Frozen vs. Tangled Double Movie Review!

Tangled and Frozen are the two big movies that are having a fight to the death all over the internet right now. Some people think Frozen is an improved version of Tangled, while others think Frozen is just Tangled and Wicked covered in ice. Frozen and Tangled are very similar, but that's not a bad thing. Both movies were made by the same major film company and were made by the same production team. So of course there are going to be repeating elements and themes in both movies. Fair warning, there will be SPOILERS so don't read any further if you haven't seen either movie. You'll love them both if you're a Disney fan, so go watch them! Shoo-shoo!

Full Metal Jacket Movie Review

Full Metal Jacket; Kubrick's 1987 war movie. The first half of the movie, the story arch all taking place at the boot camp, is really good. I think it would make a really strong short film on its own. But I think Hollywood told Kubrick “No! We want a movie long enough to have a theatrical release so we can make money! Add more to it! Chop, chop!” That’s what the rest of the movie basically feels like. It’s kind of a bloody mess. Yeah, the Vietnam War was a bloody mess, but the movie doesn’t really accurately convey that. A lot of the soldiers are portrayed as horny psychopaths, as if it’s saying all of the soldiers in Vietnam lost their humanity and became total monsters. Yes, I’m sure a lot of them did, but not all soldiers become serial killing rapists. If you compare it to other war movies, they often show the pain soldiers go through and the trauma they experience in killing people and seeing their friends die. This movie seems to think soldiers all just go insane and end up actually enjoying killing people. This is neither accurate nor is it particularly respectful to Vietnam veterans. It's basically how the American public viewed the soldiers fighting in Vietnam. To me, it’s another very basic movie about how war is bad. Yeah, everyone knows that, would you like to add more to that message? Or expand on it a little? No? Okay, pointless violence it is then. I would only recommend it if you’re a hard core Kubrick fan and just want to say you’ve seen all of his movies. Or if you like violent war movies in general and don't want to watch one that tries to tug at your heart strings, then this is for you. 6/10

Across the Universe Movie Review

Across the Universe is a 2007 film directed by Julie Taymor. It stars Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess, with a very random appearance by Eddie Izzard. The film is basically the director’s favorite Beatles songs with a poorly constructed story written around them. The movie is about a couple living in the war torn 1960’s who sing Beatles songs with their friends. There are moments where there is potential for good character development, but then they sing a song and it stops that moment dead in its tracks. If there was less singing and more story-telling, the story would have more room to breathe. I would only recommend it to Beatles fans, but maybe not even then because they may not agree with the composition of the songs. The songs are well done and the visuals for the song numbers are really good. I personally enjoy it as a two hour long music video/tribute to the Beatles and 1960's culture. So if you’re a fan of musicals with cool visual effects and you don’t mind a choppy story line, then I would recommend it. 7/10

Daybreakers Movie Review

Daybreakers is a 2009 film by the Spierig Brothers and starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Sam Neill. This movie has a cool concept, but poor execution and a couple of plot holes. Also, very boring characters. How do you make Willem Dafoe boring? Seriously! Daybreakers is a post-apocalyptic film about vampires who have completely taken over the world and have nearly wiped out the entire human race. Because of this, the remaining humans have to be farmed for their blood, causing a shortage, and the vampires are starving. Willem Dafoe's character, Elvis, claims he has a cure for Vampirism and the plot ensues.

I think this movie is an acquired taste. It does have a cool concept and it kept me interested to see how it would end. However, Ethan Hawke's "every-man" sympathetic character was a boring person to have to follow. The "token chick" is forgettable and Willem Dafoe isn't "Dafoe-y" enough. 

I give the film some points for a creative story that hasn't been done with vampires before. So if the plot summary peeked your interest, give it a watch and see what you think. I find that most people are pretty mixed about this movie. Some love it, some hate it. I would give it a 6/10

Looper Movie Review

Looper is a 2012 film directed by Rian Johnson. It is a time-travel, sci-fi movie that takes place in the year of 2044, 30 years before time travel is invented. Our main character is Joe (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt from Inception and The Dark Knight Rises), who is a Looper. A Looper is someone who kills criminals in a remote area, who are sent back to him from 30 years in the future. It is impossible to get away with murder in the future so criminals sneak whoever they want to murder into the past where their bodies can't be found. Everything is going great for Joe until his future self (Bruce Willis) is sent back to him to kill.
This is one of those movies where if you miss a second you will be lost during the rest of the movie. Fortunately, it's a very engaging movie and will keep your attention throughout. It's really exciting and has really cool action scenes. The pacing is really steady to where you don't miss any important details and can keep up with the rules of Johnson's time travel universe.
If you're someone who's nit-picky and likes to dive into the meta-physics of time travel, you're either going to give yourself a headache or enjoy picking this movie apart. It's definitely a film I would recommend to sci-fi fans.
As I said, the story is engaging, and all of the characters are amazingly developed where they are believably realistic. The actors all dive into their roles, especially one young actor named Pierce Gagnon who plays Cid. He plays one of those child characters that has an old soul quality about him. Sometimes kid characters like this in movies are played off as just smarter than the adult characters and don't act like real kids. Gagnon on the other hand is still impressionable and emotionally vulnerable, but still has a presence that suggests he isn't an ordinary kid. 
The elements that really stand out is the pacing, the action, the awesome characters, and the entertaining story. If you love sci-fi, action, and well written screenplays, go check it out and let me know in the comments what you think and how it compares to your favorite sci-fi movie! I give this movie 9/10

Bridesmaids Movie Review

Bridesmaids is a 2011 comedy directed by Paul Feig and starring Kristen Wiig. I don’t care who you are, this movie was awful. It wasn’t funny or cute. It was awkward and annoying. I mostly blame the main character. She is an annoying jackass. She might be a little insane too, and not in a good way. She has temper tantrums of a five year old, she’s insecure and self-conscious but constantly embarrasses herself in front of crowds for attention, treats nice guys like crap, gets drunk on a plane and ruins her best friend’s bachelorette party, and she is NOT funny! The only character who made me laugh was Megan, played by Melissa McCarthy. She’s awesome. You know why? She wasn’t beating herself up over every little thing! She enjoys life and is likeable because of her positive attitude. I’m sick of the insecure prick being the main character of chick flicks because Hollywood thinks women only want to relate and identify with the pathetic sap than a woman who has her life together. Sure, making her a little insecure is fine, that’s realistic when done right. Making her an intolerable, whiny child is not. I get the message, which is "get back up when life gets you down." It's not a bad lesson, and I see why they make the character such a push over, so that she will learn that lesson in the end, and she does. But the journey to get there with her character is not a fun one. She doesn't have that many redeemable qualities that makes us root for her. 
The title is a bit misleading too. The movie is only about one bridesmaid. The other bridesmaids don't get much of an arch and we don't get to know them that well. I think this movie would be approved by just having it be about all of the bridesmaids playing off of each other and create characters and jokes that way.
I would recommend this movie if you like chick flicks with gross-out humor and people screaming at each other. 5/10