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Mascots (2016)
A very fun and entertaining film.
MASCOTS is Directed by Christoper Guest and follows a bunch of different Mascots from around the world who are about to compete in the World Mascot Association Championships where the winners receive "Fluffies". If a mascot wins one of these awards it is possible that it could change their life forever.
This film is structured just like a few of Christopher Guest's other films including A MIGHTY WIND and WAITING FOR GUFFMAN. It is filmed as a documentary expect the characters are fictional.
The best part of this film is, by far, the crazy assortment of characters that we follow. From a married couple that is constantly trying to hold back their anger for each other, to a English man who wants to try and add a new routine to his families old mascot routine but keeps getting rejected by his father. These characters are hilarious to watch and follow. When you see them go through their routines in and out of the costumes you can't help but smile and, sometimes, laugh so hard you have to leave the room. The thing that makes this film really stand out is just how seriously the people involved take this competition. It seems like a really stupid thing to have a contest for the best mascot, however everyone involved treats it like a professional Football championship or the Oscars. It is so important to them and because they are pursuing their passions and their dreams you connect with them and desperately want them to do well int the competition.
Where this film needs work is it's third act, it isn't bad however the editing is a bit of a problem. NO SPOILERS but the film gets to what should be considered the climax or the final rising action leading to the climax and beings to pull focus on other moments that aren't as interesting as what is happening in other places. There is also not a lot of interaction between different mascots, which makes sense when they are involved in a competition with one another however it does leave a sense of some missed opportunities for a few more laughs.
Overall MASCOTS is a very effective comedy that has some truly hilarious moments. There are just some parts where the film just misses the opportunities to be really great.
FILM: 4/5 PERSONALLY: 4.3/5
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
A film that can be entertaining but very forgettable overall.
What is good: The turtles themselves are entertaining and they aren't as terrible as I thought they would be in terms of their look. Also some of the action is okay and some of the effects are okay but I definitely felt the best element of this film was the turtles. There is also one scene in this film where I genuinely laughed out loud but it was only 15 seconds in a film that is 1 hour and 41 minutes long.
What is bad: Megan Fox offers no emotion and no genuine interest in what is happening throughout the film. Her inability to be taken seriously as a journalist is not the problem at all, her inability to give a convincing performance is and I honestly didn't care what happened to April at all. Will Arnett in this film gives a terrible performance to create a terrible side character. Vernon, Arnett's character, is supposed to be comic relief, which doesn't make any sense because the turtles are the ones that are supposed to be funny. Having a character that is trying to get laughs, emphasis on TRYING, and also hitting on April is just a pointless character. I questioned Splinter as a character as well. His actions made no sense to me. I had the same amount of emotion in him as I did with April. The villains in this film are all poor as well. William Fichtner as an evil scientist offers nothing, the Shredder, Tohoru Masamune, is a boring robotic mess and Minae Noji as Karia is a character that has no purpose at all. The only good thing I can say about the villains is that if Shredder was actually a well rounded and interesting character then I would at least feel some sense of fear because he does look intimidating, but because there is not actual substance to him I don't fear his villainy at all.
Filming Content: The film's look is overly bright and flashy which doesn't work at all when they go down in the sewers. There is an insane amount of lens flares that just bothered me throughout the film and, aside from an entertaining action scene on a cliff side, the action in this film is very dull. The editing is really bad as well. I was able to notice how bad some of the editing was and I can forgive some of the little mistakes in films, but when mistakes are this apparent it is too much to just let go. There really is no directorial vision in this film either. It doesn't seem like one director's property. It just seems like some people in the production team where behind the scenes telling the director what they wanted. The biggest problem of this whole film aside form the actors is the terrible script. It was just copy and paste, lazy, storytelling. I laughed in disgust when shown the scene where the turtles and Splinter learned ninjutsu and how we are shown that April has a connection with the turtles and Splinter. It's absolutely annoying to hear the things that the actors say and do and it's so obvious that you are watching actors because the script's characters are just so terrible. It's also sad to think back on the film and realize after only a few hours after seeing it I barely remember anything that was done or said which is the biggest film sin of all, creating a film that is absolutely forgettable.
