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Supernatural: Alex Annie Alexis Ann (2014)
Another great episode
I think this is one of my favorite seasons of supernatural. What I like about this episode is that it shows that they can have it both ways. Last episode was great setting up the major story line with the angels as well having the next episode be about Sam & Dean hunting vampires. This felt like it could've been an episode from season 1 and there's good and bad to this. The bad thing I think this episode takes away from the main story line. I understand Sam & Dean still have to do cases despite Abadon & everything else but it felt to independent from the story. Last episode they set up Meditron plan and the next they just give us an unrelated story. I think this episode feels a little out of place with the rest of the season, I mean if they would've showed the guys at their layer trying trying find Abadon and they got a call from Jodie I think that would've tied things together. However the good thing is that supernatural is able to have it both ways. They can give us a big dramatic story line about angels, heaven, hell and demon knights as well as giving us one shot stories with Sam & Dean hunting. That's what makes the show work. You need a little bit of both. At it's core the show is about two brothers hunting the supernatural and I understand how some fans may not like it when it becomes more about saving the world, however it's hard to do a 22 episode season with just the boys hunting demons and what not and no bigger story. The heaven and hell stuff makes for a much more compelling season but you might get tired of it if every episode was about that. So this episode gives us a nice break before we go back to the main story. Great episode.
Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014)
I liked the live action suicide squad movie but this is so much better!
I liked the live action movie by David Ayers with Will Smith and Margo Robbie but this animated one, released 2 years before the live action one is much better. What makes this one better then the Ayer's one is the great writing. They simply did a better job at putting together a strong story then Ayers did. With the Ayers movie it felt like they had good characters but never were able to make the story come together. This movie succeeds at that tremendously. This is a movie that is able to somehow make the riddler and the joker(my two favorite batman villains) both be the main villain and make it work perfectly. It was a cool idea making the riddler be the reason why Waller needs the squad. Also I love that the actor from criminal minds who plays Spencer Reid is voicing the riddler. Perfect casting. Unlike the live action one the squad is shown to be a top secrete off the books covert assignment, which is the way the squad is suppose to be. Not that we need them to protect us from a evil superman. The film wastes no time and gets right into it. They do a great job at setting up the riddler and Waller then we get a quick and nice introduction to the squad. Their mission is simple and it has a nice plot twist that makes sense and makes riddler more important to the plot. The film also does a good job at balancing it's characters, with the live action movie it kind of felt like the deadshot and Harley Quinn show while the other characters were sideline. This film showcases everyone nicely and does this without giving us a whole lot of(if any) backstory for the characters. The movie has a nice heist element as we seem them try to break into Arkham. Something that was lacking in the live action one. Also one of my problems with the Ayers movie was that the villains weren't villainous enough but here we see them turn against each other and are never really depicted as being heroes. I also like the overall more edge this movie has compare to the Ayers movie. Another problem I had with the Ayers movie was the lack of Joker. However in this movie we get to see much more joker and I like how he works in the movie. He's not the main focus but still important to the story. I like how this movie never really gives us an official main villain. It's basically just a movie with a bunch of bad guys and batman in the middle of everything but it's woven together so nicely it never feels convoluted. We also get cameos by other batman villains. Also I really like this interpretation of Harley Quinn, Hayden Welch voice is great I think they captured her personality perfectly. I also like Troy Baker as the Joker. I honestly thought it was Mark Hammil doing the voice. I also love the animation it almost felt like a live action movie. One of my favorites from D.C. animation!
Malcolm in the Middle: Lois Strikes Back (2006)
Lois goes psycho when avenging the honor of her son, Reese from some mean spirited girls.
Malcolm in the middle is one of my favorite TV shows of all-time. I love how unique and different it is from other shows. It's both real and surreal at the same time. I love this episode because it's the perfect random episode you can use to show someone what the show is about. This might be episode 16 in the show's last season but it has a simple plot, unlike most of the show's episodes but also shows how they're a different family from most family shows. I love how this perfectly shows how the dad, Hal lives in his own world and would rather stay out of the way and let Lois handle the problem. I love how this also shows that Lois is no ordinary mother. She's capable of going psycho to protect her son. It also shows how Malcolm is the voice of reason in the family that nobody listens too. I love Lois in this, I think she's the best TV mom. She might be a little psycho but always comes from a loving place. I know what Lois did was wrong but a part of me loves to see a mom that goes so far to protect her son. And what makes this show different from other shows is at the part when Lois realizes that she has gone to a dark place and doesn't want her sons to be like her, that's the moment when Reese wakes up and they decide to continue their streak of vengeance together and even tie up Malcolm so he won't get in the way. Sometimes we all need a mom like Lois.
Suicide Squad (2016)
Not nearly as bad as the critics said it was, better the BVS. A good movie but lacks some edge
Let me start off by saying that this was my most anticipated movie of 2016. Ever since November of 2014 when they announced that they were making a suicide squad movie I was stoked and checked the web for every detail. I love the comics and I couldn't wait to see the joker and Harley Quinn together in a live action movie. The trailers were great! and after I and many others were disappointed by BVS the pressure was on this film to save the DCU. So did it live up to the hype? Was my year and a half wait worth it? Well for me I would have to say yes and no. I thought it was a really good movie but not as good as it could've been. Well let me say that the thing I liked most about the movie was the characters. I thought the film had great characters that were generally interesting and each actor fit their role perfectly. This is what makes the movie good, which are the great characters. Every character worked for me there was not a dull character here. Every character made me want to see more of them. The stand outs however were Deadshot, Amanda Waller and Harley Quinn. Will Smith surpassed my expectation as he turns out one of his best performance in years as Deadshot. It was basically Will Smith playing himself but he was great. I love the flashback with Deadshot and his daughter and then batman shows up. Ayers did a great job with the deadshot/daughter subplot without making it feel cheesy. Viola Davis was perfect as Amanda Waller. I wish she was bigger because I like the heavy set Amanda Waller but other then that Davis was great! She was like a female Dick Cheney. I loved how dead she looked behind the eyes. I can't wait to see more of her in future movies. Margot Robbie was perfect as Harley Quinn. I thought her voice was great, which is the most important thing about Harley. I think she had more of a Long Island accent instead of Brooklyn like in the original cartoon. Her outfit was great! It was like biker chick meet roller derby. I love her baseball bat and I especially love her pants with her butt cheeks hanging out. The scene where she walks out the elevator and you can see her butt is priceless. Also I loved seeing her in her iconic court jester outfit. However there's not enough time to develop her as much as she needs it. But like I said every character worked, Diablo was great. Captain Boomerang provided a lot of comic relief and this is the first role Jay Courtney is really great in. Killer Croc was great but he looked to skinny when he took off his shirt, he looked better with the hoodie on. Katana was great and I would like to see more of her. I thought Enchantress made for a good villain, I thought she had an interesting backstory and I like the creepy horror movie like effects on her. Also Cara Delevine gave a solid performance as well. Joel Kinneman was also great as Rick Flagg, I think he brings a lot of personality to what could of been a 1 dimensional character. Now last but not least the joker. I don't think it's as easy as just saying he was good or bad, so I'll put it like this. Every scene I saw him in was great. Leto's joker looks like a fascinating character but the truth is he wasn't really given enough screen time or character development. Like for example the film never explains why he has the tattoos or what they mean to him. However like I said I do like what I saw from him. I really like the whole pimp thing he got going. Unlike Heath Ledger's joker he cares a lot about his appearance and image. He's well dress, drives a nice car and has a good looking woman. I like that he seems to be a criminal business man that owns a strip club, which he has Harley dancing on stage. I also love his henchmen who wear bizarre outfits like one guy dressed in a panda suit and another guy dressed in goat mask. However one of my problems with the movie is that it's poorly edited and the greatest victim of this is Jared Leto. I feel bad for him because these idiots cut out most of his scenes. Scenes that were in the trailers are not in the movie like when he says "I can't wait to show you my toys." I love that. I think the worst of it is Harley Quinn's flashbacks to Arkarham and I really wanted to see the scene where joker has Harley strapped down to a table and say "I'm just gonna hurt ya, really, really bad" and then proceeds to give her electric shock therapy. I think if they would have shown more of this it could've done a lot to develop the joker as a more three dimensional character. However I do like his obsession with Harley Quinn and I like how insane he looked when he was shooting out the helicopter. However my biggest problem with the movie is despite how much I like the characters I think they're simply not bad enough. They're suppose to be "worst of the worst" and "the worst heroes ever" but nobody within the squad dose anything really bad. I think WB wuss ed out on doing something edgy but instead played it too safe. Simply the movie is not as crazy or as wild as it could've been and that's a little bit of a let down. Although I think there's a lot of potential for these characters. I would like to see a Joker & Harley spin-off. I also like the music and visuals by Ayers. Overall a good movie but not great.
Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)
Bruce Timm, Kevin Conroy, Tara Strong and Mark Hammil return for this animated adaption of the classic story.
Let me start off by saying that I loved this movie. Let me also say that I knew that some people would have problems with the bat girl prolong, mainly because I think it was surprising how long it was. However I didn't mine it. I enjoyed the story they did. You can tell the Bruce Timm influence because the bat girl prolong felt a lot like an episode of the old animated series. I found the "mini-adventures of bat girl" prolong enjoyable. I like when bat girl and batman had sex because it humanizes them. Just because their superheroes doesn't mean they don't have lust or urges. I like the inexperience of bat girl being a major plot point. I also enjoyed the villain who is a narcissist that became infatuated with bat girl. I thought the prolong was a good appetizer to the main course. Then we got into the killing joke. It was very faithful to the classic graphic novel and different when it needed to be. I wondered how the great Mark Hammil would make his voice work with this grim take of the joker and he was great. I can't say who's the best joker is because Nicholson and Ledger were both great but I love how Hammil brings this whimsical side to the joker while being completely maniacal. My favorite part is when the joker shoots Barbra in the waist and cracks a bunch of jokes about Barbra being paralyzed while his goons beat up Jim Gordan. I also thought the flashbacks to joker's past was great and Hammil was great in his pre-joker voice. Kevin Conroy is also great as batman. I like how batman is portrayed here. He's a no non-senses vigilante with a code of honor. I love the final battle between batman and joker at the end. I like how the joker always wants to turn people into him, physically(by putting a grin on their face) or mentally(driving them insane). I really enjoyed this film and the animation was great, especially the look of Gotham City but the highlight was Mark Hammils great and possibly final voice work as the joker.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Not the greatest superhero movie ever but I felt very satisfied with this film as three of the greatest superheroes team up in their first movie together.
