Flight(2012)

"Can a man who saves lives, save his own"


THE PLOT:

An airline pilot saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunctions reveals something troubling.




MY THOUGHT:

I'm getting around to seeing the Oscar nominated films for this year now, and Flight is the second one I've seen so far(Django Unchained was the first, even though the nominations weren't announced at the time). I might say that I was very impressed with this movie from the opening scene with Whip Whitaker(Washington) and Trina (Nadine Velazquez) who are in a hotel room drinking, smoking, and doing drugs, this scene basically sets the landscape for what this movie is going to be like.

After a few minutes of this Washington exits the room in full Pilot mode in his uniform and a smile on his face, he arrives at the airport on a rainy but typical morning and his ready to fly, even though he's flying high already. he is greeted by stewardess one of which is Trina, he enters the cockpit and greets his young co pilot Ken (Brain Geraghy) they begin to get ready for takeoff after some awkwardness from Whitaker towards Ken.

The crew and all of the passengers are ready for take off, as the plane takes off they are met by trouble weather that helps set in motion one of the best sequences in recent movie history, after making their way threw the bad weather the plane begins to have trouble and goes into a dive, as Ken panics, Whip stays calm   as everyone around him loses their cool, as he does some death defying things with a 747 airliner, namely flying the playing inverted for a while in order to help make it into a glider.

Whip is knocked out as the plane crash lands in a field near a church, he wakes up days later to find out that from his friend Charlie (Bruce Greenwood) that of the 102 people on the plane 6 of them died one of them being Trina, who helped saved a little boy when the plane was inverted.

Whip is shaken by this news, and he is looked at by the media and public as a hero for being able to do what he did, but with that heroic act comes an investigation into what really happened. Was it just a Malfunction that caused the crash or was it human error?

One thing I really enjoyed about this movie is the different themes and motifs that play threw out the movie, as we go on this journey with Whitaker who has a lot of personal demons that slowly are shown, and his road to redemption is one that most people can relate too.

Denzel Washington is very much so deserving of his Best Actor nomination as the anti hero pilot Whip Whitaker, he plays him like an actually person who needs help but doesn't want it and will fight you to say in his drug and alcoholic state of life even after going threw what some in the movie/real life as an act of god.




The supporting characters are played very well and placed around him to help him on to the right path and also keep on his self destruction path

1. Kelly Reilly(Nicole)

 

She's a recovering drug addict who overdoses and meets Whitaker at the hospital, and wants to help he get sober after her own act of god or moment of clarity.

2. John Goodman (Harling)



He is Whitaker's good friend who will help him in anyway he can regardless if its the right thing or wrong thing to do.


3. Bruce Greenwood (Charlie)



He is a old friend and now co worker who works for the airline that is being investigated about the doomed flight.

4. Don Cheadle (Hugh)



He is a Lawyer who is brought in to defend Whitaker from being the blame for the crash and to prove it was equipment malfunctions or whatever else he can say is the blame.

5. Brian Geraghy (Ken)



He is the nervous young co pilot who believes that even thought Whitaker was drunk don't believe that anybody else could've did what he did to land the plane and prays with Whitaker for him and everything to turn out good in the end.

6. Tamara Tunie (Margaret)



She is a long time co workers and friend, who knows of Whitaker's personal problems but wouldn't do anything to bring him down.

7. Nadine Velazquez (Trina)



She is Whitaker's girlfriend who he was with the night before the crash drinking and smoking with all night, and dies in the crash, her death plays a big role in Whitaker's road to redemption



FINAL THOUGHTS

If you're someone who likes true to life movies, this is the movie for you, very well acted with stand out performances from Denzel Washington of course, and Kelly Reilly who i would like to see more of and hopefully with this movie we will.

For this to have been Robert Zemeckis first live action movie in a number of years it doesn't seem like he has forgotten anything and it'll be good to see more live action features from him as well.

I recommend seeing this movie to everyone. Rent or Buy it Stream it if you must as long as you see it.


MY RATING

8/10

Total Recall (2012)

Total Recall


"What is real?"

THE PLOT

Factory worker Douglas Quaid finds himself looking for a little more out of life after having the same dream about a beautiful woman(Jessica Biel) he decides to go to Rekall a place that allows people to live out their fantasies. Quaid's friend and co worker Harry(Bokeem Woodbine) does his best to talk him out of going, but he goes to Rekall anyway and the lines between what's real and what's not begin to blur when Quaid finds himself involved in something bigger then he could've ever imagined.


MY THOUGHTS:

When I first heard rumors of talks of one of my favorite movies Total Recall was being remade back in 2009, I was very disappointed to say the less, because I couldn't understand why Hollywood was wanted too remake this movie, because too me and fans of Paul Verhoevon 1990 sci fi action flick starring Arnold Schwarzengger thought there was nothing that they could do that would make it better, because like countless other remakes of original movies, the original movie already got it right.

