December - Short Reviews

There are going to be few notes here that aren't exactly reviews. It's mostly because I've rewatched a movie and didn't feel like writing a whole thing on it so I just made really short reviews for Letterboxd and then gathered all of those here.

2.12. Now You See Me 2 (2016) - 4 / 10

Something was missing compared to the first one. It's like they wanted to just cram so many plot twists into this movie it eventually ended up feeling like not that big of a deal.

2.12. Gone Girl (2014) - 9 / 10

Most people are such idiots in this movie, like I think I'd do better than Nick in this film. Like most of all I'd be able to keep my amazing beautiful wife.

But this movie is still so fucking good.

10.12. Ratatouille (2007) - 7 / 10

"Ratatouille is a peasant dish and you want to serve it to the food critic???" she asked THE RAT.

12.12. Blades of Glory (2007) - 5 / 10

We started watching this in the 7th grade and never finished, but I had to watch it now, six years later, because I'm thirsty for Will Arnett.

2016 in Movies

So the year is ending. It's been a tough year, but there has been many good things about it too. Here's my positive summary of 2016.

This year I've been really into: Quentin Tarantino, Will Smith, Will Arnett, The Lego Movie, BoJack Horseman, Audible's Comedy Show Show, and comedy in general.

Other high points of the year: I graduated, I applied to schools though I didn't get in. I was in the cool Tarantino theme night and I saw Ennio Morricone live. I was drunk for the first time and I started at my internship I'm starting to like more and more.

I've seen about 119 movies in 2016. Here are all the films I saw for the first time and rated 8 or higher.

JANUARY

Battle Royale - 9 / 10

Boot Camp - 10 / 10

Death Proof - 9 / 10

Django Unchained - 10 / 10

Inglourious Basterds - 10 / 10

Jackie Brown - 9 / 10

John Dies at the End - 8 / 10

The Hateful Eight - 10 / 10

FEBRUARY

Oldboy 8 / 10

MARCH

American Ultra - 10 / 10

Hot Fuzz - 9 / 10

Jawbreaker - 8 / 10

Kung Fu Jungle - 8 / 10 

Shaun of the Dead - 9 / 10

The End of the Tour - 8 / 10

The World's End - 9 / 10

APRIL

Hostel - 9 / 10

Hostel, part II - 8 / 10

Mr. Right - 9 / 10

Saw - 8 / 10

Sushi Girl - 10 / 10

Whip it - 9 / 10

MAY

21 Jump Street - 8 / 10

22 Jump Street - 8 / 10

In Bruges - 8 / 10

Stoker - 9 / 10

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance - 8 / 10

X-Men: Apocalypse - 8 / 10

JUNE

Danny the Dog - 9 / 10

Now You See Me - 9 / 10

JULY

Attack the Block - 9 / 10

Ghostbusters- 10 / 10

AUGUST

Adventureland - 8 / 10

Enemy of the State - 9 / 10

Hitch - 10 / 10

SEPTEMBER

Rush Hour - 8 / 10

Rush Hour 2 - 8 / 10

OCTOBER

-

NOVEMBER

Hot Pursuit - 8 / 10

Äkkilähtö - 9 / 10

DECEMBER

-

Zoolander 2 (2016)

Directed by: Ben Stiller

Written by: John Hamburg, Ben Stiller, Nick Stoller & Justin Theroux, and Drake Sather & Stiller (character Zoolander) 

Derek and Hansel are lured to Rome to start modelling again, and they find themselves as a target of a bigger conspiracy.

---

I saw the teaser and the trailer for this movie when they came out. I especially loved the teaser, and definitely wanted to see this movie. Still I somehow missed in the theatres, or was it even in theatres here? Anyway, I missed it, and all of a sudden it was on DVD, but still I managed to rent it only today.

Zoolander 2 captures you from the very beginning. There's a thrilling chase scene, and very dramatic line: "You can't kill us all. We'll protect the chosen one". I never expected to hear that from Justin Bieber, and I'm not just saying a character played by Justin Bieber, I mean literally... Bieber said that and was shot dramatically. If there's a weirder and hilarious way to start a movie, I'd like to know what it is. (Before you think I'm saying Oh, this is the best beginning ever, I'm just saying it's absurd and the kind of "What the fuck did just happen?" kind of beginning.)

Like the first one, Zoolander 2 is just a blast of weird absurdity that makes you laugh but also makes you wonder why the hell are you watching this. It's ridiculous, but it's the entertaining kind of ridiculous instead of frustrating.

One of the weirdest things I've read about this movie is that it's almost exactly like the first one. Yeah, obviously. Has there ever been a sequel that would be for some reason really original and not at all repetitious? Come on! Yeah, it can be annoying if the same shit is repeated over and over again, but to be honest I'm not the right person to say if the same jokes are starting to get boring, because I've seen the first movie once over a year ago. I barely remember all the jokes.

Yes, the plot of this movie is obviously similar to the first one. The structure is similar. It's just not the first Zoolander movie. The same structure is used in many other comedies, it's just different each time. There are several very predictable plot points, but hey, the movie is fun. Isn't that what's the most important thing when watching comedies?

Zoolander 2 is as good as any sequel. It's funny, it's weird and the cast is amazing. It's a bit updated but still has the same amazing faces. If you like the first one, and aren't too serious about how similar a sequel is, watch it. It might be worth it.

☆☆☆☆☆☆

6 / 10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

Directed by: Jonathan Liebesman

Written by: Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec & Evan Daugherty and Peter Laird & Kevin Eastman (characters created by)

A reporter tries to get proof of vigilantes in New York City and stumbles onto four mutated turtles fighting the evil Foot Clan .

---

When I started watching this movie, I knew it was going to be bad. I expected nothing else, I knew I was going to hate it. But sometimes you got to watch bad movies. They make you more grateful for the good movies. Also there is always that one actor who makes you willing to watch everything they have been in. You know how these things are! Also I hate typing the whole name of the movies, so I'll try to avoid doing that.

