Valkyrie

Valkyrie is a movie that I've heard gets a lot of mixed reviews. World War 2 movies are a dime a dozen, but they usually are war movies showing the allied forces fighting Nazi Germany. Its not very often that you see a movie about Nazi Germany.

Valkyrie is an incredibly different take on the World War 2 setting. The movie centers on a movement of German officers and politicians working to assassinate Adolf Hitler and end the tyranny of the Third Reich. Apparently there were about 15 known assassination attempt on Hitler before the surrender of Germany and his suicide in 1945.

The main protagonist of the film is Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg (played by Tom Cruise). Stauffenberg lost his left eye, his left hand and some of the fingers on his right hand during an attack on the front lines in Africa and is sent home with a new purpose to end the tyranny of Adolf Hitler.

He aligns himself with a cast of both military and civilian Germans with the hope of ending the war in Germanyand bringing peace back to Europe.

This cast includes actors like Terrence Stamp, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, and Kevin McNally.

However, the main focus is on that of Stauffenberg.

Their plan is to assassinate Hitler and establish a new government under one of the very laws meant to protect the Nazi regime in the case of Hitler's demise or capture. The operation is called Operation Valkyrie and requires the crew to prepare to incredible lengths in order for the plan to go off without a hitch.

What I like about this film and the entire plot is the relationship between civilian plans and military plans. I don't think I really understood it as much before joining the military but that was something that was fascinating to me personally. The main part that builds the suspense in the film is the fact that the plan does not go as its suppose to. While you're watching it , you start to look at certain elements of the plan and sit in suspense to see what goes right and what goes wrong.

I think the reason this movie may have had mixed reviews was the fact that if you are wise on history, you know that these guys fail.

The ending is pretty clear even before it happens because you probably should know that Adolf Hitler was not killed in a coup by people within his own country, he was killed by his own hands as the allies were at his door.

I suppose the redeeming part of the film is the fact that this incident isn't incredibly well known and most people don't know how this went down.

Now, I can't speak for the historical accuracy of the film because I haven't done the research. I usually am of the belief that most movies that say that they are based on a true story are embellished in certain areas, and realistic in others. What those parts are don't matter if the story is done well and the audience knows that they shouldn't think that this is how this happened shot for shot.

The movie has an interesting dynamic because in a way, it makes you root and feel a connection to people wearing the Nazi Germany uniform. Its a strange dynamic without a doubt because as much as you enjoy the characters, the truth is that these gentlemen would probably be put on trial if they had made it to the end of the war. That's neither here nor there since they didn't make it to the end of the war.

Another fun part of this movie I like is the performance of Tom Cruise.

I think that maybe this movie was trying to be more impactful than it actually ended up being. I don't know if they were trying to get Cruise an Oscar but all I can say is that its probably not an Oscar performance... that doesn't mean its bad.

Its a good performance that actually surprised me the first time I watched it. If you've watched any of my movies starring Tom Cruise, you'll know I'm always surprised even when I know I like him now. It started with this, followed by Jack Reacher, and I think solidified by Edge of Tomorrow, Tom Cruise continues to be an incredibly fun actor. Maybe he didn't win an Oscar for this movie, but he's fun no doubt. He carries the movie without a doubt. All the other performances are good. Again, its not anything mind blowing or award winning, but it makes for a good thriller and a look into a portion of history that kind of gets overlooked.

It all depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for a suspense thriller, you're in the right place. If you're looking for a historical drama, you might get the historical part but the drama I'm not totally sure about.

The movie could have improved its drama little bit, especially with Staufenberg and his family. The movie is just more focused on the thriller aspects rather than the character development and drama. And that's the short of it. Go into it looking for a thriller, not a drama, and you'll enjoy Valkryie just fine.

But that's what I think of Valkyrie. What do you think? Comment and Discuss Below! Also shoot me a Tweet @cmhaugen24 and Follow me in order to get updates on the blog and some other fun stuff I put up there.

I Love You Man

I have a little bit of a bias towards this movie. I Love You, Man is a movie that I watched with one of my best friends in the world. All we need to do is quote a line from this movie and we lose our shit. This is basically our fall back movie if there is nothing else to watch. Every time I watch this movie or even see this movie, I think of my friend. Its hard for me to say anything bad about this movie.

I will try, but I make no promises that this will be a fair review because in all honesty, it probably won't be.

I Love You Man is the story of a young couple, Peter and Zooey (played by Paul Rudd and Rashida Jones). Peter proposes to Zooey after 8 months of dating and the two happily start planning for their wedding. But as they start planning, Zooey starts realizing that Peter doesn't have any close guy friends and nobody nearly close enough to be his best man. In order to make his fiance happy, Peter makes it his goal to make a friend in time for his wedding.

Just as Peter is about to give up after several hilarious and awkward "man-dates", he meets Sydney Fife (played by Jason Segel) who attends one of his open houses at the house of "The Hulk" Lou Fourigno that Peter is trying to sell.

The two immediately hit it off and eventually a fun friendship blossoms.

The relationship between Paul Rudd and Jason Segel is a lot of fun. At the beginning of the film, Peter's brother (played by Andy Samberg) he clearly states that Peter is more of a girlfriend guy rather than a guy friend guy. He spent the majority of his time with his girlfriends that he never really knew how to make guy friends... The great things is, I know people like this, I've been like this before.

Furthermore, they treat this movie like a romantic comedy, except the two main characters are two guys and instead of a romantic relationship, its a bromance.

And that's another relatable part of the movie, especially for guys. Its easy to see your own relationship in these two. While the movie may be aimed more towards men than women, I think a lot of the comedy comes from both the humor and how relatable the movie can be.

Like all comedies, its mainly a question of preference. You may not find the movie overly funny, or you may. The thing that is appealing about this movie is that while it is a raunchy comedy, its not nearly as raunchy as something like Ted and could possibly appeal to a wider audience. Again, its all a matter of taste, but I find this movie hilarious.

The cast is a really fun one as well. As stated before, the relationship between Peter and Sydney is only made better by the performances of Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Peter and Sydney are incredibly contrasted characters, Peter being reserved and timid, while Sydney is obnoxious, out spoken, and vulgar.

 What's more is the relationship between Peter and Zooey. I don't know what it is, but Rashida Jones is very good at playing the cute, modest girlfriend. I think its a fun relationship though probably not the best relationship ever done on screen.

The focus of the movie isn't on these two but its passable and the two do have some fun chemistry.