After countless and worthless debates I've had about why I liked the original Total Recall movie and my opinion on that would never change just because Len Wiseman (Underworld Movies) directed and stars Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale wasn't going to change my mind either.

I finally got tired of having this debate about which was better and sat down and watched the new Total Recall and I tired my hardest to give this movie a chance but right from the opening I knew this movie was not going to prove me wrong like others felt it would.

My biggest problem with this version of Total Recall is that it doesn't create a world of its own that feels just as much like a character in the original did, I mean we're given some backstory about the future that this is supposed to be but there really is no depth too it nor to the story or the characters themselves


CAST

Colin Farrell-Douglas Quaid/Carl Hauser


Most people felt like what was going to make this movie better then the original is the fact that there was going to be a real actor and not a bodybuilder in the role, I'm sorry but Arnold was more believable 20 years ago in this role then Farrell who felt like he was just going threw the motions and never felt he was in any real danger because I knew he was going to get out of his situation no matter how tough they tried to make it seem for him.


Jessica Biel- Melina


When I see Jessica Biel, the first thing I think of is she's exotic....what? that's Jessica Biel there's nothing about her that's exotic, btw dying her hair dark doesn't count either. the character is supposed to be exotic and complete opposite to Quaid's wife, instead she could've easily been his wife because there really wasn't anything special about Biel's Melina. could've been the fact that there really didn't seem to have been any chemistry between Biel and Farrell that caused this I don't know but she was very bland in this movie and I'm a Jessica Biel fan so it hurts to have to look at her in a negative light. Maybe someone who has more of that exotic sultry type could've played this part some one like I don't know....





Kate Beckinsale-Lori


I have mixed feelings with Kate Beckinsale's role one the one hand she to me gives the best performance in the movie as the wife/ killer agent trying to kill Quaid/Hauser by any means. she seems to be the only one who actually knows what her role is and she kicks major ass and looks damn good at doing it, on the other hand I didn't like the fact that they decided to make her character a composite of Sharon Stone and Michael Ironside characters from the original, because that whole situation was better played then this time around.


Bokeem Woodbine- Harry


I didn't have to much of a problem with him other then they could've made his Harry into the Michael Ironside character that is hunting Quaid and Melina threw out the movie and had something of a relationship with Lori but maybe that would've been to much I suppose.

Bryan Cranston- Cohaagen


Its always good to see Bryan "Walter White" Cranston in anything lately because of how good he is on Breaking Bad, but with that said to me it felt like Cranston kinda mailed this role in because he was either still filming some of Breaking Bad or working on Argo I don't know but in this he really didn't seem like an evil dictator and things go his way or else and we know he can do that check him out on Breaking Bad when he goes Heisenberg on somebody.

All in all this movie shouldn't have been made because the original movie got some much of the themes and social commentary right but i guess now days its not good to make movies that hit to close to home otherwise its considered controversial somehow.

Even though this movie has some of the same plot elements of the original movie they could've called this movie something else but instead they wanted to cash in on the success of the original and thought that by having some I Robot storm trooper type foot soldiers and more "Modern Technology" was gonna make it better In my opinion you we're wrong.

If your someone who don't like nor have seen the older movies this is for you but when I think of Total Recall, I'll think "Get your ass to mars" Arnold, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, the three breasted woman and countless other classic elements from that movie while the 2012 update will be like a bad dream that I can't wait to forget.

MY Rating 6/10

Django Unchained (2012)

Django Unchained


"Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Vengeance"


THE PLOT:
Django (Jamie Foxx) is a slave that is giving his freedom by former dentist turned bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz( Christoph Waltz) who turns Django into a bounty hunter and the two men track down Calvin Candie(Leonardo DiCaprio), who bought Django's wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington)

MY THOUGHTS

Quentin Tarantino does it again with Django Unchained arguably one of 2012's best if not best movie of the year, even with its too most sensitive subject matter of Slavery,Tarantino does a excellent job of telling a love story that crosses genres (Western,Action,Drama, Comedy, Spaghetti Western, Blaxploitation). effortlessly.

Django Unchained is an adventure that doesn't miss a beat not once even though clocking in at 2hr 45min. and its worth every minute, as the audience goes along on the journey with Django and Dr. King Schultz in slave nation AKA The South trying to find Broomhilda.

Tarantino might have said to his audience in 2009's Inglourious Basterds that "I believe this might just be my masterpiece" but Django Unchained is his masterpiece by far. top notch performances from the stars and the way down the list, which is rare in most movies.

