Give YOUR Movie review

Hugo (2011)

Well, I finally got around to seeing this movie. It gets a 9/10 for cinematography/effects, but a 7/10 for story. It was pretty boring...not to mention slow and I thought it was drug out longer than needed. But I will admit, it was like watching a movie from the past, but it had just enough of modernity in it that you knew it was a movie from today. I'm familiar with Georges Melies because of both my film appreciation and art appreciation classes, and it was really cool to get to see "clips" of "The Voyage to the Moon". The boy who played Hugo reminded me so much of Elijah Wood when he was young, mostly because of his big blue eyes. Asa Butterfield (Hugo) deserved some acclaim because I thought that was a pretty deep role to take on as a kid.

But, unfortunately, the movie itself was boring and slow, and I found the pace to be really off. Maybe it's Scorcese's style of filmmaking, but it detracted from the film. Yes, it drew out some tears from me (it doesn't take a lot!), and the message that every person has a reason for being here is a laudable message to promote (especially now when we value life so little). I think the movie would have been better served with a faster pace and some better storytelling.
 
They Might Be Giants

"They Might Be Giants" is a movie from, I think, the 1970's.

It stars George C Scott, a superb actor, as Justin Playfair, a renowned judge, who has a breakdown when his wife dies -- his mind snaps, and when the movie begins we find he is delusional and believes himself to be Sherlock Holmes. The talented actress Joanne Woodward plays the therapist hired to declare him insane so his dirty-dealing brother can take over his estate and money. Of course, the therapist's name is Dr Watson! Holmes is so excited that she has turned up, and immediately pulls her into his delusion as he creates clues out of thin air in his search for his nemesis, Moriarty.

Because he's a lunatic, he understands other loonies, and helps them along the way, so that nearing the climax of the movie, he has all these crazy followers who agree to go along with his being Sherlock Holmes, because they love him.

The movie has a little bit of action, but it's more a kind of romance and comedy, and it is much more slow-paced than movies today, but it is really sweet and cute. I enjoyed it a lot and recommend it if you're tired of gritty dramas and car chases.
 
JOHN CARTER OF MARS:

I already created a spoiler thread about this very film. Here, I will say only two things:

1) They did a good job with Woola, the lovable and heroic dog-like creature on Mars.

2) The actress who plays heroine Dejah Thoris is THE VERY HOTTEST THING IN SCI-FI since Francesca Annis as Jessica in "Dune." If you want eye-candy, they don't come ANY sexier than this exquisite lady.
 
October Baby

Intro: I want to start off with this word of advice: This is THE best Pro-life movie out there. This is THE best low budget Christian film out there. GO SEE IT!

Prominent Actors: Rachel Hendrix (Hannah) and Jason Burkey (Jacob)

Positive Elements: The story-line. I don't want to give too much away on this part, but I will say that they had the PERFECT mix of drama (Hanna's life problems) and love. Also there's some chuckles mixed in with that :p

I want to give HUGE credit to the director of this movie! He directed it SO well so you feel that you ARE the person. ALSO, I was insanely pleased by the use of lighting effects (such as what you see on graphics) each scene feels so warm and grand, its just so phenomenal!

The drama and emotional factors of this movie was so perfect. It kept me intense, I felt like I was in these situations, I cried many times (And I almost never cry during movies).

The love backdrop of this movie was also perfect. You have hopes and wishes through the whole movie of what will happen, and these exact wishes come true in, personally, the best scene of the movie.

Negative Elements: BARELY anything, not even enough to take a star off my rating. Hannah and Jacob slept first in the same room, then on the same couch (in the same night) together because of the bad circumstances, of their trip. Also, there was a TAD of bad acting, but barely any.

Summary: Overall? 10-10. This movie brought me to the realization of the horribleness of our culture, its effects, and the love that others have to help repair this damage, and as I said, with the PERFECT love story backdrop, that made me cry with happiness!
 
