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Mike's Movie Reviews #14: Grindhouse

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 02:48:28 GMT

Let me go ahead and start off with saying that this is an amazing experience, more of one than most movies that are made these days.

That being said, realize that these two movies, Planet Terror and Deathproof both, will fill you with such morbid and blood-loving glee that you will walk out of the theater with a spring in your step and a gleam in your eye.

Planet Terror, a wonderful rendition of zombie magic, creates sickening, undead feasting, gun-toting bliss in the viewer. Over the top action and supreme Hollywood action absurdity make it so you never forget why you love to see dead people die more.

Deathproof will make you want to drive a car really fast and hit something hard. I'm not saying that you will want to go kill people with your car and create havoc on the roadway, but it will elicit terrible urges deep inside you that have wheels.

After all that, you would think that I had covered all the greatness that was Grindhouse, but you would be completely wrong. One of the most beautiful things about the event, as I like to call it, are the amazing previews they show as part of the whole show. I won't give away the titles or plots of any of the fantastic movies they talk about, but let me assure you that they will create euphoria and sensitivity of the nipples.

Overall, Grindhouse was AWESOME!

Mike's Movie Reviews #13: Pursuit of Happyness

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 06:08:32 GMT

Pursuit of Happyness is inspired by a true story about a pseudo-celebrity in the Stock Brokering business. Will Smith plays the lead role, with Thandie Newton playing opposite him, and Will Smith's son Jaden playing his son in the movie.

So he goes through the movie experiences one hardship after another with charisma and determination, vowing to the world to take care of his son no matter what, and of course he pulls it off. This movie is all about inspiration and warming hearts, and I think it does a pretty good job.

I mean, the movie is Will Smith being a good dad and a charming working black man breaking into this rich white guy world, but seriously, if you're going to pick an actor to be a black guy, is it Will Smith? The Fresh Prince of Bel-air. Don't get me wrong, I like the guy, I think he's a good actor and funny, not the best rapper, but whatever.

It's a good movie, rent it and maybe tear up a little bit.

Mike's Movie Reviews #12: 300

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:39:08 GMT

For those of you who haven't gone to the movie theater and seen 300, you're wrong. I will let that sink in.

The movie is about the historic battle at Thermopylae, and it is amazing. This is definitely my new favorite movie, if not the coolest movie I have ever seen.

The fight scenes were epic and vivid, showing every strike in the fore- and background. The landscapes looked like they were painted by master artisans and these Spartans placed there by the gods.

There is literally nothing about this movie I didn't like, besides the fact that it ended.

Mike's Movie Reviews #11: Harsh Times

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:06:00 GMT

I got this movie from work, since I have been wanting to see it since the first time I saw the trailers. The reason I was so pumped about seeing this movie is one scene in a trailer where Christian Bale says, "I'm a soldier of the Apocalypse." Things like that get me ready for battle.

The movie is pretty much about this soldier who comes back from Iraq looking for work, this guy being Christian Bale. He is very damaged goods, and the entire movie is about him spiraling out of control.

One thing I can say for certainly is that this movie is quality. It was very different than I expected, since I thought it was going to be about Christian Bale's character being a gang enforcer or something, which isn't the case. Really, the movie is about psychological damage, and how to deal with the real world when you don't have someone running your life for you.

Mike's Movie Reviews #10: Stranger than Fiction

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 01:18:30 GMT

Stranger than Fiction is a movie about a man named Harold Crick, who has somehow become the main character in a story written by author Karen Eiffel. He begins to realize how dull his life is when he is informed that his death is imminent.

The movie is wonderfully written and everything falls into place perfectly. Will Ferrell actually did a really good job, which surprised me, considering the fact that most of his roles don't include much depth to them(Frank the Tank). Fortunately, he played his part to perfection and made Harold Crick a very sympathetic character.

Mike's Movie Reviews #9: the Departed

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:20:54 GMT

The movie is about an undercover cop infiltrating a mafia organization while a mole within the law enforcement agency on the case tries to keep his identity secret.

It is a well-crafted crime movie with great rawness of character. All of the actors in the movie do an amazing job in their roles and the writing in the movie is some of the best I've experienced in a while. Pretty much everything involved with movie is among the best of its kind.

Mike's Movie Reviews #8: Half Nelson

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:10:03 GMT

Alright, so Half Nelson is pretty much about a teacher in the inner city who has a wild approach to teaching and forms a special bond with one of his students. He also is semi-confrontational with a drug dealer.

So my opinion of the movie: awesome. It's beautifully dark and tragic, and wonderfully written. I love dark and brooding movies.

Anyhow, it's an amazing movie, and everyone who likes movies should watch it.

Mike's Movie Reviews #7: Ghost Rider

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 04:16:51 GMT

Ghost Rider is a movie based off of a comic book, first off, so it falls into a category of movies that is very hit/miss.

The movie is about Nicolas Cage's character Johnny Blaze, who makes a deal with the Devil. So he becomes the Ghost Rider, a spirit who works for the Devil collecting damned souls. So he rides about on a motorcycle with his head on fire staring at criminals and hitting people with chains, like in the comics.

