Day 281: The Swell Season

Directed By- Nick August-Perna, Carlo Mirabella-Davis

Starring- Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova 

Critics Review- "The Swell Season wins the documentary prize for beating viewers over the head with gentleness, with the duo accentuated in rich, photographic chiaroscuro."- Guy Dixon "Globe and Mail 

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 77% Audience- 78%

Out of a possible 5 stars- 4 stars 

My Review- 

When the movie Once came out it was one of my favorite films at the time. and I still like watching it from time to time especially for the music which was all written by Hansard and Irglova and since this documentary followed them after winning the Academy Award for best original song it was really cool to see what they went through after winning, and how learning how they were making music together way before Once  was released, it was cool seeing them work together, and also learning that they did have a relationship with each other at one point, but since Irglova was not used to everything (press, photographs. signing autographs), they ended up breaking it off, but it seems like it was the right thing too do at the time, it was also pretty neat how it was made the whole thing was in black and white, and I do not know how they decided to do that, we also got to learn a little more about Hansard's life and how he decided to get into music for the first time and to see how its lead to something he loves, after seeing this movie I would like to listen to more of the music from Hansard and Irglova. If t you liked the movie Once or just like documentaries in general I think you will like this one, it is a very interesting one and also hearing them sing really good music is really awesome. 

Day 280: Pootie Tang

Directed By- Louis C.K.

Written By- Louis C.K

Starring- Lance Crouther, Wanda Sykes, Chris Rock, Jennifer Coolidge, Robert Vaughn, J.B. Smoove, Andy Richter, Reg E. Cathey 

Critics Review- "A bona fide cult object in the making"- Dennis Lim "Village Voice"

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 29% Audience- 55% 

Out of a possible 5 stars- 2 1/2 stars

My Review- 

This movie is just...WOW, I do not even know where to begin with this movie. Well it was enjoyable and funny, it was still I had no idea what was going on at times. On of the things that saved this movie for me was that Louis C.K. wrote and directed this movie, also the J.B. Smoove was hilarious as the narrator of the film usually just repeating the same thing over again when he had already explained something. I would not really recommend this movie though, I mean if you want to watch it go right ahead, because the movie does have some really funny parts and then some parts where I wanted to know what the hell was going on. I do believe in time though that this will become a cult classic maybe in a few more years, but not right now.

Day 279: Taken 2

Directed By- Olivier Megaton

Writer(s)- Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen

Starring- Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Rade Serbedzija

Critics Review- "The one thing that comes across is Neeson's character really likes fighting Albanians."- Adam Graham "Detroit News" 

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 18% Audience- 76%

Out of a possible 5 stars- 1 1/2 stars

My Review-

This is set a few years after the events of the first movie and we thing that all is well with Liam Neeson and his family but nope, the same thing happens almost ALL OVER AGAIN. I was hoping maybe this one would be a little better, but it turns out I was wrong, well not in all parts of the movie. The action scenes were pretty cool and Serbedzija has always been a cool actor so I liked his part as the villain of the film. The acting was so so, and I really did not like Maggie Grace in the movie once again, it seems to me like she at times will force her emotions or cannot make them believable, another thing I had a gripe with this movie is that at times it would be a little to slow or some of the acting did not see like it worked in certain scenes. I still want to know why the people this movie did not learn their lesson the first time and thought they could just "take" him without facing the consequences. Another thing about this movie that was kind of annoying, since it was almost like the first one, well same premise different country and events it was not that exciting at times, until Liam Neeson started killing people for trying to kidnap his "wife" and daughter. I suggest you wait to watch this movie when it is released on DVD, since its just and okay movie. All in all only the action scenes were the highlight of this movie and when also when they used the music from the movie Drive. Another thing I liked about this movie was like in the first movie, his friends were one of the most entertaining  parts even though they were in the movie less than a minute. So yeah this movie was just slightly better than the first one but at the same time was not all that great.

Day 278: Wait Until Dark

Directed By- Terence Young

Writer(s)- Robert Carrington, Jane-Howard Carrington; Based on the play by- Fredrick Knott

Starring- Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna, Jack Weston

Critics Review- "Audrey Hepburn received her fifth (and last) Oscar nomination for effectively playing a blind woman in this well-executed thriller based on the Broadway smash hit; equally good are the villains, played by the young Alan Arkin and Richard Crenna."- Emanuel Levy "EmanuelLevy.com"