Right before I started watching this movie my friend Lauri mentioned he had seen it. He told me the whole movie had the vibe that it's mostly meant for 10-year-old American boys, which is like painstakingly clear from the beginning. The jokes are super crude and everyone is kind of gross on very many levels. That alone makes this film quite cringe-worthy. 

It's obvious this movie was made mostly because superhero movies were and still are so in. TMNT is like those superhero movies: it's at least somewhat entertaining even at it's worst. It's like a bad superhero movie: It's bad, but you can just play it in the background while thinking about something else. The action sequences are not great however. They are definitely way too long. They are supposed to be visually nice, but they really aren't, at least not without 3D, and with 3D they would probably be even messier. 

Watching the turtles also makes it very clear that there's no reason for you to make a live action version of TMNT. The CGI is horrifying and all the CGI-characters look so bad. Who looked at these and thought yeah, that's a good idea, let's make a movie?

The turtles caused me some other confusion as well. I've only seen one episode of TMNT when I was like six years old. It is incredibly hard trying to tell the difference between the four turtles. Like sure, their masks are different colours but apart from the weird one and the nerd one, how was I able to tell the difference between the other two? Their personalities seemed the exact same to me.

I complained about this movie more on Twitter, and I think I can summarise those tweets: The dialogue is awfully dumb, and of course really crude. Characters keep making stupid decisions. There's something good in this movie, it comes mostly from the characters April and Vernon and the way April wanted to find out what was going on, but I just didn't want the turtles there and also I felt like the martial arts were a bit bastardised - but I'm not 100% sure about that. 

I knew this movie was going to be bad and it was exactly that. So I'm not disappointed, I watched a stupid movie but I was able to admire absolutely mesmerising Megan Fox and super hot Will Arnett, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

☆☆

2 / 10

30 Minutes or Less (2011)

Directed by: Ruben Fleischer 

Written by: Michael Diliberti & Matthew Sullivan

Two fledgling criminals kidnap a pizza boy. They strap a bomb onto his chest force him to rob a bank for them.

---

I haven't been very active in December, and I'm sorry. It's mostly because I got an internship and my time has been consumed by stress and writing articles. The internship is at a local newspaper. There's been talk that the newspaper might want someone to write about movies there. The editor in chief hasn't said anything about it, but one editor mentioned they have been discussing it. So if I get to do those I'll let you know, and probably upload them once the paper has come out. 

But as for now I'm sticking to the reviews and posts I'll do for this blog and this blog only. Well, apart from letterboxd and IMDb, but I prefer doing these here, because then they feel more like my own. Also I can add useless stuff like these two paragraphs. I don't think this kind of useless chatter would be tolerated on IMDb reviews. Or maybe it would be, I'm too afraid to try.

Anyway, the first week at a new job is of course unbelievably stressful. I feel like I don't know how to do anything, I feel useless, all that. So when Friday comes and I finally get home, I just want to watch a fun movie and not think about it. (I have to think about it a little if I want to write a post about it.) What was more important than watching a fun movie was not choosing a movie. I just picked the first movie on my list and went with it. And that movie happened to be 30 Minutes or Less.

I'm starting to really like Jesse Eisenberg as an actor. Yeah, he isn't that great, but the movies are great and the characters he plays are  fun. I also like Aziz Ansari, mostly because I like his stand up and I like his show Master of None on Netflix. Those two were the main reasons I was interested in this movie - them and the plot seemed interesting.

Of course after reading about it online, the story of the movie seems more and more wrong. I don't know how many of my readers are aware of the death of Brian Douglas Wells. I only learned about this now, mostly because I was seven at the time it happened and wasn't exactly following news. I'm not sure if I've quickly read through something about the case, but I wasn't really that aware of it. And even if the makers of the movie claim the case of Brian Douglas Wells hadn't inspired the movie, it does feel pretty bizarre how similar the situations are, and how they kind of made that situation into a comedy. 

But before I learned about that I actually did enjoy the movie. It is thrilling and funny. Best part of the movie is the dialogue. It's the best kind of dialogue in an action comedy. It's weirdly casual and natural yet it suits the unusual situation. However the plot does have so unfortunately typical plot points we'd all rather just let die. They are easy to predict and frustrating and frankly they are getting old.

I enjoyed this movie. It's okay for an action comedy - action comedies don't need to be good, they just need to be entertaining, and 30 Minutes or Less definitely is. The key note is: it could've been better. Everything about this movie could've been way better, but either the filmmakers didn't think that, or they were satisfied with the decent movie they made.

☆☆☆☆☆☆

6 / 10

Trailer Thoughts: Old Stone (2016) & Nobody Walks in L.A. (2016)

I've been procrastinating on these trailers, and I have so many trailers on my subscriptions I still haven't watched, which is kind of sad. I've mostly been busy while watching random movies with friends and National Novel Writing Month. I finished my story and ended up with over 72 000 words. 

Also last night I went to see Ennio Morricone and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra live. It was astonishing. I would've done an independent post for the concert but I have no footage of the concert so I feel like just me telling it was amazing isn't worth a full post. 

But let's watch some trailers!

First one I want to talk about is Old Stone, the first full-length feature film of the director Johnny Ma. It's a psychological thriller about a taxi driver battling bureaucracy and legal manipulation in China.

The trailer is extremely dark. You can see it's going to be extremely thrilling and agonising, while also it seems artistic. It reminds me of is Oldboy by Chan-Wook Park, mostly because of the dark almost brutal shade the trailer has. 

I'm not one hundred percent sure what it's going to be about. The plot summaries online are very short, and everything else that's on the trailer is there very quickly and shortly. But still, this movie seems astonishing. It seems brutal in a psychological way and political and just everything that makes a perfect thriller.

