The film that I chose for today I have to admit was a choice that I made because of how much I loved the game show television series Legends Of The Hidden Temple which originally aired on Nickelodeon in the early to mid-1990’s. Now some 21 years later, the series is now a film and I chose it for today. All Noah (Colin Critchley) cares about on this family vacation is to prove to them that the Legend Of The Hidden Temple is a real thing. After receiving a map from the tour guide (The TV series host Kirk Fogg), he decides to enter the temple along with his two siblings. The only problem is that they have awoken the legendary Olmec (Dee Bradley Baker) who sends them on a mission to find both sides of the amulet or they are stuck in the temple forever. The film also stars Jet Jurgensmeyer (The Little Rascals Save The Day) as Dudley, Isabela Moner (Middle School: The Worst Years Of My Life) as Sadie, Michael Benyaer (Deadpool) as Human version of Olmec, Daniel Cudmore (X-Men: Days Of Future Past) as Thak, Ioan Sebastian Tirlui (The Birth Of Venus) as Zuma, Catia Ojeda (30 Rock) as Mom, David Michie (Halloween) as Dad, and the film was directed by Joe Menendez (12 Monkeys).
The film is only an hour and five minutes long which is kind of an ode to the old days of film that was like that, but it’s an enjoyable film. The film kind of reminds me of The Goonies, but with Aztec stories and adventure. I wasn’t sure how they were going to handle a film version considering that it was a game show before, but the writing department deserves some kudos because they pulled it off. The only thing is that at times they stop too much to explain every little thing, but it’s not too big of an issue. It kind of helps as far as driving the story forward. One thing that I think could have been better is this dramatic scene between Noah and his sister Sadie in the shrine of the silver monkey. It was just a little too over-dramatic for my tastes. One thing that was funny about that sequence is that everyone had a hard time putting the silver monkey together on the game show and everyone does in the film as well. A funny nod to the struggles of putting that darn thing together. If you ever watched the TV series then you know the set design was going to be off the hook which it definitely was. The costumes for the ancient warriors were great and I love the odes to the series they throw in there like the T-shirt Noah wears once he is in the temple. I also loved the fact that they had the original voice of Olmec and the host himself Kirk Fogg in the film to give it that nostalgic feeling. This is definitely one that the kids should enjoy and if you get a chance, make them familiar with the TV series as well. The film is available on Nick.com and obviously on-demand. I am going to give the film an A- for a final grade.
When I first heard about the film Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, I was excited to see it because of the acronym WTF. So it’s safe to say that I thought this would be a laugh out loud comedy considering it stars Tina Fey (Sisters). Fey stars as Kim Baker, a desk jockey at a news station that takes a job in Afghanistan to try and see if she can change her life or the better. What she doesn’t account for is all the difficult choices she’ll have to make when she is over there from dealing with relationships, the culture differences, and other war time journalists. The film also stars Margot Robbie (The Wolf Of Wall Street) as Tanya Vanderpoel, Martin Freeman (Captain America: Civil War) as Iain MacKelpie, Alfred Molina (Raiders Of The Lost Arc) as Ali Massoud Sadiq, Christopher Abbott (A Most Violent Year) as Fahim Ahmadzai, Billy Bob Thornton (Bad Santa) as General Hollanek, Nicholas Braun (How To Be Single) as Tall Brian, Stephen Peacocke (Me Before You) as Nic, Evan Jonigkeit (X-Men: Days Of Future Past) as Specialist Coughlin, Josh Charles (Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitters Dead) as Chris, Sheila Vand (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night) as Shakira Khar, and the film was directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa.
As I said above, I originally thought that the film was going to be a laugh out loud comedy, but what I didn’t expect from it was all the drama. It’s kind of a very serious movie especially for Tina Fey’s character who is on a journey of discovery. She feels as though that she has wasted too much time in her life and she feels that she should be able to do so much more. That is essentially why she takes the job in Afghanistan because otherwise you’d have to be crazy to do so. Margot Robbie who’ll be playing Harley Quinn this summer in Suicide Squad looked fantastic in the film and she actually does a good job with the role she was given. Martin Freeman was a very good addition to the film as he made the film more interesting. The cinematography was great in the film even though the story could have been a little bit better in my opinion. I get that the film had some elements of feminism in the film in the form of empowering women considering it takes place in a country that does not allow women to do much. You can’t really watch the film for anything else other than that. It’s a decent film that you can afford to watch once and call it a day. I am going to give the film an B- for a final grade.
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.
