I'm just a guy who loves stories, whether they be past, present, future, movies, TV Shows, video games, whatever. If you came to get an average guys thoughts on film, you've come to the right place.
Okay... Okay... I gave in and decided to watch Tokyo Drift. I did not go out of my way to watch this movie, it just happened to be starting when I was channel surfing. I take back everything I said when I did my Fast & Furious review, I decided not to skip it... Do I regret not skipping it... well...
Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift follows a story of totally unrelated characters to the franchise so far. One of the characters will have a bigger part in later movies, and one will have a lame cameo in Furious 7, outside of that, this movie is totally unrelated to the rest of the franchise.
What's also weird is that this movie actually takes place in between Fast 6 and Furious 7... for some reason...
Enter our hero, Sean Boswell (played by Lucas Black). He's your typical misunderstood delinquent, who just keeps getting in trouble due to his fascination with car racing. Oh yeah... and he has an annoying southern twang in his voice.
After an incident of street racing in the States, he is quickly shipped off to live with his father who is in the Navy in Japan.
With little introduction of this character or his father, or his new life in Japan, he's quickly thrown into the underworld of drift racing with Little Bow Wow and the street racer Han (played by Sung Kang) someone who would become a prominent member in the later movies.
And to be honest, this is the story of someone joining a gang.
I mean yeah its not as violent or manipulative as joining a gang can actually be, but think about the situation here.
Sean is a social outcast with not many prospects and very little family he can count on. Suddenly he's introduced to this whole new world where drag racing is key and they become his new family. Now they become his new family by means of him doing favors for them and I'll say it, a lot of it is illegal.
Now they cover it up pretty well in posing Han as a sort of young Mr. Miyagi. However, instead of karate, Sean is being taught how to drag race. Its odd how close this movie is to The Karate Kid.
But yeah, Sean joins a gang. It may not be the Yakuza, they may be there for him when his father isn't, but there's no doubt that he's indebted to Han and doesn't have much choice to leave until the climax of the film.
So put aside the fact that this movie kind of glorifies gangs, what else happens?
Throughout the film, there is the conflict of the love interest and how she connects to Sean's involvement with this street racing gang.
Natalie Kelley plays Neela and while all the Fast and Furious movies have had records of objectifying women, this movie really takes it to the next next level.
Every girl in this movie seems to gravitate towards the guy who can drive the car the best. There is legitimately a part where Sean competes in a race to win a girl... And she's the one who puts that challenge forth. There is legitimately a sense that whoever wins these races wins the girl like she's a piece of property. And because of this, the main female lead just seems like that, a prize. There's a little bit of development of her character and a little bit of explanation as to why she is in this gang to begin with, but despite all that, it really gets thrown out the window as she still remains the prize.
I'm really glad the later movies turned the focus away from trying to be action crime movies and just being action movies that involved crime. There is a difference, I promise.
Continuing on with the fact that this movie is basically The Karate Kid with drag racing, the villain of the movie is just like a high school bully... a high school bully who is also a member of the Yakuza.
The weird thing is, this is really kind of swept under the rug in the end as the focus was more on car racing that gangs. And in result, the villain is really forgettable. For a little bit I thought they were going to try and develop him a little bit, try and make him a little bit of a tragic figure... but then he died. Oh well, good guys win.
The last thing worth talking about when it comes to cast is Little Bow Wow.
And he's hardly worth mentioning because they really only tried to make him the Tyrese Gibson of the third movie. But instead of him actually being the stereotypical black sidekick that can be entertaining, he's just the stereotypical black character.
That's not the best way to put it, but hey if the movie is not going to try, I'm not going to try.
Little Bow Wow is barely in the movie and he's actually kind of an asshole. I never got the idea that he was really friends with Sean and I feel like they were trying to mix the two relationships from the first two movies that Paul Walker had. Brian with Dominic from the first film and Brian with Roman in 2 Fast 2 Furious. The result is not giving each relationship the credit it really deserves.
What I will say is that I did enjoy the performance of Sung Kang as Han. While it is a little bit too much like The Karate Kid, I thought he did have a cool leader edge to him and I understand the relationship between him and Sean better than the relationship Sean has with Little Bow Wow.
So if you can't tell, I'm really not a huge fan of this movie. While there were a couple moments that I did enjoy, like the relationship between Sean and Han, I think the franchise was waning pretty fast when it came to this one.
But despite the fact that I just didn't like this movie, I do have to give it a little bit of credit. It tried something different.
I'm not totally familiar with the politics and the decisions that were made that made it so Paul Walker and Vin Diesel were not the stars of the third one but I have to give the studios credit for trying to do something new with a third installment. Trying to continue a franchise with totally new characters is a hard thing to do and I'm really amazed that they did it.
Granted they didn't do it well and there's a reason Tokyo Drift is often forgotten, but the movie is trying something different so I have to give them credit for that. And from what I've heard, Han is a beloved character in the later films, so when I eventually get to those films, I promise I will let you know if that charm he had in this film continues on.
Overall, Tokyo Drift is just a miss in my book. You have characters you can't really relate to, a movie more focused on car racing that actually developing a cohesive story, wooden acting, and a really unimpressive climax.
While I do think it was interesting to see the franchise try and go a different direction, a direction that didn't really go anywhere, I think this is probably a chapter in the franchise that you can go without seeing. Just go 1, 2, and then go straight to the 4th in Fast & Furious.
But those are my thoughts on Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and give me your requests for future movies I should review. If you follow me, you can also get updates on future movie news and reviews.
I'll leave you with this. I couldn't really find anything video-wise for this movie so I'll put something for my next review which will be Jurassic Park. Enjoy!
Heroes has a special place in my heart and actually a special place in this blog. Back in 2013, I did a pretty expansive review of all the seasons of Heroes and pointed out where exactly the show went wrong and where exactly it failed to capture my attention, something it had done so very well when it first aired in 2006. One of the first posts on this blog was a comparison between Heroes and Alphas and seeing why one was better than the other.
