Reviews

I Think We're Alone Now is not the typical post-apocalyptic film most audiences are used to seeing.

After looking at the gorgeous poster and watching half the trailer to this movie, my interest grew. The further I looked into the project and the more I learned about the cast and crew involved, I was hooked.

The film is directed by Reed Morano and stars Peter Dinklage and Elle Fanning. The story follows a seemingly lone survivor of a mysterious apocalypse that stumbles upon a young girl. Throughout the film the two talk and bond, living in this quiet world Morano builds for his characters.

Dinklage's acting was quiet and subtle, very rarely talking and communicating in glances. Fanning's character is loud and full of energy. The two have great chemistry. The film's romance is similar to Lost in Translation but isn't executed as well. Throughout the film it seems they are close, but never really romantic, just surviving. If it was built upon more, execution would be better.

The cinematography in the film is spectacular. Morano's past in cinematography shines in this project. The atmosphere is built upon with the film relying on natural lighting. This has an amazing effect on the environment, giving it life and making it seem real.

There are downsides to this movie. About two thirds of the way into the movie, it seems to take a total shift in the mood and story. The ending seemed like it didn't belong, ripped out of a mid-two thousands teen dystopian book. While the ending didn't ruin the film, it still left me unsatisfied.

While the runtime of this film is just over an hour and thirty minutes, it takes its time. If you're going into this expecting a fast pace movie with quick dialogue and fast results, this movie isn't for you. If you're a fan of character studies and long, interrupted takes, you'll more than likely enjoy this movie.

Overall, I Think We're Alone Now is an experience that I haven't had in a theater in a while. It's different than most of the films in theaters this year which is refreshing. It teaches people the importance of a strong and satisfying ending and how not to do that, but also how to set up an effective and interesting universe Check it out.

Kong Skull Island is a beautiful and fun film.

I've been looking forward to Kong for quite a while. From what I saw in the trailers, the cinematography and CGI looked amazing. I was worried that the story would suffer from the focus on cinematography and CGI. Thank god it was better than I expected.

Here's the good.

The cinematography and CGI is amazing in this movie, the best I've seen from any movie this year. Each shot is fantastic and interesting and the CGI is realistic and blends perfectly with the actors.

The acting is fun to say the least. Each actor added something to the story, no one was underused and everyone had a purpose. Samuel L. Jackson and Thomas Mann stood out to me. Both of their performances were memorable and entertaining.

The story is very fun. It's what I expected but even that is good. It's a story about a group of people that go and investigate this mysterious island right after the end of the Vietnam war. When they arrive, they discover this island is not what they expected. One thing that added a lot to the overall vibe of the film is that it was in a post Vietnam war setting. It added a lot to the entertainment and set a good tone, it wouldn't have been as good as it is without the time period it's set in. The best part of this movie is easily the end credits scene.

Here's the bad.

The story isn't all that great. I understand that this movie is just trying to be fun, which is perfectly okay, but if you're going to do that you can't take yourself too seriously, and this movie did that. There were a few cheesy parts but they weren't that bad. A few jokes didn't hit with the audience and weren't that funny. The ending of the movie falls flat. The payoff wasn't all that great and happened fairly fast.

There was one character that I think took away from the overall quality of the film. John C. Reilly's character wasn't all that great. He overacted for most of the movie and acted like a cartoon. Only some of his jokes hit with the audience.

Overall, Kong Skull Island is a good popcorn movie where you can turn off your brain for a while and watch a movie with some A+ cinematography and CGI. The characters have good chemistry with each other, even if some aren't all that great. It's good to see Kong back on the big screen.

The Belko Experiment is a messed up film and it's wildly entertaining.

The Belko Experiment is an indie film that's essentially about a office building that gets shut down and the people inside are forced to kill each other.

Here's the good.