I think film critics and even some fan boys/fan girls were to hard on this movie. I've read/heard a lot of people say it's another Zack Snyder movie full of overblown action and sloppy storytelling. However I felt it was the exact opposite. I thought the story was well told and not as much action as I thought it would be. I didn't walk out the theatre feeling that it was the greatest superhero movie ever but I walked out feeling very satisfied with what I saw. However I the biggest problem with the movie was it's story. It was a lot more complicated then it needed be and at times it felt too confusing and a lot of things were not well explained.. I thought it did a really good job fitting all these characters in one movie. Batman, superman, wonder woman, Lex Luthor and Lois Lane all fit well into the plot. Even smaller characters like Perry White, Martha Kent and Alfred fit well into the movie. I was surprised with how much screen time Perry White got but Lawerence Fishborne was so good in the role. Dian Lane was great in her part and had a good part in the movie. I really like Amy Adams as Lois Lane, I think she dose a god job at being tough without being annoying as the character sometime is. I like that they show that she's a really good reporter and we know Lois always has to be in danger for superman to save her but I feel like this might be the best use of Lois Lane I've ever seen in a movie. For the first time it feels like Lois Lane has a real purpose to be in this movie other then it's a superman movie. I love the first half of the movie because it felt like a drama and not a comic book movie. In fact I like how realistic the movie felt despite dealing with sci-fi elements. I think it's hard to say what's the single best thing about the movie but maybe I'll go with batman. I supported the casting of Ben Affleck as batman from the start and he didn't disappoint. Part of me feels like I would've liked to get more information about his past. They talked about his parents being killed but we don't know much about his years of fighting crime as batman. The trailers made it looked like he retired batman but put on the suit again to fight superman but it's hard to tell if he ever stopped. I like that he feels very different from other batmans. I like how he's just called "The Bat". I like that he's a very smart batman who is clearly a detective. I love the look of his batcave, batmobile and batplane. It looked realistic but still comic book. He has the 2nd best batsuit after Keaton. His bat voice is great too. I love the reference to the "death in the family" comic where the joker killed Robin with the burned robin suit hanging up. I think Zack Snyder found the perfect balance for batman between comic book and gritty realism. I love his Bruce Wayne and the fight scene between batman and a gang of thugs is the best batman fight I've ever seen. I love how he brands his victims. While Keaton is still my favorite batman, Affleck might be tied with Bale as the best Bruce Wayne. I love Jeremy Irons as Alfred I like how snarky he is. I also like that he's less of a butler and more of a shadow partner. I also love Gal Gadot as wonder woman, I was impressed with her acting abilities. She did much better then I thought. Her costume looked great and her accent fit perfectly. I wish we got to see more of her fighting. I think Henry Cavil is the 2nd best superman after Reeves. I think in this movie they made it plausible that no one knew Clark Kent and superman were the same because it seems like he tries to keep a low profile either way. I thought Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor was the most interesting character in the movie but I felt he wasn't given enough backstory. I felt like I never understood him, yeah he hated superman but why? He was mentally unbalanced but why?However I think Jesse gave a great performance. I didn't find him annoying but I was intrigued by his character and I wish they explored his backstory a little more. I liked his assistant Mercy but I wish they didn't kill her(or so it seemed). I thought the future-Justice League cameos were really good. I think the fight between superman and batman was well done and satisfying. I though it was clever how they used the fact that both of their mothers were named Martha. I thought Doomsday worked well into the story and the fight at the end was great. I would have to say the best thing about this movie is that it makes me interested and excited about seeing future D.C. movies. I would love to see more of Ben Affleck's batman. I can't wait to see the wonder woman solo movie and I wonder how the upcoming suicide squad movie will fit into all this. I also liked that they killed superman at the end making us wait for justice league to see how he would come back. So I thought they did a great job of bringing all the characters together and making it feel like a natural fit and I want to see more of these characters. So it's a good movie but it could've been a great movie with a better plot.
Fantastic Four (2015)
Five people bodies are changed after a science experiment in this dark and gritty reboot of the fantastic four.
Let me start by saying I disagree with people a lot on movies, there's a lot of movies people criticized but I liked. Two of them are the original fantastic four movies with Jessica alba and Micheal Chiklas. So I'm going to compare those films with this one even if it might be a little unfair to compare two different takes on the four. I wanted to see the movie for myself but I was hesitant because there's so much negativity surrounding this film. But now it's time for me to give my opinion on the film. I thought on one hand the movie did work well as a sci-fi/horror film but on the other hand it never really felt like a fantastic four film. I like how the movie began showing Reed and Ben as kids meeting each other, I thought that was a good way to start the movie. If you took away the title fantastic four and just looked at this movie as a sci-fi horror movie it kind of works in that respect. I liked the special effects in the film, I thought they did a great job at bringing to life the powers of the four. The human torch looked great! He really looked like a man on fire. The effects on the invisible woman looked great I love how her force fields looked. I love when Reed was strapped to a table and his body was stretched, the effects on his body looked really good, it didn't look cgi and I liked how rock like the thing looked. The up close shots of the thing looked really good but some of the scenes where we see him walking with the team he didn't look as good. I just like the element of horror and sci-fi in this film. However the bad thing for me about this film is that it never really felt like a fantastic four film. The tone felt too dark for the four. I feel like the four should be more like the avengers in tone, very light and humorous. So in that regard I thought the two other previous FF did a really good job at capturing the right tone for the characters. I think the four should have a lot of humor like in the avengers when Iron man mocks Cap' for saying "language" and I think FF should have similar humor but in this movie there's no real humor to speak of and that's another thing I like about the previous FF film where there was a lot of good humor especially between the human torch and the thing. But the main problem with the movie for me is that there was just no chemistry between the five characters. The actors didn't do a bad job but the script and the director didn't develop the characters or their relationships that well. That's the most important thing about the FF. They just felt like collages, no deep relationships between them. Even after showing Ben and Grimm becoming friends from child hood I never felt any chemistry between them. Sue and Johnny are brother and sister but I never felt any real relationship between. I think the guy playing the human torch did a good job but wasn't given much. The guy playing the villain Dr. Doom before he went evil was the most interesting character but he wasn't explained very well. He's a smart guy who's good on computers, I guess? When he became the supervillian I didn't understand his transformation, I liked the Julian McMahan Dr. Doom in the two other FF films, he was a little one dimensional but he did feel like the Dr. Doom from the comics. I don't understand why every FF film seems to be afraid to have Doom as the ruler/dictator of Latvira. But there was just no meaningful relationship between the five main characters. So I like the previous two FF films because I felt they captured the spirit of the FF. So overall a good sci-fi/ horror movie but it never really captured the essence of the Fantastic four
Man of Steel (2013)
Zack Snyder's gritty new take on the superman legend as young alien Clark Kent tries to find his place in the world.
I know some people don't like this movie but I LOVE this movie. I enjoyed the previous film superman returns but this film is just plain awesome! What I like about this movie is that director Zack Snyder brings a really new and fresh take on superman but still stays true to the superman story we know and love. I like how this film gives a more "realistic" take on superman and I mean realistic in the sense that the film does a great job in trying to show what it would be like if human like aliens came to earth. I like that they show in this world people are freaked out by someone like superman and they don't trust him oppose to people just being okay with an alien who has the power of a god. It's a more darker and gritter superman and I was worried that they were going to make superman dark and brooding but I think they found the right balance. I love the story, it's so well done but I think you have to watch it a 2nd time to get all the story points and the action is spectacular some of the best I've ever seen! And I love the cast! Since this is a reboot we have to go over the origin story again but Zack does a great job giving his own twist to it. We naturally start with planet krypton and I like how they gave it a pre-historic look but with some advance sci-fi technology. Russel Crow is great as Jor-el, he's logical and calm but still loving, he plays it perfectly. The woman playing Lara(superman's mom) was great too. I also like how they explain a little bit about the history of Krypton. I also like how they showed superman's growing up in small-ville in some well place flash backs. Kevin Costner is great as superman's earth dad, Johnathan Kent. He feels very real in the role although I think having him terrifyingly killed in a twister felt a little too much. The woman playing his earth mom was good too. I thought Amy Adams was great as Lois Lane, I always like her. I like how she fits into the story, I like that they first establish her as good reporter and I like how she goes investigating for Clark and figures him out and I like her relationship with Clark. Their friends with a little touch of attraction between them. Lawerence Fishburn makes for a good Perry White. And I really like Henry Cavali as superman, sometimes he gets a little loss with all the stuff going on but Henry holds his own and we see more of him as the story goes on. Henry feels really real and natural and he looks great in the suit. His superman is a little more complex then others, he's conflicted as he wants to reveal himself to the world but is afraid of how the world would react to him. He's one of my favorite supermans. I love Micheal Shannon as the villain, General Zod. Terrance Stamp's Zod is great and defiantly iconic but I kind of like this Zod better. Shannon's Zod is a little bit more fleshed out and he's well written. He's not necessarily evil because his goal is really just to save his people from Krypton but it's his coldness, ruthlessness and his by any means necessary attitude that makes him a villain. Shannon is great as Zod and his relationship with superman is really well done and layered. His lisp also works well for him. I also like his sub-commander named Faora, she was a great lieutenant for Zod. but none of the other members of his crew are really showed at all. The special effects and action scenes are truly fantastic. I LOVE the scene when superman flies for the first time, it's exactly what I wanted to see. LOVE IT! The action is spectacular! I don't think anybody can shoot an action scene like Zack Snyder. Some thought it was too much but not me. I feel like if kryptonies did come to earth it would be a lot like this, all the destruction felt appropriate for the story. However it's sad to think all those people got killed and I do think the film could've done more to address the fact people did died but it was well done action that brought a perfect kind of intensity to the film. It was a more realistic superman where people got killed before superman was able to stop it. I like that he killed Zod too. It has a nice ending with Clark getting a job at "the planet" and it was nice that Lois recognized him too. This is a great film that feels truly epic not just a superhero film going through the paces. I think this is a great start for Warner bro's. D.C. cinematic universe.
Green Lantern (2011)
First full length feature film based on the classic Green Lantern Comic starring Ryan Renyolds as Hal Gordan who becomes a galactic guardian.
I don't know why some people don't like this movie I found it to be very enjoyable. What I like most about this movie is how they explored the green lantern mythology. I love seeing the power ring, the old guardians and the other green lanterns like Kilowang and Sinistro. My favorite part of this movie is Mark Strong as Sinistro. Sinstro is one of the most iconic comic book villains of all time. So I loved seeing the first live action interpretation of this great character and Mark Strong was perfect in the role and I like seeing him before he went to the dark side. Phalax works well as the villain although they probably made him more complex then they needed. Ryan Reynolds is good and likable as Hal Jordan although he's not who I would've picked because Reynolds is always a clown and Jordan is a pretty serious guy. I like Blake Lively as the love interest, she's a pretty good actress and she's hot looking. I like the movie's theme of over coming your fear, it works well for the plot. The special effects are good and while this movie is not particularly dark it has a dark look to it that I like. I also like how the green Lanteran suit looks. This is more of a sci- fi adventure then a superhero movie. They did a good job at explaining the back story and I like the tease at the end with Sinistro putting on the yellow ring which will turn him bad. Overall I think Director Tim Story did a pretty good job in bringing us the first live action movie based on the classic comic.