Though I have built up this blog as mainly a movie blog, a lot of the posts that built this blog were based off of TV shows and more specifically, based off Heroes.
So now, after three seasons that just let me down worse and worse as the show went on, the show si finally returning to NBC to redeem itself.
The show doesn't start till September, but they did release this trailer to give an idea of what audiences will be looking for in the coming season.
...Hmm
I've watched this trailer a couple times now and I'm still not totally sure how I feel about it. On one hand, when I heard they were bringing back Heroes, the first thing I said was... why?!?
I mean I get it. The new thing these days is to revamp shows that were popular back in the 2000s and give them one more go at being popular. I mean it happened with 24 and I would say it was decently well done. Its unfortunately going to happen with Prison Break in the next few years, and I imagine there have been other shows that have come back because hey, they made money right?
But that's the issue I have with it. These shows shouldn't be coming back because networks feel like they can squeeze out some extra money from something that's not quite nostalgic quite yet, but was popular. It should be bringing these shows back because there actually is more to bring to the story, there's untold stories, more areas they could go. But the weird thing is, these shows ended on notes that seemed like well done conclusions. I mean there's a pretty good chance the shows didn't end by choice but they knew ratings were down, they knew the end was near, they ended in a pretty good way. I've already done my thoughts on the 8th season of 24.
Heroes, while not the most conclusive ending, did give a final arch to our heroes and did end the final episode with some sort of finality. To me, it didn't really seem like the kind of show that needed to come back.
And yet, here it is. For one reason or another, Heroes is being "Reborn" and brought back as a mini series.
So what is the story.
From what I have gathered from this trailer, the synopsis, the trailers for the webisodes that are coming out prior to the shows release, this is a little bit of a continuation of what happened at the end of the 4th season. Claire reveals herself as someone with abilities, disappears from the plot and suddenly we're introduced to new heroes. New people with special abilities. However, in the years since, people with abilities have been hunted down by the government and been discriminated against. I'm not totally sure which one, if one or the other is exclusive, however, they are now being called EVOs (in reference to evolved humans) and are subject of controversy in US policy. A lot of these new people are dealing with the idea of just being different and exposed. Exposed to people that have different beliefs, different ideals, and different thoughts of who is acceptable and who is not.
This to me is interesting. Whereas the first season of Heroes took themes and ideas from the first X-men movie, this one seems to be taking ideas from Man of Steel, making them question what the response will be if someone comes out and reveals that they have these abilities.
This is something that I like.
At the same time, following in that Man of Steel train of thought, many people are calling out for these people to come forth and bring out the best in humanity. Save it from the ultimate destruction. What that destruction is, I'm not totally sure, but I get it, you just wanted to have a bunch of things that said, where are the heroes? Its a good marketing campaign, I get it.
But its good, because there are people who would have those differing views and that's a great cause of tension and confusion for the characters and in turn the audience.
So while its confusing, this is also something that I like.
On top of that, you get the extremes, people thinking that these evolved humans are a complete danger to humanity, thinking that they are terrorists, like the show of Mohinder as an EVO terrorist (we'll get into my thoughts on Mohinder being back). And what's better is the response to that.
Zachary Levi (or Chuck) playing what seems like a bad guy, or at least a vigilante going after people with abilities is a very interesting idea.
And I like him as an actor. I like the idea of giving somebody traditionally known for a more comedic role a darker and more serious role is something that can be really great if he does it right. I mean it could be bad, but i like Levi enough to believe that he could do it.
On top of that, that scene in the trailer just looks cool. I really like the way its set up and I like the idea of having somebody follow his own rules and hunting individuals like that who's not a government goon. Unfortunately this does lend itself to stupid lines like, "I'm the hero here" which I'm not really looking forward to if its going to be dead on the nose like that, but from where it stands right now, Zachary Levi's part in all of this looks pretty good.
This, was also something that I liked.
Now when doing a rebooted mini series like this, it seems like what has worked has been revamping the series into something new but still having a touch of the old to keep the returning fans familiar and liking the series. For 24 its obviously the return of Jack Bauer, and connecting Audrey back into the story to give some kind of connection back to previous seasons.
Now the problem with Heroes is that there were A LOT of characters. Not enough of them died (read my review to figure out how I feel about that) and there's not one person that really captures the heart of the show totally.
On top of that, a lot of these actors and actresses got their break from Heroes, they're moving on to bigger and better things, they don't really have time to go back to the past.
So who do you bring in to get that familiarity?
There are a lot of choices. But I think probably the best choice and the one that they made was bringing back Noah Bennet, or the guy in the horn rimmed glasses. He doesn't have an ability so we're not tied down by seeing exactly the same person doing the exact same powers we saw before, and he's supporting enough of a character to tie it all together, but not take away from the new people.
I was never a huge fan of Noah Bennett, I thought that he had some pretty lame story lines, even in the earlier seasons of Heroes, but a lot of that was tied down to the fact that he was connected to Claire and a lot of his motivation was due to the fact that he just wanted to protect her. Noah was a lot more interesting when he wasn't bitching about how being a father to Claire was so hard.
So now that Hayden Panettiere is not in the series and is not planned to make an appearance in the series, I think Noah Bennett will be more interesting. He'll probably have a quick scene showing how he misses Claire and all that BS, but for the most part, he'll be doing his best in whatever he does and I'm actually kind of excited for it.
This was also something that I liked.
Now, before I go on, I should mention that Noah Bennett was not my first choice of a character they should have brought back. If it had been up to me, I would have had someone like Peter Petrelli, or an evil Sylar. Not to say Bennett is a bad choice, in fact he's probably the best choice like I said. But I didn't like him enough for him to be my first choice.
Furthermore, if they were going to bring any characters back, the only way I think I would have wanted them back is in a function where they are changed or more evolved then they were before, like have them be the more powerful evolved human and help along the new generation.
That's why, when I saw Hiro Nakumura, I got a little bit excited because he didn't look like the derpy nerd he has always been, he looked like he looked in the future, that badass future that we never got to see, something, again, I talked about in my overview of the series.