^Technically you could post spoilers about the plot and it wouldn't matter; all you have to do is read reviews like PluggedIn's, and the plot is pretty much laid out for you. ;)

The Hunger Games (2012)-Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz, and some other people I don't know the name of off the top of my head; rated PG-13 for violence

Plot: 24 children/teenagers are selected from districts 1-12, 2 from each district. A boy and girl are selected at random to fight in the annual Hunger Games, in the capitol of Panem. The event is televised: a brutal fight-to-the-death set in an arena that is basically like a holodeck out of Star Trek (the atmospheres, creatures, etc. can all be created at the whim of the ones running the show). Katniss Everdeen takes the place of her sister in the Games, and she does so very reluctantly. She and Peeta (Hutcherson) are taken to the capitol, where they are trained and shown off for the benefit of the bloodthirsty audience(s). 24 go in, but only two come out of the Games: *highlight for spoiler* Katniss and Peeta

General Review: 8.5/10.

This movie has been at the center of a nearly vicious debate here on the forums, so I won't go into what i think was right or what was wrong about it (thematically). Hunger Games had some great acting talent in its core: Jennifer Lawrence I feel gave an excellent performance as Katniss. I'm up to chapter 5 in the book, and I feel like, contrary to most other book fans, that her character was correctly captured on film. Peeta obviously changed from book to film (which is probably for a reason), and Gale? Gale seems pretty much the same book-to-film. The movie was slow-paced, which made it boring for me, but it was still a good movie, I thought. I think the boring-ness of it was due to the fact that I hadn't read the book(s), so I wasn't into it as much as people who had read the book(s).

The dialogue was solid, the violence fortunately toned down for the film (apparently the book is much more graphic than the movie was), and the characters cast perfectly. If I had to recommend this movie, it would be to teenagers 15+, and only if they are able to discuss the themes in the movie; the movie, if you're of a certain mind, WILL GIVE YOU FOOD FOR THOUGHT. It gave me a lot to consider, and I think it's stuck with me a lot longer than most movies I've seen in theaters. Overall, I'm excited to see the next film, which probably won't be for another year or two. It's only in pre-production. :rolleyes:
 
Thanks for those reviews! I had been wondering about October Baby; sometimes those Christians films just don't make for good cinema, but that sounds nice. I will try to see it. Of course I am resisting seeing TGH.

My review:

"The Usual Suspects" -- I think it was made in the 1990's.

This movie has a LOT OF CUSSING! Don't even watch it unless you can get like a network TV or airline-edited version so you don't have to hear all the bad language. Yuck!

And it's violent in some places, too.

Which is too bad because the plot is very intriguing! The character played by Kevin Spacey is this poor little crippled criminal who has been caught in a dragnet with several much tougher guys, but they take him on a big drug deal with them, and they get caught. He gets singled out by the tough-guy cop for interrogation and begins telling him this fascinating story about what happened to them all ...

It is very interesting and has an amazing surprise ending!

But as I say, unless you can get an edited version of it, there's too much violence and cussing to make it good for children or anyone who doesn't like violence and cussing.
 
Film: The Artist

Plot: A very popular silent movie star, George Valentin finds his world turned upside down with the rise of talking films. As they become more and more popular, he finds himself out of a job. He refuses to take part in any talking film, believing silent movies to be superior. Throughout the film, he keeps running into the beautiful Peppy Miller, an up-and-coming star of these talking films, and as her career continues to grow, his continues to tank. However, though it has a few sad moments, it is mostly an upbeat, rather funny film that left me smiling. There is also a very talented, very funny dog.

This sounds like your typical plot, but the unique element of this film is that it is, except for two scenes, a silent movie, and shot entirely in black and white. It really captures the style of old movies, and it carries about it a certain class rare in modern film.

Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, who play the two leads, are phenomenal, looking and acting every inch their parts. The soundtrack is lovely as well, sounding much like a Bernard Hermann score.

If you are one of those people who counts profanity and/or gets offended:

1. There is dialogue on title cards, and there is no profanity in those. In fact, the only instance of profanity comes from a brief scene in which a woman gives the main character the middle finger. (That, and if you can read lips, you'll catch a few.)

