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Suicide Squad (2016)
Disappointing... but good
Considering all the hype and trailers that we have been seeing for months, I left the movie a little bit disappointed. I expected this movie to be a major upgrade from Batman vs Superman, but it wasn't. But it wasn't THAT bad, it was a decent story line with some great superheroes.
The portrayal of most of the superheroes was one of the things that made me enjoy the movie and forget some of the bad things such as the awful Jared Leto as the Joker. I enjoyed Will Smith as Deadshot who was like the leader of the group. He eventually accepted that he is one of the good guys and should help the army. In turn, he would also persuade the others. Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn was great. Crazy but great. Her dysfunctional relationship with the Joker makes her even more crazy and mad. Jay Hernandez as El Diablo was a character that, at first is afraid of his own powers, but later gains courage to fight.
Jared Leto's portrayal of the Joker was awful. With Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson, The Joker was the bad guy that everybody loves. With Jared Leto, he destroyed that. His style and the iconic Joker laugh were terrible.
Enchantress was good but I thought her character could have been portrayed better. Her background story should have explained and should have been given more screen time. She seemed like a real villain and one that could challenge the Suicide Squad; unlike the Joker.
Overall, I found the movie to be entertaining. Most of the superheroes are interesting, each with their own background. There were some good jokes in the movie and the post-credits scene made me eagerly waiting the next movie. But this isn't a movie at the same level of The Dark Knight, so hopefully, the future DC comics movies will be much better.
Jason Bourne (2016)
Damon and Greengrass are BACK!!!
Matt Damon returns as Jason Bourne and Paul Greengrass as the director. They are back, and they bring back with them the thrill, intensity, action, and amazing story lines that we were used to in the first 3 Bourne movies. The cast alongside Damon are also excellent. Tommy Lee Jones was perfect for the role of CIA director. Alicia Vikander is a CIA agent that helps Bourne kill Dewey(Tommy Lee Jones) but for her own motives. Cassel is the asset for the CIA who wants to kill Bourne. Julia Stiles is back from the Bourne Ultimatum to play a short but important role in helping Bourne discover the truths of his past.
The difference in this movie is that this time Bourne knows his past and is back for revenge. That and the involvement of his father enrich the plot. The car chase was also amazing.
Jason Bourne is a must watch and a much better movie than The Bourne Legacy. Hopefully, we will be seeing much more of Damon and Greengrass in later Jason Bourne projects.
Fast & Furious 7 (2015)
Action-packed brilliance meets emotional Paul Walker farewell
This movie was destined to be the most successful and entertaining movie of the Fast and Furious franchise. All F&F and Paul Walker fans have been waiting for this movie for a long time.
With Furious 7, you get your normal action-packed scenes 10 times better. You get some comedy scenes and finally, you get a very well made and respected Paul Walker farewell.
Furious 7 is filled with stars. You get the F&F regulars, Dwayne Johnson, and Jason Statham. Everyone of them adds something special to the movie. You also get cameos of some of the stars of Tokyo Drift. You also get to see some of the best cars in the world, car chase scenes, and some great one-on-one fights.
The Paul Walker farewell was made for the F&F family and fans to say goodbye for the last time to Paul Walker. After this scene, you finally realize that you will never see Walker starring in a movie ever again. But you also realize that his final movie was one worth remembering him for.
It is a movie definitely worth watching. Maybe even more than once.
American Sniper (2014)
Unexpectedly Awesome!
American Sniper is one the few movies where the movie is much better than the trailer. This movie is a combination of war scenes in Iraq and the psychological problems soldiers face when returning to their country. These are explained from the point of view of the war hero Chris Kyle.
In this movie, Bradley Cooper rose from being an average actor to one of the greats. The way he depicts the real life of Chris Kyle is just brilliant. He pulled of a great Texas accent to make his role as Chris Kyle seem very realistic. The rest of the cast members also added to the brilliance of this movie. Most notable was Sienna Miller's performance as the girlfriend and then wife of Chris Kyle.
Even without Bradley Cooper, this would still be a great movie. Clint Eastwood has directed some great movies and for sure this will be ranked as one of his best movies yet. He sticks to the movie's plot without adding too much useless sub plots. The two hours of this movie are filled with rich and important events. You never feel that a certain scene is useless. Clint Eastwood has never disappointed in this matter. One of the strong points of Eastwood is that he is always straight to the point. You never get bored with his movies.
American Sniper is a must see. You get to witness the story of one of the great war heroes. You get to see the story from Kyle's point of viewand how the war affected his family and himself.
Serena (2014)
Very poor
After watching the trailer, I didn't expect Serena to be a great movie. But I still wanted to watch it because of the cast. Even with my low expectations for this movie, the movie turned out to be worse than expected.
The first 30 minutes are very good. You get to know the background of Serena (Jennifer Lawrence) and George Pemberton (Bradley Cooper). The story line is great and the way George's timber empire is depicted is great. But after the 30 minutes, it becomes boring. The story line seems to be very weak or incomplete. Serena should have not been portrayed by Lawrence. She is not experienced enough for this role. The base story seems interesting but it wasn't explained well in the movie. This is the result of not-so-good directing by Bier.
The ending was unexpected but really good. The ending added some quality to the whole movie. The way the movie was going, you would never expect this good of an ending.
The Water Diviner (2014)
Could have been better
The Water Diviner mixes between history, war, and drama, which is always an interesting blend. It tells a great fictional story that happens after the Battle of Gallipoli. Other than the main story line, the movie also depicts the culture of Turkey during the days of the Ottoman empire and also the results of a true war.
