The World's End

The World's End.

The World's End is an apocalpytic-ish comedy starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and for the 3rd time are teaming up with Edgar Wright who have collectively done Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Shaun of the Dead is a great comedy and one of my favorites of the zombie genre, while I enjoyed Hot Fuzz I didn't think it was up to par with Shaun. This marks the third and what some are calling the final film in the collection of Pegg, Frost and Wright collaborations.

Firstly, Pegg and Frost are on point with their performances, Pegg plays the cocky yet lovable ass who never let go of his childhood while Frost is his counterpart as someone who's thinking of the future and trying to better himself. The two together have proven that they're British comedy gold, between the Wright trilogy and Paul they've been hysterical for near a decade together. With Wright back directing it feels as if everything's coming to a head, fitting for the final installment. In this film, "robots" have replaced and replicated the people of their hometown and have discovered that Pegg and Co. are not themselves robots and go after them. Pegg's idea to continue the bar crawl is not as insane as it sounds as he, albeit drunkenly, gives a pretty solid reasoning for his plan.

Alright, but was it funny? In short, yeah it was. There were only a few times where I was laughing out loud, a lot of it was more like laughing to myself. I know that sounds like an insult, but it's not. A lot of the comedy in the film has to do with the witty remarks and banter between characters where if you fade away from the movie, you won't catch. This wasn't as funny as Shaun of the Dead, there was something really special about that film. Segue to next paragraph.

But there was something special about this one as well, it's funny, definitely but almost more importantly, it's heartfelt. Every feeling that gets projected at us that we as an audience are supposed to feel, feels very genuine and you do feel it. The anger between friends, the looking back at your younger selves and missing it, to making amends, it all feels too real. If this is the last film these 3 make together, which I hope it isn't, it'll be an oddly fitting one. There's a lot of reflection done in the film and you get the feeling that the actors and Wright did a lot of reflecting throughout filming it.

Overall: The movie is definitely funny. If you like the Pegg/Frost comedy then you'll definitely enjoy this, if you don't then I don't think The World's End will be the one to turn you on to them. I hope this isn't the last we see of these 3 together because as of now, they've made one of the funniest trilogies of non-related films ever. Wright and his actors are able to bring such emotion that's actually kind of incredible, especially for a comedy. In a way this movie is really a coming-of-age film but for middle-aged men(sorry ladies). It's a great time and I'm incredibly happy that You're Next wasn't the final movie of the 2013 summer movie season for me, and I'm glad that it was The World's End. After the movie, all you wanna do is get some friends together and crack open some beers and enjoy life, can't ask much more than that, can you?

Rating: 4/5, A Great End to a Good Summer Movie Season, Will Buy on DVD.

The Butler

The Butler.

The Butler is a film chronicling Cecil Gaines' 34 year tenure as a butler in the White House. Forest Whitaker plays Gaines who is inspired by real life White House butler Eugene Allen. We're treated to an eyewitness account to major American events dating from the Eisenhower administration all the way to the Reagan administration as Gaines serves from 1957 to 1986. The movie has an ensemble cast who all do do great jobs.

Being a historical movie, I was really hoping I'd like it, being a history buff and all. Thankfully, it delivered. Many people my find it slow and boring but just like Lincoln(yes, I just compared this to Lincoln) it's incredibly interesting and the dialogue not only drives the movie but is the focal point of it. Most of the plot and historical events are racially charged, ranging from slavery, civil rights, equal pay to the election of the first African-American president. That being said some of the oppression shown is hard to imagine let alone watch and the fact that this occurred not even 50-60 years ago is repulsing.

This is a short review because all in all, there's not a ton to say. Oprah, I believe, deserves at least an Oscar nomination for her part, she was that good. This Oscar season is shaping up to be a really good one so I don't think she'll get it but if she ever reads this she'll know I think she deserves it. One of the other surprising things about this film was the comedy, while it's not running rampant, it's there. Mostly between Gaines and two of the White House butlers, the banter the three of them share adds a lightness and comedic tone to an otherwise completely serious movie.

Overall: I can't give this much more praise than I already have, from this review and recommending it to many people, all that's left that I can do is buy it on Blu-Ray/DVD when it comes out. I'm glad to see this movie isn't being slept on and has won the box office two weeks in a row and without a ton of competition this weekend, it could win again. Flat out, see this movie, it won't change your life but being as young as I(19), it's good to see the racial tension of the 50s/60s in a cinematic way. Also the actors who played the presidents were surprisingly good, James Marsden got JFK's way with words down pat and Alan Rickman(Severus Snape for you Harry Potter fans) does a great job with Reagan. Go see this film.

Rating: 4.5/5, A Surprisingly Good Film, Will Buy on DVD.

You're Next

You're Next.

You're Next is a horror film about a home invasion. 3 masked killers, pictured in the poster above invade a home where there are 10 people, 6 of which are related, the other 4 are significant others of members of the family. There's not much to say about the movie because it doesn't give us much to say.

Firstly, the acting is abysmal. I don't mind bad acting in a horror movie when it's a B-movie and doesn't take itself too seriously(ex. Evil Dead[the originals] and pretty much an 80's horror film) but this movie is taken very seriously and the acting is distractingly bad. The only saving grace acting wise is Sharni Vinson who plays Erin. Secondly, the movie is crazy predictable, I was guessing what would happen with accuracy and the "twist" they throw in is seen from miles away.

