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Taking Chance (2009)
Will Be More Appreciated By Military And Their Family
My first exposure to this movie years ago was the HBO commercial for it, and I'll be 100% honest: My expectations, knowing HBO's general political slant, were that it would be a twisted political movie in some way. I was 100% wrong. I watched this with my wife at the time, she was a former Marine who had been out for 2 years, I was still in the military. The movie doesn't really build up speed, it does not have a dramatic crescendo of action with a dazzling apex. The build up is technical, through the process of a service member who dies in combat, goes step by step, of what it takes to get the deceased back to their family.
Kevin Bacon is good. No, he is VERY good. He takes on the role with the utmost reverence. The tiny nuances that were correct (That's "Marine" when he is called a "Soldier") show that there must have been at least one very good technical advisor on hand for the filming. For all my time in the military, I still learned a few new procedures that I did not know existed (and hopefully won't ever have to find out, the "slow salute" when rendering honors for the deceased as they are de-boarded from the plane).
You may be able to watch the entire movie without... getting "something in your eye", I wasn't able to. Two scenes in particular: As the casket is transported in the hearse, and the lights on the cars begin to come on, one by one... and even more so, the young Army SGT, who is on board escorting a separate deceased service member home, Bacon's character asks him "Sergeant, did you know the deceased?" and the reply "Yes Sir, he was my brother". They nailed it, absolutely nailed it, it caught my breath in my throat, I remember looking over to my wife and both of us were pretty filmy eyed, a definitive moment.
You will see a lot of reviews that unfortunately entirely miss the point of the movie. It is sad that there are those who believe that, unless a movie dives headlong into the political cess pool that surrounds war, unless someone is made the villain, then a movie just doesn't cut it. Others simply don't understand, they find the movie boring or without any necessary action/drama needed to give the flick a positive rating. Believe me, there is astounding drama, IF you have lived within these boots especially, or have had a loved one, son, husband, sister, mother, aunt, uncle, deployed.
I love the movie, I have watched it probably half a dozen times, I try to catch it at least once every year or two. If I ever do meet Kevin Bacon, I'll likely have some questions, but I feel like I might apologize... I was so ready to be disgusted by this movie before I saw it, and I can't believe how wrong I was about both his performance and about HBO's intent. Astoundingly good movie.
Get Out (2017)
Fullfills Every Racist SJW's Most Bizarre Fantasies About Culture
This movie is garbage. Not even going to try and act as though it isn't, nor should anyone else. Every imaginable "whites hate black people" cliche just short of guys wearing white hoods is used in this movie. Right at the very beginning, police officer asks the black guy for his ID card for no reason, white girl has to defend the black guy... yeah okay, that always happens *sarcasm included here*. And it just gets worse from there.
This is a social justice warrior's self indulgent journey into their own modern liberal fantasy of what life is like, that white people are out to get blacks, and that it is up to white liberals to hold that moral ground against the horrible racist "MAN". So there is no doubt that the apologist white person will applaud this movie, as that type is always looking for ways to "make amends", and this movie will absolutely fill that role for them.
If you are a realist, who understands facts, facts like "you are more likely to be struck by lightning than to be shot and killed by a police officer", facts like crime statistics, etc, then you will watch this movie, with these cliched nonsense scenarios, the bad acting (the servant filling the glass until it is spilling over, COME ON, saw that coming a mile away) and you will roll your eyes and shake your head...
Bad acting, bad plot, but they added in a ton of assumed racism in order to draw in half this poor country and get them excited. Director Peele knew that, with the current President, current political situation, and half this country drunken foolish believing there is some race war going on, that this movie would appeal to them. If you take off the blinders, it is hard to even watch the entire movie without laughing and turning it off.