Apparently it has come out in USA already, I just hope I'll have the chance to see it in theatres here in Finland as well, but also I think it's just going to end up on a DVD with little publicity, so I'll look forward to renting it.

The next trailer I thought seemed interesting is for Nobody Walks in L.A., which seems to have come out in April already, so I have no idea why the trailer is on my subscriptions. Like why did the channel decide to upload it now? Did it come out on DVD recently? What? Anyway it's about two friends who walk around L.A. Yes, seriously, that's the plot it seems. They talk about their lives and rediscover the city and each other. Sounds lame right?

But wait, if I'm so cynical, why would I want to talk about it? Well, it caught my eye, and if I'd only choose movies I'd be 100 % into, these would be boring. "Oh this movie seems awesome! I'd go see it!" "Oh this movie seems awesome!" over and over again. Who'd care?

To be honest the name of this movie is the reason it caught my eye. It's a bit long, sure, but it's also the kind of name which people notice better than a movie that has a one word like Stone. Seeing a movie titled Stone and Nobody Walks in L.A., which one would you be more interested? Also for some reason the name and the start of the trailer made me think of an amazing Netflix Original series called Flaked. 

Eventually the idea of two people is boring if nothing really happens, but it also seems calming. Like It feels like this is the kind of film that makes you feel good about life and it gives you new energy and positive attitude. It doesn't necessarily do all that, but the trailer is so light and fun... It's like sunshine, which is something we need in dark December (holy shit, it's December already?). The trailer makes promises and you hope the movie is able to make those promises come true. Like there will be conflict, but eventually after 93 minutes everything is okay. And I think that's exactly what I need right now, and which is why I definitely want to see this film.

---

Reasons I'd watch Old Stone: It is a dark, brutal psychological thriller, and that's the best kind! And if you're not afraid to watch movies in a foreign language (and obviously that note is for everyone who doesn't speak Mandarin), go see this. I have a feeling it's going to be amazing, yet it's probably not going to receive the attention it deserves, so give it attention.

Reasons I'd watch Nobody Walks In L.A.: It seems light and fun yet deep, and like the whole movie is going to bring sunshine into my life. It's exactly what I need right now, since it's always dark outside and I don't know how my life is going to turn out. It's like this movie might make everything okay.

November - Short Reviews

9.11.  The Lego Movie (2014) - 9 / 10

Yes, as you can probably imagine, this morning hasn't been too happy. I felt like creating a bubble for myself so I don't have to think about how bad the world seems right now. What better way to ignore everything than to watch The Lego Movie?

The Lego movie is probably the funniest animated movie I have ever seen. The dialogue is so much fun and the craziest lines seem impossible to predict. The whole film is a wild ride and considering all the rights Lego company owns, there's bound to be some pretty amazing characters. Of course there are the original characters created for this movie,  but there's also characters like Batman making appearance. The cast of the characters is one of the reasons this movie is so epic.

I just love this movie so much.  It's clever, funny and even touching. At first the whole idea seemed ridiculous: who would want to watch a movie about Legos? But why wouldn't you? This is better than the crap Disney is throwing our way.

Also I am glad because The Lego Movie and the upcoming Lego Batman Movie have given me my favourite version of Batman, played by one of my favourite actors, Will Arnett.

13.11. Baby Mama (2008) - 5 / 10

I've been watching so much 30 Rock lately, and I just wanted to watch something else with Tina Fey in it. And since Amy Poehler was in this movie as well, it felt like a jackpot.

Baby Mama is a fun movie, and I had high hopes for it. That's mostly because I wanted it to end happily, because at a certain point it felt like there's no way for it to end happily. But still, the way it ended felt so stupid and just... too easy. It was too happy in a way that it make everyone's dreams come true, and that happens very rarely in real life. Of course it's nice to have a movie where everyone is more or less happy, but that also felt really cheap.

I love the chemistry between Fey and Poehler. I wish there were more movies with both of them on Netflix.¨

20,11, The Lego Movie (2014) - 9 / 10

OOPS I DID IT AGAIN

25.11. Jennifer's Body (2009) - 8 / 10

This movie is so gay, how did I not see it the first time?

26.11. Stardust (2007) - 7 / 10

I'm not into fantasy. I only like it in video games and when I'm writing it myself, I'm not into fantasy literature or movies. I watched Stardust because it was directed by Matthew Vaughn, and now I have seen all the movies he's directed and are already out.

Stardust is a typical fantasy love story. It's filled with cliches but there are also so many delightful details that are very rare in fantasy, yet they are amazing. The cast is wonderful, and the world seems astonishing. I'd like to know more about it, yet I feel like I didn't care about the movie enough to actually do some research. 

Äkkilähtö (2016)

Directed by: Tiina Lymi

Written by: Nina Laurio & Tiina Lymi

Katri finds out that his boyfriend has been living a secret double life with an Estonian woman. She finds a bag of money and receipts and decides to make a run for it. She is accompanied by a little girl named Anna running away from her criminal stepfather. Together they decide to head to Anna's grandmother's house.

---

I saw the trailer for this movie earlier this year in the theatres. I meant to go see it, but eventually forgot. I'm usually not interested in Finnish movies, but the story of Äkkilähtö (in English it basically means "last minute travel deal", literally "sudden departure", but apparently the English title is "Last Minute" according to Letterboxd) seemed interesting, so I decided to rent and watch it.

The reason why I'm mostly avoiding Finnish movies is the dialogue. It's very hard to make Finnish dialogue that seems genuine and not at all forced. The dialogue in Äkkilähtö, however, is excellent. It's very casual, and there are only few words that stand out and seem so fake. Also  the use of English was weird, but I did remember I have friends who do in fact mix English words with Finnish when they are speaking, so it's not that unrealistic, it just stands out weirdly. It's hilarious to compare the dialogue with American movies. If in a Hollywood film someone sees their friends beaten up, all bloody, they are horrified. In Finnish film they just give a casual notion "Oh, you got your ass kicked". And of course writing dialogue for child actors is always a challenge. Mostly the writers succeeded with Anna. 

