Movie Review: In the Heart of the Sea

The first thing I want to say is sorry that I am late getting this review out. We have had a very busy week and sick family to take care of. Though that tale isn't too exciting, the true story that was the inspiration for the classic novel Moby Dick definitely was. That is what today's review is on, the movie "In the Heart of the Sea", which is based on that true story.

The movie starts off following author Herman Melville (played by Ben Whishaw) finding his way to the home of a cranky old drunk sailor, Thomas Nickerson (played by Brendon Gleeson) and his wife (played by Michelle Fairley). Thomas is the last remaining survivor from the old whaling ship called the Essex, and Herman wants to hear the true story of the wreck to gather information for a book he is writing. Thomas doesn't want to talk about it, even when Herman says how much he is paying to hear it, but his wife convinces him in the hopes that he if talks about the secrets he is holding on to, he will feel better about himself. Herman hands over the money to Thomas, who then begins his long tale.

The story begins by introducing us to Owen Chase (played by Chris Hemsworth), who is an experienced whaler looking forward to being Captain on his next voyage as promised by his employers. He has dreams of making life better for his wife Peggy (played by Charlotte Riley) and child that is on the way. As he sits down with his employers, he finds out that the Essex ship he was to command will instead be captained by George Pollard (played by Benjamin Walker), as his family are the investors whose money paid for the ship to be built. George is in the hall listening to Owen get upset over this, but he eventually agrees to go on the trip. Even though George's family has had a long history in the boat building business, this will be his first time commanding a ship, and this inexperience as a captain clashes with Owen's vast experience.

The story plot had a good pace and that is always good, and hard, to find for one based on a true story. Even though it doesn't say "Based on a true story", it was taken from the true story of the Essex ship. It made me want to go and read the books and history about that sea monster of a whale.

The acting was great, and more real than most other true story movies that I've seen. I was really wondering what horrors the actors put themselves through to realistically portray their characters. I give good credits to the make-up department in this as well. They made the actors look like they really were going through tough times out to sea.

Overall, I thought that this movie was a great one to watch, and I'd recommend it for anyone that likes a good adventure movie, and even more to those people who love history and/or true stories. For these reasons I would rate this movie 9/10.

Movie Review: Krampus

So this week’s movie is Krampus, which is a Christmas horror movie. Krampus is based on an old German legend about, who else, Krampus, who goes alongside Santa on Christmas to terrorize the naughty kids. It is a forgotten legend that is making its way back into modern culture. This is the kind of movie for people who prefer the scarier Halloween movies, but with a Christmas twist. But anyways, I hope you enjoy my review on Krampus.

The movie starts with a scene of a store during what appears to be Black Friday, where the store clerks are being trampled and the customers are fighting over the things they want to buy. Near the end of this is a Christmas play in the store, where Max (played by Emjay Anthony) and another kid are fighting on the stage while Sarah (played by Toni Collette) and Tom (played by Adam Scott) try to break up the fight, and Beck (played by Stefania LaVie Owen) records it on her phone. It then goes to Beth in her room talking to her boyfriend Derek (played by Leith Towers) over video chat. After talking for a little, Derek pulls out a drug pipe, saying he knows what he's going to do for Christmas, then Beth gets called downstairs.

We meet Omi (played Krista Stadler) baking cookies and other goodies for the Christmas season as the family fights around her. She speaks in German to Max and asks him if he has finished his letter yet. He asks her if she still believes and she says she does. As he works on his letter, Sarah's sister, Linda (played by Allison Tolman) arrives with her husband, Howard (played by David Koechner), and their 3 kids, Stevie (played by Lolo Owen), Jordan (played by Queenie Samuel), and Howie Jr (played by Maverick Flack). Along with the surprise of their Aunt Dorothy (played by Conchata Ferrell), this would be the most eventful Christmas they will ever have.

The story plot of the movie started a little slow, but not too bad. My mother and I both agree that it reminded us of a mash up between Gremlins and Child's Play, just with a Christmas theme to it. I will say I was disappointed at how little Krampus himself was featured in the movie, and when he was finally on screen, he was more like a version of the Ghost of Christmas Future and Santa, but with goat features. I think they could have done a lot more with him, and I hope that if they do sequels, they will fix this. The credits have a voice actor for Krampus, but I just couldn't find a point other than laughter and other noises where he talked. Not that all of this is bad, but it did make it a little more predictable than I would have liked.

The acting wasn't too bad, but it had a feeling of being conflicting of the movie. It seemed that they started to be funny but then stopped part way through. I am not sure if the script is to blame or the directing, but I don't think it was the actors because to have most of them with the same problem just does not seem likely. It was probably very hard on the actors but I think they did well in spite of it.

Overall I think it was a fun movie to go see and get a little pre-Christmas scare, and if you have kids that are being especially bad maybe take them to see this movie, if they are able to. However, for the reasons above I would rate this move 7.3/10

Movie Review: The Good Dinosaur

So for this week's movie I was able to go watch The Good Dinosaur. In the commercials the movie asks "What if the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs missed?". I had a different idea of what might have happened, but I liked this idea as well. But anyways, I hope you enjoy my review of The Good Dinosaur.

The movie starts with a view of the asteroid belt 65 million years ago, and a few of them banging into each other, sending one off into space. As we watch the asteroid hurl its way towards earth, we take a look at dinosaurs peacefully eating away. As flames start to engulf the rock, we watch it miss the earth, and all the dinosaurs look up to watch it fly past. That means the dinosaurs get to live another day.

We then skip ahead a few million years to see Poppa (voiced by Jeffrey Wright) walking through the forest to his home, where he and Momma (voiced by Frances McDormand) have made a farm to live off of. After working hard on planting their crops, it jumps forward a little bit to a point where the crops are very tall. Poppa is working on harvesting the crops when Momma comes over and says that it's time. They walk to their hut where three eggs are about to hatch, and our hero, Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa), is born along with his sister Libby (voiced by Maleah Nipay-Padilla) and brother Buck (voiced by Marcus Scribner).

The story plot was well done, but it had a few elements that felt familiar to other Disney movies, such as the Lion King. A young animal learning his true worth after a devastating accident that killed his father. I'm not saying that it's bad, it's actually a nice, up to date version of one of my favorite movies, with T-Rex Ranchers thrown into the mix as well.

The voice acting was very good for the most part, but I thought that Raymond Ochoah didn't make Arlo sound very scared in some scenes. However, the rest of it was great voice acting on everyones part. I do have to mention though that Sam Elliott as Butch was a huge highlight to this movie. His voice really made the head T-Rex Rancher that much better.

Overall, the story plot had great continuous scenes, and the voice acting was almost always great, but I would have added a few things in place of others. Even though this probably would never have happened in real life, it was a good movie, and I would rate it 8.7/10.