The other cast members are a lot of fun. As stated before, Andy Samberg plays Peter's brother who is gay and is an expert on making friends. His character is funny because he says he gets bored with pursuing gay men and wants more of a challenge so he pursues straight men and actually succeeds. J.K. Simmons plays Peter's father, Jaime Pressley and Jon Favreau play a dysfunctional couple who do nothing but fight. There's a couple other small performances that make this movie a lot of fun.

The main draw of the movie is the emphasis on bromances and Peter's quest to find a friend.

He goes on a series of man-dates. He gets set up, he does online friend finding, he actually goes out with a guy who confuses their outing as a gay date.

Its a lot of fun!

Then you have Peter and Sydney hanging out which is a lot of fun.

Like I said before, its a movie that plays off the motifs of a romantic comedy but puts it in the setting of a bromance. That means you'll get your same three acts, the eventual falling out, the inevitable reconciliation. But some how the movie remains fun and enjoyable despite being a little bit predictable.

I could maybe say that the movie slows down or becomes a little convoluted near the end when there's conflict within the relationship between Zooey and Peter and furthermore with Sydney. But like I said at the beginning, I might be a little bit bias. I absolutely love this film.

I can't necessarily call it a comedic classic as its too early and too "obscure" of a comedic film to have that big of an impact yet, but I know that years down the road, I'll probably look back at this film as one of my favorite comedies when I was in my late teens/ early twenties.

I think the movie is full of a lot of inside jokes and the more and more you watch the movie I think the lines will become more and more iconic.

Now... that's my experience.

You may love I Love You Man like I do, but you might not.

I always find it difficult to review comedic movies. I always refer back to my review of Spaceballs. Its a movie that a lot of people enjoy but I personally cannot stand.

This is one of the things I'm incredibly interested in hearing from readers, what kind of humor people like.

The other thing that I pull from this movie is Paul Rudd as a leading man. He's done it before but this is the best example i know of. Since I'm incredibly interested in comic book movies, this movie is one of the movies I look to when I'm trying to decide whether or not Ant-man is going to go well or not.

I'm personally a little skeptical on his ability to carry a superhero film on his own and if I'm only going off of this movie its because he's helped by Jason Segel who has had share of comedic movies he's been the star of.

I'm still want to see Ant-man, I want it to be awesome. Furthermore I love this movie, but I don't think it makes a great case for Rudd.

I could be wrong, I want to be wrong, I want to see Rudd own it. But I'm not quite sure. We will see come August.

Overall, I really love I Love You Man. Its a really fun comedy, a new spin on an old formula and will probably go down as one of my favorite comedies of today. Are there problems? Probably, but I was laughing so hard I could never pick them out.

But what do you think of I Love You Man? Do you find it funny or do you think I'm overselling it? Comment and Discuss below! Also shoot me a tweet @cmhaugen24 and follow me for updates on the blog and other random I post up there.

I'll leave you with this. Jason Segel and Paul Rudd did an interview to promote the movie. Its quite the funny interview. I'm not sure if they were high or what, but its really quite funny. Enjoy!

Top 10 Best of 2014 (From what I saw)

Last January I did my first every top ten list. I had set a new record for number of reviews on this blog, a record I've passed multiple times since, and wanted to do a Top Ten for all the movies that I had watched over that month.

Well that was a trend, like many of my trends on this blog, that never caught on and I haven't done a top ten since... until now. 

I wanted to up the ante a little bit and instead wanted to do a Top 10 List of the Best Movies I watched in 2014. Originally when I was scoping out this list, I didn't even think that I had watched over 10 movies in theaters... and while that may or may not be true, I did however see much more than I expected and I wanted to let you know what my favorite stuff was that happened in 2014. 

I'm not saying these are the best movies to come out of 2014. Out of the 8 or so movies that are up for Best Picture, I have seen two of them... which is better than where I was when award season came out last year but my point is, there's a 75% chance that I haven't seen the movie that is going to win Best Picture. (See that? Math!) This is just a fun list on my opinion on the best movies I saw in 2014. It was a good year for film and I want to point out what I had the most fun watching and reviewing this year. 

10. The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel in no way blew me away the first time I saw it. I was actually kind of surprised that it got nominated for an Oscar. 

If you remember from my review, I didn't actually plan on seeing this movie. I went with my friend mainly because there wasn't much else showing at the time. We went in, we enjoyed it, we left, and the movie was just kind of Ehh for me. 

The movie is mainly interesting by its visuals and the way it is shot. Its a Wes Anderson film and if you're not a huge fan of Wes Anderson, this movie isn't going to make a huge impact on you. However, the cast and the style is pretty fun to make the movie enjoyable. Its still a matter that I need to re-watch the movie, but I definitely think that more times I see this movie, the chances are I'm going to enjoy it more. It makes the rear end of the list because it mainly beat out the other films and left at least a little bit of an impression on me. 

I said at the end of my review that I'm not going to rave about this movie and I'm still not doing that. Its a fun film, good performances all around and an interesting story. But in the end its in the 10th spot for a reason. 

9. A Million Ways to Die in the West

Frankly, this movie probably shouldn't be on this list. A Million Ways to Die in the West really tanked at the box office and its been on a lot of people's worst films of the year list that I've seen about 2014. Watching it a couple more times, I totally understand the criticisms of this movie... its not as good as Ted and its not exactly a great comedy. 

That doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the hell out of it. 

This movie probably only gets on this list due to it being a personal guilty pleasure. I find Seth MacFarlane a lot funnier than he probably actually is. So much that despite all the horrible reviews, despite all the shit that was talked about this movie, I went out of my way to download this film and add it to my collection. 

I still laugh at most of the jokes and I enjoy that this was mostly just a pet project for MacFarlane. He wanted to do a Blazing Saddles Western comedy and because Ted was successful, he got to do what he wanted. What he wanted may not have been good in the eyes of the public, but I kind of admire that. 

I am with the rest of the world and kind of hope that this movie help MacFarlane realize that he's probably not a strong enough actor to carry an entire movie as the protagonist, but as a guilty pleasure comedy, I'm glad I have this one at my disposal so I can turn it on whenever I need a laugh. Others may not like it, but I find it entertaining and I really enjoy it. I think the fact that I realize that its a bad movie is the reason its on my number 9 spot and I can imagine some people might have put The Grand Budapest Hotel above A Million Ways to Die in the West, but this is a list of which of these movies I liked more and enjoyed more, and honestly, I enjoyed this movie more than The Grand Budapest Hotel.

8. The Interview

I'm realizing that as many great movies that came out of 2014, the first few at the bottom (or is it top) of this lists, are movies that weren't necessarily the best movies in the year, but had an effect on me, or were important enough to keep them in mind and important enough to put on this list. 

