April 2014 Films I Plan to See

The title pretty much says it all. Of course this is subject to change due to other things that may come up, and I am finishing up my last semester of school so a lot of time is going to be dedicated to that. Anyway here are the ones that I will hopefully see.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
D: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo.
W: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely.
S: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Robert Redford, Samuel L. Jackson. 

Draft Day
D: Ivan Reitman.
W: Rajiv Joseph, Scott Rothman.
S: Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary, Ellen Burstyn. 

Transcendence
D: Wally Pfister,
W: Jack Paglen.
S: Johnny Depp, Morgan Freeman, Rebecca Hall.

Brief Blog Post: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trailer (2014) - Trailer Reaction.

Reactions to the new "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" trailer:
Meh, is the word that comes to mind. As of right now I have no real straight feelings towards either side. But I do have some more precise thoughts on a few.

"Pros:"
1. The designs of the turtles... not bad. Except for giving Donatello those stupid glasses.
(http://pmchollywoodlife.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/ninja-turtles-poster-lead.jpg?w=600)

2. Action scenes. If they're anything like mountain scene in the trailer than it can at least be enjoyable.

3. Looks like they may have ditched the alien plot, which is a very good thing to me.

Cons:
1. Megan Fox as April O'Neill. No no no no no no no no. It should've been Rachel McAdams.

2. The 9/11 imagery/Needless massive destruction. Seriously, can we stop putting this stuff in our summer blockbusters?

3. (From my friend Marc Sharp) Having a main character have a loved who did unethical scientific experiments for the greater good and presumably died or vanished in mysterious circumstances, because we haven't had enough of those plot lines before now

That's how it stands as of right now for me. I will wait and give it a shot because I don't want to come off as this guy... again.

Also because I know there were stupid moments in the older Turtles movies and tv shows. (Looking at you Ninja Turtles 3).

Muppets Most Wanted (2014) Review

Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
D: James Bobin
W: James Bobin, Nicholas Stoller
S: Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, Tina Fey.

The Muppets  return, with director James Bobin again, in the sequel to 2011's The Muppets. This time around The Muppets go on a world tour helped by their new manager Dominic Badguy (played by Ricky Gervais) who turns out to be a thief who switches out Kermit the Frog (performed by Steve Whitmire) for his partner in crime, world's most dangerous criminal, and Kermit lookalike, Constantine (performed by Matt Vogel). Will Dominic and Constantine get away with it? Will Kermit be rescued from the Siberian Gulag he has wrongly been sent to? Will Gonzo get to perform his indoor running of the bulls? 

I've been a massive fan of the Jim Henson as far as I can remember. I've enjoyed nearly EVERY Muppet film at some extent... except for maybe The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984, Dir. Frank Oz) and Muppets from Space (1999, Dir. Tim Hill). I've enjoyed his specials and even his non-Muppet related films and projects. Especially The Dark Crystal (1985, Dir. Jim Henson & Frank Oz). I unfortunately didn't get a chance to see the 2011 film because of personal issues at the time, and I unfortunately still haven't. So I made myself promise that I was not going to miss seeing this film and that I will see the 2011 film some time soon. 

I had a smile on face from beginning to end with this film. There were so many funny gags, great musical numbers and nearly every great Muppet trope appears in this film. I could not have been more satisfied. I think one of the reasons I really enjoyed this film was that it shared a lot of similarities with my favorite Muppet film The Great Muppet Caper (1981, Dir. Jim Henson). It involves villains planning a series of heists (switch out the Baseball Diamond with the Crown Jewels), one of the Muppets getting wrongly accused (switch out Miss Piggy with Kermit in this case) and plenty of the greats gags. 

I know talking about what makes comedy good is really hard to do but trust me folks, if you love the style of humor from other Muppet movies then you'll love this film as well. 

The one thing I do know of about the 2011 picture is that it had a fantastic with songs written by Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Concords fame.  Including the Oscar winning "Man or Muppet". McKenzie returns again to write the songs and he did a great song. My favorite song on the listing would have to be "We're Doing a Sequel" because it reminded me of the instrumentation of song bits from The Muppet Show and the opening number of The Great Muppet Caper. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ip4rfxii3U). 

Of course like any Muppet film you get to play the fun game "Spot the Cameo". And this film has tremendous amount. I'm not the biggest fan of Ricky Gervais but he was spot on in this film. Modern Family's Ty Burrell is comedic gold as the Interpol office Jean Pierre Napoleon who partners with Sam the American Eagle (performed by Eric Jacobson), and Tina Fey is of course funny and charming as the Russian Gulag prison guard. Also among the crowd of cameos include a cavalcade of criminals in the Gulag played by Jermaine Clement (the other half of Flight of the Concords), Ray Liotta, Danny Trejo and many others. Special spotlight on Josh Groban cameo as "Maximum Security Prisoner". Whether you like his music or not there's no doubt that Groban has an amazing sense of humor. And yes ladies Tom Hiddleston is in it as well, as the prisoner "Escapo". I'll admit I got a kick our of James McAvoy's brief cameo... but that's probably because I'm just a big fan of him. There are too many to count and are fun to point out and find on your own. 

Of course no film is perfect and it does have flaws. Thankfully it's nothing tremendous or distracting. It's mostly just some less than subpar CGI work and... the character Walter (performed by Peter Linz). Yeah, I know he's meant to be an everyman... er... everyMuppet, but he's just sort of bland in my eyes. Maybe he's more interesting in the other film. 

But never the less, I can't recommend this film enough. It is a true delight and I'm it'll warm your heart with Muppet joy. 

To First Choice Video

To First Choice Video

In January of this year the local video store in my home town, First Choice Video,  posted the photo above on their Facebook page along with a note that said that after 24 years they would closing its doors this year. Now, a local store closing down can be sad, but in this case it was heartbreaking. Why? Well for one thing it has been around literally as long as I have. Second it has been a go to place for me for movies. Yes I have a Netflix account but I always preferred to go to First Choice and hand pick what movie I wanted to check out. For me, it was fun to walk in and just browse through the aisles to see what looked promising. It's the same reason why I don't have a kindle.

First Choice Video was a massive staple of my childhood. When I was in Elementary School I was a poor test taker, particularly in spelling and I remember my mother would say to me, "If you do well with your spelling tests I'll take you to First Choice." To me, that was a solid deal. I also remember when I was a kid my sister and I would spend the night at our Grandmother's house many times and a treat she'd give us is a trip to the video store. Every time I went there I remember that my go to videos to rent were Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991, Dir. Michael Pressman). Both are films I enjoy to this day. I remember when they went from VHS to DVD and I did buy one movies, The Last Command (1955, Dir. Frank Lloyd) a B-Western starring Sterling Hayden, Ernest Borgnine and Arthur Hunnicutt.

As I grew older my taste in movies started to mature as well and it's through First Choice Video that I was able to see older films and get a better taste of cinema. Many of my favorite films I first saw because of First Choice Video. I knew First Choice Video was a go to place to find a classic film because it was obvious that the owner, Jennifer Andorfer, was a film lover. I'll always remember how around Oscar time she would set up displays at the end of every aisle showing all the movies that won Best Picture. She even had little cards made for the movies that said they were Best Picture winners. It's little things like that I'm going to miss. You don't get that sort of thing with Netflix or Red Box.

This store has had a massive impact on not only myself but on the community as well. When it was announced that the store would be closing there was an article written up about it in the local newspaper (http://wnewsj.com/news/home_top-news/3308580/End-of-an-era). This the video store also had so much support that it managed to shut down two opposing video rental stores, one of which was Blockbuster.

But now the shelves are empty, the store is growing more empty and the fact that this store is gone has finally set in and I am beyond saddened. I'll miss that store, I'll miss going through those aisles picking up classics like The Lost Weekend (1945, Dir. Billy Wilder), classic Universal horror films for Halloween, or any variety of films in those large clam shell like rental boxes. I'm glad I could buy 26 movies from them during their liquidation sale, (sadly Ninja Turtles II and Hook were already taken) it's the least I can do. So I finish this by saying to Jennifer, thank you. Thank you for everything you've given to the community, thank you for your dedication, and thank you for all the memories.

In the words of James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942, Dir. Michael Curtiz)

"My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you."

Non-Stop (2014) Review: SPOILERS!

Non-Stop

D: Jaume Collet-Serra

W: Ryan Engle, John W. Richardson, Christopher Roach.

S: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy

Liam Neeson is in the action spotlight again as alcoholic U.S. Federal Air Marshal Bill Marks as he tries to figure out who has been sending him mysterious texts on board his non-stop flight from New York to London. The person sending the texts are saying that he or she will kill a person on the plane every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred to a specific account. Will Marks find out who the culprit is? Will he stop the person in time? 

When I go into a movie I always go in with an open mind. I look at other critics opinions (and by that I mean I go to RottenTomatoes.com) and I saw that this film was getting "meh" reviews. So I thought okay this movie will at least be entertaining. This movie is beyond just Liam Neeson kicking arse for 110 minutes. This is a legit thriller, with many great twists and turns in it, suspense galore, it will keep you on the edge your seat wondering what the hell is going on. And it is certainly deserves more than "meh" like reviews. 

Liam Neeson's character Bill Marks is a great burnt out character. He's divorced, his child died of leukemia, and because of that he becomes a loner. Because of this, and because the account in question is revealed to be in his name, he is suspected to be a hijacking terrorist. Which adds great element of suspense to this already suspenseful tale. 

It's not all suspense and terror, the picture does give the audience time to know the setting and get a look at the people on the plane. It doesn't go extremely in depth but it does give a nice lay out of possibilities, with a pretty good reveal. It also always for the theme of trust and mistrust and uses it well. 

Of course I don't want to reveal WHO is responsible because I want you all to see it and check it out for yourself. It's a legitimate thriller with great suspense, a great lead character and great action. There are minor little hiccups in the script but nothing drastic to take you out of the moment. It is worth your time and money. 

Thumbs Up.