10 Cloverfeild Lane Review

Every now and then you'll see a movie that catches you completely off guard. 10 Cloverfield Lane is certainly one of those movies.

Eight years ago, we had a movie named Cloverfield that did moderately well in the box office and we thought that was the end of it. J.J. Abrams thought otherwise and decided to secretly produce a second Cloverfield and release it this year. What was the result?

A woman named Michelle decides to leave her husband and run away. She gets into a car accident and wakes up in an underground bunker, where the owner tells her that the world is now uninhabitable due to a nuclear/chemical attack. But things aren't what they seem as she realizes that it's still dangerous underground.

Going into this one, I had no clue what to expect. After watching it, I'm still not 100% sure what to think about this movie. Let me first make this clear: This is not going to be to everyone's liking. You need to have a specific mindset to view this film.

It caters to those who love suspense, horror, jump scares, and twisted thinking. I love that this movie plays with your mind as you follow this woman in an impossible situation. Abrams keeps the audience wondering if Michelle will make it out alive throughout the entirety of the film. The portrayal of fear is masterfully captured in all three of our main actors.

I do have a couple of minor complaints. For instance, how each character's different, unknown agenda in relation to each other is addressed. It's clear they all ultimately want survival, but how they go about it is radically unique. I don't want to give away spoilers, but personally I think this could've been handled better in simply having those moments teased further until the climax.

Also, certain details remain unaddressed, such as why Michelle left her husband, etc. Granted, details as such don't contribute much to the plot, but it would help the audience better understand the motives of her character. The same goes for John Goodman's character, but I won't spoil it. In short, these minor details aid in character development, which makes the viewer care more about the plight of those onscreen.

A big issue I have with Abrams is that what he excels in build up, he lacks in payoff. If you watched Super 8, then you understand where I'm coming from and can guess what happens in the end. If there's a sequel, I hope the climax is much better.

So overall, if you watched this and you hate it, then I understand why. As I mentioned, this isn't everyone's cup of tea, so that's why I would hesitate to recommend it to everyone. If you love twisted mind games and are okay with a somewhat watered-down ending, then see it. If not, it's at least worth the wait for Redbox or the $4 theatre.

Next Time: The biggest grudge match of the year, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Zootopia Review

I never would have thought Disney would make a movie that focused on racial/gender profiling, but I'm glad they have proved me wrong!

This movie follows a rabbit named Judy Hopps as she follows her dream to become a cop in Zootopia. When she arrives, she's not taken seriously by anyone and is assigned to be a meter maid. Eventually she find herself in the middle of a huge conspiracy that threatens the society. With the help of a charming, roguish fox named Nick Wilde, Judy is determined to solve the case.

I know it's still early in the year, but I'll say it anyway: This is the best movie of 2016. Not since The Great Mouse Detective have we seen an animal-based mystery movie from Disney which succeeds so well in all aspects--plot, characters, and animation.

In many ways the film was reminiscent of the style and humor of the classic Looney Tunes, which is of a more sophisticated adult humor and not the crass, lowbrow humor that is regrettably rampant in many movies today.

I love Judy and Nick. I think they have great chemistry with each other and are extremely relatable, which is essential in connection with the audience. I especially loved how in any other movie, Nick would simply be a two dimensional character just for laughs. But here, he's both funny and deep; we see his backstory and learn his motivations.

Some of the things I really enjoyed were the times that they intentionally made fun of other popular Disney movies. It was refreshing to see that even Disney can make fun of themselves.

As I mentioned, the humor is very clean, even though there are plenty of things that only adults will understand. These elements are not rude or inappropriate,  but they're simply jokes mostly adults will get.

The serious theme that this movie covers is racial profiling. The story has points at which it is wondered if predators are becoming more savage and hurting others due to their "nature." They were subtle, but the similarity between this theme and real life situations with officers, etc. is definitely present. It was wise of Disney to execute this theme with animals, so as to avoid the risk of seeming preachy; the result is the themes are not shoved down the throats of the audience while enjoying the plot.

So, yeah. This is an amazing movie and 100% succeeds on all counts. Go see it! Other movies have a lot to live up to. 

