Movie Review: The Huntsman: Winters War

My sister is a huge fan of the movie Frozen. Nothing against the movie, but when you watch it over and over again it gets a little on the annoying side. So when I saw this week’s movie had its own version of an ice queen, I was interested to see a different point of view on this character. The Huntsman: Winters War had one bonus to it right away, no "catchy" songs that would get on my nerves after a while.

The movie starts with a narration on how you know the Snow White story from the other movie, Snow White and the Huntsman, but there was a story before. It then goes on to tell us how the story began with the tale of two sisters, Ravenna (played by Charlize Theron) and Freya (played by Emily Blunt). Freya had fallen in love with a man and is carrying his baby happily, until her sister informs her that she knows while playing chess. After the chess game, Freya and the man make a plan on leaving together. On the night of their planned departure, she sees a fire coming from the tower where her child is. She runs up there to find her love having burned her child saying he had no choice. Freya gets sad and angry, giving her the power to freeze everything around her, starting with the man she once loved. 

To get away from the memories and have a kingdom of her own, Freya leaves and goes to the northern country, turning it to a frozen wasteland. She takes children from their homes to her castle where she tells them that they are now free. There is only one rule, they are never to love, as it is a weakness. She calls them her huntsmen and starts their training. We watch as a young boy, Eric, and a young girl, Sara, grow into a well trained man and woman (played by Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain, respectively). They secretly fall in love with each other, however Freya finds out with an owl made from her ice.

The plot and story line of this movie seems to be a little bit all over the place. You think it will be a movie about the war between the sisters, but then you find that it's the people against one of them, but then against both of them and then them against each other. If that sentence seems confusing to you then you understand how watching the movie felt. There was so much back story they were trying to put into it that they could not find a focus. The visuals were stunning though, and I think that made watching the movie a little easier.

The other thing that made the movie easier to watch was Chris Hemsworth's portrayal as the Huntsman. He was relaxed into the character and brought us great chemistry in his interactions with Jessica Chastain. He had good banter with the other characters he traveled with and that made the mixed up story line bearable. The chill in the acting from Emily Blunt, who is usually on point, just made us all cold to her character. Charlize Theron's over acting had me thinking that she was just there for the paycheck and not to make a good movie.

I would rate this movie 7.6/10 based on the good visuals and enjoyable performance by Chris, but the story not making too much sense. I would have made a joke about putting "Let it Go" into the movie, but that song was the part that made Frozen so annoying.

Movie Review: The Jungle Book (2016)

This has been a challenging post to write this past week. There was a small fire in the kitchen at home and then the next day a large fire on the family property that was pretty scary. I find it ironic that it should happen during the same week as when I am writing a review about the Jungle Book, which fire plays a big part in.

The movie starts out with the Disney castle, as all Disney movies do, but then it transforms into a jungle setting in India where soon see Mowgli (played by Neel Sethi) running through the trees. It looks like he is running from something and then we see glimpses of wolves running around him. Just as we think he might get away a tree branch breaks under him and he is pounced on by a Black Panther. We soon discover that this is Bagheera (voiced by Ben Kingsley) and he is training the wolf cubs and Mowgli to survive in the jungle. He gets upset with Mowgli for going into the trees instead of staying low to the ground like a wolf.


They head back to the wolf den and we meet the wolf pups and their mother, Raksha (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o). After Mowgli talks with them, Akela (voiced by Giancarlo Esposito) calls the grown wolves together and do the wolf motto. It then goes to a porcupine claiming rocks and sticks until it finds a huge rock called peace rock, which alerts a bird that informs everyone about it. All the animals go to peace rock for water, and Mowgli throws something to get himself water, startling the other animals. Bagheera has Mowgli dump it back in the rest of the water, telling him not to use his "tricks", because it's not the wolf way. All the animals then get scared when Shere Khan (voiced by Idris Elba) arrives for water, then he smells Mowgli and threatens the wolves that Mowgli will destroy the jungle unless they give Mowgli to him. The wolves refuse to give him up, and Shere Khan tells them that they have to give Mowgli to him by the time peace rock gets covered or he will take Mowgli by force.