Baby Driver (2017)
Sold As A "Driver" Movie, Not Much Driving
The trailer for this movie sells it as a driver movie, with lots of action and car chases. Well, for about 1/4 of the movie, this is correct. The beginning scenes in the Subaru WRX are pretty impressive, but it starts to lose steam quickly. "Baby" himself and Kevin Spacey do a great job in their roles for the most part, but Jamie Foxx is a head scratcher. He plays an antagonist role but it doesn't really fit in, and to make matters worse, his role is written in with a bunch of goofy long winded philosophical garbage. It appears as though it is meant to be witty but it comes off as though the writers were trying way too hard and in the end couldn't get the product to work and they said "screw it" and went with it anyway. In a lot of ways, Foxx's character ruined the entire movie. But the blame isn't all on him. The plot is really weak, and continues to get worse towards the end of the movie. As I look at some of the other reviews, I have to ask myself "What movie where they watching?" I give this one 3/10, 1 star for Spacey, and 2 stars for the driving in the first 1/4 of the movie. Beyond that, this movie is really bad.
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
A Great Action Flick In The 80's Action Genre Mold
I as a little young when I first saw this, and the First Blood movie I didn't see till a few years after this, so I didn't go in with any idea about who Rambo was or what he was about. Stallone does so well as a brooding action star, always on the edge of sanity in so many of his movies. This movie came out and mixed the current (at that time) hatred for the Soviets, with the bad taste of unfinished business within Vietnam, as many people believed (and it may have been true) that there were American POW's somewhere over there that were left behind by a government that "just didn't care and wanted it all to go away".
It fills all of the typical 80's action film clichés: never ending ammo, completely unrealistic gun fights where the good guy can't be hit by any rounds, while he fires wildly with two M-60's and hits everything that moves. But, who ever asked for realism, it's a work of feel good fiction anyway, right? Rambo gets beat up throughout the movie, then comes back in the end and rains vengeance upon the bad guys. Comes back, confronts the bad government guy and his lackeys, roll credits.
When I rate a movie like this, I'll rate it with an idea of what was out there at that time. Very few movies stand the test of time, like The Godfather, or 2001, or The Good The Bad The Ugly. Most movies you enjoy, when it starts getting into 10 or more years since you've seen them, you wax poetic about them and perhaps remember them more fondly. This isn't really an exception to that. The Senator in the movie comes off as too much of a representation of a government that many people hated (and still do), but he does a good job of it. Richard Crenna as Col. Trautman is probably the best acting done by anyone in the movie.
The unfortunate part of a movie like this is all of the bad reviews it will get from people who want to make a fictional movie into something political. If you find the movie to be atrocious and give it one star on the basis of bad acting, or poor plot, or over the top lack of realism, so be it. But the reviews going on and on about "bad bad USA, should not have been in Vietnam" or "xenophobic" or "racist", please, you need to read up about a few of the POW camps over there that were far far worse than what is shown in the movie. And even more silly: questions like "how would Americans feel if Germany had made a film like this rescuing Nazis" Uh, the Germans did, many countries make what can be construed as "anti-american movies", but we don't hear much about it here.
But, I digress, enough with my annoyance about politically motivated reviews. If you enjoy Stallone's dark attitude and cliché catch phrases, combined with gratuitous meaningless hail of bullets and knife jabs, you'll enjoy this movie.
Unlocking the Cage (2016)
Awful Documentary
There are so many worthy causes out there, millions of people in the United States alone that could use help. Yet here is a guy who is wasting time and money on a completely ridiculous concept, that somehow animals should be given the same rights as humans. Waste of time and money to have made the documentary, it was filled with a bunch of ultra left wing loony nut jobs whose arguments could so easily be dismissed by any court of law. One feels dumber for having watched the entire show.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
A CGI Festival, SPLOSIONS! But Beyond That... Pretty Empty
I tried to remain neutral about the selection of Ben Affleck to play the part of Batman, after all, how exactly do you follow up Christian Bale, who undoubtedly set the bar for superhero blockbusters so high that no one will ever surpass it, and who can forget Daredevil, an uninspiring yarn that should have never seen the light of day? But, interestingly enough, Affleck was decent in this movie, Henry Cavill even better in the role he has personified now for a decade. The real problem came down to the role of Lex Luther, and the strange way the Luther character was presented.
