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X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
Best Adaptation of a Comic Book
First and foremost, yes of course this movie does contain flaws, and the group I went to see it with actually really disliked it, and I was shocked. I love the first two in this series, Days of Future Past is my favorite, but First Class is very close. The only complaint I have is as a huge fan of the X-Men comic books and the TV series, these two previous movies were brilliant, but I never thought of them as translations from that source material. Which is where we get back to Apocalypse, this felt like the best reputation in a long time by any comic book movie, they nailed almost every single character, with the exception of maybe one of them that I will get to. Now I get to the three complaints I have heard from my friend. First, the movie felt incredibly long, and maybe this is just me but this felt so short to me, like a one hour special on the TV series almost, I personally could sit down and watch 10 hours of the X-men. Second was the movie wasn't explained about certain parts, without going into spoilers they had said it was very confusing at parts, which most of them aren't as familiar with the universe as me so I like to say that is the reason. Now we get to the main villain which if you haven't seen it understand that Apocalypse is a flawed villain in general and probably the highest degree of difficulty to pull off, now with this in mind I thought they did a great job to still get the character right. I would definitely love more and more of the X-men movies as they are still my favorite franchise thus far, and I can say they are definitely certain problem that I might have missed that I turn a blind eye to because they nailed the X-men so well.
Hayden's score: 9.4/10 Definitely go check it out, this movie should be making a ton more financially.
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
Marvelous Idea for a Film
This is one of those times where a great premise for a film comes along that I wish I came up with, which I say first and foremost because I lot of what I will say about this movie may seem like its not a compliment, which in fact it's quite the opposite, I have said a lot of times that this would be the perfect movie as an independent film, which it is very refreshing to see a movie in the same universe??? Still not really sure how that works as Abrams said he wants to make a Twilight esque type of movie series. What was really great is too see John Goodman acting great in something not made by the Coen's, don't get me wrong I love the Coen's I'm just glad to see someone else giving the dude some love!
The question that I'm wondering is what is this disease because I was definitely under the impression that Goodman had been lying and the bunker was just made because he is crazy, which obviously isn't true, there were obviously many questions as to about the girl before our lead, what the current state of the world is, and many others. Honestly though I'm really impressed that this is just it's own separate universe, and Im excited to see more!
Hayden's score: 8/10
Zootopia (2016)
Fantastic adventure for kids and adults!
So why wasn't this movie made 12 years ago? As soon as I saw the trailer I went "yeah thats probably a movie that should be made" and here we are, and Im glad to say that Disney delivers once again! The voice acting is also spectacular in this film with J K Simmons, Idris Elba, and Jason Bateman, who should be doing a ton more voice work as he was great in Zootopia. This is honestly one of those franchises that deserves multiple sequels as there are plenty of ways they could go with where it is at now. There are certain parts that aren't too great for instance the plot twist i had predicted from the beginning and it was never really explained too in depth, but regardless it was still a great film, with a ton of witty humor, and maybe it was just my theatre, but I think children 4 and under won't enjoy this because it is smarter then it should be, which I really appreciate, because I know Disney could easily just make a colorful movie that kids would be locked into, but instead they create a great environment in this new animated feature, definitely check out Zootopia!
Hayden's Score: 8.7/10
Bakemono no ko (2015)
Hosoda deliver again in a fantastic tale!
Now with this movie finally getting an official release of course it has to open the same weekend as Zootopia (haven't seen but will review soon) which is killing the box office, while the Boy and the Beast had a total of 4 people in the theatre, two of which were me and my friend, and although I'm sure Zootopia is great, there needs to be love for this movie too! Japan is currently kicking anyones but in the animation department, and this film is nothing short of that, it looks beautiful almost every scene. The story it self is a simple one but the characters were so intriguing that it helped the story so much, basically a quick sum of the plot is there is a beast world and a human wanders into it to train with one of the beast, and as I mentioned I'm sure you are thinking that this is such an unoriginal plot, which in a way it is nothing new, but again you care about the characters so much that it throughly enhances the story, and the story actually has a great side plot. If you need something to watch this weekend I'm sure Zootopia is great for the family, but The Boy in The Beast is great for anyone, as it isn't too "anime" for the average person. Mamoru Hosoda really has quite a talent and with Miyazaki retiring I think he is going to cement himself as the best in animated films for years to come.