This was a great movie to watch. I really enjoy the 1967 original movie from Disney, so it made me interested to see what they would do with this one. They kept a lot of the elements from the animated movie but brought in more from the book than before. It made the movie more interesting and terrifying. What I really found incredible was the computer animation. I have read many people talking about the live animals used, but in fact they were all computer animated. Jim Henson productions came in with puppets for the new young actor Neel to work with, but he is the only live actor in the movie. Even more impressive is how the entire movie was filmed in a green screen studio. This movie truly shows how amazing computer animation has become over the years. There were a couple of continuity errors but really they are are a drop in the bucket to all the hours of work put into making this production.

Take the great computer animation and add in first time child actor Neel Sethi, who did an amazing job and you have a hit. As mentioned he acted with just puppets to play off of and some live movements from the voice actors. With this as his first movie credit to his name I am sure we will be seeing great things from him. However, having some of Hollywood's great actors there to voice the animals probably made for some great learning experience for him. All of the actors were spot on in the voicing of the characters. Turning Kaa into a woman and having her voiced by Scarlett Johansson was a brilliant move. Ben Kingsley and Bill Murray killed it as Bagheera and Baloo, respectively, however my favorite pairing of voice actor to character is Christopher Walken for King Louie. His strong personality was the perfect choice for the larger than life gigantopithecus, a great and accurate replacement to the original orangutan.

This is probably one of the best family films I have watched doing this blog. Disney hit it out of the park with this remake. Only because of the continuity errors do I rate this movie 9.8/10. This is a must see for the entire family.

Movie Review: Batman v Superman

This is the end of my month long celebration for writing this blog for a year. It has been an emotional time with the passing of my Aunt and some other family tragedies, but it has had good times like the big party celebration on March 18. It seems fitting that my final blog post of this month should be a movie that is expected to be as exciting as some of this month was.

The movie starts with a back and forth flashback scene of the young Bruce Wayne (played by Brandon Spink) and the death of his parents, and when he was at the funeral of them. It ends with a cut scene to his mothers grave marker with her name on it, Martha Wayne.
 
It then goes to Bruce Wayne (played by Ben Affleck) doing a narration of thought as we watch a battle scene between Superman (played by Henry Cavill) and Zod. Bruce watches a building filled with people collapse, then walks through the rubble to help. He helps one persons life whose legs were trapped under a beam after the collapse, then spots a child standing alone. Bruce runs up to her and asks her where her parents are. But to answer, she points up to the building that has fallen.

I was so disappointed in the plot of this movie. They spent so much time on back story and, to be honest, It made it into a plotless bore. It was so hard for my mom to stay awake during the first 2 hours of the movie, and I even caught her fall asleep a few times. And it only mildly picked up in the last 30 minutes or so. Even the end was so full of holes and questionable actions that it is not a great start to DC's late answer to The Avengers. Playing the long game worked well for Marvel and I think DC should have taken a page or six from their book. 

The acting, on the other hand was mostly pretty good. I give huge props to Ben Affleck for his portrayal of Batman. I think he made the movie mostly bearable to watch. I am really interested in seeing him in future movies with this role. Henry Cavill's Superman lacked some humanity, which has always been a favorite feature of Superman. He felt more like a cardboard cutout of an action hero than the true Man of Steel. I am not sure if I blame him as an actor or the writers for trying to give Superman a dark side.

Overall the movie was a huge let down and only slightly saved by Ben Affleck's Batman. Also save yourself some time and don't stay to the end of the credits, that was another miss step by DC in not using the success of Marvel as a template for end of movie teasers to get the audience interested in what is to come next. And because of these I would rate this movie 5.7/10.

The winner of this weeks prize in my one year celebration is:
L. White. Congratulations!

You have won: A gift certificate from The Inn Flower Place

I would also like to Congratulate the grand prize winner of my one year celebration; 
Mystery Person, Donate to Auction! 
OK People this was what the paper said that I pulled out. Thank-you to this kind person as this grand prize now has a chance to raise even more money for the BC Cancer Society. You are very kind who ever you are! 
Join my Family May 2nd and enjoy a second chance to win all these amazing prizes.
2 movie passes, $50 to Mr. Mike's, a $30 Menchies gift card, 1 night stay in a Jacuzzi suite and $40 gift card to Moxies at the Sandman Hotel & Suites Calgary Airport in Calgary, Alberta, and a Watkins gift basket that includes some Bumbleberry wine from the Northern Light Estate Winery.

Thank-you again to all the people and business donors that have made this past month possible. It is a great gift to be so supported in passion I enjoy. 

Thank-you to all the people who read this blog. 

Please still give food donations to your local St. Vincent DePaul's. They do so much for those of us that are down on our luck. Everyone needs a little help sometime, be someone's angel today.

