House of Cards Season 1

I have tried for about 2 years to put a review up explaining my thoughts on the first season of House of Cards. Originally, I wanted it to be a comparison episode as I have seen both the British version of the show and the American version of the show. I wanted to compare the two and let you all know which one I preferred.

However, it has been a very long time since I finished the first season of the British version, and my real goal here is to get to the 4^th season of House of Cards as fast as I can because its suppose to focus on an election and being as I am incredibly interested in elections these days, I don’t have time to re-watch the British version and give a comprehensive comparison review of both of them.

I’m going to try and go back and check out the British version sometime soon perhaps, but for now, here are my thoughts on the first season of House of Cards.

House of Cards centers on a Democratic senator named Frank Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey). From the beginning, you can tell that Underwood has had a plan to climb the political ladder and that

is prevalent in his support of the recently elected President, Garret Walker (played by Michael Gil). However, when the President doesn’t grant Underwood the position of Secretary of State as he was promised, Underwood begins a cloak and dagger plan to mass power in the political jungle that is Washington DC.

Before I go on, I should say that this is one of Kevin Spacey’s greatest performances in my opinion. The man is well known in the industry and he’s given a lot of great performances but he was always selective in what he chooses. I’ve found that for him he doesn’t want to fall into the same kind of role and it’s always about the performance, not the money for him. Frank Underwood is just a down right evil character and yet you enjoy coming back and seeing him carry on in this story. I’ll talk more about his character and his performance later on.

There is a collection of characters that Frank creates alliances and enemies with throughout the season, but there are a couple of main characters worth mentioning.

The first is his wife Claire (played by Robin Wright). From the very beginning, you can definitely tell Claire Frank’s partner in crime and she is just as ruthless and tactical as he is. Performance-wise, Wright does a great job at creating both the most ruthless ice queen you will probably see in any TV show ever, and a really vulnerable complicated woman. Like I said, Claire is just as tactical and conniving as Frank and yet she has these moments where you can tell she is questioning her life choices and the lifestyle she has created with Frank and that is a continuing arc throughout the season.

The second character worth talking about is Zoe Barnes (played by Kate Mara). Zoe is a rookie reporter that catches the eye of Frank Underwood. He begins to use her to influence the media to help his agenda. The thing about Zoe is that she is not exactly a likeable character and she is by no means a good person, she’s kind of cold hearted, she’s just as calculated as Underwood at times. However, you quickly figure out that she is out of her league as she also finds herself questioning her choices and the situation she has gotten herself into. The story is made even more compelling once the relationship between her and Underwood begins to evolve and stuff gets very dark.

The interesting part about Zoe is that she has a direct comparison character to the British version of the show that was pretty much the cornerstone of the show. And in a sense, the relationship between Zoe and Frank is pretty quintessential to the story, however, I think it was a disservice for me to lock myself into that thinking because the story is really a lot bigger than that. But I found the comparison between Zoe’s characters in both versions was really interesting.

It is only helped by the fact that Kate Mara is a very talented actress. I mentioned this in my review of The Fantastic Four Trailer, but I really only knew Kate Mara from 24 as a really annoying analyst that had a brief stint in the 5^th season. And now she’s a sought after actress, and I don’t think that The Fantastic Four is going to hurt her career too much because she did such a good job with this show.

There are a lot of characters that are important to the first season of House of Cards, however, if I had to name one more character that is incredibly important to the entire show, it is Corey Stoll as Peter Russo.

I remember when Law and Order: LA was a thing and Corey Stoll showed up with a weird looking mustache and I couldn’t really take him seriously. I had no idea that this guy was going to keep on showing up in some of my favorite shows and movies and I’m realizing he’s really an incredibly underrated actor. I’m glad to see that he’s been in big budget movies like Ant-man, and I think people are starting to recognize his name, and I think that has a little bit to do with his role in this show.