The Interview is a funny movie. It will no go down as one of the funniest movies of all time, but it will go down in history. 

There's a good chance that a decade or two down the road, when college students are talking about the United States relations with Asia and North Korea, this movie will come up in conversation. It won't be a huge unit, it won't take up a lot of time in classrooms, but I wouldn't be surprised if the conversation about this movie being pulled from theaters on threat of North Korean terrorist attacks, continues down the road. 

Its not a huge moment in history but its one of those tid bits they put in text books. "The Interview was an example of the stress between the United States and North Korea." pp. 89 in your text books. 

The movie in all reality is just a run of the mill comedy from Rogen and Franco. I could almost see this as a sequel to Pineapple Express. The reason this is on the list is because of the build up to seeing this movie and all the chaos that it ensued. 

Technically this shouldn't be on the list because I saw this in January and this should be a top ten list of 2014 movies I saw in 2014. But I'm going to let this one and any other movie I saw in Januaray slide. 

7. Guardians of the Galaxy

In the recent months or so, I've been kind of looking back at Guardians of the Galaxy and perhaps realizing that its maybe not the mind blowing incredibly good movie that I think everybody thought it was when they first saw it. I think this movie was a little bit sensationalized because of the fact that nobody expected this movie to be as popular as it was and therefore were so surprised that they're willing to overlook some of the flaws of the movie. 

That being said, I still know that Guardians of the Galaxy has to go on this list, mainly because it was such a good time and it was such a surprise when I first saw it. It is a really fun movie and its probably one of the best movies that Marvel has put out onto its cinematic universe, and thats really cool, especially since it isn't your mainstream heroes, its something incredibly different. But upon watching a couple times after the first viewing I just wasn't as crazy about it a second time around. I enjoyed myself, but again, it didn't blow me away and that's why it fell down a couple notches on this Top Ten list for me. I still think its leagues and miles better than The Amazing Spider-man 2... so... that's good. 

The other really great thing about this movie is that it now has gotten me really excited about seeing Chris Pratt in a lot of things. I'm watching more and more of his stuff recently and I see that the guy is actually really talented and has the potential to do some really great things in the future. He's played Starlord, he's going to be a sort of adventuring guy in Jurassic World, and there are even rumors of him taking over as Indiana Jones in the next movie Disney is putting out. Put aside that I'm not wild about them rebooting that franchise, I think if anybody were to play it today, I think I'd go with Chris Pratt. 

That might chance with what I see of his performance in Jurassic World, but right now I am kind of excited by it. And to think, all of this started off with what I know now is a lovable performance of Andy Dwyer in Parks and Recreation (review maybe to follow)?

6. 22 Jump Street

I freaking love this film. It doesn't happen very often that a sequel gives me the same, if not more laughs than the original. I was so happy when I was able to get a copy of this movie 

This movie made me laugh, so hard in the theaters. Usually comedies make me laugh if they're good, this one had me not able to breath it was so freaking funny. I love the dynamic between Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. 

Like I said in my review of 22 Jump Street, the main problem I had with this movie is not so much that it is essentially the same movie as 21 Jump Street, its just how much they harp on the fact that it is the same movie as 21 Jump Street. A second time around that bothered me still. But I'll say again, if the only problem I have with the movie is that its aware of itself, I'm willing to look the other way on this one. This movie is incredibly good and the only reason it wasn't higher was because eventually I kind of forgot it came out this year. I don't know if that's because people forgot about it, or if it was surpassed by other comedies, or if it was so good that I thought it came out last year, but I'm not too worried about it. Its a good film. Not my favorite of the year, but still pretty damn good. 

5. Big Hero 6

Big Hero 6 kind of took me by surprise. It was a film that I wanted to see, but didn't want to see it enough to go out and see it myself. So I eventually saw it with my cousins son when I was babysitting. The result was me trying to hide the tears that were streaming down my fave because this movie is sad, funny, and just incredibly heart warming. 

I saw a video a few months back talking about the best comic book superhero films of 2014. The main contenders in that category were Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-men: Days of Future Past, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Amazing Spider-man 2. But some of the people commenting on the video wanted to include Big Hero 6 in that list. In many ways I want to do the same thing because this movie is so much fun in many ways. And there's a reason this film is higher on my list than Guardians of the Galaxy, because its higher on my list of my favorite superhero films of 2014. 

Big Hero 6 is just a darn good time and I can't wait for my next viewing of it. 

Frankly it was between this movie and The Lego Movie for my favorite animation of the year and I just have to go with this film. I really like The Lego Movie, especially upon the second time watching it, but I think this movie just hits a level of heart warming in more places instead of The Lego Movie that had a really good scene near the end that made my nostalgia go wild but other than that the movie didn't blow me away the way Big Hero 6 did. 

4. X-men: Days of Future Past

Speaking of one of the best superhero films of the year, X-men: Days of Future Past took what was

started in X-men: First Class, what was already happening in the original X-men and had world collide with X-men: Days of Future Past and it collided big time. The film was such a leap in a different direction than what I think anybody ever thought the X-men Universe was headed and now it sets the Universe on course for... I don't know quite yet, but its going to be amazing.

In essence, X-men Days of Future Past was the reset button for the franchise and enabled the franchise to keep the integrity of what we enjoyed from the original X-men franchise, toss out the stuff we didn't like about the X-men franchise, and put a new coat of paint on it for the new X-men franchise.

Honestly, I'm not sure exactly where the franchise is going to go. X-Men Apocalypse is going to be huge, then there's going to be a Deadpool movie with Ryan Reynolds and a Gambit movie with Channing Tatum. I'm not totally sure how exactly the franchise is going to continue, but its a good sign when you look at the people "rioting" online, demanding Sony give the rights of Spider-man back to Marvel, and nobody is saying the X-men should return to Marvel.

I think that mainly was caused by how great this movie was and how it, for the most part, showed that the X-men franchise had a direction and a plan for the future. I wasn't totally convinced the franchise was safe from Marvel, even after seeing The Wolverine, but now I have no doubt that we will continue to get films from Fox for a couple more years now, especially with plans to reboot The Interstellar Four, sorry, Fantastic Four, and more plans, I'm looking forward to what is coming out of Fox. Its fun when two studios can do it right and produce quality films. This way there is more of a variety and more films coming out each year. I'm excited for future X-men movies, and its because of this film.

3. Edge of Tomorrow

I'm figuring out that 2014 is the year of movies that really surprised me. Again, Edge of Tomorrow was a film I didn't intend to see. I definitely didn't intend for it to be number three on my list of the Top Ten films of 2014. 

