Neighbors

I haven’t reviewed very many movies outside of the action or sci-fi genres, so I wanted to get some more practice writing reviews for the different types, so I went to see this. The odd thing is that I went in to this movie more judging than I normally do because I knew I was mostly doing it for the review and I think it skewed the way I watched the movie, because everything about the movie fell apart to me.


If you’ve seen a trailer for the movie you know the plot to this movie. A frat house moves in to the house next to a 30 something couple, that are new parents. In a hope to set some ground rules the 30 somethings try to be friendly, but after several parties a secret war breaks out between the neighbors to decide who will keep the neighborhood.


The story wasn’t fully developed, it’s like they took the boring parts of old school and the boring parts of a knocked up sequel and put them together. I didn’t feel the motivation from either side, you are supposed to feel for this young family but they don’t spend any time showing you the struggle they are going through, they just skip straight to the battle and retaliation segments of the story. I felt more for the frat than I did for the family most of the time, and that’s the wrong way to feel about the situations they presented.

Now don’t get me wrong, they did show a couple of setup scenes to some of the fighting, but that didn’t help any, I still didn’t care about either side. It felt like the story of the movie was just to get to the jokes and pranks, which some where funny, but this isn’t a Jackass movie so it doesn’t work.

I don’t think I would recommend anyone to see this movie in theaters, and I am appalled that it made number one at the box office last weekend, probably because it looked better in the trailer than it ended up being, thankfully it will be unseated by Godzilla this weekend. If you want to see this movie wait until it makes it to Netflix or HBO, if you have either of those, don’t waste your money seeing it in theaters.

In closing, this movie is made for the type of person in the movie, really dumb frat guys that are afraid of the real world after college where they are kings.



I give this a 2 out of 5


Written by Jeff Potts

Amazing Spider-Man 2

‘THWIP THWIP’ … I bet you make the ‘GO, Web. GO.’ hand motions when you think about that sound, just like most of the non essential characters in this movie. Being a pedestrian in a Spider-Man movie would suck so much, compared to being a hostage. Most times Spider-Man is swinging away as he’s fighting crime, so you would never get a chance to see how awesome he is, it would be like ‘Sweet it’s Spider-Ma… bye Spider-Man… ’ so be the victim, but only if it's safe.

So now I will super summarize the movie in 3 lines or less.


Peter Parker struggles to keep the promise he made to Capt. Stacey, as he died, to leave Gwen out of his life if he continues to be Spider-Man. When out of the blue Pete’s old friend Harry comes back to town, after being away for a long time, and they try to rekindle their friendship. But things never stay happy for long in New York, when a super fan of Spider-Man has a horrible accident, his love for the webhead turns to hate.


Something that I think you will hear be universal praise for this movie is the chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, there wasn’t much in the first movie, but whenever they were on screen together I couldn’t help but smile at how good they were together. It sounds silly, but my favorite moment with them is when they are backing away from someone and they start doing this synchronize bounce as they walk and talk, such a small thing but it gave me the giggles. Speaking of giggles, Andrew Garfield is amazing with the comedy in this movie, every line delivered superbly… except for you, dumb joke after roll down your window.

But all this is not to say there’s nothing wrong with the movie, it had its faults and it had plenty of them. The fact that they went straight to “3” villains instead of slowly upping to 2 was a problem because there wasn’t enough screen time for all of them so they under sold or got rid of things that shouldn’t have been messed with, and making the movie longer would have been a mistake too, it was pretty long, but bearable to a point. Another thing to pick at is that they reused certain story mechanics from the first movie that didn’t need to be there and if they do it again in the 3rd movie there will be harsh criticism from a lot of people saying they’re ‘beating a dead horse when it’s down.’


I highly recommend you see this movie if you haven’t already, I don’t know what else to say about it. IMAX 3D seems to be the best way to go, I mean if you’re going to see it, it might as well be in the best format of it you can go to.



