A Very Expectedly Great Movie

Great But Different. 

This was a movie that might have suffered from a very common post-trilogy syndrome of trying to live up to its predecessors glory. Instead this movie gave a big old fuck you and decided to be completely different and it worked... well... in fact very very well.

The movie starts before the beginning of the Lord of the Rings trilogy with old Bilbo and Frodo, and Bilbo is recalling his story, as Frodo goes to wait for Gandalf in the woods, which is the first scene after the prologue in the original trilogy. The movie goes for a great while into detail about the dwarfs and the cave and the gold and the dragon and the setup for the next three movies, then it starts at the beginning of 'The Hobbit' book. It has multiple flashbacks to earlier times and different storyline which keeps it pretty excited for the first half and the movie which is slower then the second. The end of the movie doesn't creep up on your but comes with no real feeling of conclusion, obviously. 

An Unexpected Journey was perhaps the most entertaining movie I have seen all year, it had it all the underdog story, the fallen hero, and even romance (Not really... but I am still holding out for maybe the great sex scene of all time between Gandalf and Galads). It didn't take itself to seriously in the slightest but still maintained a sense of epicness, and adventure. There are very few things that aren't great about this movie. Although it lacked the original authentic feeling of the first movies. All the bad guys in the film were CGI and lacked the conviction of the dressed up, unrecognizable human that I love so much. Nonetheless it was still great to look at as CGI looks amazing now. 

For those that have read the book, it is quite different as you might expect because a movie made from the book would be terrible just like the book is. Simply put 'The Hobbit' is a children's story and not much else, but Peter Jackson has done a great job in adapting it for the screen. More then half of the movie probably isn't in the book, and its for the better, making it much for entertaining. There are scenes with storm giants and warges, orcs and necromancers and although not in the original story they were very fun to watch. If you went into the movie expected it to be like lord of the rings they you may be disappointed, it is completely different in nature its much lighter and entertaining.

I did decided to watch it in the new 48 frames per second instead of the normal 24 fps, and it was different, a little distracting at first but my eyes quickly adjusted and it was very smooth and looked much cooler especially during the fight scenes, I highly recommend it over the now outdated IMAX 3D theatre for amateurs. 

Overall, the movie was good just about what I expected from the trailers, different, less authentic, more entertaining then the original trilogy but still adventurous, epic, and heartfelt. A really fun movie to watch. 

Overall Rating

S-A-B-R-e 

First Person-ish cop movie about two officers that stumble across a drug cartel... LOOKS AWESOME. This is one of those you watch the movies and then seriously consider being a cop if it was at all like this movie...which it isn't I don't think. It is starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena (there is a squiggly line above the 'N' in 'Pena' used to indicate his ethnicity, but I don't know how to write it using my keyboard) The director is David Ayer who has a fetish for badass-streetgang-cop movies having done training day, and S.W.A.T and Street Kings. I am very much looking forward to having that couple moments of wanting to be a badass cop.

- E

Magnolia Films

Magnolia Films seems to be popping up more and more in the movie world, maybe it is just me but it seems to have the fix on good movies. Magnolia Pictures is a company originals made for distributing foreign and independent films, now owned by the Mark Cuban and has turned into a lower-budget amazing film producing company, that also produces amazingly basis but good documentaries. Look into it, seriously.

I have seen quite a few of there movies, hear are some I recommend, comment is you think agreed or disagree:

- Countdown to Zero (Documentary)

- I Melt With You (Film)

- Troll Hunter (Film)

- I am Still Here (Film)

- Jesus Camp (Don't watch if you like Christianity) (Documentary)

- Man of Wire (Documentary)

- Food Inc (Documentary) 

- The Hunter (Film)

- And many others

Leave your comments with your favourite and your least favourite Magnolia Film.

- E

Why I believe that 'The Dark Knight Rises' will be one of the greatest movies of ALL time....!

