The Fault In Our Stars (2014) review

  You run into a few surprises every now and again. While The Fault In Our Stars may appear to be another cash-cow chick flick to rob money from un-inlighted teenage girls ala Twilight style, The Fault in Our Stars actually carries a few good surprises that will relieve your theater experience when you're unwillingly dragged to see this movie by your girlfriend.

 

   Hazel Grace is a young charming woman that suffers from a deadly cancerous disease she conceived at a young age. She has lived every day of her life since her diagnosis knowing that this may be her last day on this earth, putting her in a state of depression. Her parents want her to step out of her despair, live life to the fullest while she still can, so they suggest Hazel go to a support group for other 'survivors'. Hazel hesitantly agrees to go, but only because she wants to make her parents happy, it seems to be the only thing she cares about now. To Hazel's surprise, she actually meets someone at the support group, a young charismatic man, Augustus. "Gus" suffers from the same deadly disease that she does, but that doesn't hold his charismatic charm back from befriending Hazel, they instantly click, becoming friends and potential lovers. But there is a problem, there's always a problem when you have a cancerous disease, Hazel is dying. She's a 'Grenade', a 'time bomb' if you will, and she doesn't want to hurt those around her when she eventually explodes. Fortunately, Gus shows her that life is worth living to its fullest, especially when your days are numbered. Gus shows her life as it was meant to be lived. Gus gives her a reason to live, Gus rescued her from despair, her hero, and of course they fall in love. Tackling their lives with optimism that shows they are willing to live the rest of their lives to the fullest.

 

  From its heartwarming moments, heartbreaking moments, to its cringe-worthy and corny moments, The Fault In Our Stars delivers. Not only does it deliver in making the theater experience with your girlfriend much more pleasant, it delivers in taking a dead genre and reviving it with a fresh and new take that actually has heart. Not only does the movie have heart and deliver, it has vivid and realistic characters. Even though some of the lead actors' dialogue may be a little corny at times, the characters feel real. You feel what these characters are feeling; whenever someone is sad, you feel sad with them; whenever someone is happy, you feel happy right with them; whenever someone starts to cry, you, dare I say it, cry right with them. Huge props to the director and screenwriter for that. Behind the charm and vivid charisma of the characters, the movie has a strong message: live everyday of your life like its your last, because you never know when its gonna end. And a movie with a strong and positive message is a win, in my book.
"Life is a like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get, and you never know when you're gonna run out of chocolates, live life to its fullest, even if you know you're going to eventually run out of cocoa."
The Fault In Our Stars 8/10

Edge of Tomorrow spoiler-free review

Release Date: June 6, 2014
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget: 178 million

 

Director: Doug Liman
Writer: Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, John Henry-Butterworth
Score: Christophe Beck
Cinematography: Dion Beebe

 

Starring:
Tom Cruise
Emily Blunt
Bill Paxton

 

Based on: All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka

 

Running Time: 113 minutes

 

  Director Doug Liman is back at the chair once again, this time adopting a popular Japanese novel to the big screen. Honestly, adaptation or not, let's just hope this is a better movie than his 2008 film Jumper.

 

   So Edge of Tomorrow is a mind bending sci-fi about a military officer who is unjustly thrown in a war against alien invasors. After a he suffers a tragic death on the battlefield, due to lack of training and experience, he finds himself waking up the day before on the military camp that he had unjustly been sent to, so every time he dies he sort of "resets" the day and wakes up the day before, knowing exactly what is going to happen while everyone else is oblivious. That's all the plot summary you really need, this movie has some serious twists and turns that some further summarizing will spoil the movie for you.

 

   I must say, this movie really took me by surprise. This movie just really keeps you interested in why he keeps waking up and starting the day all over again. The action sequences are done well, Tom Cruise is good in the movie, Emily Blunt is good as well, The special effects are very good, and the cinematography in this movie blew me away at times. This movie is like Battle Los Angeles meets Groundhog Day. Even though some people have judged this movie as a "rip-off" of Groundhog Day, I feel like that is an unfair judgement. I feel like this movie was inspired by Groundhog Day, kind of like how Inception was inspired by The Matrix. Which is a good thing, this movie takes a well known premise, inspired by another movie, and makes it feel refreshing and new, again, like Inception did with The Matrix.

