Django Unchained - Written Review

Quentin Tarantino throws his name on a lot of movies to help promote them.  I'll be the first to say that most of those movies are pretty lame.  Dare I mention that pile of random horse crap - The Man with the Iron Fists.  Quentin does, of course, have his own movies which always have a star-studded cast.  He's well known for his uniqueness in his films and has garner quite a fanbase.  Most of his movies are considered cult classics.  And it looks like that may be what lies in store for his most recent film - Django Unchained.

The D is silent

What is Django Unchained?  It's the story about how a black slave in 1858 is given his freedom and becomes a bounty hunter.  He quests to find and rescue his wife who was sold to a separate owner than him.  Not a bad premise really.  I'll be honest: I'm not a huge Tarantino fan.  That's not to say I don't like Quentin's work.  I'm really neither here nor there.  I find his movies are very gratuitous when it comes to violence and gore.  But in some cases it makes sense and is appropriate to the situation.  Sometimes.  As for Django, it takes place in the 1850's old west and deep south.  Guns and violence were a way of life.  So in this particular movie Quentin's signature violence wasn't remotely out of place.  Although the violence is so over the top violence to the point it's like watching a Looney Tunes cartoon. 

Apparently humans are filled with jelly under high pressure and pop easily

Aside from that, this movie was actually quite enjoyable as a comedy/drama/satire period piece.  The funny parts were funny, the dramatic parts were dramatic.  Very well directed by Quentin.  The directing, the editing, the timing, the pacing, the acting...overall this movie was very good.  I've heard some complaints that this movie uses the N word far too much.  I respect that Quentin didn't puss out on that actually.  Why?  Because if you're going to make an actual period piece you have to be true to that period.  People referred to African-Americans as the N word back then.  Everyone did.  It was the socially accepted norm.  So props to Quentin for being authentic.

Do you know...what time it is?

In conclusion, this movie was very a good movie.  It's well directed, the story is interesting, the characters are fun, and it was well written.  The casting for this movie was perfect as well.  Leonardo DiCaprio is incredible.  Christoph Waltz is awesome.  It's hard to tell who is the best actor in this movie.  As a dramatic comedy set in the Antebellum era of the deep south it's good fun.  The most important part of this movie is that it doesn't take itself too seriously.  It knows it's a satire and plays itself as such.  In my opinion it's Quentin's best movie so far.  And that's coming from a guy who's a big anime fan who's seen Kill Bill 1 and 2 (I was an even bigger anime fan when those movies came out).

Film Crazy Adam approves and recommends this movie.

Pacific Rim - New Trailer

Giant robots vs. alien monsters.  Need I say more?  This is a movie about aliens invading from a portal in the ocean and humans fighting back with remote controlled giant robots.  This...could...be...epic.  It WILL be awesome.  Why?  Refer to first sentence in this paragraph.  Also, I know I'm hearing GLaDOS from the Portal games in this trailer.  Makes me hungry for some cake.  1 question: why is called Pacific Rim?  Of all the things you could've named this movie...Pacific Rim?  Really?

Looper - Written Review

Time travel is always an interesting subject to theorize about.  Being able to go back and fix a stupid decision you once made.  We'd all love the chance to fix those mistakes.  So far the closest we've come to something like that is visualizing the possibilities in film.  The problem with these movies is since there are no clearly defined laws that govern time travel the screenwriter can make up anything he wants.  This often times leads to audience yelling "oh, come on!" when things don't work as expected.  Is that how it worked in Looper?

How does it feel to be inside you?

First off this movie didn't have a lot setting it up.  The trailer only spoke of a future where people are sent back in time to be executed by people in the present.  And our main character encounters his older self when he is sent back in time to be killed by himself.  That's an idea.  An interesting idea, but it's not a story.  So right off the bat I'm going into this movie pretty much blind.  The reason why he encounters himself: Loopers, as they're called, are contracted by the future mob to be at a place and time to receive and execute these people for money.  Part of the contract entails that their last "job" is to execute their future selves.  Right away I ask: why?  I can think of a dozen ways to "end" a contract that doesn't entail you killing yourself.  Because with foreknowledge that you're going to eventually be caught and sent back in time to be killed, you'd think people would try to change history to avoid this.  And that's what some people do, which causes problems in the present.