Family Guy: The Simpsons Guy (2014)
Two of the greatest adult cartoons come together, the wacky Family guy and the surreal The Simpsons in a hilariously epic showdown.
I'm a big fan of both shows. There my two favorite shows on TV. With the Simpsons at number 1 and family guy at 2. I've seen every episode of both shows. I was looking forward to this the first time I heard about it at comic con. It was only natural for the 2 shows to meet and it did not disappoint. I like that this is technically a family guy episode because that makes more sense, anything can happen in family guy's world. So it's a family guy episode with the Simpson's added. So it's seems debatable if this is part of the Simpson's continuity or not. Some might complain that it's too much family guy and not enough Simpsons. But I think with every crossover it usually leans more towards one show then the other. And this is a family guy episode but it does a great job bringing the two worlds together. I thought the Griffins would go into another dimension via Stewie's sci-fi's machines but it's weird to think that Springfield's exist in family guy's world because in Simpson's world all the white people are yellow but family guy is so flexible with it's reality it works. I thought the set-up was good with Peter making cartoons for the newspaper and the griffins had to leave town. Griffins surprisingly fit well into Springfield. I'm also surprised that more wasn't said about the different skin colors. I guess everyone in Springfield just assumed their albino like Homer did. However, it was funny when Peter said don't drink the tap water everyone here looks like they have hepatitis. And no one in Springfield questions Brian, a talking dog or that Stewie is the same age of Maggie but has vaster intelligent. But the good thing is both shows are surreal enough where it's not completely illogically that they don't questions things that are not normal for them. But the best thing about any cross-over is seeing how the characters interact with each others. I love how the griffins matched up with Simpson's and brought out the best in both shows. . My favorite pairing was Bart & Stewie, it made sense that Stewie thought Bart was cool because he's still a baby and to him Bart's rebellious attitude would be appealing. It's also a meta joke about how Bart was such a popular character and all the kids wanted to be like Bart. But anyone who watches family guy knows Stewie has a dark side(after all he did spent years trying to kill his mom and take over the world) So I liked how they did that. Bart does one of his classic prank calls to Moe and when Stewie does it he goes too far, "I raped your sister". Stewie gets a creepy obsession with Bart, kidnapping his enemies and Bart was so creep ed out he didn't want to be friends with him. I like that because Bart's a prankster and a 10 years old anarchist but Stewie is a psycho! so they can never truly be friends. I also like the Meg and Lisa relationship. Lisa tries to help Meg's self-esteem. That fits because with Lisa being a feminist she would encourage Meg to find her inner strength and we know Meg is very depressed. But it also fits that Lisa would become extremely jealous when Meg becomes better then her on her beloved sax a phone. As we know Lisa can't take competition. I also love when Meg cut Lisa's name into her arm, freaking her out. The Griffins are much more extreme and darker then the Simpson's and it was good to see the difference between them. I like the little bits between Brian and the Simpson's dog Santa little helper. I also enjoyed the small bit between Maggie and Chris, showing Chris's IQ is on par with Maggie. Although I wish they would of had a scene with Stewie and Maggie because Maggie can't talk yet but has a high IQ so it would've been funny to see Stewie talk down to Maggie 'cause she can't talk but she dose something that shows she's smarter then him. They didn't have a lot of time to show Marge & Lois together but I like how they showed how much more conservative Marge is to the sometimes wild Lois, Marge covered her eyes in a cartoon when Penguins tried to surf, funny. But the main focus is of course Peter and Homer. They do make a great team, so much so I wish I would've seen more of them together. The "sexy" car wash was great! I love when Peter tries to set-up Homer for a cut away and homer has no idea what he's doing. I love that they became enemies too, fighting over, what else, beer. Using their two beers as a metaphor for how family guy ripped off the Simpsons. One of the funniest moments is seeing family guy characters sitting next to Simpson's characters, showing how their similar. I love the cameo by Fred Flintstone with the joke being they both ripped off the Flintstones. Seth Mcfarlane and co. have a good sense of humor and so do the Simpson crew as their were some jokes about them being old and pass their prime. I love the "chicken fight" between Homer & Peter, it was a little long but great and I like how they came to a understanding at the end but possibly the funniest moment in the episode is the cameo by comic book guy at the end of the chicken fight and said "worst chicken fight ever" I burst out laughing. It had more of family guy sense of humor but made good use of the Simpson's world, I like seeing the blue hair lawyer and I love the cameo by Ralph."I'm in danger". I wish Peter would've met Ned Flanders that would've been good. Overall a great meeting of my two favorite shows!
Dragonball Evolution (2009)
A live action/adventure film loosely based on the classic dragon-ball magna, where Goku and his friends must stop the evil Piccolo from collecting the 7 magic dragon-balls.
I defiantly think people are way too critical of this movie. I'm a big fan of the original dragon-ball and dragon-ball z stories and I found this film to be enjoyable. I don't think this film is suppose to be an straight up adaption of dragon-ball or dragon-ball z but more of a loosely based on adaption. A movie that's based on dragon-ball but still it's own movie. The visual look and the tone of the movie was good. The only problem I had with the plot is that we saw Goku going to school, which he didn't in the original dragon-ball and I think it would've been better to keep it that way and that Krillin, Goku's best friend didn't appear here. But I found the plot to be pretty good and true to dragon-ball. it begins with Goku living with Grand pa Gohan and he's killed and considering that in a movie we don't have a lot of time so we can't really follow Goku growing up like we did in the original story so I'm fine with them starting with the Piccolo saga. I thought the guy playing Goku, Justin Chatwin did a fine job. Later we meet Bulma, the 2nd most important character in the series. I like the actress who played her, Emmy Rossum and it felt like Bulma from the series. I liked Master Roshie here but it was odd that he looked younger then Grand pa Gohan but Roshie was the one who trained him. And I like the references to him being a pervert but not in a bad way just that he likes nudie magazines and is always trying to get a peek. Yamache fits well into the story and they give us that Bulma, Yamcha relationship. And we get Chichi. The main villain is Piccolo played by James Marsters from Buffy the vampire slayer(who played one of my favorite villains, Spike the vampire). I thought he made for a really good Piccolo. I like how Goku turning into a giant monkey worked well into the story's climax in a way I didn't expect. The dragon-balls looked good but were a little too small for my taste and it was nice seeing the Sheron dragon. Overall I feel like this movie is not a pure adaption of the dragon-ball magna but more of a lose adaption as the title suggest it's something a little different I found this film to be enjoyable I really don't think it's this awful movie people say it is. I don't think it was trying to be dragon-ball or dragon-ball z but a lose adaption of them but I found it be a good(maybe not great) live action film loosely based on my favorite anime.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
A feature film from the classic 90's cartoon series where a new figure is killing old mobsters and Batman gets the blame as well as deals with the consequences of his past.
This is one of the greatest batman feature films of all-time. I'm a big batman fan and I love the animated series, it's one of the greatest interruption of the iconic character. This is a perfect feature film spin-off to the classic series. This film works well as an addition to the animated series as well as a stand alone film. You don't really need to see the cartoon series to watch this film. Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and co. took full advantage of this being a feature film and not an episode of the series. The background animation is much better here with the use of some cgi, Gotham city looks great and bigger then in the series. The new opera music at the beginning(instead of the classic Danny Elfman score)is great! It's really powerful and haunting and really brings you right into the movie from the start and let's you know that this isn't the cartoon series. But the best thing about this movie is the very, very well written story. It's very serious and mature and not watered down for kids. The best thing about the story is that it explores more about Bruce Wayne's past and it ties nicely to the events of the present. The other great thing about the story is that it introduces a new villain and an interesting one too. The main villain is "The phantasm" a mysterious ghost of Christmas future looking figure that is killing old mobsters. People think that it's batman killing the mobster. The story is very much a murder mystery that unravels nicely through out the film. The plot twist that the phantasm is really Andrea may not be brilliant or that hard to figure out but still works well for the over plot. Batman meets a woman from his past named Andrea Boumont. Which gives reason for us to have some flashbacks and the best thing about them is how they tie Andrea into Bruce's decision or destiny to become batman. I love how we see a young Bruce Wayne who had dedicated his life to avenge his parents by fighting crime but he meets Andrea and begins to fall in love and how that throws a monkey wrench into his plans of fighting crimes. It's all done very well and you feel for Bruce more here then any other time. I love how they showed his inflictions, what should he do? No matter what carry on his vowel to his parents or abandon them for a chance of a normal life? The scene where Bruce Wayne's is at his parent's grave asking forgiveness in the rain and Andrea shows up and says "maybe they sent me" is so touching and powerful. I know it's required for Bruce to have a love interest but Andrea Boulmount is probably the best because she has much more depth then your average love interest. They do a great job at making her an mirror image of batman of what batman could've become. Every night batman walks that fine line between vengeance and justice but Andrea is out for pure vengeance and one of my favorite scenes is at the end where we see Andrea is on a cruise boat after getting her revenge and killed all the mobsters who killed her dad and a guy ask "sorry, do you want to be alone?" and Andrea responses "I am alone". Showing even after getting her revenge it didn't make her any happier. It's also nice to see a strong female villain who actually kills. I love the 1940's like mobster aspect to this story which always works perfectly for batman. This movie is allowed to be more edgier then the series so people are killed and the main mob boss from the past, Sal Velstra smokes cigarettes which they couldn't really do in the series and I liked the idea of him being sick as an old man due to his smoking. Kevin Connerlly is once again great as the voice of batman. And I like that the story takes a different approach from other batman movies. It's not really about batman saving the city from a villain. It's a more personal fight for batman, he's being framed for murders and he's trying to save the moral center of a woman he once love. I also love when in a flashback Andrea told Bruce to "forgett about her" and that's the moment when Bruce knew that he had only one destiny, to be batman. And then there's the Joker, he didn't really need to be in this film but I'm glad he is because he adds a nice touch to the movie. They did a really good job at fitting him into the story and for once he's not the main villain. It's a nice twist where Joker was really minding his own business but is drawn into this story because he realizes that someone is killing off his old mob partners and he's next on the hit list. They do a good job at building mystery around how Joker fits into the mob killings and we find out that he's that young guy who acts as a bodyguard to mob boss Sal Vedlsta in the flashbacks and I like how they revealed that it was him who killed Andrea's father. I enjoyed seeing a little bit of Joker's past and how his own past has come back to haunt him. Joker is allowed to be more darker here and scarier then in the cartoon series. Joker is both funny and menacing. Mark Hammil's at his best as Joker's voice. He's on par with Nicholson and Ledger as the greatest Joker ever. I like when joker stars laughing when seeing the explosions. He should have died in this movie and if this was a stand alone he would have but I liked that they implied that Andrea did kill him. This is batman at his best!