 

   The movie does have a few negatives though: The second act is a little slow, Some more character development would've been sublime, and the 3D; My God, do NOT watch this movie in 3D, it does not enhance the experience whatsoever.

 

   Despite its negatives, I feel like director Doug Liman has redeemed himself with this mind-bending sci-fi action flick, expertly combining mystery with action and taking a well-known premise and making it feel refreshing and new again.
Edge of Tomorrow 8.5/10
  

X-Men: Days of Future Past spoiler-free review

Release Date: May 23, 2014
Studio: Bad Hat Harry
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Budget: 225 million

Director: Bryan Singer
Story: Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman, Simon Kinberg
Screenplay: Simon Kinberg
Score: John Ottman
Cinematography: Newton Thomas Sigel

Starring:
Hugh Jackman
Jennifer Lawrence
Michael Fassbender
James McAvoy
Peter Dinklage
Nicholas Hoult
Evan Peters
Ellen Page
Patrick Stewart
Ian McKellen
Shawn Ashmore
Fan Binbing                                    
Omar Sy                                      Based on: "Days of Future Past" by Chris Claremont and John Byrne Booboo Stewart
Adan Canto            
Daniel Cudmore
Halle Berry                                  Running Time: 130 minutes
Lucas Till
                                                                                                  

  The most anticipated movie of 2014 is finally here! The X-Men return to the big screen for the seventh time in this explosive "prequel-sequel" that combines the cast of the first three X-Men movies as well as the cast of the prequel, X-Men: First Class, and puts these characters in a war where they must join forces and rely on desperate measures to save their future. Brought to us once again by the hands of the director of the first two X-Men movies, Bryan Singer, and boy are we glad to have you back Mr. Singer because this movie is a true accomplishment.

   We catch up with our fellow X-Men in a post-apocalyptic New York, a world that has been overrun by dark forces that threaten the very existence of both humans and mutants, in a desperate act to change their present, the X-Men send Wolverine into the past in an effort to prevent the creation of these "dark forces" that will come about the end of times as we know it.
  By far, this is the best movie of the year, right up there with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. There's really not much negative to say here, it's a near flawless movie that ultimately succeeds in leaving you with a giant smile on your face. But if I had to dig really deep, I'd say that the movie does slow down a couple of notches through the second act and it does rush a few things in the first, but other tan that, nothing, its pure awesomeness. I apologize if I'm coming off as a bit biased but the things in this movie that might be subject to worth talking about would be considered spoilers, and i definitely don't want to ruin the expierience for you.

  The movie's large enssemble alone should be enough to get your but in the movie theater, no seriously, this movie has so many talented actors and actressess that seeing them in the same movie together is alone worth the price of admission. Why are you still here? Stop reading this and go watch this movie!
  I'm going to give X-Men: Days of Future Past a 9/10
(stick around till the end of the credits!)

Cesar Chavez spoilers review

Release Date: March 28, 2014
Studio: Canana Films
Distributed by: Pantelion Films, Participant Media
Budget: 10 million

Director: Diego Luna
Writer: Keir Pearson
Music: Michael Brook
Cinematography: Enrique Chedak

Starring:
Michael Peña
John Malkovich
Rosario Dawson
America Ferrera

Running Time: 102 minutes

 

   After two years of trying to obtain the rights of Cesar Chavez, his own biopic is finally kick started into production. With Academy award-nominated writer, Keir Pearson treating the script and acclaimed director, Diego Luna at the helm of directing, things were looking good for the Cesar Chavez biopic. But marketing issues and budget restrains really held back what could've have been a somewhat interesting take on the life and teachings of Cesar Chavez.
   So essentially, this movie is pretty much about Chavez's struggles to secure civil rights to illegal immigrant farm workers who are not being paid fairly and are essentially being treated like slaves, of course, Chavez succeeds and everyone lives happily ever after. The thing that really holds this movie back for me is the narrative structure; this movie is just all over the place, it rushes too many things and takes so many twists and turns that by the end you'll be scratching your head over what the plot of the movie was. It takes no time whatsoever to introduce or give the characters any personality, all they ever seem to say is forced exposition and constantly recite the plot of the movie for you, just in case you weren't paying attention ( you probably weren't anyway). The "villian" of the movie is played by John Malkovich, who gives a mediocre performance by the way, who tries to be the sympathetic villain who has some redeemable background and what not, honestly, I don't care, the character is too dull and boring and you'll find yourself almost drooling over his dialogue scenes. If only this movie would take its time to try and tell a story instead of informing us on Chavez's teachings and life; I honestly would've preferred a movie that wasn't so attached to its source material, at least a story would've been told in that case. I don't just straight up HATE this movie, I do have some positive opinions on it as well; I agree with the movie's themes and philosophies, there's a rare amount of character moments that are enjoyable, and the ending is a very heartwarming ending, well, at least for me it is, but sadly does not make this a good enough movie to spend your hard-earned money on.

