Social Icons

The Gift (2015)



The Gift (2015)



7/10



Starring
Jason Bateman
Rebecca Hall
Joel Edgerton


Directed by Joel Edgerton


At the end of the movie I was nodding my head in approval of the masterpiece I had just witnessed. The Gift is an awesome movie, that will have you gripping your seat not because something scary was happening or someone was being killed or eaten. Nah, it is because you will not be able to cast your mind on the path the movie was going to take.

The moment everything looks familiar and you believe you know what is going to happen next or what has happened, get ready for another shocking turn of events.

This psychological thriller was made with the best intentions at heart, to give the viewer a fun time and value for his money. What I liked is the way the movie twist the male leads from victim to perpetrator then back to victim.

This movie had Jason Bateman as the lead male and his delivery was well done, I must acknowledge him doing a good job because I only recognize him for making comedy, this is a nice feather for his hat.

The movie was a critical and commercial success, and watching it alone you will see the reason why that is. It was written, directed and produced by Joel Edgerton who also starred in the movie as the set villain.

The movie plot shows a couple moving to a new town, or the husband’s former hometown.
This nice beautiful couple Simon and Robyn Callem (Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall respectively) were at the store when they were approached by another man claiming he went to the same school with Simon.

The man properly introduces himself as Gordo (Joel Edgerton) and after the couple departed. He started to show up unannounced at their home and bearing gifts.

Simon continues to distant himself from Gordo, but his wife made them repay the constant Gordo visit with a visit of their own bearing gifts also. The visit started great until they discovered that Gordo had lied to them and the mansion he claims he lives in does not belong to him. Simon warned Gordo to stay away from his family and drove home.

The wife learned later from a passing comment by Simon’s sister a dark secret about Simon and Gordo, a secret that exposed Simon as not the man he has been portraying himself to be.


Her investigations only uncovered more dark truths that will leave you the viewer confused on what is going on.
Here is a movie I highly recommend you take the time out to watch.

Trolls (2016)



Trolls (2016)



5/10



Starring the voice of
Anna Kendrick
Justin Timberlake
Zooey Deschanel


Directed by Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn


The movie Trolls is a 3D animation that is suitable for children. The movie did have nice songs they can jump around to and it has a theme filled with colors they will find appealing. As an adult though the movie’s style of delivery went over my head. Many irrelevant characters, nothing meaningful about some of the Trolls lifestyle and happenings that will lead you to a path you wish a movie will never take you, the path you suspended your common sense just to keep up.

The movie is fictional and you will think all you need is an imagination and a childlike heart to understand, but I tell you the writers also need you to forget to think. How they merged many of the various events into one is worth seeing that I tell you, the problem is you will not enjoy a bit of it.

I was not expecting much when I decided to see this movie and I was not blown away by the happenings or letdown by the lack there of. The movie is suitable for your children to see on a nice day when there is nothing better showing. Within all this bad stuff are cool songs, nice voice acting by Justin Timberlake and a very colorful event.

Trolls is based on the Troll Dolls and this 3D animation is produced by Dreamworks Animation, also in the upcoming Oscars, it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Can't Stop the Feeling!"

The movie plot starts with the introduction of the two main creatures at play, The Bergens and The Trolls.

The Trolls are small creatures who spend their whole life in perpetual state of happiness. You will find them throwing parties, making stuff and doing everything they can to keep the music playing. They dance and hug each other to a point of nausea.

On the other side of the coin is the Bergens, large ugly things who believe they can never feel happiness.
Then they came about the Trolls and all their happy moments, then they discovered that eating a Troll will instigate a moment of extreme happiness.

So, they captured the Troll tree, locked it in a cage and hold an annual festival where each Bergen gets to eat a Troll. The Troll not wanting to be eating every year, on one faithful year escaped via a tunnel, leaving the Bergens in a state of forever sadness.

Things didn't remain like that for long for the now free and happy Trolls and the sad Bergens, what happened next is what the movie is about.

To Sir, with Love (1967)

To Sir, with Love (1967)



7/10



Starring
Sidney Poitier


Directed by James Clavell




There is no denying it that Sidney Poitier is one of the best actors to have graced the screen. His grace, his demeanor and his style of delivery is nothing but grand. To Sir, with Love is another great movie he did, which if you have not had the privilege of seeing I ask that you do so now.

They have been many movies that has the lead come into a school where ruffians have control of the way things are run and the man makes a dramatic change in the way things happen in the school.
What makes me prefer this to those other ones is, they make the students like overgrown onions who only responds to violence. From my little experience teaching I can boldly say those movies are always hyping the way teenagers relate with authority. Maybe they do this to give the movies more dramatic effects, but in this movie the dramatic effect can be seen in the simple ways the lead character Mark Thackeray (Sidney Poitier) changes the children’s way of thinking.

I have seen other Popular Poitier movies like the ones he did with Bill Cosby, In the Heat of the Night (1967) and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) all great movies which I will also add this one.
To Sir, with Love is a 1967 drama movie that I heard about on Twitter one night and decided to give it a twirl.

The movie will forever be an iconic movie which you can see anytime, the plot and the events in the movie will have me giving this movie a second helping sooner than later.



The movie plot has an out of work engineer named Mark Thackeray desperate in need for a job. After searching for jobs as an engineer and not finding any he decided to take up teaching and his first teaching job is at the North Quay Secondary School in the tough East End of London. The students there are known for making the lives of the teachers unbearable, and his students were the most notorious as they were in their finals.

Mark first started easy taking the children through the syllabus until they turned on him making him lose his temper one morning. He then decided from then on to change the way he approached them. He changed the class syllabus to talking about life, he shared his life experience with the children and soon a bond was made. The bond was not strong enough though, because no matter how much he tried to teach them to be responsible, life and the pains that come with it was not on his or the pupils side.

To Sir, with Love, a classic.