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Bryan Singer returns to the X-men franchise with a 7th installment where the x-men must travel back in time to stop a chain of robots from eliminating all mutants.
This is the best movie in the series and of the year! Let me start off by saying I'm a huge fan of the x-men. I read the comics, I watched the 90's cartoon, their my favorite comic book title from Marvel and 2nd only to batman. The x-men film series is my personal favorite film series of all-time! I think 20th century fox has done a great job handling the series and I'm happy with every installment. But even though I couldn't wait to see this movie I was a little worried about the time line & continuity in this film, there were already continuity issue starting with "first class" but Singer said he wanted to fix those problems. And since this film has wolverine going back to 1973, I was worried about how that fits with "origins" and I was also worried about the fact that the sentinels were created in the 70's but no where to be found in the original x-men trilogy. But I'm very happy to say that the story works perfectly and dosen't really contradict the other films! Before I talk about the great actors and special effects I must talk about how great the story is and Singer did "fix" the continuity. First off they explained how professor X was able to walk after getting paralyzed in "first class(FC) because that was one of the major continuity problems in that we saw Xaviar get paralyzed in "FC" but in flashbacks of "origins" & "last stand" which took place in the 80's he was walking but here they explain he can walk thanks to a serum by Hank so that gives a good explanation for that. They did a good job explaining how the sentinels fit into the previous story line, so in 1973 professor X was depressed & magneto was locked in prison so mystique was left on her own and she killed Trask but was briefly captured where scientist took her blood & 50 years later they used her blood to create sentinels that can shape shift to adapt to whoever their fighting. So that perfectly explains why there were no sentinels in the previous x-men films. Mystique killed Trask in '73 so no sentinels were created. And they didn't know that mystique's blood would be used to create unstoppable killer robots 50 years later. So in the background of X1, X2, X3 and the wolverine Trask industry was working on bringing back the sentinels until they had the technology to use mystique's blood for the sentinels. But this movie does make me wonder what happened in the original time line, I mean how did professor X get out of his funk & started the school again and how did magneto and mystique get out of custody but the good thing there's still like a 30 year gap between the events of '73 and the 1st x-men movie so a lot could of happened. So seeing a middle age professor X & Magneto in a flashback in "last stand" where they meet a child Jean Grey dosen't seem to be out of place in the continuity. And wolverine traveling back to 1973 dosen't contradict too much with "origins". Wolverine has the bone-claws like in origins and I like how they made him wake-up in the 70's, he had another life going on. I like when the women called him Jimmy which was revealed to be his real name in "origins" so I liked that connection. The only problem is that William Stryker in this film is a young man in his 20's or maybe early 30's but in "origins" he meets wolverine & Victor in Vietnam & he was in his 40's. But other then that it fits pretty well. Stryker probably met Wolverine & Victor in Vietnam and soon after joining him, wolverine left to be alone for 6 years. But since there was no specific year showed in "origins" you can be flexible there. My only criticism is that we don't see more of the horrible future but maybe it's for the best 'cause it was pretty dark & sad. But I think they could of explained a little more like how professor X came back alive after "last stand". I would've liked to see more of storm, iceman, colossus and Bishop. But at least we got to see them do some cool stuff with their powers. All the actors did a great job & despite playing wolverine for 6 movies Jackman is still awesome, his gruff personality is so appealing and I like that even in the horrible future he's still smoking his cigars. McAvoy & Fassbender are perfect as the younger Xaviar & Magneto. Peter Dinkalege is great as Bolivia Trask. I like how William Stryker works into story. I love the look of the sentinels, the "future ones" look really scary and the "past ones" looks perfect to the iconic comic book version. The plot is unpredictable and leaves you with doubt about if they can save the future. It's a really well written story with great emotional depth & strong performances from everyone. I love Jennifer Lawerence as mystique. I love the actor playing quicksilver, his look & personality was just like in the comics, he was funny and stoled every scene. I love how they hinted at magneto being his father like in the comics. I love the cameos at the end by Kelsey Grahmer as beast, James Mardeson as cyclops, the hot Anna Paquin as rogue and the sexy Famake Janeson as Jean Grey, as well as a cameo by Bryan Singer himself. Although it's kinda sad to know that the first 3 x-men movies didn't happen but at least wolverine remembers it. I like how the movie ended with many possibilities, no specific direction for the sequel. I love the post credit scene showing the next villain, "apocalypse" in ancient Egypt being worshiped as a god. A great film in a classic film series!
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
The final installment in Sam Raimi's spider-man trilogy, with Toby Maquire as Peter Parker/Spider-man battling three villains as well as his own personal demons.
This is not a completely bad movie but it's little disappointing, especially how great the original was and how fantastic the 2nd one was and this one is just OK at most. Sam Raimi is a fantastic director and you can see his talent at work here but his mistake here is trying to do too much in one movie. I feel like the three villains could of worked but it wasn't done in the right way. First let me say the special effects were great and all the actors did a great job. But I think the three villains could of been handled differently. First, the new Green Goblin, he was giving a great set up in the previous film and the opening fight between Harry/Goblin and Peter Parker in his street clothes was excellent! But I'm not so sure of the whole Harry getting amnesia story line, Franco was great in his part though. The rivalry/friendship between Peter and Harry is always good. Thomas Haden Church was perfectly cast as Flint Marko/Sandman and the special effects for sandman was great! Especially when he was flying through the sky like a sand cloud, that actually looked kind of creepy. Then there's my favorite spider-man villain Venom. There's a lot of good and bad with Venom. Supposlly Sam Raimi didn't like Venom and was pressured to include him. The good is that alien symbiont that is venom looks awesome! Great special effects on the symbiont or "black ooze" and Sam Raimi shows his horror movie roots with the creepy persona he gives to the black ooze. Raimi does a good job at making the symbiont/ooze feel alive and slowly shows it's true face. When the ooze gets on Eddie Brock it becomes Venom and he looks great, with his demonic looking fangs for teeth and it's banshee like screech he really looks like a demon and speaking as a big fan of the character this is the way he's suppose to be. Now the bad is that Eddie Brock wasn't giving much character development before becoming Venom. I thought Topher Grace was really good as Eddie but he wasn't given enough development. Topher was great at being sleazy, cocky and funny. I didn't mind if he was skinner then the much more muscular Brock from the comics. I thought Topher was well cast in the role. My favorite line is when Topher says as venom, mockingly "Oh, my spider sense is tingling". It's understandable that a lot of people felt like venom belonged in another movie and bringing him in here over stuffed the movie. However I feel Venom could'eve worked in this movie but I think the biggest mistake was making Venom and sandman team up at the end to attack spider-man. It should of been Venom by himself, there was no need to bring back sandman and having sandman there overshadows the awesomeness of Venom. People who are not familiar with Venom from the comics won't get a sense of why he's one of the most fearsome foes spider-man ever faced. The villains could've worked for each act: Goblin/Harry in act 1, Sandman in act 2, and venom vs spider- man showdown in act 3. If you really want to see the best take on Venom watch Spider-man the animated series of the 1990's, that's how it's suppose to be done! Also Toby/Peter going to the dark side thanks to the symbiont had some great moments but arguably could've been more darker and dangerous. I enjoyed the supporting cast especially J.K. Simmons who is absolutely perfect as the obnoxious J.Johna Jameson. The movie has a lot of good stuff about it but ultimately 3 villains just didn't work. Having it been just Peter/spider-man vs Harry/Goblin and Venom showing up at the end and no sandman at all probably would've been the best way to go. But I still enjoyed seeing the 'venom saga" unfold in a live action movie.
Dragon Ball Z (1996)
The 2nd installment of Akira Toriyama's iconic anime about the life and adventure of Goku, earth's greatest defender.
I'm no expert on anime aka Japanese animation but I like the genre. Dragonball Z is by far my favorite anime. Toriyama's dragonball saga are the king of anime. It's no doubt the most iconic anime ever or at least in America. I think Akira is a very talented writer and is master at developing stories and creating characters but I do think that he sometime disregard characters and plot points to suit his story. Also a lot of people say how the fight sequences are way too long, which is true but they're also well crafted. This is different from it's predecessor dragonball but makes for a good sequel. I like how in the dragonball series we get to see Goku, his friends and family grow up unlike most cartoon characters like Charlie Brown and the Simpsons who never age. In dragonball we see Goku as a kid, in Dragonball Z(dbz) we see Goku as an adult and dad and in Dragonball GT we see Goku as an old man and granddad. I like how dbz is split up in sagas then seasons and I think that's the best way to review it. The series begins with the "Saiyan Saga" that takes place 7 years after dragonball. The star of the series is Goku a kind-hearted martial art expert who lives in the woods with his wife Chi-Chi and his son Gohan(named after his step dad "grand pa" Gohan) and he meets his old friends from dragonball like Bulma, she is one of my favorite characters and possibly the 2nd most important character in the series. Krillin, Goku's best friend and comic relief. And Master Roshi, Goku's and Krillin's former martial art teacher and pervert. Then we meet earth's biggest threat up until this point, the Saiyans an race of ruthless, bloodthirsty alien warriors who act as mercenaries, invading planets and destroying it for other aliens. Thus, we meet one of my favorite villains from dbz, Raditz. Who comes to earth looking for his younger brother, Kakorot who is Goku! So we find out that Goku's an alien. Later we meet the super strong Nappa and Vegeta, the prince of all saiyans who will become the breakout star of the show. But the good thing is their home planet was destroyed 20 years ago so only 4 are left but earth is still in great danger from the 3. This is the best saga in the series, I love the plot twist that Goku's a saiyan, it fits perfectly. I like how someone as good natured as Goku could come from a race of brutal killers. The saiyans make for great villains. I love Raditz, he's ruthless and his sonic the hedgehog like hair style is awesome. It's a shame he pretty much disappears after this saga, I wish he would of came back or at least be mentioned in future sagas. I also love Vegeta who is a really menacing villain and who's more evil then the others. But I don't like how Akira disregards Piccolo's(a villain from dragonball) back-story. He was Piccolo Jr. the son of the evil Piccolo, who's spirit lives within him but all of that is forgotten as Akira turns him into one of the good guys. Next is the "Namek saga" where Bulma, Krillin, and Gohan go into outer space to planet Namek, there they meet Vegeta and worst yet his boss, Frieza an evil planet conquer who has the reputation of being the most powerful being in the universe. Frieza is my favorite villain in the series, he's like a cross between Satan & Adolph Hitler. He's the most important villain in the story and I like his right hand man, Zarbon. In the "Ginyu Force saga" we meet Frieza's special forces who are a great group of comical but deadly warriors. In the "Frieza saga" Goku comes to Namek and faces off against Frieza and we get to see Frieza's true power and Goku turns into a "super saiyan" and defeats him. This one goes on forever, it's way too long but still great to watch. In the "Trunks saga" we see Frieza is brought back to life by his father, the evil King Cold. They come to earth but are killed by Trunks, Vegeta's son from the future. This one starts off good but I don't like how quickly they killed off Frieza but I like the introduction of Frieza's father but they don't explain much about him like why is he called king? and they said he was stronger then his son but they never showed it. I like Trunks but I don't like how Vegeta went from being pure evil to a good guy with a bad attitude, didn't make sense to me. In the "android saga" we meet half human half robots killers. I like Android 17 & 18 who in another time line wrecked havoc. I like them because they're teenagers out to have fun not conquer but they're idea of fun is mayhem. In the "cell saga" we meet a special android who's made up of the cells of great fighters. I like him because he's cool, sophisticated and calm. But by this time we get too many "super saiyans" with Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Trunks all becoming "super sayains". In the final saga, "Boo saga" we meet an indestructible villain, Boo. The saga goes on for too long but I like the 3 Boos, baby boo, evil boo and kid boo. Unfortunately some of the characters from dragonball like Yamcha, Tien, Chazu, Parr, olong and Launch get overshadowed by the super saiyans and the villains. I love the comical moments. The fight scenes are the best ever any where! Goku is one of the greatest heroes ever! DBZ and it's predecessor dragonball are my favorite anime of all-time.
