Secret in Their Eyes (2015)

Directed by: Billy Ray

Written by: Billy Ray, Juan José Campanella (film El Secreto de sus ojos), & Eduardo Sacheri (film El Secreto de sus ojos)

Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julia Roberts, & Nicole Kidman






The main thing that comes to mind when I think about this film is "I knew it!," but only a few seconds before it actually happened.

What I mean is that I knew what was going to happen, but only a few moments before it actually happened.  I could not tell otherwise.

Jess (Roberts) unfortunately found her daughter dead in a trash bin.  After 13 years, Ray (Ejiofor), Jess' partner, tries everything he can to find the murderer.  When he comes across the same face from 13 years prior, he tries to get Claire (Kidman) the new D.A. to reopen the case, but as Ray keeps searching he figures out that not everything is what it seems.

This movie was great!  It was heart wrenching and the ending was unexpected.  I was like Dang!!! the whole time.  What made it this way was mostly the actors' performances.  You could see the distress and anguish in their eyes.

The reason though that this film is not 5 popcorns, but 4, is because of all the close ups.  There were multiple scenes where it was close up after close up.  There were barely any wide shots or medium shots to show the audience where the scene was taking place.  The director had too many in there and the film needed more variety.  I'm not saying that there weren't any, but there needed to be more.  I'm guessing the reason for all the close ups is that the director wanted the viewers to see their eyes because the film is Secret in Their Eyes.  Get it?

Another reason for the 4 popcorns is the cross mixing between the past and present.  It did not really get on my nerves all that much, but the person I went with did not like it.  It could bother some of you too since the only way to tell if it's the past is through Ejiofor's hair color.  Is some of it gray?  Then it's the present.  If not, then the past.  It bugged him more than it did me, but I thought I'd mention it since it may get on your nerves too.

Other than that,  I really enjoyed the film.  4 popcorns.

The Peanuts Movie (2015)

Directed by: Steve Martino

Written by: Bryan Schulz, Craig Schulz, Cornelius Uliano, & Charles M. Schulz (comic strip)

Starring: Noah Schnapp, Bill Melendez, & Francesca Capaldi






The characters are sooooo cute!  I love Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the rest of the gang.  But this movie was not great.

Charlie Brown and the rest of his friends are in school, when a new girl shows up.  We never get the name of the new girl other than her being referred to as the little red-haired girl.  For most of the film, Charlie Brown tries to impress her in order to get her attention.

Even though the characters are super cute, we didn't get to see the little red-haired girl's face for half the movie!  She was pretty much never around or always in the audience.  I was just tired of waiting for this budding romance that took forever to happen, well kind of happen.  I think another problem was that Charlie Brown was trying to impress her with too many things too many times.  He tried dancing, talent show, book report, going to her door, flying a kite and probably some other things that I forgot.  It was just too much.

Another issue I had with the film was Snoopy and Woodstalk's own little story.  The film kept intercrossing between the two and I just wanted to focus on Charlie Brown's story.  Maybe if it was a different Snoopy story other than him writing a book it'd be better.

It's cute and all, but boring and tedious.  1 popcorn.

The Good Dinosaur (2015)

Directed by: Peter Sohn

Written by: Peter Sohn, Erik Benson, Meg LeFauve, Kelsey Mann, & Bob Peterson

Starring: Raymond Ochoa & Jack Bright






I think out of all the Pixar movies I've seen, this one is the least liked.  I'm not trying to say it was the worst and make it sound bad because Pixar films are never bad, but every other Pixar film that has been made is better.

Arlo, the good dinosaur voiced by Ochoa, is the smallest and most cowardly of his family.  He tries to impress them, but he ends up being too scared to actually prove himself.  One day, his father grows tired of Arlo's fear and tries to make him stand up for himself, but fails.  Later, when Arlo gets separated from his family due to a caveman human named Spot, voiced by Bright, he has to face his fear if he is ever going to get home.

