Tag: Movie Review

The Ugly Truth (2009)

The Ugly Truth is honestly Kathrine Heigl and Gerard Butler if the odd couple were to take place at work. Ms. Heigl plays Abby, a serious kind of stuck up control freak producer. She plays the role so well, by the way, I think she might really be some sort of control freak in real life. It seemed like less a role and more of her just being herself. Mr. Butler plays Mike Chadway. He has a public access show called, The Ugly Truth where he is basically brutally honest, at least in his opinion. One night in what can only be described as a freak coincidence Abby ends up watching Mike’s show when her cat steps on the remote. After a particularly misogynistic rant from Mike, Abby calls the show to yell at him and they, of course, get into it.

After seeing this, her boss hires Mike to help save the show from ratings hell. Abby obviously isn’t so happy about this. As you can guess they end up agreeing if he can’t get the guy she likes to fall for her, he will quit his job. As you can also guess, it works. From here it is a stereotypical romantic comedy where some fun things happen, the two fall in love but won’t admit it and he quits his job. Later on, they end up together on tv, fade to black, two people on love. The real question is, was it enjoyable getting to that point? The answer honestly is yes, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. Kathrine and Gerard have amazing chemistry and are great actors. This one for fans of the genre is worth watching. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse

Now I know I am supposed to love this movie and think it is one of the all-time best Spider-Man movies if not the best. The truth is while I enjoyed it, I don’t think it was one of the best at all. It was simply an average movie that spent way to much time explaining how every Spider-man (and Spider-Gwen and pig) thought they were the only one.

The story of cross dimensions due to a collider while done well has also been done pretty much to death at this point within comics and science fiction, and it wasn’t even done in some new or inventive way. Everything about this movie is as basic and cliche as it could ever be.

The saving grace in all this, however, is that the animation is without a doubt top notch, and at no point was it a chore to watch. The characters are well written and funny, and Miles Morales is a great character in his own right and I am happy to see he isn’t just an attempt at continuing Peter Parker. He has his own abilities and powers along with his own issues and faults to contend with.

The different iterations of Spider-Man from the other dimensions were also fun to see such as Spider-Man Noir being essentially a black and white comic book character that loves a Rubix cube he found and is determined to understand it despite not knowing what the colors even are. Spider-Ham is basically a Looney Tunes character in a suit which was quite hilarious and Peni Parker is a futuristic Japanese girl with a psychic connection to the spider that lives in a sort of mech suit. I feel she doesn’t get the love she deserves by the way.

The movie is good, and if you have Netflix it deserves to be experienced. It is however far from being an all-time great movie. There isn’t anything original about the story and the only thing that makes it interesting is the characters themselves, and they could have been placed in any story with the same results. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Soul To Keep (2019)

Soul to keep is the story of a twin brother and sister that inherit a house in the woods. They invite some friends to come up and party for a bit. You know the horror movie deal, alcohol, sex, and drugs. Their grandfather that left them the house tho was a bit odd and for all their lives had a locked door that leads to the basement. Of course, it wouldn’t be all that long until they ended up down there.

In true horror movie fashion, there is a book that lets them summon a demon. Beelzebub to be specific.  They will, of course, try to do it and it won’t work. Until it does work and people start dying. Go figure right? Anyway, the movie isn’t bad up until this point, just a bit cliche. But things are usually cliche because they work. The movie is passable until you get to the final act where stuff starts happening in an  M Night style twist ending that makes no real damn sense. I won’t spoil it for you in case you decide to check it out but everything that happens is just ridiculous. Usually, with a twist ending you can go back and see the signs of these things coming and think well damn, why didn’t I notice that. That is actually the key to a good twist ending. That isn’t here tho. It just feels there for the sake of being there, and it killed what should have been a decent movie for me.

Not to be outdone, they ended it after the twist ending with another standard horror movie twist further cementing it as dead for me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Anima (2019 short film)

I am going to make this pretty short and sweet. Anima is a short film that lasts about 15 minutes and I refuse to make you guys read a review that lasts longer than it would take you guys to hop on Netflix and watch it.

Anima is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and stars Thom York (Radiohead) and Dajana Rocione. The whole thing is getting amazing reviews, 100% on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing and 8/10 on IMDb.

There are 2 ways to view this. From a technical standpoint, it is amazingly done. The music is fitting, the dancing is well done and the imagery is fantastic. On the flip side, if you don’t like stuff like that, the movie is boring as hell. That is really all you have to ask yourself. If you like musicals and interpretive dance and or very artsy stuff., you will really enjoy this movie. If not, you probably won’t. That being said, it is only 15 minutes. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

My Best Friend’s Girl

My Best Friend’s Girl is another movie that was hit and miss with reviewers and fans. With a 14% on Rotten Tomatoes and 34% on Metacritic, it was enjoyed by 83% of people on Google.

The concept, however, is genius, I actually wouldn’t be surprised if someone had done this so they made a movie out of it. Tank (Dane Cook) a long time ago went on a horrible date. Eventually, someone asked him to do it on purpose. Ever since then people would pay him to take their ex-girlfriends on the worst possible dates he could imagine to bring their ex-girlfriends to come crawling back.

Seriously one date he shows up drunk an hour late and takes a very Christian woman to a pizza place called Cheesus Chrust. The date last about a minute before she storms off.