I give it a 3.5 out of 5


Written by Jeff Potts

Captain America: the Winter Soldier

I was very excited for this movie and for the most part it did not disappoint. After seeing the first trailer I knew that it was lining up to be the best Marvel movie so far. I know I’m part of the billionaires club and love all things Ironman, and that I could be scoffed at for not saying Avengers was the best, but I truly think this movie has upped the ante to all other Marvel movies to try to be better than it.

Between the almost perfect story, acting, and action set pieces, this movie was honestly amazing. There are things that lessened the experience of the movie but that is mainly because of the source material, I have things to say about that, which I will place at the bottom of this article since they contain a few spoilers, as that is something that I can’t stand as you will see.


After being reintroduced to the world after 70 years and fighting a bunch of aliens, Steve Rogers tries to gain some normality in his life, by joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and serving his country, like any good super soldier ripped out of his own time would. Leading his own strike team, Rogers takes care of high value missions. The Lemurian Star, a S.H.I.E.L.D. cruiser capable of launching satellites into orbit, is high jacked by pirates, and Steve and his crew must take it back. During the rescue operation Natasha Romanoff splits off from the team to secure any sensitive data that could be on board, by secret orders from Nick Fury.

After the events in the Avengers, the world security council decided that the only way that they could guarantee that the world could be protected was if they had several state of the art helicarriers in the air at all times ready to fight at a moment’s notice. On the eve of their unveiling and launch, Fury fears that the mission might be compromised and requests that the launch be delayed till he has adequate time to investigate and make sure everything is clear. And that is when all hell breaks loose…


I would love to carry on further but that isn’t an option for it would be spoilers galore from here on out. It’s interesting too, watching this movie after the first and the Avengers, and if you want the episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that aired the week the movie came out, then after you see the movie watch the next episode of Agents, or just watch both episodes after the movie, it will make sense.

I am saying it now, this movie is worth the 6 dollar sir charge on top of the ticket price to see it in IMAX 3D, a bit ridiculous but I can’t stress enough how much the movie looks amazing in IMAX. You don’t have to be crazy like me though, any way you see this movie is fine, just go see it in theaters please. You will lose so much by not going to see it on the big screen.

One last thing I will say before I leave you, the comedy in this movie is really good for the most part, but a few jokes fall flat. Oh and there are 2 credit sequences… thanks Joss Whedon for starting that trend, even though it is nice having a credit break instead of sitting all the way to the end, with only long credits in-between.




I give it a 4 out of 5

Written by Jeff Potts




*spoiler section*

For those of you that read the comics and knew the truth about the Winter Soldier, that is fine, but seriously wtf is it with the world today that something that is supposed to be a bombshell moment in a movie, is ruined by anyone that wants to be an a-hole and not let it be a bombshell. I went in trying to keep my parents from knowing the truth about the Winter Soldier until they saw the movie, I knew they were safe from the internet spoiling it, because they either don’t use a computer or never situate themselves to be in a position to see spoilers, but despite my best efforts it was spoiled for them both by the stupidest reasons. My dad read it in the newspaper, another reason to get rid of print media, and Marvel themselves ruined it for my mom by giving it away in their one hour special, Assembling a Universe, which I did tell them not to watch till after the movie because I saw it first and saw the spoiler, but she couldn’t wait that long to see it. To me, if I didn’t know who the character was already from reading the comics, that would have pissed me off so bad. It was a moment in the movie that felt like it was supposed to be big, the way they hid him and shot the reveal, but if you knew, then you’re like who cares why are you failing at making this suspenseful. I mean see even this spoiler doesn’t have spoilers, just eluding to them, but now all the jackasses of the world have to be the first to tell you about Bruce Willis.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Before I say this I would like to mention that as you grow up your tastes change, or you understand things differently. I used to work at a movie theater, and at that time the first of Wes Andersons movies where coming out, and whenever I would check in on the theater I wasn’t too impressed with what I saw. Now 12 years later, I haven’t caught up on all of his movies, but I love the handful that I have seen.