This movie is beautiful.  The colors, the lighting, the landscape are all gorgeous.  Some trees and water actually looked real; it was that amazing.

As for the actual plot, I was a little disappointed.  For some reason I thought it would be more heart wrenching.  Before seeing this film, I did get some sneak peaks from my school when a Pixar employee visited, but I didn't think that affected my viewpoint of this film.

The film kind of dragged and it seemed pretty obvious of what was going to happen.  Maybe it was supposed to be obvious, I mean it is a children's movie, but it was just a tad boring.  But still beautiful.  That's pretty much all I can say about it.  Boring and beautiful.  2 popcorns.

Creed (2015)

Directed by:  Ryan Coogler

Written by: Ryan Coogler, Aaron Covington, & Sylvester Stallone (characters)

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone,  & Tessa Thompson






Thanksgiving.  What a wonderful holiday to eat, spend time with family and friends, and especially...go to the movies!  Well for this film, I actually went the day before, but same thing almost.

Creed stars Jordan playing Adonis Johnson, the child of an affair between Johnson's mother and Apollo Creed, a great boxer way back when.  When Johnson wants to make a name for himself and get into the boxing world, he turns to Rocky Balboa (Stallone) who fought Apollo Creed three times before.  They were rivals and friends.  Johnson tries to fight his way to the top with his biggest opponent being himself.

So I've seen all seven of the Rocky films.  I love Rocky.  And this one was good too, but not 5 popcorns good.

I enjoyed the story and where it went.  It reminded me a lot of the first Rocky with a similar plot of a nobody fighter fighting someone really well known.  Of course there are differences with Johnson having family issues while in Rocky, Balboa was just trying to get recognized with Adrian and Mickey.  But wait...now that I think about, it is the same too.  Johnson trying to get recognized by Thompson's character Bianca as well as him trying to get Balboa to train him.  So yeah, pretty much the same film.  Which may be why I was not so impressed.

So I guess the main difference between the movies is just the main character.  Rocky versus Adonis.  They have different personalities, but other than that, it's pretty much the same film as the first one. with a few different scenes.  But those new scenes are really other scenes from previous Rocky films.  

As for technical differences, this film was directed by Coogler, who also did Fruitvale Station.  He has not made many films, but for being so young, he's pretty good.  But for this film, his directing style, mainly camera and editing montage, bugged me.  With the Rocky films most of the shots are medium and a little far away.  In Creed, there were close ups and how do I explain this...like point of view shots, but they seemed like they were from the wrong point of view.  There was just something off about it.

Also I'm not sure what the director's motives were for the training montage.  Just like Rocky, Johnson trains for his big fight with running, chicken catching, jump rope, etc...but it wasn't successful.  Maybe that was Coogler's intentions to throw the audience off with a different montage, but it was just too similar to the original and it did not use important shots like running up the steps or any air punching.  Maybe Coogler was trying to show the different personalities between the two men.  I don't know, I just didn't like it.

Another issue I had was the emotional part.  I understand that this film is supposed to be about Adonis and his issues with being a Creed, but everyone, of course, goes to see this film because of Stallone playing Rocky.  Everyone knows and loves Rocky.  That's just how it is.  And, as shown in the trailer, Rocky is by himself.  Adrian and Paulie are dead.  In the trailer, he seemed really torn up about it, more so than the actual film, but I think it was was too much of a quick cut.  The editor should have let that scene breathe more and it could have been more emotional therefore could have been bringing it up to 5 popcorns.

Other than that the story was good and so was the acting.  The casting department really picked a great choice with Jordan as well as the other new characters.  But with those issues that I had with this film, I'll give it 4 popcorns.  If you liked the other Rocky films, you'll like this one too.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)

Directed by: Francis Lawrence

Written by: Peter Craig, Danny Strong, & Suzanne Collins (novel/adaptation)

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, & Liam Hemsworth






(So before I begin my review, I need to vent about the people I sat next to.  It's not a horrible experience, but it was super annoying.  The mother and daughter to the left was not that bad.  The mom asked a couple questions and smacked her lips a little bit, but once I gave her a dirty look, no more lip smacking during the movie.

