Day 294: Green Room (2015)

As you all saw earlier in the year, I was saddened by the death of Anton Yelchin who was taken from us way too soon. I saved the opportunity to watch today’s film because I wanted to have at least one film from him for Eddie’s 31 Days Of Halloween. That is why I chose to watch Green Room for today’s film. Anton plays a punk rock musician named Pat whose in a band called the Ain’t Rights. Everyone knows that being a musician isn’t always glorious and they certainly know that taking gigs for almost nothing. Well one day they are promised a decent pay out to play a gig at a Nazi skinhead bar. Everything goes right until Pat unknowingly walks into a murder scene which traps the band at the bar and they have to fight for their lives just to survive. The film also stars Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation) as Darcy, Joe Cole (Secret In Their Eyes) as Reece, Alia Shawkat (Whip It) as Sam, Callum Turner (Victor Frankenstein) as Tiger, David Thompson (A Christmas Story 2) as Tad, Macon Blair (Blue Ruin) as Gabe, Eric Edelstein (Jurassic World) as Big Justin, Mark Webber (Scott Pilgrim Vs The World) as Daniel, Imogen Poots (Need For Speed) as Amber, and the film was directed by Jeremy Saulnier (Murder Party). To see the rest of the review, please click here to go to Moshpits and Movies. 

Day 267: The Magnificent Seven (2016)

Ever since I watched the original film Seven Samurai and it’s remake 1960’s The Magnificent Seven, I became really excited to see the remake of the remake in Antoine Fuqua’s (The Equalizer) version of The Magnificent Seven which hit theaters today and is also our film for today. In a small mining town of Rosewood, the residents there are being terrorized by a land thief by the name of Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard). He is relentless in stealing all of their land and he is killing the men of the town. Until one day when a couple of the townspeople in Emma (Haley Bennett) and Teddy Q (Luke Grimes) travel to look for some help. They find a bounty hunter by the name of Chisolm (Denzel Washington) who will hire six other guns to try and protect the town from Bogue before he kills them all. The rest of The Magnificent Seven are Chris Pratt (Jurassic World) as Josh Faraday, Ethan Hawke (Gattaca) as Goodnight Robicheaux, Byung-hun Lee (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) as Billy Rocks, Vincent D’Onofrio (Men In Black) as Jack Horne, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (Cake) as Vasquez, and Martin Sensmeier (The Hub) as Red Harvest. The film also stars  Cam Gigandet (Easy A) as McCann, Matt Bomer (White Collar) as Matthew Cullen, and Dane Rhodes (Deja Vu) as Sheriff Harp. 

Out of the two remakes, I still think I am a fan of the original over this one because the 60’s one had a magic to it. However that is not a statement from me saying that this film was not any good because it is quite the opposite. It has been a really long time since I had seen a new western come out that I loved. The last one I liked was the 3:10 To Yuma remake that starred Christian Bale. What made that one so good in my opinion was the caliber of the cast that was in that film. That also bodes true for this film which featured a marvelous cast that had me enjoying every minute of the film. Denzel is Denzel so you don’t need to question his performance in the film cause it was grade A. Chris Pratt continues to amaze me with his performances, but I have to give props to the rest of the seven because they were the guys that had to perform along the two colossal names in the film. They are just like the original Magnificent Seven which each guy is his own personality and you wouldn’t think they would band together because they are so unique. I definitely like that they changed it up a bit with the characters adding a Native American to the team, I thought it was cool. I loved the interactions between the characters which meant that the writing was good, but what I loved most about the film was the final showdown. That was definitely the money shot of the film because it was epic and the way it ended was justified (you’ll see what I mean). I thought that it was an excellent film despite what critics might say, but it helps if you love westerns as well. I am going to give the film an A- for a final grade.