A Movie to Rise Above All Others

The Dark Knight Rises, has been an extremely long awaited squeal, not in the traditional sense of time, but in the longing of awesomeness sense... Let me elaborate... Most movies I walk out of and say 'hey that was alright' then a while later I think 'hmmm could go for another one of those movies right now' but when it comes to Batman I left the Dark Knight movie theatre and was immediately ready for the sequel, and that is why it is an extremely long awaited movie. The Dark Knight Rises has had a crazy amount of hype after The Dark Knight and Batman Begins which were both absolutely amazing movies! The movie is expected to be just as good as The Dark knight is not better, and I believe that even though the expectations are extremely high the movie will be just as good if not better then the Dark Knight... and that is saying a lot.

I will elaborate my argument in three paragraphs. The first praising Christopher Nolan as a god. The second is just my personal opinion followed by a concluding paragraph that will have the word fuck in it about 20 times... obviously to give emphasis to my opinion.

 'The Dark Knight Rises' - And Why it is are going to be one of the best movies ever:

1. The Director (Christopher Nolan) is a genius not much else actually has to be said about that but if you need proof; he was the creative mind behind the 'mindfucking' movies (movies that fuck with your mind) such as: Insomnia, the murder mystery story nominated for numerous awards, directed by Christopher Nolan. Memento, the low budget films that was nominated for two oscars, Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan. The Prestige featuring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackson about two aspiring magicians in search of the greatest illusion. From mind thrillers, to magicians and Superheros there is nothing he can't do.  The man is also british so he is smart. He also wear scarfs and looks like a total swag-baller. The Man can make movies with highs stake suspense, crazy actions scenes, great special effects, and at the same time can completely scramble your brain. He is a king of the cinematic world (I said 'a king' not 'the king') and a God of the normal world, and he will not disappoint his peasants in "The Dark Knight Rises".

2. This movie is the 'epic conclusion' or one of the greatest trilogies of all time and with the amount of built up for movies, it might be impossible to achieve people expectation, but for me if it is even 1/50th of what I expect/want then it will be one of the greatest movies ever! I think the villain in this movie is awesome, I think the plot of this movie is awesome and I think that the flying thing that 'isnt a car' is going to be fucking awesome. I will be waiting in line for this movie for like 3 hours and it is going to be so worth it in everyway!! This movie won't be awarded in 3 or 5 stars ratings it will awarded in diamonds, because Christopher Nolan knows that pressure makes diamonds.

3. Fuck Fuck Fuck (17 left) This movie is going to reach new fucking height for the fucking superohero movie fucking genre, it will fuck with your heart, fuck with your thoughts, and it will be fucking fucktastic, and fuckgasmic!!! The cast is fucking amazing basically fucking Inception plus the Dark fucking Knight together to have one grand old fucking time. The brainiac director Christopher fucking Nolan is about to end his first trilogy and it is going to be fucking awesome!! Fuck Fuck Fuck-ya! (that was a cheer at the end...cause I had to get to 20)

- E

The Avengers

If we can't make a good movie, then we will be damn sure to make a shit load of money in the process.

The tag line of this review doesn't actually work cause it was a good movie, not in the oscar movie way, but in the 'yes!, HAHAHA, OMG!, Ohhh!' way. The movie was a long awaited collaboration of 5 movies over the course of 4 years. The movie is a mixture, of the average high-budget-superhero movie and an interstellar-space-battle-humans-on-the-defense-movie. Loki the weirdo demi-god has decided to steal the tesseract (which is something that has a bunch of energy) and the Avengers are to stop him... obviously. The movie mostly takes place between the avengers trying to work through their egos problems, people dying here and there, and then like a billion aliens, with a weird bunch of giant flying worms trying to once again... kill everyone.

The movie puts on a juggling act trying to give the all the actors even time on screen. Between the heavy-hitters such as Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Scarlet Johansson they have to share 143 minutes on screen, which can be no small task, but all actors had their time and their moments (even though the attempt at making Scarlet Johansson character seem like she had an interesting and dark storyline was completely terrible).