But the people to my right.  Oh my gosh.  First, they came to me and asked me to move over so they could sit there.  The movie was packed, I was being nice, so I moved over.  Horrible mistake.  The seat I ended up sitting in was almost broken because the bottom portion was leaning forward, so I was at an awkward angle.  But I didn't notice as much because of the movie.  But then the husband would not stop asking stupid questions!   "What did she say?  Who's Plutarch?  Is that oil?  She's from "Game of Thrones."  I knew that was gonna happen."  Then at the end, he says, "That movie was boring."  It was because you kept talking the whole time!  Not to mention he looked like a boring politician who would get into a fight about soup.  The wife even looked annoyed and you know she liked the film, but agreed with him because he seemed like a negative pushy close minded person.  Now, I'm sure he's a nice guy and I don't have the right to judge him.  But when you keep talking during the movie about stupid stuff, that of course the wife doesn't know, like is that oil?  How she supposed to know?  She wasn't in the editing room.  Of course, I can see if she read the books, then she'd supposedly be an expert and could be why he asked those questions, but leave it for the end!  Leave it for the credits.  And the movie was only boring to him because 1) he's probably boring and 2) he is not the film's target audience in no way, shape, or form.  Phew.  Rant over, let the review begin.)

I love The Hunger Games.  I loved them since I read the books, saw the first movie, and I still love them after seeing this one.

So this may be another biased review since I read the books, but if you compare to The Scorch Trials review, it may not be.

The film starts off right where the last one left off.  If you don't remember the last one, rewatch it, or if you're short on time, ask the person next to you, not that you really need to because seeing Katniss will jog your memory.  But I just really liked it.

The cinematography was good.  The only shot I had a problem with was during this dancing scene where it seemed like the camera operator was having fun spinning around and the shot could be meant for a reel example rather than being important to the script.  It was a good shot, but it was annoying since it didn't lead to a nice transition for the next scene.

Editing and CGI was amazing.  I am pretty sure people did not recognize that Philip Seymour Hoffman at the end was computerized.  I mean you can see the difference, but if you didn't know that he didn't finish the films, you would have thought it was him.

Overall though, the real reason I love this film is because it was just like the book and I loved the book.  (Well kind of, except the killing of some characters. Ahem.)  Anyway, the film was creative in that they created some new scenes that were not in the novel.  But those scenes worked well with the plot and did not seem in any way unnecessary and actually seemed very useful.  Plus it had all of my favorite and important scenes, that luckily were not cut.  Also I'm a gushy fan girl that loves both Hutcherson and Hemsworth.  I am Team Peeta in the films, and Team Gale in the books.  It's a complicated relationship and I'm the same with Twilight, but I won't get into that.

Now, if you are a teenage girl, a young boy, a young adult woman or man, or a mom that loved Twilight, this film is for you.  Also if you've seen the other films then of course watch this one.  If you are an older man or senior citizen, this is not your film.  It is not targeted to you in any way unless you're a fan of Donald Sutherland or some other actor in the film. But seriously, watch the trailer.  If you like the trailer, you'll like the film.  And I did!  5 popcorns.

Trumbo (2015)

Directed by: Jay Roach

Written by: John McNamara & Bruce Cook (novel)

Starring: Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, & Helen Mirren








I apologize for not uploading a post sooner.  It's been a crazy two weeks.  I could barely make it to this film today, but going to the movies is my happy place and it definitely reset my motivation for...well life in general I guess.

So, you should be happy to hear that I did NOT fall asleep.  I know, shocking.  That's because this movie was amazing!

I may be biased.  I am pursuing the film industry after all, but who doesn't love a film about film?  Seriously, who?

But let's get down to the details.  What made this film great exactly?  Well everything pretty much.