Anna as a character is interesting. She's had a rough life, he has a mother who doesn't seem to care, who doesn't seem to be aware of her situation. She says really worrisome things very casually. The writing is successful because there are scenes, during which it's hinted what kind of life she's lived. Most of those the viewer can just guess, it's never said directly or thrown in your face. The only proof of her tragic lives is the conversations between her and her stepfather Tero. The way he acts towards her already makes you want to just protect her and / or punch Tero. 

It's also so much fun to see Tero try to interact with Katri's ex, because neither of them wants to really give away why they are after Katri and Anna. And actually that refusing to share proves out to be a useful way to hide something from the audience and surprise them, but I don't want to give anything away.

The soundtrack of this movie is amazing. Sometimes it reminds you of the surf music used by Quentin Tarantino in his movies. Mostly it reminds you of some kind of typical western. It just makes you think "Texas Ranger" or "Ranch". That mixed with Finnish nature is an interesting combination, but it definitely works.

Äkkilähtö is an amazing movie, and while I'd love to recommend it I think that mostly goes for all my readers from Nordic countries. Still, Äkkilähtö is funny, and it's way better than I thought any Finnish movie would be.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

9 / 10

Hot Pursuit (2015)

Directed by: Anne Fletcher

Written by: David Feeney & John Quaintance

An uptight police officer has to protect the widow of a drug boss while her name is tarnished by dirty cops.

---

I find it hard to describe the movie since the description on the back of the cover felt a little inaccurate.

This movie caught my eye a while back, and when I was browsing through DVDs to rent, I decided to finally watch this. It seemed interesting - an action comedy with two amazing ladies starring. Female led comedies are really fun most of the time, and female led action comedies will always be so much fresher than their male counterparts. 

The plot of the movie is really thrilling and exciting. Of course the patterns are typical: the two main characters are trying to get away from two bad guys, who still show up all the time and the main characters never seem to get rid of them. That's all very predictable, you can always tell that the two bad guys are going to show up at the worst moment possible. Still the story had amazing and clever twists I did not see coming. Of course there are some weaknesses to the plot. There was that forced romance between Witherspoon's character and the... Did that character even have a name? Nobody needed that!

I love the leading actresses in this movie. I've seen Witherspoon in some romantic comedy once while I was in a plane, but I've always wanted to see Legally Blonde, I don't know why I still haven't. And Sofia Vergara is magnificent in Modern Family, and I really loved her in Machete Kills. 

Hot Pursuit is an entertaining action comedy. It's definitely worth a watch, although I will say this: it could've been gayer. 

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

8 / 10

Hot Rod (2007)

Directed by: Akiva Schaffer

Written by: Pam Brady

Self-proclaim stuntman Rod Kimble announces he will do a bike jump of a lifetime to get enough money for his step-father's surgery - so he can kick his ass.

---

The only thing I knew about this movie when I rented it was that it has incredible cast. That was the main reason I chose to watch it. It wasn't until later that I realised Akiva Schaffer directed the movie (I realised that like three minutes ago when I actually googled this movie and prepared to write this review). 

This movie has amazingly funny dialogue and writing, but also the typical physical stunts, or how the main character fails at them. Hilarious conversation and the bumbling around both work, and there are memorable scenes from both types. Good example of the humorous dialogue is this quote: "You look pretty." "What?" "I said you look shitty!"

Hot Rod's structure is typical to almost every comedy or drama that was ever made. But still as Rod is about to do this big stunt, it can go horribly wrong or amazingly well. That's the thing about comedies, they are unpredictable in a way. Only certain thing is that whether it goes wrong or right, it will be hilarious. 

I like the 80s aesthetic, but I'm still not entirely sure when the story actually takes place. There are other things I'm not sure about - like how old were the main characters? The way they acted and the stuff they said made it seem like they were teens or maybe early 20's. Of course it's even harder because of teenagers are mostly played by 20-somethings instead of actual teens. And the age thing didn't really bother me until Jonathan, who was played by Will Arnett (6' 2½''), showed up. The character is taller than everyone else and considering he had a real job and all seemed way older than everyone else. That made me think that maybe the main characters weren't as young as I thought, just a little immature.

Hot Rod is a pretty typical comedy. It makes you laugh, so it does its job well, but I don't think I'll be re-watching this any time soon.

☆☆☆☆☆

5 / 10

Date Night (2010)

Directed by: Shawn Levy

Written by: Josh Klausner 

Married couple tries to have a nice romantic night out, but dangerous people think they are someone else, and the night turns into dangerous adventure.

---

I've been watching a lot of 30 Rock and last night I was looking throught Netflix to find different movies Tina Fey has been in. Date Night is one of the movies I found, and since my dad had already seen it, and he said it was funny.

Date Night is definitely a funny movie. The way the two main characters just keep getting mixed in misadventures and situations which get crazier all the time is hilarious. 

Usually when a movie is about a married couple, there are those few annoying tropes. Screenwriters seem to hate marriage - they make it seem boring and hellish if there are kids involved, and there's no spark anymore and blah blah. But in Date Night these  two actually communicate, even if there seemed to be the same exact problem in the beginning as in many other movies. It's refreshing to see a somewhat typical comedy, yet the writers are not using those tropes as a way to create humor. It's not funny if a couple hates each other, it's just sad and weird. 

Date Night is an ordinary in its genre, though it is mixing two typical genres together. Still, it's hilarious and worth watching.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

7 / 10

Trailer Thoughts: Live By Night (2017) & Collateral Beauty (2016)

It's time for me to officially write down some of my Trailer Thoughts. I have done this earlier, but those trailers and thoughts I just shoved at the end of a review of the last Harry Potter movie, and they are hard to find on their own. 

