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HannahToucan248
Reviews
Big Fish (2003)
A Unique and Inriguing Picture with Way Too Many Voice Overs
Big Fish. Wow. Above and beyond my expectations. I expected a cute little film about a man still living in his childhood fantasy. What I got was a film full of symbolism and metaphors that, when you dig a bit deeper, is much better than your average quirky Tim Burton movie.
The best thing about Big Fish is how unique it is. Visually, conceptually, and script-wise, this picture is like no other you've seen before. Lovers of clever films such as Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom will surely enjoy this film. Big Fish makes the audience have to distinguish what they think is imagination vs. reality, keeping viewers attention for the entire duration of the picture.
The main flaw that I saw in this movie is the overuse of voice overs. Generally, I do not appreciate when films use voice overs as simply a scapegoat for writing a scene with effective dialogue. A few times, this film fell into that trap. Because different people contribute to the unveiling of the life of Edward Bloom, there is not one consistent narrator. So, when the stories are being told, it often starts with a character's voice over, which is fine, but then they would often narrate during the middle of the anecdote when a dialogue could have gotten the message across more efficiently. Though I didn't like that, I was able to forgive it and give it a 7.
Lastly, I do not think this needs a PG-13 rating- younger kids could watch it and be fine. Some may get bored or not fully appreciate it, but nine or ten-year-olds may enjoy some of the fantastic stories told in this picture. I highly recommend Big Fish as a good family movie night piece (it's on Netflix).
Kon-Tiki (2012)
A Well-Acted Film with Beautiful Cinematography
This Oscar-nominated Norwegian film follows explorer Thor Heyerdahl on a journey across the Pacific Ocean on a small balsa-wood raft. In it, he has to overcome sharks, stormy waters, and his own fears.
I had skimmed by this on Netflix, but had always decided to skip it because the Metascore wasn't that high. 63? I'll pass; I'll just watch a best picture winner. Man, was I wrong. Don't let an critic reviews fool you - Kon-Tiki is a must-see.
First off, the acting is great. From Thor's character to the rest of his crewmen, everyone showed a great deal of emotion and struggle on the course of their expedition. Whether leaving their wife or six-month-old baby behind, all had reasons to be homesick, which was clearly noticeable by all the hurt in their eyes.
Also, it is really exciting. This is a true story, so the events are actually realistic, unlike many of the adventures in films such as Life of Pi. Thor and his crew battle both sharks and rough waves, and each time, their raft is far from unscathed. This is more than just a drama.
The only reason I didn't give it higher was that it was pretty abrupt in the beginning. Thor decides to make the journey within the first ten minutes, so it seems without much motive there.
Lastly, don't let anyone under the age of ten or eleven watch this. There is a shark scene that is intense and shows some blood and guts. If an under-ten-year-old is not squeamish or easily-bothered at all, it may be fine, but I'd recommend that they not watch it yet.
Beetlejuice (1988)
A Senseless Compilation of Bad Special Effects
Some may say that you can't watch a 1988 film and expect it to be of the caliber of film that has been produced in the twenty first century. I would beg to differ, given that there are some 80's films (e.g. Dead Poets Society, Ferris Bueller's Day Off) that don't seem a bit outdated watching them in 2013. Despite the occasionally piece of quality film in the 80's, there were hundreds of horrendous movies produced in the decade, and Beetle Juice is no exception.
This early Tim Burton film has a talent for making any actor that steps on screen look like an idiot. Everybody seems to have a part that doesn't suit their styles. They either overly ham it up or are completely flat.
Also, there is almost no plot, and the whole movie makes absolutely no sense. I didn't even care what happened to the characters due to the fact that all the scenes prior to any moment that attempted to call itself climactic didn't have an ounce of logic to it. It was just plot-developing mayhem.
Alas, the special effects. What a joke. I caught myself periodically chuckling thinking that they must not be serious. One moment, we're inside a house, and the next we are outside in a world where painted cardboard marionette puppets fly through the air. Seriously? The effects in Star Wars were better than this. It was bad for even twenty years ago.
Don't waste your time watching this unless you are on a quest to watch the most utterly horrible films known to man.
Hotel Transylvania (2012)
This movie is about a teenage boy who stumbles upon a hotel run by an over-protective father version of Dracula who wants to protect his daughter, Mavis.
The movie starts out looking like a sweet movie about a vampire father and daughter growing up together. Well, don't let that mislead you.
After the first two minutes of the movie, we go from 1895 to present day. It shows Dracula planning for his daughter Mavis's 118th birthday. He has invited all his monster friends to come stay at the hotel and prepare for Mavis's birthday extravaganza. This scene is utter chaos, and just looked like "bad animated movie" to me. I mean, when the movie includes the vocal talents of Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Ceelo Green, and Selena Gomez, I didn't have very high expectations. But instead of being a cute animated movie, it turned out to be 90 minutes worth of a random spew of events.