I will summarize this a little differently than normal because it loses a lot of flavor if I try to explain it in detail.


The following is a review of a girl reading a book, about the second hand stories a writer wrote, from a man that lived the events…. See how weird this could get if I wanted it too.

The Grand Budapest Hotel was once an exquisite establishment, under the care of the best concierge ever to serve, Monsieur Gustave H., who also has a fondness for bedding older women. On this day he must evict one of the tenants, Madame D, one of his elderly lovers. One month later he is informed of the death of Madame D and rushes to be there at her side. After the funeral, Gustave returns to the hotel, where shortly after the police arrive and accuse Gustave of killing Madame D, and subsequently arrest him.

With the help of the Lobby Boy, Zero, Gustave makes a plan to escape prison, and clear his name.


There is something really funny about dry humor mixed with visual gags that Wes Anderson simply dominates. That’s where I think I’ve been pulled in at, because I respond to it so much more than the junk I liked when I was younger, and I noticed it too, that comedy didn’t cut it like this comedy does now.

A great comparison to make is, if you liked the movie Clue then you will probably like this movie too. It wasn’t the same story or anything, it’s just a good barometer for similar styles. That being said, you should definitely see this movie any way you can, try for the theater, but if you don’t like going out then seriously go pick it up when it hits home video.



I give this a 4.5 out of 5

Written by Jeff Potts

Divergent

Well I feel like I should say welcome to the decade of the young adult series turned into a movie franchise, but really I should have said that before the first hunger games… wait I forgot about the dreadfully awful twilight movies, so I guess we are nearing the end of that decade then, unless any of you know of a series that is being converted that I’m not aware of.

Welcome to the dystopic future of Chicago, where we think we might be the only living humans left on earth, unlikely, just like the fact you can’t rebuild basic com systems to check, but you can make all this crazy new tech… I will let this one slide, this time. Society has been divided into 5 different groups that manage govern and protect the people of the city, and when their children reach the age of mid-teens they are tested and have to decide where they want to proceed to their future.

Our story follows that of Beatrice Prior, a young woman going for her pre-selection test, but when her test comes back inconclusive, more commonly known as Divergent, she doesn’t know what to do. Normally those raised in their faction tend to continue on in their faction, but the point of the selection is to give you the ability to choose where you want to continue, posed with this problem Beatrice wants to make a difference in her life and thinks the best way of doing that is by joining Dauntless, the warrior faction. In choosing Dauntless she has to leave her family and friends back in Abnegation.

Beatrice, now going by Tris, has to work harder than ever to meet the expectations of Dauntless, and to keep her secret hidden from everyone, because as Tris finds out, one of the main things that Dauntless does to protect the city is to hunt down and remove Divergents with the help of the Erudites, the intelligence seekers and lawmakers.

In comparison to Hunger Games I thought this was a better story, and movie. I definitely want to read the books now that I have a taste for it. I have stated before, I think in a Nothing Presents podcast, that dystopic is one of my two favorite movie genres, the other being time travel. I really didn’t have too many problems with this movie, other than small things like the not knowing if they were the only humans left.

It is a great movie to see in theaters, but it isn’t a have to see, unless you go IMAX, then definitely go see it in theaters.

I give it a 4 out of 5

Written by Jeff Potts

Need for Speed

I have always thought that video game movies should be easier to make than comic book movies, but they fail at recreating the experience all the time. Look at the main selection of video game movies out; first there’s Resident Evil, a movie where all they did was take a concept and messed it up severely by adding a whole team of people instead of keeping it a single player experience. Then there is Hitman , a game about a lone assassin, but a movie about an assassin that becomes a knight in shining armor. I could go on about Max Payne and Doom but you get the idea, I will say that Doom had that one sequence that was very game like, when they went into first person shooter mode, that was fun but very unnecessary. I am not even going to touch on the atrocities of Uwe Boll.

