“Thor : The Dark World” fulfills our Super Hero needs for 2013 : Movie Review

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Anthony Hopkins, Chris Hemsworth, Comic Book Movie Review, Film Review, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Movie Review, Natalie Portman, Rene Russo, Thor, Thor Movie Review, Thor The Dark World, Thor The Dark World Movie Review, Thor The Dark World Review, Tom Hiddleston

The sequel to “Thor” was released this past weekend, and it seemed to fulfill a huge need for a great Superhero movie for this year. Yes, we got “Man of Steel” in the summer but that was slightly disappointing, as was “Iron Man Three” that came out in May (check my YouTube reviews for both, here and here). I’m happy to say that “Thor The Dark World” exceeded expectations and delivered in various aspects. Just like the first “Thor”, the movie was a great mix of action and humor and sci-fi and fantasy with some great performances and some really amazing and unique visual moments.

In the post-“Avengers” world, Thor (the amazingly attractive Chris Hemsworth) has been busy in Asgard making peace in the nine realms while on earth his love interest Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) has been trying to move on with life and forget about her scientific research. Things get a little strange when the nine realms begin to align, creating portals to different worlds, and Jane finds herself lost in and underground cave and infected with the dangerous liquid stone Aether that has been locked away for centuries. This re-awakens an Asgard enemy Malekith who is hell bent on destroying the world, and the action ensues.

All of the familiar faces pop up, Thor’s “adopted” brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is great at bringing some humor into his maliciousness, Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) is hilarious as the nutty professor (which makes sense given what happened to him in “The Avengers”, and like in the previous “Thor” Darcy (Kat Dennings) provides her quirky comic relief. Idris Elba, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo and a host of others reprise their roles as well and there’s even a small cameo from Captain America’s Chris Evans (a very funny cameo). The whole movie felt very familiar because we were getting back to the people we came to love (or hate) in the first film, but with a new plot line and more action. And this is why action sequels tend to be better than the firsts, the originals set everything up and the sequels are allowed more time for action and story and “The Dark World” definitely falls in line with some other great action sequels.

Chris Hemsworth is amazing and the perfect person for this role with his balance of charm, brute and sincerity. I couldn’t imagine anyone else making this character seem so real and so likable, and definitely no one else could be as sexy in subtle moments like a simple holding of a hand or a smirk. It should also be noted that this sequel was in the hands of a new director Alan Taylor who I feel did a great job, although one complaint might be that the CG was a bit over-used at times. “The Dark World” was just a fun time at the movies, not too serious but not too corny, a nice balance which I feel “Man of Steel” and “Iron Man Three” failed at.

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Movies I Love! “Amadeus” : Movie Review

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1984 Oscars, Academy Awards, Amadeus, Antonio Salieri, Biopic, Classical Music, Elizabeth Berridge, F Murray Abraham, Jeffrey Jones, Milos Forman, Movie Review, Movies I Love, Mozart, Oscars, Peter Shaffer, Salieri, Tom Hulce, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“Amadeus” is without a doubt one of the Best Films ever made, it’s easily one of my favorite films of all time… and I’m talking Top 20. I bought the Blu-Ray about a month ago, and I have literally watched it about 7 times in the past few weeks. With the expert screenwriting, Award winning acting and genius direction the movie is just Ace in all areas. Funny, because certain qualities about the movie should have been a disaster. At times Director Milos Forman‘s adaptation of the Broadway show of the same name feels designed for the contemporary market of the early 80’s. For example, most of the main actors are American instead of hiring Italian and German actors for authenticity’s sake. Also the actors aren’t forced to don fake accents, they just vary their American accents to represent the common folks of the time and the more regal Royal ones.

Strangely though, putting the story in contemporary terms works beautifully in so many different ways. For one it makes the dialogue more understandable without having to completely dumb down the content. And because the film was released in the time of Sting, David Bowie and Prince viewers could easily relate to Mozart being a Rock Star of his time. Plus the winning combination of great writing, directing, acting along with the art direction and costume design really bring this 18th century world to life and puts the viewer right there. Instead of it seeming like a stuffy, boring time period it really does feel alive and real, and it’s rare in film that this time period can be viewed in such a relate-able way.