Also, please do not stop your donations to the HYPG Dream Team for the Relay for Life. I watched my Aunt fight against cervical cancer everyday for almost 3 years and my hope is one day no one will ever have to live through that. The Cancer Society gave my Aunt such great support during those years and they need a continuous rain of thanks. Without these amazing people there would have been many times we would have been lost. My Mom is walking in the Relay this year but next year we will back at it as a family.

Movie Review: Allegiant

This weeks movie is Allegiant, which is the sequel to the other sequel of the series I reviewed, Insurgent. So if you don't want to hear any spoilers about this movie and the other, because I know some people are worried about stuff like this, do not read the next two paragraphs. But anyways, I hope you enjoy my review on Allegiant.

The movie starts where the last movie left off, with the message from the box playing throughout the city, and people running towards the wall. Some trucks roll on screen blocking the people from leaving while the gates close behind them. It then goes to a rooftop where Tris (played by Shaylene Woodley) and Four (played by Theo James) are talking about what could be past the wall. When they are about to kiss, a message from Evelyn (played by Naomi Watts) starts to play, interrupting them.

They head back to where everyone is. There we find that all the people that helped Jeanine are on trial. They would like Tris to join in the council with the trials but she refuses. Four stands up there with his mother and the other leaders, Johanna (played by Octavia Spencer) and Kang (played by Daniel Dae Kim) as Max (played by  Mekhi Phifer) gets pulled towards the stand to be judged. Kang gives him the Candor truth serum so he doesn't lie, and Max reveals he didn't care if the people died under Jeanine's orders, comparing them to sheep. Evelyn has Max shot and killed, and Caleb (played by Ansel Elgort) fears what they will do to him.

The plot ran smoothly, but slowly throughout the movie. However, my mom, who has read the books, thought there were some things missing. And the truth is, I kind of believe her on that. Even if the plot did make almost complete sense throughout, it occasionally didn't seem whole. And at the end of the movie, it didn't seem like it should have ended there. If you go to the IMDb page for Allegiant, it even says part 1. But aside from this, the story plot was pretty good, if a bit choppy.

The acting was very enticing to watch. They all did a very good job portraying their characters, but I feel some could have done slightly better. The actor who played David, Jeff Daniels, didn't show too much emotion in some scenes and even came off as stiff at times, but did pretty well in most others. Shaylene Woodley did an amazing job but it felt like she was hesitant about some of her characters actions. Maybe it was from some of the plot holes, but you never know. Same goes for Theo James, however I feel his character had more action and that made it easier for him to work. I guess what I am saying is even good acting could not hide the inconsistency in the plot.

Overall, the movie was a little inconsistent and slow, but didn't make it entirely bad. Even with some of the occasional plot holes, I would rate this movie 7.8/10.

The winner of this weeks prize in my one year celebration is: Chloe, who I`m guessing is a little girl, but will be confirmed tomorrow.

You have won: A Mini photo session with Kay Ross Photography with 5 digital images valued at $325 and 2 free hair cuts from First Choice Haircutters.

I would also like to Congratulate the winner of my one day celebration on March 18: She is a Young girl, so I am keeping her name private, but it was cute to see her win.

This person won a Northern FanCon prize pack that included two 3 day passes for FanCon, a FanCon T-shirt, and an Avengers Print.

Thank-you to Bites Of Bliss Cakery for the cupcake gift cards we gave to the first 30 donors. Also Thank-you for the ones you gave to me. They were really good and my family enjoyed them.

Don't worry if you didn't win this time, you still have a chance with our Grand Prize giveaway on March 31st.

This weeks trivia Question is: What is David's true objective for taking Tris to Providence?

This is the last weekly prize! Don't miss your chance to win: A gift Certificate for the Inn Flower Place.

This means it is also your last chance to get entries into the grand prize draw. Check out my post from March 1st for more information on that.

Don't forget to drop off a food donation for St. Vincent DePaul's or give a $5+ donation to the HYPG Dream Team for the Relay for Life. I will be at the theater Thursday 6:30pm -8:30pm, Friday 4pm-8pm, Saturday 2pm-8pm and Tuesday 4pm-8pm. This is a new week so if you entered last week you can enter again for this week and that gets you even more chances at winning the Grand Prize.

Movie Review: 10 Cloverfield Lane

This week it seems horror and suspense are back in theater. My last scary movie wasn't what I thought it should be, so I was excited to see if 10 Cloverfield Lane could meet the challenge.