These types of games (racing) should be the easiest to make into a movie, and let me tell you it was. Now I haven’t played the newest Need for Speed games, but this was very reminiscent of Hot Pursuit, one of my favorite versions of the Need for Speed series. From the cars they used, to the locations they picked, even down to the police radio talk to the checkpoints in the race, the last half hour of this movie was Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.


Toby Marshall, son of a late great racing legend, makes a deal with a very old rival, Dino, to build a car for him to sell, so that Toby can save his father’s garage. But where egos and cars are involved there is always a race. Dino challenges Toby to either win Dino's share of the profit or lose his, Toby accepts, but his friend also talks his way into the race, against Toby’s warnings. A heart pounding race ensues where Dino is in the lead until they almost cause a huge accident on the freeway where Toby takes the lead, in the last stretch of the race in fear of losing going over 200mph, Dino taps Pete’s bumper and causes Pete’s car to flip and turn in to a big ball of flame hurtling down the highway and off a bridge. Stopping to go back and try to save his friend from a fully engulfed car Toby gets arrested and accused of Pete’s death, while Dino runs and creates an alibi.

2 years later Toby gets out of jail, looking for vengeance only the way a racer can, calls in a favor and starts a cross country sprint to get from New York to California in less than 48 hours, to make it to the De Leon, a special race where its winner takes all. Upon learning of this development Dino places a bounty on Toby to keep him from the race, but you can’t stop vengeance.


Now on the other side, comparing this movie to the Fast and Furious series. FF has a more developed story, not just because they’ve had 6 movies to do it, but each movie has more story to it than this did, but I am not saying that is a bad thing. For being a video game movie this movie did exactly what was necessary, it came up with the plot of a game and had you watch it instead of play it, it would be so easy to go into the game and recreate every scene, minus the cut scene character development segments. This movie has also delivered in a way that the FF series hasn’t, this movie married the racing aspect to the acting segment almost flawlessly. The other thing that was great about this movie was you learned all about the back story in about the first 5 minutes so it could spend most of the movie moving forward instead of dragging its feet in the past.

I highly recommend that you see this in theaters, the only downside I have with the movie is that it wasn’t presented in IMAX. I would also like to thank the script writer and director for not going heavy handed on the little love story that was going on in the movie, they gave it as much as was needed and didn’t make it the center point of the story when it started.




I give this a 4 out of 5

Written by Jeff Potts

300: Rise of an Empire

So at the beginning of this movie when they said the protagonists name, I was like he sounds like the name of a street drug, Themistokles. If that street drug made you a bad ass warrior then you get to keep the name.

Set as a companion piece to the original movie, Rise covers the naval battle that happened in the north of Greece to protect Athens from the Persians. It also covers the story of why Xerxes hates the Greeks and how he became the God King. I will say in a not too spoilerish way that the end of this movie teased an awesome battle just like at the end of 300, that we also didn’t get to see, but it also takes place 6 months before the end battle in the first movie, which happened a year after the fall of Leonidas.


10 years before the events of 300, King Darius and his Persian army tried to invade Greece, but the Athenians, led by Themistokles, attacked before they had completely disembarked from their ships. In the heat of battle Themistokles witnessed Darius on a boat and took his chance to end the battle, by loosing an arrow upon him. Seeing the fate about to befall his father Xerxes tried to save him, but it was too late Themistokles’ arrow found its mark and the Persians retreated.

Darius warned Xerxes not to take revenge on the Greeks, but his hate blinded him as well as the counsel of the Kings greatest general, Artemisia, who convinced Xerxes that he could become a God and wipe the Greeks from existence.

Artemisia, is said to be unrivaled at naval combat, but Themistokles puts that to the test.