Tom Cruise was always a wild card for me, but I think this movie kind of made me realize that I really like the guy as an action star. I just recently watched Jack Reacher again, and that movie is even more fun the second time around, and same with this film. Its because of that and this film that I want to see Tom Cruise in more and more stuff. 

This movie plus Into the Woods, also introduced me to Emily Blunt who is becoming one of my favorite actress of today, I want to see her in more things and its mainly because of this film. 

The film has such a unique and creative turn on what we all thought was done really well in Groundhogs Day and I think Edge of Tomorrow was really the film that was under appreciated this year. 

2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

2014 was not a year in movies I was looking forward to that much. Sure I wanted to see X-men: Days of Future Past, but I wasn't clamoring to see it when it came out. I wanted to see where they were going with Guardians of the Galaxy, but I wasn't incredibly excited for the film. I actually was more excited about The Amazing Spider-man 2 than I was about the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger. 

With all the hype about 2015, with Age of Ultron coming out, and Batman Vs. Superman (before it got moved to 2016), I thought that 2015 was the year I needed to wait for and 2014 was just the filler...

And then Captain America the Winter soldier came out. 

This movie was the movie that got me excited about the comic book movies coming out in 2014. This

movie took the most bland and vanilla Avenger and made him my favorite. This movie made me incredibly conscience of something called a cinematic universe, and this movie was the film that got me excited about Marvel movies again.

In short, I love this film.

There was a lot of talk about whether it was this movie or X-men: Days of Future Past that took the place for top comic book superhero film this year, but for me it was really no contest. This movie was something new, something refreshing and really started this curve of superhero films not just being building blocks for some culminating event like The Avengers, this, I think, was the first really good Marvel movie. Thor: The Dark World was good and better than its origin story, but Captain America just took the franchise to a whole new level and I think really put the most credit towards the idea that any Marvel movie that comes out is going to be successful regardless of whether its good or not. People are going to see Ant-man for the sole reason of "Its Marvel" and I think its because of this film. All the other films built up the Avengers, this movie built up Marvel's reputation. This movie proved that Marvel is not just trying to make Franchise films, they're trying to make quality films. There's an argument that Iron Man 3 was trying to do that before The Winter Soldier, but I think The Winter Soldier is a better film so I'm giving the title to this film.

So in case you were not following, Captain America is definitely my favorite Superhero film to come out of 2014. Followed by X-men Days of Future Past, Followed by Big Hero 6... if its counted, then Guardians, then the Amazing Spider-man 2. That was a surprise for me.

1. American Sniper

Now this is subject to change for a couple reasons. I do not think this is the best film to come out of 2014. That might be strange to say since its at the top of my list. However, I do not think that this is my favorite movie of 2014. Furthermore, I probably saw this movie most recently out of all the movies on this list so the effect it had on me which is a lot of the basis for this list, is based off the most recent experience I had. It could possibly be because it is fresh in my memory that this is on the top. Maybe its because its one of the only Best Picture options on this list. I don't know, the point is. I really liked this movie, it was a wicked ride, I'm putting it on the top of my list for now. Deal with it.

The fact of the matter is, I came out of American Sniper not feeling like I was coming out of a movie as much as I felt I was coming out of a memorial.

The film made me aware of a story about a real American hero and call all the patriotic bullshit you want, this film was difficult to watch.

Its probably the personal connection being a member of the Army and watching this film, but here's why this is so high on my list. I had a class the other day where they surprised us and said we're all going to American Sniper. I got a little nervous because I remembered the experience that I had had in the theater and I wasn't sure if I was ready to go through it again. That's how crazy this movie is.

Now again, I do not think this is the best movie of 2014 and I would not be surprised if it didn't win Best Picture, in fact I'm pretty sure its not going to win Best Picture. There are problems with the movie. But walking out of it, it took me a while to recollect those problems because of the quality of the film.

Furthermore, this film was part of a process that opened me up to Bradley Cooper as a dramatic actor. I had seen him in American Hustle but after seeing him in this and Silver Linings Playbook, I am now convinced that Bradley Cooper is one of my favorite actors of today. So that's something thats good.

This list is subject to change... or not. But that's my Top Ten of 2014 at this very moment. I have no doubt that I'll probably watch more movies from 2014 that I missed but I need your help to point out the big ones I missed and I'll do reviews on them.

So give it to me straight, what were some movies I missed, what was your favorite movies of 2014 and are you excited for 2015? Comment and Discuss Below! Also shoot a tweet at me @cmhaugen24 and Follow me to get updates on new blog posts and more random stuff that goes on in my life.

I'll leave you with this. New trailer for Ted 2 coming out this summer. I might do a post on it but for now I'll just leave you with the trailer and say, I'm excited for this movie! Enjoy!

The Fantastic 4 Trailer

So this is the film. This is the film that everyone has been shitting on for months, I'd say ever years. This is the film that people have been saying nothing but negative things about. This is the film that, besides the principal casting, has had little to no information leaked out it. This is The Fantastic 4.

The Fantastic 4 have been on the big screen before, I reviewed the movie a long time ago and I think I gave it a nice review. I didn't say the movie was good, I just didn't dig into it as much as I should have. That being said, I don't think the original Fantastic Four was the worst superhero film ever made, it just was in that time when people didn't take superhero films that seriously and the truth is, I don't think they took this movie seriously when they were making it.

But now that everyone is making cinematic universes and Fox is doing incredibly better than Sony and want to stay that way, they feel its time to reboot the Fantastic Four and make it the film that apparently everyone wants.

Me, I'm not a huge fan of The Fantastic Four. A group of four with decent powers that go and fight the cosmos, its not exactly the kind of superheroes I'm totally interested in, or have been interested in in the past. Maybe its the bias from the original film, maybe its just that I don't know that much about the team, I don't know, I just know I'm not a huge fan of the Fantastic Four.

But since we're basically in the golden age of comic book movies and I really liked X-men: Days of Future Past, I'm willing to be interested in anything Fox throws at me. I don't have high hopes for Fantastic Four but I'll still go see the movie and hope that maybe they could turn things around.

Then this trailer dropped.

The best way to describe what I think this movie is going to end up being is: This movie is trying to be the Interstellar of the comic book movies.

That's really all I could think of when I was watching this trailer. There's this voice over, talking about humans innate desire to explore and discover. But that discovery comes with a cost. Blah di Blah Di Blah.

