Reviews

Wow. it's like FX cannot help but put out great new original shows. While you have Triple A shows like Breaking Bad, Game Of Thrones, and Boardwalk Empire FX constantly makes show that are a step behind if not as good. It seems like the formula is to take a traditional show and add a twist. The Americans is a spy show during the Cold War from the Russian perspective and Bride is a cop drama from two sides of the border.

The characters are actually pretty standard, what makes it work is the contrast of the lifestyles and procedures of the two cops. The American cop is cold calculated and methodical while The Mexican cop is much more family oriented and has a stronger moral code. It's also gives a lot of insight into the culture across the border.

One minor complaint may be the subtitle reading I know a lot of people aren't in to that, but I think it adds an interesting layer to the story and also it takes place in Mexico half the time it's necesary for the story telling.

Overall very good show that I think will rev up and continue to improv.

This works both extremely well as a comedy and a horror movie delivering characters I care about, and also some good performances.

The stand out performances for me are McBride, Baruchel, and Robinson. Robinson and Baruchel both give really good dramatic performances and also give of a few funny lines.

McBride stands out as not only the best actor out of the group, anybody who watches Eastbound and Down can attest to this, but also is the best at delivering his lines dramatic or comedic and really steals the show.

Rogen's playing himself as always and he's solid. Hill has a funny arc , but is really a side character, and you could completely take Franco out of this movie and replace him with Segel or Paul Rudd who I think would've brought more to the role once again Franco sleepwalks through another movie.

No real significant flaws to mention , didn't want it to end definitely a must see for everyone who loves these guys, but if you don't like their humor then definitely don't see it you already know you won't like it.

Just For Fun To Nail In the avengers comparison

Tony Stark = Seth Rogen Bruce Banner = Danny McBride Thor = Jonah Hill Steve Rogers = Craig Ferguson Natasha Romanoff = Jay Baruchel Hawkeye = James Franco

I liked Hangover. It was a cool movie with a really fun story and a great cast with a damn good script behind them. One of my least favorite aspects was Alan and Chow, the two characters with the least amount of actual good writing. Now the actors worked with what they had, but overall outside of anybody in high school they weren't that funny.

I read somewhere that Jack Sparrow , essentially a side character in the original pirates movie, was modeled sort of like Han Solo. Start of as a side character and then given a prominent role. Now anybody who watched Return of the Jedi will attest to the fact that Han Solo is actually the weakest part of that movie next to the ewoks. Same as Jack sparrow until the series was actually tailored around him he made the series worse the more he was there. Case I'm trying to make LESS is MORE.

Alan might be funny to some people, but he essentially ruins any believability in the movies. Granted in the first one he was a nice guy and was loyal. He was dumb, sweet, and awkward, but there was redeeming qualities about him.

Now he's just a jerk. There's nothing to like every problem the main characters have is because of him after Hangover 1. Now this wouldn't be such a big problem except all the jokes in Hangover Part II are tailored around him and Chow.

I love a lot of things about both this and Hangover Part II. They are significantly darker and have a lot more realism then the first movie. Which totally gets undercut by having alan and Chang in ever scene acting impossibly over the top and stupid. I like that this is basically a thriller and that the laughs aren't as important, but even then the thriller aspects aren't handled very well.

The Best Hangover movies right now are Hangover 1, Pain and Gain, and Horrible Bosses. There's your trilogy 3 great movies which understand story structure and dark humor and silly absurd humor. We all know these obligatory sequels are impossible to get away from. Catch it at Redbox you might enjoy it more.

Let me first say Arrested Development aside from any animated shows (Boondocks, Archer, South Park) is what I'd consider one of the very best and original comedic TV show America has to offer. It's smart , funny, great characters, moves at a rapid speed pace and delivers a laugh a minute with great dialogue and great performances. Fantastic. It also has one of the most interesting dynamic or subplot between two of the characters that made me feel uneasy that I cheered on.

I have a few VERY minor complaints that I only bring up in relation to the fourth season. Certain characters with less is more. Gob and Buster always work best to me personally in the background with minor roles. Another minute thing that's not even really a complaint more of something I realize in retrospect the show's main story can be super convoluted. It doesn't help the show has a hilarious twist on the conventions of sitcoms at the end of each episode I won't ruin, but that's not something I notice while watching.

