The Next Three Days

                The Next Three Days directed by Paul Haggis, is a story about a man named John Brennan, played by Russell Crowe, who sees his wife Lara Brennan, played by Elizabeth Banks, getting arrested for murdering her boss.  She pleads innocent but all evidence points to her being convicted of the murder and she ends up with sentence of jail for 20 years. For the past couple of years John was fighting for his wife’s freedom, but gives up trying to appeal her case. So he starts to research alternative solutions to bring his wife back to him and his child. That is when John runs into a book about a biography of Damon Pennington, played by Liam Neeson, who has escaped prison multiple times. John quickly gets a hold of Damon and he explains to John how he did it and how the system works for it an escape plan to actually work. John quickly plans for his wife’s escape but finds a lot of trouble in between.

                The Next Three Days was not all that I expected it to be. It was really awful. The plot was the main thing that I think they could have changed a lot. It was very boring at the beginning. It took about an hour for the movie to pick up speed.  I didn’t enjoy sitting and watching someone completely figure out their plan for an hour. Paul Haggis, the director, could have cut a lot of useless scenes that didn’t add to the story. For example, the scene where John got beaten up at the bar by the drug dealer was very unnecessary. That drug dealer never showed up again in the whole entire movie. Although it help the scene very little because John does run into the passport dealer, but it could have been done when they were dealing drugs on the street. Then the passport dealer could have then followed him home and that would have made it short, simple and to the point.  Another example of a useless scene was when John tried to rob the bank but then decides not to. It really did not add to the plot of the story. I can understand that it was put there to build tension of his desperateness of getting the money but by that point I had already gotten how quickly and desperately he needed it.  Also the woman and child screaming had no point either and the movie would still have made sense without it. Simple shots of the money being calculated on the map, how he turned to selling his belongings or even stealing from a meth dealer did a great job showing that. That alone gave the idea he was in major need of cash fast.

The audience doesn’t need to be slapped on the face with how desperately crazy John is. It was not too good of a movie but it did have some decent scenes and the ending half was the better part of this film. The action sequence was very good and the suspense did become very engaging but it could have used that same energy towards the beginning of the film.

Megamind

    Megamind directed by Tom McGrath , is a funny family film. The movie starts off with Megamind, voice by Will Ferrell, who talks about his life. During his journey here to Earth from a dying planet, Megamind runs into his nemesis, Metro Man, voice by Brad Pitt. All their lives they have gone through constant good vs. evil battles. Until one day Megamind finally wins the battle and kills Metro Man. At first Megamind is rejoicing for his accomplishment but after reigning over Metro City, he soon looses his goal and drive in life. He realized that he wasn’t happy with out someone to challenge him every day. To rekindle his passion for battles against super heroes, Megamind decides that the only solution is to steal Metro Man’s DNA and make a new superhero for Metro City. Not only was he trying to bring back a new superhero but he also was trying to win the heart of a news reporter named Roxanne Ritchi, voice by Tina Fey, but fails. When disguising as Bernard, Megamind runs into Roxanne Ritchi and their love is sparked, yet Megamind doesn’t know how to tell her that he is the person she despises the most. Roxanne Ritchi tries to figure out Megamind’s evil schemes but in the process the DNA of Metro Man is inserted into the least suspected person, the camera man for Roxanne, voice by Jonah Hill. Megamind trains the camera man to become Titan, so they may fight an epic battle. Heart broken and angry because he could not get the girl of his dreams, Roxanne Ritchi, Titan lets his evil side out and becomes the new villain in Metro City. Without Metro Man there is no superhero to save Metro City from complete disaster. It is not left in Megamind’s hands to restore Metro City.
    The film was very entertaining and kept your attention all they to the end. Will Ferrell can be  over the top at times in his acting but in Megamind it was perfect. His voice matched the character of Megamind well, where that over the top acting really did good. Another great voice actor in this film was Tina Fey. She created the characters voice to believable that I didn’t even realize it was her voice. David Cross, who plays Megamind’s fish companion named Minion, also did an awesome job. His voice matched the emotions Minion, and added to the comedic parts of the film. I found the plot of  movie to be a pleasant twist on Superhero stories, even though a lot of the details were taken from Superman. Although the director and writers could have been a little more creative on the details of the story, putting that twist of villain turns good concept was a good idea because it is not seen too often. All in all I would recommend this funny family film to everyone.

