and breaking your controller, you will find a very enjoyable game that looks like it is aimed at kids, but has something for everyone.
So, for my final thoughts on So Many Me. I think it is a well designed puzzle game, that with some minor tweaks to the difficulty and allowing the player a little more margin for error, would have been a truly great game. I still think that the game is very solid, but the difficulty in collecting all the items and the overall length of the game (I finished the main story mode in around 5 or 6 hours of gameplay, with all items), keep it from being something truly special. If you are a fan of the genre, than I think you will find a lot to like in this cute little game, but if you have little patience and don't care about collecting everything, it would probably be best if you just pass over this one.
My Rating for So Many Me on the Xbox One is 6.5/10
Monday, July 20, 2015
TV Show - Hell on Wheels, Season 5, Episode 1
Note: This article will contain major spoilers of the above mentioned episode.
Hell on Wheels is entering its fifth and final season, even though they are spreading it out over two years, similar to what AMC has done with Breaking Bad and Mad Men over the last couple of years. There will be eight episodes in the first half and then next year there will be a final eight episodes to finish the series. I will be completely honest up front, I have mixed feelings over this show, as I feel that the show has had wonderful peaks and unfortunately extreme lows (Elam Ferguson...the show will just not be the same without him). But, I continue to watch anyway, and so I enter this final season with low expectations and high hopes.
The first episode of the final season picks up where the fourth season ended, with Cullen Bohannon taking on his new role as the surveyor for the Central Pacific Railroad (which happens to be the rival of the Union Pacific Railroad that Cullen has worked for since the beginning of the show). We are introduced to what I can only assume is the new antagonist of the show, a Chinese man by the name of Chang. Chang is in charge of the Chinese workers that the Central Pacific have hired, and the show makes no sort of cover to show that this Chang is a bad man, so far as to have multiple characters even say as such in the first few minutes. When Cullen finds out that Chang is not paying proper wages to the workers, he then goes to confront Chang and tells him that it would be in his best interest to pay his workers what they are owed, in true Cullen Bohannon fashion. This of course causes Chang to make a statement of his own to Cullen by beating the father of the boy who told Cullen about the lack of correct paid wages. And so, we have the set up for at least the first half of this season, as we will see Cullen and Chang wrestle over who has the most control when it comes to the railroad.
That is the main set up, but the show also doesn't allow us to forget about (in my opinion) the best part of this show. And that is Thor Gundersen, or better known as "The Swede." Although he has been around since the first season, I still feel that Thor has been underutilized by the show. He is an amazing and complicated character, and he always finds some way to weasel out of whatever predicament that he gets himself into. But at the same time, he always feels like he is just the secondary bad guy on the show. And in this episode, it is more of the same. We see Thor stockpiling guns in a barn, and at the end of the episode, we see him come to Cullen's house to let Cullen know that he is still there, ready to be the thorn in Cullen's side that he has always been, but we don't get to see his true intentions at all. If I have one hope for how this show comes to an end, it will end up with the second part of this season focusing on the relationship between Cullen and Thor, and we get to see one big climactic end between the two of them when they finally get to settle their differences once and for all.
This episode focused on setting up the rest of this season, and also saw Cullen continuing to look for his wife and son, only to find out that they have been exiled from all Mormon settlements, causing Cullen to have no idea where they could be. In doing this, they almost completely left out other series regulars Thomas Durant (though we do see one brief scene with him getting upset at Cullen, per the norm), Mickey McGinnes, Eva Toole, along with others. I know that the main focus is on Cullen, but these other characters are still owed their own conclusions during this final season, and so I hope that the writers give them their due as well.
Overall, I feel that the episode was solid, but all the setup for future episodes kept it from becoming something great. Other seasons have started off slow and have come crashing into solid finishes, so I will not base my feelings of the season on this episode alone. I will say that I'm optimistic, but I will need to see a few more episodes to see just where they are heading. I feel that the character of Chang has potential to be a good bad guy for at least this first half of the season, but I will need to see more of him to make a final judgment call on him as well.