Peter Russo is a Representative for Pennsylvania who is an alcoholic. Probably out of all of the characters within the show, he is probably the “good guy” of the show but he has a lot of problems. These problems are noticed by Frank Underwood early on and he becomes a cornerstone to Frank’s plan to mass power in DC.

Now, I’ve pretty much said nothing but good things about House of Cards which is surprising because the first time I watched the first season, it took me a long time and I wasn’t totally impressed with what I saw. I understood the hype, but I don’t know if it was everything that it was built up to be.

If you read my review of Bloodline, you’ll know that I’ve figured out that Netflix dramas are more likely to be a lot of dialogue and more likely to be a slow burn than exciting and suspenseful. House of Cards has its suspenseful moments, but a lot of it is going to be focused on the dialogue as well as the development of characters. It also took a second viewing to really see the big picture of Frank’s plan and totally understand it. I wouldn’t say the plot is overly complicated, it is just muddled with

episodes that are more focused on building character development, but if you don’t know what you’re getting into, you might get lost, get bored, or just lose track of where this is all building up to. Watching the first season for the first time really made me understand a lot of the decisions made.

On top of that, a lot of it is muddled with political jargon and while the show tries to help the average audience, I still think it can be confusing if you’re not really up to date with the political process.

Another thing that might bring in some people but might turn others away is how dark this show is. While a lot of it is focused on that slow burn, there are some really evil things done in this show and there’s not a lot of light moments.

Talking about light moments, the humor in this show is more focused on a dry humor that might go over some people’s heads. I watched this show with a friend and realized that some of the humor in this show is really funny… the problem is that it is so dry and its sandwiched by these really dark moments that sometimes it can be lost on people.

And while I will say that Bloodline was one of the slowest shows I’ve seen in a long time, at least that had a little bit of an explosive and suspenseful last few episodes, House of Cards really doesn’t have that explosive ending. It’s still very much focused on the dialogue and the interactions between characters. The show is definitely a thinking man’s show and if you’re looking for action or at least some suspense more than just threatening talk, you’re going to leave the first season probably disappointed.

I am currently watching the second season and I’m hoping to get the review of that season up just as fast as I did this season. The main reason it’s easier to get a review for a show like this up more quickly is that House of Cards falls into the category of shows that they are more like a long movie rather than 13 episodes.

House of Cards is more episodic than other shows I have watched like that like True Detective, however, I do think that House of Cards is better watched when its binge watched because you’re more likely to hold onto the plot and your thinking might be on a better track to take everything in and really enjoy all the development of characters and the plot that is done really well.

Because it’s more like a movie, I don’t really need to go into particular episodes that I liked and disliked. While some of the episodes could maybe seem like filler episodes on the surface, if you’re paying attention, you will see that the overarching story is set within the entire season. Each episode builds off one another, even if its focused more on Frank going back to South Carolina to deal with a local issue, or he’s going to The Sentinel to accept a library being named after him. If you’re paying attention and you see it more as a long movie, you’ll see the recurring themes and how these different events affect these characters throughout the entire season.

The last thing you could say is a “down turn” to the show, is unfortunately Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood. Like I said in my explanation of each of the big character’s storylines, there are not a lot of “good guys” in this show. Everyone has their own flaws and everyone is a complicated character. Some are more good than others, but everyone has their moments where you don’t want to root for them. But Spacey does such a good job at playing a just down right even Senator that it can be hard to keep watching, especially if you don’t really like rooting for the bad guy.

In any other movie, Underwood would be the villain you love to hate, however in those movies, you know there is still a hero that you can root for. House of Cards doesn’t really do that. This is more the rise of evil’s power and there’s not a lot of good to root for. It definitely creates something different than the conventional TV show you’ve seen in the past, but it can be a little bit more than a lot of people can handle.

And if you’re the kind of person who has a problem with the lies, with the actions Frank does and says, don’t worry, that probably means you are a normal good human individual. That’s not to say you can’t find it entertaining, it just can be a lot to handle sometimes.