Day 173: Jurassic Park (1993)

Haven’t you ever wondered what Dinosaurs were really like millions of years ago? For quite some time, we haven’t really known anything substantial about them, we can only really speculate as to how they were by studying their bones. What if you were given the chance to see how they act in certain environments or how they feed daily? Wouldn’t you love the chance and ability to see that for yourself? In the film Jurassic Park, Mr. Hammond (Richard Attenborough) builds a Jurassic theme park on a deserted island off the coast of Chile that he plans to open to the public that contains dinosaurs. The only problem is that he needs to convince a lawyer and some paleontologists that the park is indeed safe for the public. While on a preview tour of the island, something goes terribly wrong and some of the carnivorous dinosaurs are set free to roam and hunt on the island. The film stars Sam Neill (Event Horizon) as Grant, Laura Dern (Wild) as Ellie, Jeff Goldblum (Independence Day) as Malcolm, Bob Peck (The Kitchen Toto) as Muldoon, Martin Ferrero (Heat) as Gennaro, BD Wong (Jurassic World) as Wu, Joseph Mazzello (The Social Network) as Tim, Ariana Richards (Tremors) as Lex, Samuel L. Jackson (Avengers: Age Of Ultron) as Arnold, Wayne Knight (Seinfeld) as Nedry, and the film was directed by Stephen Spielberg (E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial). 

I have to be honest in saying that I have no idea why it took me 23 years to see Jurassic Park. Well, I am lying with that statement because to be honest when I was 11, Dinosaurs didn’t really interest me enough like they do know. The film is another brilliant look in why man should never play God for anything! I don’t care what it is or what idea we come up with, but we should never play God. If the movies have taught us anything is that it usually ends in disaster. Which is evident with the film I watched today which is simply brilliant. I only have one question for all of you out there and that is am I evil for wanting Lex to get eaten by the T-Rex in one my favorite scenes of the whole entire film? She does everything you are not supposed to do when a T-Rex is approaching your vehicle and that is do not make noise and do not flash a light in it’s face. The film has everything from a Dilophosaurus to a Velociraptor and those sequences alone with those creatures are worth seeing. The action sequences are amazing, the dinosaurs themselves are amazing, but the CGI is totally obvious in the beginning part of when they first arrive at Jurassic Park when Grant sees the Brachiosaurus. The cinematography is amazing with all the shots of the island and the dinosaurs that inhabit it, but other than the CGI thing, the film was absolutely amazing and enjoyable. I cannot wait to see the rest of the series in the coming future. I am going to give Jurassic Park and A for a final grade.

Day 126: The 5TH Wave

I think I have mentioned before that I usually do not like to watch films that are based on movies, but what can you do when Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) stars in the movie. The movie that I chose for today is called The 5TH Wave and it follows a young girl named Cassie (Moretz) as she recounts each horrific wave of the alien takeover. You see one day the aliens showed up and they slowly began taking over the earth trying to eliminate the humans. All Cassie has left in the world is her little brother Sam (Zackary Arthur), but Sam was taken away by the military who said they were there to help. All Cassie wants to do is get back to Sam before it’s too late. The film also stars Gabriela Lopez (Million Dollar Arm) as Lizbeth, Nick Robinson (Jurassic World) as Ben Parish, Ron Livingston (Office Space) as Oliver Sullivan, Tony Revolori (Dope) as Dumbo, Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as Vosch, Maria Bello (Prisoners) as SGT. Reznik, Maika Monroe (It Follows) as Ringer, Talitha Bateman (Life Grows On) as Teacup, Alex Roe (The Calling) as Evan Walker, and the film was directed by J Blakeson (The Disappearance Of Alice Creed).

Most of the teen aimed book films that we have seen never deal with what has happened, you just assume that some bad things happened. This film deals with what happened and it moves through the different waves which is pretty much everyone’s fear. Giant waves as one of the waves, losing electricity to make us act like animals, and so on and so forth. I have to be perfectly honest and say that this actually wasn’t that bad of a film, it was actually pretty good. Chloë Grace Moretz was as good as you would expect her to be, but for me Maika Monroe was awesome as the bad ass chick that you don’t mess with. I had been waiting to see her in a film since I had seen her amazing performance in It Follows. The movie also has all the things you would want as far as the story is concerned with the twists (I never read the book) and the paranoia of who is human and who is an alien pretending to be human? The cinematography is great especially during the flooding scenes and the acting was very good. Now as far as a second film is concerned, I have no idea because I don’t remember if this film did well in the theaters or not to warrant a second film. I actually would love to see what happens next to our protagonists. So, I am going to recommend this film cause it’s worth at least a watch. I am going to give the film an B+ for a final grade.