Movie Review: Dirty Grandpa

Sometimes when doing movie reviews, you end up watching a movie you would not normally check out. I like a decent variety of movies, and can tolerate more, but sometimes a theme is not one that I find interesting. The Dirty Grandpa trailer had a touch of intrigue in the trailer, but not one I would normally watch. It's just out of my comfort zone, but it seemed good enough to go check out.

The movie starts with a gallery of photos of Jason Kelly (played by Zac Efron) and his grandpa, Dick Kelly (played by Robert De Niro). We then end up at a funeral for Jason's Grandma. Jason is standing next to her casket talking to some people about his job as a lawyer, when his cousin Nick (played by Adam Pally) comes over to talk. Nick is drunk and high, which Jason is disgusted by. Nick proceeds to dump his beer on the flowers and blow smoke on her picture. Jason gets his cousin to sit down, and just after Jason sits down, Dick walks in to say good-bye to his wife. Jason's fiance, Meredith (played by Julianne Hough), not caring that they are a funeral, questions Jason about what tie he likes better for their rehearsal dinner, but Jason doesn't care.

Later they are all gathered and Dick says he needs Jason to drive him to Florida, partly because Dick had his licence cancelled. Jason and his father David (played by Dermot Mulroney) do not like the idea, but Jason eventually gives in.

The jokes in this movie were awful. I am not sure what the writers were thinking, but it felt like a movie only those that are high or highly immature would enjoy. The few good jokes are not enough to even begin to save this movie. Not only that, but the movie was full of bad cliches, like lawyers are boring people who need to lighten up. Stereotyping people like that is what makes it so hard for others to live. And the language was even worse. half of the script or more was repetitive use of the F word (no, it's not "food" or "fired"). The moral is a good one though; follow your own heart and not what everyone else tells you to do. I give the movie props for that, even if it is hidden in a slew of bad language and horrible jokes one after another.

The acting was decent, considering it was all stereotyped. Really no challenge to this at all for them. You have an old man with only one thing on his mind, or so it would seem, and a stick in the mud grandson who needs to loosen up. Did they take these roles because it was easy money requiring no real work or talent? I really feel like this movie should have been 18A or higher instead of 14A.

The overall feel of this movie is one you would watch if you plan on a night where you don't mind killing brain cells. I would rate this movie 2.3/10 for the very few good laughs and basic theme.

Movie Review: Norm of the North

After watching a more serious movie last week, I felt the need to check out something a bit lighter. And no, not just in contrast. Norm of the North made promises of being both family friendly and funny. So here is what I think of the movie.

The movie starts with Norm (voiced by Rob Schneider) chasing a seal through the Arctic, but failing to catch it. After slipping off the edge of a snow mound in the middle of the chase, he runs into Elizabeth (Voiced by Kate Higgins), who he has a crush on. After talking to her, and slipping on the ice while doing so, he continues the chase. He and the seal end up ice surfing, causing the seal to get trapped by Norm. They spot tourists there, and he goes into a monologue to the seal about his history up to that point. The other animals then start laughing at him because instead of hunting and eating the seal, he is cuddling with it.

The theme of the movie is to do what you know is right by being who you are, and this is not a new or original theme. I had hoped this would be more of an original movie, but it isn't. This is like a cheaper version of Happy Feet. It was first set to be a straight to DVD release, and I think it should have stayed that way. The basic moral of the story is one that kids should hear often and learn from, but I honestly think that this will be one of those movies they forget shortly after watching and ask to see something like Frozen again. The adult jokes throughout the movie will also make it harder for kids to relate, and if the kids don't enjoy it you won't win the adults over. The only saving grace in terms of kid viewers is the lemmings. The kids will love those little guys like the minions, but that is not enough to carry the whole movie. They really needed more balance to the script that way. You will get most of the good parts of the movie in the trailer below.

The voice acting was good, but with so many great movies out there with amazing voice acting, this one just seemed to squeak by the passable zone. With the many talented actors doing the voices, there really should have been more emotion put into it, so maybe it could be more enjoyable to watch. That would have made it a little more bearable to sit through (pun not intended).

Overall, I think you should spend your movie money on another movie at the theater, maybe even go see Star Wars again instead of this one. If you are wanting to have your kids watch a movie with relatively the same theme, then put on Happy Feet. For these reasons I would rate this movie 3.4/10.

Movie Review: The Revenant

This week’s review is on The Revenant, which is supposed to be inspired by true events. But upon searching it up on Wikipedia, and the book on Amazon, it's apparently a work of fiction. Another reason for watching this movie is that an actress from my hometown is in it, and when that happens, it almost always makes it something worth checking out.

The movie starts with narration in a native language by (a female person, thinking it is Hugh Glass' wife played by Grace Dove). Afterwards, it moves to Hugh Glass (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his son, Hawk (played by Forrest Goodluck) hunting moose for skins. After shooting a moose and killing it, they take it back to their campsite to be skinned. Everyone at the campsite is skinning the animals they have killed and preparing the animal skins for trading. Shortly after, a group of natives storm the camp, shooting arrows and killing some of the men. The men in the hunting group fight back, but eventually have to flee, taking as many of the pelts as they can with them. We then find out that the natives are looking for their chiefs daughter, who was taken by a group of white men.