I am a huge fan of Disney Pixar animation as they seem to get it right almost every single time they come out with a film. With that being said, I had to check out their latest offering The Good Dinosaur (to which I am surprised it wasn’t nominated for an oscar). In a world where Dinosaurs live among the humans, a Apatosaurus named Arlo (Raymond Ochoa) is just trying to figure out what his place is among his family. Every single member of his family seems to know what there purpose is except for the skiddish and smaller Arlo. One day after the death of his father, Arlo goes after a human named Spot (Jack Bright) who Arlo feels is responsible. While he is going after him, the two end up getting lost and they have to stick together if they want to find their way back home and that means figuring out who he really is deep inside for Arlo. The film also stars Jeffrey Wright (Boardwalk Empire) as Poppa, Frances McDormand (Fargo) as Momma, Marcus Scribner (Black-ish) as Buck, Maleah Nipay-Padilla (Fruitvale Station) as Libby, Steve Zahn (Dallas Buyers Club) as Thunderclap, A.J. Buckley (Happy Feet) as Nash, Anna Paquin (X-Men: Days Of Future Past) as Ramsey, Sam Elliot (Tombstone) as Butch, and the film was directed by Peter Sohn (who also voices Pet Collector).
I want to start this paragraph by saying that there is always a character that helps drive these children’s animated films. They are the characters that children always laugh at because they are the comedic relief like Tow Mater in Cars, the Minions in Despicable Me, and so on and so forth. In this film, Spot is that character that helps drive the film forward and is the comedic relief. Without him, I don’t think the film would be as awesome as it was. It would be a great tear jerking story, but he makes it incredible. He is so essential to the story that Arlo couldn’t grow up and find who he was without him. There are so many great appearances in this film like a family of T-Rex’s voiced by Paquin and Elliot or Zahn who is brilliant as the pterodactyl Thunderclap. The film also features some incredible animation that I was blown away by how far we have come. When they do close ups of Arlo, you can see all the detail in his scales along with the bruises and anything else. Even the details in the river are amazing especially when it floods. Again, I don’t know why this film wasn’t nominated for an Oscar, but it certainly deserved a nod at least. It’s truly a film that is full of adventure and it even pulls on your heart strings like any great Disney film would. If you are a fan of animated films, then do yourself a favor and check out The Good Dinosaur. So with that being said, I am going to give this film an A- for a final grade.
There are things that I am a huge fan of with one being that I am a fan of Kurt Russell and the second thing is creativity. That is exactly what you get with the film Bone Tomahawk which stars Russell as a sheriff in this wild west/horror style film. Everything is normal in a small frontier town until a drifter (David Arquette) mysteriously shows up. What follows is something unholy as a deputy, a doctor, and the drifter are kidnapped by cannibalistic Indians. So, the Sheriff (Russell), the back up deputy (Richard Jenkins), A sharpshooter (Matthew Fox), and the doctor’s husband (Patrick Wilson) who happens to be a cripple, go on the journey to rescue all of them before they are eaten by the savages. The film also stars Lili Simmons (Banshee) as Samantha the doctor, Evan Jonigkeit (X-Men: Days Of Future Past) as Deputy Nick, Sid Haig (House Of 1000 Corpses) as Buddy, Maestro Harrell (The Promotion) as Gizzard, James Tolkan (Back To The Future) as Pianist, Kathryn Morris (A.I. Artificial Intelligence) as Mrs. Hunt, Zahn McClarnon (Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron) as the professor, Sean Young (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) as Mrs. Porter, and the film was written and directed by S. Craig Zahler.
This is definitely one of the most unique westerns I have ever seen in my life besides Cowboys & Aliens. When I said I liked creativity, this was exactly what I was talking about because I had been trying to develop a western that was also a horror film. I am just glad that someone finally did it and did it well. The film has some real brutal scenes like a body splitting scene that you will see as the cannibals are pretty brutal and cool looking as well. thing that gets me is they look like they belong somewhere else in the world and not in the wild west. Nevertheless, the film starts out like a western film where it takes time to develop the story and then as soon as they get close that is when all the good stuff starts to happen. Kurt Russell was as good as expected and this has me excited to see him The Hateful 8. The other star of the film is Patrick Wilson who as I said is a cripple trying his best to save his wife before it’s too late. Yes, its the stereotypical kind of story, but it works in this film and you feel for this character. You want him to succeed and you want him to get to his wife (plus his wife is super hot). If you’re a fan of cannibals, westerns, horror films, and Kurt Russell then check out this film. I am going to give the film an A- for a final grade.
365moviesin365dayschallenge 