Also since this is my first Trailer Thoughts post, I'll give myself some rules. I won't post two posts about trailers in a row. Reviews are what mostly drive this blog, so they come first. Also I'll just try not to have a review and a trailer thoughts posts like one after another, I'll try to have more reviews. 

I'll mostly find these trailers on YouTube. Right now I'm following four different channels posting news and trailers and stuff about movies.  I'm going to look through my subscription and take the trailers that seem most interesting, because there just is too many trailers for me to write about all of them. These posts would be way too long for that. I'm always looking for more channels, though, so if you know a channel, recommend it to me, and I'll be happy.

First trailer I'm gonna talk about today is Live By Night. The movie will come out in 2017, and it's directed by Ben Affleck.

This movie is simply about a group of people living in the Prohibition Era, and their dealings with the world of organised crime.

First of all, who here is surprised that Ben Affleck is going to star in the movie he also directed? Because he keeps doing that.

The atmosphere of the trailer is weirdly mysterious. It's caused mostly by the amazing cinematography and the music, which is perfect and well-chosen for the trailer, but also by the way the trailer is edited. It makes you wonder what is going on, and who is the main character, and yeah, mostly, what is going on? It's intriguing. 

But while trailers are trying to trick everyone to just go see a movie, I know already I won't like this kind of action movie. I'm really picky about action, because I want it to be more than just people shooting guns at each other while exciting soundtrack is playing in the background. Yes, Live By Night seems more than that, but it's the type I hate. It's old and there are gangsters, and I know I won't enjoy that. But still, Ben Affleck has made interesting movies before, so I might go see this. I don't know yet. Everything depends on whether or not it hits the theatres in my hometown.

The second trailer is for the movie Collateral Beauty. It's coming out this December, and it's directed by David Frankel.

Will Smith plays a man who after a tragedy starts writing letters to Love, Time and Death. 

The cast of this movie is incredible. That was the first thing I notice: Will Smith stars in this movie, and he is one of my favourite actors, which definitely makes me interested in this movie. Will Smith is brilliant, and it's a crime he hasn't gotten an Academy Award already. Well, maybe this movie will change that. Also this movie features another one of my favourite actors, Edward Norton. I'd never miss an opportunity to see two of my favourite actors working with each other. 

The very plot of this movie makes it clear this movie will get so many nominations. It's clear this movie will be so deep and also I know I will cry watching this movie. The idea is weirdly abstract - this man will meet Death and Time and Love and talk to them and write letters to them. It seems brilliant.

Oh I will definitely go see this if it comes out, and cry in the theatres.

---

Reasons to go see Live By Night: Probably will be a great action movie, the cinematography seems incredible and Ben Affleck is a great director.

Reasons to go see Collateral Beauty: The cast is amazing, and this movie will win some awards. Also you will definitely cry (if you let yourself to)

Let's Go to Prison (2006)

Directed by: Bob Odenkirk

Written by: Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon & Michael Patrick Jann (written by) & Jim Hogshire (book)

John Lyshitski wants to get revenge on the judge that put him in jail. Since the judge is dead, he wants to make the judge's son's life a living hell. He frames him for a crime and then joins him in prison.

---

I've been trying to understand the difference between the unrated and the rated versions, and apparently the difference isn't much. From what I understood, the unrated version is 90 minutes while rated is 84 minutes, and the one on Netflix was 90 minutes, but it didn't have the scene movie-censorship.com said was the key difference. Seems that the missing scene wasn't as crucial as the people in the IMDb message boards might let you believe, but you can never trust strangers online, can you?

I chose to watch this movie because of three different factors. First, Will Arnett is in it. Second, it's directed by Bob Odenkirk, while I know practically nothing about his directing, his name still made me interested. But the third and final reason that made me watch Let's Go To Prison was that it seemed extremely stupid. It's always refreshing to watch stupid comedies, instead of extremely clever and weird art dramas, because those get boring really quick. Sure, silly comedies with the same exact plotlines get boring, but at least they are somewhat fun. 

But was this comedy stupid? To be honest, it could've been stupider. The plot was actually pretty sly, just like it says on the poster. The writing amazed me, not because it was that brilliant, but mostly because I was expecting something so much worse. It actually was pretty fun to listen to the dialogue, and it sometimes was even clever.  Also certain plot twists were no easy to predict, and the movie was so much fun. I felt ashamed of how many inappropriate things felt funny in this film.

Also this movie has the perfect ending. There's clever twist and then the last setting feels idyllic.

The story was told in an interesting way. First-person narrative is always pretty interesting in a movie, especially when the movie is based on a book. You can't use all the narrative used in the novel, so what do you pick? The writers of this movie sure knew how to pick the exact right lines and nothing more, nothing less. Also there were a lot of fun effects used, mostly the cinematography: zooming, angles and such.

Let's Go to Prison feels weirdly fresh. The idea feels used, but the movie itself feels different from the typical movies of this genre. It was a lot different from what I expected, a lot funnier and a lot cleverer. I think I actually liked this movie.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

7 / 10

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) + Trailer Thoughts

Directed by: David Yates

Written by: J.K. Rowling (novel) & Steve Kloves (screenplay)

Harry, Ron and Hermione are trying to find and destroy mystical and dangerous items known as horcruxes to finally destroy lord Voldemort.

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Yes, I know it took me a while to watch all the Harry Potter movies, longer than I hoped. I haven't really watched other movies in between, because I wanted my blog to seem more or less clean with all the Harry Potter movies in a nice bundle. But to be fair, that was ruined by my Halloween post and the post with my shorter reviews from October. Still, I did manage to finish what I started, but honest to god I hope I never start anything like this ever again.

