The Burbs

The Burbs is one those films that I watched one or twice as a little kid. Now ten years later later, I couldn't remember most of it and watching it after all those years, I see I didn't miss much. It does have some highlights and I found some stuff enjoyable but all in all, it is kind of a mess that needs a lot of work.

Set in a suburban neighborhood, The Burbs is the story of a family who get new neighbours who move in next door and seem very different and out of place. Over a holiday weekend, the family starts to investigate what's up with these people. Overall, it is an original plot that works to some degree.

The film does have some pretty good characters. As usual, Tom Hanks does well with the lead role and the film does provide him with a good character. He moves the film throughout.

The strange and mysterious people here are the next door neighbors. From what I saw of them, I liked them. They are original characters with a creepy side and when they are on-screen, they make the scene much more interesting.

What is neat about this movie is that there is a nice message too and I think this is kind of different for a film like this to do that. The message is only mentioned only one time but it is inspiring in many ways and it had an effect on me.

Unfortunately, this film is just too goofy and over-the top. There are many ways scenes I was laughing but at all the wrong things. Also, many of the characters are very childish. Even though I like him in a way, Corey Feldman's character is very dumb and he has some very cheap lines. Some of his actions at the end are very unrealistic including letting some friends over to watch action in the neighbor's house. Like I said before, Tom Hank's character is good but he can be dumb and unrealistic as well.

The film is also shot in a real weird way. It is shot on Colonial Street at the Universal Studies. With this location, it just makes the film seem more unrealistic and makes me wonder why they didn't choose another location.

The Burbs is a rather dumb film that has the 1980's written all over it. Feel free to pass on it but I would give it at least one visit for a lot of reasons.

3/5

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Goodfellas

It doesn't beat out the first two Godfather films but Goodfellas is no doubt a really a top-notch mob film. Along with most Martin Scorsese films, it has everything you would want and very few dry spots, and it is a film you can watch again and again.

This film from 1990, is the story of Henry Hill who has been involved with the mob since he was a young teenager and as he gets older, he becomes one of the members of the business working with Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy Dev Vito (Joe Pesci). Like the Godfather films and most mob films, things start to change for the characters as time goes on and things go bad in the business.

In many ways, the characters are golden  with good personalities and have a  uniqueness to them. Across the board,  the acting is flawless in every act.

What makes this movie so good is how it opens. I really like the idea of the Henry Hill character being told from childhood. There are some small flaws to this but it is pretty well done with good acting by Christopher Serrone. I found this all to be realistically styled and it works well as a whole.

The film mostly moves along through storytelling but there are small action scenes with some good blood to it that moves the story and are a good change of pace for the film.The story itself is really good with excellent criminals and drug scenes that are put together very well. The ending is also great and shows how a best friend can turn into an enemy.

There are some flaws with this film but they are very much overshadowed by how good this film is. The characters do not age and there is one  ridiculous bar scene and this would really affect a lesser quality film but it does not affect this movie at all for me because of how amazing the rest of the film is. You can easily overlook the flaws.

The Godfathers films are of course great but Goodfellas does much more for me personally and got me more into the Mob Film genre. This is a great film that will probably grow on me even more as times goes on.

4/5

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Premium Rush

When I heard about this film and saw a trailer a while back, I kind of wrote it off. After the mess of The Dark Knight Rises, maybe unfairly it was hard for me to look at the actors in that movie the same way. This includes Joseph-Gordon Levitt who actually was not bad in the Batman movie but that movie just left a bad taste in my mouth. Also after watching the trailer for Premium Rush, I was not really much interested in the plot which involves bike messengers in New York City. Once Premium Rush hit the theaters, I saw that the critics loved it so I decided to see it myself. I didn't love this movie but did enjoy it somewhat and I also feel it is a movie that might grow on me as time goes on.

The plot involves a bike messenger named Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who is trying to help a girl named Nima get her son to America from China by delivering a package for her which contains an important receipt for her son's freedom. The plot is quite original and not one I will probably ever see again. This movie also has a nice cast all the way around and some of the sets are not bad. It can be hard to follow at times though. It also does not have a very good lead-in for the story and it is missing some things at the end but all in all, it is a very cool plot and movie, and maybe the most original plot from a film in 2012.

What I also liked is how good the villain Bobby (Micheal Shannon) is here. At times, he is not really believable as a cop and his actions seem unrealistic but he can pretty funny and he plays his part pretty well.

Out of all the good actors in this film, I think Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives the best performance. He has kind has a bad-ass side to him that I liked a lot. He is a really likable character and he is also pretty funny too.

I liked the messenger and biking scenes more than I thought I would. They are done pretty well with some good slow motion parts to them. There are also some really good chase scenes though New York City that have some computerized tracking aspects that I liked.

The film also has a lot good little things that make it work better. There is a nice love story involving Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the Dania Ramirez character who is also a bike messenger with the Wole Park character trying to butt in. There are also some good chase scenes with a police officer on a bicycle that provides some good laughs (even though it is not very realistic) and there is some good music in this film. Without all these little things, maybe this film wouldn't  have made the cut for me.


Premium Rush is a film with some flaws that I probably won't watch often but it is something fresh and fun and it also shows how film trailers can be wrong sometimes.

3/5

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To Kill a Mockingbird

Here is an oldie but goodie. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of those films that really took me forever to get around to watch. It is a film that I knew I would like and it eventually helped me a lot during my high school English class because we had to read it. That said, I didn't expect to like it this much. It is a very powerful film that shines in almost every department, especially the acting.