Luther is meant to be an ultra intelligent villain with an insatiable appetite for power. From the very beginning it seemed as though the director Zach Snyder strayed away from this, instead trying to recreate Heath Ledger's "Joker". Luther is presented as a loose cannon loony toons with major daddy issues, hell bent on the anarchic destruction of the planet, for no reason whatsoever. Sound a lot like The Joker? Yep, same here. And worse yet, Eisenberg just doesn't pull it off. He might be in his 30's, but he looks 15, and simply doesn't have the persona for the part. Rather than recreating Heath Ledgers role, they should have allowed Luther to more closely resemble the Kevin Spacey/Gene Hackman version.
It also appears they spent a good portion of the movie trying to set up sequels for a number of other superhero characters, including bringing Wonder Woman into the fray. Her fight with the Doomsday monster left a lot of questions. And that brings up the Doomsday villain himself. The movie entirely screwed up the origin of Doomsday, who in the comic was an ancient beast created long before Krypton itself supported Kryptonian life. And somehow Luther just interacts with the ship, which in its good graces allows him to do whatever he wants with it. Oh sure, no security features at all, it asks Luther questions, apparently knows it is breaking protocol, but it helps him create this crazy monster anyway. Made no sense.
So many other problems, Luther's interactions with the spaceship, Batman's relationship with Alfred came off as cold, Batman cattle prodding villains, could go on and on, but I digress. In conclusion, the movie is worth seeing in terms of CGI, but the plot is terrible, character presentation is muddled at best beyond the apparent hatred between Superman and Batman, and in the end you are left rolling your eyes at the idea they'd even make a sequel (which by the way, they set up at the end). If you saw this in the theater, my condolences.
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016)
Really Shows The Emotional Side of Being A Soldier
A very well done movie that does a great job putting the viewer into the battle zone, even if you have never been there. If you have been there, you'll find yourself at times on the edge of your seat, holding your breath, a good dose of realism, the type of movie I would not have been able to go to for a couple years myself. A little iffy on some of the casting, and got a little far fetched 3/4 of the way through the movie with some of the relationship issues, so I give it an 8 out of 10.
Liberals from NYC won't get this movie, because they have never been there. They refuse to have empathy for those who put the uniform on and protect this country. Unless the movie puts service members in a bad light, those types will always give the movie a bad rating, which is sad. Many of these movies are well scripted, directed, with amazing settings and great acting. None of that matters to the anti-military types, they treat these reviews as an opportunity to put their political viewpoints out there, and ignore the story, or how it is presented. You see it time and time again on thousands of reviews on IMDb. It is almost as though those making the reviews use this as their platform, because bashing troops out in public while protesting is no longer "fashionable" like it was in the 1960's.
Fantastic Four (2015)
Fantastic Four (alternate title "Garbage with CGI")
When I first heard they were rebooting the Fantastic Four movie, but with younger actors, the warning bells started going off. Especially when I saw who they cast as lead. I can't say for sure if my assessment of Miles Teller is entirely fair, given that he's type cast into the Divergent series role of a brooding self serving arrogant prick, but as I watch this movie, I can't help but see him in the same way. He lacks the charismatic nerdy charm you expect from Dr. Reed, the roll is just a failure all around. Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm, also did not work. Jamie Bell does pretty good as The Thing, and Kate Mara was decent as Sue. But the overall bottom line, they all come off as way too young to be "brilliant scientists". But even if you can look past the casting issues, the plot development was poor, the acting at times was so forced, huge holes in the plot, the only reason I give it 2 stars was for the decent CGI, I thought they did a good job with the special effects, but it's not nearly enough to make this watchable. Make sure to save your time and avoid this movie, it's a waste of 100 minutes and you'll want to go Clobbering Time on your own face if you do watch this.
Vacation (2015)
Garbage
I'm not going to give any spoilers, but after watching this, I have to assume there are some VERY drunk people who rated this, or the studio had about 200 people who worked on the movie come here and give it a good rating. I want my 95 minutes back. Sure, it's got Christina Applegate, she's cute but she doesn't have much to work with. Think about every horrible cliché you can come up with, then imagine it in a movie where the acting is horrible, with a bad plot, and that's this movie. That's pretty close to a spoiler. Don't waste your time, it's not even worth seeing on cable, you'd be better off being waterboarded, or perhaps beheaded, your pick.