I'll talk more about the characters they brought back next, but surprisingly, even though I thought I was going to just sigh when I saw Hiro, I actually didn't hate the capacity he showed up in. He looked like he did in the future, he looks like he could be a more powerful evolved human and really kick some ass. On top of that, he's actually using his katana. That was something incredibly missing from the series, Hiro using his katana in a way that wasn't like cutting through bread or just to make him look cool. It only worked for about half a season and then he just kept on not using it.
So yeah... this was something that I kind of liked.
And that does kind of tie into the last thing I liked. There was a certain feeling to this trailer that I did like. It didn't feel one hundred percent like the original show. The entire atmosphere felt like it changed a little bit and I liked that.
I actually felt like this was going to be people using their powers like their suppose to. Yeah there's going to be development, there's going to be those who figure out how to use their abilities, but its going to be more the implementation of those powers, rather than the discovery, something that was incredibly well done in the first season, overdone in the later seasons and eventually just got old. I think it will be quick establishment of these character's abilities then an actual utilization of them leading to awesome super hero shit going on. Could I be wrong? Well yeah, but I think they've seen enough Marvel and DC movies to realize that this can be done.
So that was something that I also liked.
But as you can see, we're getting into things that I wasn't as enthusiastic about and while we're on the subject, it might be a good time to talk about one of the things I really didn't like at all from the trailer, the amount of returning heroes.
Like I said, when you do a continuation of a series like this, you do need a couple characters form the original to get the old fans interested and nostalgic for what they once enjoyed.
However, the way this trailer made it look, it really made it seem like the only people that came back were the ones who don't really get that much work these days.
I mean Heroes started a lot of careers. Some better than others, but nobody would have known Zachary Quinto's name prior to the show and now he's a big star in movies like Star Trek. Kirsten Bell didn't even have a huge role that lasted that long but she did well for herself. Not a lot of them had rocketing careers, but there are definitely those who didn't seem as successful and they all seemed to show up in this trailer.
This is not to say these are bad actors. I actually like a lot of them. Greg Grunberg shows up every once in a while and its fun. Sendhil Ramamurthy is not a bad actor, I just think his character had a bad arch in later seasons. These are not horrible actors, they just haven't gotten work, and it kind of seems like Heroes was a good fall back.
And then... there's the awful people coming back. Cristine Rose is not necessarily a bad actor, but Angela Petrelli is a worn out character and I just sighed when she showed up. While i liked how they handled him in the trailer Hiro Nakumura is a worn out character and really didn't need to come back.
And then there was Micah...
If there was anything consistent about Heroes, (which there really wasn't) it was that Noah Gray-Cabey was always going to show up randomly and just look like a dumbass. Well they brought him back because, hell he's not making money anywhere else.
And that was a constant whenever old characters were brought back, I just thought they brought these characters back because they weren't really making money elsewhere, not because they loved the series, but because its a familiar role with familiar money, and to me it seems kind of lazy. Now that's not necessarily the case, its a pretty cynical look, but I want more from Heroes and I'm not totally sure all these returning people is an incredibly stroke of confidence for the show, at least in my book.
So yeah, that was something I didn't like.
The caveat with the returning cast is that with the exception of Noah Bennett, all the returning cast members are listed as Special Guests. Whether or not they will only be special guests and not recurring guests, we'll have to wait and see.
Now one of the things that I didn't necessarily not like, but I wasn't wild about was the new cast.
To be fair, I do like Zachary Levi. I am actually pretty excited to see him in what seems to be a little bit of a bad guy role. He's not an actor I follow very much, but I'm interested in seeing what he can do and if he can make me fall in love with Heroes again.
Unfortunately, Zachary Levi is really the only character they develop into a way that I think will be interesting.
We do get a little bit of a look into three other characters that are new. One is Levi's partner (Judith Shekoni), we don't know too much about her. The other is the Japanese woman (played by Kiki Sukezane) from the picture above. That woman isn't given any dialogue in the trailer so I can't really say that much about her. She does kind of represent the Japanese flair that the show has always had in the past and I guess its a decent way to throw back to the old atmosphere of the show while still introducing new characters.
The show does also kind of introduce another guy (played by Ryan Guzman) but he shows up for a little bit and doesn't do anything, in the synopsis they say he's a veteran or something like that, but we'll wait and see.
And then there's this kid...
I never got to review the third season of Once Upon a Time, mainly because I never finished the third season, and I'm going to be totally honest, it kind of had to do with this kid.
The kids name is Robbie Kay, and I don't know what it is, but I'm not a huge fan of his work. He played this weird evil version of Peter Pan in Once Upon a Time which baffled me to no end, and now he's playing a kid struggling with his powers in high school.
The thing is, every time we've had a character who has been dealing with the woes of high school along with his or her powers in Heroes, its really been the low point of the season. It happened with Claire and I'm kind of thinking its going to happen with this kid.
Furthermore, this kid steals a line from Peter Petrelli, "You ever get the feeling you're suppose to do something extraordinary?" Yeah I wasn't a fan of that, especially with how much I liked Peter Petrelli. Its probably just a send back to the original season but it bothered me.
Now, I'm not totally sure what this kid's powers are, they seem to have something to do with teleportation or something and he does have a few interactions with Zachary Levi which could be interesting.
Unfortunately, he just doesn't really do much for me. I'll of course wait and see for when the show finally does air, I don't want to get on his case too much, but I was not impressed by this kid in the trailer.
Another thing that I wasn't wild about was this guy
The thing about this is that Heroes has never been about these people actually going out and fighting crime as masked superheroes. And whenever the show tried, it looked silly and ridiculous.
This guy in the mask looks silly and ridiculous.
Especially in a season where the secret is out, there are people with super human abilities, I'm kind of confused on the use of masks and trying to make this all superhero-y.
Then there's this chick...
Now this girl kind of worries me. At first when all the teasers came out, she was just the one who could put on aurora borealis and hey... I guess that's a cool power...