The movie starts with a woman named Michelle (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) packing up a suitcase while on the phone with her boyfriend Ben (voice by Bradley Cooper). She hangs up and gets in her car and drives out of the city. Ben calls her in the car, and she lets him talk for a little bit before hanging up again. Ben calls again, but before Michelle could answer, she gets hit by a truck, causing her to roll into a ditch.

Michelle wakes up in a small room with an injury on her head. Upon further investigation she sees her leg is chained to a pipe and gets scared. She grabs a pole and uses its hook to get her phone to call for help. Unfortunately, there is no signal, and she hears someone coming downstairs. A man opens the door and gives her some food and tells her that he saved her from the car wreck. It is a man named Howard (played by John Goodman) and leaves after giving her a pair of crutches. She doesn't believe him to be a good guy so Michelle gets one of the wooden crutches and carves it to make the tip sharper. Michelle gets Howard to come back, and when he enters, she hits him and tries to make a run for it, but Howard quickly grabs her and gives her a needle to put her to sleep.

The plot was really suspenseful and thought provoking. There was a very distinct terror throughout the movie. I really enjoyed the thrills that the director and writers took the audience on. The end did seem to feel a bit like the kind of scene to continue the franchise into sequels, but in a good way.

Even better than the plot was the acting. John Goodman really pulled off a terrifying character. You would almost believe that he was crazy in real life. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is someone I remember from the Scott Pilgrim movie and I liked her then. She does great with roles that show how smart she is and this one is no different. I even enjoyed the work done by John Gallagher Jr. to make it a movie that keeps you on edge even though most of the time there is just the three of them on the screen.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie and think it was a huge step up from the last one I reviewed. I would rate this movie 9.1/10

The winner of this weeks prize in my one year celebration is: Heather Hillier. Congratulations!

You have won: 1 family pass to Exploration Place. Enjoy!

Don't worry if you didn't win this time, you still have a chance with our Grand Prize giveaway on March 31st.

This weeks trivia Question is: what animal is on the shower curtain?

This weeks prize pack will include: 1 mini session and 5 digital images from Kay Ross Photography and 2 haircuts from First Choice Haircutters

Don't forget to drop off a food donation for St. Vincent DePaul's or give a $5+ donation to the HYPG Dream Team for the Relay for Life. I will be at the theater Thursday 6:30pm -8:30pm, Friday 4pm-8pm, Saturday 2pm-8pm and Tuesday 4pm-8pm. This is a new week so if you entered last week you can enter again for this week and that gets you even more chances at winning the Grand Prize.

In honor of my Aunt, Tamara Kobylka, who lost her battle with cervical cancer this past week, I will give 3 entries for donations of $10+ to the Relay for Life in support of the Cancer Society. This is for the 3 years she has fought, she is now pain free again. I Love and Miss You.

Movie Review: Zootopia

What would the world be like if humans weren't the main species on earth? This weeks movie is the second time I have reviewed a movie that touches on the subject. The Good Dinosaur, also from Disney, takes on this topic greatly. I think it is a pretty interesting topic to think about every now and then. But anyways, here's my review on Zootopia.

The movie starts with the voice of a young child telling the story of how the animals lived. We come to find out this is young Judy Hopps (voiced by Della Saba) and she is doing a sort of play for a school talent show. As her friends and her demonstrate how they went from being wild animals to a civilized nation, they say it was all thanks to a place created called Zootopia, where you can be anything. Judy reveals at the end that she plans to be the first ever bunny cop. The audience is left in stunned silence, except for a select few. When everything is over, her parents, Bonnie Hopps (voiced by Bonnie Hunt) and Stu Hopps (voiced by Don Lake), walk her out and try to convince her that she should be a carrot farmer instead of dreaming so big. As they are talking and not paying very much attention, she notices Gideon Grey (voiced by Phil Johnston), a fox, and other kids sneaking out back of some buildings and follows them. Turns out he is bullying the weaker kids into getting their prize tickets. She stands up to the fox and even though she gets hurt, she gets the tickets back and is even more determined to become a police officer.

It skips ahead to where Judy is an adult (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) going through police academy training. She is the smallest animal there and the others are really challenging her skills. Judy doesn't do too well at first, but she works even harder and eventually becomes valedictorian. At the graduation ceremony, Mayor Lionheart (voiced by J.K. Simmons), with the help of Assistant Mayor Bellwether (voiced by Jenny Slate), are giving her a police badge and assignment to where she has always dreamed, the center of Zootopia.

