The Dark Knight Rises

4.5/5

We're talking nuts. We're talking as suspenseful as any great action movie. We're talking about brilliant performances, especially from Joseph Gordon-Levitt. This had me on my seat edge for so long, I swear it hurt to stand up. The action in this is unbelievable, the scale without comparison, and the reality so close that it's frightening. Why 4.5/5 then? Well I feel I can't honestly give this a 5. I liked The Dark Knight and Batman Begins both better. What this movie had in suspense, action, and an amazing sense of satisfaction, it lacked in the exploration of human character that the first two had. In the first movie, we explored the reaction to fear, and how it brings the best and worst in people out. That was further explored in The Dark Knight, with the added twist of how humans react when pitted against each other unwillingly. This, however, is only a character study of Bruce Wayne, Selena Kyle, John Blake, and Bane. Don't get me wrong - this is NOT a bad thing. But rather than be an extremely interesting look into the human mind in the context of Gotham city's hero and villain interactions, it was an incredible action movie experience. I'd go so far as to say that this is the most comic book like movie of the three Nolan Batman films. This is demonstrated the best through Bane's character. While he himself was intimidating (thanks to a stellar performance from Tom Hardy, though perhaps not his best when I think of Tinker Tailor and Warrior), I was never personally afraid of Bane. I was afraid of his power, his charisma, and his control. But never did I experience the fear I felt while watching the Joker or Scarecrow. Still, anyone who tells you that this was a disappointing movie is not looking at the big picture - that an epic conclusion to an absolutely enormous trilogy of movies from a single director could not have been concluded in a bigger way. Get to see it as soon as you can, and experience the biggest movie of the summer, probably of the year as well. You won't be disappointed.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

5/5

An absolutely gorgeous movie with so much heart and so much care. It's only problem was its music. And the music was great, but heavy handed. It was clearly a movie that needed more silence, and didn't have enough music recorded to cover the spaces where the music was. Regardless though, Quvenzhane Wallis was fantastic, a perfect blend of childhood innocence and true power and passion (watch some interviews with her. She's adorable). We had absolutely fantastic performances from every single person in the movie, most of whom don't have that much of an acting career backing them up! Anyone out there like Avatar for taking them to a completely new world? Well forget that, THIS is the movie that really transported you to an entirely new world. And even better, this world is real. It's an absolutely heart wrenching story, one that you won't forget anytime soon. DEFINITELY one to check out, and definitely one to go out of your way to see!

Ice Age: Continental Drift

1/5

This was just riddled with problems. While I never really enjoyed the Ice Age movies, I had some respect for the first one. It was a standard but nice story, I liked the characters fine, and for a kids movie it actually had a lot of respect for scientific accuracy. More than you'd think, anyway. This completely throws out any scientific accuracy for an obnoxiously cliche story, annoying characters, and blatant lack of care for any originality whatsoever. It's called "Continental Drift" but it's about pirates? And even for a kids movie, you honestly expect me to believe that every time an iceberg is knocked off it happens to be in the perfect shape of a boat? You also expect us to believe that one insane animal can throw all of the food off of the ship...and you don't remotely care? There's a GIANT FRICKIN CLIFF ABOUT TO PUSH ALL OF YOU TO YOUR DOOM...and all you freakin care about is the STUPID HIGH SCHOOL CRUSH? You expect me to be afraid of a pirate captain that is beaten at every opportunity, from the start to the end with no discernible strengths whatsoever? I can go on. There's also way too much focus on Scrat...and what's worse, every scene with Scrat...WAS A TRAILER. That's right, every one of the trailers was a scene in the movie! Ridiculous, lazy, and annoying. The most that can be said about this movie is a really great short at the beginning, starring the Simpsons. But of course, skip this movie. Rent it for the short.

Katy Perry: Part of Me

4/5

I already like Katy Perry. I wasn't going into this movie to be convinced to like her as a person or as a singer, I think she's a fun person and a fun pop musician. I went in to see a decently shot concert movie and a nice look into her life as a performer. I got a really nicely shot movie with a great structure and even a bit of a plot to follow. If you don't already love her as a person, the movie shows you her heart and her ability to connect with anyone through her unique charisma and style, and that's enough to support her throughout the movie even if Firework isn't your favorite song. At some points it did let its structure border on predictability, which wasn't something I wanted to see out of a documentary. And sometimes it's obvious how it was thrown together to transform her already enormous popularity into more profits. But even so, the heart of her performance is captured and her relationships with her crew are nicely shown. It's worth a check out if you're a Katy Perry fan, and if you're not, give it a shot. I think there's a lot in her to respect.