So to sum things up definitely see the Boy and the Beast, it is a fantastic time age range: 10+ score: 10/10 would recommend to go watch
Hail, Caesar! (2016)
Another quirky hit from the Coen brothers
First and foremost if you haven't seen any Coen brothers movies I would highly recommend watching at least one before this so you know what you're getting into! I feel like this movie is going to get a lot of negativity because: A) It came out in February so people assume it will be bad. B) People aren't expecting what the Coen Brothers do best: Quirky Comedy. I was really surprised at how interesting this movie was, there so many small characters that I absolutely loved, and I wanted to see more of, the movie is only like 104 minutes, and I honestly wouldve liked it to have been longer, which is why I cant give it a 10/10. Anyway this is a great movie to see (especially in February) and there's so many funny scenes that the Coen brothers brilliantly wrote.
Im giving this film: 8.9/10
Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)
A Great Movie to Take Kids to That Adults Wont Hate
The new installment to the Kung Fu Panda franchise, which might be the last we see of our fury friend, thus capping off the trilogy. While Kung Fu Panda 3 is certainly enjoyable and kids will like it, there are certain elements it didn't take away from the previous movie, and one of its main struggles is this one seemed more like a kids movie than the other previous two, as the first two had certain elements that made it more enjoyable for adults. The message in this movie is pretty good for kids, but the way they go about displaying isn't as good as the first two. I am a huge fan of Kung Fu Panda 2(and Dreamworks in general), and what works well in that movie is the darker tone it takes, as well as the message that we have to accept our dark pasts. Anyway back to KP3, the voice acting is superb, the action is actually really great at times, and while it does seem to run the series full circle it isn't better than its predecessors. Again great movie to take your kid to for a fun time, especially for an animated movie in January(I'm looking at you Norm of the North)
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Unrecognized greatness from Tarantino
Listen close when I say it is absolutely criminal for this to not have been nominated for more, and of course I know that it was nominated for three Oscars (while I don't think Jennifer Jason Leigh is that deserving of a nomination), but there were so many categories I thought this movie would make it into. First and foremost Tarantino is a bit of a scumbag and conceded, and while it gets annoying when he does interviews about his movies, he is still a brilliant writer, and has such a unique style that is so appreciated, and I think at this point everyone just comes to expect greatness from Tarantino. I am no Tarantino fan-boy mind you, this movie has flaws, for example I think the character of Joe Gage was unnecessary, but man was this written well! And everyone keeps talking about how racist the Oscars are and mentioning Straight Outta Compton, and the lack of non white actors being nominated, and there's a fantastic actor, Samuel L Jackson, just begging for a nomination. A lot of people are really Hateful(pun intended) on this movie when it really is up there with Tarantino's other films, everyone should check it out because it is the best adaptation of Clue we will probably ever see.
Creed (2015)
A Fantastic Boxing Moving in a Mediocre Boxing Movie
I just saw Creed and although I was underwhelmed it didn't wow me either. Going into this movie I had very high expectations because people were giving it such high praise, there was even chatter of a return to form for Stallone. While my high hopes weren't necessarily met there are definitely great elements of the movie! For starters Michael B Jordan continues to bright new face in the acting industry as he delivers another solid performance, but its not until he meets are good pal Rocky that things get really interesting. The relationship between these two is handled very well in most parts, but in very few scenes it seems a bit rushed or forced. The fight scenes were actually handled pretty well in my opinion, as they had a certain unique style to them, but still made it feel like it was in the Rocky environment. The last thing I will touch on (so I don't get into spoilers) is the soundtrack is handled really well, and thats saying a lot given the popularity of the infamous Rocky soundtracks. For me the movie does drag a little bit for about the first 3/8 of it, but there are still redeeming qualities from it, for the people giving this movie an A+ rating I'm confused as to where that came from, maybe they looked past the lackluster start. Overall I'd would recommend Creed if you are a die hard Rocky fan, and if you aren't there is still a good fighting movie there, but some parts will go over your head.
Creed gets a 7.8 for me.
Goosebumps (2015)
Fun time for the whole family!
I took my entire family to see this movie, and I was actually pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Everything about this screamed, remake of a property from the past, a washed up actor as one of the lead, etc., 'terrible movie', but I'm really glad that they actually made this quite well. I'd say if you need a movie for all ages then Goosebumps is your best best this fall/winter besides Peanuts and Good Dinosaur.
I'm not going to say goosebumps is a perfect movie though, I mean a lot of the main plot points are clichés, and while I liked Black's performance because I thought it was over the top crazy (which he does quite well), others might not find it as amusing. Overall definitely a movie to check out! I watched the Goosebumps cartoon as a kid, and I'm happy to say this is better than previous iterations of R.L. Stein's Goosebumps