Movie Review: The Last Witch Hunter

So this Saturday is Halloween, and I'm excited. Not just for the costumes and candy, but for more movie reviews. This week's movie is The Last Witch Hunter, but I also had the choice of the new Paranormal Activity. I might be doing Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension for my next review if there are no others within my age ratings. But anyways, I hope you enjoy my review of The Last Witch Hunter.

The movie starts 800 years ago where a group of witch hunters led by Kaulder (played by Vin Diesel) called the Ax and Cross are heading to a giant tree to kill the Witch Queen (played by Julie Engelbrecht). After a motivating speech, the team goes towards the tree with their weapons drawn. The Ax and Cross find the Witch Queen in the tree, who quickly kills about half the men with her magic, and traps the other half, again with magic. Kaulder escapes by falling down a hole, and finding the Witch Queen in the spot she escaped to. The two then have a fight to the death, with Kaulder wielding a flaming sword. When Kaulder stabs the Queen with his flaming sword, she curses him with eternal life as she, and everything else, burns around him.

800 years later, in the present, we find Kaulder sitting in a plane, with a really bad storm in the flight path. He blows on the window to reveal a marking which symbolizes that there is magic nearby. He gets up and goes to the back of the plane to find a young witch with runes. The runes control the weather when together, and the witch had just tossed them into her bag. Kaulder then has to separate the runes to end the storm, which he does.

The story plot was very intriguing, but seemed more like a pilot to a new TV show than a major motion picture. Could be because they're starting a new franchise with Vin Diesel. But other than that, I really liked the multiple plot twists. The movie might have been predictable, if it weren't for these twists.

The acting was very good, but Vin Diesel was more comfortable to watch in Furious 7 than this movie. It might take him a sequel or two to have the same feeling of authenticity as his other franchise, but still really good. The support actors really did make the movie even more enjoyable and helped bring it to life. I really enjoyed Rose Leslie in her portrayal of Chloe, the witch who works with Kaulder later on in the movie, and Michael Caine, who played the 36th Dolan.

Overall, the movie was good if you wanted a TV show pilot, but a little lacking when it comes to a blockbuster movie. Good acting and plot with twists are the reasons I would rate this movie 7.6/10.

Movie Review: Goosebumps

Goosebumps is a book series that came out when my mother was a kid. I discovered the books back somewhere in grade 3 and have read only a few of them since. I watched some of the episodes of the show on Netflix, so I was really interested in how they were going to do the movie. Plus it's October and Halloween is getting near so scary movies is what I’m hoping to get this month.

The movie starts with Zach (played by Dylan Minnette) and his mother, Gale (played by Amy Ryan) driving to their new house in Madison, Delaware. After getting out of the car, Zach jokes with his mom that he is only staying with her because he loves her and can't legally live on his own until he's 18. Just after they go inside, Zach's aunt Lorraine (played by Jillian Bell) stops by to visit and gives Zach a hat. He tells his mother that he's going to start unpacking, and while he does that, the girl next door named Hannah (played by Odeya Rush) starts talking to him from her window. Her father, who we later know as R. L. Stine (played by Jack Black) tells her to get away from the window, then rushes up to it and tells Zach to stay away or bad things will happen. Zach takes his things inside and goes up to his room, where he watches a video of his father playing baseball with him.

Later that night, while Zach is taking out the trash, Hannah pulls back a board in the fence, scaring him. Hannah takes Zach to an abandoned amusement park in the woods, and makes him climb the Ferris wheel. Afterwards, in his room, Zach hears Hannah scream from her room. He tells his mom, but she doesn't listen, so he calls the police. From here on the adventure gets more interesting at every turn. 

The Plot leads us through a bunch of twists and turns that try to keep us all on our toes. Some of our favorite, and creepiest characters from the Goosebumps books are in the movie as well so it also makes it fun to watch. I was looking for something a little scarier though, with it being Goosebumps, but it's good for the younger kids that might want to watch.

The acting was very good, but like most movies, there were some flaws. I really enjoyed how Odeya Rush portrayed Hannah and the sincerity she brought to the character, but I found that, true to his style of acting, Jack Black was a little manic in his R. L. Stine character. It seemed to me that he made his character more angry than any other emotion he showed in the movie. I did expect a little more from him, but still good nonetheless.

The movie was still fun to watch and if the cheesy, but cool, classic Hocus Pocus stuff can be loved every Halloween, even though it isn't always scary, so can this movie. So for these reasons I would rate this movie 7.9/10.

I have been looking at the idea of having a contest this coming Christmas season. I need to know how many people would be interested in having some fun and maybe get some loot as well. Please make sure to comment below with the words "Giving is Great!" and if I have enough interest I might be able to make this happen. Thanks!