The story in this movie keeps you on the edge of your seat practically the whole run time of the movie. It's a physiological horror film that really asks the audience, "What would you do in this situation?". I was lucky enough to be at a screening of the film with writer/producer James Gunn and the director Greg McLean and most of the cast. They talked a lot about how there was no villain in this movie, which is something I loved. The people in this movie were all acting for themselves, doing what they need to do for their family or for survival. The story in the beginning and the middle is very interesting and will keep the audience entertained well after the movie is over.

The acting in this movie is, for the most part, believable and good. Tony Goldwyn, John Gallagher Jr., and Sean Gunn were the standouts of this movie. Tony was terrifying, and just as he talked about during the Q and A at the screening, his character wasn't a villain. His character was doing what he had to do to make sure he could come home to his family again, even if is terrible. John Gallagher Jr. does a fantastic job as the main character. He displays a wide variety of emotions perfectly and pulls off a really really good performance, surpassing his acting in 12 Cloverfield Lane. The real standout of this movie is Sean Gunn who did a fantastic job with his character. He has some of the best and most memorable lines in the whole film. It's amazing to see how far Sean Gunn has gone in his acting ability when compared to his role in James Gunn's Super. Everyone in the movie, including the extras, pulled off great performances.

The technical parts of this movie are very well done. I have tons of respect for this movie's use of practical effects which added a lot of horror to the movie's tone. The cinematography in this movie was impressive, keeping a lot of shots close to give off a claustrophobic feeling. The lighting in this movie is used perfectly. Towards the latter half of the movie, many action sequences were lit uniquely. A action scene lit by a neon light and fire or a flickering light, whatever the case, it built the suspense.

Here's the bad.

The ending of this film is different. It didn't really set up the ending all that well and left the audience wanting something a bit more. It didn't ruin the fun of the movie but with a better ending it could have been a lot better. For a movie to be great it needs to have an ending that leaves the audience satisfied and this movie has trouble doing that.

Overall, The Belko Experiment is a thrill ride. When the action and horror and suspense hits, it hits hard. The acting from everyone is entertaining and believable, many performances being especially good. The lighting and cinematography add a lot to the overall tone of the film which makes it a lot more effective. While the ending leaves you wanting more, you'll still be thinking about this movie for days to come.

Logan is truly amazing.

I've been excited for Logan for a very long time, the idea of an older, more stern, grittier wolverine is an amazing idea that you can go a long way with. Logan took that idea and made a fantastic film.

Here's the good, and there's quite a few.

The acting in this movie is fantastic. Hugh Jackman does a fantastic job as always playing Logan. He really went deep into his character, bringing out one of the best performances of his career. Patrick Stewart was also amazing as always playing professor X. He didn't act his age throughout the entire film, really doing a good job making the audience think he's in his 90s. Newcomer Dafne Keen is the breakout star of this movie, pulling off an amazing character. Child actors aren't always good but Keen is magnificent as her character, really pushing the film to be amazing. Overall, everyone in the movie did a fantastic job acting.

The cinematography and lighting in this movie was beautiful. The lighting set a tone for each scene whether it be the dim lit area where professor X spends most of his time or a neon light illuminated action scene. The cinematography gives the movie life with each shot. The way it's filmed is expertly done and looks gorgeous.

The story's plot is well written, interesting, and isn't something we normally see in a superhero film. The movie didn't shy away from taking risks, it didn't hold back with violence, and it wasn't scared to make the audience cry. The movie follows an older Wolverine who is taking care of an even older Professor X. Beaten and driven down from his past and his healing factor slowly fading, he must help himself and the ones he cares for. The movie has a great chemistry between Logan and Laura. The movies especially shined when the two were on screen together.

Here's the bad.

Here's my only gripe with the movie, it can be slow at parts. The pacing is a bit of an issue towards the middle but not for long. Other than this, I didn't have any other problems with Logan.

Overall, Logan is a fantastic film, pushing a touching story, great acting, beautiful cinematography, and unique lighting. While it may suffer from pacing issues towards the middle it never took away from the overall narrative of the movie. Logan is something special, something we haven't quite seen from a superhero film. I'm excited to see what the X-men franchise has for us in the future.