Overall, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a film that really has no reason to exist other than sell toys to a younger generation who will no doubt enjoy this film. Personally I didn't like this movie. Aside from the turtles and a few entertaining moments I didn't care about anyone. The editing, bad writing, and lack of direction turned me off of this film, and the actors certainly didn't help either.
Personal rating: 2/5 Film Content rating: 1.7/5 Overall: 3.7/10
The Hurt Locker (2008)
War IS a drug and The Hurt Locker has gotten me addicted.
Personal enjoyment: 5 Films Content: 5 The Hurt Locker follows a company of soldiers as they complete the last month of their tour in 2004, war torn Iraq. These brave men don't just work in the hostile terrain, they work at ground zero disarming IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) with the use of bomb suits, bots and blowing s#$% up.
The film is unlike any other war film to date. Thanks to the master full independent direction of Kathryn Bigelow, the amazing screenplay from Mark Boal, and the impressive cinematography from Barry Ackroyd, the film puts us right in the middle of an authentic looking battlefield where anything can happen. Every shot tells a story and shows a different perspective, in fact, the whole film revolves around perspective and emotion.
The Hurt Locker's main protagonist William James, (Played by the talented Jeremy Renner) is the lead bomb tech in his unit. Renner does a wonderful job of bringing a maverick sense of ego, recklessness, and emotion that he doesn't slap you in the face with. His attitude toward combat is very different from his fellow soldiers, Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (The very real Anthony Mackle) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Emotional Brian Geraghty) who are both going through their own troubles in the desert. Although the Sergeant James is the main character, Bigelow and Boal don't undermine the importance of the other actors. We see as much of them as we have to, to understand their characters and where they stand. While Eldridge is shake by the death of their previous bomb tech and is fighting to redeem himself, Sanborn shows his seriousness for the job is caused by fear and worry for what he will leave behind. Now what can be said about William? The final scene shows us that he'd rather risk his life in the sand then pick out cereal for his son and wife at home.
Something that Hurt Locker does that not a lot of war films do is it gives us a look at the lives of the Iraqi people and their interactions with the soldiers. We aren't given a propaganda piece where they are the enemy and we are the heroes, instead we see them as the observers that are curious at what is going on in their city. From the vendors in the camp to the little boy Beckham, we see the lives of these natives affected in different ways.
The use of sound in Hurt Locker is expertly done as well, building up tension when it has to and making us (or just me) cry when we need to. For the first scene we are given the best examples of what sounds the film will be giving us and what sounds we will be making (for the most part), heavy breathing, sand, light comic relief, yelling, cursing, explosions, and probably the best sound the film uses, Silence. When you combine these great sounds and the expert level cinematography you get a truly amazing piece of cinema. The best example of the camera and sound in sync is when the team breaches a building that hasn't been searched by security. As we go deeper into the building the music begins to build and build and we see, in very thorough detail, the teamwork of the soldiers and the teamwork of the film crew until everything is released. Is there a doctor in the house? This isn't the only occurrence of great filming in the movie but it is the most notable. The only thing that beats it out is when we go home with Sargent James and we see how much we really just want to go back and start the whole thing over again.
The biggest thing The Hurt Locker achieves however is not its impressive war setting or its use of suspense throughout the film or its camera and sound use, it's its real look on how deal with certain situations given to them. We see every time the team works a job how they handle the situation and how it affects them later. When Will fights to remove the locks off a non-voluntary suicide bomber, when Sanborn questions killing Will, when Eldridge speaks to his therapist about his fallen partner, they all go through hard times and they all deal with them in different ways just like other people do, and that is what we never see.