Young Guns (1988)
Six reasons why the west was wild as a group of "young guns" led by the legendary outlaw Billy the kid go to war in this classic western.
I have not seen a lot of westerns so I don't pretend to be some expert on western movies. However this is without a doubt one of the best westerns of all-time and my favorite western of all-time. I know some people criticize this film for not being historically accurate or a shallow attempt to be a "hip" western. Well, the truth is this film is not 100% accurate with history but what movie is? I liked the idea of this being a hip western staring Hollywood's "brat pack" with rock music playing in the background. I think it fits because this is basically a story about Billy the kid, a outlaw who was under 20 years old so it makes sense to give this one a younger or hipper feel to it. I like the Billy the kid story and I've seen many movies about him but this is the best one for 3 reasons. 1: I liked that they started from the beginning, other films focus on the "later" years when he met Pat Garret. 2: I like that this is more about the gang and not just about Billy. 3: Emilio Estevez is the best Billy the kid. I think the story is very well done, it's the best depiction of the Lincoln county war in New Mexico and the changes made were for the better. Like in real life John Tunstall was only twenty something and their were about a dozen or so "regulaters" not just the 6 shown here but the changes made worked for the better. The film is well directed by Chris Cain with a great balance of action, humor and is appropriately violent. I also like the look of the film, it really makes you feel like their in the wild west during 1878 and not on some sound stage. It also has a great cast! With the great Terrance Stamp who's perfectly cast as John Tunstall, an older English man who takes in six young rebellious men to work at his cattle ranch. The villain is the always great Jack Palance as Murphy, who kills Tunstal, starting the war. The 6 young boys search for justice so they become sheriffs but thanks to Billy killing everyone who they're supposed to arrest, they become outlaws. I LOVE Emillio Estevez as Billy the Kid. I know many would say his interpretation is not historically accurate but I think it's much more the way we would like to imagine the kid. Emillio gives one of his best performances and he was cheated out of an Oscar nomination. I think they did a great job in blending a lot of color to the kid. Billy is a lot of things in this movie, he's cocky, rebellious, trigger-happy, a little crazy, a loyal friend, and charming. Billy is perfectly portrayed as an anti-hero like he should be. Emillio always makes him likable even if we know he's a little crazy. I do like how they make Billy a little crazy as he takes pleasure in killing his enemies. His kills are marked by his unforgettable giggle, I love Emillio's lunatic sounding laugh. Billy is fearless who enjoys the thrill of life or death situations. But despite his wild behavior he's extremely loyal to his friends which gives him a lot of heart. Kiefer Sutherland is great as the more sensitive "Doc", one of my favorite performances of his. I love Lou Diamond Phillips as Chavez Y Chavez, possibly his best role and I love his knife skills. Dermot Mulloney is great as "dirty" Steve and he has a lot of funny moments. Casey Siemasko is great as Charlie, the more scared one of the bunch. I love Charlie Sheen as Dick, the appointed leader of the gang. I like how he fought for leadership of the regulators with his real life brother Emillio as Billy. I like the name of the gang as "the regulators", that's a cool name. The film has non stop action, good humor, good characters and the theme of friendship works well here.I love the rock'n'roll theme music. I like that they show Emillio/Billy take the now famous Billy the kid picture as well. One of my favorite movies of all-time.
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Oliver stone's surreal look at 1990's America and the media's obsession with Micky & Mallory, lovers who go on a cross-country mass murder spree.
I haven't seen all of Oliver Stone's movies but I'm a fan of his and this has to be one of his best movies. Quentin Tarantino one of my favorite directors, wrote the screenplay and this was before Tarantino became a famous director in which he probably would'eve directed this himself. But supposedly the final film had little resemblance to Tarantino's original story and he wasn't happy with it but the story still feels very Tarantino to me. Since Bonnie & Clyde and the 1967 movie about them their have been a lot of people in real life and in fiction who try to imitate the whole lovers on a crime spree thing but no one done it "better" then Micky and Mallory Knox. But what makes this movie great is that it's about a lot more then just lovers on a crime spree, it's a witty, satirical look at our violent culture in 1990's America. The film has a lot going for it, a great story, great characters, great performances, a great visual style, great music, humor and social commentary. This movie should of been nominated for an Oscar, for this film effects you on a deeper level as Stone gives us a truthful look about how violent American culture has gotten through a warped and surreal point of view. I absolutely love Stone's direction here. I love the surreal look of the film, this film is a masterpiece of surrealism. Other directors tried what Stone did but never did it as good as him. I love the slanted camera angels, the switching from black and white to color, the channel surfing, the bizarre cut-aways, the random pieces of animation and the psychedelic backgrounds are all perfectly done. The surreal visuals never become overwhelming or distract from the story or characters. It's like an acid trip and perfectly creates the world of psychopathic lovers Micky & Mallory. I love the different type of music used here. The film's endlessly imaginative, visually creative and the surreality appropriately makes the film that much more intense or disturbing to watch. Some might disagree with Stone's viewpoints like how he blames the media for turning murders into celebrities but there is some truth there, just look at Casey Anthony or Jodie Aries. But the best thing about this movie is the story of Micky&Mallory. M&M are two of the greatest movie villains ever along side other fictitious killers like Hannible Lector or Norman Bates. Woody Harleson is perfect as the cool and calm but ruthless Micky and Juliet Lewis was born to play the more unstable and erratic Mallory. My favorite scene is the opening where everything seems all safe and peaceful with M&M at a small diner along side the highway, Malory does a sexy dance while listening to music but a drunk guy comes on to her and soon all hell break lose. Mallory begins to beat the guy to death and soon Micky joins in killing everyone else. They leave one person alive to "tell the tale" and the two then celebrate with a ballroom dance. Harlson & Lewis are all too believable in their roles as heartless killers. I love the flashback showing how they met and Mallory's horrific upbringing. It's a perfect satire that's shown as a 1950's TV show called "I love Mallory" with bright colors and a laugh track. Legendary comic Rodney Dangerfeild gives one of his best on screen performance as Malory's horrible father who physically, verbally and worst of all sexually abused her. And it's disturbing hearing the laugh track while Rodney molests his daughter. They don't exactly say how far the sexual abuse went as in did he have sex with her but Micky came to the rescue and together they killed her dad and her mom(for looking the other way). But unfortunately it didn't end there as the two got married and went on a road trip that ended in brutal mass murders wherever they go, ultimately killing 50 people in just 3 weeks. Unfortunley they never went in detail about Micky's upbringing but gave the impression that his father was abusive towards him and his mother and that his mom verbally abused him. Robert Downey Jr. is great as Wayne Gale a spoof on Geraldo Rivera. Downey is brilliantly over the top as a self centered news reporter glorifying M&M for his own gain. Tommy Lee Jones is also brilliantly over the top as a sleazy prison Warden. Tom Seizmore was great as the not too honest cop trying to capture M&M. All these characters are great but there's no one who's not morally bankrupt here, there's no real good guy. Micky's interview with Gale was a great scene where he expresses his unapologetic belief in murder, which led to the prison riots but it was creepy seeing black and white images of 1950's like families watching the horrific events on TV. At it's core this is a great romance, us against the world but the movie does make perfect satire on how people idolize them even though their mass murders. I like when Mallory does a sexy thing with her tongue during a deleted scene. The ending however seem unsettling as M&M get away, not killed but in the credits we see a glimpse of them having a family, happily ever after. I understand that some people felt that Stone treated M & M too much like anti-heroes then villains but I also understand that Stone wanted to go against our expectations and the evil killers live happily ever after. But a deleted scene gave a more satisfying ending where Owen, a prison inmate who helped them escape rides with them but unexpectedly kills them, which is perfect. M&M are not killed by the cops but by another psycho, a prisoner like them who most likely was in for murder. I wish he would'eve used that ending. But one of my favorite movies of all-time, a classic!
Jurassic Park (1993)
Dinosaurs and humans collide in Steven Spielberg's classic about a billionaire who opens an amusement park where he brought back to life Dinosaurs!
Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors of all time and is the king of Hollywood blockbusters and this is one of his greatest movies. What I love about Spielberg is how he's always thinking outside the box and doing things nobody else has and in result he had made one ground breaking movie after another making other similarly themed films look absolute in comparison. I mean only Spielberg would have the for-site to license the Jurrassic Park book by Micheal Crichton even before he finished writing it and long before it was released because he saw the movie potential. Before I get to the Dinosaurs let me talk about everything else. First I must praise Micheal Crichton for his brilliant concept. The story gives a plausible(granted not realistic) explanation to how people could resurrect Dinosaurs. The movie starts off strong as in a classic horror movie fashion we get a glimpse of a dinosaur, a Velociraptor attacks a human but we never see the Raptor it self. With a movie like this you expect the first fifteen minutes or so to be exposition and set-up and you expect that we have to wait awhile until we some Dinosaours. Well, all that's true but it's not a problem because Spielberg keeps the pace moving so nicely, it's never boring or slow. Spielberg just gives enough exposition that he needs to give, a old billionaire named John Hammond has a park with real life Dinosaurs and to please a lawyer who represents his sponsors he persuades two archaeologist and a scientist to come along to check it out and give their approval and our story begins. As great as the special effects are you need a great story and great human characters. The story is simple but well done, it makes a ludicrous premise of Dinosaurs being brought back from the dead into 1993 believable and that's because the movie takes it self seriously it's never comes off campy or ironic. The story is similar to Frankenstein as they show what happens when "man" play God. I like all the characters here. Richard Attenburrough is perfect as John, the old man who created the amusement park. I like that they never make him a bad guy or even crazy just misguided and you even feel bad for him when his amusement park dosen't go the way he hoped. The more or less hero of the story is Alan Grant played by Sam Neil, an up-tight archaeologist who dosen't like kids but later does after protecting John's grandkids from Dinosaurs, nothing really deep but a good fit for this story. In fact none of the characters are really deep but still strong characters capable of holding this movie. I like Laura Dern as Ellie, Alan's partner who's tough and fearless. Wayne Knight gives a memorable performance as the double crossing Dennis, who is the only true villain. Samuel L. Jackson is also good as one of the guys who operate the park. My favorite character might be Dr. Ian Malcolm played by Jeff Goldblum. I like how John described him as a "rock star" with his shades and leather jacket. It's hard to explain but Jeff is just so appealing and he brings some humor to the movie. I also really like Bob Peck as the expert hunter Rob Muldon, he's like the Van Henlson to Dinosaurs. I like his rivalry with Raptors and I feel bad when he's killed by one of them, I wish he would of came back for a sequel. But the best thing are the dinosaurs themselves. The special effects are amazing, especially for 1993. The Dinosaurs look real and I don't mean real looking for a movie I mean they look like their really alive. Nothing mechanical or cgi looking about them. The special effects are groundbreaking and some of the best in movie history. First we see the Brachiosaurs, which looks great as well as seeing a Triceatops which looked all too real. but the real moment comes when we see the most iconic Dinosaur of them all the Trannosaurus Rex, who emerges after the power goes out and Ian, Alan and the kids are stuck in a car in front of the T-Rex cage and it attacks the kids in the car. The special effects on the T-Rex looks frighteningly real and I love it's roar. Later the T-Rex chases Ellie, Rob, and Ian in a car which was also great. I also love the Dilophosaurs who attacks Dennis, I love how it's like a rattle snake but unfortunately the real Dinosaur dosen't have the neck fan or shot venom, that was created by Crichton but this is way better. The best Dinosaurs are the Velociraptors, no one even heard of them until this movie. That's one of the great things about this movie is that they introduced us to some lesser known Dinos. I understand for theatrics Spielberg had to make the Raptors more menacing then they really were but he did a great job at making the Dinosaurs be animals acting by instant not monsters. I love how intelligent they made the Raptors. The Raptors are my favorite Dinosaurs in this movie and they steal the show. Although the ending was a little contrived when the T-Rex came out of no where to save "our heroes" from three Raptors, two of which some how escaped a locked room but it made for a good climax any way. I also love the score by the great John Williams. The is def-intently the greatest Dinosaur movie of all time.
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)
A long awaited sequel to the 2009 movie based on the iconic 80's cartoon series/toy line with the special military force stopping the terrorist organization called Cobra.
I really like the original 2009 predecessor film but I'm very disappointed by this long awaited sequel. Let me first say that unlike most professional film critics who never seen a G.I. Joe cartoon, I'm a true fan who's seen the cartoon and know the characters. So while many can just brush off both films as being just cheesy, action driven, special effect filled blockbusters, I look at it from the view of is this a satisfying adaption of the classic cartoon. So from that view the first film does a much better job at being a more satisfying/faithful adaption. What I like about the first film is that it had a more creative and inspired story. The first film did a good job in introducing the G.I. Joe operation and it's characters. The first film also did a really good job with the villains,Cobra came off as genuinely threatening and dangerous. The action scenes were really good like for example the action sequence in Paris. The rivalry with Snake- eyes and Storm shadow was good and I like the plot twist with who would become Cobra commander. Stephen Sommons did a much better job directing the last one then Jon M. Chu did directing this one. I felt the story for this one was very weak. I hate how Chu disregards so much from the original film, the only Joe to return from the last film is Duke played by Chantam Tantum. Ribcage played by Marlon Wayans who was his best friend from the 1st film disappears with no explanation to his where abouts. Other Joe's like Scarlett and General Hawk are also gone with no explanation. Chu could of at least explained where all the characters from the 1st film gone too and quite frankly there was no need to write them out of this movie even if they had different actors playing them it would of worked better. Killing off Duke/Tantum 15 minutes into the movie served no real plot purpose. New Joes were introduced Lady Jane, Flint and Roadblock played by "the Rock", who were all okay. "The Rock" did a good job in his part and so did Bruce Willis although his character wasn't really necessary to the plot. But the villains were very weak. I like the actor who played the fake president though out the film, I thought he did a good job and I'm glad that they continued that storyline from the 1st film. But the iconic villain, Cobra commander was very weak here. He got little screen time and did little. I feel most disappointed in the villains, especially since the 1st film was such a nice set-up for Cobra to come back for revenge. The last film spent so much time setting up Cobra commander and how Cobra would come to be. Cobra commander's real identity as Rex is not acknowledge here. I like how the 1st film depict the rise of Cobra. In the 1st film a guy named Mccluin was running a terrorist organization but a scientist named Rex, who was working for Mcculain turned against him and turned Mcculain's face metal making him into Destro and he took over becoming Cobra commander. Rex was good friends with Duke of the Joe's but Rex was believed to have died in a war. Duke was going out with his sister but Rex brainwashed her and made her an assistant to Mcculain's operations becoming the Baroness. As you can see that's a pretty complex and interesting set-up for the villains but all of that is disregarded here or not continued and it's just a simple Cobra commander back for revenge. The worst thing are the absence of Destro and the Baroness. People who know the cartoon know that Cobra commander's lieutenants are Destro and the Baroness. And for no good reason they're not in this movie. They tease us with the return of Destro but he never does. And that's really a disappointment because they gave him such a nice set-up for him to return and they don't even bother to explain where the Baroness is. As a G.I. Joe fan I find that to be unacceptable. Even if they got different actors to play them, Destro and Baroness should of been in here, standing side by side with Cobra commander exacting revenge on the Joes. They don't explain how Storm shadow came back after being apparently killed in the last film. One of the good things about this movie is great stunt man Ray Parker returning as Snake-eyes. Overall I find this to be a disappointing sequel to the 2009 film and to the classic 80's cartoon series.
X-Men (1992)
A classic cartoon about Marvel comic's team of mutant's called the X-men led by professor X, fighting for peace even if it means protecting those who hate them.
I'm a huge fan of comic book superheroes and the X-men are my favorite from Marvel comics. This is the best interruption of the X-men. I LOVE the live action movies by 20th century fox with Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry & etc. But this is the best adaptation from the comics. This is also an iconic staple of Saturday mourning cartoons of the 1990s. In the comics about every decade there's a different X-men team with different characters and this cartoon is perfectly based on the 90's team of X- men, which might be the best one. The show does an EXcellent job at staying true to the comics, the animation was great, the action was great and the stories/episodes where great! The best thing about the X-men in general are all the wide range of great characters. Marvel comics done a great job in creating many, many truly interesting characters with great powers, back-stories, personalities and cool looks. It's the colorful characters that makes the X-men so iconic. First there's Charles Xaviar aka Professor X voiced by Cedric Smith. He has a great voice for Xavier. He's the leader of the X-men and one of the world's most powerful telepathic. They did a great job at always giving him an important part in the show not just the typical boss role. The field leader of the X-men is Scott Summers aka Cyclops voiced by Norman Spencer. His voice is perfect for Cyclops. He has one of the most tormenting powers as powerful rays shoot from his eyes which can only be controlled with a visor he wears but he can never look at anyone with a naked eye. They did a great job showing his personality and how serious he takes things as well as his rivalry with Wolverine. Catherine Disher is great as the voice of Jean Grey, who's power is telekinesis(moving objects with her mind). I like her romance with Cyclops and like Scott she takes things seriously. The 2nd in command after Cyclops is Oroa Munroe aka Storm voiced by Iona Morris. Her voice is perfect, I love her African accent. She can control the weather around her and I love how she makes dramatic statements when using her powers like a God commanding the weather to act by her will, even Rouge commented on it by saying "lighting up with the speeches". I love Hank McCoy aka Beast. He looks like a fury animal but is actually an sophisticated Genies scientist. George Blaze is great as his voice, I love how they show his love for reading, poetry and art and how he quotes poetry. I love Rogue, she's a great character. She has one of the best personalities and back-story. Lenore Zann is great as her voice, I love her sassy southern accent and flirtations. But she is also tragic as her power is to absorb the life force and/or powers of anyone she touches, making her incapable to touch anyone. My favorite character is Remy Lebeau aka Gambit, who's power is to turn any object into an explosive by touching it. He just has a cool personality. I love Chris Potter's voice, his French accent is perfect. I love how he uses game cards as weapons and all of his "card talk" like saying "five card stud" before blowing something up. I also like how for some reason he always talks in a 3rd person. The youngest member is teenager Jubilee voiced by Alyson Court. Her hands can create fireworks like sparks. She's cool but I think they made her too immature. But the breakout star is Logan aka Wolverine. I love Hugh Jackman but this is the best take on Wolverine ever. His scratchy, Clint Eastwood like voice by Cathal Dodd is great. His heart's always in the right place but he has such a bad attitude and unlike the other X-men he'll kill . They couldn't show him actually kill(like in the comics) but heavenly implied he's willing to kill. I love his rivalry with the vicious Sabbertooth and how he's in love with Jean Grey. He is definitely the most interesting & complex X-men character. The show also did a great job with the villains. The mutant- hunting giant robots called Sentials were perfectly done. Professor X's former college, the non-mutant hating Magneto is good but unfortunately he dosen't have the brotherhood in this show, he works alone. I like Mystique, Avalanch, and Pyro. Mr. Sinister is one of my favorites, he's really creepy. I love the Juggernaught, he's a smart-ass, a bully and his super strength makes him literally unstoppable. The biggest villain is Apocalpse, who's really scary. Other X-men characters from the comics appear like Collosus, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Angel, Dazzler, Cable but unfortunately no Kitty Pryde. I love the opening credits and theme music, there's no lyrics but the music is unforgettable. The series is very mature and deals with intense issues like prejudice, bigotry and abuse. The 1st season is the best but the entire series is fantastic and is the best from Marvel comics.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Chris Nolan's Batman sequel where all the criminals in Gotham are afraid of "the batman" but a deranged mobster called Joker takes crime to a horrifyingly new level.