Get Out is fantastic.

When I first saw the trailer for Get Out, I laughed hard. I thought it looked awful because the trailer was so weird and strangely cut. I was wrong.

Here's what the movie did well.

Get Out is the best movie I've seen so far in 2017. The story follows an African-American man visiting his white girlfriend's house, but there is so much more than just that. The story is incredibly entertaining. The dialogue kept the audience entertained, it was funny, witty, smart, and kept a constant pace. The movie blended horror and comedy perfectly, neither taking center stage. The film has a lot of dark humor which I'm a huge fan of, it worked very well with the setting and tone of the film. The story has twists and turns that are very original and catches the audience off guard. The story has fantastic social commentary, commenting on subtle racism throughout which is very effective. The story keeps the audience on the edge of their seat throughout. When the comedy hits, it hits hard, each joke hit and were well timed. The horror hits hard as well, making the film disturbing and creepy when it needs to be.

The technical things in this movie were amazing. The lighting was consistent and gave the film a dark, stylized, and disturbing vibe. The cinematography was fantastic, each shot giving off a certain feeling which helped move along the story. The music that played in this movie helped with the vibe, fitting whatever scene it was in.

Most everyone who acted in this movie gave a fantastic performance. Daniel Kaluuya, Bradley Whitford, and LilRel Howery particularly giving great performances. Everyone embodied their characters perfectly and put a lot of effort into making sure their characters were believable.

This film was Jordan Peele's directorial debate, if this type of quality holds up in his future films I can see him having a long and successful career in directing. The film is well paced and makes sure to keep the audience on their seat. Peele made sure to get fantastic performances out of his actors and did a great job creating the tone for this movie.

Onto the bad, which there aren't a lot.

There was, out of the whole movie, one shot I didn't like. There was a shot with fire in frame. The fire didn't look real which took me out of the story for a split second.

Caleb Landry Jones's performance was a little over acted. If he acted less like a cartoon character it would have been better but it doesn't effect the movie in a major way.

Overall, Jordan Pelle's Get Out is fantastic,keeping the audience on the edge of their seat when they need to be and made them laugh when the jokes hit. The film is beautiful looking and the story is unique and will surprise many audience members. I highly recommend Get Out if your looking for a quality horror/comedy movie.

The first John Wick was a bit of a revolutionary when it came to action films. It brought interesting and dynamic action and did for guns what samurai movies did for swords. The 'gun play' in that movie was never boring.

Now let's talk about John Wick: Chapter 2

I'll start with the good parts of this movie.

A lot of the technical parts of this movie were fantastic. The lighting in each scene brought a stylized look and feel to the movie. The sound design is great, making each punch and gun shot ever the more powerful. The choreography is A+, which is expected from a John Wick film. You can really tell they put a lot of time and effort into making sure every action scene has great choreography.

The acting from Keanu Reeves was pretty good, he has what I call the 'Schwarzenegger effect'. He was able to take cheesy lines, and there were a lot, and deliver them in a not so cheesy way. He was very devoted to making sure every stunt looked good, doing all of his own stunts.

Onto the bad parts.

I'm not quite sure what happened, the first John Wick had a decent story, giving our main character a good motivation throughout and leaving a good payoff for the audience. John Wick: Chapter 2 has none of this.

While I can't give away too much without getting into spoiler territory, I'll say this. John Wick's motivation in this film is very bad. In the first film he had the motivation of, "You killed my dog my late wife gave to me and stole my car". In this film it's less believable and way too convoluted.

John Wick is the only memorable character in this entire film because the film is about him. The villain is the typical villain you'd expect in any action film with his/her typical henchmen. Even the villain's motivation is a bit dodgy. I'm not quite sure why Laurence Fishburne is in this movie, he has two scenes and talks like Negan from The Walking Dead the entire time. He provides no real story other than some background information. The end of this film started an interesting idea within the universe but cut it short for the third movie.

