Now You See Me (2013)

Plot:

A movie filled with intrigue and mysticism. A mysterious man is instrumental in banding together 4 magicians that have lost stardom overtime in their careers and offers them intricate plans for making some of the most legendary illusions in the world. Each magician offers different skills to the table. Atlas is great with cards and being quick to the fingers at anything. McKinney is a mind reader with skills of hypnosis. Reeves is an escape artist that knows how to do death defying stunts. And Wilder is known for his talents of precision in his magic.

The plot starts with the magicians in Las Vegas pulling an illusion of stealing money from a french bank that they transported a man to help them steal the money. The trick succeeds and the actual bank in France does lose the money. The magicians are taken into questioning, but there is nothing that can be pinned on them so they are released. Meanwhile, the world is in shock by the amazing trick that has been seen and are all watching to see what these magicians will have disappear next.

With the world watching and the magicians on the loose, Dylan Rhodes, CIA agent recruits the help of Thaddeus Bradley, a magician whistle blower to help put variance on how these crimes were committed. He also has an Interpol agent from France helping him too. It is up to them to unmask these magicians before they steal anymore money.

My Thoughts:

Refreshing. I love a movie that I have a hard time guessing what is next in a plot. This movie deserves much praise for what it does in plot. I enjoyed the contents of the movie for what it was and it delivered in thrills and awe in having the audience try to guess what is next for what these magicians will pull.

Rating:

4 Popcorns

Like I said, refreshing. If you liked movies such as the Prestige, you'll like this.

The Lone Ranger (2013)

Plot:

The movie focuses on the origins of how the Lone Ranger came to be. The movie begins with an old Tonto in the 1930's talking to a boy dressed as the ranger. The boy trades him peanuts for a dead rat and he tells him the origin story of how the ranger came to be. He begins with how John Reid is in pursuit of bringing Butch Cavendish to justice for his multiple murders to law abiding citizens. Throughout the plot, Reid is faced with many opportunities where he is allowed to kill Butch himself, but Reid is constantly faced with his ideals of bringing him to justice to rather face a trial and this in part with his role as the new district attorney.  His brother, Dan Reid is excited for his first initial capture of Butch and deputizes him to be an official Texas Ranger. As they are escorting Butch to trial, Butch's bandit friends free him and he cuts Dan Reid's heart out as tribute for his capture. All the rangers are shot and left for dead.

Tonto later comes by and starts burying the bodies of the dead and trading random things with the bodies for things that he wants to keep. As he is doing so, a white horse comes and stands in front of John Reid's body and Tonto realizes the horse is telling him he is meant for great things. Tonto takes Reid and buries the rest of the bodies. He trains Reid and helps him realize the importance of masking his identity.

The movie get's into action finally with the transcontinental railroad having an evil man trying to steal silver from an old Indian reservation where Tonto comes from while Reid needs to save his brother's wife and son.

My Thoughts:

For the most part, this film dragged. The rewarding part is the ending. The last 20 minutes remind us of what people look for in a western. As far as Johnny Depps performance as Tonto, I felt the role itself was restrictive from the start for him. It's not what you'd expect from Johnny Depp, but he plays it as best as he could. I also felt they could have casted the Lone Ranger better. The actor did ok, but I can't tell if it was a poorly written part or poor acting.

Rating:

1 Popcorn

It's not going to be earth shattering if you miss this movie.

Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)

!Warning!
This review will contain spoilers. I can't think of anyway of how to discuss this film in detail without giving away key plot points to the film. That being said, it is a really good movie and you should see it. If you do want to see it, go watch it first and then come back and read this review and see if you agree with me.

Plot:

The crew of the USS Enterprise are all back and Captain Kirk is as daring as ever, taking the ship on missions that tests the crew to the very limits. The film begins with Spock attempting to plant a bomb to cause a cold fusion reaction in a volcano on a planet to keep the primitive civilization from being destroyed. When Spock is planting the bomb, the shuttle that is there to help him escape is damaged and needs to abandon him. Kirk, saying that he couldn't picture a world where Spock is dead takes the entire ship in the atmosphere, saves Spock and in the process, violates the prime directive by showing the ship to a primitive culture.

Kirk thinks he is going to get away with saving Spock by saying in his reports that nothing unusual happened, however Spock made a full report with Starfleet that contradicts Kirk's report and tells the whole truth of the Enterprise violating the prime directive to save Spock. As punishment, Kirk is dropped to 1st officer and Spock is assigned to another ship. However, while this is happening, a major Starfleet file center is leveled by an explosion that causes all of the heads of Starfleet to meet in headquarters in San Francisco for an emergency meeting. As they discuss the attack, Kirk mentions that it is odd that such an installation like archives is attacked unless the purpose is to drive all the head personnel together. At that moment, the meeting is attacked through the window with an array of weaponry from an unknown assailant coincidentally causing the death of Admiral Pike. Kirk manages to stop the attacker who flees to the Klingon homeworld on the other side of the galaxy.