But in this she looks back at the camera and says, "It's happening faster than we thought, I don't think I can control it much longer"...
What?
I mean... what does that even mean?
Are they really going to pull in some kind of natural disaster that is going to make the problems between these people irrelevant?
I'm gonna be honest, I really don't like when shows do that.
The point of a drama is to enjoy the conflict and tension between characters. When those conflicts and tensions are relieved or made very small in comparison by a natural disaster or another plotline, I get a little angry.
And while I love the show, the best example of this in Game of Thrones.
I'll try and keep this as spoiler free as I can, but Game of Thrones does this thing where they push everything aside and say, all the squabbling going on in Westeros, all the fighting for the Iron Throne is pointless, because the White Walkers and the army of the dead are coming, that or Daenarys and her dragons are coming.
And I'm not a huge fan of that. As interesting as the white walkers and Daenarys and her dragons are, the show is called Game of Thrones, half the point of the show is this squabble between these people fighting for the Iron Throne, that's why I got interested in the show in the first place. You want somebody to win and if its the White Walkers, I feel a little bit cheated.
The same goes for Heroes.
This show is a drama about people with super human abilities and the drama and conflict that comes with that. If all that is thrown out the window because some weird aurora borealis black hole thing. I'm gonna be a little pissed.
Its kind of like that episode in the third season when they all lost their powers for the stupidest reasons on the planet... it was dumb.
And this isn't the first time Heroes has done this sort of natural disaster world destruction thing and it didn't work then, why would it work now.
The first season was so simple, there's a bomb that's going to go off in New York City, let's go stop it.
But when you start making this about the world ending because of... magic or something, I'm gonna kind of lose my shit.
But we'll see I guess.
This has been a pretty long post, I hope its pretty apparent that I have some pretty mixed reactions to the new miniseries of Heroes. I'm definitely going to check out this mini series, see if its any good.
Heroes is one of the shows that I watched from start to end when I was younger. It was this, 24 and Prison Break, all of which have either gotten a rebooted miniseries, or is going to get one.
Its been shown that it can work with Live Another Day, but I just must ask, why go back to these properties so quickly when you can always come back to them later when its been more than 5 years since the show was cancelled. I guess original thoughts are hard to come by these days... We will see if going back to the familiar is really the best way to go.
But those are my (long) thoughts on the Heroes Reborn trailer. Let me know what you think of the trailer. Let me know whether or not you're excited for the new miniseries. Comment and Discuss in the comment section below. You can also send me your thoughts to me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your thoughts for movies and TV shows I can review in the future. Follow me on Twitter to get future updates on movie (and TV) reviews, and news.
I'll leave you with this. Its a trailer for the pilot episode of Heroes. Now its an extended trailer so it gives a lot of stuff away, but its really reminiscent of a time when Heroes was really damn good. I want to go back to that time. Enjoy!
Young adult novels have always been a thing. I remember a number of novels that I read when I was younger that we targeted towards young adults. The odd thing is, I grew up in a time before young adult novels was automatically thought to be equivalent with some kind of post-apocalyptic future and teenagers going out of their way to save the world from the evil government.
Its kind of becoming a problem to be honest.
And unfortunately, as much as I want to say that The Maze Runner has something going for it that isn't like all the other YA novels out there... well that was true, until the end. We'll get into it now.
The Maze Runner starts with our hero Thomas (played by Dylan O'Brien) being brought up by an elevator to an enclosed off area populated by a group of boys. Thomas cannot remember his name to start off but he's quickly assured that that's normal, his name will come back but everything else he'll just start afresh.
This group of boys live in what they call The Glade. Its surrounded by large walls that house what they call, The Maze. Every morning the doors of this Maze open and every night they close. Thomas figures out that these boys have been populating for 3 years and have set up their own little civilization. Everybody does their part, and only a select few go out into the Maze to try and make sense of it. The problem is, every night, the Maze changes and its never the same the next night... Sorta. That is one confusing thing off the bat, they say that the runners go off into the maze and try and map it out, however, how can they map it out if it changes every night?
Anyways, unanswered questions aside, (because my god there are more than a handful of them in this movie) Thomas is quickly introduced to this Lord of the Flies situations going on in the glade, but also quickly tears it down with things just not going the way they've always been going when he shows up.
I never read the book, I don't know how long Thomas is there in the book, but its kind of amazing that he gets here, and then three days later, like everything has gone to shit.
Its kind of hard to talk about this movie without giving away a bunch of spoilers. So I'll give you the highlights of what was good and what was bad in this film, give my overall thoughts, send the people who aren't interested in spoilers away, then talk spoilers.
Dylan O'Brien really impressed me in this film. I mean its not the greatest performance of all time, but I did feel like he was the person who was the most invested in all of this. I suppose the people who made this are thinking, we have to get someone who's going to be attractive and at least a little bit talented to be put up in the ranks of Jennifer Lawrence and that chick from Divergent, let's get someone with talent. And for the most part, he's pretty good.
O'Brien was one of the people who was rumored to be in line for the role of Spider-man and not that I've seen this, I actually really wish that he had be chosen. He's kind of a knock off Andrew Garfield but I feel like he could have been something really good. The truth is I only have seen one more more of his than Tom Holland and that's this movie so I can't really say, but I would have been fine if he had been chosen.
Everyone else... is really kind of indistinguishable and interchangeable.
I mean the only other person who is distinguishable is Thomas Brodie-Sangster... don't know who that is? He's that worthless guy who was with Bran for a season of Game of Thrones and the kid from Love Actually. The only reason I recognize him is because he's probably the most famous person there.
Everyone else tries to fall into a certain stereotype, like the chubby kid, or the black guy, or the bully, or the asian guy, but in the end, I didn't know any of their names. Everybody's got these weird names and then you've got Thomas... That was kind of confusing to me.
Oh... and there's a girl randomly (played by Kaya Scodelario). I mean... yeah she's attractive... but what does she do in this film? I'll give the answer. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. The girl in this movie plays absolutely no part in the story, she's just eye candy. Maybe she'll have a bigger role in the later films, but for now, yeah, she does nothing.