The overall thing to remember is that House of Cards is not a show that you just put in the background. It is the epitome of a show that you need to pay attention to really enjoy it and you’ve been warned, it is a slow burn show.

However, the performances in this show are really great. Not only are the performances from the actors I made mention to great, but the people I didn’t mention. Michael Kelly plays Underwood’s top staffer Doug Stamper, Sebastian Arceuls plays a reporter that helps Zoe throughout the season. Mahershala Ali plays a lobbyist who makes occurring appearances throughout and plays a powerful role.

The show might have a lot more political jargon than a lot of people might be familiar with it, but if you are a political buff, you’re going to get a lot of the jargon being used and it makes the show even more entertaining.

For the most part, I recommend the first season of House of Cards. Once I had a solid grasp on the plan and the plot throughout, I couldn’t wait until the next episode, and even now, I can’t wait until I start watching more and more of the second season. I’m really hoping the review for that will come out just as quickly as this one did.

But what do you think? Without giving any spoilers, what have you thought of House of Cards, especially Season 1? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies and shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can also get updates on future movie news and reviews that come out of this blog.

I’ll leave you with this. I might have already used this video, but Kevin Spacey does impressions and here is him doing impressions with Jimmy Fallon. Enjoy!

The Game Change

I'm in a very political mood. And since my political blog has never been able to really get off the ground the same way this one has, I've decided to put that interest in watching a lot of political films and TV shows. I watched this and the first season of House of Cards. I'm hoping to get a review up for the first season soon. However,  I have made that promise before and I don't want to get your hopes up too much. However, House of Cards is my next project.

The Game Change is an HBO film based on the 2008 election, mainly on the campaign of John McCain.

McCain is played by Ed Harris and his campaign is struggling. He brings on Steve Schmidt (played by Woody Harrelson) to help organize his campaign and help him win the Republican nomination.

The cool thing with this movie is that they really paint John McCain as a stand up guy. The relationship between him and Steve Schmidt is done pretty well as you can definitely tell that Schmidt respects John McCain and they both want to have a clean campaign.

That strategy works and McCain gets the nomination. However, Schmidt and McCain find themselves in a difficult position when they find themselves campaigning against Barrack Obama. They need a bold move to set themselves apart and they decide that that decision comes with who they will choose as McCain's running mate.

And if you know anything about the 2008 election, you know exactly who they end up choosing.

They end up choosing the unknown governor of Alaska, Governor Sarah Palin (played by Julianne Moore). They see it as a bold game changer, making the unprecedented choice of bringing in a woman Vice Presidential nominee.

When Schmidt brings on the Governor, he and the campaign staff, including John McCain are easily smitten with her. However, they soon realize that it might not have been the smartest choice.

I really like how they initially set up the character of Sarah Palin.

At first, they set her up as a clueless moron. The legitimately need to sit her down and give her a history lesson on basic foreign policy. Furthermore, they figure out she is a good actress but a horrible choice for Vice President. She gives horrible interviews but she is an excellent campaigner, appealing to a larger audience of Republican voters.

The majority of the movie is Schmidt trying his best to get Sarah Palin to be a viable Vice Presidential candidate. Furthermore a good portion of the movie is Palin going through a series of mental break downs as she finds herself unprepared and incredibly unqualified for the position of Vice President.

And while its easy to say, especially if you are a staunch liberal and not a fan of Sarah Palin, the film does a pretty good job at making her a character you can sympathize with, even though you know she is a little bit unstable and has staunchly conservative views.

There are parts where Julianne Moore does a really good performance and you feel bad for this character because she is obviously going through something that nobody would want to go through in their right mind.

However, the movie also is not afraid to point out the insanity of this character and how she could be considered unstable.

Now I don't know how much of this is based on fact, how much of it is based in fiction but regardless, it makes for an interesting story, especially if you are interested in politics, and especially if you are interested in the story of Sarah Palin.

I find it interesting that they would make a movie based off something that is still pretty fresh in our memories, especially since Sarah Palin and all her family portrayed in the movie are still alive.