His cousin, not by blood, Dustin (Jason Biggs) eventually has him take out this girl from work he loves. Alexis (Kate Hudson) is a pretty serious serial monogamist. This is where things go to hell fast. Tank ends up falling for Alexis after they end up hooking up and sleeping together. They also, of course, get caught by Dustin. I won’t go into any more detail because I really enjoy the movie and think you guys should check it out. The acting is great and the movie is funny. While many people Dane Cook isn’t a very good comedian, he is a pretty good actor. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Killers (2010)

Killers with Kathrine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher is a 2010 Assasin comedy that was met with some mixed reviews. for example, it got a 10% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 5.4/10 on IMBd but 89% of Google users like it. It also basically flopped in theaters with a 75 million dollar budget and a 98 million dollar box office.

The movie itself is about an Assasin, Spencer (Ashton) that is on a mission and meets a woman, Jen (Kathrine) that has just gone through a break-up and is on a family vacation. They quickly fall in love, get married and Jen never finds out about Spencer’s real job. They end up with the perfect suburban life. That is for the first about three years.

Around three years, Spencer’s old boss comes knocking and tries to drag him back into the business, and when he refuses a $20 million bounty is placed on his head and his neighbors literally start trying to kill him. Somebody has been placing sleepers in his life for years, and they are trying to collect.

The movie has its funny moments and of course, the acting is well done. I also enjoyed the entire concept and while the ending was pretty easy to see coming it was still pretty cool to see happen. This is one of those movies for fans of romantic comedies with a twist, it’s a great movie. For everyone else, maybe not so much. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

They Come Knocking (2019)

They Come Knocking is the story of a father that takes his two daughters on a road trip about a year after tragically losing their mother to cancer. The road trip follows the same path mom and dad took years ago and ends where dad proposed. The intent is to camp for a couple days then spread her ashes. Its not a bad trip, until some mysterious figures show up.

These figures turn out to be some sort of demonic presence that wants them to come outside or be invited in, because for some reason demons need an invite like they are some weird ass vampires. They can also take any form they want from your memories. They use this many times in an attempt to kill or kidnap the family. They can also make you see things that aren’t there.

I won’t give much more away that that because I won’t tell you to not watch the movie. It isn’t a bad movie there are just some odd choices that are never really explained. For example there is no real explanation on why these things are here, why they are harassing this family or any of the others or why they ending works out the way it does.

That being said, the movie is a nice family story (tho it isn’t by any means child appropriate)  about how they can come together and endure through adversity. I personally would not watch the movie again, but I can’t say I don’t recommend it.The movie just wasn’t for me. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Fallen (2016)

Fallen is the movie adaptation of the book by Lauren Kate of the same name. The movie however was met with some pretty horrible reviews. 7% on Rotten Tomatoes for example. The book however, the first in a series of 5 books (if you include the short Valentines Day novel)

The story is about a girl that is resurrected every 17 years only to fall in love with a fallen angel, kiss him and die just to repeat the process. This has gone on ever since the war between God and Lucifer when Danial fell in love with a human and refused to choose sides in the battle. Jealous of this new found love, Lucifer cursed them to be stuck on Earth forever to repeat the process.

Danial has tried it all to break this cycle to no avail.  The movie comes off very Twilight like, except somehow not as good. Te acting isn’t great, the lighting isn’t all that good and most of the characters are pretty much boring as hell. The only entertaining part of this is Luce and the story itself is interesting. I rarely say this sort of thing tho, but just go read the books. For starters, the movie leaves you hanging pretty much and I highly doubt the other books ever get movies. They were also done much better. So skip this one, and get some reading done. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Murder Mystery (2019)

Murder Mystery is the new Adam Sandler movie from Happy Madison Productions starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. They play a married couple, her a hair dresser, him a cop trying to become a detective, tho she has been lied to and thinks he already is one.

After 15 years, they are finally going on their European honeymoon. On the plane they meet Charles Cavendish (Luke Evans) the nephew of a billionare going through a rough break up that invites them on the family yacht, just to piss off his uncle that married his fiancee.

The movie is getting mixed reviews, critics don’t seem to enjoy it but viewers seem to be enjoying it. I fall into the I enjoyed it category. Ms. Aniston and Mr. Sandler have great chemistry and perform well together and the story is well put together and easy to understand but has just enough twist and turns to be fun.

My only real issue with the story is there is nothing new here either, Murder Mystery is very cliche and by the book, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing I just would have liked a bit more to it. That being said if you like mystery movies this one is solid. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Then Came You (2019)

Starring Maisie Williams and Asa Butterfield Then Came You tells the story of a boy, Calvin, who is afraid to die and Skye who is actually dying. Calvin lost a twin sister when he was about eight years old and has pretty much been a hypochondriac ever since. He has an entire journal of symptoms.

Skye actually has terminal cancer, and before you watch this movie expecting a happy ending, there isn’t one for our young friend Skye. This is exactly as advertised advertised and there are no miracles.

The movie will cover their friendship from how and when they meet, to their love lives and quest to do everything they want before they die. Some of them are simply mundane like get a job, followed by get fired. Others are a bit more deep or in depth.

The movie however, and I don’t say this lightly, is one of the most heart wrenching movies I have ever seen. The ending alone while amazing and worth watching the movie for is also one of the saddest things I have ever seen. I won’t get into to many details, but the movie is great, and one of the best I have seen in 2019. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.