I'm not totally sure what I'm looking at in this trailer, but the ambiance, the visuals, and the over all feel of the movie trailer grabs my curiosity. I'm not saying the movie is going to be great just from that trailer, especially with how trailers are these days. But it has the potential to not be bad.

That's the funny part about this film, everyone kind of thinks its going to be bad just on the casting and the few rumors that they've heard of it. I'll reserve any judgement until I am in the theater watching it, but from what I've seen of the trailer, it has the potential to not be bad.

I'm still somewhat out on the cast. Mainly because I don't know these actors that well. The two I know the most are Kate Mara and Jamie Bell.

Kate Mara, I'm really looking forward to. She's great in House of Cards. She's attractive, I've known her since she was an annoying analyst in 24. I'm 100% down for her playing a super heroine. I don't say I'm 100% down with her playing Sue Storm because honestly I don't know anything about Sue Storm.

The other one I'm most familiar with is Jamie Bell... and I'm not excited about Jamie Bell. Now this is really only based off his performance in Jumper, and going back to that film, I really didn't like him in that. I'm sure he's done more and I do need to go and look at more of his stuff to give him a fair chance... but for now I'm a little wary.

The other two I really only know by reputation. Luckily, their reputation is a good one. But again, its the same thing with Kate Mara. Regardless of whether or not I know these people are good actors or not, i don't know their character. I don't know if Miles Teller is suppose to be a good Reed Richards. If I hadn't watched the first Fantastic Four, I wouldn't have known that Johnny Storm was white in the comics. Therefore I really don't know if putting Michael B Jordan in the role is going to change things up so much.

The only thing that is kind of offsetting is how young these guys are. Especially in the trailer, them being young is not made any better by the trailer. I get that they're trying to go young so that they can grow into the roles but honestly, I can't remember a time when that actually happened and it worked. Its not a huge issue for me, but I see where people might have a problem with that if they know the characters to be older, especially with what you see in this trailer.

Honestly, you don't see much in this trailer. You see them crawl around in space suits, they show all the characters which I guess was a good thing. And they show a little bit of their power but really not that much at all. Its a teaser, what do you expect?

What I will say is...

This was kind of cool. I don't know why, just seeing all four of them in a row like that, pretty cool.

Overall, I think it was a good idea to finally release a trailer, even though I still have no idea what this movie is going to be about, its good to know that the movie is actually happening and hopefully this will get the haters to quiet down a little bit. I think it was a better trailer than Ant-man, but overall it wasn't anything spectacular.

Check out the trailer yourself and let me know what you think? Comment below or shoot me a tweet @cmhaugen24 and follow me so you can get updates on future blog posts.

Here's the trailer, Enjoy!

The Interview

Here it is. The film that was cancelled by Sony on pain of terrorist threat. The film that made North Korea so angry and caused so much chaos and debate that it was just nuts. This. Is. The Interview.

Here's the thing, I don't have much of a qualm with Sony pulling this from its theaters. Had Obama or the United States government forced Sony to pull the movie, that would have been a different story, I'd be up in arms, talking about freedom of speech and not negotiating with terrorists, I get it.

However, we're talking about a corporation with the responsibility to make sure that people who go and see their movies are safe and enjoy themselves as they do it. Especially since it was their choice, I am willing to give them a little bit of leeway in this circumstance. Agree with me, disagree with me, whatever, let me know in the comments, but for now, I want to talk about the movie as a whole.

The Interview is the story of the host of an entertainment show by the name of David Skylark (played by James Franco) and his producer, Aaron Rapoport (played by Seth Rogen).

These two are considered the joke of the news arena, so much that Aaron is worried that he's wasting his life on a joke like David.

Of course there's always the bromance of James Franco and Seth Rogan so they'll always be friends.

Aaron wants to bring more established people on to the show and when they figure out that Kim Jong Un is a fan of the show, David decides that they should interview Kim Jong Un.

They then get the interview with Kim Jong Un.

But soon after, they are contacted by the CIA and are given the mission to kill Kim Jong Un.

Thus you have your plot. Can you see why North Korea would have a problem over this?

Overall, this movie is a raunchy comedy with a lot of gross humor. Its exactly what you would expect from a film directed by Seth Rogen. If you've seen Pineapple Express, or This is The End, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Its a lot of dick jokes, its a lot of gay jokes, its a lot of jokes about assholes and a lot of gross stuff. And its funny... if that's your kind of humor. I think the movie is funny because of the timing and some of the jokes, but the majority of it is your really raunchy humor, you'll get what you paid for.

To tell the truth, the movie is really, REALLY ridiculous. What did you freaking expect?

James Franco is just the biggest dunce you'll ever see in a comedy film. Its basically the same character he's been playing in all of the movies he does with Seth Rogen. I think in this one he just goes nuts and goes to a level of insanity.

You know the scene in Tropic Thunder when Robert Downey Jr criticizes Ben Stiller about his performance as a mentally handicapped guy, saying you never go full on in a role like that.

I almost have to say the same to James Franco. It makes sense for a toked up dude like he plays in Pineapple Express, This Is The End is an insane "satire" so obviously James Franco isn't going to play exactly himself. This I could maybe say James Franco could go all out, but damn he goes ALL OUT.

There's kind of a fun sequence where David starts hanging out with Kim Jong Un and its funny, it really is funny. There's this comparison between Jong and David that makes them connect to one another and of course this causes conflict with the fact that David is suppose to kill him.

Seth Rogen is your typical reasonable character between the two. Its a bad comparison, but think Lets Be Cops, if you remember from my review of that film, the relationship between those two is your typical buddy cop story, one is reasonable, one is wacky.

The problem I had with that film was that the reasonable one was whiney and annoying. While Rogen is the reasonable one in this case, he's not totally reasonable, he has these wacky moments and yet he is reasonable without being whiney and annoying. I liked Seth Rogen in this movie.

And then you've got the guy who plays Kim Jong Un (Randall Park).

The guy is funny as hell. What an incredible role, there are not too many people who get to say, I got to play Kim Jong Un.

The movie is funny when it tries to play Kim Jong Un off as a relatable sad character, until they scrap that whole idea and say nope, he's fucking nuts.

This movie is just down right ridiculous. Again, you get what you paid for.

Overall, this movie isn't anything that is going to blow your mind. I don't think anybody should have ever hought this movie was going to be something ground breaking. It was just going to be a raunchy provocative comedy about Seth Rogen and James Franco trying to assassinate Kim Jong Un.

If that doesn't sound appealing to you, I don't think this movie is going to blow or change your mind. Chances are you're only going to see this movie for two reasons, you want to see a movie that was so controversial to the United States, or you like Seth Rogen and James Franco.