The thing about this film is that it doesn't exactly feel like a complete movie. Even with the big reveal in the end that answers maybe one question out of the billion questions this movie brings up, this movie seems more like a prequel for something bigger. Because I'll be honest, this movie takes place over a very short time and very little happens.
The last thing I want to talk about is the design of the entire movie. Its an interesting design for the maze, and the monsters inside it.
I liked the design so much that I'm kind of disappointed this movie didn't get flushed out a little bit more. I know that there's not much in this maze, but I would have liked this world to be explored a little bit more. Maybe there's variations of challenges they have to go through in the maze, or maybe there are different monsters than just the robot spiders. There's unlimited possibilities that could happen here and I feel like they don't quite push it to where it totally could be in this film. And like I said, this movie seems like a story that could have been done in a short prequel film before the next movie that I'll be honest seems a lot more interesting.
And that's really why I watched this movie. I watched the trailer for the next movie. Put aside the fact that Little Finger from Game of Thrones (Aiden Gillen) is in the next film, its a totally new environment, totally different stakes and it seems like they're actually building up to something. I have no idea what, but it looks kind of interesting.
So is The Maze Runner bad? Well... no. Its not. I think its a fine enough movie. I'm not even going to waste time comparing this movie to the Hunger Games... because Hunger Games will win. I will say Divergent is better than this movie only because the first Divergent movie had a little bit more of a complete story. But that doesn't mean that there isn't promise in this franchise. It does distinguish itself, at least for now, from other YA novel adaptations and like I said, the only reason I saw this movie was because the trailer for the second one interests me more.
But those are my thoughts on The Maze Runner. What do you think? Comment and Discuss below. You can also give me your thoughts on the movie @cmhaugen24. Don't forget to send me your requests for future reviews. You can also follow me on Twitter to give updates on future movie news and reviews.
I'll leave the people leaving right now with this. This is the trailer for the second movie. It looks interesting, hopefully you'll have the same reaction I did.
Now, onto the spoilers of this movie.
Is everyone away? Are you sure? Alright.
So... was anybody else surprised on the fact that this is actually a zombie apocalypse film?
We spend the entire movie watching this weird Lord of the Flies remake where these boys are trying to figure out their way out of the Maze and solve the mystery of whats going out and why they're there, and when it all comes out, it turns out its a zombie apocalypse?
Which of course begs the question, what does putting them in a maze have anything to do with finding a cure but hey, whatever.
And that's the weird thing about this movie. They have a mediocre story with the boys in the Glade, but I think could have turned into something, that turns into a zombie apocalypse story that isn't explained enough in the end.
I said before, this movie seems like a prequel to a zombie story. And it just makes me think, why didn't they just start with the next story and cover all this silliness in The Glade in a flashback or something? I don't know how the whole story connects, maybe if I read the book it would make more sense, but I'm not gonna do that.
Oh yeah, let's talk about Patricia Clarkson in this film.
First off, she's obviously the President Snow or the Kate Winslet of this series. There of course needed to be that adult who is just the evil authority figure... because.
The weird thing is, she's already set up as the next President Snow just because she's the evil adult in a YA novel who wears white. She hasn't done anything, they don't even know what's totally going on, the audience doesn't totally know what's going on, but she's the evil one because she's the evil one. Which was pretty lame.
I know I'm putting a lot of faith into the second installment of this franchise but I'm just hoping that this is just a lame prequel to something that could actually be interesting... with Little Finger, and Gus from Breaking Bad in it...
The movie is very flawed. Its not nearly as good as the Hunger Games or Divergent but I will give it one more sequel only because I know the producers of this movie know they have a lot to compete with and if this next movie fails, they lose money.
But with all that knowledge, what do you think will happen with The Maze Runner. Do you think its going to continue and be as huge of a series as Divergent or Hunger Games or do you think it will fizzle out? Comment and Discuss below. Again, follow me on Twitter, give me your thoughts, send me requests. and get updates soon.
I'll leave you with this. Here's the Honest Trailer for this movie. A lot of times these trailers say a lot about the movie that I'm not able to explain all the time. Enjoy!
First off, can I say, that poster is amazing. This is the first time I've seen this poster and if I had seen that a while ago, I probably would have seen this movie a long time ago.
If you haven't noticed, this movie came out last May, had a huge release, and what was I doing? I was watching Night at the Museum... not that that movie was bad, I just kind of wish I had actually gone out to see this movie.
One more disclaimer before I start the review, I haven't seen the other Mad Max movies, I have little to no context. I know kind of what those movies are about but not really anything beyond that. I know the role was played by Mel Gibson and now Tom Hardy is playing it in the pseudo-sequel that this is.
So in the beginning of this film, we catch up with Max (played by Tom Hardy), he's being haunted by the memories of people he failed to save. Who these people are... you don't really know. I don't know if they covered that in the other movies, but they're just kind of hiccups that show up randomly and just kind of mess things up for Max at really inconvenient times.
Max is taken captive by a warlord and his really creepy pale goons and put into slavery. For how long, well its not really known for sure but its enough to really screw Max over, so much that at the beginning of the film he can barely speak.
At the same time, you have Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron). She is a mercenary that works for this warlord doing runs for gasoline and bullets. On the events of this particular movie however, she is rescuing the wives of the warlord (played by Zoe Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee, and Courtney Eaton) from being nothing more than property or "breeders" and bringing them to the green place.
Through a series of events, Max finds himself in the company of Furiosa and the wives and finds himself helping them to escape from the War Boys.
Along the way, they are pursued by a War Boy by the name of Nux (played by Nicholas Hoult) and he has a certain role to play in the entire epic.
And that really is the correct word for this movie, an epic.
It was hard to find a picture that would best describe how epic this movie is, because it really is this huge grand scale movie, and if you know anything about the development of it, you'll know that a lot of it used practical effects and actual stunts.