Next time: 10 Cloverfield Lane.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Review

Let's be honest. This is a pretty ridiculous idea. Even reading the book was an admittedly silly endeavor. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and it was refreshing to read a new interpretation after being raised in a household in which you are familiar with Pride & Prejudice in all its forms.
Therefore, I was excited to learn that this version was finally getting the movie treatment! How does it hold up?

This movie was actually a pretty solid adaptation. It managed to keep the plot moving at a decent pace while still holding your interest.
The acting is just bang on! I love this version of Elizabeth and Darcy! In a zombie apocalypse setting, their personalities make so much more sense. However, I think they still need more chemistry with each other. A minor complaint, but noticeable.
Speaking of acting, Matt Smith and Lena Hedley as Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine de Bourgh, respectively, are very much worth noting. They totally stole the show in their scenes.
This movie also reminds me of classic horror flicks in that almost all modern horror films are super gory; this one takes a different approach in not being bloody. All the more shocking things happened off-screen, allowing the audience the use of their imagination. Definitely far more effective than just showing it onscreen.

As far as Books vs. Movies, who wins? Book. Why?

The book shows good scenes that the movie omitted. Such scenes include Elizabeth's best friend Charlotte being infected and attempting to conceal it, Wickham sufferinga different fate, Georgina actually being in the story, going into further detail of the Bennetts' training, and a terrific battle between Elizabeth and Catherine. Also, a departure is that the book is much more violent. This left the movie feeling choppy to me. It would do better with an additional half hour to flesh out the details. That being said, the movie is still exceptional with what it has to offer. See it, but you will crave reading the book more.

Next Time: Zootopia.

The 5th Wave Review

Welcome to 2016, guys! We have a massive slew of movies to watch and review. Some of them look fantastic, some of them will have controversy;  but for now, we'll start the 2016 movie year with The 5th Wave!

Before we get started, let me give a quick shout out to my friend Esmé, for doing my editing. She also has her own blog site at Instgram.com/redsbreadslady. Be sure to check it out and tell her Watchman sent you.

Now on to 5th Wave!
Let me say that I'm a big fan of the books; the concept is done so well that I knew this film would do a great job in adapting the story. How did they do?
Honestly, they did a great job with this movie. I'll even go as far to say that they did a much better job than the Hunger Games movies. My reasoning is that in watching the Hunger Games, you would feel lost if you didn't read the books. That one reason is why I personally feel the first Hunger Games fails as an adaptation. If you need to make your audience do homework just to understand basic plot elements, then you need to rethink your movie.

5th Wave didn't have that problem at all. I saw this movie with some friends who primarily didn't read the book and they weren't lost at all. As someone who did read it, not only was I not lost, but the film still kept all of the main highlights and managed to keep me, the audience, interested all the way through.

Characters:
We have our main character, Cassie, who is struggling to find her brother, despite the chaos that's going on in the world. What I like about her character is that she's not The Chosen One, nor is she a girl that is super skilled in everything since birth. No, she's just your average girl who's struggling to survive an alien invasion. I think Chloë Grace Moretz did a fantastic job with this character. She usually gives 100% in every role she takes and Cassie is no exception. Looking forward to her acting in Infinite Sea.

Zombie is actually one of my favorite characters, and while he isn't as developed in this movie, the actor did a fine job in conveying subtlety with this character. He has more to do in the sequel.

I like Evan, however, his character in the movie was written to be a little too obvious. In the novel, there was more time for development, which resulted in more of a shock when his true nature is revealed. It's not the actor's fault, but it does leave much to be desired

Final Thoughts:
As far as the Books vs. Movies debate, it's no surprise that Book wins this round, not that the movie was bad. The movie did well. The book had the advantage of good development of Cassie's character, while still managing to be engaging. So just for making a better use of time, the Book wins.
Lastly, if you're looking for high class cinema, then you'll be disappointed. If you're looking for just a fun disaster sci-fi movie, reminiscent of classic B movies with good acting, then this is the movie for you. I give this movie a solid A and a great start for 2016.

Next time:
Pride Prejudice and Zombies. Yes, really.

Best and Worst of 2015.