There are no story book endings, no heroic acts of valor, no stupendous expositions or transformers, no bad-ass one-liners, just a team of normal soldiers doing the job that they signed up for.
Boyhood (2014)
"Boyhood". The title says it all.
A film like this can be a very good film and sometimes it can be a disappointing film. In "Boyhood"'s case it's a very mixed situation.
Meet five year old Mason, in the course of three hours we see him grow up with a very interesting cast of characters; including the fantastic Patricia Arquette, who portrays Mason's young and troubled mother, his absent but lovable dad Ethan Hawke, and his moody, annoying yet equally lovable sister Samantha played by Lorelei Linklater.
The film benefits from its very real look on a young boy's growth throughout life. However, the realism is lost very quickly due to some very dry, and expressionless acting and delivery on certain lines from some of the supporting and main characters.
I had high hopes going into "Boyhood". The beginning is so simple and charming that it makes me look forward to the next three hours of what could be a fantastic and exciting life. I'm sorry to say what I was given after the first hour was a very slow look at some of the more uneventful and less exciting moments in his life.
This does not make "Boyhood" a bad film however. Another important benefit of "Boyhood" is its story telling and story progression. The film is able to seamlessly move from one year of Mason's life to the next. I caught myself saying, amazed at the flawless editing 'Another year down'. Unfortunately the sheer length of "Boyhood" is so painfully, yet unavoidably long that you will say "FINALLY! He's older!" P.S. Do NOT do keep track of the number of years left in the film. You will become impatient and bored VERY quickly.
My overall rating for "Boyhood" comes down to my enjoyment of the film over the content.
2.5/5 - Enjoyment 4/5 - Movie Content
The best parts of "Boyhood" are it's perfect transitions from year to year, and some of the major supporting character's fantastic performances. The negatives are the unavoidably long length of "Boyhood", the expressionless delivery of many lines and actions, and very slow scenes.
American Sniper (2014)
Griping, Powerful, Emotional, Brilliant. These were the things I was thinking as I waited for the credits to stop rolling.
I don't want to give anything away from this powerful and very real film. So I'll just bring up a few little things that hopefully won't ruin the film for you.
I read and hear about this movie. I was expecting to see a character that didn't care about people, about his country, or even about his family. I thought it was going to be a two hour film about a guy who liked to kill people. To people who say it's a film that celebrates a war hero or a man who loved to kill human beings, I have to disagree. It is not an entertaining film and it is not a horrifying film either. It is not littered with propaganda and it isn't overly dramatic about patriotism. It is simply... a story. A real story about Chris Kyle and his life as a country boy turned family man turned soldier turned "Legend".
When Chris kills a civilian while protecting his convoy and his spotter congratulates him on the kill he tells him "Don't f-----g touch me!" He's not proud of what he did. He's not proud of what he does! He has simply been trained to kill. He is doing his job. He was raised to be a strong defender for his family and now he has grown up and he needs to become a strong defender for his fellow soldiers. He has a strong sense responsibility of being the sheep dog to the sheep as his father says. Later the film really shows Chris' whole feeling towards protecting his brothers in arms. Some times though it does not have a positive affect.
In "The Hurt Locker" they say 'War is a drug'. Once you start getting involved with it you can't stop thinking about it. The same thing happens to Chris as he goes through his tours. War becomes his entire life and he can't shake off the things he has seen when he comes home after each tour. In fact these things begin to affect his relationship and his behavior and actions not just at home but overseas as well. He becomes distant, emotionless, and paranoid. This is where I saw the true heart of the film come out. It's showing us the affects war has on ordinary people.
This may be the only real review part of this review but after seeing this tale of an ordinary Texas boy turned American Patriot, I have changed my entire perspective of movies and of life. I will never forget this film and it's impact on me.
Other people can say what they want about this movie. I don't care what they think of this movie or my review. I can't really explain why I love this movie so much, I just... do. I love it. And That's my Opinion.