Those who have yet to see this Masterpiece might be staying away thinking it will be just another boring and long bio-pic, but it really isn’t. Lots of information about the lives of main characters Mozart and Salieri are divulged, but it’s not a movie about the rise of Mozart or Salieri but more about their relationship over the few years covered in the film. Opening with a long confession from an older Salieri, whose confined to a mental institution. He tells of the day that “changed his life” to a priest, that being the day he met Mozart in Vienna. Salieri’s admiration for Mozart quickly turns into an obsessive jealousy when the mature disciplined man finds the popular musical genius is just a goofy immature kid. The two have several run-in’s from than on while working for Emperor Joseph (played by every-man of the 80’s Jeffrey Jones) which further fuels Salieri’s resentment towards Mozart and makes him lose faith in religion. He feels God punished him with mediocrity and blessed an unworthy Mozart with the talent he should have received.

Throughout several beautiful musical performances, Salieri tries his best to take Mozart down. Whether it be sabotaging future work opportunities, trying to manipulate his wife Constanze (played by Elizabeth Berridge) in sleazy ways, to his final attempt at disguising himself to commission a “Death March” from Mozart which ultimately brings the un-doing of both composers.

The film is expertly constructed, it moves at a great pace and it delivers both intense drama and some light funny notes, and most of all some amazing musical sequences. The acting by the entire cast is phenomenal, of course Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham‘s portrayal of Salieri both young and old steal the show. He’s such a heartless villain throughout most of it, but his human vulnerability and insecurities make him easy to relate to. Jealousy is something that consumes all of us at various degrees, so you relate with him when he says outlandish things like an Emperors yawn at a Mozart show was his own “victory”.

And in total contrast to Abraham’s sinister performance, Tom Hulce gives a wonderfully light-hearted and comical performance of Mozart, making the audience completely side with him and his fun nature. Yet, Hulce shows major versatility in making Mozart’s passion for music really clear to the viewers. The heart of the movie is the dramatic contrast between the two main characters, and they both play it perfectly and really sell the dynamics between the two, who both admire each others work, but Salieri’s jealousy gets the best of him and is all he can think about. While Mozart’s misunderstood genius eventually gets the best of him in a fatal way.

One of the main reasons I love this film is the music, I’m always a fan of films that incorporate a lot of music but this film truly makes music and composition a third character. From Salieri’s vivid and precise description of Mozart’s work, to the Forman’s groundbreaking way of getting inside Mozart’s head (with the viewer hearing what he might have heard in his mind while composing his brilliant operas), the film details the music making process in a way never duplicated since. Classical music has never been a favorite of mine, but this film really made me understand it a lot better.

And nothing is better than the climax, when Salieri offers to dictate Mozart’s “Requiem” while he is sick and bed-ridden. Mozart passionately composing the score in his head and trying to get his thoughts across, and Salieri desperately trying to understand (and keep up with Mozart’s rapid paced mind) but also secretly enjoying being  a part of something so amazing and new. The scene is so beautiful, so unique, so moving and intense, it’s easily one of my favorite scenes of all-time.

While watching “Amadeus” I did question the historical accuracy of it all, did things really happen the way they did in the film in the same chronological order? Thankfully there are several online resources to confirm that No, this movie isn’t 100% accurate but as Peter Shaffer (the screen writer and writer of the original play it was based off) puts it “there is a kernel of truth in everything”. And if you think about it, the movie would have been very un-interesting if there wasn’t the dramatic pace and conflicts presented in Shaffer’s script.

Basically, if you haven’t watched this film… do so. And if you have seen it, see it again. If it’s 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture aren’t proof enough that this is one of the most excellent films in History, than see for yourself how everything that could have gone so wrong, ends up being so incredibly right.

Now that “Captain America” is out the way, Rating “The Avengers” : Movie Review

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Captain America, Captain America Review, Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The First Avenger Review, Chris Evans, Hugo Weaver, Hulk, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Movie Review, The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Tommy Lee Jones

This past Tuesday I happily bought “Captain America: The First Avenger” on BluRay. Not only excited to see the film due to the great reviews it’s gotten, but also because it’s the last film building up to next summer’s ultimate Marvel Hero Orgy “The Avengers“. I was excited to see how all of the films in the series stock up, and for the most part, they have all been great.  Managing to be great stand-alone films, with great storylines and character development, but also great in keeping things consistent and offering clues to what is yet to come with “The Avengers”.