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 94% Audience- 89%

Out of a possible 5 stars- 5 stars

My Review-

I heard about this movie on Bravo's 100 scariest movie moments, and I knew right way I wanted to watch this movie, I just do not know what took me so long to do so. Seeing how this movie was originally based on a play that I have never seen it was pretty cool to see how this was done, and I would love to see how the stage part is done. I have never really seen a Audrey Hepburn movie until now, and I really regret not watching other movies that she has acted in, so its a good thing that I will watch Breakfast at Tiffany's  in a few days. I really liked Alan Arkin as the villain in this film, he is now one of my favorite villains in films, he made his character so unapologetic, and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. This movie was full of suspense and tension from start to finish and everyone who was in this movie were just down right awesome, I think I should make a note of watching more thriller and suspense movies from this time. As I was watching the movie and it kept getting close to the climatic scene I found myself turning off all the lights one my one, until it was pitch black in the whole house, and it made the movie seem way better for some reason. Another thing I liked about this movie is that Hepburn played a VERY convincing blind woman in the movie. f you have never seen this movie this one that I HIGHLY recommend, it has possibly got to be one of the best thriller movies that keeps building and building until the final moments of the film that I have seen in quite a while and this one old movie that I would really like to own since I really do not own a lot old movies that were made around the late 60s early 70s and I should start watching older movies and seeing what made them so good and talked about, such as this one. I believe now since this was the first Audrey Hepburn movie I have ever seen this is for now my favorite one with her.

Day 277: Troll

Directed By- John Carl Buechler

Written By- Ed Naha

Starring- Noah Hathaway, Michael Moriarty, Shelley Hack, Jenny Beck, Sonny Bono, June Lockhart, Phil Fondacaro, Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Critics Review- "It goes without saying that the film is pretty awful. But that doesn't mean it's not pretty funny too."- Nick Schager "Lessons of Darkness"

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 29% Audience- 30%

Out of a possible 5 stars- 1 star

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

My Review-

I only watched this movie to see why Troll 2  was made even though that movie has NOTHING to do with this one. This movie is vastly different than the so called "sequel", this movie was slightly better, but also at the same time it took itself a little too seriously. This movie I believe was really funny when it was not meant to be and I guess that is a good thing. One thing that I really did not like and I guess that can go for most movies, is that the characters that you meet briefly in the film and get to like because of some of the little things that they do, end up dying and it sucks because they were awesome. This one movie I could not wait to be over, but at the same time wanted to see what was going to happen, since there were a few characters that I actually did like. I would say stay far away from this movie. It is not worth watching and I do not know why it is under Horror movies on Netflix, when it is not even scary. It is more of a comedy than a horror movie. Watch this if you only want to see a bad "horror" movie or if you want to laugh since this movie pretty funny, when it wants to be.

Day 276: Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Directed By- David Gelb

Starring- Jiro Ono, Yoshikauzu

Critics Review- "By the time this graceful film is over you understand why Japan has declared the bald bespectacled Jiro a national treasure. Even if you've never tasted sushi, the man's singleness of purpose will inspire you."- Colin Covert "Minneapolis Star Tribune"

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 99% [CERTIFIED FRESH] Audience- 93%

Out of a possible 5 stars- 5 stars

My Review-

This is possibly my new favorite documentary. For one it's about food, second this man is a genius, he makes everything look so good. Also to hear people praise the food and to hear them talk in detail about the food and how much they love it. This movie made me want to go to Japan and want to eat a that Sushi restuarant, even though if its booked a month ahead of time and costs $300 a plate. Jiro has such a great passion for food, and it shows with how he talks about it, how he prepares and still after all these years and at the age of 80 he still believes he has not perfected making sushi, he still believes he can be better. I was in awe the whole time how everyone praised this man, and how everyone wanted to work for him and learn from his art form of making sushi the almost perfect way, but with such delicacy and how he cared about every single one of his customers that went to eat at the restaurant. I really do not want to say anymore, because this documentary should be watched. For many reasons, one of them being that when you watch it you will see how much passion this man puts into his cooking and how he loves what he does. I would like for people to see this, it is very good and worth the watch, and it might even make you hungry even if you do not like sushi. 

Day 275: The Trip

Directed By- Michael Winterbottom

Writer(s)- Improvised

Starring- Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon

Critics Review- "The Trip is a comedy about two guys going to fancy restaurants in the English countryside. Sounds hilarious, huh? Well, it actually is."- Tom Long "Detroit News"

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 89% Audience- 71%

Out of a possible 5 stars- 3 stars

My Review-

Do not get me wrong this was a good movie, I just thought it would be a little funnier because it was Steve Coogan, I found various scenes funny some more than others, but I guess it just was a little too slow for a comedy. I really liked how when they would eat, the camera would cut too the chefs preparing the food for both of them, and what they were eating. The scenes that were really funny were when they would both do impressions of various famous actors; Michael Caine, Hugh Grant and Sean Connery. This movie did make me very hungry though, with all the amazing food they were trying everywhere they would go. If you're a Steve Coogan fan you will enjoy this, and one thing I also liked about this movie, is that it was a TV show that was edited into a feature movie, which I found very interesting and that is why there wasn't really any writers for the movie also because most of it was improvised.