Avengers Theatrical Trailer

I just finished watching this and I have to say that this movie looks absolutely awesome, no doubt about it. After the Dark Knight Rises this movie is my most anticipated. For one it is something that began with Iron Man and is now finally upon us and I can’t say I’m disappointed. I’ve always been a big fan of comic books, mostly Marvel because DC’s comic were always to outlandish for me, and this movie is something that I’ve been waiting for since Iron Man. This marks the first time that we get to see the team in action and how the function on the big screen. It bring me back to the first issue where Loki controlled the Hulk and used him against the Avengers,even though I am only 19 this was one of my favorite comics of all time, which would be outstanding on the big screen, and the conflicts between each individual member is apparent in the trailer with fighting and contradicting each others authority within in the group. Like most fans of the source material May 4 cannot come fast enough and I already know what I will be doing at midnight. I’m already super excited for a day that is only two short months away.

Oscars or what I did with my Sunday night.

I can’t say that I am shocked at the winners of this years Oscars. I really thought that is was a good show, compared to last years show. I do agree with the majority of the winners, I did get Best Actress wrong, but honestly I am not surprised Meryl Streep won, because I had it as Rooney Mara, which I knew would be a gamble going in. I am glad to see that the Artist won, first silent film to win since Wings in 1927. Both the Artist and Hugo walked away with five awards while the Iron Lady was the only other movie to receive multiple awards this year. It was a pretty straight forward year in the award season with not many surprise wins but it was still a good year at the Oscars.

Best Picture

The Artist

Best Actor

Jean Dujardin “The Artist”

Best Actress

Meryl Streep “The Iron Lady”

Best Supporting Actor

Christopher Plummer “Beginners”

Best Supporting Actress

Octavia Spencer “The Help”

Best Director

Michel Hazanavicius “The Artist”

Best Original Screenplay

 “Midnight in Paris”

Best Adapted Screenplay

“The Descendents”

Best Animated Feature

“Rango”

Best Documentary Film

“Undefeated”

Best Foreign Language Film

“A Seperation”

Best Cinematography 

“Hugo”

Best Film Editing

“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”

Best Original Score

“The Artist”

Best Original Song

Man or Muppet from”The Muppets”

Best Sound Mixing and Editing (BOTH CATEGORIES)

“Hugo”

Best Art Direction

“Hugo”

Best Visual Effects 

“Hugo”

Best Costumes

“The Artist”

Best Makeup

“The Iron Lady”

Best Live Action Short Film

“The Shore”

Best Animated Short Film

“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”

Best Documentary Short Film

“Saving Face”

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance Review

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Directed by: Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Idris Elba, Johnny Whitworth

 

When I went into this movie I really had no expectations and had some time to kill today so I went to see this, in 2D so I can save myself a headache from crappy 3D. Though I can say it is better than the first one that really isn’t saying much towards the film. It was never meant to be a film like the Dark Knight, but lets be honest a superhero with a flaming skull is going to be a tough movie to sell no matter what and the approach the directors took does make for some cool set pieces and action scenes but the focus of the movie is more towards Johnny Blaze dealing with the curse that is set upon him instead of a love interest and a pathetic villain and a crappy story line. If you see the movie remain oppertunistic about it, you will have more fun than.

Johnny Blaze, still struggling with the curse of being the Ghost Rider, is hiding out in a remote part of Eastern Europe when a secret sect of the church asks him to save a boy from the devil. At first Johnny is reluctant to use his power, but it’s the only way to save the boy and possibly rid himself of this curse forever. The plot is rather simple and doesn’t really change course from there. There is not much complex about and really doesn’t do much to evolve the characters in really anyway.

I do have to say that I did find myself enjoying the movie and found it to do much better representing the character, rather than the first. I have to say in the past I read some of the Ghost Rider comics and never really liked what I read. He isn’t a character that would have been easy to translate to the screen and he has had more movies produced than Daredevil, which I think is strange because Daredevil is a much more complex and exciting character. I do think that the directing duo of Neveldine/Taylor were best suited for the job and they pulled off what they set out to do. That being said Spirit of Vengeance is not a good movie nor is it bad it just resides in limbo and never really move up from there. For a fun saturday movie that you don’t wanna think during the process than this is the movie for you.

6 out of 10

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Due to the fact that today is President’s Day I thought I would share the new trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, though it was posted last week on his 203rd birthday. I found the trailer funny to watch just because of the content. It is a completely absurd premise, based on the book of the same name, looks to be fun if not stupid interpretation of one of America’s greatest presidents. As ridiculous as it looks it may end up being a cool movie but you never know but hey I thought Green Lantern was going to be good. Boy was I wrong about that.

Anonymous Review

Anonymous

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Starring: Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Rafe Spall

The premise for Anonymous has always intrigued me in a way that I is hard to explain. Considering that I have read some of what William Shakespeare has written and being a film student his work has always interested me. The film embraces the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship to a fault. It cleary states, in the movie, that he was a fraud and he never wrought a single one of his play. Though out the movie I found that the Shakespeare story line was more of a side story compared to the story of the Duke of Oxford and what goes on with Queen Elizabeth and how she had no ligitament heir to her throne. May major problem with the movie is that it didn’t fully focus on tell the story that it was meant to tell and ended up being a more historical history film about Queen Elizabeth and her interactions with the Duke of Oxford, which did lead him to right a major of plays about those interactions.

Edward de Vere (Rhys Ifans) is an aristocrat who yearns to write poetry and plays, but due to social and political constraints, he is forced to use a front for his political-minded works because they subtly encourage Queen Elizabeth to alter her plan for succession in a way that is in direct opposition to her most-trusted political advisers. When drunken, illiterate, fame-hungry actor William Shakespeare (RafeSpall) passes off the plays as his own, de Vere finds his man, but eventually he is blackmailed when the morally dubious thespian wants more and more.

For Roland Emmerich, the director of such disaster movies as Independence Day, 2012, and Godzilla, this movie is a different kind of movie than he usually does but he handles it with the ute most confidence, which he succeeds at creating a tense movie and a wonderful looking atmosphere. It shows that he is a very versatile director when he wants to be. I found the movie to be very enjoyable though it had its slow moments. The performances from the main cast are simply incredible and successfully carry the movie though some very rough spots. The story itself is a very interesting one though it tries to prove something that many believe to false. My major problem with the movie is the use of flash backs, they seem to just pop up out of no where and only shows interactions between the young Duke and young Queen. It does show some aspects of where the Duke gets his inspiration for the majority of the works he did in the movie. The special effects are top notch, showcasing the environment of 16th century England that would be much more difficult without the special effects.

I hope that in the future that Roland Emmerich keeps making these kinds of movie because he seems to be growing as a director and can make a tense period piece rather than disaster movies. In general the movie is a great thing even though I don’t know if the actual reality of Shakespeare authorship is legit or not. All-in-all this movie should be viewed even with the very little flaws that it contains.

8 out of 10