2. There is no sexual content; the main characters don't even kiss (despite my encouragement.)

3. There is no violence.

I give this movie a ten out of ten (t's one of the best movies I've seen lately) and highly recommend it.
 
Thank you for that review of "The Artist"! I wanted to see that movie when it was in cinemas but it is very hard to drag my husband out of the house once he gets home! Sounds good.
 
The Spanish Inquisition said:
Film: The Artist

Plot: A very popular silent movie star, George Valentin finds his world turned upside down with the rise of talking films. As they become more and more popular, he finds himself out of a job. He refuses to take part in any talking film, believing silent movies to be superior. Throughout the film, he keeps running into the beautiful Peppy Miller, an up-and-coming star of these talking films, and as her career continues to grow, his continues to tank. However, though it has a few sad moments, it is mostly an upbeat, rather funny film that left me smiling. There is also a very talented, very funny dog.

This sounds like your typical plot, but the unique element of this film is that it is, except for two scenes, a silent movie, and shot entirely in black and white. It really captures the style of old movies, and it carries about it a certain class rare in modern film.

Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo, who play the two leads, are phenomenal, looking and acting every inch their parts. The soundtrack is lovely as well, sounding much like a Bernard Hermann score.

If you are one of those people who counts profanity and/or gets offended:

1. There is dialogue on title cards, and there is no profanity in those. In fact, the only instance of profanity comes from a brief scene in which a woman gives the main character the middle finger. (That, and if you can read lips, you'll catch a few.)

2. There is no sexual content; the main characters don't even kiss (despite my encouragement.)

3. There is no violence.

I give this movie a ten out of ten (t's one of the best movies I've seen lately) and highly recommend it.
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Is it out on dvd already? I need to put it in my Netflix queue. :D
 
inkspot said:
Thank you for that review of "The Artist"! I wanted to see that movie when it was in cinemas but it is very hard to drag my husband out of the house once he gets home! Sounds good.
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It's still in a few second run cinemas, if you hurry. :) I may go again this Saturday, if I have time.

Aravis Kenobi said:
Is it out on dvd already? I need to put it in my Netflix queue. :D
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Not quite on DVD yet. I have no idea when, but I will buy it when I can.
 
The Passion of the Christ (2004)-Rated R

Wow. That's just about all I can say after watching this movie today for the first time ever. I've avoided this film because I wasn't sure how I'd handle it. I'm still not too sure how I feel about it. But I fully understand the reason why this movie made such a splash when it came to theaters in 2004, and why so many people became Christians as a result. aside from some of the creative liberties (hopefully I don't have to go into detail for you guys to know what I mean!), the movie was true to its material. I personally would have preferred more time on The Last Supper, as well as the Resurrection (that IS what Easter's all about, isn't it?).

The movie felt like a torturous build-up to about the last 30 minutes. I know Jesus was beaten on and off again throughout, but the climax of the movie is the crucifixion. Knowing that it was coming, but not knowing how it would be portrayed was difficult for me. I even had difficulty pushing play on Netflix! But once it played, it held my attention (excusing the few moments I kind of looked away; the Judas/demon stuff was freaky!). I very, very rarely sob during a movie; but this one made me literally sob.

Rating: 8/10 (would give it a 9, but I felt like they went over the top in some instances, such as the bits with Judas, and they had too many creative liberties, plus leaving out a lot of the Resurrection). I can excuse the violence, but the freaky-ness? Nope. I could have done without all that. I realize there was spiritual warfare going on, but I feel like Gibson exaggerated it somewhat.
 
Thank you for this review! I have never seen The Passion either. I thought it would be too violent and gritty for me; I have seen clips of it. I appreciate your review very much. I still don't think I will watch it. Were you glad that you watched?
 
Meh. I didn't come away from it feeling much differently about Jesus like I expected to. It's on my list of "seen it once, won't see it again" movies.
 
Aravis Kenobi said:
Meh. I didn't come away from it feeling much differently about Jesus like I expected to. It's on my list of "seen it once, won't see it again" movies.
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Oh, thank you for that honest answer. Very good. I don't think I will watch it. Too scary.