Catfish

Catfish directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Shulman, although can be suspenseful can be at times can be a bit predictable. The movie first starts off with Ariel Shulman recording the life of his brother Yaniv Shulman (Nev). As they film his life they see that he has an interest in a little girl with painting talent. He quickly become close to her and her older sister named Megan Faccio. As the days go by, Nev finds himself falling for his Internet crush. He falls so hard that they exchange text, messages online and phone calls everyday, but the closer they get the more truth he finds out about his beloved Megan. His suspicions grew and grew until he convinces his bother Ariel and his crew to find out the truth about Megan. As they get closer and closer to Megan, the lies start to unravel themselves. In the end, you see that what you see is not really what you get.

            Catfish is not the best or the worst movie to come this year.  It was like watching a game of cat and mouse, yet the at times the cat and mouse would get tired and stall for a couple of minutes. The movie had a lot of dull moments where it could have done with out. The editing should have cut these scenes or part of scenes where it did not help advance the story. It also gave it a very armature look to it where it tried look like a “horror” film at time. I did not think it was necessary to have such shaky scenes and “Hitchcock” angles. It felt like it was the next “wanna” be Blair Witch Project with those camera angles and useless scenes.  Also after seeing the first clue of that Megan wasn’t who she really was, I instantly knew who it was in the end.  After that everything was pretty much predictable of what was going to happen next.

            Although it lacked some things, it still did a good job regaining my attention and emotions. What I did like was that Ariel and Henry tried to capture the emotions of the real Megan.  I actually felt moved and sorry for the person behind everything. The close up to their faces showed each person’s emotions and lets you into their world for just a second. I thought it was a great idea to show what happened afterwards and not left the audience wondering what happened after all that had happened.

            This film was entertaining and captivation even though it was a bit too much and too little at times. It makes you think about what the Internet can do our society today and how easy it is to lie and manipulate people through it. Remember; never trust a stranger, not even on the Internet. 

Red

 Red, directed by Robert Schwentke, was an entertaining action film. Retirement doesn’t always mean that you’re done with your job.  Frank Moses, played by Bruce Willis, retires from being a government secret agent to have a normal calm life. The movie starts with Frank’s quiet life. Unexpectedly a group of men break into his house and try to kill Frank. Frank is confused of who and why they are trying to kill him but he know he has to protect something that is important to him; Sarah Ross, played by Mary-Louise Parker,  a telephone operator he has feelings but has never met in person. Sarah is frightened by Frank at first but soon gives into his plan to find out and plan revenge on who is trying to kill him. Frank also seeks help from his retired friends, played by Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich. Together they form an interesting group of hilarious retired secret agents.

                The first impression I got from this movie was “what an awesome cast”.  Bruce Willis was incredible at this role as Frank Moses. It has been a while since I last saw Bruce Willis in a good movie. Although action movies with big explosions and guns seem to be very cliché, Willis made the character his own.  Another hilarious actor in the movie is John Malkovich, who plays Moses’ crazy friend Marvin Boggs.  The most memorable scene in the movie with Malkovich was when he was firing his gun to the woman trying to kill him Afterwards he leaves the explosion with only telling the woman ( now in flames) that he isn’t an old man. This scene was not the only hilarious thing in the movie, but just about everything Malkovich did made someone in the audience giggle. The pace of the movie suited it very well. It was fast pasted and moved from one place to the other, which gave effect to the action. It flowed very well. What made it not as cliché is the plot and the quick twists it had throughout the movie.

                Although there were many wonderful actors and actresses in this movie, I did not care too much for Mary-Louise Parker. She did not stand out as much as the other characters and actors did. I felt that it could have been more passionate in some scenes of the movie. When saving her life or just jumping from explosions, she seemed like she was “playing” the role and not really being the role or Sarah. Other than that this movie is a fast pace, hilarious character driven movie.