THE CAST

Jamie Foxx- Django

Jamie Foxx turns in his second best performance of his career as Django, by showing that he can be a great actor when giving the chance to do so, he also uses his own horse Cheetah in the movie, hopefully he will do more movies that challenge him like this instead of what he mostly did after Ray and Collateral.

Christoph Waltz- Dr. King Schultz


Waltz is brilliant in Inglourious Basterds but his performance here trumps that movie with his little subtle ways, the man was born to be a part of Tarantino's stock actors who seems to don't even try when it comes to acting. He should get high reward for this performance.


Leonardo DiCaprio- Calvin Candie

  

Of everyone in this movie I was looking most forward to seeing him play a slave owner in a Tarantino movie, which he does perfectly, yes I hated Calvin Candie, but liked Leonardo DiCaprio's performance because he showed that he could go from this.

TO

TO


In the blink of an eye without missing a beat, I just want to say I don't know what else he has to do at this point after turning in some award worthy performances but he more then deserves to be nominated and win an oscar for this movie.

Kerry Washington- Broomhilda

Kerry Washington used to just be one of my favorite black actresses but after seeing how she is on ABC's Scandal and what she did in this movie she's shot up to my number 1 actress, I don't think any other black actress would've been able to handle what she was put thru and willing to let them put her thru for this movie.

Samuel L. Jackson- Stephen


He himself said in a interview that he will be the most hated man in the movie, some might think how so when its about slavery well since his Stephen is the Uncle Tom of the movie, yes he could be the most hated man but Samuel L. Jackson is good at getting that hate

Walton Goggins- Billy Crash


Anybody who's a fan of The Shield or Justified knows how good of an actor he is, and it was good to see him in a movie big movie like this, and after seeing him in this, I can say that I see him being this generations Warren Oates( if you don't know the name look him up and you'll see what I mean"

Don Johnson- Spencer "Big Daddy" Bennett


Don Johnson yes Miami Vice guy is in this movie and does a great job in his small but important part, Tarantino has always been good at breathing new life into once great actors careers (John Travolta, David Carradine) we shall see if the same is done for Don

Franco Nero-The Original Django


It was a cool thing to have him in the movie as a homage to the Django movies he did in the past and to have him actually interact with Jamie's Django was a nice added too.

All in All Django Unchained is a really good movie that I think would relate to everyone today. Does it have a sensitive subject matter? yes when dealing with Slavery of course its not nice but it happened just like a lot of other nasty things happened thru out the course of history.

Is there alot of use of the N word by white characters? yes, once again its 1858 during slavery time I wouldn't expect the word not to be tossed around as much as it was in the movie, if it hadn't been I think that would've been worse then what most people who think it was used to much thought.

So I highly Recommend this movie because you should be left with after seeing the movie, with great storytelling, acting, casting, cameos, action, comedy. and remember Its D-J-A-N-G-O.....




The D Is Silent


MY RATING: 10/10

The Day (2012)

The Day


"Fight. Or Die"

THE PLOT

The Day is a Canadian made post apocalyptic movie about 5 people who are traveling on the back roads (its never explained where exactly they are or where they are going) on their journey they find themselves at an abandoned farmhouse, at first they believe it to be a safe haven but soon find out that its not what they were hoping it to be when one of them is killed.

The 4 remaining quickly realize the farmhouse is used as a trapping house by a group of cannibals who control the sounding area  and kill any and everyone who enters their territory and trap house, the 4 survivors do their best to fight off the cannibal clan but they are limited on resources as more of the clan converge on the farmhouse then what they can handle.


MY THOUGHTS

When I saw the preview for this movie I was interested in seeing this because I'm a fan of these type of movies and a little surprised to see that it was distributed by the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) but I didn't let that stop me from checking it out.

The movie starts off interesting enough we are introduced to the 5 main characters

Rick-Dominic Monaghen


Adam- Shawn Ashmore


Mary- Ashley Bell


Shannon- Shannyn Sossamon


Henson- Cory Hardrict



I didn't like that one of them is killed off very early in the movie, because we don't get to know much about any of them except for one flashback for one character and when some of them are talking but other then that there is never really anything that made me feel any real connection with any of them.

The Cannibals are almost laughable at best because we never get a reason for what happened to cause why the world went to hell in the first place and weather or not the cannibals are the ones who did it or if they just sprung up after everything went bad.

For the most part the acting is very uneven with probably the best performance coming from Ashley Bell who really needs to be in bigger and better movies since she is a very underrated actress who deserves better, she's a badass in this movie and can handle the physical stuff.

The movie is only 87 minutes (1h 27min) but should've been longer which would've helped fresh out characters and backstory, I don't know to much about the filmmakers but I noticed alot of homages to Night Of The Living Dead, The Road Warrior, Stake Land, and a few other movies that are similar in theme.