As far as performances go, I already mentioned Moore as Sarah Palin. And while I don't like her as much as Tina Fey in SNL sketches, I think she does a pretty good job, especially with an attempt to humanize her.

Ed Harris does a good job as John McCain and I think I like pretty much everything Woody Harrelson is in these days so overall the cast is pretty good.

Now what I will say as far as performances go is that some of the lines in the movie are delivered kind of poorly and overly dramatic.

What's more is that the story is spanning over a course of multiple months. This provides a short period of time for Sarah Palin to go from incompetent, to mental breakdown, to power hungry monster, and when you look at it, you really realize that in one scene it seems like things are cool, and then the next scene she's grown a huge head and thinks this is her campaign.

There are also parts of this film that don't exactly pay off. Now a lot of this is supposedly based off real life so I have to imagine that some of that is based off reality and reality doesn't always have those tightly tied off bowtie endings, but there just seemed to be a couple things in this movie that I thought were going to pay off but they didn't.

Overall, this movie seems a little bit uneven at times.

The performances again are good, I just don't feel like they totally compliment the movie the way they should.

If you like politics, you're probably going to like this movie a lot more than a lot of people will. However, even people who like politics might get caught up by some of the bad writing and the dialogue int his movie.

Overall, I like it, I just don't recognize it as a very good film.

But what do you think? Have you seen Game Change? Let me know what you think. Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as movies and TV shows I should review in the future. You can also follow me on Twitter to get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Keeping in a political mood. Here is John Oliver talking about Donald Trump. Even if you're not a political person, and even if you don't like John Oliver, this is an incredibly educational voter that gives you all the information before you would vote for someone like Trump. Enjoy!

Ella Enchanted

Ella Enchanted is a movie I saw a few too many times when I was younger. Having 3 sisters, one of them having read the book about a billion times, really enjoyed watching this movie. Now I haven’t seen it in several years but as I was watching it, I kept on getting flashbacks and déjà vu to certain scenes and just inflections of dialogue that I remember seeing when I was younger. It was kind of a weird experience because I do not know the movie that well at all but every so often, certain parts would sneak their way into my consciousness and it was actually really entertaining for me

But what is Ella Enchanted about?

Ella Enchanted is basically the story of Cinderella… sort of. It’s your typical set up, girl grows up with a happy family, the mother unfortunately dies, the father remarries a woman for her money and that step mother and her horrible daughters make the girl’s life a living hell. However, the story takes a little bit of a turn when the main conflict is that Ella was blessed at birth with the gift of complete obedience. If someone tells her to do something, she does it right away. In the movie its really played off as sad but a little funny at times. However, after watching Jessica Jones, I can’t help but feel there was a darker cut of that story that we really, really don’t want to see.

The main story is Ella (played by Anne Hathaway) going on a journey to find the fairy godmother who gave Ella the gift of obedience, and get her to reverse it. Along the way she is accompanied by a talking book, an elf that wants to be a lawyer, and a handsome prince. All the while the country she travels through is going through cute fantasy politics and Ella turns out to be just the right person with the right amount of heart to turn the country around.

Now I’ve never read the book so I don’t know how closely the movie follows the source material. I don’t know if the book was as self-aware as the movie was but I imagine the movie had to draw inspiration from something. The movie is aware that its retelling a classic fairy tale but with a twist. The thing is, even in 2004, retelling Fairy Tales with a twist wasn’t anything new. Shrek had done it already and Shrek 2, which I think did it a lot better came out the same year. (I don’t know which one was first). Especially now where Fairy Tales have been twisted and shaped every which way, it’s almost refreshing to get a movie like Cinderella which came out last year that actually remains true to the source material in a pretty straight forward way. This isn’t to say the story is bad, the way its executed is just very indicative of the times and I don’t think it aged that well.