The Town

The Town directed by Ben Affleck was a very adventurous movie. Affleck plays a tough mobster from Charlestown named Dougy Mac Ray, who gets him self into great trouble. The movie starts out with Dougy and his friends walking into a bank dressed nun costumes with guns. They handle the robbery very carefully leaving no evidence to their identities. While in the robbery, they kidnap a bank manager named
The Town was alright. It wasn’t a movie that I wouldn’t recommend to buy right when it comes out in DVD but good enough to have seen once. Although the movie did not over do the action sequences to explosions every scene but it did carry a lot of car chasing and gun fights. The acting was good. Affleck’s character was convincing enough but though I did not feel he truly was his character. Even though Affleck tries to become a heartless mobster, his “good” guy persona comes out in this film, which ruins the feel of the story. It was a little too much of a good ending that didn’t seem realistic enough. It seemed as though as why would the “good” guy be a part of such bad things, which shows why it wouldn’t be so realistic. It felt a bit cliché to me. I felt like I had seen and knew what was going to happen next. The way things were shot could have been more exciting as well. There wasn’t enough interesting shots that lead to the suspense of the story. The cinematography could have helped with that. In all, this movie did not stand out as an incredible film but it did not disappoint me.Claire Keesey. Dougy notices her beauty and is kind to her even in the kidnapping. After being released from the mobsters, Claire is under close watch from not only the FBI but the mobster themselves. Dougy volunteers to watch over Claire but he can’t help himself from falling in love with her. Since Claire was blindfolded and disoriented, she has no idea that her new love is also one of the kidnapers. Through her, Dougy tries to change his dangerous life so he can gain courage to tell her who he is. Although Dougy tries to get out of his current troubles, he finds himself in too deep with the law and the older mobsters of Charlestown. He learns that it isn’t too late to change his life around, even if it costs him everything he has now.

The Social Network

The Social Network directed by David Fincher is a story about a young Mark Zuckerberg, who founded the famous social network Facebook, in his Harvard dorm. The story starts as a quick argument between Zuckerberg and his girlfriend, Erica Albright played by Rooney Mara. After breaking up, Zuckerberg goes into a drunken rage and starts to write about his ex-girlfriend in a blog of his and decides to rate college girls on their looks. This started an up roar, which Zuckerberg was punished for. In order to redeem his reputation he seeks help from the twin brothers, Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss played by Armie Hammer. They needed help to form a website to help socialize and meet women but that is when Zuckerberg realized he could build a social network empire. Yet building such an empire, Zuckerberg realizes that one can quickly make enemies as fast as they can make friends.

                  Jesse Eisenberg plays a young, selfish, computer genius Mark Zuckerberg. Eisenberg made his character so believable that you could have believed he was the real Zuckerburg. What helped his character was his fast talking and emotionless responses. An actor who surprised me in this movie was Justin Timberlake, who plays Sean Parker. To be honest, when most singers cross over to the film industry, it usually shows signs of a disaster waiting to happen. Although Justin is well known for singing pop music, he was unexpectedly very decent in his role as Sean Parker. He was very convincible showing Parker as a notorious rebel entrepreneur. Another actress that I need to point out is Brenda Song. Brenda Song surpassed my expectations, seeing she was a famous Disney star. She is not seen in many “serious” roles but played her role as Christy Lee very well.

                  The movie in general was pleasing. It showed an array of beautiful shots and cinematography. The style complimented the plot of the story, filming it back and forth from present to past. What was not pleasing was the pace of everything. The actors spoke to fast at times and tried to put so many years into a couple of hours, which is very difficult. Also there were at times some dull scenes. Viewers don’t want to see 10 to 15 minutes of just people sitting around a table arguing. Yet the flashing from present to past was a creative way to edit this movie, at times it would be a bit confusing. For example, if the viewer lost their interest during the dull moments, then all of the sudden action reappears, it can confuse the viewer of where the story is going. I don’t know whether that was the intention but it wasn’t helping me follow the story. Other than these minor defects, The Social Network was a great movie.