   I'm going to give Cesar Chavez a 6/10

Godzilla (2014) Spoiler-Free Review

Release Date: May 16, 2014 US
Studio: Legendary Pictures
Distributed By: Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget: 160 million

Director: Gareth Edwards
Story: David Callaham
Screenplay: Max Borenstein
Score: Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography: Seamus McGarvey

Starring:
Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Elizabeth Olsen
Ken Watanabe
with Bryan Cranston

Running Time: 123 minutes






   Godzilla! That's right, folks, Godzilla is finally back on the big screen and the King of Monsters is this time being brought to theatres by the loyal hands of Legendary and Warner Bros. pictures. After all, we, Americans, owed redemption to the Japanese folk, the creators of Godzilla, after the abomination that was Roland Emmerich's American version of Godzilla: the simply titled "Godzilla", because neither the Japanese or American fanbase were pleased with Emmerich's adaptation of our favorite monster. But not to worry, because I believe this latest interpretation of Gojira will wash away that disgusting taste in our mouths left by the previous American attempt at Godzilla, and I believe the Japanese will even give us a nice little pat on the back for our hard work at finally giving "The King" the movie he deserves.

   The story centers around a supposed "earthquake" that destroyed a nuclear plant and ruined the life and job of Bryan Cranston's character, Joe. He believes that the government is lying to him about an earthquake destroying his workplace and that there's something much bigger going on that they aren't revealing to the public, something that will apparently "Send Us Back To The Stone Age". Years later, Joe is still obssessed with finding out the truth that he begins to annoy and worry his only son, Ford. Being worried about his father having some sort of "mental condition", Ford decides to help his father find the "evidence" he needs so he can show him that there is nothing to prove and he is merely being paranoid. To Ford's surprise, it turns out that the nuclear plant where his father worked at was actually destroyed by some sort of gigantic creature, so gigantic in fact, that the military might not be able to contain it and might have to rely on desperate measures to save humanity.
  
   For the most part, "Godzilla" delivers on what it advertises, epic destruction, but you will have to sit through A LOT of unecessary character development to really get to the fun stuff. The movie tries to play it slow and "tease you" every now and again with glimpses of Godzilla rising from the ocean or whatever, but these teases are done so many times throughout the movie that it really begins to feel monotonous, and even anti-climactic, really. Most of the time, the movie will abpruptly cut away from Godzilla about do his "thing" and quickly jump to Ford emoting about how dramatic and emotional this whole "monster" situation is for him and his family . The movie seems to focus too much on the effect rather than the actual cause, and in the end makes for a poorly paced, supposed "monster" movie. I wouldn't have much of a problem with this if the characters were actually three-dimensional or interesting, as much as I like Aaron Taylor-Johnson as an actor, his performance in this movie comes off as a bit wooden, and that really shouldn't be the case because he is, essentially, the "star" of this movie. It might sound like I'm trashing this flick, but like i said in the beginning: "The Japanese will even give us a nice little pat on the back for our hard work at finally giving "The King" the movie he deserves", and there is truly a lot of positive things in this movie that i believe overshadow the negatives: My God, the special effects in this movie are just absolutely incredible, I wouldn't be surprised if this movie gets nominated or wins for best SFX at the Oscars. Bryan Cranston's performance, as expected, is phenomenal here and i believe he is truly the emotional center of the whole movie. When Godzilla finally gets to throw down, I swear to you, you will not be dissaponted and is alone worth the price of admission.

   Despite its flaws, I believe this latest American adaption of the Japanese monster, Godzilla, is truly worth checking out, especially if you want to get the bad taste of the 1998 version out of your mouth.
   I'm going to give Godzilla a 7.7/10

Now who's ready for X-Men: Days of Future Past?