First things first though, let’s dive into “Captain America: The First Avenger” which totally lived up to it’s hype and was also the perfect closer before next years extravaganza of a Comic Book film. Probably the most impressive thing about the film, which had a huge hurdle by being one of the most-loved Comic Book Heroes of all-time, was the ease with which they put everything together. There’s an awful lot of information this movie had to get through — from our hero being a wimp with a heart of gold — to his transformation into beefcake War hero — to his stint as a commercial celebrity (a great, cheesy scene that worked so well) — to his ultimate defeat of the bad guy and his assumed death. With all of that, you’d expect the film to be over-long and boring with too much exposition needed.

What you ended up getting was a really well-done, fast paced, action packed film with actors so good that the hokey and very implausible story felt almost real and genuine. A combination of things worked together on this film to make it as good as it really is. Mainly Chris Evans, who we are used to seeing as a cocky jock in other films, really went out of his comfort zone to play the lead character Steve Rogers a charming yet humbled man with a genuine passion for being a hero and defending his country. Evans plays the role to perfection, as does his two nemesis’ in the film Hugo Weaver and Tommy Lee Jones. Weaver plays Red Skull, the “badder than Hitler” villain whose performance was so sinister it almost felt like there wasn’t enough of him. And Tommy Lee Jones plays the army captain that continually doubts our hero Rogers, until he witnesses a display of his bravery. Jones and Evans’ love/hate relationship was a great component of the movie.

Aside from the acting, and the writing, the visual aspects were great as well. The techniques to shrink the hunk that is Chris Evans into a 100 pound weakling could have failed, but it worked so well. And just the attention to detail with the scenery gave a true 40’s feeling to the whole movie. Overall, this movie blew me away. I had high expectations and it still surpassed them.

Captain America: The First Avenger, 5 of 5

So how does it stack up with all the rest of “The Avengers” films thus far!?

Well easily the worst has been “The Incredible Hulk“, a re-boot from a far superior version starring Eric Bana. Being that the versions were just 4 years apart, the Edward Norton fronted re-boot felt like an after thought really. It sort of picked up where Bana’s “Hulk” left off, just with a brand new cast and a new look. The visual effects were slightly improved (mainly because this version chose mostly night shots which are probably easier to animate), but there was nothing interesting about this version at all. So much so that I remember watching it, but don’t really remember anything that happened other than the final fight scene and Tony Stark’s cameo. Funny enough, on “The Avengers”, we’ll be seeing athird actor portray Hulk in a span of just 7 years as Mark Ruffalo takes on the beast.

The Incredible Hulk, 2 of 5

If you read my recent review of “Thor“, you’ll know I think highly of it. Like “Captain America”, this movie has a lot of information that needed a clever way of getting it out there. And the writers managed to deliver, as well as the cast and the director who kept this movie both action packed and intense, but also really light and funny. And Chris Hemsworth made a fantastic leading man, it’ll be interesting to see how his character interacts with everybody else in this “Avenger” initiative.

Thor, 5 of 5

The series that began this “Avengers” initiative with a huge bang was the Robert Downey Jr. vehicle “Iron Man“. Both the original and the sequel have a great balance of living in somewhat of a real world, sci-fi tech goodness, great action scenes, and a real heart and humor. The success of the films can be placed almost squarely on Downey Jr., who does an amazing job of making a character whose obnoxious, arrogant and selfish into an actual likable guy. If he didn’t have such a great finesse with this character, the movie clearly would have fallen apart. Luckily he’s a master actor, and really because of him we’re getting “The Avengers”.

“Iron Man”, though it provided less action than it’s sequel, was a great film in that in tackled some current issues of war and weaponry intelligently and the overall feel of the film was way more mature than your standard Comic Book Flick. Still it provided the youthful fun that people expect when going to a movie like this. “Iron Man 2” may have been just a tad less mature, but provided some great fun that maybe the first one lacked.

Iron Man, 4.5 of 5
Iron Man 2, 4 of 5

The next big question will be, how will “The Avengers” film do. The first official trailer was released a few weeks ago and it does look pretty sick. I think the film has potential to be incredible, since it won’t get bogged down in having to introduce each member (except we’ll need to know who this Hawkeye guy is, he was only briefly shown in “Thor”) it should flow nicely. I’m really most intrigued to see the chemistry between everybody — who’ll get along with each other and who won’t. The only issue I foresee is maybe too much, which is often a problem in Comic Book movies where there’s maybe one too many villains. But just based on the films we’ve seen leading up to this flick, “The Avengers” should be fun, funny and relate able. We’ll see this coming May.