Cranston's perfromance of Dalton Trumbo was outstanding. Lane's performance of Cleo Trumbo was amazing.  Fanning, Mirren, Goodman, C.K., and all the other actors were marvelous.

Now before this film, I did not necessarily know much about Mr. Trumbo, nor the details of what exactly went on during this blacklisted time.  All I knew was Communism was afoot in Hollywood during the 1950s or so.  So before watching this movie, I was a little aprehensive, with my concern being that you had to know a lot about the time period and political language, which I don't know much about.  But luckily I had no reason to be concerned.  The movie's nature was simple.  Technically it was about the blacklisting and the politics behind it, but the film mostly focused on the personal toll that the Hollywood 10 had to go through, what their families went through and ultimately how they overcame it or didn't.

I barely have anything negative to say about this film.  The negatives were it was a slow start, but after it got going, it got going.  What else?  Um...yeah that's it.  Nothing else.

The camera work was great.  There was a combination of archival footage, reenactment footage, and of course the regular footage, made up the film quite nicely.  Even at the end, when the credits were rolling it was good.  But despite all the technical amazements, the performances and the script are what made this film successful.

So technically you can look up the history to figure out what happens, but don't spoil it for yourself.  Just go see it.  It was worth seeing from my $25 combination of food and ticket.  5 popcorns!!!

Steve Jobs (2015)

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Written by: Aaron Sorkin & Walter Isaacson (novel)

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, & Seth Rogen






I've seen Ashton Kutcher play Steve Jobs and now Michael Fassbender.  Who's next?

Before I begin, I must admit that I missed the first 5 to 10 minutes of the film.  (I was running a little late.)  And also I fell asleep a couple of times.  Not sure if that was because I didn't really like this film or I was tired.  Probably both.

I felt that the actors gave a great performance, but I was just over all the fighting that was taking place.  This film put Jobs in a bad light, which I heard was true for the most part.  He was difficult to work with and had a struggling relationship with his family at the beginning, but this film left out how he changed over time.

I'm more of a "show me, don't tell me" type of person.  This film told me too much, and barely showed me anything.  It was pretty much Jobs fighting with everyone.  And I mean everyone from his assistant to his daughter.  There was so much dialogue, I would space out.  I started thinking about what I was going to eat for dinner and where I was going to go shopping. Then if you missed a piece of the argument, you seemed to miss the whole thing so I just waited for the next one to begin.

Perhaps I need to rewatch it to love it,  but for now 3 popcorns.  I expected more.  But this film has split reviews.  You either love it or hate it.  So you never know, you might like it...

Crimson Peak (2015)

Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

Written by: Guillermo del Toro & Matthew Robbins

Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, & Tom Hiddleston






I never really watch horror films.  The main reason is not because they're scary, but because they're funny.  I always seem to end up laughing and ruining the movie for others.  Maybe it's a defensive mechanism so I'm not scared.  Because I do get scared, mainly haunted houses.  Hate those.

Anyway, I laughed at this film too.  The "ghosts" were poorly made.  They are more translucent bones with muscles.  The ghosts were a mixture of red meat and skeletons put together, and the CGI just made it awful.  Perhaps the red coloring they used.  I can see why they made it that color, to match the red clay that is underneath the house, but it was a poor choice.  The best ghosts were at the end of the film, but no spoilers.

The film was okay.  I liked it overall.  Only parts I didn't like were the ghosts, those were crappy, and the unanswered questions.

When writing a script, once you finish, there should be no more questions that the audience still has. Unless it's like Inception where the answer is either one or the other, such as if it was all a dream or not.  But this wasn't the case for Crimson Peak.

The questions I had were: why is there red clay under the house? And why doesn't Lucille (Chastain) and Thomas (Hiddleston) get older?  Why are they immortal?  (I hope these questions don't spoil anything.)

So I feel like the second question is pretty important to the plot.  Just saying.  So that kind of sucked, not knowing the answers and all.