Like there's a part where a guy is riding on a semi truck playing a guitar that is also a flamethrower... and that was totally real, they actually drove a bunch of cars in the desert, had a semi, built a rig that could hold a bunch of speakers, and a guy playing a guitar with a flame thrower on it. Sure the picture to the right used digital effects to show the sandstorm, but there's a lot of stunts in the movie that were totally real and it made you sit there, watching it in awe, just wondering which parts were actually shot. And from what it sounds, it sounds like a lot of them were actually done.
So yeah, the visuals of this movie are phenomenally awesome.
But what about the story and the performances?
Well if you've heard anything about this movie prior to reading this review, you'll know that while the movie is called Mad Max, the story is actually really about Furiosa.
And of course you probably heard about the Twitter outcry of guys being like, "Why is it focused on Furiosa instead of Max, its a MAD MAX movie." To that I say, are we still talking about it that four months later? No we're not. Are people still talking about how good this movie is, Yes. So that should put aside any thoughts on whether or not this movie is going to be good or not based on whether or not its actually about Max.
If that didn't make any sense, I'll just say this. Charlize Theron rocks it in this movie. Her backstory isn't exactly explained in this movie which makes me think that they're going to do a spin-off with her... we'll get to that later. But the fact that there's not a lot known about her doesn't really seem to matter based on her actions and her performance. Its just good.
And then you've got Max.
Like I said, I don't really know how Tom Hardy compares with Mel Gibson. The truth is I don't know anything about the character, which I almost feel was something I needed prior to watching this movie. They focus so much on developing the other characters that they don't really touch any kind of development on Max. He's more of just the vehicle to watching Furiosa's story. Which isn't a bad thing. I am in no way saying that Tom Hardy did a bad job. I just didn't feel like I really knew who Max was in this film. That has more to do with the writing (which I'm not saying is bad) than Hardy's performance.
I think if there was anything that was a downside of this movie, it would probably be the wives. They're not a huge part of the movie in regards to lines or impact, they're just the people that Furiosa and Max need to protect. They're not horrible but they are played by a bunch of actresses who are not known for acting, or if they are, they haven't been doing it for very long.
Something kind of fun about this movie is that the main antagonist, the warlord Immortan Joe is played by Hugh Keays-Byrne who actually played the main antagonist in the first Mad Max film.
Now when I first saw the trailer for this movie, I saw Immortan Joe and his War Boys and I think I was imagining seeing some really gruesome and just inhuman stuff going on by these guys. And don't get me wrong, the implications of what is going on in this fucked up world is very, very apparent. But you don't really see it. And i think I was expecting more out of this guy. I'm not saying that I want to see that, and the way that the movie turned out, it actually worked better just implying a lot of the fucked up stuff that goes on, but what I'm trying to say is that this guy was built up more, and it was a little less than I expected.
What I will say about the effects of Immortan Joe is shown through Nux. Nux is basically a disciple of Immortan Joe and believes whole heartedly that he is this god. So much that he's willing to do whatever he can to fall in his favor. But as he does this, his character evolves. I don't want to spoil it but I really liked Nux in this movie. When I saw the trailers I was a little bit confused on his whole role in this entire epic but now that I've seen the movie, it makes sense and I really think he did a great job.
Now onto the story.
The amazing part of this movie is how simplistic this story is. This movie is basically one long road trip/ road battle movie. But on the way you're really exposed to these different characters, what drives them, what triggers them to step away from the idea that they're just trying to survive in this post apocalyptic wasteland and find something out there that is better.
And that's the great part about Fury Road. Its a triumph over the worst of the worst from people who are not necessarily the greatest people, but have the better intentions and want to make the best out of the darkness.
That may sound over the top and kind of cheesy, but that's the stakes here in reality, and it comes down to our main characters.
While I did say that Max isn't totally developed as a character and is more of a vehicle to the real story going on which is Furiosa's, the two of them really make up a team dynamic that is just down right good. And a lot of the times, its without saying any words, these two just understand one another. And the greater part is, its without the relationship turning sexual. Furthermore, its an equal partnership recognizing the strengths and weaknesses in both parties.
I feel like I'm analyzing this movie too much but that's what you do with really good movies. There's a great scene where their truck has broken down and some bad guys are on their way. Max grabs the sniper rifle and starts shooting but misses. Furiosa comes behind him, and without making it a thing, without making a joke about it, before or after, he humbly hands over the rifle because he knows she's a better shot.
And I would disagree with people who say that Max is not a badass in his own movie. Max is definitely a badass.
This movie is more about the two of them and its done very, very well. It kind of makes me sad that there were rumors of the two actors not getting along on set and that's why they're allegedly not going to be in the sequel together, because you really can't tell, at all.
Anyway, closing notes. The action is phenomenal. From the car races, to the on the ground fighting, to the gunplay, to the jumping from one exploding car to the next, the action is great. The performances are great. Hardy, Theron, Hoult, all great. The story, very simplistic but very rich for these characters to interact in. And the movie looks gorgeous.
I have very little to complain about this movie. It is just as spectacular as people have said that it has been and I really regret not seeing it in theaters. We'll have to wait and see how much of an impact this movie has in the long run, but I am a proud owner of Mad Max: Fury Road on my Itunes and it was a movie well worth the price.
But what do you think? Did you like Mad Max? Did I miss anything wrong with the film? Comment and Discuss below! You can also comment on the film on my twitter @cmhaugen24 and give me your requests for films I should review in the future. You can also follow me to get updates on future movie news and reviews.
I'll leave you with this. I can't recall if I've shed light on this series of videos before, but I feel like I have. This woman takes popular characters from the media and delves into the changes in all their carnations. She did one on Mad Max. Take a look, its worth a watch. Enjoy!
I never thought I'd say this, but somebody had to have been sitting in a room somewhere and said, what if the guy from Pineapple Express, and that guy from High school Musical did a movie together. And that guy was quickly laughed at... but then they did it, and it was a phenomenal choice.
