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Reviews
Us (2019)
Above average popcorn flick
If you don't mind a lil comedy mixed into your horror, this movie does the job in that aspect. The resolution isn't mind bending but does take some thought process to put together and for you the viewer to imagine the rest which seems to be a big no, no these days hence why this movie is getting bad reviews. People just don't like to think for themselves.
One negative though is there's definitely one or two plot holes if you really start to think about all the info given to you at the end.
Death Note (2017)
Does the anime/manga no justice!
When I go into a movie that's a remake/reboot to something, I expect change in some places sure especially if the source comes from another country, but there's certain way that make sense and certain that don't. In my opinion the core main personality traits of a character should stay intact and then you change the events they get themselves involved in to show us a different perspective or way the story could have gone. In this remake though they completely destroyed the core tenants of the five main characters, Light, L, Misa (Mia in this version) Ryuuk, and Light's father.
Light in this version is a good two shoes wuss. He gets bullied giving him the slight motivation to try the death note when he finds it but a lot of Light's early decisions are made by him, rather he is easily peer pressured into using the book by Ryuuk and Mia. Light in the original would never have given into peer pressure and he himself made the decision to try it before ever even meeting Ryuuk. Light for as evil as he may have become never wavered in his actions unlike this Light who just seems along for the ride at some points.
Speaking of Ryuuk he might be the most butchered character and yet having said that, he is probably the best part of this movie. I liked the special effects they used for him and some of his lines but he basically is the antagonist of this movie. Where in the original Ryuuk was mainly a neutral party who just enjoyed the show and never helped anyone, here he is desperate for people to use the book.
Misa or Mia as I said she is called in this movie is way more intelligent and hardened then in the original. She is actually painted out to be the more evil of the duo even trying to one up light and steal the book from him at one point.
L is quite the travesty in this version. No longer is he the calm, collected and intelligent detective that he was, Now he gives in easily to his emotions and was even willing to kill Light at one point and it's hinted that he just might have stayed the end of the movie. This is such a slap in the face to people who liked the character of L.
Finally Lights dad can almost be considered a worthy enough American version of the character if it wasn't for at the very end when he finds out that his own son is Kira, it's hinted that he might view Light as the lesser of two evils and let him run free and continue doing his thing.
All in all, this movie gets a 5 out of 10 for some moments it had and the special effects when it came to the gore and Ryuuk were nice but the butchering of these characters just cannot be forgiven!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
Spoilers will be at end of review, real turtles fans please read this review.
Ugh stupid character limitations. This review has Been shrunk down to why people hate the movie and what fans should look forward to.
Personally I think people are hating on this cause of one or more of these reasons.
1. People are expecting a movie that is going to blow them away.
2. People want a movie of the 80's/90's cartoon series because some fans only know the turtles through that.
3. They are your typical Internet hater who will hate anything Michael bay.
The movie caters to fans and introduces the concepts of the story to any new fans in a great way. Time for spoilers!
First thing's first, the stuff they changed. The origins story was changed but in my opinion it was for the better in terms of adding realism (assuming your already accepting the fact that there's a chemical that mutates animals). In the original splinter learns how to fight by imitating his master/owner, moves to New York with his owner to only find himself in the sewers after his owner is brutally murdered at the hands of oroku saki where he meets the turtles after an accident involving a boy carrying said turtles home in a fish bowl almost gets hit by a truck which drops the mutagen into the sewer. Not only is that pretty far fetched with a rat learning to fight by watching his master BEFORE being mutated but then pretty coincidental with everyone being in the right place and right time when the famous accident happens. In this movie the turtles and splinter were being used as experiments for the mutagen and due to a lab fire, had to be saved by April who is the daughter of a scientist working at the lab, and dropped off in the sewer where they begin to mutate and splinter finds a book on ninjutsu teaching himself and then the turtles. Much more believable in my opinion.
Another thing they change is Karai's back story. It's cool that she finally appears in a live action film but she basically played tatsu's role from the first two ninja turtle movies where she is basically the general of the foot clan. Her back story where she was adopted by oroku saki as a young girl and trained to fight and obey the shredder is transferred to a new character.