The plot for this movie was really enjoyable. The theme is a familiar one but with a great new twist. I liked how they made something kids could relate to but made it so the adults were not bored. Even better that they brought elements of surprise to keep us on our toes. Pretty sure the whole theater jumped at the same time during one spot.

The voice acting was spot on. They did a great job fitting the right voice and character together, and the voice actors really brought the animation to life. I really enjoyed the interaction going on and think it would be great to sit in a session and watch again.

Overall, the movie was a joy to watch and I look forward to future installments of the series if any. From the scream from the little kid in the theater I would rate this movie 9.1/10

The winner of this weeks prize in my one year celebration is: Caitlin (last name currently unknown)!

You have won: 2 passes for 18 hole golf at Aspen Grove.

Don't worry if you didn't win this time, you still have a chance with our Grand Prize giveaway on March 31st.

This weeks trivia Question is: what color is Judy's farm shirt?

This weeks prize pack will include: 1 Family Admission to Exploration Place

Don't forget to drop off a food donation for St. Vincent DePaul's or give a $5+ donation to the HYPG Dream Team for the Relay for Life. This is a new week so if you entered last week you can enter again for this week and that gets you even more chances at winning the Grand Prize.

In honor of my Aunt, Tamara Kobylka, who went into Hospice House on Monday and is near the end of her battle with cervical cancer, I will give 3 entries for donations of $10+ to the Relay for Life in support of the Cancer Society. For 3 years she has fought, soon she will have peace again. I Love You.

Movie Review: Gods of Egypt

What better way to start a month of contests to celebrate one year than with a battle of the Gods. The Gods of Egypt to be exact. This weeks movie has the Gods of Egypt fighting for control over the empire.

The movie starts with a dialog of how Egypt became what it is and how the gods came to be. Ra (played by Geoffery Rush) had two sons, Osiris (played by Brian Brown) who was the king over all of Egypt, and Set (played by Gerard Butler) who ruled over the desert. As the day came for Osiris to crown a new king, who is his son, Horus (played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), we go on to see what some people are doing for this special occasion.

We then find ourselves following Bek (played by Brenton Thwaites) as he makes his way through a crowed market yard. Everyone seems excited and he spies a dress shop where the owner is busy with a customer. He begins to steal one of the dresses, but soon finds himself running for his life with the dress. We find out he has stolen the dress for his wife Zaya (played by Courtney Eaton) after he narrowly escaped. She is excited about going to the coronation of the new king, but didn't have anything nice to wear until he presented the dress. They have a mini discussion over the importance of this day and then head off with the rest of Egypt.

Horus, however, hasn't even gotten up at this point. Some maidservants help to get him up, and he goes into some water to bathe. He is soon greeted by Hathor (played by Elodie Yung), also getting ready for the coronation.

The acting was not up to the level I have previously seen these actors do in other similar roles. They really needed to take on more of an Egyptian feel to their work. I mean come on, a Scottish Egyptian god? They could have at least tried to sound more like Egyptian gods. Though it wasn't bad, it wasn't great either.

The story plot made complete sense in the way it was played out. I couldn't predict what was going to happen, but I don't think it would be too hard though. I'm not saying it's predictable, I'm just saying it makes sense.

Overall, the movie wasn't all bad, but the excessive use of CGI was a little bit in the way of it. Even though about two thirds of the movie was CGI, and the actors didn't quite have their A-game, I would rate this movie 7.1/10.

This weeks trivia question is: What item is Thoth (played by Chadwick Boseman) inspecting when Horus and Bek go to see him? Comment below and don't worry if you can't see your comment. Comments will not be shown until this weeks contest is over to keep it fair for everyone. I can still tell who commented what, so do not think there is something wrong. The winner will be announced next week, and all comments will be posted at that time.

This weeks prize is a great one to go with this movie. How about a little competition with a friend or family member of yours? This one doesn't involve death, however I make no promises. This week I am giving away 2 rounds of 18 hole golf at Aspen Grove courtesy of Dave Mothus from Mothus Dawes Insurance and Investment

Do not forget to drop off a food donation at the Prince George Famous Players 6 Theater, or donate $5+ to my Mom on the HYPG Dream Team for the Relay for Life for more entries into this weeks draw. All entries will be included into the Grand Prize draw.

Missed what is going on, get caught up HERE!!