Well, guys. The end of another year. We had a pretty good year! We got to see the Avengers on motocross, we went to Night Vale, many great books were released, Doc&Marty finally met up with us, and the Force awoke.

So without further delay, this is how I rank the movies for 2015. I know many of you won't agree with me, and that's okay. Here's just my opinion on how the movies faired this year.

1. Star Wars episode VII: The Force Awakens
2. Ant Man
3. Spectre
4. Peanuts
5. Inside Out
6. Mr. Holmes
7. Avenger: Age of Ultron
8. Jurassic World
9. Project Almanac
10. San Andreas
11. Victor Frankenstein
12. Minions
13. Cinderella
14. Jupiter Ascending
15. Tomorrowland
16. Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 2
17. Pan
18. Fantastic Four
19. Good Dinosaur
20. Paper Towns
21. Far From the Maddening Crowd.

That was my Best&Worst for 2015. I had a fun year; I hope you did too. Movies for 2016 look interesting and controversial, so I'm looking forward to reviewing them. And as always, thank you for reading.

Next Time:
The 5th Wave.

Star Wars episode VII: The Force Awakens review

SPOILERS!!!
Okay, guys. Here we have the most anticipated movie of the year. The one that all Star Wars fans have been expecting for years! Does it live up to the hype? Or do we get another Phantom Menace? Let's dive in and see.

Characters:
We have the Resistance fighter pilot Poe, and while I like him and want to see more of him, he doesn't get as much screen time as he deserves, and sadly only has a few great scenes. Now I know that a movie only has SO much time to cover everything, and they're probably saving his best scenes for future movies, which I'm looking forward too. But even though I liked him, I wasn't emotionally invested in his character. Hopefully that will change when episode 8 comes around.

Finn:
I really like Finn! It's a interesting idea to see a young stormtrooper who has second thoughts about the First Order, despite the fact he's been sheltered since childhood and this is all that he knows. This is another character I look forward to seeing more of, but I think he at times was a bit too humorous for humors' sake. I get that it's the fish out of water story we're doing here, but at times his humor is pretty forced. Great acting and backstory, but we need to see some more serious moments from him.

Rey:
I have zero problems with Rey.
How cool is it that we get a female protagonist in this series!? I know people will say that we had Leia and Padme in the other movies, but those were Luke and Anakin's stories. This is totally Rey's story. They treated this differently from Luke&Anakin, because they wanted to be better; Rey just wanted to get back home and wait for whomever dropped her off. It wasn't til near the end that she decided to commit herself to being a Jedi. I like that, because it shows not everyone wants to be a hero, but in her case she had this power and wanted to use it for helping others stop the chaos. Not to mention, even if she didn't have the Force, she still had an impressive set of skills such as pilot, linguist, mechanic, and scavenger. An excellent portrayal of a new main character.

Kylo Ren:
One our biggest bad guys in this new trilogy doesn't quite live up to the hype that the ads have made him to be and there were a lot of complaints about him in this regard. It gets on my nerves when people compare him to Vader, but think about this:
Vader had 20 YEARS of being a Sith and had much practice with the Dark Side and maintaining his reputation. It doesn't specify how long Kylo Ren has been using the Dark Side, but given the context of the movie; probably no more than a few short years. In Kylo Ren's mind, he views his grandfather as an ALMOST perfect Sith. To him, what got Vader out of the Dark Side was his family, as we saw in Return of the Jedi. With that in mind, Kylo decided that if he kills his family, then that temptation to go to the light would be gone and he won't limping on two different opinions, just like we see in this movie.

People also complained about his whiny attitude, but look at young Anakin and Luke. Really it's a family trait that's been in most movies, so I don't understand the complaints. Also the fact that Kylo took his rage towards inanimate, replaceable objects to me is better than Vader choking every guy he meets. Kylo at least knows his minions are helpful.

Original cast:

It was a pure delight watching Leia, Chewie, Han, C-3PO, R2-D2, and Luke back on screen. Everyone played their parts perfectly.
I know there's some gripe about Han's death, and well... I kinda had a feeling it would happen before I saw the movie. It's sad to see him go, especially since he's one of my favorites, but the context and motivations for the characters made sense. Not to mention they made it clear that as the trilogy progresses, that we'll slowly see more of the new cast and less of the old cast. Which to be fair, we know they can't keep playing these characters forever, so it makes sense.