This movie is bullshit! There is so many useless scenes and they make me angry! They decided to make two movies out of one book, they cut many scenes out and then come up with scenes that don't exist and make no sense. I'd ask, but I know why: money. Two movies make more money than one. The people behind these films don't care about story telling they do this thinking about dollar signs - or pound signs, since it's a British film.

The original novel is so sad. There are so many significant deaths of characters you never feared would die. And in the movie those scenes are butchered. You briefly see someone dying - or you don't even see them dying, they just are dead all of a sudden. It's a lousy way to do this, because the emotional response from the audience isn't as great as when reading the novel. 

First part had the tale of three brothers that was so beautiful and amazing. The second part has nothing beautiful. Everything is million times faster and all the important pieces of information are lost. It's annoying!

I don't know if I can express my anger and frustration towards the series any better. Everything is wrong, and there are so many weird and awkward scenes that just don't go with the original story. The only thing that brings life to this movie is the cast, but many actors and actresses are now seen for maybe five minutes and that's it. They should've given more thought to how this movie is going to go down. Agh!

☆☆

2 / 10

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Anyway, because this post sounds really angry, I want to bring up something else to talk about. Something I'm rather excited about.

I know I haven't talked about trailers ever, but I'm going to start that. Mostly because I want this blog to be more than a movie review blogs, I want to talk about movies in any way I can. Hence, I'll start talking about trailers.

There are two trailers that I want to talk about, because I'm really excited about. The first trailer is for Logan.

First of all, I've loved X-Men since I saw X-Men First Class, and then all the others. While people are of course getting annoyed of Wolverine being everywhere, he is my favourite character, and Hugh Jackman is the perfect person to portray him. Also there's this feeling I have that this might be the last time we do see Wolverine in a movie, or at least in a movie where he'd play a major role.

Why do I feel like that? The whole trailer gives off that kind of vibe, like this is going to be something... ultimate. That this is all going to end. It's mostly the song Hurt, which suits the trailer amazingly.

Also it seems like Logan is going to be everything I ever wanted from a superhero movie. It's going to be violent and dark yet deep and hopeful. Yes, people have been saying that "Man Of Steel did it first" and blah blah blah, I don't care. I don't like Superman, I didn't like that movie, but I know I liked The Wolverine, and if James Mangold is directing Logan, this will be amazing.

Now the other trailer... It's also a superhero trailer, but the whole vibe is different:

I don't like Batman in general. Batman is boring and angsty. But ever since I saw The Lego Movie, I've loved Lego Batman. Lego Batman is fun. Lego Batman is the other thing I've wanted from a superhero movie: a ridiculous comedy. And the LEGO Batman Movie is perfect for my sense of humour.

I love Will Arnett, and he was born to play Batman... At least animated Batman. But the whole cast is amazing. I love Michael Cera in the trailer. Also it's amazing to get to see hear Arnett and Cera working together again.

I have no idea what this movie is about, but it sounds and looks amazing, and I am super excited.

October - Short Reviews

7.10. Big Hero 6 (2014) - 5 / 10

I avoided watching this movie since I had a feeling I wouldn't like it. And while it was fun and all that, I still didn't enjoy watching this movie. Maybe it's all because it won the Oscar for best animation even though there would've been better animations out there.

22.10. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) - 4 / 10

When I started watching it I was hoping for something hilarious yet something that I could write more than few sentences about. Well, it wasn't that funny and it wasn't that smart either. The cleverest thing was how the main character Conner is exactly what we think certain kind of celebrities are like.

I mostly wanted to watch this movie because I like The Lonely Island's music, and also Will Arnett was in it. Arnett's part was small, but I expected that. But there wasn't as much music as I would've hoped for. How many songs were fully played? Maybe four.

Mockumentary as a style of story telling is getting a little boring, but how else would they have done this though?

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping was an okay movie. It was funny and all, but also very annoying, and I don't think I'll be watching it again.

11 Great Horror and Thriller Movies to Watch This Halloween

Last night I had the idea to make this list. I haven't made many lists on my blog, and most of those are just "My favourite movies" and "My favourite TV shows", and frankly those are tiring. They are boring for you and they are boring for me. So I'm making my first themed list, and since it's 31st of October, that theme is horror and thriller. 

I've read through my blog and gathered 11 movies that I thought I could re-introduce on this list. I've wrote about these before, sometimes even twice. Not all of these are very new to you, but you might have forgotten about few. And of course there are some classics we should remember to watch.

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Attack The Block (2011), dir. Joe Cornish

Scary / Funny / Thrilling / Disgusting / WTF / B-Movie

A teen gang has to defend themselves from an alien invasion. I watched this movie with my friend once and we thought it would be some kind of B-movie, but it was way scarier than we thought. This film is absolutely astonishing visually, the writing is clever, cast is brilliant and it will keep you on the edge of your seat. There are few quite obvious jump scares, but this movie was still amazing.

9 / 10

Battle Royale (2000), dir. Kinji Fukasaku

Scary / Funny / Thrilling / Disgusting / WTF / B-Movie

In Battle Royale, a class of students is forced to fight and kill each other. Now Battle Royale isn't exactly scary, but it's still a thriller, and a damn clever one. This one is a cult classic, so if you're not into horror, but you like violent cult movies, this is the movie for you.

9 / 10

Death Proof (2007), dir. Quentin Tarantino

Scary / Funny / Thrilling / Disgusting / WTF / B-Movie

Two different groups of women are being stalked by an ex-stuntman with a death proof car. I wish I'd watched Planet Terror by now, so I could throw them both on the list, but no. Anyway, Death Proof is a homage to this kind of exploitation movies. Again, not scary, but amazing and thrilling. A cult movie everyone should see, and definitely worth a watch. Hey, it has to be good, if I usually hate car chases and car related movies of all sorts yet I love this.