La, la, la.  I hear nothing.

In terms of story, Looper has quite a few plot holes, like the one pointed out above.  Most of the plot holes are time paradoxes...which Film Crazy Adam does not approve of.  This movie runs on the "changes don't happen in the future until the second it happens in the present."  It's very...well, bull sh*t.  Example: a guy from the future loses both his feet and forearms when they are removed from the same person in the present.  Right there he shouldn't've been able to run away from himself when he was sent back in time because technically he hasn't had the necessary appendages to escape himself in the first place for the past 30 years.  But instead of that, he's on the run and only looses one body part at a time as his present self looses them.  It doesn't make any sense.  In fact, the whole movie culminates in a deus ex machina paradox.  It's really convoluted and contrived.  Also for the first half of this movie I have no idea what the point is.  Where is the goal?  The quest?  What is the main character working towards?  Where are we going in this story?

I should stop talking to myself.  People will think I'm crazy.

In conclusion, while Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are ALWAYS awesome, this movie really suffered from ginormous plot holes.  Things don't make sense in this movie and, I don't know about most of you, but it bugged the sh*t out of me.  Screw creative license when you're just going to pull bullsh*t out of your ass.  There actually is a plot in here.  But ultimately it makes about as much sense as a screen door on a submarine.

Film Crazy Adam doesn't recommend this movie...unless you just want to see the same person argue with himself for a couple short scenes.  It is humorous.  But hardly worth watching a whole movie for.

End of Watch - Written Review

Let it not be said that Film Crazy Adam doesn't step outside his preference zone for his viewers.  "Found-footage" movies are not my thing for a number of reasons.  For the record, this movie was able to screw-up the concept of found-footage.  And not for nothing, the shaky cam was distracting as hell and annoyed me to no end.  I'm going on about the technical aspect of the film and haven't focused on the story itself.  But such is the nature of all found-footage movies.  It's not what they're filming, but the way it's filmed.  In this case it's the film End of Watch.

No actual watches were harmed in the filming of this movie.

The film focuses on 2 LAPD police officers who, through excellent intuition and detective skills, end up getting in too deep and get into some serious trouble.  Now I am not an LA police officer, so I don't know how they act.  But I'm curious if they act like they're in high school in real life.  There's no better analogy for how these cops behave around each other in this movie.  They act like juvenile high school students.  They do, however, become completely serious when it comes to their work.  They don't fool around on the job...just every other time we see them...like a bunch of high schoolers...really.  In addition to that, the story is kind of boring.  How so?  There's no direction, there's no goal or quest that these guys are on.  While it's interesting to see them do all these highly dangerous traffic stops and these intense raids it's not leading up to anything.  It's just kind of aimless and boring, because I don't know where we're going with any of this.

Dude...we are so high right now.

The technical aspect of this movie irritated and confused me too.  We're first led to believe we're watching a movie edited together by Jake's character for a film class.  We think this because he's constantly walking around with a video-camera.  But then we're suddenly hit with all these angles that, while they're obviously being filmed on a $200 point-and-shoot from Best Buy by an amateur without a tripod, can't possibly be filmed by Jake or anyone else.  It's like there's a news cameraman, but there's no one there physically...so how are we seeing these shots and angles?  And why does EVERYONE in this movie walk around with cameras and film EVERY second of their lives.  Even the drug dealers and gang members carry video-cameras and document everything...for...some reason...(I don't know why).  And how did Jake get the footage from their cameras and edit it into his little project...if that's what we're watching?  What are we watching anyway?

Dance like nobody is watching.