I'm a huge batman fan and this is one of the greatest comic book movies of all-time. This film is better then it's predecessor, Batman Begins, which was a great film. One of the things that makes this better is the look of Gothasm city. This one was shot in Chicago while "Begins" was shot on a set, it makes all the difference. I love the look of Gotham, it never looked better. I love seeing Batman in a realistic looking city and I saw it in Imax and it was awesome! What I love about Nolan's batman is that the story is so awesome and that's the best thing about this movie the story/plot/screenplay is great. While the other batman films by Burton & Shumaker were basically batman vs the villain of the week, which is fine but Nolan brings so much depth to the story. The story is intelligent, serious, mature and sophisticated. At times I thought I was watching law & order or criminal minds. The film is well shot with some great action scenes like Batman riding his motorcycle through Gotham chasing Joker in a truck. I love the music it sounds great! Nolan's realistic approach to batman is perfectly visualize here.The film has great dialog and a great cast. This movie is also very, very dark. But I always felt that batman is better when he's dark and this movie proves it. Chritian Bale returns as Batman/Bruce Wayne. This film has similarities to the 1989 batman like that the villain, Joker overshadows the hero but like Keaton, Bale holds his own. Bale's great as Batman. He plays Bruce's public image as a arrogant, playboy millionaire but privately he's a brooding loner and when he's batman he puts the dark in the dark knight. He's menacing, intense and other then not killing he shows no mercy on criminals. I love Maggie Gyllenhal who replaces Katie Holmes as district attorney and Bruce Wayne's childhood friend/love interest Racheal Daws. She is much better in the role then Holmes. This is one of her best performances. I love Aaron Ecckart as new district attorney Harvey Dent who becomes the famed villain Two-Face. This is one of the best take on Two-Face ever! I liked that they focus more on Harvey Dent then his villain persona and I love his transformation to Two-Face but unfortunately they didn't put much emphasis on the fact that Harvey's supposed to have a split personality. Harvey/Two-Face is both scary and sad like he should be. Gary Oldman, Micheal Caine, and Morgan Freeman are all great in their returning role. I love the cameo by Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow. But the best thing about this movie is the tragically late Heath Ledger in his unforgettable and tremendous performance as the iconic comic book villain, the Joker. Like Jack Nicholson in '89, Ledger's Joker steals the show. His performance is grear for two reasons. From an acting view and a comic book view. From an acting view Ledger gave one of the best on screen transformations of all-time. The man we knew as Heath Ledger and the guy we saw in Brokeback Mountain was no where to be found, he truly became a whole another person. I love his voice, the way he changed his voice is amazing and I love his scary high pitch laugh. At times his voice sounds a little bit like Nicholson(probably his nod to Jack) This is possibly the best portrayal of a realistic sociopath/psychopath ever. Heath must of studied real life mentally ill people to play it so perfectly and I like the weird way he licks his lips. From a comic book view Nolan & Ledger gave a great interruption of the Joker character. What makes Joker barman's #1 enemy is that he's uniquely crazy, unpredictable, willing to do things that other villains wouldn't do and he's a pure killer. Nolan brings all these qualities to the Joker. Nolan makes Joker a derange murdering anarchist and it's interesting listing to his twisted view point. I like how Joker ups the ante by telling batman to publicly reveal his identity or he'll kill
people. I like how he set up his crimes although some seem a little too elaborate. I love his creepy clown make-up, it's a great look for a more realistic Joker. His look has a "Goth" quality to it. The plot dosen't put much emphasis on Joker's twisted sense of humor but Ledger brings some humor to him like when he's holding Racheal out a window and batman says "let her go" and Joker says "poor choice of words" and lets her go, to fall to her death. I love the scene where Joker meets Dent in the hospital and he's wearing a female nurse outfit complete with a wig, that looked so creepy. But the most bizarre is how he told different stories about how he got the scars on his face. I wish we could've seen Ledger's Joker with Harley Quinn his girlfriend/ sidekick from the comics. I can imagine Ledger's Joker hanging with a weird girl wearing clown make-up. I also wish we found out a little bit about his back-story. If Joker came off the comic book pages and into the real world this is how he would be. Ledger's Joker is one of the greatest movie villains of all time and is going in the comic book hall of fame. This is the best of the three Nolan Batman films and is one of the greatest comic book movies of all-time.
Batman: The Animated Series (1992)
Following the success of Tim Burton's dark Batman movie, this classic cartoon series is dark, serious and mature as a mysterious Batman fights for justice in Gotham city.
I'm a huge fan of Batman and "Batman: The animated series" is without a doubt one of the best interpretation of Batman and his world. But this is just a great cartoon series in general. Over the years there has been and there will be many cartoons, TV series and movies based on Batman but only a few will stand as true classics. This series was created by Bruce Tim and began in 1992 and the Tim Burton influence is clear here but it has it's own voice and style. They did a fantastic job capturing the essence of batman. I love the opening credits, there's no credits, no title saying "Batman the animated series" it's just a sequence showing two bank robbers in the shadows running from the cops and meet Batman in the shadows who fights them and leaves them tied up for the cops as he disappears but a strike of lighting shows him standing on a roof top, now that's an AWESOME opening! I love the animation style, it has a realistic look and the background drawings are amazing, they look so three dimensional, I mean things like a stone stature look remarkably real. I love their look of Gotham City, it's slightly 1940's but not as exaggerated as Tim Burton's Gotham's. They said that they drew their backgrounds on black paper instead of white paper. I love how Gotham looks dark full of shadows and smoke. Bruce said they wanted their episodes to be like mini movies, which is why it has such an cinematic feel. This animation is much better then the Japanese, more cartoonish, less realistic style of the re-launch in the later 90's. The stories are very series and mature not really for kids but nothing offensive for kids. The series was very edgy often showing gun shooting and implying but not out right showing murder. I love their interpretation of Bruce Wayne/Batman. Kevin Conroy gives a fantastic, Emmy worthy performance. He is one of the best Batmans of all-time. I love his voice transformation from Bruce to "Bats", it's great! As Bruce he plays him as a clueless millionaire socialite playboy but as Batman he becomes dark. His Batman voice is perfect, it sounds really dark, gravelly and just plain scary but it feels natural not forced. I love how a lot of moments shows Bruce in public, talking on the phone or something but when he gets alone or just with Alfred he has the Batman voice as if that's his true self. The entire voice cast on this show was excellent I love Bruce's butler Alfred he provides some great dry humor. I love Commissionor Gordan, his voice is perfect for Gordan. I love lieutenant Bullock a gruff and unlikable but good cop. I like Batman's sidekick Dick Grayson/Robin but he only appears occasionally which is good because batman had to be a loner but Robin does have some good humor and an edge to him. The episodes "Robin's Reckoning part 1 and 2" was one of the best, showing Robin wanting revenge on his parent's murderer. But one of the best thing about Batman are his rouge galley and their interpretation of them were great. I like the Penguin, who sounds sophisticated. Richard Moll did a Emmy deserving job on his transformation from D.A. Harvey Dent to Two- Face. They gave the best take on Two-Face I've seen, I love how they explored his schizophrenia. I love their take on Clayface, Matt Hagan a famous actor who would become Clayface. The animation on Clayface is excellent, the episodes "feat of clay part 1 & 2" are one of the best. They had a good take on Catwoman but she dosen't appear as often as you would think. I love their take on Scarface and the ventriloquist. I love the voice of Scarface. I like the voice of the Scarecrow. I love their Mad Hatter and I love his voice. They make him really dangerous with his mind controlling methods. I love their take/voice on Ras Al Ghaul and his daughter Talia. I liked their Riddler, my favorite villain. They made Riddler very sophisticated and smart not a giggling lunatic like Frank Garnish but I think they made him too smart and it was hard to write episodes for him, thus appearing in only 3 episodes. I love Poison Ivy, perfect voice for her. But the best villains in this series are the Joker and his sidekick Harley Quinn. Mark Hamil's Joker voice is hall of fame status of legendary, it's absolutely amazing. His laugh blows out all competition. There's just no way to describe what a great performance Hammil gives as Joker, he took the character to a whole new level that will never be matched by anyone. Then there's the Joker's sidekick/girlfriend Harley Quinn, who became the shows breakout star and for good reason too. She was not from the comics but created by great writer Paul Dini in this show. She is a fascinating character as she is a woman who's insanely in love with Joker and was his therapist in prison before joining him. A lot of fans feel sorry for her because of how Joker takes advantage/abuses her love for him but I never felt that bad for her because she never feels bad about helping Joker do horrible things. She also acts as a comedic villain 'cause she comes off as ditzy. Arleen Sorkin's voice as Harley is excellent, giving her a New York accent and a weird cuteness. Her court jester outfit is a great look. It was a great idea giving Joker a girlfriend, who for some reason is in love with Batman's most psychotic and murderous foe. I love the music which was done by a live orchestra. This show spawned many spin-offs by Bruce Timm including Superman and Justice League cartoons, making Bruce Timm and Paul Dini the best people to ever do a Batman cartoon. Classic.
Batman Forever (1995)
Joel Shumacher takes over as director in the 3rd Batman film where Val Kilmer as Batman with Robin fights Jim Carrey's manic but brilliant Riddler.