But other than that, it was pretty good.  I wanted to know what was going to happen.  The film kept me hooked and there was mystery, excitement, and some laughs, though those were probably not intentional.  So I do think people should see this movie, but it's more of a rent it or see it in the morning type.  3 popcorns.

Grandma (2015)

Directed by: Paul Weitz

Written by: Paul Weitz

Starring: Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, & Marcia Gay Harden








Before I begin my review, I should probably explain what Grandma is about, since I know there hasn't been as much marketing for this as there is for mainstream films.

This independent movie stars Tomlin as Elle Reid.  One day Garner's character Sage, Reid's granddaughter, comes to ask her grandmother for $630 in order to get an abortion.  Reid doesn't have the money, so her and Sage go all over town visiting various people from their old friend, to the baby daddy, to past loves.  Like Tomlin in real life, Reid is a lesbian.  And by being gay she has made a lot of mistakes and has developed this "screw you" kind of attitude.  This makes it difficult to find the money to get an abortion.  Old feelings come up and Reid has to figure out if getting the money is worth more than her pride.

That was a crappy summary, but only because it was not that great of a film.  Without the strong names behind this film, I doubt it'd be a movie.  The film was a little all over the place and the pacing dragged.

When I had taken a screenwriting class, one of the basic rules was to keep the audience wanting more by always having a question for them to ask.  The only question that was constant was if Sage was going to be able to get an abortion?  The film felt like it would try to come up with more questions by getting Elle and some other character together to cause some tension from the past, but it was not explained thoroughly, so it caused me to lose interest.

Another basic rule of screenwriting was to have the characters develop of time.  Let the audience see that they have changed.  Sage changed.  Elle's daughter Judy (Harden) changed.  But the main character, Elle, to me seemed to have overall stayed the same from when she first began.  And she's the main character!

Also, another problem I had with the film besides the writing was...well actually it probably still has something to do with the writing.  In the film, Elle is an author of famous poetry books, or something.  So I'm not sure if their intention was to create the film like a book, because they tried to provide chapters in the film.  After a specific scene with a character, there would be a transition of a number and a word on a white background to explain the next character that was about to appear.  I didn't think that was necessary and it kind of took me out of the moment.

It was not a bad film.  It just had nothing to keep me interested in continuing to watch it.  But I watched till the end, 3 popcorns.

Freeheld (2015)

Directed by: Peter Sollett

Written by: Ron Nyswaner

Starring: Julianne Moore, Ellen Page, & Michael Shannon







Michael Shannon is all over the big screen this week.  First 99 Homes and now Freeheld.  You go Shannon!

Freeheld is about Laurel Hester (Moore), a cop who is also a closeted lesbian.  She's been on the force for twenty-something years and no one knows.  She's worked her ass off to get to where she is today and she feels that by letting out her secret it can all come crashing down.  Unfortunately, her life does come crashing down, but not because she's a lesbian, but because she gets cancer.  Once she realizes that she's going to die, she wants her domestic partner Stacie Andree (Page) to have her pension.  But because they are not married and are only domestic partners, this is easier said than done.  Both women fight for equality with the help of Dane Wells (Shannon), Hester's partner (cop wise), and Steven Goldstein (Steve Carell), a gay Jewish activist for gay marriage.

I liked almost everything about this movie, except Carell.  To me Carell playing a gay Jewish activist was not believable.  He seemed like he was trying too hard to be gay or maybe I've seen him in too many straight roles.

The film is overall good.  It starts off a little slow with Hester and Andree getting to know one another and falling in love, but once Hester develops cancer it speeds up.  I do, though, think it is necessary for the audience to see how their relationship developed in the beginning because we get a sense of what both women are fighting for in the end.

I think if you have seen Still Alice, where Moore is also sick, you may not be as emotional towards this film as it was intended.  I just hope Moore can stop playing the sick roles soon.  I mean she's good at them, but still.  Haha, still, get it?

Anyway, 4 popcorns.