In conclusion, while Jake and Michael have great chemistry this movie is hard to watch.  The editing is the worst part about this movie.  The weird passing of time and jumping around to angles that couldn't possibly be filmed from really confused and irritated me while watching this.  And just the over-usage of the F word.  It starts to lose it's weight when you literally use it every other word.  It becomes so you sound like a 3rd grader that just discovered that word and I can't take you seriously.  This movie was...interesting...I think?  But I definitely wouldn't call it a good movie.

Film Crazy Adam...thought some aspects were interesting, but overall does not recommend this movie.  He feels a little like his time was kind of wasted.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Written Review

Okay, let me say right up front that I liked this movie.  And that this review isn't going to be very unbiased.  Unlike my last written review where I explained that drama movies aren't my cup of tea, well this movie is.  I am this movie's target audience.  I am an easy mark for this movie.  This is a movie that I can watch over and over again and I won't get tired of it.  That being said I do understand the aspects of the movie that people had problems with who didn't like it.  The movie being, the prequel to Lord of the Rings trilogy - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

A.K.A.: The Hobbit Pt1

For those of you who are fans of the LotR movies, but haven't read the books you probably have complaints.  For those of you who haven't seen LotR I honestly don't even know why you're watching this movie.  For avid fans and nerds, this movie is awesome and a must see.  Those out there know what I'm talking about.  There are so many nods to the LotR trilogy and Sauron and the ring and the importance of certain objects and events.  This movie is fantastic.  The biggest complaint from people who saw this movie this: it's too damn long and it didn't feel like LotR.  Well, you're right about the second part.  This movie is not like LotR.  JRR Tolkien wrote The Hobbit to be more of a children's story.  Dark at some points, but a children's story none the less.

"...will be expected to make all coffee runs for the group"?  What?

This isn't a story against a magical dark lord, or the destruction of an ultimate weapon, sneaking behind enemy lines, where the fate of the who world hangs in the balance.  It's not.  So many people have been disappointed going into this movie because they didn't get that.This movie isn't the epic of LotR, so don't expect it.  Yes there are chase scenes and some great battle scenes, which are even cartoonish at times.  But no armies fighting each other.  That being said, this movie still delivers a great story and a good show.  The graphics, the costumes, the art design, the directing, the editing are still everything that you'd expect from Peter Jackson.  And while it's not the epic of LotR it's still fells very much like a story from Middle Earth.

Get in my belly!!!

In conclusion, I can't point out enough how I believe that this movie was made for the fans of the book and the LotR trilogy.  This movie is not for your casual movie goer or none fan of the fantasy genre or LotR.  This movie is for us fans.  Again, this review isn't really a fair one, because I just eat this sh*t up.  I love this stuff.  This isn't right down my alley, it IS the alley.  So, again, speaking from a big fan of LotR and fantasy - GO SEE THIS MOVIE!

Film Crazy Adam strongly STRONGLY approves and recommends this movie.

Argo - Written Review

There's been a lot of talk about this movie in terms of great directing and oscar nomination...ness, but how was this movie really?  So what you will about Daredevil and Armageddon, but Ben Affleck seems to have come into his own with directing.  The Town was done well and he's continuing to deliver with Argo.

No relation to Jason and the Argonauts.

I'll be the first to say that this movie generally my cup of tea.  I'm more of an action or sci-fi man, not a drama fan.  So it's saying something when this movie intrigues enough by the trailer alone to make me want to go see it.  Not gonna lie, knowing that Ben Affleck was directing also gave me some hope that it would be good.  And whoever was hired as the art director should get an Oscar too.  Everything was so spot on in this movie from the hair styles to the clothes to the cars to the style of facial hair to the style of the freaking glasses people wore.  This movie was crazy when it came to the detail, which was a BIG part of making this movie feel like it was accurately portraying a story that happened in the 1970's.  That is actually my biggest complaint about period pieces - they don't feel like those periods.  Argo did all that right.

We are them.  We are they.  We are the men in 3-peice suits.