I did the best thing ever which was to watch 300 right before seeing this movie, and let me tell you, that was a great experience. There were a few things that happened at the end of this that made me want to see how they happen so I could see how they tied into the army vs. army battle at the end of the first movie. There were some fun cameos in the movie, but with the fact that the only way we saw Leonidas in the movie was the way we saw him, I doubt Gerard came back, I think they CG overlaid characters interacting with him from the original movie. The thing that bothered me in the movie was that they replayed the second in command father son story from 300, the only difference was the father didn’t want the son there in this movie, the son snuck in to the war camp.

The movie was a little bit better than the original, but it also didn’t feel like the same movie (I know it was different directors), maybe because they used a blue tint, to mirror the sea, whereas the first used a brown tint, for the land. There was a bigger story at play in this one as well, where I felt the first movie could have used some of it. My hope is that someone will do a master cut and make one movie in chronological order, I think that would be amazing.

In conclusion, if you are in to these kinds of movies see it in theaters, the 3D IMAX made the naval battle really interesting, but it isn’t necessary for enjoying the movie.



I give it a 4 out of 5

Written by Jeff Potts

Non-Stop

Being as specific of a movie as this was, there isn’t much to synopsis without giving major spoilers, so that will be quick this week and then we will get to the good stuff.


An air marshal, Bill, on a transatlantic flight receives a series of text messages that threaten the lives of everyone on board, every 20 minutes, unless the airline transfers 150 million dollars into an account. In an attempt to save everyone Bill uses some unorthodox methods to find the killer, while the killer drags his reputation through the mud shifting all suspicion on to Bill.


 Like I said short and simple. Looking at the movies that Liam Neeson has done in the past few years is very surprising, they have been some amazing films, but it is interesting that the industry took a bit of a leap to make an older actor the new action star of the decade. To me, other than playing historical figures his roles have mostly been supportive father or villains lackey. So it was a surprise to see him in Batman Begins at the end with a sweet fight scene, and then to follow that performance up with Taken, a masterpiece of action that was expertly executed by Liam. But I will say even though he is amazing, he runs the risk of overdoing it, he has had a movie out almost every year and they all follow the same basic plot, of a man who is either an officer/agent or an ex officer/agent that is in a situation where he needs to kick ass and solve the problem. I have not been let down yet by one of his movies, but Taken 2 was not as successful as the first and they are in the works of making a third instalment, so we have to watch out for that. Out of all the older male action stars, the only 2 that I respect the films they make to this day are Liam Neeson and Bruce Willis, all the others are just beating the dead horse of their action careers and need to move on to other genres of movies.

That being said Taken on a Plane, I mean Non-Stop, was a decent movie. It wasn’t a great movie, but it was an interesting study in dangerous situations in a confined space. If you are looking for something to watch it is a good choice, but you don’t have to see it in theaters, just in a dark quiet room so you can achieve maximum movie mode out of it.


I give it a 2.5 out of 5

Written by Jeff Potts

Pompeii

I find it interesting when a story is told, about an actual historical event. We know the ending of the story, we just have to sit through a cheesy half assed love story to get to the bit we all came to see, or at least most of us… the history bit. Whether it be the sinking of a ship, the fall of a city, or the devastating volcano, there is one story that must be partially told in front of all these events… the tragic love story that can't and won't see the light of day pass the event in question.


Milo a young Celtic boy is awoke by a sound, the slaughter of his entire family and tribe, by Senator Corvus and his Roman troops, but he survives the massacre. Taken by slavers Milo is sold to the Gladiators. On his way to Pompeii he helps a woman, Cassia, with her wounded horse, by snapping it's neck with his bare hands… his bare hands.

In Pompeii Cassias father is preparing a ceremony for a delegate of the new Emperor, to try to procure funds to rebuild and renew the city. That night the Volcano starts to become active. To Cassias surprise Senator Corvus is the delegate sent by the Emperor, because it was unwanted attention from him that made her come home when she did.