The new season of Arrested Development has as much care and fan service as the original show. As a matter of fact it's even more clever and the only reason it's not as funny is because a majority of the jokes went completely over my head. There are callbacks to the previous season and a return of pretty much every character I could think of. This Arrested Development is for Die Hard Fans. I consider myself a huge fan and as i mentioned earlier some of the callbacks missed me, but that's not a problem with the show that's a problem with me and I think it's a good way to let fans know they still care.

Everything's still in tact, but there's a major problem that stems from the series of the whole. The first 3 seasons had at least 3 main subplots going on outside of the main story. If one wasn't funny the other two picked up slack.

The new season has a Lost style of having one character having one view point and using multiple view points to tell one story. This does not work very well until the second half where there's a better sense of the overall story.

It's convoluted and this was not my fault this is just how the new structure of the show works. At it's worst it's pretty confusing and headache inducing. At it's best it's actually pretty epic and kind of hilarious. These episodes span 2 years. Bringing in another problem they feel really long and they drag. HARD. The episodes felt like they were an hour long and I tried to finish them in one day and I couldn't do it. My brain was melting.

But on the positive side this adds a level of rewatchability. I honestly could see myself one ever few months sitting down and trying to piece together this massive storyline, which does require charts and a lot of patience.

Overall it's rare for a show to come back after so long this strong. And the season gets better as it goes along , which is usually the case and it tells me they found their stride later. I give the overall series a 10 out of 10, but the fourth season gets an 8. Any new fans start from the beginning and work your way up , I promise it'll be your new favorite show.

This is one of the best movies of the year. It's unfortunate that Micheal Bay's name is attached because it's giving people a reason to hate it before they even see it. Basically it's black comedy. Micheal Bay was the best and worst choice to make this movie. It has a lot of outrageous movies that people will blame Bay for forcing in. But reports confirm this is exactly more or less how the movie played out. Acting is good, and this is honestly the first real contender for best original screenplay.

This is a parody of Micheal Bay films. Nobody hates him more then I do, but when somebody does something good you have to be fair and give it credit where it deserves. This is actually more of a Coen Brothers or David Fincher film on cocaine. Go see it you'll have a blast.

Big fan of the Marvel Film Franchise, they're doing excellent work and it seems like Phase 2 is all about " Let's try something new" and fresh out of the gate we have Ironman 3. The good thing I think everybody can agree on is this is a movie that can be taken seriously and is much more mature then the other Ironman films, in a good way. I've seen several spoiler filled reviews so people can talk about what they liked didn't like.

Here's how I'll put it. If you don't think you'll like it you won't simple as that. This will not be the movie that will change your mind, catch it on Redbox. This is the big deciding factor on if you will like this movie or not. Are you willing to unbiasedly watch a movie, putting away all previous expectations from trailers, earlier movies, and comic book lore, and enjoy it on it's own merit. If yes then this is a great Ironman movie. It's almost more of a Bourne / Tom Clancy movie then an Ironman movie. Which is great everybody complained about there not being enough tension or Avengers being a kids movie. Here you go, most tension I've felt in a superhero movie while still having fun and laughing.

But as I said, admittedly the marketing for this movie completely mis sold it and I cannot begrudge anybody for being disappointed. But honestly if you can get past the total change in direction for the series then you will probably enjoy it a whole lot.

I did the pilot absolutely no favors by watching Zombieland the other day. While no Superbad, it was a little surprise comedy that had some really cute funny moments with a really smart script. It wasn't the funniest thing in the world, it wasn't the scariest horror comedy, but it worked more then it didn't. I'd like to say that it was because the writers really hit lightning in a bottle and have yet to achieve anything near as good as ZombieLand yet.

Now to get into the main reason the pilot doesn't work is the overall execution. There's the repeating of iconic imagery and lines from the show that doesn't work, the new actors don't even look like actors, if the Scary Movie guys made a spoof of ZombieLand these actors would be the new characters. The main thing that worked about ZombieLand was the chemistry. Everybody got along great and it's one of those movies that makes you sad that it's over due to the fact you may never see these characters again. These new people don't have the writing or the chemistry to carry that writing. But given this a pilot I'll somewhat give it the benefit of the doubt and check out the next episode if it ever comes out, say goodbye to Zombieland 2.

I'm going to come out and say it. This is one of the best family movies that has come out in a while. It strikes that perfect balance of adults and elementary school kids, and is another winner from Sam Raimi.