Neighbors is the story of Mac and Kelly (played by Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne). Right off the bat, I'm going to say that there is no way in hell that a guy like Seth Rogen could ever get a woman like Rose Byrne. Just put aside the fact that she has an Australian accent in this movie, which is probably one of the sexiest things you will ever experience in your life, I just don't believe it right off the bat.
But anyway, Mac and Kelly are new parents who are just getting used to being parents.
They're the kind of couple that isn't old, but they're also not young. That is especially apparent when a fraternity house moves in next door.
So while Mac and Kelly are trying to get used to the struggles of being new parents, a frat boy Teddy (played by Zac Efron) moves in next door with his brothers with really funny people like James Franco, and McLovin.
I mean the comedy basically writes itself in the fact that you've got new parents who just want some sleep, and a frat house who want to have the most extreme party before the end of the year.
Its not that hard to guess, but sooner or later, a war breaks out between these two households as Teddy will stop at nothing to make the lives of his neighbors miserable, and eventually, Mac and Kelly will stop at nothing to get the fraternity kicked out of the house.
Like I said, a lot of the humor really writes itself. Between the antics of fraternities that are oddly familiar as I am a recent college graduate myself, to the desire sometimes to go back to that that I'm sure married people have sometimes.
There are some human emotions nudged in there with all the dick jokes, cuss words, and just funny antics you've come to expect from a Seth Rogen comedy.
Unfortunately because of that, Seth Rogen plays the exact same character he plays in EVERY movie he's EVER been in.
Seth Rogen is set up to be Steve Wozniak in the next biopic on Steve Jobs and I'm actually kind of concerned. Unlike Jonah Hill, the guy has shown no range in what he can do.
Now to be fair, his style of humor and his acting where he is Seth Rogen in every movie he's in has worked in different cases. The Interview, funny, Pineapple Express, funny, This is the End where he literally plays himself, funny. And for this movie... its okay. I think the fact that I realized that he plays the exact same thing kind of took me out of it, but if you haven't picked up on that or you aren't sick of it yet, you'll probably enjoy this movie.
And that's not to say this movie is bad, its not. Its just a lay up.
All the performances in the movie were funny.
Seth Rogen is himself so if you find that funny you'll like this film. Rose Byrne is hilarious. I'm not totally sure if it she was suppose to have her accent in this film or not but it worked and she was a big surprise. I mentioned in my review of This is Where I Leave You that she's funny in that and she's funny in this. I want to see more Rose Byrne after those two films!
Again, these two would never, EVER be together in real life. That is one downfall of the movie is that not only do they not really look like they would ever be married, they don't really act like they're married. A lot of the comedy that is suppose to come out of these two is when they're just frantically talking to one another and I just had to sit back and say, Okay... well normal people don't sound like that at all. But hey its a comedy so I guess we can look past that a little bit.
The main surprise besides Rose Byrne in this movie is the performance of Zac Efron.
It has taken me a long time to warm up to Zac Efron. When a guy has the ability to attract so many women, you can't blame me for hating him just for that reason alone.
I have reviewed High School Musical and... I mean what can you say about him in that? I also reviewed The Lucky One where I wasn't totally convinced that he's a good actor... yet.
This is making me start to get aboard the Zac Efron train. He's still got that High School Musicalness to him and its definitely not pushing him up to the point where he's an incredible actor in my book, but I laughed a lot while watching this movie and a lot of it was due to Zac Efron.
I have access to That Awkward Moment and I'm actually really looking forward to watching that movie in the near future. Like I said, it hasn't totally convinced me to love Zac Efron yet, but I'm warming up to him.
I mentioned before that I wasn't convinced on the relationship between Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen, but what I was convinced on was the relationships between Zac Efron and any other male character in the movie.
I mean... if that doesn't describe the obvious humor between Efron and Rogen, I don't know what will.
But its also in the relationship he has with Dave Franco.
While I've had a difficult time with accepting Zac Efron as a young actor that I enjoy, I have had no problem accepting Dave Franco. The guy is freaking hilarious and this movie is no different.
They're obviously making a sequel to this movie that I'm not incredibly wild about, but if the sequel
was just Zac Efron and Dave Franco, I'd watch the shit out of that movie any day of the week.
Unfortunately these two kind of bring up the problem I had with the movie and that was the ending.
Throughout the movie, they're kind of painting Zac Efron as this sort of asshole, but sort of just lost college student who's not sure what he's going to do after college so he's gravitating towards his fraternity.
Well when the shit hits the fan, he's just kind of resigned as the bad guy, he gets his comeuppance and then a few months later him and Seth Rogen are just friends again. While I liked the ending, it didn't really give the character of Teddy any kind of real closure.
Maybe I'm putting too much on this film, as it is just a run of the mill comedy, but I think the best comedies have some heart to them and this movie couldn't decide whether or not to put that heart into this film.
Is it bad? Oh god no, when all is said and done, I really liked this film. Now is it a really memorable comedy? No its not. Like I said, its a run of the mill comedy. There's not really anything special about it, it just made me laugh. I'm probably not going to remember it that much after I finish this review, but it was good for the time that I had and if its on on TV I might sit down for a watch. But I'm not going out of my way to go watch Neighbors again and the sequel that is happening, I'm probably gonna wait until the reviews come out and more than likely, wait till I can watch it for free.
But those are my thoughts on Neighbors. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts via Twitter @cmhaugen24 where you can also send me requests for future movies I should review. If you follow me, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews from this blog.
I'll leave you with this. Its a scene like this that gives me faith for Zac Efron, this is one of the scenes that made me laugh really hard! Bros before hoes. Enjoy!
If you know anything about this blog, you might know that I always try and watch all the movies that were nominated in one way or another for Oscars. I usually try and get as many out of the way before the awards are actually announced so I can give my thoughts and predictions prior to the announcement. You might also know that in the three years that I've been writing this blog, that has never actually happened. The closest thing I got to was predicting who was going to win Best Original Song. (That was an odd post now that I think back to it). But usually after the award season, unless I have direct access to these movies, I usually only stumble upon them from time to time and give my thoughts after the awards season is far over.
