One of the most controversial filmmakers in Hollywood has always been Oliver Stone who has tackled topics like the assassination of John Kennedy (JFK), 911 (World Trade Center), and insider trading (Wall Street) to name a few. Now he returns with a new film about one of the most controversial figures today in the film Snowden. Snowden tells the tale of former CIA and NSA operative Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a man who exposed the United States Government for spying on it’s own people without warrants as he distributed the proof to the press. The film follows Snowden from how he got his start in the intelligence field to the struggles he dealt with when he got too deep into what was happening. The film also stars Shailene Woodley (The Fault In Our Stars) as Lindsey Mills, Zachary Quinto (Star Trek) as Glenn Greenwald, Melissa Leo (Red State) as Laura Poitras, Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man) as Corbin O’Brian, Robert Firth (Guardians Of The Galaxy) as Dr. Stillwell, Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins) as Ewen MacAskill, Timothy Olyphant (Rock Star) as CIA Agent Geneva, Scott Eastwood (Fury) as Trevor James, Keith Lakeith (Straight Outta Compton) as Patrick Haynes, Ben Chaplin (Thin Red Line) as Robert Tibbo, Bhasker Patel (Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom) as Marwan Al-Kirmani, and Nicolas Cage (Drive Angry) as Hank Forrester.
I have to be honest in saying that I wasn’t really aware of what it was that Edward Snowden was being accused of, but what ever it was he was being called either a traitor or hero. The one thing that I can say about him after watching this film is that he should be considered a hero. The United States government shouldn’t be allowed to pry in your life unless they have a warrant. According to the film, they were bypassing all of it by claiming that there were secret warrants so that they wouldn’t tip off the “Threats”. Now as far as the films is concerned I thought the film was alright in my opinion. It just runs a little too slow for my liking at times and there is a lot of computer jargon that the average person will not understand in it. Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a terrific job in the film as Edward Snowden and he even changes his voice to sound more like him. Shailene Woodley actually does a great job too and she even shows off some of her assets in the film which was a change for her. She does a great job being the perfect balance between the nerdiness and what is real in life. Now the beginning of the film claims that this is a dramatization so how much of it is true, I am not completely sure. I am actually interested to see what is fact and/or fiction. There are some thrills and suspense in the film as you wonder if he’s going to get caught, but we all know how the story ends. The film even features a cameo from the real Edward Snowden so look for that if you choose to see this. I am going to give the film an A- and I am doing this because I thought it was a good film (which is the same as alright), but I am just not into the computer jargon.
When I was growing up, I was a fan of DC especially Superman and Batman, but it was one faithful Saturday morning in the early 90’s tat changed everything. The X-Men cartoon quickly turned me from a DC to Marvel fan and that was that. So, it’s safe to say that I was super excited about today’s film X-Men: Apocalypse. The world is a lot different in the 80’s following the events of X-Men: Days Of Future Past as almost everyone has gone their separate ways. Unfortunately for mutants all over the world, the very first mutant ever En Sabah Nur (Oscar Isaac) otherwise known as Apocalypse has awoken from a deep sleep is displeased with the way the world has evolved. Apocalypse plans to destroy the world forcing the X-Men to finally reunite in order to destroy him. The film also stars James McAvoy (Wanted) as Professor Xavier, Michael Fassbender (Prometheus) as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games) as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Beast, Rose Byrne (Neighbors 2) as Moira Mactaggert, Evan Peters (American Horror Story) as Quicksilver, Sophie Turner (Game Of Thrones) as Jean Grey, Tye Sheridan (Mud) as Cyclops, Lucas Till (Walk The Line) as Havok, 
I am going to start this paragraph by giving you a spoiler alert because if you haven’t seen the film by now then stop reading ahead for fear of spoiling any details for you. As far as the film is concerned, I actually really liked the film. It’s not the greatest superhero movie out there, but in my opinion it was a lot of fun. It was like seeing a comic book unfold before your very eyes and how can you not love seeing them in the 80’s? I was just excited to see Jubilee finally on screen, but I sort of wish that they had done more with her if you ask me. Oscar Isaac was well he’s Oscar Isaac! The guy can go from playing the hero Poe Dameron in Star Wars to playing the villain in X-Men. He is such an amazing actor with so much talent. One of the exciting moments of the film was seeing Hugh Jackman as the Weapon X version of Wolverine in the film when they go to Strikers facility to rescue the other X-Men. I have to say that when the X-Men do a battle they do it right because the battle against Apocalypse and his horseman was pretty killer. Evan Peters and his Quicksilver was an awesome comedic relief for the film where I think I finally accepted him as Quicksilver. I left the theater in a very good mood and that is the sign of how I felt about a film. One thing I want to comment about is that I know the film is rated PG-13, but this film had to be a borderline R rated film just due to the content. Oh and stick around till the very end of the film cause they possibly set up a future film. I am going to give X-Men: Apocalypse an A- for a final grade.
Has there ever been a time that when you first saw a poster of a car with a bulletproof vest on that it didn’t make you curious as to what the heck the film was about? That is the exact feeling I had when I first the poster for Keanu displayed at my local theater chain. The film stars Jordan Peele (Key And Peele) as slacker Rell Williams, a man who was just dumped by his girlfriend and is hating life. That is until an adorable kitten shows up at his doorstep and gives him a whole new outlook and lease on life. One day while out his cousin Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key), he comes home to find his apartment broken into and Keanu is missing. Now with his cat missing, he will stop at nothing to find his dear sweet friend and bring him back home safely even if it means mixing it up with a gang. The film also stars Method Man (How High) as Cheddar, Tiffany Haddish (Meet The Spartans) as Hi-C, Darrell Britt-Gibson (Squatters) as Trunk, Jason Mitchell (Straight Outta Compton) as Bud, Jamar Malachi Neighbors (Underbelly Blues) as Stitches, Luis Guzman (Carlito’s Way) as Bacon, Will Forte (MacGruber) as Hulka, Nia Long (Friday) as Hannah, and the film was directed by Peter Atencio.
I can’t begin to tell you how pleasantly surprised I was at how awesome of a movie this was. I was going into it thinking that this could be complete crap, but I left still laughing at some of the scenes I had just witnessed in the film. This is a perfect example of a nerd comedy where we are laughing with them with the pop culture references and their take on racial weirdness. If you loved what they did on their show Key and Peele, then there is no reason why you wouldn’t love this film. One of the examples of the racial weirdness would be the part when Peele tells Key that he sounds like Richard Pryor making fun of white people and Key tells Peele that he sounds like John Ritter. That is until they fall into the criminal world where they pretend to act like tough African American Gangsters. Oh and Key’s character is obsessed with George Michaels which doesn’t get anymore white than that. Although, I loved the scene where Key is going through a trip ad he’s in a George Michaels video. One of the highlights of the film is Kenau, I mean let’s not lie he is so adorable. There is a special cameo in this film that I won’t mention who, but I think you can figure it out. I was so happy to see Jason Mitchell who in my opinion had the breakout performance in Straight Outta Compton as Eazy-E does a terrific job as Bud in this film. I was a big fan of the film and think this is one that you should check out. I am going to give the comedy an A- for a final grade because they take their style of sketch comedy and they made it work as a film.
365moviesin365dayschallenge 