In anguish, Kirk requests from Admiral Marcus to take the enterprise and destroy the intruder on the Klingon homeworld. Kirk agrees to a requirement to bring advanced military grade torpedoes to shoot at the man. When the ship is getting underway, Scotty tells Kirk that he will not be Chief of Engineering as long as there are these test torpedoes aboard and threatens to resign. Kirk accepts his resignation and appoints Chekov as Chief of Engineering. Meanwhile, a science officer named Carol Marcus sneaks aboard and claims to know how the missiles function. Kirk allows her to stay even after Mr. Spocks disapproval.

Kirk, Uhura, and Spock all go to the Klingon homeworld to avoid conflicts with directly bombing the planet and allowing the starfleet intruder to surrender. A group of Klingons attack the away team and the bomber saves them and turns himself into their custody.

On the ship, Kirk questions him and finds out the man's name is Kahn and that if they open the torpedoes, a mystery will be solved in why Starfleet wanted to fire them on Khan. Kirk will have to decide to either trust Kahn and open the torpedoes or turn him over to the authorities.

My Thoughts:

I realize this movie has mixed feelings towards the plot because of the characters used. Kahn was one of the most epic villains in Star Trek history and so re-using such an iconic role is considered by some a sacrilege to trek lore. However, I'm under the impression that this done creatively and is definitely re-watchable. It's a refreshing look onto an old villain and I thought J.J. did a fine job bringing him back.

Rating:

4 Popcorns

I liked it. Though some plot elements were designed to reflect on the original films, it was still enjoyable.

White House Down (2013)

Plot:

Agent Cale and his daughter, Emily go on a tour of the White House after he was interviewed for a job to be one of the President's Secret Service Agents. During the interview, he is told that he did not meet the requirements necessary to be an agent even with all his military training. Leaving the office sad, he tells his daughter he has a good chance even though he has none. She is excited and they begin their tour of the White House. During the tour they run into President Sawyer who is kind enough to pose for a video for Emily's YouTube Channel. Afterwards she tells how excited she is for her Dad to be working with the President. The President is humored and whispers to Cale that he shouldn't lie to his daughter. As the tour progresses, Emily needs to use the bathroom and goes to another floor to do so. Cale, while waiting with the group gets attacked by a group of mercenaries that infiltrate the White House's security. This is partially because everyone's attention was diverted to a bomb placed in the middle of the congress building. Cale, realizing his daughter is in danger fights his way past the mercenaries to find his daughter and in the process finds the place where he sees the President has been taken hostage. In a quick decision, he rescues the President and must now find where his daughter has gotten lost to and must protect the President in the process. They must also find out who took over the White House and what purpose does these mercenaries have intended to take over the most secure house in the nation.

My Thoughts:

This had many thrilling action sequences as well as character development between Cale and President Sawyer who throughout the film, bond with each other and find out they work well as a team to keep each other alive. Channing Tatum is like a Rambo in this movie where he seems like a walking one man swat team. Very enjoyable and I'd highly recommend as the action movie of the year.

Rating:

3 Popcorns

Enjoyable, not missing out till Red Box if you want to wait though.

42 (2013)

Plot:

Based on the story of Jackie Robinson's baseball career, this story dictates how Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) wants to shake the world of baseball by putting an African American baseball player on a national team that is dominantly all white. Mr. Rickey searches through the rosters of the African leagues and finds Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman). Mr. Rickey interviews Jackie and tells him that to make this work, he must not retaliate at criticism of any kind and do his job by being one of the best baseball players in the league. Robinson agrees and begins a journey filled with life-threatening nights and no support from fellow teammates at the beginning. Throughout this time, Mr. Rickey is pressured by other members of the baseball league to get rid of Jackie, but each time Mr. Rickey shuts them down. As the movie progresses, the crowds start responding favorably to Robinson as well as his teammates, realizing they are changing the worlds point of view.

My Thoughts:

Harrison Ford was spot on in his role of Mr. Ricky. There was a part in the film where Jackie leaves the stadium and is about to go the showers and he asks Mr. Ricky why he had him do this in the first place. And Mr. Ricky was honest with him and said that he remembered seeing the African Americans in the rosters while he was still playing the game and he never seeing them getting the chance to play and never being equal. He felt there was a part of his life is missing. The best line of the film is where Ricky says he finally has started enjoying baseball again since Jackie Robinson started playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

It is examples like that, which makes this film better than I expected. If you're a history buff, you'll love this film.

