Movie Review: Hotel Transylvania 2

My little sister was so excited when she found out that I was going to review another animated movie. She is currently seven years old, so I thought it would be a good idea to take her along to get her opinion of the movie as well as mine. However, because she is seven, she didn't have much of an opinion to tell me besides "It was awesome!", however I appreciated the thought. But anyways, here's my review of Hotel Transylvania 2.

The movie starts with Johnny (voiced by Andy Samberg) and Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez) on their wedding day, where we get to meet Johnny's human family who join all of the other monsters from the first movie. From there we move to one year later, where Johnny tells Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) that Mavis wants to go on a bat fly with him. After playing around together in the clouds, she tells him that she is pregnant.

The story from here leads to one of Adam Sandlers better works in and on a movie. His child like humor fits the story line of a father trying to hold on to his little girl and grandson. There is so many parts in the story that had both the children and the adults laughing, making it a good movie for the whole family to watch. I also liked how it took the learning of tolerance a step further from the first movie. I would have like to have seen a few more adult moments in the movie but, like I said, it's an Adam Sandler written and performed movie, so I knew it wasn't going to all be there.

As for the voice acting, I think they found the right guys for the job yet again, but that helps when you know the people you are working with well. Actually, I think some of the actors perform better in stuff like this than when they have to do the live action movies. They have such a good use of their voice talents that was hidden until you watch them in an animation like this, where it directs you to the character on screen.

Overall, I, and the many kids at the theater with their parents, enjoyed the movie and had a lot of good laughs with a few touching moments. If they go for a 3rd movie, I would like to see the grown-ups be a little more grown up. For these reasons I would rate it 7.6/10

Movie Review: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

There have been a lot of sequels this summer, and this movie is no exception. The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. What do you do when you go to see yet another sequel? You take your favorite Great Aunt, who never saw the first movie. Grab some of your favorite movie snacks, sit back and enjoy the sequels.

The movie starts with a young boy with his mother telling who we would then know as a younger Thomas to run and not look back. Then it goes to the older Thomas (played by Dylan O'Brien) on the elevator thing from the first movie moving upwards, like he were being sent back into the maze. Thomas then wakes up from this dream/nightmare on a helicopter, being told to get up and move to the building outside. As Thomas runs, he looks back and sees zombie like creatures running towards him, getting shot at by the guards. We later learn that these things are called Cranks.

Thomas is introduced to Janson (played by Aidan Gillen), the person who runs the building, who tells him that he is going to give him proper clothes and shelter. Inside with the other people from the maze, Newt (played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Teresa (played by Kaya Scodelario), Minho (played by Ki Hong Lee), Frypan (played by Dexter Darden) and Winston (played by Alexander Flores), they soon meet other people their age, who are from other mazes, in a cafeteria. One of these other maze runners, Aris Jones (played by Jacob Lofland), who has been in a maze the longest, and one with mostly girls at that, sitting at a far table by himself.

The story plot was filled with action and suspense and it kept the audience on their toes. Some of the situations they got in, such as how they were going to get out of a tough spot, kept a fast pace for the movie. However, there were a few holes in the plot that had my Great Aunt and maybe some others in the theater thinking "Why did they do that?"  This made it hard to follow sometimes but the fast pace helped to not lose the audience completely.

The acting for the most part was really well done. For example, Dylan O'Brian really brought his character to life by showing the realism that lots of people would do and the natural curiosity his character had. However, some actors were a little flat and I think they could have done more with what they had to work with. My main thought here is Rosa Salazar who plays Brenda, who you get introduced to later on in the movie.

Overall I would rate this movie 8.0/10 for good story plot, even with the holes, and for mostly good acting in their parts.

Also, sorry for getting this review out so late. I was in a car accident and I couldn't focus on the blog for a little bit. But i'm fine and got back on track to finish. Also, I will need some older classic movies to review to further expand my movie knowledge and help me out on my reviews. Comment down below the movies you want me to review and I will try and make time to review them. Thanks!