OK I just watched "Night of the Blood Beast" Mystery Science Theater 3000 version. It may be one of the funniest MST3K's I've ever seen. I haven't seen them all, but I've seen a good many, and I usually find them highly amusing. This one, I frequently found myself laughing out loud. The movie is really cheesy to begin with, and then the Mike and the 'bots quips were just very entertaining.

(If you haven't seen MST3K, it's this guy and his 2 robot pals watching old sci-fi movies, and they make fun of them the whole time. The jokes just keep on coming, so you have to pay pretty much attention, and it's usually very funny.)

The show was created by Joel Hodgson, and he appears in the first MST3K episodes, but later he left and was replaced by Mike Nelson, and I prefer Mike to Joel. He's funnier, and the later shows seem to move faster. Anyway, this was a Mike Nelson one, and it was hilarious.

They used to be on Sci-fi Network TV but now you can only get them on DVD. Night of the Blood Beast is a winner.
 
Soul Surfer (2011)

Intro: I would like to start off with saying first, I give the makers of this movie HUGE credit! This was one of those Low-Budget Christian films, and even though I will take off for some things, I definitely respect the film makers for making a CHRISTIAN film!

Prominent Actors: AnnaSophia Robb and Dennis Quaid

Positive Elements: There were many positive elements of this movie! The acting, in most cases was good, the story-line was great! And they did a great job changing the story into a movie. The scenery was amazing! I LOVED how well they filmed the surfers on the water!

Negative Elements: There was SOME bad acting found (although for the most part it was good) I thought Carrie Underwood did a really bad job. There was also immodesty. Pretty much every girl was wearing a bikini, and they weren't the most modest bikini's either. I know to be authentic this was needed, but at least they could have kept them as modest as possible.

Summary: This movie was VERY good! It was definitely enjoyable, although there was some bad acting, overall they did a GREAT job!

7-10
 
ahyperdude said:
There was also immodesty. Pretty much every girl was wearing a bikini, and they weren't the most modest bikini's either. I know to be authentic this was needed, but at least they could have kept them as modest as possible.
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This was an issue that Bethany Hamilton herself addressed about the movie; her defense for the swimsuit issue was that when you're surfing, nobody is concerned about your body; they are watching your moves. While this may be true, I do kind of agree with you, they could have toned the skin down some more.

And as for this being a "Christian" movie...well, I can very much argue that point. While there were mentions of God here and there, I did not get the sense (and I've seen this movie 3 times so far) that God was responsible for Bethany's victory in getting back to surfing. I never felt like He was given credit where credit was due, and that to me was the major turn off of the movie to me. Yes, it's a good movie, and it's got a pretty good message at the heart of it. But to call it a "Christian" movie is I think giving it more credit than it deserves, and unfortunately, because they marketed it as a "Christian" film, got reputation of all the other Christian movies that have been released since film was invented. Not saying that it's not necessarily a Christian film, but the Christianity part was very watered down and not very evident.

Not to mention I've completely lost my respect for AnnaSophia Robb ever since I found out she's playing the young Carrie from Sex and the city. :rolleyes:
 
Aravis Kenobi said:
And as for this being a "Christian" movie...well, I can very much argue that point. While there were mentions of God here and there, I did not get the sense (and I've seen this movie 3 times so far) that God was responsible for Bethany's victory in getting back to surfing. I never felt like He was given credit where credit was due, and that to me was the major turn off of the movie to me. Yes, it's a good movie, and it's got a pretty good message at the heart of it. But to call it a "Christian" movie is I think giving it more credit than it deserves, and unfortunately, because they marketed it as a "Christian" film, got reputation of all the other Christian movies that have been released since film was invented. Not saying that it's not necessarily a Christian film, but the Christianity part was very watered down and not very evident.

Not to mention I've completely lost my respect for AnnaSophia Robb ever since I found out she's playing the young Carrie from Sex and the city. :rolleyes:
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I felt it was watered down also.. I do think it should be labeled a Christian film though

LOL I saw that too! ><, Its like Sandra Bullock being in the Blind Side >< She's been in some pretty bad stuff. (although her acting is good)
 
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