The movies plot line was different then most of the other avengers' movies excluding Thor. Thor's movie was much different then the others, cause it didn't really have anything to do with Earth, and was a weird futuristic, space movie. The Avengers combined the Thor outer-space theme with the planet that most people actually give a shit about.

The movie is the epitome of the 'big budget feel' it includes giant explosives, a flying aircraft carrier (that explodes), an insane cast, a out-of-this-world storyline (punny) and of course a happy ending. I bet most people will see it again....

In the end it finishes in the same way that it is meant to, in order to attain a box office, potential for a sequel and of course that being a happy ending.

Overall Rating S-A-B-r-e

A Party Gone Very Very Wrong, In a Very Very Good Way

The Party of Partys!

I was lucky enough to attend a free advanced screening of Project X, and I must say, it was awesome. It is a parent's worst nightmare brought to life.

The movie is shot in a camera based format much like Coverfield or the Blair Witch Project. It is about a kid Thomas (Thomas Mann) who is celebrating his birthday party and is pressured by costa (Oliver Cooper) to throw a big fucking party. In a very Michael Cera - Johan Hill tag team duo relationship they pull off one of the greatest parties of all time.

The movie features some extremely sexy woman, who are acting like sluttly high school girls (is there anything better?) there are whole 5 minute long scenes of woman this their tops off.... amazing! The themes of the movie are 'party', 'alcohol', 'drugs' and 'unbelievably sexy woman!!!!!!'

The soundtrack of the movie features the ultimate dirty-party-hip-hop-rap mix that every house party desires, including eminem, kid cudi, and jay-z (H*A*M!)

As the movie progresses the party moves from a larger-then-average get together, and becomes a rioters wet dream where hobos' with flame throwers and topless woman run free! The movie is quite unrealistic and has few attachments to a reality that a giant house party would take place but it doesn't matter. In a somewhat unnerving way this movie gives every teenager a taste of what the craziest party would be like and attempts to show its consequences (which apparently aren't that bad...they include a girl!)

Overall this movie was awesome and could act as a strong deterrent to kid wanting to throw a house party, and is definitely recommended if you had any type of social life in high school, if not I guess you could just become the cameraman.

Sabre rating

S-A-B-R-e

Contagion - basically the scariest movie to watch in a public place

                                                          

 Contagion - the scariest movie ever...

The movie contagion is about virus that spreads around the world and kills people, plain and simple... but there are a lot of implications with such a simple statement, such as what will happen to all the bodies, who will be immune, who gets the vaccine first, and last but certainly not least why oh why did that bat eat that banana ( see the movie...you'll get it) 

The movie is a zombie-non-zombie thriller with a  side order of political corruption. The movie is directed by Steven Soderbergh who is such a good director that he started the worldwide epidemic on day... 2 (very classy) but to match the A-list director is a A+A+A+A+A+A list cast, including Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltro, Laurence Fishburne... etc.

The movie follows the different stories of all these characters as live or don't live through the pandemic, some just normal families looking to try to live, well others are high priority citizens trying to stop the spreading. All the acting, in all the different story lines is absolutely amazing, I have no further comments on flaws (except Gwyneth Paltrow... never liked her, but she still did well)

I was watching this movie in a large theatre in downtown montreal in midst of flu season, flu season involve as shit-load of coughing, sneezing and throat clearing, which is super fun for all the health people (pointing a finger at myself) but even less fun where you are watching a movie that is purely based on the transmission of a killer virus...

The movie is fucking scary in the OMG THIS COULD HAPPEN WAY, not the HOLY-FUCK-A-POSSESSED-LITTLE-GIRL sort of way, which to me is much scarier. The cast was awesome, and the directing is quite amazing, and Steven makes the movie extremely realistic. 

SABRE RATING:

S.A.B.R.E