Stay Tuned for my ultimate Best and Worst Comic Book Movies of All Time

>Movie/Album Review: Daft Punk “Tron: Legacy”

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Album Review, Daft Punk, Daft Punk Review, Daft Punk Tron Legacy, Daft Punk Tron Legacy Review, Daft Punk Tron:Legacy, Daft Punk Tron:Legacy Review, Garrett Hedlund, Jeff Bridges, Joseph Kosinski, Movie Review, Tron Legacy Review, Tron: Legacy, Tron:Legacy Review, tronlegacy

>As a huge fan of Electronica Kings Daft Punk, of course I purchased their soundtrack to Disney’s “Tron: Legacy” when it was released last November. My reaction was so lukewarm however I sort of put the album aside until I saw the movie, thinking it might not be fair to judge the soundtrack alone and that I may end up enjoying the music more if I had the visual counterpart. So when the film was released to DVD and Blu Ray this past Tuesday I jumped on it.

As for the album, the film didn’t really help. While I was watching the film, the soundtrack was a little underwhelming even than. Most of the times, the backing soundtrack felt a little like generic “futuristic” elevator music and not the unique, infectious Daft Punk sound I was expecting. There’s a scene early on where Sam Flynn is being chased by the police and the underlying score (“The Son of Flynn”) is just a simple loop of a keyboard sequence and it never elevated or went anywhere although you’d think they’d match up the music to the action in the scene. And the sort of light electronic sounds heard on one scene sound way too similar to most of the other tracks on this soundtrack. There’s a bit of a Daft stamp on them, but almost in the way of some lesser producer stealing their sound and producing really washed out and boring tracks instead. And there are even times when it doesn’t sound like Daft Punk at all, the scene where Quorra is introduced (“Outlands”) and she’s driving Sam into his fathers secret lair sounds way too much like the Danny Elfman scoring in a similar scene in 1989’s “Batman”. For the most part, Daft’s score is just too pedestrian and simple. It almost feels like they felt the pressure of doing a big Hollywood score and were scared to truly be themselves, which is a shame. Their cameo in the movie was cute though, and gave us the best moments from the score, the first single “Derezzed” and “End of the Line”. Unfortunately, even after viewing the film, this outing was a big disappointment and I just can’t wait for their next Real Daft album.

Rating: 2 of 5
Best: Derezzed, End of Line, Fall

The movie, surprisingly enough, was actually much better than expected. Even though I’m a child of the 80’s I’d never seen the original “Tron” just heard of it (and seen film stills from it), but you imagine there was a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo but for all real purposes it was just a visual movie you’d watch for the special effects. In that way, “Tron: Legacy” is a success because it’s truly one of the movies you can’t take your eyes off. And there is a lot of dialogue about grid’s and power sources and disks and a host of things viewers really don’t need to know that much about, but the main focus is the visual aspect. The pretty amazing CGI and overall design of the computer world that Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) finds himself in after locating the office of his father Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) who has been missing in the real world for over 15 years. Sam, as much of a computer genius as his father who created a Microsoft-like empire in the 1980’s (after the first “Tron” film), finds himself in the Grid and is immediately set-up to participate in ‘Games’, which is punishment for bad ‘programs’. The ‘Games’ portion is probably the best part of the movie, he goes through a series of ‘Air Hockey’-like games before he is set up for the Bike Race which takes the cake visually. It takes what has become classic from the first film and elevates it for the new generation and it is both aesthetically stunning and heart pounding, edge of your seat excitement. Sam is finally reunited with his father, (not Clu, the grid clone of his father) and the rest of the movie is their plan to escape the grid and get back to the real world.
Again there is a lot of unnecessary chatter here, and the script generously takes bits from “The Matrix” and “Inception” to try to prevent plot holes, but it’s all okay because the film is an exciting one which can be followed with the minimal amount of information about the Flynn’s.
This is nowhere near a Great movie, don’t get me wrong, but pretty much everything from the acting to the writing were on par and nothing to complain about. The one major complaint, and maybe just because it looked so weird, was the CGI-fication of Jeff Bridges for his scenes as the younger father and for Clu. The animators did a really good job for the most part, but they really haven’t perfected doing a human in CGI and making him look 100% real. Which I suppose actors are happy about.

Rating: 3.5 of 5

>Movie Review: Star Trek, The Best Sci-Fi/Action Film in a LOOOONNGG TIME!!!