The gladiators prepare for the games, but the night before they happen, a handful of gladiators are chosen to be taken to the manor of the cities patron, to be pleasure slaves for the evening. During the party a series of earthquakes happen causing the animals to be roused. Cassia sees Milo and requests his help to calm the horses. After he calms the horses Milo and Cassia ride out of the manor forcefully and are chased by guards. When caught Milo is punished, before his whipping Milo sees Corvus and gets in a rage remembering what he did to his family. During the whipping senator Corvus says to the gamesman that he wants him to be killed first in the games.

During the games the next day Milo is set in a recreation to the massacre of his people, driven by rage Milo and the gladiators overcome and defeat the romans… and then the eruptions begin.



Watching this movie was like watching Gladiator, Troy, 300, Dantes Peak, and Titanic all at the same time, darting your head around at the screens seeing different bits of each. I'm not saying it’s a bad movie just that it isn't an original story, the only thing that is different about it is that the story of Pompeii and Vesuvius hasn’t been overdone yet. I understand that making it an action love story is the best way to get a larger audience, but it’s a predictable story done hundreds of times, it’s a bad story to be put on a movie with this type of ending. It shouldn’t be boy meets girl, falls in love, tragedy, then death, they should try a story about 2 married people that fall into this shit, not new love, it’s a tired story.

That being said, no you don’t have to go see this in theaters, wait for dvd or netflix, or even better, watch Gladiator and after the reenactment put in Troy and jump to the Trojan horse scene then before Orlando shoots Brad put in Dante's Peak and watch the volcano blow and just stop the movie right there. It’s the same experience.


I give it a 2 out of 5

Written by Jeff Potts

RoboCop (2014)

One thing that always bothered me about movies that were set in the future, but made in
the 80’s and early 90’s, was that they really thought the world was going to end in the 2000’s. Playing off everyone’s fears, so the movies set in the future then looked like crap, as if our growth and technology would never get better. A movie that flaunted this was RoboCop, only said to be set in the near dystopic future, the only thing that looked like it advanced any was the sniper rifles with explosive rounds.

Now we jump ahead to the new movie, set in 2028, where we’ve gotten past the end of the world fear that was pushed heavily on us, and given a chance to see what the movie should have looked like back then. The biggest disappointment with this new version is that it was almost the same movie, they didn’t write a new story, they just modernized the script. 


Police officer, Alex Murphy and his partner try to bust an illegal arms dealer, but are found out and get in a shootout, where his partner is wounded. Alex finds out that the guns being sold are from the police evidence lockup, and he has a pretty good idea who the dirty cops are, he just needs to find the evidence to prove it. The dirty cops approach the arms dealer and tell him to take out Murphy, and give him Alex’s schedule. When Alex goes to visit his partner, a bomb is placed under his car.

Later that night when Alex is home with his wife and son, his car alarm goes off and when he goes out to check on it, the car explodes, critically injuring Alex. The only way to save Alex is to put him in the OmniCorp cybernetic program, where they remove all the damaged tissue and replace it with cybernetics. After 3 months of surgery and upgrading, Alex is woken up to a terrifying sight, that he is now mostly machine.

After refining his software and operations, and going through rehab, Alex is allowed to come home and go back to work, unknowingly as a media stunt to help out OmniCorp get a foothold in the American market, with their robot police force. When Alex is set to be unleashed upon the city of Detroit, they upload the entire police database into his databanks, and he immediately has a panic attack when he accesses the files on his case, forcing the doctors to shut him down and basically make him run on autopilot. Being denied access to see her husband Alex’s wife confronts him on the street in front of the police station, causing a reaction to start in his head that slowly brings him back to normal.

Now that he is back, Alex finds his partner and they go about returning to the case, that they were both almost killed on.