My rating for the episode - 7/10
Hell on Wheels is entering its fifth and final season, even though they are spreading it out over two years, similar to what AMC has done with Breaking Bad and Mad Men over the last couple of years. There will be eight episodes in the first half and then next year there will be a final eight episodes to finish the series. I will be completely honest up front, I have mixed feelings over this show, as I feel that the show has had wonderful peaks and unfortunately extreme lows (Elam Ferguson...the show will just not be the same without him). But, I continue to watch anyway, and so I enter this final season with low expectations and high hopes.
The first episode of the final season picks up where the fourth season ended, with Cullen Bohannon taking on his new role as the surveyor for the Central Pacific Railroad (which happens to be the rival of the Union Pacific Railroad that Cullen has worked for since the beginning of the show). We are introduced to what I can only assume is the new antagonist of the show, a Chinese man by the name of Chang. Chang is in charge of the Chinese workers that the Central Pacific have hired, and the show makes no sort of cover to show that this Chang is a bad man, so far as to have multiple characters even say as such in the first few minutes. When Cullen finds out that Chang is not paying proper wages to the workers, he then goes to confront Chang and tells him that it would be in his best interest to pay his workers what they are owed, in true Cullen Bohannon fashion. This of course causes Chang to make a statement of his own to Cullen by beating the father of the boy who told Cullen about the lack of correct paid wages. And so, we have the set up for at least the first half of this season, as we will see Cullen and Chang wrestle over who has the most control when it comes to the railroad.
That is the main set up, but the show also doesn't allow us to forget about (in my opinion) the best part of this show. And that is Thor Gundersen, or better known as "The Swede." Although he has been around since the first season, I still feel that Thor has been underutilized by the show. He is an amazing and complicated character, and he always finds some way to weasel out of whatever predicament that he gets himself into. But at the same time, he always feels like he is just the secondary bad guy on the show. And in this episode, it is more of the same. We see Thor stockpiling guns in a barn, and at the end of the episode, we see him come to Cullen's house to let Cullen know that he is still there, ready to be the thorn in Cullen's side that he has always been, but we don't get to see his true intentions at all. If I have one hope for how this show comes to an end, it will end up with the second part of this season focusing on the relationship between Cullen and Thor, and we get to see one big climactic end between the two of them when they finally get to settle their differences once and for all.
This episode focused on setting up the rest of this season, and also saw Cullen continuing to look for his wife and son, only to find out that they have been exiled from all Mormon settlements, causing Cullen to have no idea where they could be. In doing this, they almost completely left out other series regulars Thomas Durant (though we do see one brief scene with him getting upset at Cullen, per the norm), Mickey McGinnes, Eva Toole, along with others. I know that the main focus is on Cullen, but these other characters are still owed their own conclusions during this final season, and so I hope that the writers give them their due as well.
Overall, I feel that the episode was solid, but all the setup for future episodes kept it from becoming something great. Other seasons have started off slow and have come crashing into solid finishes, so I will not base my feelings of the season on this episode alone. I will say that I'm optimistic, but I will need to see a few more episodes to see just where they are heading. I feel that the character of Chang has potential to be a good bad guy for at least this first half of the season, but I will need to see more of him to make a final judgment call on him as well.
My rating for the episode - 7/10
Friday, July 17, 2015
Movie - Jurassic World
Note: There may be some spoilers throughout, but I will at least attempt to keep them at a minimum. Fair warning in advance.
So I went to see Jurassic World on opening day, as I was a huge fan of Jurassic Park when I was a kid. I was about 12 when the first one came out, so the movie was really aimed at me and so it has stuck with me over the years. I seem to remember it being the first real blockbuster that I went to the theater to see, and it really sparked my interest in movies in general. I don't fully credit Jurassic Park as being THE movie that created my love for movies, but it certainly did play its part.
Reminiscing aside, on to Jurassic World.
So, Jurassic World picks up roughly 20 years after the original film, and in today's society, just seeing living dinosaurs aren't enough any longer. The public wants more wow than just the fact that there are animals that have been extinct for millions of years, they want more teeth (as Bryce Dallas Howard and other characters point out many times throughout the movie). And so they are creating several new species of dinosaurs, by splicing in DNA from various dinosaurs to make new dinosaurs that will excite the visitors at the park. In doing so, they create a dinosaur called the Indominus Rex, which is a mix of several different dinosaurs, but the exact genetic makeup is considered confidential, and so nobody knows exactly what was used to create the new dinosaur. Some would think this is a bad idea, such as Owen Grady (portrayed by one of my new favorite actors, Chris Pratt), but that doesn't stop them until they realize too late and the Indominus Rex escapes and starts reeking havoc across the island.