This is a really good movie but you have to put the whole thing in context. Part of me wants to hate this movie because this film is not dark. They way batman is supposed to be is dark, that's who he is, that's the way Bob Kane created him back in 1939. That's the reason why I loved the two Tim Burton directed Batman films because they are so dark. But this is a film of it's time, made in 1995, you can never make a Batman movie like this one today. Especially after the extremely dark Christopher Nolan's Batmans. People now understand Batman should be dark but back in '95 people didn't fully understand that. The last film was controversial as some felt it was too dark, some parents said it scared kids and most problematic it was too dark to market towards kids, so Warners fired Tim and hired Joel Shumacher to make this film less dark and more family friendly. However despite all that, this is a really good movie. But it's also a strange movie because it's hard to say what this movie is, I mean is this supposed to be a sequel to Batman Returns or some kind of reboot. It has nothing to do with the previous two by Burton in both style or story. It basically disregards the continuity of the last two but Micheal Gough who played Alfred returns here along with Pat Hingle returning as Commissioner Gordan implying that this is a sequel. So I look at this as half sequel half reboot. The biggest thing about this movie is the visual look, I mean very colorful, the exact opposite of Tim Burton who made Gotham city look dark and gloomy. Joel let people know this is not going to be like that because Gotham looks bright and colorful. While Tim's Gotham looks like New York city, Joel's Gotham looks like Las Vegas, very flashy with a lot of bright lights. Even though Gotham city is supposed to be dark, I must admit it shows a lot of imagination and creativity to create his look of Gotham . This film is very cartoon-ish and campy, complete with cartoon sound effects. But what makes this movie good is that it does have a lot of seriousness to it and even a little dark. The plot is that Bruce Wayne is loosing the drive to continue being Batman & we look into his past as to why he became batman in the first place, he even quits being Batman for a time but the movie does a good job at exploring Bruce Wayne's psych in a way the previous films didn't. Val Kilmor(Keaton left 'cause he didn't want to do a non dark batman) is a good but not fantastic batman, he's a little stiff as Bruce Wayne but does a good job. The film has a lot of stuff going on in it, a love interest, the introduction of Robin, two villains & Batman himself but it does a good job balancing all characters in a coherent story. Nicole Kidman is the love interest, psychiatrist Dr. Chase Meridian, she's one of the best loves for Batman in a movie. She works really good in the story, she has a great romance with Bruce & her being a shrink is nicely done. Kidman gives a great performance & she looks really sexy in here too. Batman's famed sidekick Robin is introduced played by Chris O'Donnell. He does a decent job here, he provides some humor & O'Donnell does a good job being angry, rebellious but still likable. The writers do a good job at Bruce's & Dick's relationship & their share feeling of vengeance for the murders of their parents. But there's one bad thing about this movie, that's Tommy Lee Jones as the villain Two-Face, for non comic book geeks you probably find his two-face to be fine but as a comic book geek I must say two-face here is a huge disappointment! He's just way too campy and 1 dimensional. If you know the comic book, two-face has the potential to be a very psychologically damaged, terrifying, & sympathetic villain. But here he's just a campy villain who lacks all the qualities I just mentioned and Joel goes overboard with the theme of everything being in twos for two-face, it got too silly. But to make up for the lackluster take on two-face is famous comedian Jim Carrey in his truly fantastic performance as my favorite batman villain, The Riddler! Durning this time Jim was at the peek of his popularity and one could say that his performance here is just another routine comedy act for Jim but I think it's much more then that. Carrey brings so much color & life to the Riddler. It's truly fascinating to watch Jim go, he's really over the top here, so much so that he makes Jack Nicholson's Joker look understated. But Jim is both funny & menacing here not to mention crazy. There are many different ways you can portray the Riddler and Carrey gave a performance that's unique & all his own and he's helped by a good script that has a good story for Edward Nygma who will become the Riddler. They give Nygma his brilliance as he plans to absorb people's brainwaves making him the superior intellect. I also like the various riddler outfits he wears. Jim looks great in his skin tight green jump suit & with red hair. I love the way he twirls his cane and the scene where riddler gleefully destroys the bat-cave is awesome! He has a great laugh, and a lot great one liners. Carrey's performance is a stand out in the entire movie series. This movie has a lot great special effects, great action scenes and score, so despite not being really dark I find this to be a really good movie.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
A sequel to the 1931 horror classic, Frankenstein, where "The Monster" is looking for love, so Dr. Frankenstein and his insane colleague create his bride.
One of the best "monster movie" of all-time. I saw the original and this movie in theaters as a Halloween special by Turner movie classic channel. It was awesome, seeing them both on the big screen. Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein are the best of the legendary movie series. I think what makes those two movies such classics is that they were the first real movies based on Mary Shelly's novel and were more closer to the Shelly's book then the sequels. I always felt that the original and this sequel were kind of part of one story, the real sequel was the third film "Son of Frankenstein". This is a direct continuation of the last film with the same director James Whale and Boris Karloff returning as the iconic monster. In fact this film is based on a subplot in Mary Shelly's original novel, where Dr. Frankenstein considers creating a mate for his creature. James Whale did a great job directing this film, the pacing is good and the look of the film is great. Unlike the original film this one has a musical sound track that works great in the film. The reason why most people say this is the best of the Frankenstein films is because this has a lot of meat too it, there's more stuff going on here then in the more straight forward, simplistic original. These classic monster movies from Universal in the 30's and 40's are not really scary but still has a creepy quality too it that work wells. The idea of putting dead bodies together and bringing it to life is kind of creepy and makes you question someone's sanity who attempts that. Like in the original film this film begins with a cold opening of sorts, which is one of the best parts of the film. Elsa Lancaster, who plays "the bride" plays Frankenstein author Mary Shelly who's in a mansion with George Gordon lord Baron, "England's greatest signer" and Percy Byshe Shelly, "England's greatest poet" and she begins to tell them the story of the movie. I love how Lord Baron roles his Rs when he talks, it's so appealing. It's a great intro to the movie and I like the idea of having Lancaster play Mary Shelley, there's something cool about seeing her as the woman who wrote the story, Mary Shelley and then later see her as the monster's bride. The film begins where the last one left off but some people didn't come back, Fred Kerr as Dr.Frankenstein's father does not appear here, neither the actor or character return after being a major character in the last one and no explanation of his where about. Valerie Hobson replaces Mae Clark as Dr.Frankenstein's wife and she does a good job. I love Colin Clive as Dr.Henry Frankenstein, he's the best and is sometimes underrated in his pitch perfect portrayal of a conflicted scientist who's not bad but is tempted by desire to play god. I love Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Pretorius, he's a great edition to the story, a scientist crazier then Dr. Frankenstein. He has a good mixture of crazy, humor and a little flamboyant which caused a lot of people to question if he's gay, maybe he is. He has a creepy looking face too. There's a lot of humor here too, like Minnie as Dr. Frankenstein's loud mouth maid, she was not in the original but inexplicably appears here. Although there's a scene that I thought was too surreal, when Dr. Pretorius shows Dr. Frankenstein his 2 inch people that he grew, I thought that felt out of place. I love Boris Karloff as the monster, I thought it was great hearing him talk, unlike in the first film where he was silent. Although I thought it was a bit of a stretch that he went from not being able to talk to within two days mastering the English language. But I like his friendship with a blind hermit, that was well done, showing that he's not a total monster he just needs a friend. The best part of the movie however is towards the end where we get to see the much anticipated "bride". The whole scene is awesome! Dr. Frankenstein says his iconic "She's alive" and I love the way he says it. Elsa Lancaster is terrific in her role, she's only on the screen for five minutes or so but she makes every minute count. It's great silent acting by her, she has the perfect look of a confused, horrified woman who just awoke from the dead. The church bells were great when she was introduced. I love her movements, she just really sells the idea that she just came back from the dead. I love her look as well, she looks kind of sexy in a creepy kind of way and of course her trademark electrified hair was a great idea. I love when she hisses at the monster in her last scene, the way she does it is really creepy. I feel sorry for her because like the monster in the first film, she wasn't given a chance to adjust to life after being brought back from the dead, this is definitely a tragic love story. I wish the bride would've been brought back for a sequel, I would of liked to see how she'd act in the outside world, would she kill people like the monster did? This is one of my favorite films from Universal classic Monster movies. An all-time classic.
Addams Family Values (1993)
For the Addams family everyday's Halloween and now they welcome a new baby boy and Uncle Fester gets married... to a psycho!
One of the best comedies of all-time and one of my favorite comedies ever. This film is a sequel to the 1991 hit movie. This film and the original are comedy classics. Barry Sonnenfeild did a fantastic job at directing both films. Sonnenfeild's two movies are the best interpreting of Charles Addam's dark but lovable characters. But this one is better then the original. The first film was more wacky in the style of the classic 60's TV series and spent a lot of time introducing us to the world of the Adams. But this film is more darker and less wacky(but this film still has a good amount of wacky). I can't imagine any other take of the Addams being better then this one or the first film. The cast is perfect and the story and gags here are great. I love the look of the Addam's mansion, it's a character on to it self. The principal cast, except for the actress playing grand-ma-ma have returned. Great actors Raul Julia and Anjelica Houston are once again perfect as Gomez and Morticia. Julia perfectly captures Gomez's suave and romanticism, as well as Gomez's tendencies to be over dramatic. Houston is absolutely great as the dark and mysterious Morticia. Her calmness works well with Gomez's over dramatics's. I love how in this one she is always shown in shadow with just a little bit of light revealing her eyes, as if a mysterious shade follows her around everywhere she goes. The two films perfectly captures their darkly romance and I like their freaky S&M fetish. When I think of Gomez and Morticia I always think of Julia and Houston. Christopher Lloyd is fantastic as the love-ably gross and off putting Uncle Fester. I love how dim witted Lloyd makes Fester. You forget that's Lloyd is Fester, he so becomes the character. I like the decision of making Fester Gomez's brother, instead of Morticia's uncle like in the original TV series. Christina Ricci is terrific as the brooding, stone face Wensday. Sonnenfeild gave Wensday a much larger role in this one and she almost steals the show. Without even saying anything Christina has a look on her face that's just great. Ricci is really great in playing a slightly sinister, never smiling Wensday Addams . She will always be Wensday Adams and this is one of her best performances. And I always like the name Wensday. Jimmy Workman is the son Pugsly, he dosen't do much here but is a good sidekick to Wensday. Carel Struycken has a good look as Lurch, the Frankenstein like butler. Carol Kane takes over the role of grandmother & witch grand ma ma and she does a good job. And I love Thing, the living severed hand with a mind of his own, who always has great moments. The plot evolves around a new baby boy, born with a mustache and looking like Gomez named Pubert coming to the family. Which brings in a nanny named Debbie Jellinsky played by Joan Cusack. The major plot is that the new nanny, Debbie is really a serial killer called "The black widow" who's pattern is that she marries wealthy men for money and then kills them and she's planning to do the same with Uncle Fester. But things don't go exactly as she plans. This plot works great in the story, because it's really funny seeing Debbie seducing Fester but he's so dim- witted it takes a while for him to get it, and once they get married she can't seem to kill this guy and no matter how obvious her murder attempts are he dosen't seem to get the picture. I also like how she uses sex to control Fester. Cusack gives one of her best and most underrated performances here. This is my favorite role of hers. I love the way she plays Debbie, it's the right balance of crazy and humor. I also love her psychotic laugh. The best scene in the film is towards the end when Debbie has the entire family in electric chairs, showing slide shows about her life and explaining her point of view and showing how crazy she really is, it's a fantastic performance by Joan Cusack. She reveals that she killed her parents as a young girl because they got her the wrong Barbie doll and the real reasons she killed her past husbands wasn't for money it was for trivial things like not being home for dinner. I like how calm the family are during this. I like when Pubert gets sick and becomes a happy Rosie check Shirley Tempel looking baby, much to the family's horror. The other major story are the kids. I like how Wensday and Pugsly get jealous of the new baby Pubert so they try to kill him repeatably in deadly games, but of course for the Addams that's just normal sibling rivalry. They are eventually sent to summer camp and this is a great side story as the kids go to a happy, optimistic and sunny camp ran by two perky scouts Gary(the always hilarious Peter MacNicol) & Becky. Mercedes Mcnab is great as Wensday's rival, a snobby rich girl. Wensday gets romantic with a nerdy outcast named Joel, who works good in the story. One of the funniest scenes is when Wensday, Pugsly & Joel are forced to watch a marathon of light hearted family friendly TV from the "Brady bunch" to "The sound of music" and the scene where Wensday forces a strain filled smile that scares the other kids. And I love the ending with Wendsay saying to Joel that unlike Debbie she would kill her husband by scaring him to death and when Joel puts flowers on Debbie's grave, Debbie's hand comes up to grab him and as he screams in horror Wensday gives a sinister grin. A comedy classic about the #1 family of horror.