Day 288: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Directed By- Clint Eastwood

Written By- John Lee Hancock; Based Upon the Book By John Berendt 

Starring- Kevin Spacey, John Cusack, Jude Law

Critics Review- "Spacey, the best reason to see Midnight, gives his usual suave, effortless performance."- Rob Gonsalves "eFilmCritic.com"

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 47% Audience- 63%

Out of a possible 5 stars- 4 1/2 stars 

My Review- 

This movie was a little too long, however this movie is really good soley based on Spacey's performance. He was just smooth as fuck in the movie, its like you want to like him even more in the movie, even though he's the sort of villain in the movie. I always heard this movie was really good and it was I just thought it was way to long for this time of movie and I thought it could have done with out a certain part of the storyline that did not work for me.  Other than that I loved how the movie took place in Georgia and hearing all the accents was really cool. What really got me about this movie is that it is based on a true story and I like those types of movies. I'm really surprised that the critics hated this movie I thought it would have a higher rating than it has right now. I think it should at least be a 60% but not a 47%, but hey it was there decision to make it that percentage. This movie had quite the cast of characters but that's what made the movie work. This was almost like any other legal drama, expect it was true and it involved voodoo which was different. I would recommend this movie but it is  a little too long, but Spacey is worth watching it he makes the movie what it is. I actually would like to read the book now after seeing the movie too see if anything is left out or if anything was added in the movie. As I said before this movie should be seeing because of Kevin Spacey, and his performance. 

Day 287: Safe House

Directed By- Daniel Espinosa 

Written By- David Guggenheim 

Starring- Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleeson, Sam Shepard, Robert Patrick, Liam Cunningham, Joel Kinnaman 

Critics Review- "Nothing really new here, but the cast is first-rate."- Richard Roeper "Richard Roeper.com"

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 54% Audience- 65%

Out of a possible 5 stars- 2 stars 

My Review- 

This movie could have been a little better, even though some parts are really good, other parts drag on or do not fullfill expectations. Some of the acting is really good while others were just predictable or seemed flat. One thing that worked well for this movie was the actions scenes; such as car chases, shoot-outs and hand to hand fight scenes. Since this movie is kind of predictable at times it ruins it at times while other times you do not see certain things coming; they did a good job of trying to show who was bad and who wasn't and when it was finally revealed it was sort of shocking but not at the same time. Some actors were really good in this movie even though they had sort of a small part, and it sucks because since Reynolds and Washington are the main characters they did not to all that well only parts of the movie they did really well. My favorite character in the movie was Joel Kinnaman's even though he was bad I still liked his small part in the movie. I thought the execution of the movie could have been a lot better as well, since some scenes were like "come on really?" I did however like the ending of the movie since the whole thing was based on some file it was shown how the file was used at the end. The trailer and everything about the movie is very misleading from what it is actually about and it was both a good thing and a bad thing by whoever promoted this movie, since I went to this movie thinking something entirely differently from what the movie really was and that kind of sucked for me. I you can watch this movie if you; if your a fan of the actors in the movie than I would say watch it or if you like movies with some twists then watch it as well other than that I would say skip it.

Day 286: Argo

Directed By- Ben Affleck

Written By- Chris Terrio Based on the Book "The Master of Disguse" By- Antonio J. Mendez and "The Great Escape" By- Joshuah Bearman

Starring- Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Chris Messina, Kyle Chandler, Victor Garber, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Tom Lenk, Richard Kind, Kerry Bishe

Critics Review- "Argo is a triumph. It has tension, sincerity, mystery, artistic reprehensibility, entertainment value, technical expertise, a narrative arc and a thrilling respect for the traditionof how to tell a story with minimum frills and maximum impact."- Rex Reed "New York Observer" 

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 94% [CERTIFIED FRESH] Audience- 90%

Out of a possible 5 stars- 5 stars

[WARNING: MILD SPOILERS AHEAD]