The foot solder in this movie were not foot solders. They looked like your generic body guards in action movies that are there just to get their ass kicked.
Vern is way different then in the old cartoon. He is actually a nice guy in the movie and pretty funny. Also shredders gear has been heavily updated but I will get back to that in a sec.
Anyways that's all the major changes to the original story, now all the stuff they got right and threw in for fans?
Shredder's outfit is IMO based on the 2003 series shredder where he was more technologically advanced. The movie exaggerates it a bit but I think he ended up looking pretty cool.
A lot of similarities in not only story, but also in quotes and shots to the first one. Some examples would be when April is attacked by the foot in the subway and when a pizza is being sliced in the air by Leo for the family and a slice happens to fall on splinters head.
When the turtles and April first meet, Raphael uses the chain weapon his night rider persona used in the fourth movie.
An utrom can be seen in an ancient painting of a battle in Japan. Fans of the 2003 series will know this is actually shredder who is an utrom that has been around for centuries. The word Kappa can also be seen on a scroll.
The turtle van is in the movie!
The turtles lair is awfully similar to the fourth movie's lair and the 2003 series lair.
They totally nailed the turtle's personalities. Mikey still cracks jokes with perfect timing and they are actually funny, Raphael is still a hard ass, Leo is your bland leader (IMO probably the worst of the four in this movie) and they nerdy Donatello. When I say they nailed this down, I mean perfectly albeit a bit subtle. Hardcore fans know that Mikey and Ralph share a special bond they don't with their brothers. Mikey loves to prank and mess with Raphael because he is so serious and Raphael is a hard ads on mike so that he can be more serious. Well in the movie, there's some Japanese symbols on Raphael's shell the whole movie that apparently say Mikey was here. Mikey wrote that in Japanese so that Raphael would never be able to read it and know. Meanwhile Raphael is seen being a grump to Mikey in the movie at times. There's also another part where Donatello for once is the bad ass of the group and saves the day. After the moment has passed Donatello has 5 seconds to himself where he chuckles all nerd like to himself proud of what he did. Moments like that is what made me enjoy this movie.
Of course cowabunga is thrown in there and the concept of family and teamwork was there. The rivalry between Leo and Ralph could have been touché on a bit more but it was there just not front and center like in the first and fourth movie. What the movie didn't have however though was Casey Jones who will hopefully show up in the sequel.
All I can say is, if your a true fan but haven't seen this latest movie, your doing yourself an injustice by not seeing it.
Trailer Park Boys: Live in F**kin' Dublin (2014)
Better then I thought!
I've been on this site for years but only to read trivia facts about my favorite shows and movies and to see what reviews they got from users on the site. I been on a trailer park boys binge since a friend told me about it and I have watched everything related to the series and when I looked up a review for the latest trailer park boys special, Live in Dublin, I was shocked to see only one review and not a very good one at that!
Lets get one thing straight here, if your coming into this thinking it's going to be like another episode of the show or a feature length movie, your very mistaken. There is an opening and closing skit that will seem like they were pulled from a trailer park boys episode but that's about it. The rest takes place on a stage where the gang perform improv comedy in character and even play a few tunes. The review I read said that the actors were not in character but I would like to disagree.
Without ruining the moments of the show, there's plenty of callbacks to people and running gags from the show. Since its all a live performance and mile smith (a.k.a. Bubbles) is an accomplished musician, he even performs a few songs. Some are created for this show but if you know what the character of bubbles is all about, the songs will garner some laughs and you will see how in character he still is. There's even some covers of his favorite band performed by Bubbles himself. They even get the crowd involved and their interactions with the crowd are again things I could see Bubbles, Ricky, and Julian doing.
Can't really say much else without ruining this very entertaining special except i wish i could have gone to see it live! For those who are big fans of TPB and can ignore that the guys are out of their normal element, give this a chance and you won't be disappointed!