I already said my biggest disappointment, and to be honest that was really all I had against this movie. The things they added to the movie were huge improvements to the holes in the original. The biggest flack this movies is getting is from the people that hold the original so dear to them, but let’s be honest, it was a movie that just wanted to be as gory as it possibly could be. I mean did it need to be that bloody and violent… no and this new version is proof, exact same story better delivery.

That being said, no you don’t have to run out and see it, but it is definitely worth a watch.



I give it a 3 out of 5


Written by Jeff Potts

the Lego Movie

A children’s story like all the others, but it stands far from the rest. I’m not knocking the formula that the movie follows by any means, even though it is the basis for all kids movies.

1.A terrible thing happens that only one person can stop, and that person doesn’t know they are special.

2.A supporting hero finds this person to tell them they are special, but they don’t see that about them self, but they follow this other hero, and find other people willing to fight for the cause.

3.Then in the end they see that they were a hero all along.

I’m saying that this movie took that and ran with it across the finish line.


Emmet, a young construction worker who lives completely by the book, does everything according to the instructions. Until one day he notices something out of the ordinary and falls down a hole when he goes to investigate. At the bottom of this hole he finds something called “a piece of destiny” and when he touches it he passes out and gets a vision. when he awakens he is in custody and being interrogated about the piece of destiny that is now attached to his back.

During the interrogation Emmet is rescued by a MasterBuilder, named Wyldstyle, they escape the city in search of the other MasterBuilders, to use the piece of destiny to stop president Business from unleashing his ultimate weapon, the Kragle, that he will use to keep anything from changing, ever again.

Wyldstyle discovers that there is nothing special about Emmet and that he just accidentally happened across the piece of destiny. They meet up with Vitruvius, a great MasterBuilder, who leads them to the other MasterBuilders, but when they learn the truth about Emmet they all lose hope that they will ever succeed, and this is quickly reinforced by a sudden raid by the robot police force, where most of the MasterBuilders are captured, and Emmet and his group now have a bigger challenge on their hands, of freeing the others and stopping president Business.



I seriously love, love, loved this movie. probably because I love Legos so much, but it was a really good story too, even if it sounds like I think it’s not original. The story point that comes up toward the end of the movie is a large reason why I loved the movie, story wise, but just the fact that everything was made out of Legos, not a single thing in this movie wasn’t made out of Legos, except for the certain special items. I wish I could have shown this to a younger me, I would have lost my shit, and things might have gone differently for me, but I’m glad I can just look at it in retrospect.

I would say definitely go see this in theaters, take your friends, take your family, and above all, take the kids.


I give it a 4 out of 5

Written by Jeff Potts

I, Frankenstein

This is one of those classic stories of boy meets girl, girl is intrigued by boy, boy is a reanimated corpse that kills demons. That’s right! this week I am talking I, Frankenstein. 

The story of Frankenstein’s monster, who after being shunned by his maker, kills his makers wife, and then leads/is hunted by his maker so far north that he freezes him to death. Being the good Christian monster that he is, he drags the body all the way back to his family burial plot, and gets jumped by demons as soon as he buries him. After descending one of the demons he promptly gets knocked out, but luckily there are some gargoyles on the church nearby, that just happen to be warriors created by the archangel Michael to patrol the earth and fight demons, that swoop in kill the other demons, and take the monster with them to their leader.

Frankenstein’s monster is told all about a secret war that is raging on earth between the Gargoyles and Demons, but nothing like the one between the Vampyr and Lycan war from Underworld… Leonora, the leader of the Gargoyles, allows the monster to go, because she feels he has a special purpose, she gives him a name, Adam, and gives him weapons to defend himself from any further demon attacks.