"Issues"

This is by no means a perfect movie. There are some logical issues in this, as well as the other Star Wars movies, but there is definitely far more good than bad.

Yes it does repeat itself from A New Hope, but so does Phantom Menace and yet somehow people forget that. Normally, I would complain about that, but really that's just how Star Wars begin each trilogy. If you really think about it.
The movie also had to get the attention of older fans AND attract new fans. Not an easy thing to do, but they pull it off.

My personal complaint was that there wasn't enough exposition on the First Order, Kylo's descent to the Dark Side, and how R2 is able to wake up. It seem that the original trilogy had decent exposition, prequels had TOO much exposition, but this movie didn't have enough. Again, I'm sure future movies will explain it, but to me it makes you feel a little lost and wanting to look things up.
I hear the novelization does fill in some gaps that the movie has, and I would love to read it and give it a nice comparison.

Final Thoughts:
You'll see this movie. It really doesn't matter what review you read, you'll watch it. You definitely get your money's worth and it does bring back nostalgia. It does give credit for being the second movie to ALMOST make me cry. The first was Toy Story 3. Yeah the movie does have problems, but you can overlook them. Does it have leave questions? Absolutely. In the original trilogy, each movie felt complete, but that was because Lucas didn't know if people would want more. Now we know there is a need for more, so they can have a more connected plot thread and give cliffhangers and theories. (Which I have heard a lot about, but won't discuss here, since this is a review site. Not a theory site.)
At the end of the day, you go to a movie to be entertained and I was definitely entertained. I understand the issues, but clearly it doesn't hurt the movie. So calm down. Definitely an A+ and makes you want more.

That's it for 2015, guys! Thanks for reading all my stuff! I really appreciate it!

Next Time:
Best&Worst 2015.

Spectre Review

Okay this last quarter of the year was pretty rough time for movies. But thankfully it's slowly starting to make itself better.
We've had horrible movies like Pan and Good Dinosaur. Then it moved up when we had Mockingjay which had fine acting and story, but was lacking in composition and pacing. Next Victor Frankenstein was immensely better, but logic problems stopped it from getting top tier.

Finally we have the newest James Bond thriller "Spectre". And on top of that this is Daniel Craig's last venture in the Bond series. Does it live up to the hype? Short answer: YES!
Oh my goodness, did this movie succeed on all counts!

We pick up Bond after the events in Skyfall as he carries out the previous M's last wishes to find the mysterious man know as Ernst Stavro Bloefeld and stop him.

Along the way he has help from from the current M and tech wiz Q.

Let me say this: If you love the classic Bond series, you know that the name Bloefeld means something BIG. And Cristoph Waltz plays this so very menacingly. He took everything that the original villain had and just simply updated him for the modern times. No gimmicks. Just good acting.

What I also like about this is that we have M, Q, and Moneypenny fully involved and they contribute to the story. And to my knowledge, this is the first time Bond acted with a team. I love this addition!

Of course I can't forget the other villain C portrayed by Andrew Scott, who keeps showing up in my reviews for some reason. Take what he did when he played Moriarty and make it even more subtle. I never get tired of watching him act.

The movie has plenty of action and engaging story. I never got bored once in the whole thing.
As I mentioned, this is Craig's last Bond movie and man they certainly delivered and went all out with this one.

Out of the four movies, this is my favorite and it perfectly has the balance of the old Bond and the new Bond, which was the plan since Casino Royale. That movie was radically different from the Bond we knew, but as the series progressed it slowly became more of the classic Bond with a contemporary filter. And they executed this flawlessly. Definitely see it while it's still in theaters and pay top dollar for it.

As a side note, you would get more out of it by watching the past movies featuring Craig's Bond. Those being Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall. Spectre does reference events and characters from all of those. Even if you don't watch them, you won't get lost, but you would get more out of it. This deserves all the praise bit has already received and more.

At this point it's all smooth sailing from here.
Next Time:
Guys. We finally made it. Star Wars is coming!