Such is the case with The Theory of Everything.
The Theory of Everything is a biographical romantic drama about the lives of Stephen Hawking and his first wife, Jane Wilde. The two main characters are played by Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones.
The story begins in 1963 when both of them are students at Cambridge University. Hawking is studying astrophysics while Wilde is studying literature. The two meet and figure out that despite being incredibly different they're incredibly in love.
So begins this honeymoon phase of the relationship where everything is perfect, they're going to dances together, they're swinging around in the common area spouting off romantic nonsense, its really kind of adorable. Now this is not to say the relationship is all sunshine and flowers, it does feel like an actual relationship beginning. I'll just say the spinning around was kind of cheesy.
Hawkings seems to be on the top of the world as he begins to find his calling in his studies and begins his crucial research until he is diagnosed with ALS or motor neuron disease as they call it here. He's given two years to live and is told he has this disease in probably the worst way possible. He's basically told, you'll have two years where your bodily functions will fail, however your mind will continue to work fine, nobody will be able to hear those thoughts though.
The remainder of the story is the personal challenges of Stephen Hawking continuing his research while dealing with this disease. But more importantly, it shows the relationship between him and Jane and how his deterioration affects her life. These two get married, they have children, they try and be as normal of a family as they can but there's always certain things that need to be done to sustain Hawkings and they're difficult stuff.
And while we're on it, lets talk about Eddie Redmayne and the transformation he goes through, from able bodied to the Stephen Hawking we know today. Its absolutely phenomenal.
The changes are ever so slight throughout the movie but they are incredible. But what's so phenomenal is that Redmayne always gives off the atmosphere of being this brilliant physicist no matter what.
ALS made it so Hawking's motor functions slowly shut down and that included his vocal abilities. In this, his speech slows WAY down. But at the same time Redmayne is able to capture that brilliance and keep the character quick witted even if his speech skills do not allow for it. I still haven't seen Birdman (that review might be coming next week) or two of the other actor's performances who were nominated for Best Actor, but the level of commitment and transformation Redmayne goes through in this movie makes it the incredible obvious choice for him to win that Oscar.
The other performance worth talking about is Felicity Jones as Jane Wilde Hawkings. She's great. Unfortunately the only thing I know Jones from is The Amazing Spider-man 2 and that's only because her name is Felicity and that reminds me of a cat and I think she was being set up to play Black Cat... so... yeah.
In many ways, this is almost Jane Wilde's story more than it is Stephen Hawkings story and she nails it.
There's a great part when they figure out about his disease where she says, I may look like someone who can't handle herself, but I promise you I can. And that's really a great personification of the role. She comes off as this sweet not a care in the world woman but she's incredibly strong and makes for a phenomenal character.
And again, the story is definitely about the relationship more than it is about either of them. Now my girlfriend had an issue with this movie that I was interested in seeing how they did it prior to me seeing it. The trailers for this movie make this relationship out to be the best relationship on the planet, that nothing could shake these two. But in reality, Hawking ended up not exactly being faithful to his first wife, left her, and started a new life with his nurse in America. (Spoilers?)
And while the trailers made it off like it was just going to be focused on Hawking and his first wife, that part of their lives are definitely in this movie.
And that is interesting mainly because Hawking is still alive. If you remember my review on The Long Walk to Freedom, I mentioned that the portrayal of Winnie Mandela didn't seem in the best taste as Winnie Mandela is still alive. I have since wrestled with that stance depending on the facts at hand.
The question one must ask is, is it an accurate representation of the actual people in real life? Are these people still alive? And if so, is this movie going to attack their reputation.
While I still think presenting Winnie Mandela as the sort of antagonist at the end of Long Walk to Freedom wasn't exactly a great idea, if that was accurate maybe it was a great idea.
What makes me rethink this is the representation of Hawking and his wife and their struggles throughout. I can assume that there were liberties taken, in one way or another and it all depends on how it contributes to the story and whether or not its inflammatory to the person or their family. I think Theory of Everything did a little bit better of a job than Long Walk to Freedom, but it makes me reconsider the issue.
The one thing I will say works against this film is that its not totally sure if it wants to be a movie totally focusing on Hawking and Wilde's relationship, or if it wants to be a biographical film on Stephen Hawking.
I get that its trying to be both and in many ways, it succeeds in being both, especially in the beginning when he's testing his theories and researching.
However, the movie does take a detour from his scientific accomplishments in the middle of the film to focus on the relationship and their family life. Which don't get me wrong, it was great storytelling and great drama, but then they kind of awkwardly steer back into his research and accomplishments, almost to the point that you don't really know what he's doing between the 1960s and the 1990s when he's meeting the Queen.
Again, the parts that focus on the relationship between Stephen and Jane are fantastic. However, near the end, almost the climax of the film, he's talking in front of people and there's a moment where it almost seems like the movie had been about Stephen Hawking and his accomplishments the entire time and not about the relationship between him and Jane. It wasn't bad, but I don't think it was as climactic as I would have expected it to be.
This movie is a fantastic movie. No ifs ands or buts about it. Its just flatline, a great film.
The acting is phenomenal, the prosthetics and stuff used to not only transform Eddie Redmayne into Stephen Hawking, but the aging make up is phenomenal as well. I've had a couple movies that I've complained about the prosthetics and make up but this movie, I have absolutely no complaints. The aging was so subtle it was almost too subtle at times. The story is phenomenal (although sometimes a little uneven between being a biographical movie on Hawking and being a biographical movie on Hawking and his wife). Even the music is freaking phenomenal.
If you haven't seen Theory of Everything, please, do yourself a favor and go watch it. It's just a feel good movie that is incredibly real and fascinating at the same time. You won't regret this one.
But those are my thoughts on The Theory of Everything. What did you think of it? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 where you can also send me requests for future films for me to review. If you follow me, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews from this blog.
I'll leave you with this. Every once in a while Screen Junkies do a segment on actors before they were famous. Did you know Benedict Cumberbatch did a TV movie where he played Stephen Hawking? Enjoy!