Let me address the common complaints that everyone will have that they would've had no matter what movie they where shown. The callbacks to the original are all clever and don't stop the movie AT ALL. All the major characters are referenced in a subtle way that serves the story first. People are acting like this movie is a remake as opposed to a prequel. That means that it absolutely has to link up with The Wizard of Oz. Next the CGI. The problem with making anything with great special effects is people will complain they're hollow. This is more Avatar or Scott Pilgrim sort of effects that create a world instead of Sucker Punch or Underworld. It's only apparent they're using CGI because it's so beautiful it couldn't be a map painting. Next is the 3d. Wow, gorgeous 3d. It really puts you into Oz, and almost gives it a motion ride feel.

Now to talk about Sam Raimi. This guy is the king of taking a movie, and making it super fun and then having moments that are genuinely scary. Even Evil Dead 2, and Drag Me To Hell have slapstick moments that are hilarious, and Spiderman 2 had a scene with Doc Ock that was filmed like a horror movie. He specializes in making fun, campy movies, and really bringing out your inner child and then scarring the hell out of it.

The movie isn't without flaws. James Franco continues to be a guy who can totally sleepwalk through a movie depending on the project. He's very one-note in this movie and really Robert Downey Jr. would've knocked this role out the park and everyone would come out saying how great the movie was. Another problem with these green screen movies is that you can tell the actors aren't reacting to real things. Here it's pretty much seamless, except Franco's acting really doesn't sell it. Also another problem I have with ALL of Saimi's movies is the pacing isn't always the best, the movie doesn't slow down, it just has a consistent steady pace. It can be a tad bit predictable, but usually in a rewarding way, not in a roll your eyes way. All the pieces are given to figure out the narrative, and the smarter viewers will peg it, but others, like myself, will have fun catching up. But it is a kid's movie , and honestly I feel like if it was any less predictable they wouldn't be able to keep up.

For my overall opinion this movie is fantastic. it's smart, it gets better with repeat viewings, I saw it twice in one day and caught some stuff I missed. I almost want a Wizard of Oz remake with this level of attention to detail, special effects, and action. There's no action director like Raimi, and some of the action scenes made me jump out of my seat, whilst having a big ol child like grin on my face. This is a must see in theaters for EVERYBODY in 3d, and if somebody else's opinion is based purely off comparing it to the original then let them be a sourpuss, and go enjoy this beautiful experience uninterrupted by unfair criticisms.

Every once in a while you see a movie that makes you realize how much you love film. This is the perfect film for cinephiles and movie buffs.

The less you know about the story the better. This is Scott Z Burns who also collaborated with Sodenberg on Contagion. A movie I thought was efficient, tight, and well made, but maybe a bit hollow and missing that wow factor. Here it is. This movie has all the best qualities of a smart hriller with great pacing and some real great writing. I'm going to avoid going into any real details about the plot, because the less you know the more rewarding the movie will be. This is a puzzle narrative, and at a certain point if you're paying enough attention you can sort of piece together some of the mystery. Much like with Cabin In The Woods, the more seasoned movie goers will figure out things faster and will be rewarded for paying attention, while the lesser movie gooers will be more blown away and taken by surprise. Good Movie. Rush out and go see it, perfect movie for everybody.

I have some MINOR complaints. Nitpicks. This movie is going to get a 8 because it's not quite a great movie. It's very tight, but almost too tight. As good as it is I can't say it deserves an Oscar, which I want to since i enjoyed it so much. It's still missing that punch to push it over. ONce again nit picks.

Take your parents to see this, this is the average thriller, except down a million times better and is a must see for everyone.

Nothing makes me happier then to see an actor people just think are comedians or just okay and then they turn out to be great actors. 2012 is the year for proving you're acting chops, with Jack Black in Bernie, Matthew MacCoughney in Killer Joe, And supporting role in Magic Mike and Sean William Scott in Goon. Although these performances where largely ignored and do deserve Oscars, Bradley Cooper also knocked it out of the park as a bipolar man who wants to put his life back together after a major breakdown. I always told people he'd get an Oscar one day after I saw Limitless.

I'm not going to go into the story, because really that's a second hand and it's really a character piece and also a study on mental illness. That being said every single performance in here is great. Even Chris Tucker, someone who I thought had absolutely no range, really knocks it out of the park. Bradley Cooper really transforms himself into a beaten down, but really genuine person. Jennifer Lawrence was amazing as well turning in a more emotional and raw performance but still just as good. This is an actor's movie and everybody showed up to do work.