Savages

1/5

I started watching this movie relatively unimpressed. Then I started to enjoy it. It had a solid script, a really nice group of performances, and some great imagery in the violence and gore. It had a lot of images that made you gasp, made you cringe, made you really feel sympathy where it needed to be felt. And then. The ending happened.

WHAT

THE

HELL

I mean seriously. It's the dumbest ending to a movie I can think of at the moment! It was so bad, I WAS  GOING TO GIVE THIS MOVIE A 3.5 UNTIL THE LAST 15 MINUTES RUINED IT. The entire experience and seriousness of the two hours previous was completely lost. Everything was gone, thrown out the window and replaced with an idea pulled out of a hat. Audience members were actually getting up and leaving before the final scene ended. I had no idea what to think. Obviously I'm not going to type the ending here (if you REALLY wanna know I'm sure you can find it, or just talk to me for my interpretation of the ending. But seriously, people. Maybe some of you wanna see it for Blake Lively. Maybe you wanna see it for John Travolta. Maybe you wanna see it for Taylor Kitsch (although why you'd want to after Battleship and John Carter is beyond me). But MY GOD if you're going to watch it RENT IT. Don't waste your time and money seeing it in theatre's, the ending ruins the entire damn movie. GOD. I just want to forget I saw it.

The Amazing Spider-Man

4/5

People were really surprised to hear about a reboot of this so soon after the recent Spider-Man movies. I gotta say, while it didn't exactly prove a case for the necessity of a reboot, it did a great job to distinguish itself from the first. I really enjoyed it, in a lot of ways more than the first. I did have some problems, like the concept for the suit coming out of basically nowhere and being the first suit the first try. But I loved how he made his own webs rather than have inexplicable organs develop inside his body to make webs somehow come out of his wrists. I really loved the updated Ben Parker death scene, as well as the slightly changed moral. Emma Stone was really great, as was the rest of the cast. But no one shined as bright as Andrew Garfield, who absolutely nailed the perfect Peter Parker. He distinguished his sweet, nerdy side from his smart-ass crime fighter side really well. It had just enough comic book silliness for it to be a fun summer movie, but enough seriousness for me to really believe it and want to follow it. Definitely one to check out, and have fun with it. And keep an eye open for the occasional nod to the first spider-man movie.

Magic Mike

2/5

Not that I saw this movie. I didn't. Why would I see a movie about male strippers. That's silly. You're silly...but if I DID see it, I'd have to say it's exactly what you'd expect from Steven Soderbergh based on his last two movies, Haywire and Contagion. First of all, there was barely any stripping, especially compared to what you'd expect from a movie about male strippers. Second of all, there was no PLOT. I swear to god the first hour and 15 minutes or so were completely pointless. It was as if he wanted spend all of the movie focusing on nothing but the strippers lives outside of the strip club, and then maybe in the last 25 minutes or so cram in this story about drugs and personal epiphanies or something silly like that, it was some super forced writing. The cast really gave 100% but with such a pointless story that it really didn't help at all. It had that super slow pace but not from care or patience with a story, but rather to focus on complete pointlessness to draw out character traits. The style came through, but with really no substance to back it up it was fruitless. And I talked to a bunch of girls who did go solely to see stripping muscular men who were seriously disappointed with the surprising lack of it. So, it looks like this movie will disappoint people more than they thought it will. Good thing I didn't see it. Ya know, it would be STUPID for me to see a movie about male strippers...

People Like Us

3/5

You think this would be more melodramatic than it was. And don't get me wrong, it's pretty damn melodramatic. But it's a sweet story, with a lot of heart from its screenwriter and its actors. Elizabeth Banks is sweet, conflicted and loving, and plays her part incredibly well. Chris Pine does a phenomenal job of playing an extremely normal person - he really does shed his celebrity aura and lets us see him as a coworker, a friend, or just a person. The screenplay was surprisingly solid, with one or two great moral's being thrown in (my personal favorite: Most of the doors you'll come to in life will be closed, and to get in, you're gonna need an interesting knock). Those really help mix up what might have been a little bit cliche, but honest enough to let it slide. This movie is "inspired by true events". I don't know how close it was, but what I can say is that Elizabeth Banks and Chris Pine push through the obvious melodrama to make it honest. It is, however, ruined by two things.  One - a plot thread that just vanishes. And this plot thread is one that wouldn't just vanish (no spoilers here). Two - the music. Talk about forcing emotions down your throat...yikes. And the sad part is it was written by A. R. Rahman, the film composer who's responsible for Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours, to mention two of a very great many films. Still, go in and enjoy Bank's and Pine's great acting, and let the sap just kinda pass through.