Rating:

5 Popcorns

I have nothing to complain about this movie. I enjoyed it from beginning to end and is a great example of storytelling of American Sports History.

Oblivion (2013)

Plot:

The earth is nothing like it used to be after being attacked from a race of cyber aliens. Jack (Tom Cruise) is a member of a team of two that is stationed around the earth that is there to repair drones that are sent to study the remaining resources on the planet. However Jack must be careful because the world is still inhabited by the remnants of cyber aliens made of machines. So the drones serve two purposes: to patrol the earth looking for resources and second, to fire on hostile life-forms.

Jack does this normal routine of repairing these drones, but finds his world tossed upside down when he comes on a crash landed ship full of cryo-sleeping humans on board. While investigating the crash site, one of the drones starts firing on the cryo-containers. He tries to fight off the drone and manages to save only one and takes it back to base camp. The sleeper human awakes and tells Jack she knows him, but Jack has no memory of her. To find out more, he assists her in recovering the black box on her crash landed ship, but in the process is captured by the hostile alien race who proves to be the quite opposite and this being a group of humans with a man named Beech (Morgan Freeman) as their leader. It is here that Beech offers Jack the opportunity to find out the truth of himself and explore the territory considered radioactive on the side of his survey area. It is here that Jack receives the surprise that will change his life forever.

My thoughts:

For originality of plot, this movie delivers with a bang with mysteries that will eventually come into fruition as you keep watching. The film is filled with twists and turns where you think you know what's going on, and then it is replaced with you saying "no way." The plot is great, but does have a flaw. If you don't pay attention to what's going on, you may get lost in the plot and not know what exactly what is happening which may leave you confused and frustrated.

Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman made this movie so much fun. They are great characters that help drive the plot and the story. Even with this though, there was points in the film where it felt like the film was dragging its feet and could pick up the pace. This was more so at the beginning of the film. But that being said, I did enjoy this film and it is worth seeing at least once.

Rating:

2 Popcorns

It is enjoyable, but not earth shattering if you take your time to see it. This could easily be a redbox film, but like I said enjoyable enough I'd recommend seeing it at least once.

After Earth (2013)

Plot:

Set in the distant future after the human race has left the earth because it has become uninhabitable, Cypher Raige (Will Smith) is a military commander who has proved to be a successful leader on too many times to count. His son Kitai (Jaden Smith) aspires to live up to his father's standards.

The movie starts with Kitai trying to complete has ranger training before has father returns from a mission to let him know he has become a ranger. His teacher decides he is not ready to become one and Kitai is devastated. Cypher returns home and tells his wife that he has one more mission and then he is planning to retire. At his mother's suggestion, Cypher offers Kitai to come along even though he is not a ranger yet. As they embark out, their ship encounters interference and crash lands on earth, a planet described as everything evolved to kill humans on site. Kitai wakes up in the wreckage to find the crew all dead and his father injured. Cypher tells his son that the ship has two beacons to use to call for help. There is one in the front of the ship, the other in the back. Cypher tells Kitai, the beacon in the front of the ship is damaged and is unusable so it is up to Kitai to embark on the dangerous earth to retrieve the other beacon and send a signal for help to come to their rescue. In the meantime, Cypher will stay in the front of the ship and offer counsel to his son to help him get through this mission across the planet while mending his legs with the emergency med kit on the ship.

My Thoughts:

I'll say this to begin with that when I see a Will Smith action movie, I want to see Will Smith do something epic. I learned that since Jaden was in it, this was not going to happen. However, this expectation is one I couldn't push out of my mind. Don't get me wrong, Jaden is great in what he does with his part, but I still was missing Will the whole time.

On top of it was the characters themselves. Look I get it, Will Smith is playing a military commando who is used to doing things by the book. I guess I really don't like the idea of the character. Its not how I picture Will Smith playing someone so emotionless and with little compassion. It was sad.

Then there was Jaden's character. With the previous roles Jaden has played, he could have played this character being stronger than it was delivered. It was devastating. I saw no development of him becoming stronger while fending on his own on the planet. He was just scared the whole time. I will say that the parts where he was shown taking his father's guidance to heart was touching, but again, I felt the character development could have been better than it was.

Also, the earth evolution seemed too ridiculous at times with massive eagles and random creatures that look like unrealistic CGI. I guess this all got explained to me at the end when at the credits it said, "Directed By M. Night Shyamalan." His movies are usually hit and miss with me. I wish I could have liked this movie because it was a Will Smith, but that didn't save it for me.