If you're the former, you might laugh, you might find it a little funny but its not going to be the best comedy you've ever seen.

If you're in the latter category, you'll probably love this film.

That's all I can really say about this film. Its not anything amazing but its a good enough time. As long as you don't think too hard about this, you'll enjoy this film.

There are a lot of bad things to say about this film but I don't think the film ever set out to be amazing, just funny.

Its ridiculous, what the hell did you expect? Its The Interview!

Have you seen The Interview? Its on Netflix, if you wanted to see it and you have Netflix, take an hour and a half and just have some fun with it. After you do that, Comment and Discuss what you think about it below. Also, follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 to get updates on future reviews and everything above.

I'll leave you with this. The trailer is pretty much a good representation of how the movie goes down. Watch the trailer, see what you think. Enjoy!

Silver Linings Playbook

Being in the loop...ish on good movies over the past couple years I've been doing this blog. I have a laundry list of movies that were either recommended to me, had critical acclaim slapped onto it, or just seemed like an interesting movie to look into. Silver Linings Playbook fell into all of these categories with the condition that the film seemed less interesting than a lot of movies that came out in 2012. 

Silver Linings Playbook is the story of Pat Solatano Jr. (played by Bradley Cooper) who, at the beginning of the film, is being released from a mental ward by his mother, despite the recommendations of the doctors at the institutions. We soon figure out the circumstances that led to him being institutionalized and that there is a restraining order against him from his wife and the place where he used to work. 

Pat has some form of bipolar disorder. I watched this with my girlfriend who is a psych major and

she had the correct technical terms for it. In short, he has a difficult time controlling his emotions and sometimes gets delusions.

This leads to some funny moments but also many very serious ones. He is disconnected from his family, his old life, and all he wants to do is reconnect with his wife and show her that he is better now, even though he may or may not be.

When Pat is invited to a dinner party by some old friends. He meets the wife's (played by Julia Stiles) sister, Tiffany (played by Jennifer Lawrence).

Tiffany also has a form of bipolar disorder... I think, and from the the get go, there's a strange uncomfortable chemistry between Pat and Tiffany. You know from the beginning, these two are going to end up together. That's the interesting part about this movie. In essence, its a romantic dramedy. Its a love story and really follows a lot of the formula of a romantic comedy. The part that distinguishes Silver Linings Playbook is the subject matter, especially with a subject like bipolar disorder and mood conditions.

The two immediately develop an unconventional friendship and soon Tiffany offers Pat a proposition. Since her sister is friends with Pat's wife, she might be able to get a letter to his wife. But in return, Pat must help Tiffany and participate as her partner in a dance competition.

The strange thing is, I heard a little bit about this dance competition when I first heard of this movie. I heard it was about two people with bipolar disorder in a dance competition. Honestly, that's not a fair synopsis of this movie. While the competition is an important part of the film, there is so much more to this movie.

And honestly, I think that's what makes it good.

This movie isn't about a dance competition, its not about an insane wager that is made (I'll get to that in a second), this movie is really about the characters. And damn, these are really good characters.

I mean I understand how Bradley Cooper, J Law, and Robert DeNiro were all nominated for an Academy Award from their performance in this movie, because they're all very, very good.

Let's talk about the obvious. Jennifer Lawrence.

She won an Oscar for this role. This is the role that set Lawrence apart from any franchise role she had ever been apart of, including Hunger Games and X-men, and made her a house hold name. This movie made her America's sweetheart.

And she deserved the Oscar. She's damn good in this movie. Her character is incredibly complex and you have moments where you feel bad for her and then you have moments where you think she's being unreasonable, and its just complex. She's just down right good in the role.

Now again, I watched this with my girlfriend and she was slightly disputing how accurate they were portraying people with this condition of bipolar disorder. I can't speak too much on that so I won't, but what I do know is that I saw a character with a lot of issues and I believed her. It was really a performance worthy of an Oscar and seeing it now, I totally understand the hype, I totally understand why she won.

I suppose the next part I can talk about is the performance of Bradley Cooper.

If you read my American Sniper review, you saw how much I praised Cooper for his performance in that. Even before that, in my American Hustle review, you'll know that I praised Cooper in that. Now I definitely think that American Sniper was his best performance I've seen, but this comes in an incredibly close second.

I don't know what it was but I was very hesitant to really like Bradley Cooper. Even after American Sniper, I was still iffy on it. I still kind of saw him as the Hangover guy who did a couple good performances and would probably be around for a while.

After this, I'm really forgetting every stigma The Hangover gave me of Cooper and really made me start seeing him as a credible actor because holy shit, the guy is amazing in this film. I think American Hustle made me think of him a little bit differently, American Sniper made me put him in a little bit higher of a category, but this film launches Bradley Cooper near the top as one of my favorite actors of today. In a way, he's very similar to Matthew McConaughey in that it took him a little bit but I think he's finally got his career underway and it'll be fun to see him in more and more good films in the coming years hopefully. I know really hope that someone finds Bradley Cooper a bigger role to play in some kind of superhero universe. As much as I love him as Rocket Raccoon, I think, in a way, its a little bit of waste right now not having him as a live action super hero. (Hint, hint, hint DC)

But the performance that didn't necessarily surprise me, and yet I didn't fully see it coming, was Robert De Niro.

Honestly, this is the first time in a long time that I have seen De Niro actually act and not just be a caricature of himself. I'm in no way saying that De Niro ever lost his touch or was ever a bad actor but its been a long time since I've seen De Niro in a role that I didn't just see De Niro, I saw a character.

And a really, really good character at that.

De Niro plays Pat's father, also named Pat, who has recently lost his job and now spends a lot of his time being a die hard fan for the Philadelphia Eagles. He believes that his son is a lucky charm and if he were to spend more time with his son, the Eagles would win more.

Now Pat Sr. also has a mood disorder and definitely a case of OCD. They mention it briefly but don't give it a proper name.

However, a lot of his superstitions and obsession with the Eagles is a cover for a incredible desire to spend quality time with his son. There's a great part where he wakes Pat up and just opens up to him. Its such an out of no where scene but its a scene where I just smiled and said, that's where De Niro has been this whole time! He's not doomed to being that guy from Meet the Parents his entire life, he's actually a great actor! Hurray!

However, this does open up to the one part of the movie I actually didn't like. I get why it needed to happen and everything that comes out of it is a lot of fun, but this one scene kind of disrupted what I thought was a pretty awesome movie.

