Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014)

Please Leave A Comment Below

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014)

6/10

Starring

Ed Oxenbould

Steve Carell

Jennifer Garner

Kerris Dorsey

Dylan Minnette

Directed by Miguel Arteta

Let’s start this review with a question, “Have you seen 13 going on 30?”

That Jennifer Garner movie done in 2004, where she made a wish and it came true. This movie is just like that with a wish and everything, but this time Garner is 10 years older and it is her child in the movie that makes the wish and turns his life… well not upside down as in 13 going on 30, but on his own family to his favor.

Walt Disney didn’t bother to make any form of change in their family movie style, as things started off ok, then they didn’t look ok, then they went berserk, then ok and they all lived happily ever after, the end.

Regardless though this was a nice movie, with captivating events enough to keep you glued, if you do not mind the fact that they are predictable. The nice warm ending is what will made me like the movie and not the series of embarrassing events that were not enough to qualify the quantity of adjectival onslaught the movie title had.

Alexander (Ed Oxenbould) is going on 12 and his day was turning from bad to worse, as his birthday plan was being marred by a classmate who has chosen to have his birthday on the same day as his. Then his teacher forced him to look after a guinea pig and to crown it off, he burnt the book of the girl he has a crush on.

But in his home it seems everybody is having the best day ever, his mother (Jennifer Garner) is in line for a promotion, his out of job dad (Steve Carell) just got an offer, his sister (Kerris Dorsey) has gotten a part in the play she wanted and his brother (Dylan Minnette) is going to prom with the most popular girl in school.

Sad and alone, he wished everyone in his family will experience a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day so they will understand how he feels. As said above the wish came through.

The movie’s mouthful of a title “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” is based on a book of the same name published in 1972 and written by Judith Viorst. The screenplay was done by Rob Lieber and directed by Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl (2002)).

In the end I felt the actors were good enough to keep you wanting more. Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner were good enough adult actors to give the children little to nothing to do as they carried the movie well enough for me.

Being a financial success, we could be seeing more adaptations of Judith Viorst books, not read any (not even this one), but you know Disney they are relentless when it comes to making sequels of a success.

Taken 3 (2015)

Please Leave A Comment Below

Taken 3 (2015)

3/10

Liam Neeson

Forest Whitaker

Famke Janssen

Maggie Grace

Directed by Oliver Megaton

It took a lot for me to sit through this movie. The movie is not totally a drag and it is not boring either. The best word for it will be “WASTE.”

Waste of talent, waste of reels and a complete waste of money!

Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills (again) in this third and I’m happy to say final movie in the “Taken” series.

Did I hear a hallelujah?

This movie is nothing compared to flogging a dead horse. This is more like committing genocide in a desolate region.

We get it, Bryan Mills is a bad ass, if you take something from him he will find you, get you and kill you.

We didn’t have to see him do it three times.

The fact that I’m seeing him do the things I know he can do, keeps the fun the movie is meant to deliver at bay. The movie story shows that the writers have lost focus.

The movie is titled Taken, not “Bryan, The Homicide Detective.”

Here is the plot:

Bryan's ex-wife is planning on leaving her new husband. She is getting comfort from Bryan, when all of a sudden death came and she is killed, and her body planted in Bryan's apartment to make it seem like he did it.

Then the cops show up, he beats them up.

A bad ass detective tries to catch him he says, "GOOD LUCK" (get it).

Then he gets help from his former CIA operative friends and his gets revenge.

In this movie, nobody is taken that needs rescuing, just the life of someone Bryan loves that gets smoked out causing Bryan to go back into his box of “I’m a bad guy” and reap out some whoop ass for the culprits.

Plagued with bad directing, a plot with holes like a strainer, I had to endure to the end, watching a movie that I already knew how it was going to end.

Why didn’t Luc Besson just stop at making one of this movie?

Well, I guess the money the studio was offering was too good to pass, because this movie just showed what we already know, nothing different was added or taken (no pun intended) from the movie’s foundational plot.

Don’t bother seeing the rest of the Taken franchise, just see part one and toss the rest, if you have been unfortunate to have seen this, well I guess you have to agree with me, this was CRAP!!!

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Please Leave A Comment Below

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

8/10

Starring

Ralph Fiennes

F. Murray Abraham

Mathieu Amalric

Adrien Brody

Willem Dafoe

Jeff Goldblum

Directed by Wes Anderson

The Grand Budapest Hotel started out serious in deed, with Jude Law being inquisitive about the hotel and Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham) sitting him down and telling him how he acquired The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The introduction of Monsieur Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes) was somewhat different to the introduction of the author of the story and Zero Moustafa, we find Gustave already at work being steadfast as the hotel manager. The introduction of Young Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori) with a fake mustache, made me giggle a bit because this was one of those movies I didn’t bother reading about or knowing what it had to offer I just wanted to be surprised and entertained.

To be honest I was.

The Grand Budapest Hotel will take you by surprise when the turn of events start to unfold and the moment you are hooked on the story, you will not want to miss a thing.