I have ultimately nothing really negative to say about this movie. Normally these "Oscar" movies have really bad pacing, too long, and you can feel the ego coming from behind the camera. Nope David O Russell Clearly just wants to tell a good story. Normally I like darker movies, like Black Swan, so anybody thinking this is a sappy, sweet movie you're absolutely wrong. This is an incredibly sincere movie. I teared up I laughed and I liked all the characters. Definitely a surprise for me and hopefully, but let's be realistic, at the very least this will walk away with at least two Oscars, not that it matters because this is still a great movie.

I've never been a big fan of certain franchises that people love. Lord Of The Rings, Star Wars, and James Bond come to mind. While I respect and give praise to all 3 I just don't quite understand the love. Probably because I've never seen most of them and when i do the hype makes my expectations too high. Ironically I've seen every single Daniel Craig Bond movie and my enjoyment is also mixed. While Casino Royale is a fantastic movie, it left me cold. It's me not you principal. This is along the lines of Casino Royale and while it's always tempting to compare the two, i'd say they're at the same level. Skyfall is bigger and more personal, Casino Royale is tighter and more specific. That being said Skyfall also left me cold. I can't help but think that if i had went in with no expectations i would've loved it more. But once again that's my fault not the movies.

The good. WOW. this is what I want to see in a james bond movie. Developed Characters, amazing action, great acting, solid script, two interesting bond girls, etc. Every praise this movie gets is earned in spades. The stuff I loved was the aesthetic. This is the most beautiful movie I've ever seen. Jaw Dropping this is definitely something on blu ray. Also this is a very smart movie. For people who just want action it's there and for people who want drama there you have it. Also Daniel Craig, who always delivers as bond, knocks it out of the park. 2012 was definitely the year for action movies this Django, Avengers, and TDKR all having incredible set pieces.

The negative, and once again this will not have an effect on my overall opinion this is just me, Too long. I had the same problem with Casino so i don't know if it's me, but honestly I didn't notice the running time until this movie. The pacing is good in the first half but as the movie goes on there is a little drag going on. I didn't mention Javier Bardem in my positives. This year is also the year for underusing or undermining Best Supporting Actor performances in the third act of the movie. This , Prometheus, Django, Seven Psychopaths, The Dark Knight Rises, all great performances that totally don't get utilized. He's a revelation. He's incredible it's ridicicolous how amazing his intro into this movie is. But as it goes on he becomes less interesting. They even have his face covered up so he doesn't get to emote that well. Still an amazing performance I hope they keep going with this direction of villains.

Great movie, not in the slightest overrated and will definitely get better with repeat viewings. The flaws are there if you look for them , but other then those people, and idiots like myself, everybody else will fall in love with this movie

After re-watching the movie , most of the flaws I saw where fixed and it completely lives up to the hype, except for the ending which is still a tad anti-climatic , and some plot strands unanswered, but still great movie I do have to say this is the best Daniel Craig bond movie.

Finally the Marvel Franchise reveals it's coup de grace and it's everything that we hoped for. Before I totally kiss this movie's butt for a while I'm going to delve into the negatives first.

Just a warning the first 25 minutes are a little slow, which is to be expected when telling such a large story. Lord of the Rings needed a whole movie to build up to the adventure to put it into context. Some of Loki's dialogue is a little hard to understand at times because of the Norse language dialect, but that's easily fixed with second viewings. Other than that and some nitpicks the movie delivers.

This is the movie we all made playing with our toys as a kid. Wheedon has done a fantastic job and I really don't think this movie could've worked as well without him. All the characters fit in this movie. I never thought a conversation between Loki and Nick Fury would work on screen but it does. Every character gets to shine in this movie. At time it's a Black Widow movie, then an Ironman movie, then a Thor movie, then a Captain America movie it all just fits perfectly. This movie has the best editing I've seen all year and some of the best acting to go with it. This movie is a culmination of several geek movies in one. It's got the ear turning and self reflection of Scott Pilgrim with the ensemble aspect of Star Trek (2009) with great dialogue.

I'm going to say character a lot because that's the focus. The story is a little weak because it comes second to the characters. I've always described superhero movies are character pieces with big budgets. A lot of people complained that it's a comedy or that it's just a loud mindless movie with explosions like Transformers. Since when does having great humor make something a comedy? All the humor is in the witty dialogue and a few physical gags which are hilarious and also unique to the characters. And Wheedon adds lots of little subtle setups to the ending to make the movie more cohesive and smarter than it is. It's not a bad story it's just a simple character driven one. The only superhero movie I know that has more emphasis on story is The Dark Knight, but this blows that out of the water. 6 heroes are better than one. That's why Lord of The Rings, Star Trek, and Toy Story are so great. The Team or The Ensemble.