And that’s partly because the setting itself is also not that great. Now I remember watching it as a kid and remember seeing this fantasy world that wasn’t quite modern but had a lot of modern things in it, like an escalator. Now the escalator is run by hand cranks but if you’re not really paying attention you’ll just think there’s escalators in a fantasy world. Furthermore the way they talk is very modern and the issues Ella brings up are very modern issues. It’s not the same backwards thinking that you would think people would have in a fantasy world.

Here’s my issue: you can tell they didn’t have much of a budget with this film.  I mean yes this was the early 2000s and CGI was still finding its place in the world so that’s going to be a little shotty, but even the sets just looked cheap. I understand that they wanted to get a modern yet fantasy like feeling to the movie but some of the sets looked very cheap and obviously a set piece and it obviously looked out of place. Furthermore, the costume design is also not really impressive looking and it really looks as though something a community theater could create.

I hate to keep on comparing this movie with Shrek but the interesting part about the comparison is that they are essentially doing the same thing. Its modern people set in a fantasy setting and making jokes about our society in that fantasy world. The thing is, Shrek was able to do it better because it was animated. They were able to create a larger world and yet keep it modern and keep it very tongue and cheek. Ella Enchanted just looks a little cheap and something you might see in a play and not in a movie.

But that’s just the setting, all of that can be put aside if the story is good right? Well I already mentioned that this movie is another one of those stories that takes a fairy tale and puts a twist on it. Instead of Ella singing with birds and wishing for her prince to come, she’s a strong independent woman with liberal ideas compared to the establishment of the country. Now, she’s like that… to a fault. At a certain point she definitely falls in love with the Prince and it kind of seems like she goes off and does her princess thing and doesn’t exactly continue her activism. Sure she might have changed the ideas of the Prince but it kind of seems like she gives up all those beliefs once she puts on a pretty dress.

And Ella isn’t the only character who is really surface level. The entire cast seems very upbeat and happy almost to a point where it’s kind of annoying. I’m not saying the movie needed to be more dark and gritty, it just had a definitely campy and upbeat theme that was definitely meant for kids, especially young girls.

And then there’s the songs. I’m not totally sure why this movie is a half juke box musical because the music is really inconsistent. The majority of the movie is just a fairy tale with a twist but then they throw in some modern rock song like Somebody to Love or Don’t Go Breakin my Heart. And it wouldn’t be that bad if it wasn’t so obviously dubbed over. For Hathaway, this movie is definitely a few vocal sessions before her Fantine performance in Les Miserables. It’s not horrible, it’s just definitely dubbed over and edited to sound perfect for a campy movie like Ella Enchanted.

Speaking of Hathaway, you can definitely tell this was one of the last straws for her before she did Havoc and tried to make herself be taken more seriously as an actress. The script for this movie is kind of painful at times but Hathaway does her best to make it work and commit to it.

That is not really the case with a lot of the actors in this movie including Hugh Dancy and Minnie Driver. A lot of the actors in this movie a just phoning it in for the paycheck because they understand how campy and cheap this movie is.

The biggest contrary to that statement is Cary Elwes. I swear, it doesn’t matter how cheesy, how campy something is, Cary Elwes always brings it. You can tell he’s having fun with being the obvious bad guy.

Overall, if you go into Ella Enchanted knowing that it’s going to be campy, it’s probably made for kids, and you’re not expecting too much. But as a movie, it’s nothing thought provoking and what it’s trying to do has been done better and will be done better in the future as well.

It’s unfortunate because if I recall correctly, the book of Ella Enchanted is a pretty well-known and well written book. I could see this being a lot cleverer of a movie if more time and money were put into it. But for what it is, I think it’s entertaining enough. It’s cheesy, it’s campy, it’s ridiculous and it’s not for everyone.

If you have kids there are probably better films out there you can show your kids than Ella Enchanted and if you’re an adult, Ella Enchanted isn’t really for you. It’s not the worst thing to ever happen because the movie can be fun, but overall it’s kind of cheap and not as ground breaking as I think it thought it was at the time.

But what do you think? Did you see Ella Enchanted? What did you think of it? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your thoughts for future requests I should do. If you follow me on Twitter you can also get updates on future movies and TV shows I review on this site.