9 / 10

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), dir. Robert Rodriguez

Scary / Funny / Thrilling / Disgusting / WTF / B-Movie

Two criminals end up in a bar populated by vampires. This is a B-movie, and it's absolutely ridiculous, I love that. The dialogue is clever, since it's written by Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez is a marvellous director. If any other people were behind this movie, it would be a disaster. Well, it's kind of a disaster now, but in a fun way.

7 / 10

Hostel (2005), dir. Eli Roth

Scary / Funny / Thrilling / Disgusting / WTF / B-Movie

Three backpackers end up in a hostel in eastern Europe without knowing what kind of hell awaits them. Hostel is full on torture porn. It's not exactly scary, but it's super disgusting and full of gore. So if you're into that, Hostel is your movie. Obviously this goes for Hostel Part II as well, I just didn't want to have two Hostel movies on the same list. But don't watch the third one. Everything is wrong with that one.

9 / 10

Jennifer's Body (2009), dir. Karyn Kusama

Scary (a little bit) / Funny / Thrilling / Disgusting / WTF / B-Movie

A high school teenager turns into a succubus who preys on her male classmates. Jennifer's Body is written by Diablo Cody, who is amazing writer. Again, this movie is ridiculous in a way, but it's one of my favourite movies. The cast is amazing and there's not one thing I don't love about this movie.

8 / 10

Oculus (2013), dir. Mike Flanagan

Scary / Funny / Thrilling / Disgusting / WTF / B-Movie

A woman tries to prove that a murder that was pinned on his brother was actually committed by a supernatural phenomenon living in a mirror. I saw glimpses of this movie at school once. This movie fucks with your mind and plays with time a lot. The movie is so creepy. I've only watched it once, but it affected me a lot never the less.

7 / 10

Orphan (2009), dir. Jaume Collet-Serra

Scary / Funny / Thrilling / Disgusting / WTF / B-Movie

A family adopts a nine-year-old, who turns out not to be as innocent as they first thought. When I watched this movie I already knew the most important plot twist, yet it was still so unnerving. This movie is very creepy and definitely worth another watch if you've already seen it.

7 / 10

Saw (2004), dir. James Wan

Scary / Funny / Thrilling / Disgusting / WTF / B-Movie

I've never seen the rest of the Saw movies, only the first one. The rest seem like they are just gore and they want to get as much money as possible, but the first Saw was brilliant. There's not so much unnecessary gore and it's very clever. So if you've been avoiding Saw movies because of how much they are spilling blood, watch the first one. It's good.

8 / 10

Shaun of the Dead (2004), dir. Edgar Wright

Scary / Funny / Thrilling / Disgusting / WTF / B-Movie

A man decides to win back his girlfriend and get rid of the zombies wandering around in the neighbourhood. Shaun of the Dead is a hilarious zombie movie. It's amazing British horror comedy. This movie is so much fun, yet it has all the drama of a good old zombie movie.

9 / 10

The Silence of the Lambs (1991), dir. Jonathan Demme

Scary / Funny / Thrilling / Disgusting / WTF / B-Movie

A young FBI cadet has to catch a serial killer with the help of another. This is the movie that made me into thrillers. Absolutely brilliant movie, so very slow  yet still absolutely thrilling. The whole cast of this movie is astonishing. This is a classic, and if you haven't seen it yet, or haven't seen it in a while, watch it. Just watch this astonishing movie.

9 / 10

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

Directed by: David Yates 

Written by: J.K. Rowling (novel) & Steve Kloves (screenplay)

Harry, Ron and Hermione are trying to find and destroy mystical and dangerous items known as horcruxes to finally destroy lord Voldemort.

---

The ending is closer and the movies are worse. Still they are trying to make an action film out of Harry Potter, but what's worse is how the filmmakers clearly don't know what to cut. There is such a long time of... nothing. They do nothing. There's some dialogue but it's not always entirely insightful. And there's the weird dance scene and all that. Yes, those scenes how Harry, Ron and Hermione were on the run for a really long time, but that's really frustrating for the audience. How about you cut that and make this film shorter - or better yet - include some things that were in the books but were barely mentioned in the movie.

I also don't like the point where they cut the movie in two. I've checked so many times what is the half point of the book, and I think they should've cut the movie around there - where that chapter ends at least. But I guess they wanted to stuff the Deathly Hallows into this movie. 

Best part of the whole movie is the Tale of the three brothers. It's visually more stunning than anything we've seen in Harry Potter movies. It's so awesome it seems completely out of place in this movie. It's still of course an interesting piece of lore, and a nice way to take a break from the events in the movie. 

Everything went downhill after Prisoner of Azkaban. I've been wondering why I don't like Harry Potter so much anymore, but this seems to be the reason. None of the later movies were good.

☆☆☆

3 / 10

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Directed by: David Yates

Written by: J.K. Rowling (novel) & Steve Kloves (screenplay)

Harry's sixth year is off to a weird start. Snape is finally the Defence Against Dark Arts teacher, and they have a new potions master. Harry also gets private lessons from Dumbledore, to discover crucial details about lord Voldemort's past.

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Yates's style still annoys me. He's trying to force fantasy literature into action. With Yates directing it seems that the grim visual side and "action" is more important than the actual story. And again, the idea of a dark fantasy story is making the movie so dark it's hard to see. That kind of aesthetic only suits David Fincher, and Yates is nowhere near his brilliance.

Also the romance side doesn't work at all in this movie. Sure, teenage romance is of course a bit awkward, but this is so outrageously clumsy it's painful to look at the scenes. The writer still hasn't managed to capture Ginny Weasley, nor has he decided what she should be like. Ginny is a completely different character compared to what she was like as a small child and even when Half-Blood Prince is compared with Order of Phoenix. Did the writers just want to have someone cool to be Harry's love interest? She is nowhere near as cool as she is in the book. Why is it so hard for men to write believable female characters? 