Movie Review: A Walk in the Woods

I had a choice this week of watching a horror movie with my brother or watching a movie with my cool Aunt. I chose my Aunt and so now I get to review the movie A Walk in the Woods which is a comedy/adventure type movie that's based off of the book, also titled A Walk in the Woods. Maybe next time I can review a scary movie. But for now, enjoy the review on A Walk in the Woods

The movie begins with Bill Bryson (played by Robert Redford) in an interview on TV, talking about the books that he wrote while on his travels around the world. After the interview, Bryson and his wife, Catherine Bryson, (played by Emma Thompson) go to a funeral in which Bryson says something that probably made the situation a little more awkward (which you will see in the trailer below). Afterwards, they go home and Bryson says to Catherine that he's going to go on a walk. He comes across a sign for the Appalachian Trail and, in his mini life crisis, decides that he is going to hike it.

At night, Bryson is setting up a tent in his backyard when he is interrupted by Catherine. She asks him what he's doing, and Bryson explains that it's his pup tent that he took on all his travels. The tent collapses, and Catherine says that it is the perfect place for him to sleep that night. The next day, he looks up all the info and Catherine makes him go on a hunt to find a friend to go with him. After a long search he ends up with Stephen Katz, (played by Nick Nolte) and this is the start to many funny events. 

This movie is filled with highly acclaimed actors with a string of awards and nominations, so I expected great things from them. They did not disappoint. The acting was great and really brought the characters to life. I almost felt like I was going on this adventure with them. Paul Newman was supposed to play Katz, but unfortunately he was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. However, Nick Nolte was a great second choice for Katz and his personal brand of crazy really made me enjoy this movie a lot more. 

The story was good but I will say it moved a little slow at first. It does have a purpose to moving slow in the beginning; to show why Bryson would attempt to take on this challenge. It had a great climax and really good resolve to the whole event. I liked the personal conflict between the two main characters that got better as it went on, creating interest and keeping a great pace to the rest of the movie. I would tell you my favorite part of the movie, but it would be too revealing.

Overall I would rate this movie 8.1/10 for great acting and story, and for some good laughs as well. I would have rated it higher, but there was a bit of foul language in the movie.

Movie Review: The Transporter: Refueled

I like to play Role Playing games with my brothers. We take on different roles within the group but everyone does their own stuff. This is true for anything is life, everyone has their own role or job that they are good at, but what happens if your role leads you down a dark path? The Transporter: Refueled is based on a guy who has the role of transportation in the criminal world. I’ve heard that this is a reboot from a movie that first came out in 2002 but this is technically a sequel to the first three movies. But anyways, I hope you enjoy the review.

The movie starts off in a flashback to 1995 in front of a club in the French Rivera with a group of girls (prostitutes) out front and some guys (pimps) looking over them, when some cars pull up. A man walks out of one off the vehicles and one of the pimps says that they're working. The man from the car, Arkady Karasov (played by Radivoje Bukvic) says so are we, and two other men get out and start shooting the pimps, killing all the men but one who runs away. Karasov whistles and lots of women get out of the vans and one of them named Anna (played by Loan Chabanol) stands in front of Karasov, petrified by what she just saw. Karasov notices one of the prostitutes are still there, and offers to hire her. Maissa (played by Noémie Lenoir) accepts the offering and rides off with him, leaving Anna in front of the club on the verge of tears.

The movie then moves to 15 years later (2010) where Anna is sitting in a fancy restaurant when she gets a phone call and says that the plan is in motion. Frank Martin (played by Ed Skrein) notices six guys trying to steal his car. Frank opens the front doors with his phone, knocking two guys to the ground, alerting them all to him. One of them tells Frank to give him the keys, but Frank refuses. The six men then proceed to attack Frank until he gives up the keys, but Frank wins, noticing that he's going to be late. As he drives off, he looks at his watch and notices that he's late. Frank arrives at his dad's house as his dad, Martin Sr. (played by Ray Stevenson) walks out. Martin Sr. gets in the car saying that Franks late, then they drive off.

As the movie progresses, the fighting scenes get just a little more repetitive, but they still had lots of action in them. The plot changes slightly every now and then, but stays relatively the same throughout the movie. Everything was great and very well done in their part, but I would have maybe wanted more realism in the movie, even though they probably didn't intend for the movie to be too realistic.

I think the acting was good for what the actors had to work with. The plot and script being what it is didn't give them too much they could work with. But overall I thought the acting was good, even though they probably had a tough time doing so.

I would rate this movie 6.7/10 for giving some decent action scenes and good acting but not quite as good plot and scripting.

Do you like the new font? Comment down below and tell me your thoughts on whether I should keep using it or not. Also, if you can't read the font, which by the way is called Cooper Black, I will post this again using a different font. Thanks!