The music in this movie is pretty awful. It's your typical dubstep in each and every action scene, which gets annoying over a long period of time.

Sadly, even the action got boring after about an hour. Every single action scene is, "let me use my fists then go behind a corner, grab a gun, shoot for a bit, reload, shoot for a bit, go behind another corner, grab a bigger gun, shoot for a bit, reload, shoot for a bit, go behind yet another corner and grab a bigger gun, shoot for a bit, reload, and shoot for some more". I just described an entire action scene from this film.

The payoff for this film was so quick and had no impact on the audience. Heck, the scene that had the most impact on the audience was John Wick, two baddies, and a pencil.

Overall, John Wick: Chapter 2 has some great technical things going for it that they improved since the first film. The acting was pretty solid from Reeves but with his character being the only memorable one. The story quality has significantly decreased since the first film with characters motivations being convoluted and, at times, a bit silly. If you're with a couple of friends and you feel like turning off your brain for a while, you'll have fun with John Wick: Chapter 2.

The Lego Batman Movie brings something different to the table, providing a fun, witty, smart, and hilarious time for kids and adults alike.

Lets start with the positives.

From the moment you sit down to the moment you get up, the film has you laughing. The humor in this movie is great. It's for both children and adults, providing smart and sarcastic humor that my prominently child free theater enjoyed.

This film is gorgeous, each shot looking beautiful. The style that The Lego Movie brought onto the big screen is enhanced in this film. The scale of everything and the lighting created a world that these characters could interact and live in. The animation style is what I adore most, each shot looking as if it was animated using stop motion.

The voice acting is amazing in this film as well, Will Arnett coming back to play the caped crusader and Michael Cera playing Robin. The two had a lot of chemistry thanks to the voice acting, bringing these characters to life. Zach Galifianakis was a surprisingly great Joker, adding an interpretation of the clown prince of crime that we haven't seen before.

The story in this movie is very interesting, following Batman and his struggle to be a part of a family ever since the murder of his parents. The film really humanizes Batman, something we don't see a lot of in other Batman movies, while at the same time spoofing the character itself. The story between Batman and the Joker is very interesting and funny, creating great moments between the two.

There are very few negatives I have with this movie. Going back to what I said earlier, this movie keeps you laughing throughout, which got a bit tiring at times. When the movie has you laughing at one thing then says another joke 2 seconds later, this can be annoying at times. Let the joke sink in, let a character react, everything doesn't have to be a joke all the time. Some of the jokes fell flat some of the times, but that's expected considering everyone has their own taste in comedy.

Overall, the Lego Batman Movie is a great time for everyone, proving an entertaining experience throughout. The film has many surprises that I think everyone will love. The story is interesting and full of heart while creating a beautiful and vast world. While some of the jokes may fall flat, it is still a very fun time. Maybe Zack Snyder can take a few notes from this movie.

Have you ever ordered a burger at McDonalds? You know when you order the burger and you look at this pretty plain looking burger and you take a bite and it's just bland and nothing special? This sums up The Founder.

Let's talk about the good before the bad. Some of the acting in this movie was fantastic. Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, and John Carroll Lynch all did fantastic jobs acting and bringing their characters to life. Keaton felt real and really acted out his role to the best of his ability. The film was directed pretty well too, many of the characters had something to do and effected the story in one way or another.

Here's the bad. This movie looks and feels boring. The cinematography is nothing special, the soundtrack felt like it should have been in a made for TV movie, the editing was long and dull, the whole thing could have been cut up to be tighter and more interesting. There were some shots that made me bust out laughing like a slow zoom on Keaton with a out of focus man's head taking up 65% of the screen or Laura Dern's character sitting in the back of a room displaying one of the two faces she made during this film. There were so many simple small things that could have been fixed in post.