The movie is set over a three year period in the 1930's and is the story of a single dad named Atticus who along with two children learn many things about life including segregation, people, the courts and probably most of all themselves.

It is a film that works on very many levels and has a good plot, fine leads with Gregory Peck as Atticus and a young Mary Badham as Scout and some very fine writing. Out of all of it, I found that trial scene involving Brock Peters as Tom Robinson to be best part about the film. It is a scene that really sums up a film, brings out a lot of good opinions and thought to the forefront and is something you can't really take your eyes off. In addition to that scene, the film has many other very touching scenes. Gregory Peck and Mary Badham are in most of them and have good chemistry which makes these scenes quite believable.

The ending also really brings out the best of everything and is quite powerful on every level. It even made me shed a tear. Finally, it was very cool to see a young Robert Duvall.

What I am not a fan of in the film is some of the actions of the characters and also some of the wardrobes. The younger characters seem to run rampant through the town without any supervision and this feels very unrealistic. Along with that, some of the characters don't seem to change their shirts even though the movie is set over a three year period.

Even though I'm pretty tired of this story due to all the work I did with it in school, I still recognize that this film is pretty special and one of the best films of the 1960's.

4.5/5

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Mulholland Drive

Going into this movie, I didn't know what I was going into and for some reason I had a strange hopeless feeling inside. After watching it, I had that same feeling because it is such a  beautiful film that doesn't make much sense but in kind of a good way, and this shows what a great film-maker David Lynch is.


The movie is set on the famous street, Mulholland Drive in Hollywood. This is the story of a woman named Rita (Laura Harring) who while injured walks into the house of an aspiring actress named Betta (Naomi Watts). As time goes on, Rita becomes a mystery to Betty and things start to get strange. There are many sub-plots to the main plot and it is all original and frankly great.

I liked Laura Harring's character the most. I think her acting is very good all the way around. She has pretty good chemistry with Naomi Watts and considering how she had to play her part as a mystery girl, she is very believable. Naomi Watts is fine most of the way but at times her acting looked a little off.

What is so different about this film is the love story story between the characters of Rita and Betty. It is very daring and a love story that we never see in Hollywood. It also includes some great erotic scenes which make the film feel different and unique.

One thing that is really neat about the film, is how the film goes in a complete direction in the last half hour. The direction is something I have never seen in my years of watching film and it is really something only David Lynch could do. This new direction really makes the film more powerful. It is also very creepy because we don't what were watching. I found it to be very memorable and it is definitely some of the best filmmaking you are ever going to see.

Once this outstanding third act reaches it's conclusion, you can see what a great film this is in so many ways and makes Muhlholland Drive a movie that should not be missed.

4.5/5

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Chopping Mall

Chopping Mall is one of those 80's films that is very different but it never really comes around to be as good as it could be. The film also has not aged real well and is laughably bad at times but it is no doubt entertaining and it's originality makes it at least worth one watch.


The film is set in a mall and it tells the story of middle-age people who work at the mall and decide to break the rules and throw a party after the mall is closed. During this, new mall security has been brought in with robots doing most of the work.  This gets interesting when the robot security system system malfunctions and the robots start to kill the party goers.

The coolest thing in this film is the robots and they are well done and provide a lot of good cheap humor. The kill scenes in particular are well done with some great gore which helped me like the film a little more


Another neat thing the film is that is has two somewhat well-known actors, Dick Miller and the scream queen Barbara Crampton who are both excellent here. It also has Russell Todd who really hasn't done any acting since the 90's, and he's also excellent. All in all, the cast is great even though  they aren't big stars.
                                          

                                    The set of Chopping Mall.


The atmosphere is also pretty good here. The movie is set in the famous Sherman Oaks Gallery where "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" was filmed. The mall setting has a great 80's vibe to it and it's pretty cool to see the outdated stores there. I do think that throwing a party at mall for middle-age people is obviously pretty unrealistic and the robots do feel out of place but that is ok because the mall setting really worked for me.


There are quite a few cheap and unrealistic scenes including one unnecessary sex scene that has a  pretty bad setup and all this does take down the film a bit.

Chopping Mall has it's flaws and is nowhere near perfect but it is something different and it some cool 80's stuff in it which makes it a decent 80's horror film.


3.5/5

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The Expendables

I was really excited to see this movie because of the people in it and for what it could been. It is not really a bad film but overall I would say that it is quite weak and lacks a lot of things making it one of the most disappointing films of 2010 for me.

The Expendables is the interesting story of a group called well..."The Expendables" who go to the island of Vilena to overthrow a dictator named General Garza (David Zayas).

I do think the name "The Expendables" is a pretty cool name but the film did not really explain what it is or why that is their name. We also don't much about information about the the group and most of people in it don't do too much and are kind of useless. The only people I found interesting were Jet Li, Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone. They all good characters that are well acted and they really carry the film.

The worst thing about this film movie is no doubt the storytelling. It is bad thoughout every act with little details about the plot given out and in many places it is very hard to figure out just what is going on.

One thing that does work here is the action scenes. They are put together very well and are fun to watch. There are also some nice sets which help the atmosphere and the look of the film.

The highlights are rather limited though and in the end, The Expendables is a dull ride especially for an action film. With the cast and all the money that looks like was pumped into it, this movie should have been at least ten times better.

3/5

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