The men who survived and escaped in a boat soon decide to get off so that the natives have a harder time tracking them. One man, John Fitzgerald (played by John Hardy) argues with over doing this because he doesn't believe Hugh knows what's best to do. He is also very greedy and doesn't want to leave the pelts they managed to save behind. They decide to have a couple of men take the boat down stream without the pelts, where the natives later catch them. The remaining men bury the pelts to come back for later, then start walking through the forest. Hugh decides to go hunting while the others catch up. While he is out, he comes across a couple of bear cubs. He looks around, only to find no mother bear. The mother charges at Hugh, and they have a battle to the death.

The plot felt long at times. It was probably meant to be that way to represent his long struggle, but there were points where it dragged a little long during the 2 and a half hours of watching. It also seemed like the writer was trying to turn Hugh into a super human. Really, how much can one person take without dying?

The acting couldn't have been any better. I really commend Leonardo DiCaprio for the emotion and commitment to his character. I also think that Tom Hardy did a great job with his character as well. I will also say that the makeup artists did a great job on the wounds, scars, and other elements that brought the whole scenario to life. On a personal note for our home actress, Grace Dove, well done. Even though you were in very few scenes, you shined in all of them.

Overall, the story plot was a little slow, but the acting was much better than expected. Although it had quite a bit of gore, I would rate this movie 8.9/10.

 

Movie Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

There has been a lot of anticipation for this movie, and I completely understand why. Long time Star Wars fans have waited too long for the next episode of the movies, and now that this one is finally out, they won't have to wait much longer for another. It is also out of respect for the people who hate spoilers that I have delayed posting my review for a couple of weeks.

WARNING: this review may contain spoilers that you may or may not want to read. Do not read the next three paragraphs if you don't want spoilers about the beginning of the movie. But other than that, I hope you enjoy my review on Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

The movie starts with the iconic "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." then the Star Wars logo with the scrolling text move along the screen. It then goes to the planet Jakku, where Poe Dameron (played by Oscar Isaac) is getting a map to Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill) from Lor San Tekka (played by Max von Sydow). Poe and his droid, BB-8, walk out of the hut only to see First Order ships attacking the village. A V-winged ship lands to set stormtroopers and Kylo Ren (played by Adam Driver) out of it, which then start destroying the town. Poe puts the map in BB-8 for safekeeping, then runs to his X-wing with the droid. After firing a shot at Kylo, who uses the force to stop it, the stormtroopers blow up his ship. Poe sends BB-8 off into the desert with the map, then Poe gets captured. The stormtroopers are then ordered to kill the townspeople, so they start shooting. However, one of the stormtroopers, FN-2187 (played by John Boyega) does not shoot at the people.

While BB-8 rolls through the desert, it sees a girl, Rey (played by Daisy Ridley) riding through on a sandspeeder. Rey is going to old wreckages of Star Destroyers for spare parts to trade for food at a junk dealer. BB-8 follows her around until it gets netted by someone. Rey sees this and lets it out of the net, and continues onto the village with BB-8. When Rey gets to the junk dealer to trade for food, the dealer offers 60 portions for BB-8, but Rey refuses and keeps the droid.

On the First Order ship, FN-2187 gets interrogated by Captain Phasma (played by Gwendoline Christie) about why he didn't shoot. Afterwards, FN-2187 goes to the cell that Poe is locked in and lets him out. FN-2187 and Poe steal a TIE fighter to escape, and Poe decides that FN-2187 is too hard to say fast, so he renames him Finn. However, while escaping, their ship got shot and crash lands on Jakku. Finn wakes up in his part of the wreckage, with Poe nowhere to be seen. He takes off the rest of his stormtrooper armor and starts searching for Poe. Finn eventually finds the other part of the ship, but with no Poe inside, just his jacket.

The movie really tied together with the other movies, but the scenes also went together very well. Though there is a resemblance to Episode IV, I found that (not trying to offend anyone with this) it had a little more of a plot in it than the other movies. Disney probably made the movie like this so that they could focus more on character development rather than plot. The new Characters they introduced to us were so well integrated into the story that, even though we were left with some questions, we did not feel cheated in knowing who they are. There were also some twists where, even though they follow the original story line, I did not see coming. However, I will say that there will be a lot of very sad people around the world, just from one scene (no spoilers). I commend J.J. Abrams for his brilliant re-imagining of this beloved franchise. I do not think they could have picked anyone better for this.

The acting was great. I have noticed that when actors come into a highly established franchise, they always seem to work much harder to really bring their characters to life. I thoroughly enjoyed watching new comers Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, and John Boyega bring life to new characters to love or hate. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher did not disappoint, and held their own to stay in the light of fan favorites. 

Overall, the acting was as expected and better, but the plot was too similar to Episode IV to give it a full 10. For these reasons I would rate this movie 9.5/10.

Though the movie took a while, my review should not have. The post would have been out sooner, but other things got in the way, and not just the people who worry about spoilers. And due to these complications, I am going to apologize and promise to work harder and not let this happen again. I hope you readers understand.

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.