Now the problem with making a movie based on real life events is that you already know how the story ends.  It's history.  It's already happened.  You can wiki this sh*t.  Which is another reason why I'm not a huge fan of movies based on historical events.  Because, again, you already know what happens - you know how the story ended.  So how can this movie be any good, be any interesting when there's no suspense, there's no surprises?  By telling a story about an impossible to escape from scenario and combining it with one of the most hair-brained ideas ever conceived and have it all be true.  If you don't know, the movie is about a small group of Americans hiding in the Canadian ambassador's home after the US embassy was taken in Iran.  The plan to get those people home safely was to make the world believe that a movie was being made in Iran, that these people were the film crew scouting locations in Iran, and having completed their scouting were returning home.  Crazy.  Just insane.  But it happened and it worked.

He wants to know if our refrigerator is running.  What should I say?

It's one of those stories that is so insane that it has to be true.  In conclusion, Argo was one of the best movies I've seen this year.  One of those movies where everything across the board was good or great.  The directing, the editing, the pacing, the script, the acting, the art direction, the costumes; just everything was done well.  Even knowing how it ends, Ben Affleck is able to create very tense moments where you're not sure if they're going to make it.

Film Crazy Adam strongly approves and recommends this movie.

Man of Steel - Official Trailer

Holy crap!!1!  This looks incredible.  From the trailer it looks like we're focusing very heavily on Clark Kent growing up and coming to terms with his powers and abilities.  Usually in movies and TV shows they gloss over this transition period.  Usually we see Clark as a kid and - boom - he's all grown up into Superman.  This movie trailer looks incredible.  I'm really excited to see this movie!!

Wreck-it Ralph - Written Review

There are 3 types of movie trailers.  1) those that paint a clear picture of the story you're about to see.  2) those that are just random images and make no sense whatsoever and you don't know what it is you just watched.  3) those that tell you more about the characters than the movie plot but give you just enough taste of the plot to intrigue you.  It's not very often, but occasionally that third one surfaces.  I get intrigued by those types of trailers because of the potential the story may have.  Wreck-it Ralph falls into that third category.

I wonder what it cost to use all those licensed characters.

Tell me I'm wrong.  The trailer tells you way more about the characters than the story itself.  It tells how Ralph is a video game "bad guy" but that he wants to change that point of view, because he's not a bad guy.  The trailer than shows Ralph going into different video games and interacting with different characters from those games.  What does that tell us about the plot?  Very little.  But you given the audience a lot of ingredients.  There is now a lot of potential for this movie.  A LOT of potential.  And suffice to say Disney didn't dissappoint.  Say what you will about that company, whether you have a postive or a negative opinion about them, they know how to tell good stories.  This movie was great.

Weekly meeting of Sore Thumbs Anonymous.

This movie really appeals to me as a child of the 80's.  Arcades, video games, quests, recognizable video game icons.  I love it.  This movie, as I said, started off with a lot of potential.  It had the potential to be both good and bad.  Thankfully it was just really really good.  The pacing is great, the acting is great, the story is great, the music is great, the characters are great.  It really was a great movie with a happy ending for everyone.  At the same time this was a quintessential Disney movie.  A big loner who isn't like by anyone is befriended by a small semi-annoying character until she melts his hard exterior and everyone becomes friends.  And he does something to alienate her but fixes it later when he has an epiphany about something.  Quintessential Disney.

You watch your language, bub.

In conclusion, this is a 100% character driven story and because of that the characters are the best thing about this movie.  You can clearly understand every character and where they're coming from.  That being said the character of Vanellope begins as the annoying character, but grows on you when you learn more about her.  She's played by Sarah Silverman, whom I'm not that big a fan of, but absolutely love her in this role.  All the actors are phenomenal in this movie.  If you're a child, a kid from the 80's/early 90's, or looking for a good character piece with a happy ending check out this movie.

Film Crazy Adam strongly approves and strongly recommends this movie.  Can't wait for this to come out on DVD.