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Chris Pine, J.J. Abrams, JJ Abrams, Movie Review, Star Trek, Star Trek 2009, Star Trek 2009 Review, Star Trek Review, Zachary Quinto

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I think I should start off by saying I’m a bit of a movie buff. Especially when I was younger, but I enjoy the art in film making. I enjoy great writing and story telling, great camera work and overall Direction, and I enjoy a believable acting performance. That being said, I have been majorly disappointed by the Film Industry, and it gets worse and worse each year. It seems like instead of trying to paint a masterpiece, Hollywood seems to do the Paint by Numbers film making. Cliched scripts, characters, direction, predictable action sequences, you name it. It’s to the point where you already know whats going to happen by just watching the first trailer. Of course there are still good movies that come out, but generally in the Summer Action Movie genre this is the case. And I’ve been disappointed year (“Spiderman3”), after year (“War of the Worlds”), after year (“Planet of the Apes”).
So even though I was blown away by the Teaser Trailer, and the finalized trailer that came out earlier this year, I was still skeptical about the new “Star Trek” flick which is officially released today (or yesterday, if i don’t end up posting this until Saturday). Let me cut right to the chase, this movie didn’t disappoint at all. Not only that, but it really exceeded my expectations which is very rare in a big blockbuster Sci-Fi Action flick. It’s the first time since maybe “X2” that i walked out truly satisfied and surprised that a movie was a lot better than I expected. “Star Trek” had everything you want in a movie… Genuinely suspenseful Action scenes, Amazing special effects, Perfect cast who all nailed their roles, Humor, a well-paced and intriguing storyline, and great Direction.
I’m a big “Lost” fan, and when I heard JJ Abrams was working on a “Star Trek” movie I got excited basically because of him. I watched the old episodes of “Star Trek” when I was younger, but wasn’t ever really an official “Trekkie”. When I heard he was doing a “Pre-quel” of sorts, I Netflixed the first couple of seasons of the series, and instantly became a fan. The show just really works on different angles… it’s corny, but the story lines are great, the acting is a little over the top, but you get real great characters from it. This movie actually takes all the positive things about the series and corrects all the negatives. Like I said the movie is sort of a “Pre-quel” (I won’t give away why I have that in quotations, you’ll get it when you see it) following James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) from birth, to adolescents, to the Fleet Academy. They end up on the brand new Starship The Enterprise and get familiar with the crew. Zoe Saldana as just Uhura, Karl Urban as “Bones” McCoy, John Cho as Sulu, and Anton Yelchin as Chekov. Honestly, the plot doesn’t matter that much. It was somewhat simple, but interesting enough to keep you interested and at times it was unpredictable, it was enough to not distract you from everything else that was working so perfectly for this movie.
One thing being the cast. Being a fan of the original series and of these characters, I have to say it again everybody nailed their roles. They all managed to keep the essence of the characters and not overdo it or mimic their performances too closely. Zachary Quinto had probably the hardest challenge though. The half human, half Vulcan Spock is an extremely complicated character to tackle. And Quinto definitely did a great job, not only in tackling those complexities, but also by being the stand out and scene stealer of a great cast. I also have to mention Karl Urban’s McCoy, who made a very risky move of doing an almost identical portrayal of the character as the originals DeForest Kelley. His mannerisms, the stuff he did with his face and eyes, even the southern accent. The risk paid off, because he was the main guy delivering all the laughs (Intentional laughs by the way). Simon Pegg, who I find hilarious normally, was unfortunately underused in this movie but still delivers as Scotty.
My hat is off to JJ Abrams who did a flawless job of directing this cast, and delivering one of the most Visually amazing films I think I’ve ever seen. From the opening sequence, he does camera angles and some very creative action shots that I’ve never seen before. I would say the last movie I saw where I truly thought “I’ve never seen that before” was Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Masterpiece “There Will Be Blood”. With “Star Trek”, I had a lot of those moments. The first couple of shots of the new “Enterprise” and actually most of the action shots literally gave me chills. Alot of things that I don’t normally like in film (lots of lens flares, shaky camera, rotating and leaning camera angles), JJ made them fit perfectly in this film. I know that the movie is fresh on my mind and I may just be hyped up now, but I truly feel like this would deserve a bunch of Oscar nominations including Best Picture. I know that won’t happen (My only real wish is that JJ can get a best Director nomination out of this), it will undoubtedly sweep a lot of technical categories, but this movie was a really incredible piece of art. One of those instances where it seems everything falls perfectly into place to create something truly Extra Ordinary. And this movie is that.