Movie Review: Pan

There are many stories out there that we have heard since we were babies. The story of Peter Pan is one of them and really a beloved favorite. But where did Peter originally come from? I asked my Mom once and I don't remember what she said because I knew it wasn't the actual story, but she is good at making things up. That is why I was interested in checking out this week’s movie, Pan, for the review.

The movie starts somewhere around 1930 where a woman seems to be sneaking around an orphanage where she walks up to her baby and gives him a necklace with a metal pan flute on it and a letter addressed to Peter.

About twelve years later, during WWII, Peter (played by Levi Miller) wakes up in the orphanage with his friend Nibs (played by Lewis MacDougall) in the bed beside his, also awake. After jumping on the beds, they go downstairs to eat their breakfast, a gruel of some sort. Peter complains that they usually get bacon with it, and goes to sit down with Nibs. He mentions that he suspects Mother Barnabas (played by Kathy Burke), is hoarding food for herself. Peter and Nibs sneak into Barnabas' office and find a secret hatch with a bunch of junk foods and a door leading to the orphanage records. Nibs finds Peters record with the note from his mother that says that she loves him and will meet him again in this world or another. Barnabas finds them in her office and punishes them by whipping their hands and having them do chores around the orphanage.

Later that night, while all the kids go to bed, Barnabas puts up a pirate flag on the roof. Then, when the kids are asleep, pirates come down from the roof, grabbing the orphans and leaving, which Peter and Nibs see happening. The two run for the door, but Nibs gets caught just before leaving, then peter gets kicked by Barnabas into a pirate, which grabs him and pulls him up onto their flying pirate ship. Nibs tells Peter that he needs to jump off with him as he jumps, but Peter hesitates and gets flown off with the pirates.

The story plot from here is Peter meeting Hook (played by Garrett Hedlund), Smee (played by Adeel Akhtar), Tiger Lily (played by Rooney Mara) and Blackbeard (played by Hugh Jackman) and becoming the flying child we know and love. It also leads to Peter going on a great adventure to meet and know these characters. It was very imaginative and makes everything that Peter Pan is make complete sense. There are also some very interesting plot twists about the different relationships between the characters from what we already know about them, and to what is going on at that particular moment. And the costume and set design used to show us all of this was amazing. In short, I really liked all the work done on this movie.

As for the acting, I enjoyed that they used actors with theatrical backgrounds to bring the characters to life. I really enjoyed Hugh Jackman's performance the most. His portrayal of Blackbeard brought a lot of dimension and realism yet drama to the character. I did think that Garrett Hedlund was a little overboard at times but still enjoyable. I think the real cheers go for Levi Miller and his portrayal of Peter. He really gave us his true character from troublemaker to boyhood hero.

I would rate this movie 8.7/10 for overall greatness in most aspects, but sometimes there are moments where it goes a little wrong in some way.

I'm thinking about changing the color of the font to orange for Halloween. Do you think I should do it or not? Leave a comment down below if you have a specific shade of orange I should know. Thanks!

Movie Review: The Martian

 

Life alone on a different planet is something I thought of after watching this movie. I live in a house with 7 other people, which makes for a lot of noise and sometimes, being alone would be a nice thing. However, I don't know if I would want to do it without enough supplies to last and other things that are basic. This leads me to my latest movie, The Martian.

The movie starts on Mars, where the crew of the Ares 3 mission is collecting rock samples to bring back to NASA. As they finish up, a giant dust storm moves towards them and NASA informs them that the storm is bigger than they thought. The Ares 3 crew decide to abort the mission when they experience just how powerful the storm actually is. While walking through the dust storm, Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) gets hit by a satellite dish, disappearing into the storm presumed dead. The rest of the crew reluctantly leave him there on Mars, and after the storm passes, Mark wakes up half buried in the red dirt, slightly impaled by a shard of the antenna.

The story plot is pretty much Mark trying to make supplies on Mars, such as potatoes for food and fixing broken entrance hatches, eventually making it off Mars. You know, just an average day of an everyday ordinary botanist. Except that this botanist is on Mars, is also a famous astronaut and isn't ordinary in any way. However, it was still a good story plot nonetheless.

The acting was some of Matt Damon's best work on screen yet. He really made me feel like I could have been stranded on the planet with him. However, there were some parts in the movie where it was a little non-realistic. More commonly known as goofs, these are parts of a movie where something isn't supposed to be there, or something is done that shouldn't be, or even being able to see the cameraman in a reflection. I usually go to IMDb for my references in case I forget what an actors name is or if I want to go over the synopsis again, or to just read over the goofs that I may have missed.

Overall the story and acting was great, but I could have gone without some of the goofs in the movie. For these reasons I would rate this 8.7/10.

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.