All these aspects put together create a great two-hour movie that is fully enjoyable. You get to see a culture and some war scenes from an area of the world that is not very much depicted in movies. The acting of Russell Crowe, Yilmaz Erdogan, Cem Yilmaz, and Jai Courtney add even more quality to the movie.
However, there are two things I didn't like in the movie. First, the love story between Crowe and Olga Curylenko was useless. It added no significance to the movie. The acting of Curylenko was great even though, she is not really Turkish. Her background story is interesting but sadly, it adds nothing to the movie.
The other thing is the friendship that built between Joshua (Crowe) and Major Hasan (Erdogan). In the movie, Hasan is depicted as a soul- less person that just cares about winning a war and enjoys killing. But then, he becomes eager to help his enemy. It can be argued that Joshua and his children have nothing to do with the war. Joshua's children were just soldiers following their generals' orders so they are not really an enemy. But the way Major Hasan's character was described, he shouldn't care for that detail.
Overall, it is a very good movie worth watching. You get to witness a world that is rarely depicted in movies.
Foxcatcher (2014)
Great movie on many levels
I went into the movie theater not knowing the true story that inspired this masterpiece. So in this review, I won't be talking about the movie's historical accuracy.
The movie's three main characters each has his unique personality. Mark Schultz (Tatum) is seeking greatness away from the shadows of his brother. Dave Schultz (Ruffalo) is happy with what he has and mainly cares about providing a decent life to his family. John du Pont (Carell), the icing on the cake, is a paranoid schizophrenic.
All actors performances were great. But the most interesting and unexpected performance was that of Steve Carell. It took me a while to realize that John du Pont's character was actually a brilliant Carell at his best. The way he portray's du Pont makes you think that Carell actually has real-life schizophrenia issues.
The story line is not that of an average sports movie. There is no main character that achieves glory after training hard and being regarded as an underdog for the whole movie. Foxcatcher actually depicts the story of the three people mentioned above (maybe Ruffalo's character is a bit less important).
It is a must watch for people that appreciate a 'non-action-packed' movie. Great actors and definitely great directing from Bennett Miller. The only reason I didn't give it a higher rating is that I thought the first 15 or 20 minutes could have been better.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)
Not up to standards
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-part 1 is a GOOD movie. Not great. I waited all movie for a big event to happen, but it didn't come. The whole movie was build up for Part 2. It seemed that the plot is incomplete but it was still a good plot. It is a must-see for Hunger Games fans but don't expect to be thrilled as much as the first 2 movies. However, you will walk out of the movie eagerly awaiting the fourth installment.
Most of the actors that made the first two movies great made it in this installment. They continued their high acting standards, especially Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss) and Liam Hemsworth (Gale).
It's an average movie but a great introduction to what might be the best Hunger Games movie yet.
Deliver Us from Evil (2014)
It seems I've seen this movie before
This is good movie with good acting from all principal characters. However, its main story is something very similar to many classic evil spirit movies. Even the children laughing sound, which is common for average horror movies, was used; more than once.
I don't think it is really a horror movie. There are no real frightening scenes, only one or two scenes where a face suddenly pops up on the screen. Even those scenes could have been more frightening. Compared to other horror movies, this is an average movie. You will definitely enjoy the conjuring, insidious: chapter 2, and mama much more.
As I previously said, acting was great. Eric Bana's Bronx accent added quality to his character and the priest character was very interesting. The priest's history and how it inspired Sarchie (Bana) was one of the best things in the movie. Mendoza is not what you would imagine in a priest. He used to be a drug addict before becoming priest. He also smokes and drinks.
Deliver Us from Evil is watchable but don't have high expectations and don't expect something new or great. It is a good movie however, there are much better movies (non-horror) that came out the same time this movie was released.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
Brilliant, Amazing!! Sci-Fi at its best.
After Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I went in to see this movie with high expectations. All my expectations were exceeded. Every minute of the 120 were interesting. The story line keeps you wondering what will happen next and how will the war between apes and humans start.
I found apes riding horses weird. But I guess this should be something normal in the movie since apes, like humans, were already speaking, building homes, and firing machine guns.
The interesting plot twist was an ape deceiving his leader which started the war. At one point in the movie I thought it would happen but then as Ceasar exercised his leadership, I thought no one would dare deceive him.
The apes' scenes talking to each other were great. They made them seem to interact with each other the same way humans do. Even the facial emotions. The facial emotions that were shown were just brilliant.
The way the movie ends was also great. It makes you eagerly anticipate a sequel while thinking that for sure it will even be more amazing than this movie. This is a must see sci-fi movie that keeps you strapped to your seat and completely interested from the first till last minute.
Watch Dogs (2014)
Awesome gameplay with new ideas
Watch Dogs has been announced in 2012. Since then, too much fuss was going on regarding its trailers and gameplay videos. When it was finally released, i was worried that it won't be as good as the trailers. But it turned out even better. It is an open-world game where the player can hack almost anything electronic. It has a great story that kept me interested and wanting to know what's next and how will it end. Great graphics for the Xbox 360. The driving was very acceptable with respect to other open-world games. There is a big variety of cars which you can steal or have delivered using the Car-on-Demand feature. People passing by a car you steal might call the cops. This was a nice feature in addition to the feature where enemies call reinforcements. All characters that Aiden Pearce meets were great which added more value to the game. The only think I disliked in the game was the auto-save during missions. Sometimes its frustrating when a big portion of the mission has to be repeated when you die during a mission.
This is the best game I've played in years and definitely worth a sequel. It can be a start of a series of games just like other Ubisoft game series such as Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell.