Rapidfire Reviews: Scott Does The Oscars pt 2

       In this installment I will be reviewing all the movies up for best animated film this year.  Unfortunately I never saw Frankenweenie, so I won't review it, but I saw the rest so I can probably make a decision as to which was the actual best movie based on that.

Brave

       Brave is the actual winner of the award, and though it was good I don't think it was the best.  The movie follows princess Merida who is being forced to choose a suitor, but she doesn't want this finds a witch who turns her mother into a bear.  When she goes back to the witch she is out of town and Merida and her mom must find a way to reverse the spell.  The movie isn't as humorous as I was expecting for a Pixar movie, and it was clearly aimed at an older audience, however the biggest problem with this movie is that it was originally an entirely different movie that was obviously edited together with the new script.  It was a great movie to be sure, but I felt it was a little lacking for Pixar, especially after Toy Story 3.  I give the movie an A-.

Paranorman

       If I did this entry yesterday like I planned to, this movie wouldn't be here, but I found it on Netflix last night and watched it.  The plot is a boy named Norman can see ghosts, and his "crazy" uncle who has the same gift dies.  His ghost tells Norman that he was the one keeping the Witch's curse at bay and now that responsibility falls on Norman.  However Norman is unable to prevent the curse and the bodies of those who persecuted the Witch rise from the dead.  The movie has some interesting plot twists I don't want to spoil so you'll just have to watch it.  It also has a first in a children's movie, again a twist.  I really enjoyed this movie, the characters were likable, the plot was original, and all the twists kept the movie a surprise.  However the animation was a bit jerky, even for a claymation film and the character designs were a bit uninspired.  I give Paranorman a B+.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits

       Possibly the funniest movie on this list.  Pirates is about a pirate captain named Pirate Captain who wants to win pirate of the year.  While plundering he runs into Charles Darwin who informs him his parrot is actually a Dodo bird and they go to England to enter a science contest.  I was laughing the entire movie and even forgave how predictable the film was.  With character names like Pirate Captain, Suspiciously Curvacious Pirate, and Pirate Who Loves Rainbows and Unicorns, this movie has to be funny.  Sadly however as I mentioned before the film was extremely predictable, to the point where I knew what would happen before it did.  And it is this predictability that forces me to give the film a B+.

Wreck-It Ralph

       Wreck-It Ralph is about a video game villain living in an arcade who gets tired of being the bad guy and decides to game jump.  This leads to Fix-It Felix, the games hero having to find Ralph before their game is unplugged because Ralph is missing.  All the games shown are parodies, so don't expect Mushroom Kingdom or Green Hill Zone to appear, and the video game characters that are in the movie are only in to for only a few minutes as cameos.  Disney is great at taking ideas nobody thinks of, and making them into amazing movies, this is no exception.  The movie did an amazing job of developing all of the plot points and characters, as well as tell a fantastic story with some great jokes.  This is my personal favorite movie on this list, and I give it an A.

       Well there are the reviews of the best animated movies of the year.  If you have anything to say about my opinions, feel free to leave a comment below.

Rapidfire Reviews: Scott Does The Oscars pt 1

       Its been a while since I did a movie review, so I decided to go big and tear the Oscars a new one.  I'm not going to review any of the movies I haven't seen, which sadly is a couple of the Oscar-Bait movies, but honestly these are usually overrated.  These are in my rapidfire format so about 1-2 paragraphs each, starting with best picture nominees.

Argo

       Argo is about a fake film crew in Iraq sneaking American diplomats out of the country.  Its based on a true story and is the winner of the Best Picture award.  The movie itself is full of historical inaccuracies, though to be honest it is understandable because the original event was quite frankly, a little boring.  The Acting is great, the plot is great, and Ben Affleck is an incredible director.  If you haven't seen it, I can't recommend it for everyone but it is a great movie.  However if I personally was in charge of selecting the winner, this one would be the runner up, because their is another on this list that I enjoyed even more.  I rate this movie a solid A.

Django Unchained

       Django Unchained is about a former slave who teams up with Dr. King Schultz to track down the Brittle brothers, in return Schultz helps Django track down his wife who was sold to another plantation and tries to free her.  I took my father to this one for his birthday because his favorite movies are Spaghetti Westerns, and one done by my favorite director had to be awesome.  And it was, the movie manages to balance humor, action, and drama far better than any other movie on today's list.  The only issue here is the outrageous use of profanity, which is standard for a Tarantino movie, but can turn a lot of viewers away from it.  This is my favorite movie from the list, because of my father I grew up as a huge fan of cowboys, and this one has many historical accuracies you don't usually see.  On top of that it also makes some changes that are so obvious there is no question that they never really happened.  I give this movie an A.

Life of Pi

       In Life of Pi a man is telling a writer the story of when he was lost at sea as a boy with a tiger.  That's about it, nothing really happens in it.  Honestly I didn't like it.  There was a few twists at the end that actually made the movie even more ridiculous.  It was also praised for how visually amazing it was, which I personally didn't see, the reflective water was cool, but all other effects were painfully obvious.  The Tiger for example was far more fake looking than television animals.  Though I'm the only person I know who didn't think this movie was amazing.  But because this review is based on personal opinion, and mine is this movie is mediocre, so I rate it a C+.

Lincoln

       Lincoln is about the 13th amendment becoming a reality.  The movie is oddly compelling considering how boring the premiss is and the fact nothing happened.  There is also one major historical inaccuracy that as a history major kinda pissed me off.  Overall however I really enjoyed the movie, but if I was the one who made it there are a few changes I'd make, the first would be to fix the inaccuracy I mentioned earlier.  Next I would add more footage of the civil war, considering the whole plot centered around the civil war I found it a bit odd that it was only shown for roughly 30 seconds.  Lastly I would fix the ending, for those who don't know their history; Lincoln was murdered while at the theater, in the movie they show the wrong theater.  I would have ended it the scene before when he is walking away to dramatic music, or showed Lincoln at the theater and have Boothe walk up behind him, fade to black or raise the camera so they're out of view, then gunshot.  However I still loved the movie and I give it an A-.

Zero Dark Thirty

       This movie is about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, from September 11th, to a little after his execution.  The main character is fictional and meant to simply give us a face to follow over the 10 year timespan.  The movie can be hard to follow at times, but it's mostly because of the timespan.  The movie had some controversy because it depicts realistic torture, which honestly I enjoyed seeing because it added realism...not because I'm a psycho, it was actually hard to watch.  This movie also doesn't have much action, but the suspense more than makes up for it.  The ending also has a bittersweet feel to it, the main character, after spending her entire career, and a large amount of her life hunting down the same man is done, and has no idea what to do next.  All things considered I give this movie an A-.

       I realize I didn't have all the movies here, but I haven't seen a few of them, though I'm going to see Silver Lining Playbook soon.  If you have anything to say about my reviews today, feel free to leave a comment below.

Rapid Fire Movie Recomendations: 2012 sleepers

Originally I was planning to do a top 10 list, but I had not seen a couple of the movies that I was told I had to see, then I realized that my top 10 list may not be universal for all the tens of readers I have.  So instead I'm just going to throw out a lot of mini reviews, try not to spoil good new movies, and pass on my opinion of some movies.  All of these movies are ones that I liked, and would pay money to see.

DREDD

       This movie was awesome, and easily in my top 5 favorites of the year, Dredd is based on the comic book and is about a gruff veteran judge, the police force of this universe, taking a rookie to a crime scene to evaluate her.  At the crime scene the judges discover crime is connected to the biggest new drug on the street.  The judges are then locked in the building they are in and the drug kingpin, Ma-Ma places a bounty on them.  So the Judges must fight their way to the penthouse and stop Ma-Ma to win their freedom.  Sounds pretty basic, but it does everything so well and takes risks putting twists on old concepts.  Needless to say this movie is violent, in fact that's where the R rating comes from, but there isn't too much language, and the only sex scene in it is from angles where you don't see anything.  This movie is for those who enjoy action, but are tired of all the cliches that usually go with them.

Cabin In The Woods

 

       Cabin In The Woods was another surprise, sort of, I'm a huge Joss Whedan fan, but not much of a horror freak, but this one was different.  Basically all the cliches are there, but exaggerated and poked fun at.  So this is a horror movie for those who like to make fun of horror movies.  This one also has a huge twist either makes or breaks the movie for everyone.  This is for those who can see the movie for what it is, a parody that also stays true to the genre.  If you liked Buffy or Angel, this is in the same spirit, but for a far more adult audience.  

Red Dawn

       To be honest this is a guilty pleasure.  Chances are most people will hate this one.  Honestly I felt this was a fun popcorn flick that stayed true to the original while still managing to modernize in most aspects.  But if you read my review of this one earlier this year you'll remember I found many small flaws with it.  But again it doesn't take itself seriously, and neither should the viewers.  I don't have much here because I already did this one.  I recommend it for those who want a popcorn movie, either to kill some time, or you plan to grab a drink with the guys, its an action movie filled with actors that most watch grow up.

       A drastically different movie than the others on this list.  This was another one that surprised me.  I was home from college for the summer and my mother bought it.  Then on vacation with some young relatives I needed something to watch that was OK for them, so we watched this one.  This is a feel good movie for the whole family that is based on a true story.  there is a small twist at the end I sort of saw coming, but it was a little predictable.  That being said I found it good and recommend it for anyone who has kids and wants a slightly more grown-up movie to watch with them, or if you want a feel good movie that isn't totally contrived and predictable.

       Well there are 4  movies that 2012 gave us that seemed to slip past the more casual movie-goer, I'm sure there were more, but this was only a fast entry.  Feel free to post your own or comment on my choices.  Until next time.