Pat Sr. makes a bet against his friend with all his money. He has this desire to build a restaurant now that he is unemployed, but the money he's going to use to open that restaurant, he's putting on the Eagles winning one game, and he believes that since Pat Jr. is going to the game, the Eagles are going to win.

First of all, why is he allowed to gamble with that money? Maybe this is a complaint of the mom character who I wasn't wild about, but honestly, she's not that important and I don't need to love for this film to be good. But Pat Sr. is just allowed to make these bets based on a Football game, this seemed very stupid.

But when an incident occurs and Pat Jr. is not able to watch the game, Pat Sr. is about to lose it. He blames his son for a bet he shouldn't have made in the first place. Like I said, De Niro's character has a form of bipolar disorder but its always been a little downplayed with the exceptions of some outburst here and there. Pat has a moment where he says he shouldn't be compared to his father because his father is the one with incredible outbursts not him.

Here we're about to see one of these outbursts. And we sort of do, De Niro is being irrational, especially blaming Pat for the Eagles losing the game. And then Tiffany comes in angry at Pat for blowing off a dance rehearsal and De Niro loses his shit on her... but then she disproves his superstitions by saying if there is any juju on the Eagles, its being off set when Pat is with her, not with him.

It was a kind of funny moment, but I thought it really took away from some kind of character development with De Niro's character.

Furthermore, they challenge this family friend to let him win his money back with a double down bet. Saying that if the Eagles win against the Cowboys, and Pat and Tiffany get a 5 or higher on the dance competition, De Niro wins.

This bet was a stupid bet.

And honestly, De Niro losing his shit and getting mad at Pat for getting in trouble and "causing" the Eagles to win was contradictory of that beautiful moment between the two of them.

I personally think it was because of this strange exchange that I think De Niro was snubbed the Oscar from Christoph Waltz. Don't get me wrong, I like Waltz in Django, but if it was between De Niro and Waltz for the Oscar, I think De Niro should have won it instead.

But story-wise, this was just stupid. This family friend was taking advantage of De Niro, especially for a lot of money, and nobody was telling De Niro this was a dumb idea. I get that it was being used as a plot device to raise the stakes and make the ending more interesting, but for a movie that had felt so sincere and fluid, this part seemed very contrived for my taste. Which is a shame, because its really the only part of the movie I had a problem with.

This is a really well done movie. Its not my favorite only because its just not my usual style of movie. But its entertaining and its really well done. I think similar to the way American Hustle was a film that could have been just a run of the mill movie, in this case a romantic comedy, this movie instead took a different route and made it about something instead. Putting the story in the subject of people with mood disorders was a brave choice and it was executed very well with phenomenal actors. This movie was just a fun time all around and again, very well done.

But that's what I think of Silver Linings Playbook, what did you think? Comment and Discuss below! And if you're interested in getting updates on more movies and posts I'll be putting up on the blog, Follow me @cmhaugen24 on Twitter.

I'll leave you with this. Might as well do one of the clips of J Law... just because. Here's her on Jimmy Fallon. Enjoy!

Homeland: Pilot

So in case you can't tell, I'm in a little bit of a international spy thriller mood. Anything from Tom Clancy, to 24, to American Sniper has been free game in the past few days.

Homeland is a show I've heard incredible things about and the only reason I haven't watched it prior to now was because its not on any streaming site that I use regularly, (i.e. Netflix). But now I have seen the pilot, what's this show all about?

The show begins with Carrie Mathison (played by Claire Danes) as a CIA field agent in Baghdad in the middle of transition of power to the new Iraqi government. A terrorist informant whispers into her ear right before his execution that Al-Qaeda turned an American and is plotting an attack on US soil.

At the time, Mathison has no basis for this claim and nothing can come of it. But months later, an American Marine is discovered. Nicholas Brody (played by Damien Lewis) returns to the States after 8 years of torture and captivity.

While the rest of the world believes that this is a story of an American victory and the long awaited return of our prisoners oversees finally coming home, Carrie believes this is, instead the very scenario her contact in Iraq was talking about. She is suspicious that Brody is in fact a sleeper agent for Al-Qaeda, and wishes to bring forth an attack on US soil.

But of course, nobody believes Carrie. Its later discovered, in the pilot, that Carries suffers from a bipolar disorder and is not the most reliable officer in the CIA intelligence community she works in.

Usually, I'm not a huge fan of Claire Danes. The only thing I've seen her in is Stardust, Les Miserables (the one with Liam Neeson, not Wolverine) and Romeo + Juliet. All movies I wasn't exactly impressed with, and if I was, it definitely wasn't because of Danes.

However, this show speaks incredibly highly of Danes and there is potential for "redemption" for Danes here, especially if how she portrays her bipolar disorder is done well or not.

What makes this pilot a little more complicated, is that while Carrie is investigating Brody, he returns to a family that basically thought he was dead.

This is always a difficult situation. Because frankly, I don't blame them. I don't blame the mom and wife (played by Morena Baccarin, from Firefly) for moving on and starting a relationship with one of her husband's friends. Some might see that as slutty or asshole like, but I don't blame her. Her husband was gone for 8 years. That's a long time for somebody to be missing, most likely dead. People have needs, why wouldn't she get some action if she needed it?

It makes for good drama though and of course he's going to find out down the road.

Until then, there's a look into the shock and somewhat awkwardness of a POW returning home, readjustment, all along with the fun idea that the audience is investigating and analyzing the show to see if they can correctly guess whether or not Sergeant Brody is a terrorist spy, or just a charismatic marine who is finally returning home.

The pilot sets up for an interesting plot and I know for a fact that I will be watching the entirety of at least the first season. The pilot is simple enough and grabbed my attention enough to keep watching.

Honestly, there's not much more I can say. I'm guessing this is just a preview of the review I'll be doing once I'm done with the season and to let you know that that is coming up... Hope you liked it?

That's honestly something I like about this pilot. The show isn't bogged down with a lot of different story lines and plot lines so far. Its pretty simple. A CIA agent with bipolar disorder is looking into a POW who has returned from captivity after 8 years. The POW may or may not be a sleep agent for terrorists, but until that's revealed, he has some issues with his family that is going to come forward sooner or later. And that's it. Its simple, its to the point, and it doesn't make me have to overanalyze the pilot.

Its hard to tell from one episode if a series is going to be good or not. That's the reason the views of a show are at its all time high at the pilot of television shows and then create a gradual bunny hill of fewer and fewer viewers.

Homeland doesn't make me question the show, it gives me all I really need to know to decide whether or not I'm interested or like these characters, it gives the plot for the rest of the season, and its concise and to the point.