All in all I was let down more then I expected by The Day(Expectations were already very low) with the uneven acting, Story didn't make much sense, the action was decent but could've been alot better, really getting tired of the extreme close up fight scenes where you only see the characters and not much around them to give them room to move around.

This is my first review that I've done for a movie that I don't highly recommend especially if you seen the preview for The Day and was thinking it was going to be heavy action its not.

My Rating 5/10

My Must See Movies Of 2013

2012 looks to be ending on a strong note with some really good must see movies hitting the big screen but where those movies are ending a good year for movies, 2013 could be even better with a wide range of movies hitting the big screen.

I had to narrow my list down to only 5, even though there are more that I want to see in 2013 but these are the top of that list

 World War Z(2013

A U.N. employee (Brad Pitt) is racing against time and fate, as he travels the world trying to stop the outbreak of a deadly Zombie pandemic.

Even though this movie has been pushed back a few times with countless reshoots. I'm still very much interested in this, for one I like zombies doesn't matter if their the traditional slow walking Romero style or the fast pace 28 days later rage infected type that seems to be in this movie. it looks like its going to be a zombie movie that's put on a big scale and hopefully bring back an interest to not only zombies on the big screen but also horror overall.

Starring 

Brad Pitt- Gerry Lane

World War Z Trailer

.Iron Man 3

Tony Stark uses his ingenuity to fight those who destroyed his private world and soon goes up against his most powerful enemy yet... The Mandarin

Iron Man 3 looks to pick up a little after The Avengers since Tony Stark seems to be still feeling the after effects of New York and saving the world , but as he's going thru his recovery process a new villian has emerged and wants to destroy everything that he can.

I enjoy all the Iron Man/The Avenger movies but the main reason I want to see this one is because Ben Kingsley is playing the villain and for anybody who knows what The Mandarin is all about knows it kinda ironic that the same guy who played Gandi is playing this character.

Starring 

Robert Downey, Jr.- Tony Stark/Iron Man

Gwyneth Paltrow- Pepper Potts

Guy Pearce-Adrich Killian

Don Cheadle James Rhodes/ War Machine

Ben Kingsley- The Mandarin

Iron Man 3 Trailer

 Pacific Rim-July 12,2013

When an alien attack threatens the Earth existence, giant robots piloted by humans are deployed to fight off the menace.

Now this movie could go one of two ways since its kinda taking a old Godzilla type of premise and reworking it into something new, which I hope is a success because I like the concept, hopefully others will too. The cast more so then the movie itself has me interested because there seems to be a good blend of talents here.

Idris Elba- Stacker Pentecost

Charlie Hunnam-Raleigh Becket

Rinko Kikuchi-Mako Mori

Charlie Day-Dr. Newton Geiszler 

Ron Perlman- Hannibal Chau

Pacific Rim Trailer

 Snitch- February 22,2013

A father goes undercover for the DEA in order to free his son who was imprisoned after being set up in a drug deal

Dwayne Johnson is doing a really good job of becoming an action star and Snitch seems like another movie that will help put his name in the same circles as Schwarzengger, Willis, Stallone, Van Damme, pretty much all of the guys from The Expendable movies

Dwayne Johnson

Jon Bernthal 

Susan Sarandon

Michael K. Williams

Benjamin Bratt-

Snitch Trailer

 The Gangster Squad - January 11,2013

An LAPD task force is put together to bring down notorious gangster Mickey Cohen

Gangster Squad is a movie that was supposed to be released in 2012 but was pushed back to a 2013 release date because of the aftermath of the movie theater shooting that took place and because there was a similar scene in this movie, reshoots were done to remove that scene .

This one almost seems like The Untouchables because of a few likeness to that movie which isn't a bad thing from what i've seen so far in trailers, top grade casting and its a gangster movie showing how those types were back in the day.

Ryan Gosling- Sgt Jerry Wooters

Josh Brolin- Sgt John O'Mara

Emma Stone-Grace Faraday

Sean Penn-Mickey Cohen

Nick Nolte-Chief Parker

Gangster Squad Trailer

Man Of Steel-June 14,,2013

Of all the big movies that I'm looking forward too, Man Of Steel is at the top of the list because even though its about Superman which has been done countless times on the big and small screen this is the first time the story will be told like this, which seems to be more reality based then what we've gotten in the past.

Henry Cavill-Clark Kent/Superman

Amy Adams- Lois Lane

Michael Shannon-General Zod

Kevin Costner- Jonathan Kent

Diane Lane- Martha Kent

Russell Crowe- Jor-El

Man Of Steel Teaser Trailer

Man Of Steel Official Trailer