The movie boasts of a huge cast, all playing a big part in the grand design the director and writer Wes Anderson intended.

Anderson got his inspiration from the writings of Stefan Zweig, and this British-German film was more like art, as Anderson painted a clear picture of what a good time in the cinema was supposed to feel like on a celluloid canvas.

Monsieur Gustave is a popular concierge in the legendary Grand Budapest Hotel. He gets his kicks by sleeping with the old and gray, being their companion when their men are away or dead.

Everything was going on well for Gustave, until one of his guests dies mysteriously in her home leaving Monsieur Gustave with a priceless painting. Her sons were not ready to share anything with Gustave and made all necessary arrangements to get rid of Gustave.

The movie’s adventure took Gustave and Zero from the hotel to jail, he broke out tried to get back on top of things and there was a shootout, and magnificent ending.

In the end you will applaud the cast and director for such a great job and be thankful for the accolades the movie had.

11 BAFTA Nominations (including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor for Fiennes).A Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. It also got 9 Academy Award nominations (Including Best Picture and Best Director).

A huge financial success and received to critical acclaim I cannot think of any good reason why you should not see this movie.

The Bucket List (2007)

 Please Leave A Comment Below

The Bucket List (2007)

6/10

Starring

Jack Nicholson

Morgan Freeman

Directed by Rob Reiner

I don’t think cancer should be something to joke about, not to mention making a laugh off movie on. I also don’t think death should be something to be made fun of. But regardless of what I think, The Bucket List is a movie I enjoyed seeing when it first came out in 2007 and I still sat through it laughing when I saw it again in 2015.

The cast for me where a golden pair. The story could have been better though, but then when you look at the events in the movie and the unfortunate way the two leads (Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) met, you cannot help but laugh.

After the film the term Bucket List, has come to stay in the English dictionary, so if you are wondering where the term came from, there you go.

The movie didn’t start off great, the introduction of the leads, could have been given a grander gesture, but the director went for a subtle intro of Morgan and a loud and obnoxious intro of Jack. The director’s aim (so plain for the eyes to see) was to make you feel a form of sympathy to one and a nagging dislike of the other.

The movie’s plot was based on these two guys, Carter Chambers (Freeman) and Edward Cole (Nicholson). Both has cancer and have been given less than a year to live.

Sad and down, wishing they could get more out of their lives, they decided to go on a once in a lifetime trip with a list of the things they would want to do before they die.

In the end, you will either hate it or love it, but this was a good film. Although it was received with mixed reviews and Roger Ebert not liking the film because as a cancer patient himself, he didn’t fancy the idea that his ailment was made to seem like a laugh off.

The movie is a keeper for the fans of both leads and it was a financial success by its own rights. If I come across this movie again on cable, I will be sitting tight to give it another twirl.

It was fun seeing what these old guys were up to, now that they know they have but a few months to live, if it were me or if it were you, the question I will like to ask is:

Would you also not have liked to go out with a bang?

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015)

Please Leave A Comment Below

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015)

4/10

Starring the voice of

Matt Lanter

Sam Witwer

Jason O'Mara

Shemar Moore

Jerry O'Connell

Directed by Ethan Spaulding

If I don’t write this and get it off my mind, this crap will continue to plague my thoughts. The voice acting was ok and so was the animation, it was the story that was the problem.

I didn’t like this movie at all.

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis is a direct-to-video animated superhero movie from the DC Universe Animated Original Movies. This time the focus light is on another of the Justice League ring leader, Aqua Man. It is based on the Throne of Atlantis story arc written by Geoff Johns and it is a sequel Justice League: War (2014).

Do recall that there is a DC New 52 going on and the DC universe has been rocked with remixes happening in the lives of many of the heroes and villains in the DC universe, this movie had some remixes of its own.

Here is the new lingo on Aqua Man, before he was a pure Atlantian who joined Justice League, well to protect the earth. Here in the new 52 plus in this movie he is a wreck looking for some answers, and may I add he is half human and half Atlantian, the story depth I will prefer you watch the movie or read the comics to understand.

The movie’s focus is on the origins of Aquaman, Arthur Curry. Here Curry is a drunk grieving the death of his father. Atlantis on the other hand is being rocked by a coup in progress and Queen Atlanna has sent for his son Arthur Curry to come and lead Atlantis, as she doesn’t trust her son Orm.

My take with this movie is, it could have been better written and maybe not done at all, would have preferred a movie on Aquaman when he was Aquaman, instead of letting me waste a whole hour, watching Cyborg try to reunite the Justice League, who haven’t agreed that they would be known as, The Justice League.

The movie didn’t help when it came to Barry Allen and Hal Jordan. I thought Shazam was the kid in adult clothes, but in this movie it seems he wasn’t the only one skipping school to hang with the guys. They made Flash and Green Lantern behave and think as kids also.

Here is a movie I will like to forget soon, I have gotten rid of any copy of this movie I have lying around and looking forward to a better DC Universe movie.