The story in this film is interesting but presented in such a dull and cookie cutter way. It was like I was watching a documentary at times. A character is describing what something was and they just show an old black and white photo of what he was describing, slowly zooming in on it. It took the audience out of what that character was saying and left nothing up to the imagination.

Overall, The Founder isn't a bad movie, but it also isn't a good movie. The acting is great but a boring script has you ending up with a bland taste in your mouth.

I was not expecting much.

Looking back on M. Night Shyamalan's track record for the past few years, he hasn't put out a lot of quality films compared to some of his earlier films like the Sixth Sense. Split was a surprise. The plot of this movie follows three girls who are captured by James McAvoy's characters.

This film has some amazing acting coming from James McAvoy, probably the best in his career. He puts so much effort into each character he plays and each one is unique and interesting in their own way. Anya Taylor-Joy also brings a lot to the movie, her character's arc in the film in deeply interesting and she acted it out very well.

The cinematography in this movie is very good. Mike Gioulakis makes the film feel claustrophobic while bringing a stylized look.

My only gripes with the movie are some of the acting and the plot near the end. The two other girls that get captured along with the main girl overacted or underacted most of the time and usually did some pretty stupid stuff. Some of the plot near the end of the movie starts to become a bit unbelievable but doesn't ruin the entire film.

Overall, Split is a great horror film with some fantastic acting, great cinematography, some twists and turns, and a solid story with some flaws mixed in.

Silence is a fantastic film. The story follows two priests who travel into Japan in search for mentor who has apparently denounced his faith publicly. This movie's story is hard to watch because our main characters are broken down down so emotionally throughout the movie. What this movie does really well is questioning the audience what it means to question authority and faith. Throughout the movie this is a common theme and it's played out so well. Andrew Garfield plays out his part so well, a performance matching that of Hacksaw Ridge. Yôsuke Kubozuka is also very very good in this movie, playing a person who's been tortured so much and has had so much taken away from him because of his faith. The cinematography is beautiful in this movie as well. Rodrigo Prieto makes every shot beautiful and detailed. He also worked on The Wolf of Wall Street so it seems that Scorsese and Prieto are a good match. My only flaw with this movie is the run time. The movie clocks in at about 2 hours and 45 minutes long, which is very very long for most audiences. It didn't effect me but there were a few people in my theater that walked out at about the 2 hour mark. In the end, Silence is a beautifully directed film with amazing acting, beautiful cinematography, and a story that will stay in your head for days.

20th Century Women caught me by surprise, this wasn't on my radar until recently, and thank god I found it. This movie is amazing. The story follows a young boy growing up without any prominent male figure so his mother and people around him help raise him. This movie has a very entertaining and enjoyable story that will make just about anyone smile. The acting in this movie is very good, Elle Fanning is only becoming a better actress in each and every movie she is in. The music, while subtle, helps bring emotion to each and every scene. My only problems with this movie is with some of the editing and cutting. In some cases, scenes didn't transition well. One minute we're watching these characters party and having a great time and within 30 seconds we're right in the middle of a really deep and sad scene. The movie should have transitioned the scenes better so that way the audience could have gotten emotional along with the characters. Overall, the editing errors weren't big enough to effect the overall film. 20th Century Women is smart, witty, funny, emotional, grounded, and thought provoking.

Jackie has looked interesting to me since I first watched the trailer, so I was pretty excited walking into the theater. I was most excited to see Natalie Portman take on the role of Jackie Kennedy, as it looked like some of her best work in quite a while. As I was watching the movie, I forgot overtime that I was watching Natalie Portman play Jackie, instead I really felt that she embodied Jackie. Her performance was amazing, most likely grabbing her a nomination at the Oscars. While this film provides a good story showing what Jackie did after the death of John F. Kennedy, it drags on and has major pacing issues. At times I caught myself checking my watch to see how much time was left in the film. Overall, this is a great historical film with fantastic acting and an in-depth story. With a fix of the pacing, this good film could've been a great one.