My Review-

Ben Afflleck seems to be a better director at times than he is as an actor, with this movie it is not the case; he's really good at both. One thing I really liked about this movie is how it started, since it is about making a fake movie; the very beginning is shown to us as storyboards with a history lesson that led to events that take place in the movie, and that's when the movie had me hooked. As I was watching the movie I had actually kind of wondered why we never learned about it in the history classes that I took, since they only everyone knew about this was through a movie. This is one of those movies that has you on the edge of your seat the whole entire time, and well at the same time the film manages to poke fun at Hollywood; since it was about making a fake movie. When it came to this part of the movie, John Goodman and Alan Arkin were both spot on with the comedy the scenes with them took away from the tension in the movie so as an audience it was a little breathing room and we were able to laugh at something for a change. As you can tell above this movie had a all-star cast who were just amazing in the movie, even some of the actors who had little or no lines at all were really good. There were a few that I really enjoyed on screen one of them being Bryan Cranston, I always like seeing him in movies to see what he is going to do next or how he is going to act in the role and he always amazes me that way. This is possibly the best movie by far that Ben Affleck as directed and hopefully he will get a few Oscar nominations with this movie since it deserves them. For me this movie kept me at the edge of my seat the whole time that at times I almost felt like yelling at the movie screen while some scenes were playing out. One of my favorite parts of the whole movie was the Hollywood part it was non stop one liners and really bashing Hollywood for what it was at that time, well Goodman played real life make-up artist John Chambers and Alan Arkin played a made up Hollywood producer, I believe they played both their parts really well and made it believable they were making a real movie, at times I wanted too see what Argo was going to look like. Even though it does have a good rating on Rotten Tomatoes I do think it could be a little higher maybe like a 97%, and for it being based on a True Story it was very well told especially during the credits. This was the type of movie that at the end it showed side by side comparisons of the actual incident and scenes from the movie which I thought was really great to show all that at the end of the film. This should be one of the movies that you see this year, and I do expect or hope to see Oscar nominations when awards season rolls around.

Day 285: Skyline

Directed By- Brothers Strause

Writer(s)- Joshua Cordes, Liam O'Donnell

Starring- Eric Balfour, Scottie Thompson, Brittany Daniel, Donald Faison, David Zayas, Crystal Reed

Critics Review- "Skyline packs some impressive money shots, however with its tracing-paper-thin script there's not enough propping up these whizz-bang set pieces."- Simon Reynolds "Digital Spy"

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 16% Audience- 19%

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

My Review-

This movie felt that it should have come on the SyFy channel and not in theaters. The special effects were really good in some scenes well others they were not so great, and the characters in this film I really did not seem to care about them, they all were moronic and deserved what they got in a way since they were doing really stupid things throughout the movie. There were some scenes that were in slow motion, and they did not  need to be in slow motion, I was trying to figure out why the directors chose to that when it was not need. this movie kept dragging on and on as well and I just wanted it to be over with and the Aliens win, and I guess in a way they kinda did. There is nothing else I really have to say about this movie other than that it should have been on the Syfy channel as I said before and I'm glad I did not go watch this in theaters because I would have walked out.

Day 284: The Gate

Directed By- Tibor Takacs

Written By- Michael Nankin

Starring- Stephen Dorff, Christa Denton, Louis Tripp, Kelly Rowan, Jennifer Irwin

Critics Review- "It is not a great horror film, but you never get the urge to turn it off, either." - Douglas Pratt "DVDLaser"

Rotten Tomatoes Review- Critics- 33% Audience- 45%

Out of a possible 5 stars- 3 stars

My Review-

While this movie is not that bad it is still kind of cheesy, but in a good way. for being made in 1987 it had some pretty cool special effects, but aside from that the characters could be morons at times. I was really surprised that this was Stephen Dorff in the movie and I would like to know how old he was when he made this movie, and to see how far he has come now is pretty darn cool. One of the things that I thought did not go with the movie is that it called The Gate when I think it should have been called The Hole since it was literally a hole in the ground. Some scenes I was trying to figure out what the hell the actors were doing, since they were just standing around when shit was goin down when they could have helped ou or something. For being Dorff's first movie he wasn't that bad, but the actor that played his friend was annoying. I think I will have to watch this movie again another time too see if I missed anything, and to refresh my memory when I record for cinemaddicts. So to here what I thought about this movie I will let you know when the episode goes up. Unt then if you like cheesy horror films or when it turns into a comedy than check this movie out.