Star Trek: Into Darkness - Teaser Trailer

Fascinating, that I was actually wondering about this movie just the other day and was wondering when the first trailer would surface.  Well, ask and ye shall receive.  As a nerd, I am oblique by sacred and federal law to say that I'm looking forward to this movie.  However,...this is a JJ Abrams movie.  Abrams his really good at selling crap.  He sells it really well, but let's face it.  All his stuff ends in an extremely disappointing way in which everyone feels they've been cheated.  That being said, I'm still looking forward to the new new Star Trek.

Skyfall - Written Review

Bond.  James Bond has been played by 9 different men in 23 films.  The latest of which has been generating some real noise to different extents for varying reasons.  The overall consensus is that this film is mindblowingly fantastic.  It is said to be incredible, awesome beyond belief.  Rumored to be the best bond movie ever, that no Bond movie will ever be as good as this ever again.  That doesn't really tell you about the movie does it?  How was the plot, the acting, the directing, was it easy to follow, how was the pacing, did it feel like a Bond movie?  How was the new Bond movie?

Brought to you by MGM, despite them filing for bankruptcy.

First and foremost to answer your question, yes there is one scene where he drinks a Heineken, which to so many people was sacrilege and betrayal.  How dare Bond drink ANYTHING that wasn't a martini.  Really?  You're gonna bitch about that?  Because he does drink those later.  But other than that this Bond movie was...well, a Bond movie.  It's exactly what you'd expect from a Bond movie.  Except for the gadgets.  So far the Daniel Craig Bond has used surprisingly few gadgets.  No laser watches, no ejector seats (though he threatens to use one in this movie), no cloaking devices, nothing really more than a gun and a GPS.  This movie didn't break from the Bond of the last two movies.

Yeah, I have a really big.  You know what I mean.

That being said, this movie did ramp up the action from the last one.  But I can't for the life of me see why people are basically worshiping this movie.  Was it good?  Not really.  It had so many absurd aspects that are so alien from the Bond franchise.  Was it a religious experience?  No.  Not for nothing, but this movie has a ton of plot holes.  A TON.  While Javier Bardem is a ridiculously good actor and steals the show after he shows up, his character is literally the Joker from Batman.  He's broken on a mental level and does things just to screw with M and Bond.  He has no overall goal, but to screw with these two people.  Why is he a Bond villain if he's not trying to take over the world on some level?  He really doesn't have any goal other than that.  It's understandable why he hates M.  But why does he hate Bond so much?  There's no reason.  And you have the new Q who starts talking about changing a few numbers here and here on the net and claims he can collapse entire countries before tea time.  Not to say that this is a bad movie and you shouldn't see. 

Being attacked by a giant flying glowing jellyfish.  We should run.

In conclusion, was this movie a good Bond movie?  No.  Was it a good movie overall?  I guess.  It certainly was entertaining.  Was this a great movie?  No.  This was a real departure from the feel of what a Bond movie used to feel like, because I will argue that this wasn't a Bond movie.  Just because it had a guy named James Bond in it doesn't make it a Bond movie.  To be fair, Bond movies were never known for their lack of plot holes.  They were known for James Bond kicking ass and taking names...and then sleeping with those names.  None of which happens in this movie.

Film Crazy Adam does not recommend this movie.

Silent Hill Revelation - Written Review

Now historically speaking video games don't transfer over to movie too well.  One of the more evident examples of this is the attempt at making the horror survivor game Silent Hill into a movie back in 2006.  That movie did as well as the VAST majority of video game movies did and was added to the crappy pile.  Silent Hill was really stupid, many things made no sense, the acting was ish, the directing wasn't good, the cinematography was lame, and was overall a colossal waste of time.  So what did they do 7 years after the fact?  Made a sequel.