From what I saw so far, the cast is very good. Claire Danes is surprising me already. Damien Lewis is interesting and makes me question a lot of things about plot in the future. Morena Baccarin was pretty good and made me have conflicted feelings about her. Oh and Mandy Patinkin is in this... need I say more?

This is a short review because there's no too much else I can say about this pilot. It was concise, it made sense, and it made me want to continue watching the show. Way to go Homeland.

But that's what I thought of the pilot. Without spoiling anything, tell me your thoughts on Homeland? Should I continue to watch it? Is it a show I'm going to end up loving? Comment and Discuss below! Or follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and get updates on future reviews and posts.

Clear and Present Danger

Its the last installment of all the Jack Ryan Tom Clancy films that I said that I would finish watching... a long time ago. The funny part is I did them in probably the funniest order ever imagined.

This is the order I watched and did the reviews for these movies.
Patriot Games
The Hunt For Red October
The Sum of All Fears
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

I went from second movie, to first movie, to fourth movie, to fifth movie, and now to third movie. If that isn't a weird order of doing things, I don't know what is.

Clear and Present Danger was another product of the 90s spy movies based on Tom Clancy novels that were good... ish...

I swear that these Tom Clancy movies are solely made to make the most realistic and frankly boring representation of the CIA ever conceived.

Clear and Present Danger is a return to Harrison Ford as the Tom Clancy character Jack Ryan as he is now promoted to Deputy Director of Intelligence for the CIA.

Clear and Present Danger mainly takes a hard look at the United State's War On Drugs as the CIA wages a secret war in Colombia against drug cartels.

As Ryan is put into his new position, the Deputy Director Operations (played by Henry Czerny) and the National Security Advisor (played by Harris Yulin) for the President (played by Donald Moffat),  send a secret task force into Colombia to fight the Cartel, led by John Clark (played by Willem Defoe). At the same time, Ryan speaks in front of Congress saying that there is no troops or military involvement in Colombia.

In Colombia, the cartels are run by Ernesto Escobedo (played by Miguel Sandoval) and his second in command, Felix Cortez (played by Joaquim de Almeida). There's an obvious rivalry between Cortz and Escobedo and sooner rather than later, this starts to play into the drug war happening between the United States and the drug cartels.

Honestly, the first hour or so of this movie is very dry. I'm not saying its bad, its just dry. The United States government freezes the assets of the leader of the Cartel, Ryan does some intelligence stuff, and Willem Defoe and his merry men get ready and go fight some Cartel members.

I'll give the movie credit, the movie has a lot more action in it than Patriot Games and The Hunt For Red October combined, which doesn't exactly make it better, but keeps the pace up a little bit.

Its the last half where things pick up. Ryan investigates and realizes that the President and the Director of Operations have been waging the secret war. Furthermore, they strike a deal with Cortez to give up the military team in return for the murder of the current leader and a secret alliance between the cartel and the US government.

Its mostly when Ryan goes against the government that things get really good. I always like a good running against authority storyline and this one actually gets pretty good. Its when Harrison Ford can get out of his quiet monotone voice of awesomeness and start growling at people.

I like that Jack Ryan isn't your confident or incredibly graceful hero, but at the same time, he's an incredibly moral hero. All incarnations of Jack Ryan have been one who sees the world in a black and white sense. There is no grey area, everything is either good, or bad. This is a very apparent theme in this film as the War on Drugs and how its dealt with, in reality and in this movie, rides the line of the morally grey.

And that's where this movie was actually really good. Whether it was Defoe and his men fighting Cartel members, or the US government making secret deals believing it to be the way to continue fighting, the movie was really good.

Speaking of secret deals, Joaquim de Almeida plays a somewhat interesting and conniving bad guy. I don't know if he's better than Sean Bean was in Patriot Games, but I remember Joaquim de Almeida in 24 and I really enjoyed him.

That's another thing about this show, that isn't so much about the film but more about 24, they seem to have taken a lot of people from this show and reused them in almost the same characters they are from this show.

Cortez is your typical Cuban drug lord and I think most of his intrigue comes form his shady dealings with the government. Its that shady dealings and back stabbing that I wish was a little more developed. It could have been better, that's all.

Unfortunately, he's not exactly the most developed villain. I like him enough, but he is for sure not that greatest.

The real action comes from the scenes in Colombia, mainly when John Clark is getting his team together and executing the missions against the Cartels. I really enjoyed that stuff.

Willem Defoe obviously brings it.

In a way, he's the one being played while the suits in DC and Langley move him around like a pawn in a chess game.

I really liked when him and Ryan finally team up. I like the relationship between Harrison Ford and Willem Defoe. And Willem Defoe actually surprised me as a CIA operative like John Clark. I guess i didn't really think he was very good for the role when I realized that he was John Clark but it turned out pretty good and of course Willem Defoe was a lot of fun, as per usual. He's the end of the CIA that you might expect out of a CIA movie and to be honest, I think that a movie on John Clark perhaps needs to happen because in many ways, he's a little bit more interesting that Jack Ryan.

I don't mean to bad mouth Harrison Ford in any way. Its just the dryness of the first half of this movie that makes the paperwork and daily office work kind of boring to watch.

I know Tom Clancy's books are a little bit more dry and its focused a little more on the investigation rather than the action part and for what its worth, Harrison Ford is still by far the best Jack Ryan.

I seem to be kind of shitting on this movie but in reality, its probably my favorite of all the Jack Ryan films, or at least its just behind Patriot Games. I think I jump back and forth between this movie, Patriot Games, and Shadow Recruit as my favorite with one of the Harrison Ford films as the first. Its hard to decide.

Honestly, when Ryan is on the ground doing things you would see in other CIA movies, it gets really good.

Overall, Clear and Present Danger has a lot of good things about it, its just a dry 90's action flick. Its a very intelligent movie as well, not quite falling victim to the stereotypical action flicks of the 80's and 90's and actually showing some reality to it. Its basically the precursor to I think was perfected in movies like the Bourne films.

I think the 90s in many ways was a precursor to great espionage films that came in the 2000s. That doesn't mean they're bad, they were just starting something new that hadn't really been done before and I guess for that, I have to give the movie credit.

The movie is very similar to Patriot Games in that the pacing is not that great but the story, characters, and action, where it comes in, is really good.

In short, I liked Clear and Present Danger, not love, like. But what do you think? Comment and Discuss below! Also Follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 where you can get updates on the blog and watch me try and be funny.

I'll leave you with this. I realized that Harrison Ford fights the same way in every movie. Here's a video showing all the fight scenes Harrison Ford do in every movie he's been in and tell me what you think. Enjoy!