So about 200 or so years pass, with Adam trying to live a quiet life, out in the middle of nowhere, but he is constantly being attacked by demons. So he decides to return to the city and take the fight to them. But the demons have other plans in mind, using a human front the demons are trying to crack the Frankenstein code of how to reanimate a corpse, with the help of an unwitting beautiful human scientist named Terra…


 So I will start by saying I enjoyed this movie, I also enjoyed all of the Underworld movies, which I understand that they were practically the same movie (see joke above in the third paragraph)mainly I’m sure because they were both written by Kevin Grevioux. You don’t have to rush out and see this movie in theaters, but if you like action monster movies then definitely watch it or pick it up. The effects were really crazy, especially with the Gargoyles, the way they moved and transformed into human form was nifty, but the demons made me feel like I was watching an episode of Buffy or Angel. Aaron Eckhart did a great job as always, but as it was pointed out to me halfway through the movie, he couldn’t decide on how he wanted his gait and kept changing from a normal walk to a stiff legged walk.

 I will leave you at that, until next time cinerds.


I give it a 3 out of 5

Written by Jeff Potts

her

In the near future, Theodore Twombly, an introverted writer for a letter writing service, is
trying to deal with his lonely life and the impending finalization of his divorce from his childhood love.

One day walking home after work he sees an ad for an artificial intelligence operating system called OS.1 and buys it. When he gets home he installs it, the set up guide asks him some questions to best fit the OS to his needs, and then he hears a soft “Hello”. Seemingly shy they start a conversation, as if meeting someone who is going to be one of your closest friends, and when asked her name she says Samantha, she chose that name after reading a baby book in 0.286 seconds.

Samantha helps Theodore open up and love life again, and Theodore helps Samantha live life and experience the world. Which leads them to fall in love with each other, as complicated as that is.


I wasn’t sure about this movie the first time I saw a trailer for it last summer, but the low amount of advertising that I experienced for it made it grow on me, till I couldn’t wait to see it. Spike Jonze did a great job writing and directing, but something I noticed was how much the melancholy in this movie reminded me of his last movie, Where the Wild Things Are, as if this could be a sequel almost to that movie. That being said, the comedy in this movie was superb, it always came when it was needed and it didn’t deflate the gravity of the situation.

I highly recommend this movie, but there were some scenes where I was a little uncomfortable and couldn’t realize more that I was in a room full of strangers experiencing it. So if you do feel uncomfortable in situations like that, wait for video release, but if you don’t mind 2-5 minutes, all together, of uncomfortableness then by all means, yes see it in theaters.


I give it 4 out of 5


Written by Jeff Potts

47 Ronin

A young boy, named Kai, was found outside the Bamboo forest by Lord Asano and his
entourage. He was taken in and cared for by the Lord, but shunned at the same time for being a halfbreed. As he grew older Kai fell in love with Lord Asano’s daughter, Mika, but he knew they could never be together, but she too felt the same way for him.

 Lord Asano is priviledged to host a tournament for the Shogun and the neighboring Daimyos, one of them being Lord Kira, who wants to take over Asano’s lands. Kira has a witch under his command and uses her to embarrass Asano at the tournament, which Kai notices and tries to stop, and bewitch Asano to cause treachery in front of the Shogun. Displeased with his actions the Shogun orders Asano to preform seppuku, and to cease any retaliation orders that Mika must marry Kira. To assure there is no retaliation Kira throws the head of Asanos Samurai, Oishi, in a pit for a year and sells off Kai to a pirate-esque group.

Upon release Oishi goes to find Kai and gathers the rest of his men, to disobey the orders of the Shogun, and get revenge for their former master…


 This was a decent movie. It wasn’t the most original story, but then again it’s “based” on true events, or stories, so I guess this makes it the original and everything that came after the retelling. I guess I should say I’ve seen it executed better, like the movie Gladiator, it had all the same tones just in a different time and place, obviously.

 The costumes and action were some of the best parts of the movie. There were 3 CG elements in the movie that I feel took away and made it a little cheesy, one of which was the witch turning into a dragon, they could have done that better, I think.

This movie is one that I would say you don’t have to see in theaters, but will be good for a home experience.


I give it 2.5 out of 5


Written by Jeff Potts