There are so many ways this movie could've been ruined. Maybe they got the writing right, and the action is choreographed well but is filmed with shaky cam or is incoherent. All the action scenes in this movie are great and easy on the eyes and even have lots of character in them. The best scene in this movie is when the avengers are all arguing in a room. And the acting is the greatest. I still have a hard time wrestling with who was my favorite actor in this. This movie is so much fun and if you don't like it it's probably because you didn't want to so anybody with an open mind should love this 10 out of 10

I consider myself a huge fan of comic book movies. They're basically character studies with huge budgets and great special effects. I have to admit I'm not the hugest fan of Nolan's trilogy. For a movie that's supposed to be so serious and realistic the movies stop to have really dumb unrealistic moments for the sake of being "epic". Not to mention whenever Nolan writes dialogue for the mystique or mythos of Batman it's ALWAYS corny. He writes such great dialogue for his villains but anytime he tries to write for Batman or people talking about the idea of Batman it gets super cheesy *SPOILERS*****. The result we have here is basically Nolan sleepwalking through the movie with poor dialogue, plot inconsistencies, character motivations that aren't clear, poor fight choreography, and probably the worst ending I've ever seen in a superhero movie or a Nolan film in general.

To get the good out of the way.... Ummm I honestly have nothing good to say about this movie. All the pieces are here to make a great movie. I can see why people love this movie, because it's basically a copy of The Dark Knight. Everything good gets undercut by the end of the movie. Tom Hardy as Bane turns in a great menacing performance that is worthy being held up to next to the Joker. He almost saves the film just like Heath Ledger did with the first sequel except towards the end of the movie he is totally underused and undercut. But all of his scenes where good or at least set up well. There's also two cameos that where great and really pumped me up for the rest of the movie that I won't spoil. I could say the movies greatest strength and crutch is that it ties so well into the first movie, but that also slows the movie down and makes it trip over it's own feet several times. The Score is solid if a little repetitive and the movie looks great at points.

Now to the bad. This movie is so slow. I'm not going to say boring because that's subjective, but even people who loved the movie can attest to the fact that this movie's pacing is a big problem. What's more is the story pacing which takes it's time inching along until the final act which just breezes by important details leaving anyone besides the core fan base cold and unsatisfied. The editing is horrific and I don't know if I can blame the editor or Nolan's top heavy script which just like the last movie brings in the overly complicated story. The problem with such a convoluted narrative is that in order to get people to know what's going on the audience gets their hand held through scenes as actors have to constantly repeat what we're supposed to take away from the scene, which makes the movie predictable. I knew the ending to every single scene either from knowing the way it mirrored a scene earlier in the trilogy or just the way it's telegraphed. The acting isn't very good either aside from Bane who ironically gets more expressiveness out of his face when it's mostly covered up. All these actors are normally great but they're literally given only one expression. All the characters are one note throughout the whole movie there is no real character progression. The ending is stupid in so many ways i won't get into and this is just an unpleasant experience for anyone who isn't already loving the movie walking in.

Now to hit some personal points I think Nolan is a good director who gets a lot of credit for using a very specific bag of tricks and makes crowd pleaser's that function as thought provoking movies. Much like Tarantino once you see the formula a lot of the magic is gone. Nolan is no David Fincher or Sam Mendes. He doesn't have the teeth to end a movie in a dark way everything always works out in the end and it's frustrating. *****SPOILERS***** The last act is probably more boring because there's no sense of tension. I knew from the beginning no main characters where going to die because Nolan is so soft. If I had to give the last harry potter movies credit they killed off a lot of the main cast so there was a genuine sense of not knowing whose going to make it. Another problem is that this is the most indulgent movie I've seen this year. There is no reason this movie needed to be so long. It pretends to be some great thoughtful movie, but it's not. There are so many themes in this movie that are too obvious or don't come into play into the movies ending. Not to mention the themes in this movie heavily contradict the ones in the previous movies. This is a really dumb movie pretending to be a smart thoughtful one. There are so many moments that are exaggerated to a ridiculous level to be "epic" that made me roll my eyes, this is on a Spiderman 3 level of trilogy ending.

I'm giving this 4 stars because the average movie audience isn't going to care about story structure and not look as deep into it as some cinephiles may. It's a very polarizing movie, but it's really insulting at times and the more I think about it the more I dislike it. I'm really worried that superman might be 3 hours long now.