But if there is one character this movie manages to capture it's Draco Malfoy. Still, there's no sign of actual character development, because in the fifth movie he was still that annoying school bully and now he's, well... this. To be honest, that development happens very quickly in the books also. It's of course understandable, but slightly annoying. 

I love how they still pretend like now we get some real insight into Voldemort's past when we see like two memories of him. It's ridiculous. 

Half-Blood Prince is slightly better than the fifth movie. Maybe it took Yates some time to get used to the series. Still, he just doesn't seem to quite grasp the idea of Harry Potter, he just wants to make dark fantasy action for young adults.

☆☆☆☆☆

5 / 10

Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (2007)

Directed by: David Yates

Written by: J.K. Rowling (novel) & Michael Goldenberg (screenplay)

Harry Potter returns to the wizard world only to realise very few people have taken Voldemort's return seriously, and the ministry is trying to discredit both him and Dumbledore.

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the first Harry Potter movie directed by David Yates. Some fans love Yates and his different style, but there are people who don't like him, myself included. Sure, he's the one responsible for my favourite half of the series, where Harry is growing up and everything is darker. But in the movies the characters aren't as deep and the darkness feels more like a colour scheme than a change in the story telling.

Yates's style chooses action over the story - which makes no sense when considering what the novel was like. Order of the Phoenix had very little action, but it explored wonderfully, for example, Harry after seeing Voldemort returning and seeing Cedric Diggory being brutally murdered. In the movie you can see it bothers Harry, he is incredibly angry, but that's that. If you haven't read the book it only seems like Harry is having his puberty and therefore a bit moody, even if you could claim he has a case of PTSD. 

There are many emotional scenes in the novel that weren't included in the movie. They were completely forgotten or replaced by something really, really weird, apart from few that were important to the plot - they saved the scenes that were important when looking at this one movie, but ignored the story as a whole, and they seemed to figure character development was not that important. Harry Potter series is not seven separate stories it's one story in seven parts. 

At this point it's clear the filmmakers didn't care about the story as much as making the movies and making fans watch them and just get through the whole series. 

But it's lovely to see the film allowing few characters develop properly: like Neville during the DA. They tried to fake Ginny developing as well by only showing us that she is indeed amazing with spells. Still the filmmakers have forgotten to give her any sort of personality. I love her in the books but in movies she's just an empty husk - skillful of course, but she's not as interesting as in the books. 

'

Order of Phoenix is over-simplified and is trying to force a story into a film form in the easiest way possible. Yes, sure, they didn't have so much time to focus on the stories individually considering the stars were growing up but still, this is ridiculous. 

☆☆☆☆

4 / 10

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Directed by: Mike Newell

Written by: J.K. Rowling (novel) & Steve Kloves (screenplay)

It's Harry Potter's fourth year in Hogwarts, and this year the school is hosting the Triwizard Tournament, where three students from three different schools compete in dangerous tasks. Since the competitors have to be at least 17 years old, Harry and his friends have no intention of taking part. But the night the competitors are announced by the goblet of fire, somehow Harry turns out the be the fourth one...

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After the magnificent Prisoner of Azkaban, The Goblet of Fire is just a horrible downgrade. Yes, the book is long and there's no way every scene would be in it, but so much has been left behind. The beginning is butchered, so is the school year. Now it seems like nothing else happened except for the Triwizard Tournament. The main characters had like one class during the entire year. They should've made the movie longer. Three hours may be a long movie, but it's better to make it long than make it seem like all this happened in few months instead of one school year. Seasons barely changed!

This film includes the one change everyone hates: Dumbledore was supposed to calmly ask Harry if he put his name in the goblet of fire, but for some reason Michael Gambon's Dumbledore is furious 24/7 and even violent. It makes no sense. Of course Dumbledore is quite a reckless headmaster, but with Richard Harris he seemed gentle, just the right way. If Michael Gambon can't pull of that kind of gentleness, they should've cast someone else. Everyone loved Harris, he was the perfect Dumbledore. After he died, did the people in charge of casting just think, "Ah, fuck it, let's choose someone completely different". 

One thing I like is how dark the ending is. It's a good prelude to how dark the last movies are going to be. Of course now it seems like the movies are starting to be too scary for kids. It's hard for me to watch few scenes because of how gruesome they are, so how do they except children to watch them? 

All the charm Prisoner of Azkaban is gone. If one Harry Potter movie clearly needs a remake, it's this one. 

☆☆☆☆☆

5 / 10

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Directed by: Alfonso Cuarón

Written by: J.K. Rowling (novel) & Steve Kloves (screenplay)

Harry Potter's third year in Hogwarts is shadowed by another threath: a dangerous murderer Sirius Black has escaped the prison of Azkaban, and is apparently after Harry.

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Cuarón was a way better choice compared to Columbus! Columbus' versions were clearly meant more for kids than (young) adults, but Cuarón knows how to make a film truly for the whole family. Prisoner of Azkaban is of course scary for kids, but not too terrifying, yet still thrilling for anyone older. 

Visually Prisoner of Azkaban exceeds two previous movies. It's a lot different, considering how simple the first movies tried to be. There cinematography is astonishing and the camera moves in fun ways - like through windows or mirrors, and that always fascinated me as a kid. Even if movies are meant for children, cinematographers shouldn't shy away from eccentric, artistic choices because kids will love them. 

Also Prisoner of Azkaban rocks as an adaptation. It has scenes that didn't exist in the book and many details added by those who made this film, yet they all work. Those conversations between Harry and Lupin were always amazing and even if they weren't in the book or they were in the book but in a different form, those conversations were amazing and deep and gave... some hope to it. Also this is the only movie that has Harry's messy hair right.

Prisoner of Azkaban really stands out from all the other Harry Potter movies. It's no wonder many claim it to be their favourite.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

8 / 10