Rating:

1 Popcorn

Yes, I didn't like it. If you go in with really low expectations, then you might like it, but even then I don't think even that can redeem it. If you want to see it, I suggest on waiting till it hits the cheap theaters or redbox.

Monsters University (2013)

Plot:

Mike, a monster in grade school has dreams of becoming a full blown scare monster and work for Monsters Inc. Unfortunately, all his friends and family tell him he is not scary at all. This does not deter him. He enrolls in Monsters University and majors in the school of scaring. During his first class, he is introduced to James Sullivan, another student who comes from a family of longtime scare monsters. The class as well as the fraternities are mesmerized with Sullivan and this only encourages Mike to outperform Sullivan. At the end of the semester exams, Sullivan and Mike get into a scare off with each other due to their rivalry and while doing so accidentally knock over Dean Hardscrabble's prized scream extractor. The Dean in retaliation kicks both Mike and Sullivan out of the program and are forced to major in extractor building. Sullivan blames Mike for getting him booted out and spends the rest of the semester glaring him down.

The next semester, Sullivan and Mike are still in the extracting program and Mike is thinking of any way to get back in the scare program and finds a flyer in his room for the annual scare games competition that puts fraternities and sororities against each other. Mike volunteers himself and the least popular fraternity to participate in the competition. Dean Hardscrabble doubts he could even win and bets Mike if he wins the competition, she would let the whole fraternity of monster rejects back in the scare program, however if Mike loses, he would leave Monsters University forever. Mike agrees and the only thing keeping him back is the fraternity is short one member to be allowed to participate. Mike in desperation looks for anybody to join the fraternity and Sullivan volunteers. The remainder of the film is centered on Mike and Sully doing all they can to get back into the scare program.

My Thoughts:

It's this movie that really made me decide to start reviewing movies when a review on the radio said that this movie lacked the human quality of Monster's Inc. in reference to the absence of of Boo from the film. But I get it. This is a prequel, Boo wouldn't be alive yet. I feel there is something in this movie for everyone with references that pokes fun at college organizations, fraternity initiations, and rivalry's that are born throughout the franchise. It also does a fantastic job explaining the tie in to how Mike and Sully eventually make it to working at Monsters Inc. and becoming best friends. The ultimate theme of the film is to never give up your dreams with the focus of that being around Mike's character. Throughout the whole film he is told to not even try and that only pushes him to work harder than the rest of his classmates. This movie has something for everyone and I feel plays true to the first film and is a perfect movie to continue the monsters franchise.

Rating:

4 Popcorns

I loved this movie. The flaw I saw from it is there were parts that felt like the film starts slowing down from the natural pace you'd expect from a Pixar film. It was around these points I found myself thinking, okay, let's move on now. Apart from that, the film does keep your attention and you find a reason to enjoy seeing these characters on the screen once again.

World War Z (2013)

Plot:

In a world where the dead starts rising from their grave and martial law is declared, Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) and his family are found facing a challenge of survival. Gerry starts his average day cooking pancakes and taking his kids to school when the whole city goes berserk and they are forced to flee and fend for themselves as a wall of super fast zombies are trying to bite people. Gerry eventually escapes the mainland with his family through the help of the government and is relocated on an air carrier hundreds of miles from the mainland. Unknown to Gerry, the government only helped him and his family in exchange for his services to help them figure out a cure to the zombie apocalypse. Gerry tries to tell them that he is retired from special ops and works for the United Nations now, however the government representatives threaten to kick him and his family back off the boat and on the mainland if he didn't help. Finding no choice, Gerry enlists his services and departs for places such as Korea, Israel, and Europe to find a possible cure with a scientist.

My Thoughts:

For a summer blockbuster, it delivered in entertainment value. The action sequences are stunning and it was scary to see how fast they had the Zombies move in this film as well as how normal they looked to humans apart from the super speed. Pitt's performance was believable as well as the other cast members. You could feel the sense of urgency that the characters all had when trying to escape the zombie outbreak. My only drawbacks to this film is you can see the scary parts coming and at the end during the climax of the movie, there is a part that makes the entire audience laugh and takes away from the believable reality of the movie. I remember the whole theater laughing at that part because of how ridiculous it sounded.

Rating:

3 Popcorns

I liked the film it was enjoyable, though I wish I could have been enthralled in the story from start finish as I mentioned with climax at the end. But it is still a summer movie worth seeing in the theaters because of the action sequences and the storytelling for the most of it.