I'll leave you with this. You can definitely see that Anne Hathaway has come a long way from her performance of Somebody to Love in Ella Enchanted. Here is her singing I Dreamed a Dream from Les Mis. Enjoy!

Ghostbusters trailer

So I’ve heard a lot about this Ghostbusters reboot but I don’t know how excited I was about it. It sounded at least a little bit interesting but I can’t say I was over the top excited about it. If you go back to my review of the original Ghostbusters, you may figure out that I’ve never really been a huge fan of The Ghostbusters because I just never saw it at the right time. So while I was interested in a reboot, it was mainly because I really like the women they casted for this movie. Apart from them, I wasn’t really interested in the reboot.

And then I saw this trailer. This movie looks awesome!

First off its become a thing now with these reboots of old 80’s movies for them always to start off with a quiet piano version of the classic themes. It started with Jurassic World and it continues with this trailer.

I think when this trailer started off, I didn’t necessarily think all the jokes to start off were that great. It’s not like they were bad, I just wasn’t laughing my ass off. The larger appeal that this trailer had was more of how this was going to be a paranormal adventure. We obviously live in a time and age that the Ghostbusters might look great on the big screen again.

But then the very end when Leslie Jones yelled, “THE POWER OF PAIN COMPELS YOU” to exorcize a ghost out of Melissa McCarthy, I almost laughed out loud at work.

The biggest draw I think I see in this movie is the cast. The women they casted for this new team are absolutely fantastic. You know you’re in for a good time when you think Melissa McCarthy might be the “weak link” in this group.

Again, I’m not a huge fan of the Ghostbusters in general, but the minute they start blasting the classic Ghostbusters theme, I was getting pumped, I was ready to go! I’m excited for a movie starring a lot of really talented women who have proven themselves to be funny, as well as a really cool adventure story in a familiar universe.

Now, there’s a couple of issues that I have with this movie. The first one is that it might just be a rehash of the original. If we’ve learned anything from Star Wars and Creed it is that it is very easy to reboot a franchise, do the exact same film that came out in the 70s or 80s and those movies will be successful. I don’t mean to say those movies were bad, but I want new and original ideas that are just as good, if not better than just rehashing what has been done before.

The other issue that I have with this movie is the full female cast. Now before you go to the comments saying I hate women, hear me out. Ghostbusters is not the worst property to be rebooted with an all female cast, but I do see the possibility of it starting a trend of rebooting a lot of properties with all female casts. This problem isn’t so much this movie’s fault, it just has the potential to create long term consequences. I’ve heard rumors of an all female Oceans 11 reboot and while I want women to get more roles in Hollywood, I would much rather see an original idea with an all female cast more than a reboot with an all female cast. Let’s create some new iconic properties instead of just rehashing the same stuff but with women.

Again, The Ghostbusters isn’t the worst property to do this kind of reboot, especially after I saw this trailer, I just don’t want it to set a precedent that we need to reboot old properties to get women roles, instead of making up new compelling roles instead.

But overall, this trailer has made me really excited about this new Ghostbusters movie. It makes me want to go back and rewatch the old movies to become more familiar with the tone and theorize where they could go with this reboot.

This is gonna be a pretty short review for two reasons. The first is that the trailer itself is pretty short. But also there’s not much more to speak until more news is confirmed and until the movie itself comes out. I get the feeling that with the success of comic book movies and franchise movies that they will try and make the Ghostbusters some kind of shared universe, but I won’t comment on that until that has been totally confirmed and they actually have a plan for this.

But what do you think? Do you think this trailer looks good? How do you think its going to be connected to the original? And most importantly, are Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson going to make appearances in this new movie? Comment and Discuss below!

You can also send me your thoughts via Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as requests for movies or trailers I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can also get updates on future movie news and reviews coming from this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Here's the original trailer for the first Ghostbusters just to give you all an idea of where we came from. Enjoy!