I would recommend this movie to families with children under the age of seven, who are going to the movies only for the purpose of entertainment. But if you're a parent looking to go see a quality film with your kids, this is definitely not the next Up.
Life of Pi (2012)
This movie is about a boy named Pi who is part of a shipwreck and ends up on a life boat with a tiger.
This movie is very good. Not life changing, but very good. Pi's adventures are very inspiring. You can catch yourself mentally cheering for Pi and the tiger.
***Spoiler Alert***I say this only for the sake of advising people about content*** Don't be fooled when the parental guidelines say that there is no fighting and intense scenes. My nine-year-old sister who usually is perfectly fine in movies was very upset and disturbed by this one. There are some sad scenes including the following: It shows Pi as a young boy trying to feed a tiger at his father's zoo. His father comes in and witnesses him doing this, and not only does he harshly scold him, but he decides to teach him a "lesson". A man brings in a live goat and ties it to the tiger cage. Pi's Mom is shown covering Pi's eyes and we later see the tiger with a bloody goat in his mouth.
Pi is on a boat with lots of animals. There is an intense storm that may be frightening to younger kids.
During the storm, the boat sinks, killing Pi's family. Pi is the only one who makes it out alive.
Pi is on a lifeboat with a zebra, hyena, orangutans, and a tiger. Things quickly get out of hand. The hyena kills the zebra, and Pi is on the verge of killing the hyena when the orangutans and the hyena start a fight. The hyena ends up killing the orangutans. The tiger swoops in and kills the hyena, but Pi is now in danger. This is all shown very graphically, and it's the most intense part of the film.
Sharks are shown as a threatening thing in the water throughout the film.
Pi and the tiger are on an island with lots of meerkats, and the tiger eats some of the meerkats.
It looks at one point that the tiger will die.
Pi has to make up a story in the end of the film which is very disturbing.
That is about all of the intense scenes in the movie, but another point is that the movie is very religious, and some young kids may be bored by that. For a PG movie, this is fairly intense. I would advise not taking a child younger than nine or ten to this movie unless the child is 100% always okay with all movies.
ParaNorman (2012)
An eleven-year old boy named Norman tries to reverse a witch's curse to save his town from crumbling.
I was very surprised seeing "ParaNorman". I thought it was going to be good, but I didn't expect Laika to live up to the standard they set with "Coraline".But they definitely did.
I particularly like how humor was cleverly added throughout the movie. They even manage to make the brutal part of the movie spark laughter throughout the theater.
I also liked how the messages of the story are inspiring to people. "You don't have to be the same as everyone else to achieve greatness", "One person, no matter how small, can make a difference", and "A crowd can get swayed by anything", are some of the main messages in the end of the movie. But they still make sure you have a deep understanding of both point of views, the "good" and the "evil".
I loved this, yet I do not recommend it for young children. When I was in the theater, there was a boy about the age of four and his dad sitting behind us. They left about 20 minutes into the film. It takes too long to get to the point where the zombies are good. But my nine-year-old sister loved it and wasn't scared at all, so I think,depending on how sensitive a child is about movies, 7 and up is appropriate.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
A new villain, Bane, releases, and challenges Batman to come out of his hole.
I had just recently seen "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" when I went to see "The Dark Knight Rises". It definitely was up to par and more.
This movie is very long, so you'd think it would be easy to get bored, lose interest in the plot, or get confused about the plot. But it never does that for a second. It keeps a steady, easy-to-follow plot going, while still creating great suspense. For example **Spoiler Alert** When you find out that the woman, not Bane, is the child of Raz Al Gu, it creates this "wow" moment. And of course, you wonder what is going to happen now when it looks like Batman is dead, but then you see him sitting in the restaurant with Catwomen.
But for you people out there who are grieving the end of the new-and-improved "Batman" series, don't worry, it's not over yet. They definitely have some explaining to do after the not-dead Batman leads the suddenly-decided Robin into his cave.
I highly recommend seeing this, I think it is the best movie of the summer.
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
A young man gets bitten by a spider and becomes a supernatural being. It's basically a remake of "Spider-Man" (2002).
This is the biggest trash I have seen since Rango. I go to see a lot of action movies, and not many of them now are bad. This had bad acting, mediocre effects, and an already-used story line. No previews had advertised it as a remake of the first movie. The story was too simple, yet somehow confusing.
Of course, I have to compare it to the movies in the Spider-Man trilogy.Those 3 movies are some of my favorite action movies. But this just makes those films look bad, and if they make the two more movies everyone is expecting from this, there will probably be villains named "Dr. Squid", "The Dirtman", "The Old Goblin", and "Toxin". That's exactly what they would do in this movie. They would make it so similar, yet so different to the originals.
The stupid lizard guy doesn't even have an interesting side to him. I recommend saving your time and bedim on this to go see The Dark Knight Rises.