Day 283: Prometheus

Directed By- Ridley Scott

Writer(s)- Damn Lindelof, Jon Spaihts

Starring- Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green, Sean Harris, Rafe Spall

Critics Review- "Brilliant. Epic. Haunting. Grotesque. Great."- Richard Roeper "Richard Roeper.com"

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 73% Audience- 72%

Out of a possible 5 stars- 4 stars 

My Review- 

I really do not know where to begin with this movie, even though I really liked it the movie it is hard to find a place to start with this review. One thing I will say is that this movie was brilliantly casted with really good actors to be in the film; some of the actors I liked were Idris Elba, Noomi Rapace, and Michael Fassbender. Especially Fassbender's portrayal of the android David, he just seemed like such a badass in the movie even though he did not show any emotion at all. There was no part of this movie where I found myself bored, I enjoyed every minute from beginning to end, even though at times I would have hoped they would have answered some questions that were left up in the air in some parts. Besides that there were some scenes that stood out more than others, and I really like how Ridley Scott did do this movie to somewhat of a prequel to Alien, and I think I would have enjoyed this movie even more if I had not seen Alien first. I like how there were many scenes that paid homage to Alien since was most likely eventually going to lead to it. When the extra scene came up I almost even crazy along with my brother, but still like I said before IF I had never seen Alien before and watched this as the lead in to Alien I would have liked it more. One thing that I really liked this movie was the opening scene where it showed one of the "engineers" well actually before, it was when the planet was being seen for the first time and I felt like I was on the Soarin ride and California Adventure, since it was showing VAST scenery and every thing about the planet I thought it was really really cool. I would recommend this movie if you have seen Alien before because there is a 50/50 chance you may or may not like it. I know I enjoyed it and I will be looking forward to watching this movie again to try to see if I missed anything. One last thing I really do hope a sequel does get made because of the way that it ended, so that the questions that everyone had will get answered and if not then well that sucks.

Day 282: Hot Shots! Part Deux

Directed By- Jim Abrahams

Writer(s)- Jim Abrahams, Pat Proft

Starring- Charlie Sheen, Lloyd Bridges, Valeria Golino, Brenda Bakke, Richard Crenna, Miguel Ferrer

Critics Review- "One of the pleasures of watching a spoof like this is to spot the references; it's like a quiz on pop art."- Roger Ebert "Chicago Sun-Times"

Rotten Tomatoes Rating- Critics- 59% Audience- 61%

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

My Review-

Well this was an enjoyable movie, and funny in some moments, I still find the first one a lot funnier. I do like how they brought back some storylines from the first movie and introduced a whole bunch of new characters that were really funny. One of my favorite scenes, was when they sort of recreated Apocalypse Now voice over with this one and MARTIN SHEEN was in the movie which was really damn awesome. Also like how they used a lot of popular movies to go along with this one, such as Terminator 2, and Star Wars: A New Hope, I think those scenes in the movie is what sold me on this movie when some parts were not as funny as others. One thing that also stood out for me is that it used a lot of gags that both worked and did not work in the previous film, even though Charlie Sheen was the main character in the film, Lloyd Bridges was still my favorite in this film and how when playing the president he was just a bumbling baffon who could not do anything right. I guess I both enjoyed this movie and disliked it at the same time, I do recommend it if you have seen the first one and maybe you will like this one. OH I almost forgot Mr. Bean was in the movie for like 10 mins and it was one of the funniest things in the movie.