The "3D" is silent when you pronounce Revelation3d

That makes sense, right?  Make a sequel to a movie that the audience didn't like.  I mean it worked so well with Ghost Rider.  But they did it anyway.  Now to be fair, if I'm allowed to be with this movie, this one was better than the first one.  That rarely happens, but Silent Hill 2 managed it.  Not to say that this by any means is a good movie, it's not.  It's just better than the first, and if you've seen the first you know that wasn't hard to do.  Not only that, but they were able to sum up the whole 1st movie and made so you didn't need to see it to understand this movie.  No, seriously, Silent Hill 2 did the first movie better than the first movie did.  Again, not a hard task.

Here we come, walkin down the street...

Silent Hill 2 wasn't anymore or less scary than the first movie.  In fact I didn't think either was scary.  However, 2 had a way more coherent story, things made more sense.  Also, it felt like this one was way more loyal to the video game than the first movie.  They did recycle every monster from the first and maybe only added one new one.  I can't remember really, it was dark.  Usually darkness adds to a horror movie, but I think they overused it here.  It's one thing to be dark and hard to see, it's another to annoyingly strobe a light for an entire 5 min scene.

True dat

The best part of this movie was the actors, not that they were able to do anything to save this movie.  Sean Bean and Malcolm McDowell are phenomenal actors, but even they couldn't do enough to save this movie.  Adelaide Clemens wasn't half bad as the lead.  Overall, this movie was indeed much better than the first.  Is it worth watching?  Not really.  Maybe, if you haven't seen the first one.  This movie is by far the best example I have for not needing to watch the first to understand the second.  In fact I'd go so far as to say that it makes more sense if you haven't seen the first one.  Overall, a solid B horror movie.

Film Crazy Adam gives this movie and ish recommendation.  He doesn't really recommend it, but doesn't really think it's a big waste either.  This is a solid B movie.

Taken 2 - Written Review

You can only say a few things about sequels.  1) it was on par with the original, and it's ok-good.  2) it sucked.  3) it surpassed the original by adding onto the story and became even better.  That's really it.  When talking about sequel that fall under the first rating I believe you'll have to categorize this movie.

This time, he's the one that gets taken.  No, seriously.

This movie is an example of an unnecessary sequel.  Completely unnecessary.  If you don't already know, the first movie was about Liam Neeson tracking down his daughter and killing her various kidnappers as he tracked his daughter.  They did a few things wrong when it comes to making a sequel.  First and foremost: they didn't do anything new with the story.  Okay, in this movie it's Liam Neeson that gets taken, not his daughter - though they try to do that.  But that doesn't last very long.  And it's still the story of Liam Neeson killing the various kidnappers of his kidnapped family member as he tracks her down.  Namely his ex-wife.  So it's essentially the same story.  Another thing they failed to do: develop the characters.  We should've learned something new about these characters in this movie.  Instead they haven't changed one bit since the first movie.

Listen, I'm kinda in the middle of something.  I gotta go.  Text you later.  Bye.

It just wasn't as good as the first movie.  Even on a technical level it was lacking.  The cinematography was different, and not in that good way.  The action scenes weren't as good, the chases weren't as good, the fight scenes weren't as good.  There also felt like there was a lot of stuff that happened just because.  You know: hand waving.  Why is his daughter as good a stunt driver as he is?  Why did they have to smash through the entrance to the American embassy compound instead of  just stopping and getting out?  The story wasn't as intricate either.  And never once did you get the feeling that Liam Neeson wasn't going to save his family and kill all the bad guys.  There wasn't any dramatic tension in this movie at all.  You knew how this was going to end.

And now I will show you how to unscrew a head from a body.  1-2-3...

Overall, this movie wasn't that good.  It tells a very VERY similar story to the first one and doesn't add any new elements.  The story is very predictable and doesn't diverege from already established traits, thus losing all dramatic tension.  Stories remain interesting when you don't know what's about to happen.  Here, you knew everything 30 mins before it happened.  This was a movie that the trailer made it look like it had potential to be something interesting.  But in the end it failed to develop the story further and failed to be interesting.

Film Crazy Adam was disappointed and doesn't recommend this movie.  The first was better.  Second one not worth while.