The rest of the movie then follows the attempts to quell the outbreak before the visitors find out, and thus the park has to close down forever. Obviously it wouldn't make for a very good movie if they were able to capture it before it made it to the park visitors, and so due chaos does in fact take place as they continue to bumble through their attempts to capture the dinosaur, and then continue to bumble through their attempts to even kill the dinosaur when they realize that capturing it is out of the question. This includes quite the scene in which Owen and the movie's main antagonist (outside of the dinosaurs of course) Vic Hoskins (played by the always excellent Vincent D'Onofrio) decide to field test the velociraptors that they have been training to follow human commands.
So that is the basic overview of the movie, and now for my thoughts. I can honestly say that I really enjoyed the movie. Like a lot, even. I had my reservations going in, due to my love for the first movie, and so I tried to keep my expectations low, but this movie exceeded my expectations in every way. There are many scenes and actions by the main cast of characters that are absolutely absurd, and would never happen in real life, but that is not what this movie is about. This movie is about having a solid enough story to hold up a mostly non-stop action film, with fantastic visual effects, and solid performances by the cast. Much like the two kids in the original film, the two kids in this film also find ways to get on your nerves and create more trouble than they should, but they hold up their end of the bargain, just like the rest of the cast.
The film is pretty straight forward, nothing out of the ordinary and most of everything that happens is easy to see coming. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing, so long as the execution is there, and I thought that Jurassic World delivered on that in almost every aspect. There was one twist that caught me off guard in particular, and was also my favorite scene, and that was the scene when they took the velociraptors out after the Indominus Rex. In the interest of not giving away too many spoilers as I noted above, I will just let those that have seen the movie know what I'm talking about, and those that haven't, hopefully this peaks your interest enough to go see the film. Although, based on the box office numbers for the movie, it would appear that there are more people that have seen it than haven't.
Jurassic World is a fun, action filled, blockbuster in every aspect of the word. If you are just looking for a fun movie, and for the most part, family friendly movie(I let my 11 year old and 7 year old watch the movie and they both enjoyed it), then look no further than Jurassic World. Don't go expecting to have your mind blown, but if you just want to go and escape into a movie that doesn't require you to think to figure out the plot, than Jurassic World is the probably your best bet this summer. If you enjoyed Jurassic Park, than you will enjoy the way that this movie pays homage to the original without stealing ideas scene for scene. At the end of the day, Jurassic World, like life, finds a way (I couldn't make it through this review without a quote from Ian Malcolm, I am sorry).
My Rating for Jurassic World - 9/10
So I went to see Jurassic World on opening day, as I was a huge fan of Jurassic Park when I was a kid. I was about 12 when the first one came out, so the movie was really aimed at me and so it has stuck with me over the years. I seem to remember it being the first real blockbuster that I went to the theater to see, and it really sparked my interest in movies in general. I don't fully credit Jurassic Park as being THE movie that created my love for movies, but it certainly did play its part.
Reminiscing aside, on to Jurassic World.
So, Jurassic World picks up roughly 20 years after the original film, and in today's society, just seeing living dinosaurs aren't enough any longer. The public wants more wow than just the fact that there are animals that have been extinct for millions of years, they want more teeth (as Bryce Dallas Howard and other characters point out many times throughout the movie). And so they are creating several new species of dinosaurs, by splicing in DNA from various dinosaurs to make new dinosaurs that will excite the visitors at the park. In doing so, they create a dinosaur called the Indominus Rex, which is a mix of several different dinosaurs, but the exact genetic makeup is considered confidential, and so nobody knows exactly what was used to create the new dinosaur. Some would think this is a bad idea, such as Owen Grady (portrayed by one of my new favorite actors, Chris Pratt), but that doesn't stop them until they realize too late and the Indominus Rex escapes and starts reeking havoc across the island.