Eva Mendes is hot, but most of the acting in the movie was pretty bad, which is pretty much what I expect from Nicolas Cage nowadays. Seriously, Johnny and Roxie are supposed to be around the same age, does this movie really intend for the audience to believe that Cage and Mendes are the same age? Cage is old, and looks old, and acts young.

Alright, so pretty much what I'm saying is that if you like Ghost Rider, you'll probably like this movie. If you like Cage, you'll probably like this movie. If you like movies, you probably won't like this movie very much, since it's not really a great one.

Mike's Movie Reviews #6: The Marine

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 07:15:44 GMT

So here I am watching the Marine, this most wondrous of action movies is brought to us by the WWE and John Cena, championship professional wrestler. See, I thought that it would be a typical action movie with bad acting and decent fighting, explosions and chase scenes.

What I didn't expect was the amazingly bad performance in the role of John Triton, good-hearted ex-marine with no respect for authority and nothing to lose. Yeah, I know, you're heard that before. It's called an action movie.

I didn't expect much from this movie, and thank goodness, I wasn't disappointed. He hit stuff, he blew stuff up, and he did it with ATTITUDE!

Mike's Movie Reviews #5: The Prestige

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 08:47:55 GMT

I finished watching the Prestige, and I can definitely say that it is a spellbinding movie. The writing is phenomenal and the actors do a great job in their roles. I am never disappointed in Michael Caine or Christian Bale, and Hugh Jackman made me very happy with his performance.

edit: The movie is about 2 magicians who develop a fierce rivalry with one another, always trying to sabotage the other's magic acts and humiliate him.

Now I know some people say they figure out the plot twist early in the movie, trying to impress others with their skill in mystery unraveling, but I can say with certainty and sincerity that I had a pretty good bead on what was going on before the movie seemed to want the audience to start figuring it out. I know that movies like this want you to watch it a couple of times to be able to navigate the twists and turns in the plot. but I can honestly say that I don't need to.

I'm not saying this in a negative way, I think the movie was amazing. I'm just saying that the writing wasn't as obfuscating as it could have been, which isn't to say that the ending wasn't nice and mysterious. I thought the way that they put all the secrets together was very cool, and I'm a huge fan of the whole rivalry/revenge angle.

Also, I love David Bowie.

Mike's Movie Reviews #4: Hollywoodland

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 10:00:55 GMT

So I just finished watching this movie, and I am very impressed. Depressed and Impressed. I was never really interested in learning about George Reeves' life until now, but it seems like he might have been a fairly tragic figure.

It's hard to think about the man who played Superman without some amount of transference from the character itself and it must have been that very fact that contributed to the events that ended his life.

Overall, I would say that this movie is very good, very sad, and definitely worth watching. I don't know how accurate the movie's portrayal of events is, but then again, I don't really care. All I know is that the movie was engrossing and gave me the impression that tale being told was one that some people were genuinely interested in. Maybe I'm wrong here, but Superman is a very American character, and the end of George Reeves seems to be very American. Sad and self-made.

Mike's Movie Reviews #3: Lucky Number Slevin

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 07:39:25 GMT

Ok, so to be fair, I saw this movie awhile ago, but considering the fact that I just started doing these movie reviews, I felt that I should probably review this movie, considering much I enjoyed it.

If you like action movies with more going for them than explosions and one-liners, then this one you should probably check out. Before I saw this movie, my opinion of Josh Hartnett was abysmally low. However, after I experienced this wonderful event of film, I did a complete 180. With a couple of exceptions, I think everyone who actually had a line in the movie did a great job. On top of that, the writing was good, and the storyline was amazing. The twists made me appreciate the movie more every time I see it and add a depth of complexity to the movie that takes it out of the Action genre straight into Amazing.

If I had a rating system, this would get all of the bits.

Mike's Movie Reviews #2: Alien Quadrilogy

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 06:52:56 GMT

So I finished watching the special versions of all four of the Alien movies, and I must say that I don't know if they were real improvements over the theatrical releases. There were a few deleted scenes added into each movie, but as the directors of each movie said, the theatrical releases were pretty much what they wanted from the movies.

I had forgotten a lot of what I liked about Alien, Alien 3, and Alien Resurrection, and even though all of the movies had different directors, there were certain elements that connected all the movies together with each other. I know, they all had aliens in them, but it was more than that. It was a certain savagery of the human beings involved.

As each person is confronted with by the xenomorph, they seem to come up against a part of themselves that is brought out by violence. Their animal natures come to the forefront as their fight or flight drives kick in.

But more importantly, lots of people died.

Mike's Movie Reviews #1: The Gathering

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 15:30:26 GMT

So I just finished watching "The Gathering," with Christina Ricci, and I must say that nothing in my life has changed. I'm not saying that the movie was bad, because it wasn't. Saying the movie was bad would give it a lot more of my energy than it deserved. It was simply unremarkable. I like Ricci, I think she's a sweetheart, but she just didn't seem to pop out in this movie.

The originality of this horror movie shines through as the best reason to see it that I can find. I liked the idea, so it has that going for it. The acting was fairly standard and the writing was average.

New sites!

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 06:08:25 GMT

Just starting the greatness!