But was it scary? Nope. I jumped at one scare and usually I'm a sucker for jump scares, they usually get me to jump but nothing in this movie was scary. The masks the killers use aren't half as scary as the film wants them to be, especially the lamb one, they became hard to take seriously. A home invasion movie is supposed to make you paranoid/scared to sleep in your house the night after seeing it and I can tell you, I'm not, at all.

For me, there were two saving graces. One, the dark humor in this was actually pretty funny, it came at the right moments and shockingly the actors had good comedic timing with it. Second, the kills were actually pretty inventive in this. I'm not talking Saw inventive but they're not your standard horror movie kills. There's one toward the end, I won't spoil it, but it's hysterical and worth probably half the price of admission. The other kills make the whole price of admission worth it.

Overall: This had the potential to be better or at least as good as The Strangers or Funny Games, two home invasion movies that were truly scary. Nothing about this was scary, I was lucky that the guy behind me in the theater didn't find it scary cause he was cracking some funny jokes and was probably more entertaining than the movie itself. I'm not really sure why this got a theatrical release, it should've been a straight-to-Netflix release, I'd say straight-to-Syfy but it wasn't as entertaining as Sharknado or Sharktopus. Nothing about this is refreshing to the genre outside of the dark humor but that's been making a comeback in horror as of late anyway. Lack of originality, lack of scares, lack of more than one not-terrible actor makes this a horrorble movie. I think we can all just forget that pun I just made, just like we can all forget this movie was made until it comes time for the "Worst Movies of the Year" lists start taking form. Don't be next to see this, seriously.

Final Rating: 1/5, An Insult to the Beloved Horror Genre.

Elysium

Elysium.

Elysium stars Matt Damon in the sci-fi action film directed by Neill Blomkamp. This is Blomkamp's second film, the first being 2009's District 9 which was a pretty good sci-fi movie so I was excited to see what he could do with a bigger budget and bigger stars. Jodie Foster is in this but she's not at the same time, she doesn't have a ton of screen time and I think anyone more or less could have played her character. Matt Damon kills it as Max who is forced to travel from Earth to Elysium in order to save his life. Elysium doesn't have a completely original story but it's captivating and Blomkamp does a great job into sucking you in to the not so futuristic world where Earth is a dump and Elysium is where only the rich thrive.

There's really only one word to describe this movie: badass. The action scenes are done beautifully with some of the kills being absolutely beautiful. Matt Damon once he becomes all half-cyborg looks awesome, like a modern-day Terminator or Robo-Cop. Solid acting all around, I'm glad things fell through with Eminem because knowing his previous performances I couldn't see him in the role of Max at all. The film also tackles some social issues such as healthcare, overpopulation, immigration/emigration and class warfare. The score of the film is actually quite good, it plays off of the dark tones of the visuals and compliments it with equally as dark music,

SPOILER. I don't normally do spoilers but this one is worth talking about. I'm very happy that Blomkamp went the more realistic route with the ending instead of the traditional "happy" route in killing Max. As the movie progresses you begin to realize that there really is no realistic way for the movie to end happily for him and I'm glad the director had the balls to do it.
END SPOILER

Overall: It's a great sci-fi movie that leans a little too much into science-reality instead of fiction. It's dark, well acted and incredibly well directed. After District 9 and now Elysium I'm really excited to see what Blomkamp has for us next. Elysium is straight awesome.

Rating: 4/5, Well Worth a Full Price Ticket and I Will Buy it On DVD.

The Conjuring

The Conjuring.


The Conjuring is a horror movie from director James Wan who's directed Saw, Dead Silence and Insidious, to name a few. So I was pretty excited for this as I love Saw and thought Insidious was one of the better horror movies of the last few years.

The film follows a couple who are the ghost hunters of the 70's who are both skeptical about the supernatural and usually "bust" whatever people think is haunting them. Obvious plotline is obvious, and they come across a haunting that is all too real and chaos, and haunted house horror movie cliches ensues. While this film is higher up on the horror movie scale that's more because of how low horror films set the bar these days, the last horror movie that I thought was actually good and actually scary was Sinister and that came out in October. What most horror movies really lack is an interesting story, which (thank god) The Conjuring has. While it's not crazy original, the two main-ish characters being hardcore skeptics of the supernatural brings a decently fresh perspective to the movie that we don't see too much these days. The acting is good enough, it's not Leonardo DiCaprio but it's a horror movie so who really cares?

Now, like comedies, horror movies only have one job, to scare you. So the big question is: Is The Conjuring scary? In short, yes. Now for the long answer. It's probably the scariest movie of the year but again I don't think an ant could walk under the bar that other movies have set. Except for maybe Evil Dead(the remake/re-imagining). It's been getting a lot of hype as being scary as hell with people saying they couldn't sleep after they saw it and all of this other nonsense. Trust me, if you're acclimated with horror movies and are a genuine fan of them, you won't find it THAT scary. All that being said there is some scary and even creepy things in the movie but they fall at the predictable and cliche times.

Overall: The story was pretty good although nothing too special. On a scare scale it probably gets a 6 or 7 out of 10 whic is pretty good seeing as how most are at like a 2. One of the better horror movies of the year but we also have the Carrie remake and Insidious 2 to look forward to later this year, both of which could make everyone forget about The Conjuring, but as of now, it's a good horror movie but not a must-see.

Rating: 3/5, Not Bad, Won't Buy on DVD.