The rest of the movie then follows the attempts to quell the outbreak before the visitors find out, and thus the park has to close down forever. Obviously it wouldn't make for a very good movie if they were able to capture it before it made it to the park visitors, and so due chaos does in fact take place as they continue to bumble through their attempts to capture the dinosaur, and then continue to bumble through their attempts to even kill the dinosaur when they realize that capturing it is out of the question. This includes quite the scene in which Owen and the movie's main antagonist (outside of the dinosaurs of course) Vic Hoskins (played by the always excellent Vincent D'Onofrio) decide to field test the velociraptors that they have been training to follow human commands.
So that is the basic overview of the movie, and now for my thoughts. I can honestly say that I really enjoyed the movie. Like a lot, even. I had my reservations going in, due to my love for the first movie, and so I tried to keep my expectations low, but this movie exceeded my expectations in every way. There are many scenes and actions by the main cast of characters that are absolutely absurd, and would never happen in real life, but that is not what this movie is about. This movie is about having a solid enough story to hold up a mostly non-stop action film, with fantastic visual effects, and solid performances by the cast. Much like the two kids in the original film, the two kids in this film also find ways to get on your nerves and create more trouble than they should, but they hold up their end of the bargain, just like the rest of the cast.
The film is pretty straight forward, nothing out of the ordinary and most of everything that happens is easy to see coming. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing, so long as the execution is there, and I thought that Jurassic World delivered on that in almost every aspect. There was one twist that caught me off guard in particular, and was also my favorite scene, and that was the scene when they took the velociraptors out after the Indominus Rex. In the interest of not giving away too many spoilers as I noted above, I will just let those that have seen the movie know what I'm talking about, and those that haven't, hopefully this peaks your interest enough to go see the film. Although, based on the box office numbers for the movie, it would appear that there are more people that have seen it than haven't.
Jurassic World is a fun, action filled, blockbuster in every aspect of the word. If you are just looking for a fun movie, and for the most part, family friendly movie(I let my 11 year old and 7 year old watch the movie and they both enjoyed it), then look no further than Jurassic World. Don't go expecting to have your mind blown, but if you just want to go and escape into a movie that doesn't require you to think to figure out the plot, than Jurassic World is the probably your best bet this summer. If you enjoyed Jurassic Park, than you will enjoy the way that this movie pays homage to the original without stealing ideas scene for scene. At the end of the day, Jurassic World, like life, finds a way (I couldn't make it through this review without a quote from Ian Malcolm, I am sorry).
My Rating for Jurassic World - 9/10
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Let's Talk About That Scene - New Blog
Hello everyone,
My name is John McCarty, and I have decided that I'm going to start up a blog. I have been writing as a hobby for the past five years or so, and I have had a lot of people tell me that starting a blog is a good way to work on my writing skills, as well as a way to start networking a bit and getting my work out there for people to read.
I have thought long and hard about just what I want to do with my blog, and so I came up with the idea that I should do something I have a lot of interest in, and that is the world of entertainment. I love movies, music, television shows, video games, etc., and so I thought that the best thing for me to do was to start a blog about these interests. And so, I intend to write reviews of these interests, and hopefully can provide some insight and hopefully a little bit of my unique perspective on things.
So, if you have wandered across this blog, and you share some of these interests with me, I hope you choose to join me on this adventure of mine and can provide me with some feedback, comments, and your own general thoughts as well. And so, let's talk about that scene...
My name is John McCarty, and I have decided that I'm going to start up a blog. I have been writing as a hobby for the past five years or so, and I have had a lot of people tell me that starting a blog is a good way to work on my writing skills, as well as a way to start networking a bit and getting my work out there for people to read.
I have thought long and hard about just what I want to do with my blog, and so I came up with the idea that I should do something I have a lot of interest in, and that is the world of entertainment. I love movies, music, television shows, video games, etc., and so I thought that the best thing for me to do was to start a blog about these interests. And so, I intend to write reviews of these interests, and hopefully can provide some insight and hopefully a little bit of my unique perspective on things.
So, if you have wandered across this blog, and you share some of these interests with me, I hope you choose to join me on this adventure of mine and can provide me with some feedback, comments, and your own general thoughts as well. And so, let's talk about that scene...
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